[MAP editor's comment: This article is not about illegal drug policy.
It is about our criminal justice system's bias against "bad guys", a
bias which fits easily into drugwar ethic.]

CRINER'S LOST TIME CANNOT BE REPAID

Out of appreciation for your taking the time to read today's offering,
I'd like to give you 15 minutes.

So now, instead of just the normal 24 hours, your day will be 24 and a
quarter hours. Won't that be nice? You can use the added bit for a long
lunch, maybe, spend it doing extra work, get a few more winks in the
sack. Or how about putting it aside to extend some pleasant weekend
activity?

Unfortunately, time doesn't work that way. As much as I'd like to, I
can't give you even a second to spend. I can't replace the minutes that
you put in here. I can thank you for spending them this way, can
apologize if you consider them ill spent, but once they are gone there
is no getting them back.

Prison takes time away from people as punishment. If you are convicted
of a crime, you will pay for it with your time. The more serious the
crime, the more time you will lose.

But what if you are convicted of a crime you didn't commit? What if you
manage to accumulate enough evidence to convince the criminal-justice
system it made a mistake? What about all that time that was unjustly
taken from you?

Roy Criner lost more than 10 years of his time to prison. He was
released Tuesday after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles sent
Gov. George W. Bush a recommendation Monday that Criner be pardoned.

Understanding The Frustration

It was back on July 28 that state District Judge Mike Mayes joined
Montgomery County District Attorney Michael A. McDougal and Sheriff Guy
Williams in signing a formal request that the pardons and paroles board
recommend that Criner, 35, be pardoned because of new DNA evidence.

I keep thinking about a day last month when I took one of the kids to
the clinic to get a shot before going to camp. We checked in at the
desk and then turned and took seats in the waiting room, same as
always, expecting a nurse to come call our name soon.

Time passed. Well over half an hour. The nurse came several times and
called other names. So finally, I approached the person at the desk and
asked if we should come back some other time. She looked at me with
surprise in her eyes and said we hadn't needed to wait. Said we could
have gone right on back to get the shot from a nurse. I wondered aloud
why she hadn't mentioned that when we checked in, and how so much time
could pass without her looking up to see us sitting in the uncrowded
waiting room.

It felt like we'd been robbed of half an hour, and I still get
aggravated when reminded about it.

Criner waited in prison for more than two weeks after the judge and DA
and sheriff all agreed he should be set free. OK, you can look at the
10-year history of his case and find a great deal to be concerned
about, regarding our criminal-justice system in general, and our Court
of Criminal Appeals in particular.

Righting a Mistake -- Slowly

Compared to all of that, this final segment -- July 28 to Tuesday --
may not seem like much. But it was 18 more days of Criner's time taken
from him after the officials who put him in prison admitted he
shouldn't be there.

Parole board chairman Gerald Garrett said it took the 18 members of the
board that long to look at the facts, review the information presented
to them and reach their unanimous decision. He said the Criner file was
roughly two inches thick, containing complicated information about DNA
evidence.

"We're lay people," he said. "We have to read it very thoroughly, very
slowly. Some things seemed to be a bit circular, so I had to go back
and make sure I understood."

He said the board must take sufficient time for a "complete and
thorough review," and added that in the face of "these turbulent winds
that blow from case to case, we must maintain a steady course."

Attorney Michael B. Charlton said Criner was "just happy as hell to be
out of there. I'd never seen him smile like that."

Charlton has worked on the Criner case for three years without pay and
said he will help Criner apply to a state fund for compensation. He
said he thought Criner would be eligible to receive $20,000 to $25,000.

"It's something," Charlton said, "but not worth 10 years of your life."

Time can't be repaid.