This story illustrates the corrupt environment created by the use of snitches.
By Christopher Moraff - In These Times
Levon Jones is supposed to be dead.
If the state of North Carolina had its way, Jones, 49, would have been strapped to a gurney years ago, hooked to an IV and pumped full of a lethal, three-drug cocktail until he asphyxiated.
Instead, on May 2, he walked out of prison a free man after spending 13 years on death row, and another 24 months locked up awaiting retrial — all for a murder he almost certainly did not commit.
Jones — known to friends and family as “Bo” — was released with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Capital Punishment Project after the prosecution’s star witness recanted her testimony against him. (Lovely Lorden, a former girlfriend, admitted she’d collected $4,000 in reward money in exchange for testifying against Jones.)
He was an easy target: an African-American ex-con with a history of mental illness and violent behavior. When Lorden came forward with her story — a full three years after the 1987 shooting of a local bootlegger named Leamon Grady — Jones was doing time on an unrelated assault charge.
The prosecution felt little obligation to question the veracity of Lorden’s claim. And if the witness is to be believed today, investigators actually helped her keep her story straight.
As a result of Lorden’s testimony — and despite the lack of physical evidence tying him to the crime — a jury convicted Jones in 1993 and he was sentenced to die for Grady’s killing.
What Jones’ attorneys didn’t know at the time — and, as it turns out, didn’t really bother trying to uncover — is that Lovely Lorden had made something of a career out of testifying against people close to her. By her own admission, she has aided law enforcement in dozens of investigations and says she helped police make cases against several other boyfriends, as well as her own brother and sons.
What’s more, her work as a confidential informant didn’t stop after Jones was sent to death row. Jones’ attorneys sent In These Times copies of receipts that show Lorden was paid money at least seven times for her work as a confidential informant from December 2003 to April 2004, while Jones sat in jail.
Today, Lorden contends she testified against Jones under pressure from the police, in particular Dalton Jones (no relation), the lead officer in the case. Read the full story at In These Times
When healthy Baron "Scooter" Pikes suddenly died soon after he was arrested and tasered, there is a sense of something terribly wrong in the little backwoods town of Winnfield, Louisiana. Corruption and cover-ups are just the beginning of this story.
Winnfield, LA - The official website for this little backwoods town boasts,
In some ways, visiting the city of Winnfield, Louisiana is like taking a step back in time.
This couldn't be more true. On the 17th of January this past year, Barron Pikes was walking along a street, when Officer Scott Nugent stopped him, and tried taking him into custody because of an arrest warrant citing him for possession of drugs. Pikes took off running but was cornered by another police officer who subdued him in front of a grocery store. Pikes resisted arrest and Nugent subdued him with a shock from a Taser. Read the full story a Digitaljournal.com .
Just Environment radio show launched Friday July 11. The urban talk radio program will integrate diverse perspectives on environmental issues. Broadcasting weekly at noon on WCLK 91.9, "The Jazz of the City," and live online at www.wclk.com , the the radio show will feature informative discussions of problems and solutions for healthy, sustainable lifestyles. The jazz stylings of Jarez, from his CD release "To the Top" will provide the musical signature for the show.
Click on "Just Enviornment" below to hear the show.
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