AFS Cinema
State of Texas Actions Shocking
RECEIVED Wed., Oct. 28, 2009
Dear Editor,
This brilliant article [“'Junk Science' Emerges in Graves Case,” News, Oct. 16] highlights the horror of Mr. Graves' situation – and seemingly endless and unsettling challenges thrown his way by the state of Texas. I am horrified and shocked by the desperate introduction of "junk science” and the implications for Mr. Graves. This is my question: Why would the state of Texas depend on dogs sniffing 17-year-old burnt materials, rather than focus on irrefutable DNA testing? If the answer is that the DNA has been severely compromised, then what makes them think a sniffing dog will out-test DNA evidence? Pretty much like the "tests" that led to the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham. It's unsettling also that two sets of prosecutors have quit – and as of now he sits in a jail without a prosecuting team for the third time in three years! Could it be that there really is nothing to suggest Mr. Graves was ever involved in this crime? That the state really has nothing at all? Perhaps the dogs become something someone dreamt up … with a Texas twist to it? It's ludicrous … this shouldn't be about saving face on behalf of Charles Sebesta or a judge's father – it's about the life of an innocent man who has already lost 17 years of his life and whose life is at stake!
This brilliant article [“'Junk Science' Emerges in Graves Case,” News, Oct. 16] highlights the horror of Mr. Graves' situation – and seemingly endless and unsettling challenges thrown his way by the state of Texas. I am horrified and shocked by the desperate introduction of "junk science” and the implications for Mr. Graves. This is my question: Why would the state of Texas depend on dogs sniffing 17-year-old burnt materials, rather than focus on irrefutable DNA testing? If the answer is that the DNA has been severely compromised, then what makes them think a sniffing dog will out-test DNA evidence? Pretty much like the "tests" that led to the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham. It's unsettling also that two sets of prosecutors have quit – and as of now he sits in a jail without a prosecuting team for the third time in three years! Could it be that there really is nothing to suggest Mr. Graves was ever involved in this crime? That the state really has nothing at all? Perhaps the dogs become something someone dreamt up … with a Texas twist to it? It's ludicrous … this shouldn't be about saving face on behalf of Charles Sebesta or a judge's father – it's about the life of an innocent man who has already lost 17 years of his life and whose life is at stake!
Dee Ann Finch
Boston
Boston