Golf Digest Helps Wrongly Convicted Man Regain his Freedom

[PilotsError 2291]

I can't even keep up with these stories anymore.  The number of innocent people in prison is must be mind boggling.  It's not even these major convictions.  Cell phones and dash cams are showing just how many cops are falsely arresting people on a daily basis.

After 27 years of wrongful incarceration, Valentino Dixon walked out of prison yesterday as a free man when the Eerie County District Court in Buffalo, NY vacated his 1992 murder conviction. An unlikely source was crucial to helping Dixon’s case gain notoriety and to ultimately obtaining his freedom. That unlikely source? Golf Digest.

During Dixon’s 19^th year in prison, a warden at the Attica Correctional Facility brought in a photograph of Augusta National’s 12^th hole for Dixon to sketch. This one photograph inspired Dixon to meticulously and beautifully draw hundreds of portraits of golf courses.

“For some reason, my spirit is attuned to this game,” Dixon told Golf Digest about his connection to the game, which he has never actually played.

“The look of a golf hole spoke to me. It seemed peaceful. I imagine playing it would be a lot like fishing,” said Dixon.

“The Cactus Course” by Valentino Dixon. View more of his art here.

Dixon began sending his drawings to Golf Digest and eventually caught their attention. “It took about a hundred drawings before Golf Digest noticed,” said Golf Digest journalist Max Adler. In addition to his drawings, Golf Digest noticed that Dixon’s conviction seemed “flimsy.” So, Adler looked into his case and later published a profile of Dixon that not only featured his art but also explored the question of his innocence.

“The case is complicated,” wrote Adler. “But on the surface it involves shoddy police work, zero physical evidence linking Dixon, conflicting testimony of unreliable witnesses, the videotaped confession to the crime by another man, a public defender who didn’t call a witness at trial, and perjury charges against those who said Dixon didn’t do it.”

Dixon’s Golf Digest profile received widespread media attention. Of the outlets it reached was the Georgetown University Prison Reform Project, an undergraduate course co-taught by Marc Howard and Martin Tankleff, an exoneree himself who recently earned his law degree, that investigates wrongful conviction murder cases. Once the class selected Dixon’s case, the students dove right in—gathering evidence, locating witnesses and visiting Dixon in prison.

(L-R): Marc Howard, Julie Fragonas (student), Valentino Dixon, Naoya Johnson (student) and Martin Tankleff at Dixon’s release. Photo: Strong Island Films.

The course’s investigation aided Dixon’s lawyer, Donald Thompson, in asking the Eerie County District Attorney’s conviction integrity unit to reexamine the case. After reviewing the evidence supporting Dixon’s innocence—including confessions by a man who admitted several times to being the actual perpetrator—the unit agreed that Dixon had been wrongfully convicted and decided to vacate his conviction.

Now, a free man, Dixon plans to dedicate himself to criminal justice reform. “If you don’t have any money in this system, it’s hard to get justice because the system is not equipped or designed to give a poor person a fair trial,” Dixon told the New York Times. “So we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

And, of course, Dixon hopes to finally visit the subject of all his drawings: a golf course.

Read the full story here. 

 

https://www.innocenceproject.org/golf-digest-helps-wrongly-convicted-man-regain-freedom/

 

[Quagmire 2147]

I can’t imagine anything much worse than sitting in prison for something you didn’t do

 

[deadshank 24653]

Eerie County?  

Creepy

[You don't know me 1161]

"Sorry for taking 27 years away from you.  Here's a check for the balance in you canteen account."

This stuff makes me ragey.

[heso 2809]

58 minutes ago, deadshank said:

Eerie County?  

Creepy

The innocence project article spelled Erie wrong half a dozen times, despite the Golf Digest article repeatedly spelling it correctly. Even google would have corrected it for them. 

[VolenteHawk 495]

It's nothing like fishing dumbass, but congrats on your freedom.

 

[deadshank 24653]

40 minutes ago, heso said:

The innocence project article spelled Erie wrong half a dozen times, despite the Golf Digest article repeatedly spelling it correctly. Even google would have corrected it for them. 

So #faikknews?

[Pescado_Rojo 19421]

Naoya Johnson would get the D

[RPM 26322]

Cops, courts and prisons don't get paid if innocent people walk.

[Doc Reeves 6434]

3 minutes ago, RPM said:

Cops, courts and prisons don't get paid if innocent people walk.

Man, it’s so much worst than that. 

The issue is power. People only care about power, never justice. 

[PilotsError 2291]

51 minutes ago, RPM said:

Cops, courts and prisons don't get paid if innocent people walk.

Some forensic labs only get paid if there's a conviction.

https://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/the-forensic-laboratories-that-are-paid-per-conviction

 

[Huckleberry 32985]

I mean how in the fuck does anyone think something like that is a good idea? Jesus.

[RoundRobin 828]

Glad to see this guy get a mulligan on life. 

[Deej 76818]

He brought the gun that killed the guy. Sucks for him, but it wasn't like he was just hanging out minding his own business 

[Neonmoon 38129]

I’m happy the man got his freedom, but let’s talk what’s important here...Ms Johnson

how you doing?

[4th and 5 4914]

10 hours ago, Quagmire said:

I can’t imagine anything much worse than sitting in prison for something you didn’t do

 

I can. 

How about your wife getting killed on your 32nd birthday, you’re wrongfully convicted of her murder by a DA who hid exculpatory evidence, your son thinks you did it and tells you he doesn’t want to see you anymore, and you spend 25 years in prison while the new DA does everything thing he can to fuck over your lawyer’s attempt to prove your innocence, while the real killer goes on to commit multiple felonies, including another murder.

[po elvis 2073]

The DA's quote about how people should be more worried about wrong acquittals is disgusting. I wish he would be convicted of something he didn't do and see if his attitude changed.

[Deej 76818]

Williamson County, FTW!

[SDG 3319]

36 minutes ago, po elvis said:

The DA's quote about how people should be more worried about wrong acquittals is disgusting. I wish he would be convicted of something he didn't do and see if his attitude changed.

Probably never heard about the Blackstone ratio in his “law studies.”  It’s all about points...

 

[TwiceHorn 31495]

5 hours ago, Doc Reeves said:

Man, it’s so much worst than that. 

The issue is power. People only care about power, never justice. 

And we the people seem more than willing to hand over that power to people who will keep us "safe."

[FartingMonk 3608]

He isn't exactly innocent.  Dude brought the gun.  I see it the same as a drive by.  The passengers are still participants and guilty as such

[tbone_ 14128]

I can. 
How about your wife getting killed on your 32nd birthday, you’re wrongfully convicted of her murder by a DA who hid exculpatory evidence, your son thinks you did it and tells you he doesn’t want to see you anymore, and you spend 25 years in prison while the new DA does everything thing he can to fuck over your lawyer’s attempt to prove your innocence, while the real killer goes on to commit multiple felonies, including another murder.

Um, what?

[NeverMarryAStripper 21907]

Probably never heard about the Blackstone ratio in his “law studies.”  It’s all about points...
 

Or a certain 1895 US Supreme Court decision

[heso 2809]

 

3 hours ago, Deej said:

He brought the gun that killed the guy. Sucks for him, but it wasn't like he was just hanging out minding his own business 

Didn’t the real murderer admit to bringing his new auto 9mil that killed the guy?