LEGAL ISSUES

Case Study: Willie Earl Green

Case Study: Willie Earl Green

Description

Willie Earl Green was convicted of fatally shooting 25 year old Denise “Dee Dee” Walker in a South Los Angeles crack house. The conviction was based on the testimony of a single eyewitness, Willie Finley. After Centurion Ministries accept Green's case, Finley admitted in 2004 that he was high on crack cocaine at the time of the murder and did not know who committed the crime, but he pressured by police into identifying Green. Green has been released in the U.S. state of California after nearly 33 years in prison for the murder of a woman, a crime he did not commit and which has always insisted.

Brief Summary

Truth in Justice is an educational nonprofit organized to educate the public regarding the vulnerabilities in the U. S. criminal justice system that make the criminal conviction of wholly innocent persons possible.

When we say "wholly innocent," we mean a person who had absolutely no part in the crime charged. An innocent person deprive of life, liberty and the opportunity to contribute to society, while the guilty party is free to commit more crimes against unsuspecting victims. In many instances, no crime commits in the first place, a suicide charges as homicide, or an accidental fire mistake for arson. How does this happen? Faulty eye witness identification, tunnel vision investigators, overzealous prosecutors, bad science, compromised experts and a politicized judiciary are key factors, along with a credulous public. In the case of Willie Earl Green, Mr. Green has been released from California for the murder of a woman, after about 33 years in prison, a crime that he did not commit and which has always insisted. A judge of Los Angeles judge took the decision of allowing Mr. Green to free, after ruling that the prosecution's witness, Willie Finley, lied to the jury in his original statement (Esmond, 2008).

Leaving the courthouse, and a free man, Green said he was "humbled" by the action of justice. "Today is a glorious day, a great day. I never gave up on this day, I knew it would. I never asked for mercy, only justice being done," he said.

Green has 25 years of a life sentence for murder and robbery of Denise Walker, 25, a home in Los Angeles in 1983. After his release, the District Deputy Attorney Hyman Sisman informed the court that the prosecution will not seek ...