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I have compared the bungled "Freeway Shooter" case where Leslie Merritt Jr. was framed by the Arizona DPS to the bungled Wat Promkunaram Buddhist temple murders where the Tucson Four were framed by the Maricopa County Sheriff a number of times on Facebook and listservers.
The Tucson Four were Mike McGraw, Mark Nunez, Dante Parker, Leo Bruce whom the cops forced to make false confessions and then jailed for almost a year until the "real" killers, Johnathan Doody and Alessandro Garcia were arrested. Wat Promkunaram Buddhist temple murders were one of the worst murder case in the history of Phoenix metro, perhaps other then when Indians were murdered in the territorial days. Now the media is also making the same comparison in this article. In the Wat Promkunaram Buddhist temple murders, Mike McGraw who was in a mental hospital in Tucson called the Phoenix cops and told them he could help them solve the worst murder in the history of the Phoenix area. The Maricopa Sheriffs office gladly accepted the help of lunatic in a Tucson mental institution to help the solve the murders and the rest is history. We can't blame Sheriff Joe for this one. That was before he go into power. Actually Sheriff Joe used this case to get into power.
In Phoenix freeway-shooting case, the court of public opinion rules swiftly Amy B Wang, The Republic | azcentral.com 7:59 p.m. MST May 9, 2016 Police dug through evidence, examined shell casings, weighed the possibility of more than one suspect. Under pressure to make an arrest, authorities finally announced they had caught a break in the case. Then questions arose about the weapon used. A county attorney decided to release the suspects, much to the dismay of law-enforcement officials. The year was 1991. The case in question centered on a horrific massacre at a Buddhist temple in the West Valley. Rick Romley, the Maricopa County attorney at the time, knew residents were divided because he received letters. In the mail. Days after the fact. Twenty-five years later, the long-since-retired Romley watched as another county attorney dealt with public backlash in another high-profile case, a string of shootings along Interstate 10 last year. This time, people reacted in real time and with real anger, most of it directed at prosecutors. On the internet, public opinion seemed to turn in favor of the man who was arrested. "In a way, my case was a little easier," said Romley, emphasizing also that there were stark contrasts between high-profile cases he handled and the freeway-shooting ordeal of today. Still, as a county attorney, he said the core of the job has not changed: "In the end, you've got to try to block out all of that and do what you think is right." It's just that there's so much more to block out now. Critics on the internet? Who knew? On April 25, a Maricopa County judge dismissed the case against Leslie Merritt Jr., a 21-year-old landscaper and father of two who was arrested in September for a string of freeway shootings that put Valley residents on edge. A hearing is scheduled Tuesday on defense attorneys' motions to make it impossible to re-file charges against Merritt and to to release documents currently sealed in the case, which include a departmental report by the state Department of Public Safety, the FBI’s cellphone analysis and a ballistics report that served as the catalyst for the case’s dismissal. Whatever happens in court, commenters on the internet raced toward their own conclusions almost immediately after the April 25 decision to dismiss charges against Merritt. "The case should have been dismissed with prejudice," chimed in one reader on Facebook after the story broke. "Shoddy police work?" another questioned. "Now he's gonna get 10 million," wrote one Facebook reader, Jeff Anspach. "Nice job DPS and Ducey!!" On Twitter, users seemed equally ready to let Merritt off the hook, referring to how he would soon be a rich man. (In March, Merritt served a $10 million claim against various state agencies alleging wrongful arrest.) During a news conference live-streamed on the internet, the ridicule took the form of emoji scrolling across the screen. "Frankly, in my experience, I’ve never heard of it," said Andrew Clemency, a former defense attorney who now teaches at Arizona State University's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. "I’ve defended cases for many, many years. And usually the people are vehemently against the suspect, notwithstanding the evidence."Everybody, as they say, is a critic. But in this case, almost all the criticism was not only instantaneous but directed away from the accused. The state's case against Merritt seemed to have been unraveling in recent weeks. First it was revealed in court that a state-funded expert had called into question ballistics evidence that had served as the linchpin in the state's case against Merritt. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Warren Granville subsequently lowered Merritt's bond to zero from $150,000, allowing Merritt to walk out of jail hours later. Then just before the close of business one Friday, prosecutors moved to drop the case without prejudice, setting the stage for Granville’s decision to dismiss the case the following Monday. But the reaction to his decision reflected a perfect storm that brewed around this particular case: Take an erosion of trust, real or perceived, in the public justice system. Combine with the realization that taxpayers may be on the hook for any financial fallout. Mix in a small dose of backlash against one very unusual, gubernatorial tweet. Add social media. Light match. "We live now in a world where all of us in the business of doing criminal justice are in constant scrutiny," Clemency said. "I mean, it’s a world of Facebook and Twitter and social media and all of those things, so ... people can react in real time. I think probably that people are just very disappointed that the case was never there, apparently." 