American Incompetence: Tyronne Hood and Criminal Law

No one who has ever seen "The Wire" would think the work of homicide police or public prosecutors is easy.  

But reading the New Yorker article about the case of Tyronne Hood, who was convicted on the testimony of three men who later recanted their sworn testimony, for a murder which in most of its important details matched three other murders by the victim's uncle, who had--get this--taken out a life insurance policy and collected $50,000 upon the death of the victim, one has to wonder about just how incompetent the judges, prosecutors in Chicago must be.

Even the judge who was charged with the responsibility of reviewing the case as one of possible wrongful conviction inexplicably refused to allow the evidence about the two other cases as being "irrelevant to the case of the third, connected murder.

Beyond all this, the story of one of the witnessing contained an astonishing inconsistency--he said he had been in a car with Hood who had the body of the victim in the back between the car, still two days after he had shot the man, and--get this--after the witness left, he had looked back at the car and saw two gun flashes toward the back seat, which matched the findings the murder victim had been shot in the gut and then in the back twice. Now why would you carry the body around in a car with you for two days, presumably parking it overnight, and then two days later shoot the body again?

The New Yorker, typically, allows for a story with enough length to explore the case in enough detail to be convincing.

Fortunately, for the detective in Chicago who appears to be a ruthless, thoroughly corrupt cop, for the judges, for the prosecutors and for the members of the police department who were assigned to reinvestigate the case, people in Chicago likely don't read The New Yorker. They are like those Southern sheriffs who sat grinning in court at their own trials for murdering Freedom Riders, eating popcorn, as if they were watching a comedy at the movie theater--they know they are safe as long as they can count on hometown justice.

One hopes someone at Justice, the feds, reads The New Yorker.

Maybe then the feds can go up to Chicago and clean out that rats' nest. 

Rahm Emmanuel may not be in a position to do it, but his old friend, Mr. Obama might be.