stellauk
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Preston Hughes is scheduled to be executed in Texas on November 15.
From the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website for 'Scheduled Executions' we read..
quote:
Convicted in the September 1988 stabbing deaths of 15-year-old Shandra Charles and her 3-year-old cousin Marcell Taylor. The two victims were found lying on a dirt path behind a Houston restaurant. Charles was still alive and told police that "Preston tried to rape me". Lab tests later revealed that the girl had been raped. The girl's dying statement led police to an apartment complex at the end of the dirt path. Hughes was the only 'Preston' living there, and police found the girl's eyeglasses in the apartment and blood on his clothing. Hughes gave two statements to the police before finally admitting to the murders. Both victims died of stab wounds.
source: http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/dr_info/hughesprestoni.jpg
Therefore this is a conviction obtained on the following 'evidence':
- Shandra Charles identified her assailant as 'Preston' to a police officer before she died.
- The murder weapon was found in Preston's apartment. It had blood on it.
- Preston's clothes, recently worn, had blood on them.
- Shandra's glasses were discovered in Preston's apartment.
- Preston Hughes confessed not once, but twice to the murders.
Seems to be cut and dried, right? Not quite.
Preston Hughes III was 'arrested' in the early hours of September 2 1988. Around 2.15am Houston police turned up and knocked on Preston's door. They came in, looked around for a few minutes, and asked Preston if he would come down to police headquarters. In spite of the fact that the sergeant would not answer the question "What's this all about?" Preston agreed to go because he had done nothing wrong. By 6.40am after being yelled at, slapped, lied to, and punched in the chest Preston, fearing for his life, signed the last page of the sergeant's typed false confession.
Later that morning another sergeant was reviewing the false confession and noted that the murder of the little boy had not been included. The officer picked up Preston from the jailhouse and by 1.15pm - after the officer had threatened to kill Preston - Preston involuntarily signed a second false confession.
There was no evidence collected by Houston Police Department that tied Preston to these murders.
On September 27 1988 at 2.58am an officer turned into the Houston Police Department property division 15 items, including items from Preston's apartment. The girl's eyeglasses and a small plastic bag containing a green leafy substance were not among these items. These items showed up later in one of the officer's reports.
The Voluntary Consent for Search and Seizure was supposedly witnessed by two sergeants around 5.30am, two and a half hours after an officer turned in 7 items from Preston's apartment. Preston's signature was cut and pasted on this form and only a copy of this form was presented at trial. Additionally one of the sergeants who supposedly witnessed this form had FIRST met Preston when she was called in to witness his signing of his coerced confession after 7.00am. So there is no way she could have signed this form at 5.30am.
The officer who did the crime scene photos and collected the evidence including the 7 items from Preston's apartment wrote in his report that he was contacted at 8.30am by a sergeant to go and get some clothing and a knife - the alleged murder weapon from Preston's apartment since they now had a signed search and seizure form. This was five and a half hours after this officer had already turned in 7 items from Preston's apartment including the knife and clothing.
Being a stabbing, this was a particularly bloody murder. Both Shandra and Marcell were stabbed in the chest and neck. Each suffered two stab wounds, one each to the chest and one each to the neck. Shandra's left carotid artery and jugular were both completely severed. Marcell's left carotid and jugular were punctured. The injuries were inflicted by a double-edged blade approximately 5/8 inch wide.
The knife that was seized by police at Preston's apartment had a one inch thick single-edged blade. It was not tested in a lab, but in the courtroom before the judge just before the 'forensic expert' was to testify. The test proved positive for animal blood, but not for human blood. However the judge allowed the knife to be introduced at trial as the murder weapon.
When the carotid artery is severed loss of brain function occurs within ninety seconds. It would have taken police at least fifteen minutes to arrive on the scene. Therefore Shandra being able to make a 'dying statement' to police seems virtually impossible.
The Voluntary Consent for Taking Samples of Blood, Urine or Hair form was supposedly witnessed by two sergeants around 7.45am. When Preston signed this form there was no place provided for any witness signatures and no samples were ever taken.
Apropo the silver rim eyeglasses belonging to the female victim. The lab report indicated no latent prints containing sufficient characteristics to effect an identification, but when introduced at trial as being found between two cushions on a couch in Preston's apartment, had what appeared to be bloody spots on the eyeglasses. A witness saw the prosecuting attorney wandering round the halls of the courthouse with the eyeglasses in a plastic bag. He was then seen to approach a woman to borrow some make up from her which was smeared on the eyeglasses. These eyeglasses were obviously planted between two cushions on the couch in Preston's apartment otherwise some of this blood would have transferred to the cushions.
Two blue short sleeved shirts and one pair of blue jeans belonging to Preston were seized. The police did not seem that bothered to test these items of clothing for blood. No blood was visible on the clothing. After 213 days without testing the clothing was subjected to a presumptive testing for blood just 4 days before the head of the serology department would testify at trial. There was a presumptive test which proved positive for blood. But the lab reports indicated that there was not enough to positively identify it as human blood and not enough to identify a type.
There was a vaginal swab taken from the female victim. The lab report indicated a very weak positive for semen, but not enough to type. Shandra was not raped.
A bed sheet was taken from Preston's apartment but not logged in. This sheet was stained with fresh semen. I will leave it for you to determine whether this was the semen used to contaminate the vaginal swab.
Please also bear in mind that both the confessions are wildly inconsistent with the facts of the crime. They are also inconsistent with each other. The only consistency is that in both Preston claimed to have stabbed 'wildly, repeatedly and uncontrollably' which is contradicted by the stab wounds themselves. It is clear that Preston had no knowledge of the circumstances or details of the crimes and was merely signing any statement the police wanted him to sign.
Sources:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-preston-hughes-iii-from-texas-death-row/
http://www.skepticaljuror.com/2012/07/case-of-preston-hughes-iii-plea-and.html
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We have had Cameron Todd Willingham, we have had Troy Davis, and unless someone intervenes we are going to have Preston Hughes executed despite being innocent.
There have been hundreds of exonerations. Billions of dollars spent.
Yet very clearly innocent people are still being executed for crimes they did not commit.
Do you find this acceptable?
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Usually when you have all the answers for something nobody is interested in listening.
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