Thursday, June 15, 2006

Paul Gregory House

I have so much to say about this decision, and I haven't had time to write about it. I still don't, but I just wanted to express how completely happy I am that the Supreme Court not only ruled that Paul can appeal his innocence, but the Court pretty much wrote that he should not have been convicted in the first place. Hopefully, this means a habeas proceeding will get him a new trial, and then hopefully the prosecutor will find that there is no reason to re-try Paul. He's served twenty years for a crime he may not have committed (one I believe he did not). At the very least, the prosecution could not have met its burden if the DNA evidence had been available then. Why re-try now?

Paul suffers from Multiple Sclerosis. From earlier reports, his MS is very serious. I highly doubt that someone with advanced MS is going to be any threat to anyone (except perhaps himself). I hope that Paul will be given the chance to see the outside world before he dies. I have no idea how advanced his MS is, but MS can be terminal and I think it would be tragic if Paul is indeed innocent and he spent the last 20 years of his life in prison suffering from MS. Its almost as horrid as it would be were he executed by the State. Execution is only more horrid because a person has to take an action to cause the death.

I corresponded with Paul's sister-in-law at one point (or was it sister? I cannot recall). In a way, that made his case more real to me and I've followed it since then. Hopefully, other promising decisions will follow this one.