{"id":2653,"date":"2016-08-11T16:32:51","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T16:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=2653"},"modified":"2016-08-13T19:51:32","modified_gmt":"2016-08-13T19:51:32","slug":"assistant-attorney-general-complains-innocence-is-in-vogue-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=2653","title":{"rendered":"Assistant attorney general complains: \u2018Innocence is in vogue now\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_2654\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2654\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2654\" src=\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160811Mekeel.jpg\" alt=\"Jess Mekeel\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160811Mekeel.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160811Mekeel-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2654\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jess Mekeel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Aug. 11, 2016<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[North Carolina] Assistant Attorney General Jess Mekeel said [Johnny] Small&#8217;s motion should be dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u00a0\u2018Innocence is in vogue now,\u2019 he told the judge, the Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExonerations are certainly on the rise. Last year, about 150 people were exonerated, a record number, according to the National Registry of Exonerations&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMekeel [said] he considers reopening cases based on recanted testimony to be a threat to the American legal system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u00a0\u2018This is an attempt to retry a 28-year-old case. Twelve jurors made that determination already. They heard the evidence. They concluded the defendant was guilty,\u2019 Mekeel said, according to WRAL. \u2018They jeopardize the stability and reliability of our justice system.\u2019\u00a0<em>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>\u2013\u00a0From \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/morning-mix\/wp\/2016\/08\/09\/man-spent-28-years-in-prison-after-his-friend-accused-him-of-murder-now-the-friend-said-he-lied\/\" target=\"_blank\">Man spent 28 years in prison after his friend accused him of murder. Now, the friend said he lied<\/a>\u201d\u00a0by Travis M. Andrews in the Washington Post (Aug. 9)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cInnocence is in vogue now\u201d \u2013 what a revealing glimpse of the inner prosecutor! As if exonerations were a fad, an unwarranted threat to \u201cthe stability and reliability of our justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Is it any wonder that district attorneys such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsobserver.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article54573375.html\" target=\"_blank\">Jon David<\/a>\u00a0so eagerly pursue innocence advocates such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=1640\">Chris Mumma<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1707\" src=\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/LRDCC20.jpg\" alt=\"LRDCC20\" width=\"132\" height=\"20\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aug. 11, 2016 \u201c[North Carolina] Assistant Attorney General Jess Mekeel said [Johnny] Small&#8217;s motion should be dismissed. \u201c\u00a0\u2018Innocence is in vogue now,\u2019 he told the judge, the Associated Press reported. \u201cExonerations are certainly on the rise. Last year, about 150 people were exonerated, a record number, according to the National Registry of Exonerations&#8230;. \u201cMekeel [said] [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2653"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2661,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653\/revisions\/2661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}