Support NeoGAF

[Tommie Hu$tle]

Friday, August 20, 2004 Posted: 11:45 AM EDT (1545 GMT)



YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
Prison
Trials
or Create your own
Manage alerts | What is this?

LUFKIN, Texas (AP) -- A 76-year-old man who spent nearly every day of the last four decades in prison walked free after a judge found that deputies extracted his confession to a 1962 robbery by crushing his fingers between cell bars.

After walking out of the Angelina County jail Tuesday with his wife, Robert Carroll Coney said he was not bitter.

"I'm going to try to pick up the pieces," Coney said. "If I was angry, what could I do about it?"

Coney was convicted of robbing a Safeway supermarket in 1962 and sentenced to life in prison. Many times he escaped from facilities in other states -- including South Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi -- only to be recaptured each time. He was returned to the Texas prison system last year.

Coney said his identity had been confused with a man he had carpooled with through Lufkin on the day of the robbery.

State District Judge David Wilson, who dismissed Coney's charges, investigated and found that the sheriff of Angelina County at the time and his deputies used physical force to extract confessions, often crushing prisoners' fingers between jail cell bars.

When Wilson questioned Coney, the prisoner held up two twisted and bent fingers.

"I remember the sheriff well," Coney said.

He said the jailers, in addition to mangling his hand, threatened his life and scared him into confessing. Wilson's findings stated Coney probably did not see a lawyer until he stood before a judge in the case with then-court-appointed lawyer Gilbert Spring. Spring said he didn't remember Coney's case and told Wilson that courts frequently called attorneys in the 1960s to stand with defendants for no money.

"It really contains everybody's worst fears about what went on during certain darker years in this country," said Huntsville attorney David P. O'Neill, who worked on Coney's case.

Coney said he may consider a civil suit at some point but initially wants to focus on his family.

Holding his wife's hand as he left the jail Tuesday for their Dallas home, Coney said little about the ordeal.

"We're going home," Coney said.

There are no words for that.

 

[demon]

 

[Jumpman]

Friday, August 20, 2004 Posted: 11:45 AM EDT (1545 GMT)



YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
Prison
Trials
or Create your own
Manage alerts | What is this?

LUFKIN, Texas (AP) -- A 76-year-old man who spent nearly every day of the last four decades in prison walked free after a judge found that deputies extracted his confession to a 1962 robbery by crushing his fingers between cell bars.

After walking out of the Angelina County jail Tuesday with his wife, Robert Carroll Coney said he was not bitter.

"I'm going to try to pick up the pieces," Coney said. "If I was angry, what could I do about it?"

Coney was convicted of robbing a Safeway supermarket in 1962 and sentenced to life in prison. Many times he escaped from facilities in other states -- including South Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi -- only to be recaptured each time. He was returned to the Texas prison system last year.

Coney said his identity had been confused with a man he had carpooled with through Lufkin on the day of the robbery.

State District Judge David Wilson, who dismissed Coney's charges, investigated and found that the sheriff of Angelina County at the time and his deputies used physical force to extract confessions, often crushing prisoners' fingers between jail cell bars.

When Wilson questioned Coney, the prisoner held up two twisted and bent fingers.

"I remember the sheriff well," Coney said.

He said the jailers, in addition to mangling his hand, threatened his life and scared him into confessing. Wilson's findings stated Coney probably did not see a lawyer until he stood before a judge in the case with then-court-appointed lawyer Gilbert Spring. Spring said he didn't remember Coney's case and told Wilson that courts frequently called attorneys in the 1960s to stand with defendants for no money.

"It really contains everybody's worst fears about what went on during certain darker years in this country," said Huntsville attorney David P. O'Neill, who worked on Coney's case.

Coney said he may consider a civil suit at some point but initially wants to focus on his family.

Holding his wife's hand as he left the jail Tuesday for their Dallas home, Coney said little about the ordeal.

"We're going home," Coney said.

That's my name. I didn't know I was a judge.

 

[bishoptl]

I hope he sues the jailers, the county, and the state into oblivion.

 

[M3wThr33]

You can either steal a car or kick me in the crotch.

 

[IJoel]

I hope he sues the jailers, the county, and the state into oblivion.

IAWTP

 

[MrPing1000]

that guy should be allowed to steal as many cars and rob as many banks he wants without any punishment

 

[LizardKing]

Yeah, he says he can't do anything about it. But I hope he does sue and lives the rest of his life off of the goverment's money. And lives richly at that. They took 40 years of his life, he should be able to live the rest of it as comfortably as possible at their expense.

 

[Deg]

this stuff just shouldnt happen.

 

[Tabris]

life...for robbing a safeway? what the hell?

 

[Orin GA]

Justice is blind. Cant be helped. Hell no amount of money will bring those 40 years back.

 

[xsarien]

Actually, if that sheriff is still alive, a proper punishment should be for him to spend his remaining years in prison, regardless of his physical condition. There are no words for what he did.

 

[ManDudeChild]

You can either steal a car or kick me in the crotch.

Be careful, nobody ever picks the car

 

[Pochacco]

life...for robbing a safeway? what the hell?

That's what I was thinking...

 

[teh_pwn]

That's crazy.

Do people get sentenced 10 years for walking on grass there?

 

[DJ Sl4m]

Damn that makes me feel like crying for him........ poor guy

But isn't there a law that states you can't get charged with the same crime twice ? if so, free food from Safeway supermarket for the rest of his life.

 

[=W=]

But isn't there a law that states you can't get charged with the same crime twice ? if so, free food from Safeway supermarket for the rest of his life.

I believe that law states that you can't be tried for the same offense twice. However, if you do something again at a different time, it's a completely separate offense and you can be tried for it.

Perhaps you should not try getting legal advice from Ashley Judd.

 

[DJ Sl4m]

Haha, you're absolutely right

 

[StoOgE]

If I had to guess I would say he is black, and at that point in time, nearly anything would get you life in jail if you were african american.

This man is only ever going to have one life, and it was wrongfully taken from him, he should sue the fuck out of everyone he can, and the sheriff and deupities in question (if alive) should be behind bars.