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Delays continue in Tennessee death row case
Posted: March 4, 2008 11:05 am
It has been nearly two years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Tennessee death row inmate Paul House deserved a new hearing in federal court for the 1984 murder he has always maintained he didn’t commit. A federal judge ruled in December that the state had 180 days to grant him a new trial or release him. Nothing has happened yet. A column in Sunday’s Tennessean calls for authorities to stop delaying a retrial:
State attorneys keep promising they're going to go back to trial. So why haven't they? Probably because they're afraid they'll lose. Much of their evidence has evaporated, witnesses' memories fade, and House's medical condition (though not relevant to the crime) would be obvious to a jury. Instead of retrying the case, the state appears to be using every possible tactic to delay. In hopes that House dies in prison?Read more about the House case – and download briefs filed by the Innocence Project and other organizations in his support.
The state needs to either try him immediately or let him go. Wasting time and breath on the absurd argument that House is a flight risk is an insult to the intelligence of the judge.
This evidence seems irrefutable: The only real risk House poses is to a few legal egos.
Read the full column here. (The Tennessean, 03/02/08)
Tags: Tennessee, Death Penalty, Paul House
Bail hearing Friday for Tennessee inmate
Posted: June 4, 2008 3:01 pm
Paul House spent 22 years on death row for a crime he has always said he didn’t commit. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that new evidence, developed since trial, undermines his conviction. He is still behind bars in legal limbo, and prosecutors have delayed action on a new trial. On Friday, a judge has the chance to release House on bail while legal delays continue. On Sunday, Tennessean columnist Gail Kerr wrote that it’s too late for justice, but not too late for mercy.
Joyce House gets angry when she hears prosecutors argue that her son, whose legs don't work, will run: "Where is he going to run? I don't have the funds to run overseas. I don't speak any languages."Read more about House’s case and the Innocence Project’s role in his Supreme Court victory.
It's too late for justice to prevail in this case. Too late for House, who had 22 years of his life sucked away unfairly. Too late for the victim's family, who will probably never know for sure who killed their mother. Too late for prosecutors, who screwed this case up from the start.
But it is never too late for mercy. Send Paul House home with an ankle monitor. After all, he won't be able to feel it.
Read the full column here. (Tennessean, 06/01/08)
Tags: Death Penalty, Paul House
Tennessee prosecutors plan to retry Paul House despite evidence of innocence
Posted: June 27, 2008 3:15 pm
Drawing the ire of federal judges, defense attorneys and legal onlookers, a Tennessee prosecutor announced at a hearing recently that the state plans to retry Paul House for a 1985 murder he has always maintained he didn’t commit. Mounting evidence in the case – including important DNA tests on evidence from the crime scene – points to House’s innocence. House spent 22 years on death row for the murder before his appeals finally led to his conviction being overturned. In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case and ruled that “no reasonable juror” would convict House based on the current evidence. Then, last year, a federal judge ordered the state to retry House, who has chronic multiple sclerosis and is unable to bathe and feed himself without help.
“This is the first time in our history, so far as I know, that it has ever happened that the Supreme Court has made such a ruling and the state has gone forward to prosecute the guy anyways,” U.S. Circuit Judge Gilbert S. Merritt tells the Nashville Scene. The Nashville-based judge sits on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has reviewed the convoluted case several times over the years, as recently as last week. “Why, after all this evidence has poured in that House is innocent of the crime, does the state continue to so zealously defend the situation? The reason is because state prosecutors typically never admit error.”
Read the full story here. (Nashville Scene, 06/26/08)
Read the Innocence Project’s friend-of-the-court brief in House’s Supreme Court case.
Tags: Tennessee, Paul House
Prosecutor may drop charges in Paul House case
Posted: July 10, 2008 3:25 pm
A Tennessee prosecutor told the Associated Press yesterday that further DNA testing could persuade his office to drop charges against Paul House, who spent more than two decades on Tennessee’s death row before he was released on bond last week – for a murder he has always said he didn’t commit. District Attorney William Paul Phillips said he will seek DNA testing of a hair found in the victim’s hand.
If it's not his (House's) and not hers and (belongs to) some third party, then we would have to evaluate that along with all the other evidence, and we would determine if that raised a reasonable doubt," Phillips told the AP. "If at any time that (hair) or any other evidence raised a reasonable doubt, then we would not prosecute."Mounting evidence in the case – including important DNA tests on evidence from the crime scene – points to House’s innocence. House spent 22 years on death row for the murder before his appeals finally led to his conviction being overturned. In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case and ruled that “no reasonable juror” would convict House based on the current evidence. Then, last year, a federal judge ordered the state to retry House, who has chronic multiple sclerosis and is unable to bathe and feed himself without help.
Read the full story here. (The Tennessean, 07/10/08)
Tags: Paul House
Paul House: the hair isn’t his, but the charges remain
Posted: September 23, 2008 11:43 am
Last week, Tennessee prosecutors revealed that a hair found in the hand of a murder victim more than 20 years ago did not belong to Paul House, the man who spent more than two decades on death row for the murder. House, 46, was granted a new trial late last year and released in July while the new trial was pending. He has multiple sclerosis and cannot walk or feed himself. He lives with his mother.
The trial is set to begin on October 13, and prosecutors said last week they planned to go forward with the trial despite new mitochondrial DNA test results showing that a hair found in the palm of the murder victim belonged to neither House nor the victim’s husband.
House’s first conviction was overturned by a state judge after the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case and ruled that no reasonable juror would convict House based on the current evidence. The Innocence Project filed a friend of the court brief in that case.
