Exoneree Day Conference
Exonerees and friends
Mayor Tom Leppert decreed May 1 to be exoneree day in Dallas. To honor the one year anniversary UTA school of social work put on a conference. I left the good camera at home so unfortunately the little digital one will have to do. Pictured here are some exonerees and friends of the cause. It was very moving to see these gentlemen present D.A. Watkins with an award. Mr. Watkins speech was great as always, I am starting to get jealous of his uncanny ability to improv as he says all of his speeches are. Watkins spoke about how these gentleman have been consumed by the fight and the fight has been admirable but what will they do when things get easy for them. Their choices at that point will be the measure of their victory. I have an enourmous amount of respect for Craig Watkins. He is a great politician, not always a compliment. I have now heard him speak in person three times. Each time was better than the last. In hearing him speak at SMU on Sunday night he touched a little on what he had said to the exonerees on Friday and then he applied it to himself. Things are in deed starting to get easy for Mr. Watkins. He is famous and well liked. He does not need to fight the way he used to to survive in politcs. He readily admits this will be his greatest challenge yet and a test to his character. What will he do with his power now that its easy? He admits to liking the attention. He wants to be Governor of Texas and then President. His ambitions are high but when faced with tough choices will he choose what is popular in order to hold onto his political power or will he do what is right and risk losing his noteriety and jeapordizing his higher office ambitions? I love that he knows this about himself. That he will be tested. At least he is aware. Hopefully that and his faith and his family will save him from the temptation to sit back do what is easy instead of what is right.
There once lived a well reputed man, by the name of Justice Harlan of the United States Supreme Court that noted – “It is critical that the moral force of the criminal law not be diluted by a standard of proof that leaves people in doubt whether innocent men are being condemned” and further, “concrete substance is bottomed on a fundamental determination of our society that it is far worse to convict an innocent man than to let a guilty man go free”.
Upon the spirit of the aforementioned, we as a society of decent people must take action in placing our elected officials under the microscope of humane and moral practices, complacent with the duties and obligations of their respective elected offices. Does it really take DNA testing or any other type of expensive scientific testing to prove a mans actual innocence? And if you could answer yes with a clear conscience, than you must ask yourself “Are you not than having to prove your innocence beyond the standard of a reasonable doubt?”,. . .and if that is the case, would it be far to say that an innocent man must first prove that he is innocent beyond a reasonable doubt. . .and that would mean that our justice system is foundated upon the untruth that a man is innocent until proven guilty.
Why so many words, why so many words, just to say that a man should be innocent until proven guilty by concrete and credible substance? Why waste taxpayers money with these cases that the Office of the District Attorney never had any evidence of concrete substance to convict an innocent man to begin with?