DNA clears Houston man 27 years after conviction

Michael Green

A Houston man is expected to be freed this week after serving more than 27 years in prison — the longest time behind bars of any Texan who has been exonerated - for a rape prosecutors now say he did not commit.

Michael Anthony Green, 45, is expected to be in court today, when his attorney, Bob Wicoff, will ask that he be released on bail while the case moves forward.

If freed, Green would be the eighth local man let out of prison in recent years, and the second in a week, after serving time for a crime he did not commit.

"He is innocent," Wicoff said. "We've got the bad guys, too. We've pegged the bad guys."

Green was sentenced to 75 years in prison for the 1983 rape of a Houston woman based on faulty eyewitness identification, Wicoff said. Read more.

Source: Houston Chronicle, July 28, 2010

Innocent prisoner's angry outburst delays release

A Houston man expected to be freed today after being imprisoned 27 years for a rape he did not commit will have to wait one more day after reacting "emotionally" to the reality of his release this morning.

Bob Wicoff, an attorney for Michael Anthony Green, said his client was angry and would need another day to compose himself before having a bond set while the Texas Court of Criminal Appeal rules on his actual innocence.

"He was upset," Wicoff said. "Hopefully he'll be fine tomorrow."

Green was expected to be granted a personal recognizance bond by visiting state District Judge Mike Wilkinson this morning. He was not brought into the courtroom, but loud shouting could be heard from behind the door to the court's holdover cell.

Wicoff said the shouting was Green.

"This has been a gross perversion of justice and he's a smart guy and he knows it," Wicoff said. "He's angry."

The release was the next step in proceedings to declare Green actually innocent of a 1983 sexual assault. Read more.

Source: Houston Chronicle, July 29, 2010

Adding insult …

After years of wrongful imprisonment, a prisoner faced one last injustice

For 27 years, imprisoned Houstonian Michael Anthony Green, wrongly convicted in 1983 of aggravated sexual assault, protested his innocence and fought in vain to clear his name. Last year, his case was taken up by the Post Conviction Review Section, a group of lawyers and investigators newly formed by Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos to examine credible claims of a prisoner's innocence.

To the enormous credit of that group, investigators were able to find key DNA evidence that resulted in establishing Green's innocence and identifying the actual assailants.

Green's long nightmare was due to end last Thursday, in a hearing that would most likely release him on bond until his conviction and sentence could be overturned. Instead, Green made that long-awaited trip to the courtroom bound in handcuffs and shackles.

Green responded loudly and vehemently to that indignity, to the extent that he was not allowed into the courtroom, and the hearing was postponed until Friday. It was one last cruel blow, one insult too many from a justice system that had robbed him of his entire adult life. (He was 18 when he began serving a 75-year sentence.)

The reason for the restraints, said Harris County Sheriff's Office spokesman Alan Bernstein, was that Green came into the county jail classified as a violent criminal, and therefore needed to be taken to the courtroom in handcuffs and shackles. He told the Chronicle that no one had advised jail personnel of Green's special circumstances.

It's true that the sheriff's office is a giant bureaucracy (about 900 prisoners were transported to court on that same day) and procedures and protocols are necessary. But provision must be made, even in giant bureaucracies, for the rare occasion when business as usual becomes a travesty and must give way to humanity and common sense.

DA Lykos has said that should another such case arise she will alert the sheriff's office. (There was no official communication between the two offices on Green, said DA spokesman George Flynn.) Sheriff Adrian Garcia has said that in a similar situation, his office would suspend regular procedures.

"Everybody's learned from it," said sheriff's spokesman Bernstein. It would be a good idea for both offices to formalize that learning experience, and provide clear guidelines for future actions. This was a sad, unnecessary blow, not only to Green, but to Harris County's justice system, one that should never be allowed to happen again.

Source: Houston Chronicle, Aug.4, 2010

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Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000. Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city. The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said. 'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'

South Carolina executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

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