Bulletin: Jeffrey Havard: Mississippi; Bruce Fischer in Ground Report: 'The Jeff Havard Case Highlights The Need For Criminal Justice Reform'... "What does a United States prison inmate do when new evidence comes to light proving their innocence? They wait. Sadly the wait is most often excruciatingly long, sometimes decades. The appeals system in the US operates at an incredibly slow pace, making it difficult to correct a wrongful conviction no matter how strong the case for innocence may be."

"What does a United States prison inmate do when new evidence comes to light proving their innocence? They wait. Sadly the wait is most often excruciatingly long, sometimes decades. The appeals system in the US operates at an incredibly slow pace, making it difficult to correct a wrongful conviction no matter how strong the case for innocence may be. Jeff Havard is a perfect example of an inmate who sits waiting to be heard. Overwhelming evidence has come forward showing that Jeff currently sits on death row in Mississippi for a crime that never happened. After nearly 13 years, the Mississippi Supreme Court finally granted Jeff permission in April of this year to request an evidentiary hearing based on new evidence. This is certainly good news for Jeff, but he continues to wait. The process to request an evidentiary hearing is not a speedy one. The defense files their request to the court, and then the State has time to file their response to the request. Of course the State is in no hurry to admit any fault and their actions have shown that they would like to drag out the process as long as possible. In this case, the State filed their response on the last possible day just last week, making sure to send it via snail mail to tack on a couple more days.........It is now crystal clear that Jeff Havard sits on death row in Mississippi for a crime that never happened. To sum things up, five experts have reviewed the case who confirm that a sexual assault never took place and that the evidence shows the cause of death was a short fall. The State’s only expert is also on record declaring that a sexual assault never took place and that he no longer believes that SBS was the cause of death. There are currently no experts who support the prosecution’s claims. Most shockingly, it is now proven that the prosecution knew before trial that a sexual assault never took place, yet they pushed forward to convict anyway. Jeff Havard has waited far too long. Jeff must be granted a new trial so that he can be given a real chance to prove his innocence. The truth is that the State no longer has any case at all against Jeff, and that is why they are pushing so hard to avoid a new trial. This very point should be extremely disturbing to everyone who reads it. Jeff is one of many currently sitting in a cage as an innocent person. American citizens need to stand up and demand action for current cases of wrongful conviction, and we also need to stress the need for criminal justice reform. Our elected officials need to know that this is an important issue that requires immediate attention. Criminal justice reform should be made a strong campaign issue for the 2016 presidential election.
http://www.groundreport.com/the-jeff-havard-case-highlights-the-need-for-criminal-justice-reform/