In a letter to the Nashville Scene yesterday, Tennessee State Rep. Mike Turner wrote:
As a State Representative I am committed to ensuring that the citizens of Tennessee have faith in the justice system.. The case of Paul House casts grave doubt on the “justice” of the system. Given that the state of Tennessee is dealing with a significant budget shortfall how can we justify the cost of another trial for Mr. House with no evidence pointing his guilt? How much money has already been spent attempting to keep House on death row? Now with even more DNA evidence pointing to House’s innocence how can General Phillips justify his decision to move forward with a new trial?Read Turner’s full letter. (Nashville Scene, 09/22/08)
Coverage of developments in House’s case:
Knoxville News: Prosecutor confirms hair in victim’s hand not House’s
Tags: Death Penalty, Paul House
Tennessee Man Cleared After 20 Years on Death Row
Posted: May 12, 2009 6:01 pm
Prosecutors in Tennessee dropped all pending charges against Paul House this morning, finally ending his two-decade struggle to clear his name. House was convicted in 1986 of a crime he always said he didn’t commit, and served two decades on death row before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that he was entitled to a new hearing. He has been free since last July while a new trial was pending. The Innocence Project has consulted with House’s lawyers on forensic issues, and Co-Director Peter Neufeld said today that the case is “a profound reminder that our system of justice must give people every reasonable opportunity to prove their innocence.”
“In the three years since the U.S. Supreme Court stepped into this case and sent it back to the trial court, substantial additional DNA testing and further investigation have shown that he is innocent. Each time a layer of this case was peeled away, it revealed more evidence of Paul House’s innocence.Media Coverage of House’s Case Today:
“The Supreme Court was right to make sure all of the evidence was fully considered in this case. The five justices who ruled in Paul House’s favor had the wisdom to recognize that there was enough evidence of his innocence to allow a full hearing and more investigation – which ultimately proved he did not commit this crime. This is a profoundly important legal principle, but it also saved Paul House’s life. This case should give the Supreme Court great pause, and it should cause them to look more closely at cases like this.”
Read today’s Innocence Project press release.
CNN: Man Who Spent 22 Years on Death Row is Cleared
Associated Press: Charges Dropped Against Former TN Death Row Inmate
Tags: Paul House
Paul House and His Elated Mother Celebrate Exoneration with a Trip to California
Posted: May 13, 2009 5:15 pm
Paul House may have lost over two decades of his life in prison as a result to his wrongful conviction, but he and his mother are looking toward the future. With Paul’s grandfather’s 90th birthday coming up, his mother couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate than a trip to visit him in California where he lives.
In the 22 years that Paul House served in prison, he maintained his innocence and hoped new evidence would exonerate him. More than two decades years after House was sentenced to death, DNA testing and other evidence finally cleared his name yesterday in the rape and murder of Carolyn Muncey. Semen on Muncey's clothes, the blood under her fingernails and the hair she ripped out of her attacker's head were all discovered to have belonged to someone else, not House.
House’s case highlights the need for courts to look closely at appeals based on new evidence of innocence.
Today’s Los Angeles Times noted that the Supreme Court narrowly agreed to grant House a new federal hearing on evidence of his innocence, after other courts refused:
Long after his conviction, however, DNA evidence proved that a semen stain on the victim's clothes had come from her husband, not House.Media coverage of Paul House’s case:
But the Tennessee courts and the federal appeals court said that evidence did not prove he was not guilty. The judges said there was still "strong circumstantial" evidence against House. One dissenter on the federal court, however, called the case "an authentic whodunit where the wrong man may be executed."
For two decades, the Supreme Court had put up procedural barriers against reconsidering old cases. But the justices took up House's appeal to consider, for the first time, whether new DNA evidence could require reopening an old case.
In a 5-3 decision in House vs. Bell, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said that "reliable new evidence" calls for taking a new look at an old case if it casts real doubt on the defendant's guilt. If the court had split 4-4, the conviction would have been upheld.
The three dissenters, led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., said House did not "present such compelling evidence of innocence" to require reopening his case.
Complete Los Angeles Times story: Murder Charges Dropped Because of DNA Evidence
The Tennessean: Legal Limbo Ends for Paul House
Tags: Paul House
Troy Davis and the Right to Have New Evidence Fully Considered
Posted: May 19, 2009 3:45 pm
Rallies are taking place around the country today on behalf of Troy Davis, who has been on Georgia’s death row for 18 years for a murder he says he didn’t commit. He has come within hours of execution three times only to receive last-minute stays. There is no DNA evidence to test in Davis’ case, but a wealth of other evidence – including recantations by seven of nine original eyewitnesses – points to his innocence. No court has fully heard this new evidence from Davis, but a new execution date could be set any day.
A USA Today story on Monday contrasted the cases of Davis and Paul House, a former Tennessee death row inmate who was finally cleared last week, nearly three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a hearing in his case to consider new evidence. Although House was eventually cleared, it took a protracted legal battle to present the evidence of his innocence.
Perhaps even more difficult than obtaining access to DNA testing is getting access to a hearing with new non-DNA evidence, advocates say.
Laura Moye, a deputy director of Amnesty International USA, which supports Davis' appeal, says the "question of innocence doesn't seem to be as much of a priority for the courts as the craving for finality."
Read the full story here. (USA Today, 05/17/09)
Tags: Paul House
The House Case and the Causes of Injustice
Posted: June 10, 2011 2:02 pm
Balko writes:
When I ask Paul House why he thinks it has taken so long to clear his name, he starts to answer, then stammers, looks away, and retreats again to Oh well, his cue to move on because he has no answer.
That may be an understandable response from a guy with advanced M.S. who just spent two decades on death row. But for too long our national response to the increasing evidence that our justice system is flawed has been the same sort of resignation. DNA has only begun to show us where some of those flaws lie. It will take a strong public will to see that policymakers address them.
Read the full story here.
Read more about House’s case here.
Tags: Paul House