Local case another injustice
12/4/2012Thank you for your Nov. 23 editorial “The gravest injustice” about wrongful imprisonment. However, you failed to mention the local case of Danny Brown.
Mr. Brown spent more than 19 years in prison for a wrongful conviction of murder (the murderer is in prison for another murder). Mr. Brown was freed from prison in 2001 because of DNA evidence.
However, a decade later, Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates still holds Mr. Brown on a suspect list in the case. This keeps him in indefinite limbo and prevents his full exoneration and access to compensation for his years of wrongful imprisonment.
Ms. Bates continues to perpetuate “the gravest injustice.” At a minimum, if she has any real case in this 30-year-old crime, she could give Mr. Brown his day in court. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
DAN RUTT
Parkwood Avenue
Who’s really Turkey of 2012?
I disagreed with Marilou Johanek’s choice of the winner in her Nov. 24 op-ed column, “In a flock of candidates, one stands out as Ohio’s Turkey of the Year.”
If she wants to see the real Ohio Turkey of the Year, she should look in a mirror.
MARK COUSINO
Harvest Lane
Budget problem is one of spending
The Obama Administration is calling for a tax increase on the wealthy as part of the budget-deficit solution (“Living on the edge: President, speaker look for leverage on fiscal cliff,” Dec. 2). The big-government liberals who control the Democratic Party have adopted this stand as part of their strategy to finance the growth of a larger, more intrusive federal government.
The big spenders in both major parties choose to ignore that we do not have a tax problem; we have an out-of-control spending problem. If this issue is not addressed, we will see people demonstrating in the streets as in Europe, when their government subsidies are cut and their taxes raised to head off default.
JOHN STEWART
Monclova Township
Put facilities to better use
I have an idea for suffering families in New York in the wake of Hurricane Sandy (“Sandy shows limits of coddle-the-rich policy,” op-ed column, Nov. 25). Some vacant schools have kitchen facilities, showers, rest rooms, and gyms where they could go.
Government buildings are used eight hours a day, five days a week, but could be used on evenings and weekends to house people.
There probably are trillions of dollars’ worth of similar accommodations across the country that could be used to house the homeless.
VINCENT YANCEY
Curtice, Ohio