Williamsburg or Iowa — Which one is a Yankee Cesspool?

Well, of course neither Williamsburg nor Iowa constitutes a "Yankee cesspool." But at least on the website of the Daily Press, Williamsburg's newspaper, this qualifies as a debate.

On Friday, the newspaper published a letter I wrote about a constitutional amendment in the Virginia General Assembly, that would have automatically restored voting rights to nonviolent ex-felons once they serve their time. (I first blogged about the Restoration of Voting Rights project last fall.) Here's the letter:

The Virginia House Privileges & Elections Committee dealt a setback to positive change on Friday, effectively killing (for this year) a constitutional amendment that would allow non-violent ex-felons the right to vote. Virginia is one of only two states in the U.S. that permanently bars ex-felons from voting, even after they have paid their debt to society.

This portion of the Virginia Constitution is a shameful reminder that racism persists even today, because most ex-felons in Virginia are black. Once these residents have served their time, they should have their voting rights restored automatically. All free Virginians should have the right to vote. Our House of Delegates should know better than to keep Jim Crow laws on the books.

What startled me was the response the letter got. For a short time on Friday, it was one of the most viewed items on the Daily Press website. By Saturday, readers had left a total of 43 comments. Let's just say they weren't all supportive of the idea that once a person has completed his prison sentence, he should get his rights back. Never mind that this is the law in 48 of the 50 states — only Kentucky and Virginia lag behind. Here's a sample of the comments:

#6: Has anyone ever noticed how 98.7% of the left wing liberal letters to the editor come out of my hometown of Willamsburg?

We have so many yankees living here now it's like living in New York City.

They bring their left wing liberal socialist attitudes with them. Yankee go home !!!

#12: ... If you feel so strongly about this maybe you should be in the lower income neighborhoods counseling black youths against committing criminal acts and less time in lavish Williamsburg.

#13: Williamsburg is a cesspool of liberals. If those elitists had to live in Hampton or Newport News in the same neighborhoods as the felons, they would have a different attitude.

#35 (in response to #13): They had sense enough to move from the Yankee cesspool and move to Williamsburg.

#19: ... [T]he fact is that one third of the Blacks in this are have substantial criminal records and have dropped out of school. To participate in a Republic, you need to be an informed voter; hence the Founding Fathers when evaluating the intellectual capacity of a certain class decided they would count as 2/3s. So it's one man, 2/3d vote. Besides they don't pay taxes, they are paid by the taxpayer.

You get the idea. My original point in the letter, the one that stirred the pot, was "that racism persists even today." I stand by that point.

On a more exciting note, the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear a monumental case in the world of criminal justice, determining whether criminal defendants have a constitutional right to DNA evidence that could definitively show their innocence (or strongly implicate them in the crime). An Alaska man who was convicted of kidnapping and rape has asked the courts for access to sperm left in a condom the night that two men abducted a prostitute, raped her, and left her for dead on the side of a road. The DNA could almost certainly prove whether the man participated in this horrible crime. At trial, the driver of the car (who had already pleaded guilty) said that William Osborne rode in the passenger seat that night, and participated in the crime. Osborne's trial lawyer never asked for access to the DNA, and he was convicted. On appeal, however, a new lawyer — presumably, one who believes that Osborne is actually innocent — argued that Osborne has a right to this critical scientific evidence. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, citing a pivotal Supreme Court case, which says that criminal defendants have a right to evidence that tends to show that the defendant did not commit the crime. The Court decided that case, Brady v. Maryland, back in 1963 — long before DNA evidence came about.

If the Court finds that Osborne does have a constitutional right to the DNA evidence, then criminal defendants across the country will be able to ask for this sort of evidence. This would be a fantastic development, because it will likely result in scores of exonerations. The government will be forced to disclose DNA, and innocent people will be set free. One would think that states and the federal government would support this, but they do not want to pay for the testing. So, the states and the feds argue that defendants do not have a constitutional right of access to DNA evidence. I disagree.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on March 2 in William Osborne's case, District Attorney's Office for the Third Judicial District v. Osborne. The Washington Post has a good story about the case, and SCOTUSblog provides a detailed look at the facts.