Dig Deeper Texas

As if I couldn’t have guessed they would reach the following conclusion.

MySA.com: Metro | State

A year and a half after the Bexar County District Attorney set out to examine evidence that an innocent man might have been executed in Texas, the DA’s probe has concluded that wrongful execution claims “do not withstand the scrutiny of close review” .

I don’t say that because I think you can’t trust law enforcement or that all law enforcement officials refuse to admit mistakes. I say it because I remember an interview on the radio at the time that quoted some official involved in the investigation as saying that if what Moreno (the witness who has since changed his testimony) is say is true, he should be charged with perjury for lying under oath.

There was no mention that the police officers would be investigated for their tactics in obtaining the confession or the prosecuting attorney for using it. I would think that these would be reasonable actions if someone saw fit to pursue the perjury charge. But that possibility was never mentioned by those calling for the “independent” investigation. Nor is it mentioned as part of the purpose of the report (surely police coercion is illegal?) I think that was as good of an indication as any of how the report was going to turn out.

In the Matter of Juan Moreno

The interests of justice required the Olsen stories be analyzed and an investigation was conducted to determine if sufficient evidence existed to justify pursuing an indictment under Texas laws of Moreno for murder by perjury1 and if another individual, Ramiro Reyes, who David Garza now claims was with him on the night of the offense, should be charged with the capital murder of Pedro Gomez.

It seems that at some point, Moreno lied, the question is when. The current District Attorney has chosen to believe that he is lying now with the apparent motive being money, somewhere around $1200, and fame? And of course, the current investigator, Richard Reyna, manipulated Moreno to serve his anti-death penalty cause.

Now why wouldn’t Moreno been just as likely to have lied during the initial investigation and manipulated by law enforcement officials? I bet the report finds no “credible” reasons for such behavior. Basically, Susan Reed had pre-determined that nothing was going to be the fault of law enforcement which is why she didn’t have an independent agency conduct the investigation and why she didn’t interview the one law enforcement official that has publicly stated that seeking the death penalty was a mistake.

This report wasn’t about seeking the truth, it was about the District Attorney asserting her right to justify law enforcement actions to reach the “appropriate” verdict. And isn’t that exactly the kind of behavior that might have influenced Moreno to lie during the initial investigation?

Because of the approach Reed decided to use, she has actually become part of the evidence to support Moreno’s current claims and has done nothing to answer the question of whether or not Cantu was innocent.

Technorati Tags: Ruben Cantu, Susan Reed, Bexar County District Attorney, Sam Millsap, Juan Moreno

Filed under: Bexar County District Attorney, Juan Moreno, Ruben Cantu, Sam Millsap, Susan Reed