Proof That John Cornyn, or His Minions, Lack Basic Reading Comprehension Skills

Or, an open letter to John Cornyn: A month or so ago, I sent you a letter regarding the taxation of compensation for people found innocent of crimes only after they had served several years in prison. The body of my letter read as follows:

Thirty-seven men have been cleared of crimes in Texas - more than any other state in the country. Collectively, they have served 525 years behind bars. Twenty of those 37 were from Dallas. If you are released from prison on parole, you get $100 to get you home, and you have a plethora of agencies to help you get job training, a job, or even an education. The travesty is that when an exonerated man is freed, he gets none of that. We treat them badly, Sen. Cornyn. We strip them of their freedom, incarcerate them for decades, and then send them out with nothing. Yes, they can sue. Or they can collect funds from the state for their time spent behind bars - $50,000 for each year served, at a cap of $300,000. But then we go on to insult them further by considering such monies a windfall, and taxing them at a rate of 40%. That is unconscionable. You have the power to stop this. I wish you would. I encourage you to pick up a copy of this month's Texas Monthly, or to read my blog post ( http://eleventybillionthblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/it-looked-like-he-saw-light-for-first.html ) about a recent meeting with one of these exonerated men so you can get the full picture of how we have robbed them, and then robbed them again.

Today I got a response from your office. From that response, I can tell you didn't actually read my letter. Truthfully, I'd rather have no response at all then this completely dunderheaded response that screams, "I did not read your letter." You said:

Thank you for contacting me regarding our nation's prison system. I appreciate having the benefit of your comments on this matter. We are a compassionate nation, and a civilized one. But it is the duty of those in public office to ensure the safety and security of our citizens, first and foremost. In addition, offenders must be treated fairly and humanely while incarcerated, and we must do what we can to prepare them to reenter society following their release. Texans can be confident I will do everything possible in the U.S. Senate to ensure that we fulfill these responsibilities. I appreciate the opportunity to represent you in the United States Senate. Thank you for taking the time to contact me. Sincerely, JOHN CORNYN United States Senator

So, in summary, I wasn't asking for rehabilitation of prisoners. I'm glad you want to ensure the safety and security of our citizens. The people I wrote you about are citizens, too. In fact, they are citizens who have been incarcerated for crimes they did not commit - something you would've ascertained by actually reading my letter. I know you get a metric ton of requests for various things on any given week. But I'm not your typical "write your Congressman" type of person, either. I wager that, in a country where a 50% voter turnout is a miracle, many people will never write you. Some write about everything, I'm sure. Others, like me, write because something has so incensed them that they feel it is necessary to reach out and do something. What's sad is many of those people will get a letter like this from you, and will then go, "See? It doesn't pay to write. They won't do anything. He didn't even read my letter. Maybe if I was a rich lobbyist, he would." So maybe Big John really is all hat and no cattle.

Mike Hashimoto Made Me Physically Ill

I was raised to believe to respect life. I don't know many people - sociopaths and those with homicidal tendencies aside - who can simply shrug their shoulders and allow someone to die - especially unjustly. Having covered the criminal justice system, and having closely followed Dallas County DA Craig Watkins efforts to make sure no innocent man is in prison, I am not confident that everyone that makes that stop in Huntsville to sit on death row is guilty. Neither, apparently, is Watkins, who recently announced he would be spearheading an effort to try to determine that very thing. But last week, DMN Editorial Board member Mike Hashimoto implied that Watkins' gesture was a publicity-seeking one, washing the entire effort in a dirty film of near character assassination. It turns my stomach to think that someone who should be celebrating this extra bit of sunshine on a branch of county government could denigrate a gesture that has so far uncovered the seedier side of Dallas justice. As Grits for Breakfast pointed out in his response, "Why not at least acknowledge that his actions aren't totally out of left field?" Yes, Watkins has received a lot of publicity. But that publicity is now recorded history. People now have doubts about a prosecutor that was once celebrated - because they are now fully informed about Henry Wade's actions. When history is recorded, it makes it doubly harder - or at least gives an object lesson - for someone tempted to repeat it. With this national attention on Watkins' efforts, what future prosecutor is going to want to suppress evidence when the danger is there that your successor will uncover it, and therefore rewrite your legacy? So, Mr. Hashimoto, I can take a little grandstanding, if it means justice. I can take the possible publicity-seeking, if it means that we don't find out five years from now that an innocent man was lethally injected. Why can't you?

Hopefully, Not the End of Innocence

Today, there's a chance that the good work of the DNA unit Dallas DA Craig Watkins set up to review the cases of men that could be wrongfully convicted - the one that's already found many who actually have been - could find itself on the chopping block. As the Dallas Morning News reports, the county has a huge budget shortfall, and is looking for ways to cut. The county is $38 million in the red, and even with something that has earned the county so much in the way of good karma and good publicity, it's possible that Watkins could be asked to do anything from cut back the staffing for that unit to eliminate it all together. If you're feeling strongly one way or another, you can contact your Dallas County commissioners here. But here's to hoping the county does the moral thing, even if it doesn't completely match up with the fiscal thing. Update: Looks like good news, according to commissioner John Wiley Price.

"He took my life away from me"

CNN follows 60 Minutes in chronicling the 17 men freed after possibly intentional prosecutorial misfires from Henry Wade's office by focusing on the latest of the exonerated - James Woodard, who spent 27 years behind bars for a rape and murder he did not commit. Woodard spent decades behind bars, making impassioned pleas to Wade to look at other evidence. To add insult to injury, turns out Wade's prosecutors knew all along that there was another person of interest, but were more interested in collecting wins than meting out justice. Dallas County DA Craig Watkins office is working with the Innocence Project of Texas to examine hundreds more cases. He also feels the prosecutor who handled Woodard's case - and those like him - should be jailed.

"When individuals intend to cause a person to be convicted for a crime they did not commit, that's an embarrassment for our profession," he told CNN.

Woodard agrees.

"I think he should pay a penalty. I paid 27 years. He took my life away from me. What's the difference if it's by a gun, by words or by lies. What's gone is gone."

Update: CNN just explained even more how heart-breaking the situation is for men like Woodard, by following men who are trying to live after being exonerated. Life doesn't get any easier once their free - nor any fairer.