'We will not be rushed' (sad emoji) The trigger reactions go both ways. Part of the disappointment may come from the expectations that had been set up from the very beginning of the case. Shortly after Merritt's apprehension last September, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey published his now-infamous tweet declaring, "We got him!" "Now I don't have to worry about having to duck when I see another vehicle behind me and wonder if this individual is still out there," Robert McDonald told The Arizona Republic on Sept. 18. "It’s just nutty. It really is," Clemency said. "I think we’re heading into a world where truth or falsehood or things of that nature are going to be evaluated instantaneously on social media, before the facts come out." Moving forward, more questions remain in the freeway-shooting case than answers. Merritt's case was dismissed without prejudice, leaving open a window for prosecutors to refile charges in the future. No other suspects have been named to date. “It’s just nutty. It really is. ... I think we’re heading into a world where truth or falsehood or things of that nature are going to be evaluated instantaneously on social media, before the facts come out.” Andrew Clemency, instructor at ASU's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and former defense attorney "As a lawyer, it just makes life ridiculously hard," Clemency said. "Even before the evidence is in, even before you’re in trial, you’ve got to defend your case to Twitter." Never was the angst of the masses more apparent than April 27, when Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery held a press conference to emphasize that the freeway-shooting investigation would continue despite Granville's decision — albeit more slowly, he said. The presser was live-streamed on Facebook. "We will not be rushed at the expense of our professional and ethical obligations as prosecutors," Montgomery said. "There are no external pressures or timelines overlaying this particular case." As Montgomery spoke, dozens of "sad" and "angry" emoji — real-time reactions fired off by viewers — fluttered across the screen, just below the county attorney's own tensed face. Jerry Cobb, the county attorney's spokesman, said it was not unusual for the public to take a different view of cases the office files. "It matters not one iota to this county attorney," Cobb said. "Anyone who has covered this office long enough knows that County Attorney Montgomery does not mix politics or public opinion with prosecution." Cobb listed several cases in which he said Montgomery ruled against the tide of public opinion: Jodi Arias, the Gilbert 23, Shanesha Taylor. The fact that social media amplifies the public's opinion does not affect the county attorney, he added. "This is not 'The Voice' or 'American Idol' or 'Survivor,' " Cobb said, referring to popular reality shows in which public votes affect contestants' outcomes. "Prosecution isn't conducted by public vote or by Twitter feed... This office tries cases in courts of law, not in courts of public opinion or in press conferences." A time before tweets Romley, the former county attorney, doesn't want to comment on details of the freeway-shooting case, but he does know a thing or two about wrangling with the court of public opinion. In 1991, Romley charged four Tucson men with nine counts each of first-degree murder in the brutal slayings of nine people at a Buddhist temple in Waddell that August. One of the men, a mental-hospital patient, had falsely confessed to the murders, implicating three of his friends. The group, which became known as the "Tucson Four," eventually recanted, saying they had been pressured to confess during intense interrogations. But some investigators held firm, despite mounting evidence that pointed to other suspects. The case pitted Romley against then-Maricopa County Sheriff Tom Agnos and, much like the freeway shooting, was a high-profile affair that captivated Valley residents. "The truth of the matter is, is the media really liked that fight. It played it up a little bit and it was frustrating on my part. It divided a community," Romley said. "Some individuals would be on my side. Some individuals would be on then-Sheriff Agnos' side." "The Sheriff's Office had taken a position that the Tucson individuals had committed the crime and I eventually came around to saying no," said Romley, who ultimately made the decision to release the "Tucson Four" in November 1991. ("It was a difficult conversation" with Agnos, he told The Republic on the 20th anniversary of the murders.) (In 2014, Jonathan Doody was convicted of the shootings and sentenced to nine life sentences in prison, although he maintained his innocence. Two earlier convictions were overturned.) Romley remembers the atmosphere 25 years ago was different. "Currently I believe that law enforcement and prosecutors are under attack," Romley said. "The trust and confidence within the community is at a low." And, unlike now, those who disagreed with Romley in 1991 would let their displeasure be known through letters, not tweets — and certainly not in real-time. "The social-media side of this is we did not have that capability of the instantaneous (reaction) and all the different forms that are available," Romley said. "It really does complicate things as you're trying to proceed." Romley said Montgomery has a challenging task ahead of him as Merritt's attorneys fight to dismiss charges against him for good. "(Montgomery's) got to not just work this case but he's also got to be mindful of (restoring) trust and confidence in this justice system," Romley said. "That is real weighty. ... If you lose the public's confidence, you've lost a lot more than just a case." Republic reporter Megan Cassidy contributed to this article. More articles about how Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery is framing Leslie Allen Merritt Jr.
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