STILL NO JUSTICE FOR DEDGE

In a Leon County courtroom this morning, the state of Florida is expected to ask a judge to dismiss compensation efforts by a man wrongfully imprisoned for 22 years. Legal nuances aside, the request responds to one gross miscarriage of justice by committing another - essentially asserting that two wrongs do make a right. And the state is doing it in the name of every Floridian. There is a word for this, but it can't be found in a legal dictionary: "chutzpa."

There no longer are any questions - not even one - about Wilton Dedge's innocence. Mr. Dedge was released from prison a year ago when DNA tests, which he first sought 16 years earlier, revealed that he couldn't possibly be responsible for the Brevard County rape that cost him more than 8,000 days of freedom. The only meaningful questions that remain are whether the state will repay him for the liberty that he lost, and how much.

Former Florida State University President Sandy D'Alemberte is representing Mr. Dedge. Mr. D'Alemberte maintains that if the state wrongfully confiscates someone's freedom, the law should respond as if a person's property had been wrongfully taken. When that happens, the law is clear, expeditious and fair, Mr. D'Alemberte says. Sadly, that's not the case when the state unjustly incarcerates an innocent person. "For 16 years we had an innocent man asking the state to allow the testing of his DNA, at no expense to the state, and they wouldn't allow it. It's my theory that's a denial of due process," Mr. D'Alemberte said Thursday. "We spend all of our time talking about people repaying their debt to society. It ought to work both ways."

Despite rhetoric about righting this wrong, the Florida House earlier this year failed to approve a claims bill for Mr. Dedge that the Senate approved. House leaders promised to try again in 2006, but meanwhile Mr. Dedge has nothing but bad memories to show for more than 22 years of life behind bars. Moreover, his parents spent much of their savings trying to help their son. Today the state would make Mr. Dedge and his parents victims again by closing the door on their compensation efforts through the court system. Incredible.

Attorney Joseph Welch is often credited with bringing U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy's recklessness to a halt with this famous retort: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" In the Wilton Dedge case, one has to wonder what happened to the state's sense of decency.

Report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)