Anthony Perez

Anthony Perez was convicted in November 2017 of murder for the shooting death of Giovanni Galicia on November 30, 2013.

According to a news report “Galicia’s brother and the friend, Fermin Estrada Ramos, also of Belvidere, testified that they could not identify Perez as the masked man who fired more than a dozen times into the Lincoln Navigator** that morning as Galicia tried to drive away.”

** In fact the victim’s car was a Chevy Impala.

According to another report:

Belvidere Police Sgt. David Dammon testified on Thursday that one of the men in Galicia’s car that morning, Fermin Estrada Ramos, 32, of Belvidere, described the shooter as 5-foot-6 with a medium build but he wasn’t able to identify the gunman’s face. Carter said Perez is not 5-foot-6, but he didn’t provide Perez’s height. Estrada Ramos noticed something else about the shooter. ″(Estrada Ramos said) ‘I’m 85 percent sure that it was (another man’s) voice,’” Dammon testified. Yet Estrada Ramos “actually said that he wasn’t” pointing the finger at that man as the shooter. When Smith asked if Belvidere detectives ever interviewed the man whose voice Estrada Ramos identified, Dammon said that man was “never interviewed.”

A defense attorney told jurors during closing arguments that Perez was charged as a result of “bad police work.”

The conviction was based on the testimony of Cheyanne Patton,  who was in the Lincoln Navigator with two other men who were charged. The defense argued that Patton was a liar who didn’t like Perez, saying  Patton was “the lookout” who was trying to protect her boyfriend, Ricardo A. Garcia, one of the three men charged in the shooting. Patton was given immunity for her testimony.

Thus the conviction was based on the testimony of a witness involved in the shooting, who had a powerful motive to lie, and the accusation was contradicted by the testimony of people in the victim’s car.

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Jacob Silva

Jacob Silva was convicted of the murder of Renee Ramos, whose bruised and beaten body was found June 5, 2000, beneath a pile of insulation at the site of a Home Depot under construction in Manteca, San Joaquin County, California.

Jacob Silva and Renee Ramos were boyfriend and girlfriend. Both 18 years old and living pretty much on the streets, sleeping in cars, parks or friend’s homes.

A 14-year-old when questioned by police, said he witnessed the victim’s rape and murder, but subsequently admitted the story was entirely made up. The prosecution case was that this happened five days earlier. There was no evidence to substantiate boy’s original claim, and forensic examiner John Cooper testified that the victim had only been dead for 1 to 3 days, and it was actually closer to one day than three, contradicting the story.

According to prosecutors, there were as many as five people present at the alleged crime.

Nevertheless, despite the complete lack of evidence to support the prosecution case other than the boy’s original story, and the conflict with the time of death according to Cooper, Jacob Silva was convicted of murder, and another man Ty Lopes was convicted of rape and murder.

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Deskovic on Criminal Justice Reform

Jeffrey Deskovic,  executive director of The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice, has specific proposals to reform New York’s criminal justice system,  he addresses Misconduct, Discovery and other specific issues. Read the full article here.