Hood investigating 20 convicted cases
At the end of this report, the anchor says Hood says his office is looking into at least 20 cases in which West has testified. That’s the first time I’ve heard of any Mississippi state official investigating old West/Hayne cases. So that’s encouraging. But I’ll withhold praise for Hood until/unless he can come up with a single case in which he determines that West’s testimony should invalidate a prosecution. So far, his office has either defended West’s testimony, or argued that defendants whose cases are in post-conviction status are procedurally barred from challenging West’s credibility. As for Hayne, Hood has not only steadfastly defended him, Hood led the fight to overturn Hayne’s termination so he could resume doing autopsies for Mississippi prosecutors.
Radley Balko
8/22/11
