True Crime Stories

  Cases such as this one always reminds me of the Cameron Todd Willingham case out of Texas. Thankfully David Lee Gavitt not only was not sentenced to death as Willingham was but even better, he was not executed, again, as Willingham. Still, David Gavitt lost his freedom for nearly twenty-seven years based on false science and over zealous prosecutors who decided they all knew best and knew what had happened. I do not just blame the experts who testified to things that were already becoming questionable, but also the prosecutor who dismissed all witnesses who had seen David Gavitt the night his wife and two young daughters were dying inside their burning home and testified to his emotions. Instead the prosecutor told the jury that he “really didn't seem too bent out of shape about saving his family. Yes, he was crying. Yes, he was carrying on, but he sure as heck wasn't doing anything.” On the night of March 9, 1985 David and Angela Gavitt went to bed around nine in th...

This is a case in which has always fascinated me a bit and yet I cannot say for certain why. It could be because in the end it likely proved to us just how cunning and manipulative a person could be; it could be because if the results had been different I may look at the death penalty different today.  Maybe today it seems more relevant because of all of the media hype surrounding the Steven Avery case.  Just as today people seem to be clamoring for Steven Avery's release (although most simply contend that the investigation and trial were unfair), in the early 1990's the same was going on in the Roger Coleman case. There were petitions asking for his release; he was all over the media, including a cover on Time magazine.  Roger Coleman was the "spokesperson" for innocent convictions (and later executions).  He was the one man everyone was convinced was innocent.  He was the symbol to show the world how flawed the death penalty is.  The proble...