Tag: perjury

Who ordered the plane?

Some of you may remember a post from 2009 September entitled “A tale of two perjuries” about Robert McClendon who was wrongfully convicted after those testifying against him perjured themselves (over 150 times, if Robert’s story is to be believed) and were not prosecuted, versus a similar case also involving perjury where those perjuring themselves on the side of the defense (once) were nailed to the wall. (Unfortunately the link to KHOU-TV in that post is dead and the story appears to no longer be online.)

This followup is long overdue, and primarily concerns new developments in Robert’s case. In the year and change since my blog post, more evidence has been uncovered to prove that Christine and Paula Trent did in fact commit perjury when testifying to convict Robert. The Harris County District Attorney’s office has turned a deaf ear and blind eye to the new evidence.

Hopefully, that is going to change Wednesday morning, as Robert and his supporters give an entirely new meaning to airing one’s grievances: an airplane with a banner reading “HCDA allows perjury to convict the innocent” will fly over downtown Houston on Wednesday, 2011 January 19, from about 11:00 am to 2:00pm. I am encouraging everyone in the area who can make it downtown to join us to do so. There is also a contest for the best video of the event, which will win a T-shirt as well as be published on americaswrongfullyconvicted.com.

I don’t have details on a specific meeting place in or near downtown as of yet; I will update this post with new information as I receive it.

A tale of two perjuries

I really haven’t been in the mood to blog much lately. I have at least a good five things to write about that I need to clear out of the queue, but various personal and health issues have made it really difficult to focus on blogging.

A page on americaswronglyconvicted.com details the rather upsetting tale of Robert McClendon, a victim of perjury. It’s a very long narrative and if you have any sense of fairness and justice it’s likely going to be a very upsetting read.

But it gets even better (worse?). Linked from the narrative, early on, is this report from KHOU-TV dating from 2008.

I’m horrified at the difference between the two cases. Perjure oneself for the prosecution, one gets away with it. Perjure oneself for the defense, get nailed to the wall, in this case for aggravated perjury. (For those who don’t have valid law nerd cards, in Texas, aggravated perjury is a third-degree felony; simple perjury, where the statement is not made during or in connection with a simple proceeding or is not material, is a class A misdemeanor.)

Where’s the fairness here? Isn’t perjury the same crime, no matter who is affected? It makes no sense to call what the system dispenses “justice” if it’s not just. Letting perjurers get away with their crime when the end result is innocent people take up prison, parole, and probation spaces needed to handle real criminals, is patently devoid of any sense of decency or scruples. It’s un-American. No, I’ll go farther than that, because this happens in countries besides the US. I think the word is “inhumane.”