Crime

Golf Digest Just Overturned A Murder Conviction Which Should Embarrass The Justice System

We'll let this one pass, but when Cat Fancy clears Leonard Peltier we need to have a serious talk.

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In the infamous “So You Want To Go To Law School” video, when the woman describes the heroism of a lawyer clearing a wrongly convicted man, she’s bluntly told, “science cleared that guy, a lawyer put his ass in prison.”

We can now slightly modify that to say, “a golf magazine cleared that guy” after Golf Digest set the ball rolling on the exoneration of Valentino Dixon, a man serving 39 to life in Attica. Great job justice system! You’re now getting clowned by a bunch of retired CPAs.

You could say they brought the problems with this conviction to FORE. (Ugh.)

The lawyers in this case convicted Dixon of the 1991 killing of Torriano Jackson, a charge that Golf Digest didn’t think added up:

The case is complicated, but on the surface it involves shoddy police work, zero physical evidence linking Dixon, conflicting testimony of unreliable witnesses, the videotaped confession to the crime by another man, a public defender who didn’t call a witness at trial, and perjury charges against those who said Dixon didn’t do it. Altogether, a fairly clear instance of local officials hastily railroading a young black man with a prior criminal record into jail. Dixon’s past wasn’t spotless, he had sold some cocaine, but that didn’t make him a murderer.

The prosecutor pressured the man who confessed to change his story! That’s insane!

Reckless prosecutors and inadequate public defenders. Add in a judge who laid down a fairly extreme sentence, no doubt feeling that the cocaine conviction warranted a functional life sentence for a 20-year-old. So far the lawyers aren’t faring too well in this story. There’s also one other trained attorney with a part to play:

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As of Christmas 2017, appeals exhausted, Dixon’s petitions for pardon or clemency drew no response from New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s office.

I am shocked — SHOCKED! — to learn that Andrew Cuomo was completely f**king useless. He’s too busy watching systematic bribery five feet from his desk to pay attention to his responsibilities as governor. So much for the PAR-don. (Really?)

So the legal system botched this pretty badly. But how did the heroes from Golf Digest get involved in helping justice take a mulligan. (OK, that’s actually the proper usage.)

Six years ago, Golf Digest profiled this inmate who grinds colored pencils to their nubs drawing meticulously detailed golf-scapes. Although Dixon has never hit a ball or even stepped foot on a course, the game hooked him when a golfing warden brought in a photograph of Augusta National’s 12th hole for the inmate to render as a favor. In the din and darkness of his stone cell, the placid composition of grass, sky, water and trees spoke to Dixon. And the endless permutations of bunkers and contours gave him a subject he could play with.

All right, let’s give a couple of lawyers their due here. Donald Thompson and Alan Rosenthal took on the case pro bono, armed with the Golf Digest inquiry, to get Dixon’s conviction vacated. Indeed, Thompson leaned into the thought the rest of us had upon reading the headline, “It’s embarrassing for the legal system that for a long time the best presentation of the investigation was from a golf magazine.”

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The new Erie County DA John Flynn also deserves some credit for establishing a strong wrongful conviction unit, one that partnered with some Georgetown undergrads to flesh out the work Golf Digest started. For Flynn, it’s a move that casts a public shadow over the office he leads, but one that ultimately improves its credibility with the community.

As for Dixon, he’s planning to reunite with family and friends for a Red Lobster dinner and then head to Australia to be with his wife.

With his mind and body intact, Dixon hopefully has some good years ahead. Maybe he’ll even take up golf.

He might not even play golf now?!? After all that. What an IRON-ic twist! (Just stop.)

For Valentino Dixon, a wrong righted [Golf Digest]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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