Toledo Talk - Julia Bates: How Long Will You Deny Danny Brown His Day in Court?

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Julia Bates: How Long Will You Deny Danny Brown His Day in Court?

Another year has passed, and still Julia Bates refuses to make a decision on Danny Brown, the Toledo man who was wrongly convicted in 1982 of a rape-murder. DNA evidence exonerated Danny in 2001, and he was given the right to a new trial, but Bates and the prosecutor's office refuse to either give him a new trial or declare that he is not a suspect.

So Danny sits in legal limbo, and April 9 will mark the seventh year since he was released.

And this will be another year in which I remind the community of the travesty of justice in our own backyard, and another year in which Julia Bates will likely continue to ignore the civil rights of Danny Brown.

created by historymike on Apr 04, 2008 at 09:38:29 am Comments: 4

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Comments ... #

I think there is more to this story than meets the eye. Julia Bates is a very compassionate individual. She worked her butt off to make sure the Cook brothers were sent up the river after killing all those people. One of them being a friend of mine that was only 12 years old!

I confess ignorance on what is supposed to happen once someone is released. Do they normally get another trial? If so, for what if they have been proven innocent already?

posted by Ryan on Apr 04, 2008 at 10:15:28 am     #

So long as the prosecutor's office maintains that Danny Brown is still a suspect (even after the DNA evidence freed him), he cannot collect the compensation to which he is entitled under state law for serving 19 years for a crime that he did not commit.

Since murder is a crime without a statute of limitations, Danny Brown can still be considered a suspect until the day he dies, and the 19 brutal years that he spent in state prisons will be a stolen portion of his life.

I am glad that your friend's family received justice, Ryan. I only hope that Danny Brown will one day get justice, too, and that Julia Bates will exhibit that compassion to Danny that you describe as an importnt part of her personality.

The decision is ultimately hers.

To make a long story way too short, Danny was convicted largely on the testimony of a 6-year-old child, the victim's son. The young witness during police interviews said there was one assailant, then changed his story to two, and then changed back once again to a single attacker at the trial. The prosecutor's office, which was more than happy to use the one-killer theory in 1982, today wants to switch back to the discarded two-killer theory since the DNA evidence would imply a single killer (no DNA of Danny was found on or near the victim). Danny once dated the victim, so he made a convenient suspect, but he had over a dozen witnesses who testified he was miles away when the crime occurred.

So, Julia Bates and her investigators want to argue that Danny must have teamed up with Sherman Preston (the DNA match who is currently serving a 20-to-life sentence in a similar rape-murder) to kill the victim, since to stick with their original one-killer theory does not match the evidence.

Unless, of course, you arrive at the perfectly sensible conclusion that the killer and rapist were one and the same: Sherman Preston.

And finally: let's face facts. Going to trial would be stupid for the prosecutor's office, since over 26 years have passed, and the original witness supposedly moved to Colorado. The DNA is exculpatory evidence, almost three decades have passed in the mind of the single witness, and no physical evidence tying Danny Brown to the case? No jury would convict him of spitting on the sidewalk, let alone of capital murder.

So the only pressure facing Julia Bates to do something with the case is Danny Brown's appeals and lawsuits, plus the efforts of pesky bloggers like me. There is no upisde - political or PR-wise - for her to give Danny the new trial to which he is entitled.

posted by historymike on Apr 04, 2008 at 10:57:36 am     #

Law and Order hysteria works just fine. That's why we have the highest imprisonment rates.

If you can't do the time, don't go outside.

And besides it's history that post dates prerecorded history, therefore is somewhat nongermane to the whole bible versus dinosaurs crowd. :)

You have to lean on otherwise competent professionals to get what you want. That goes for doctors, lawyers, dope MC employers, teachers, businessmen, etc. And when did law professionals give a shit about justice? They got mortgages, alimony, child support, and their own legal misgivings to contend with.

And are you sure Marty was assassinated or that teh FsBsIs just didn't euthanize him?

posted by charlatan on Apr 04, 2008 at 06:36:00 pm     #

Someone emailed me that my website is now the #3 Google search result for the terms "Julia Bates":

And this was without even doing a Google-bomb. Feel free to link the following post on teh Intertubes with the hyperlinked words "Julia Bates":

http://historymike.blogspot.com/2008/04/julia-bates-how-long-will-you-deny.html

posted by historymike on Apr 05, 2008 at 10:38:52 am     #