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Back in the summer, the family
of Reginald Griffin received the long awaited news: He was coming
home! The Missouri Supreme Court had ordered
Griffin’s discharge from the
prison in 60 days or the state must re-try Griffin
for a 1983 prison murder as
soon as possible.
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The family was
joyously preparing to bring Reggie home on December 5. He had spent
over two decades in prison for a crime that he steadfastly
maintained he had not committed. There was no indication that the
state would further stand in the path of justice.
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But three days
before the celebration was to begin, Randolph Country Prosecuting
Attorney Mike Fusselman put the brakes on the deal by filing new
murder charges against Reginald Griffin. It seems that Fusselman
wanted to keep the nightmare of injustice going.
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The Griffin
case is just rife with injustices all over the place. For instance,
Griffin received the death penalty for the stabbing death of James
Bausley based upon the conviction records of another defendant with
the same name. With rotten egg all over its face, the system was
forced to re-sentence Griffin to life in prison without the
possibility of parole.
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In the murder
case of Bausley, prison guards confiscated a screwdriver from
another inmate and placed him in administrative segregation. He was
eventually convicted of unlawful use of a weapon, but the state
never disclosed this evidence to Griffin or his
attorney.
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The state took
their thuggery to another level. It manipulated the testimonies of
two key witnesses to serve its purpose. Both inmates received
sweetheart deals. In the case of Wyvonne Mozee, he would receive an
early release although he admitted to others that he didn’t witness
the incident. Mozee died before the trial began but prosecutors
introduced a transcript of his lies.
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In exchange for
his pack of lies, Paul Curtis was to receive a break on unrelated
stealing charges and a letter of recommendation to the board of
probation and parole.
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With all this
back-handed injustice mixed with errors of incompetence, you’d
think that the state would back off and leave well enough alone.
But no, they plan to waste more taxpayers’ monies for a trial for
which they have no credible witnesses or physical evidence to prove
beyond a reasonable doubt that Reginald Griffin murdered James
Bausley.
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This kind of
recalcitrant and unrepentant behavior by prosecutors is exactly why
more juries are refusing to give the death penalty. Case after case
of exonerations have underscored the fact that the state is
incapable of trying murder cases and meting out a death
sentence.
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Many execution
chambers stood silent this year. There has been a drop in both
death sentences and executions over the past several years. The
death penalty has been abolished in 16 states, and Oregon Governor
John Kitzhaber declared there’d be no executions in his state as
long as he was in office. And finally, after 30 years and millions
of dollars, the state of Pennsylvania has dropped its efforts to
execute one of this country’s most renowned men on death row –
Mumia Abu Jamal.
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“font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Missouri “font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana;”>’s hands are dirty, and it should stop executions once and for all. It could certainly redeem itself by at least admitting wrongdoing when it’s clear that prosecutorial misconduct and unlawful practices have resulted in miscarriages of justice.
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Prosecutor
Fusselman should humbly put aside his wheelbarrow of salt that he’s
about to dump into the wounds of the Griffin family. Let this
family take their loved one home so that they can get on with their
lives. This family, for sure, has endured more than their share of
pain from a failed justice system.
