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| Death row inmate wins new trial, judge says evidence held |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 04/01/2005 |
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A Greensboro, N.C., man who has spent 25 years on death row should be given a new trial because investigators and prosecutors withheld evidence that could have helped him, a judge ruled. Michael Pinch, 45, is the eighth death-row inmate in recent years to be granted a new trial on a finding of misconduct by prosecutors. Pinch has admitted shooting two men in October 1979 at Strokers' Motorcycle Clubhouse in Greensboro but claimed he was guilty of second-degree murder because he did not plan the crime. His case has been on appeal since then. In a decision Thursday that criticized police and prosecutors in general, Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Melzer A. Morgan Jr. cited six legal reasons why Pinch didn't receive a fair trial. They included that police failed to tell Pinch's lawyers that a key witness failed a lie detector test and gave three different statements, and that one victim had a history of stabbing people. "There is a reasonable probability that there would have been a different result, guilty of second-degree murder, had the withheld information been available and presented," he wrote in his decision. Pinch's lawyers said the ruling is further proof that the criminal justice system has been biased against the accused. "The kind of trial Michael Pinch got, you cannot give to anyone anymore," said Pinch's attorney, James Cooney III. Morgan said prosecutor Charles W. Wannamaker III failed to share notes of interviews with witnesses, which "differed significantly" from their trial testimony. Also, he said prosecutors and police failed to share notes and a tape of an interview with a witness about another man's role in the killings. "Time and again, law enforcement has failed to provide prosecutors with contradictory information or information that doesn't fit into their theory of a case," Morgan wrote. "Prosecutors, at best, have had difficulty in either analyzing their own witness interview notes for impeaching information or analyzing file information for impeaching information. Some prosecutors have simply not looked at investigative file information with such an eye." Wannamaker declined to comment. |
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Deaths are increasing because of the crime rate and govt did not do anything for it so far. I got this report from law assignment help which explain everything that I am looking for so you can get investigative file too.