Torres: Crosley Green murder conviction just another tainted case by the State

The state of Florida continues to defend poor convictions despite how silly or petty it makes prosecutors look.

The latest example was the halfhearted showing by an attorney with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's office, Kellie Nielan, who made the trip to Atlanta's 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to oppose a two-pronged appeal by Crosley Green's attorneys.

Green is currently serving his 28th year in prison. He was convicted in 1990 of killing Charles "Chip" Flynn and kidnapping his girlfriend, Kim Hallock, from a Mims orange grove in 1989.

There are numerous problems with the case.

How does the state continue to argue the merits of the conviction when they know that:

• Prosecutor Chris White did not divulge to defense or the jury that the responding officers in the case told him they did not believe Green was responsible, but rather Flynn's girlfriend.
• The jury heard dog handler evidence that has since been refuted as junk science.
• Every witness in the case against Green has since recanted and said they were pressured or coerced by prosecutors to cooperate.
• There is no physical evidence tying Green to the murder. 
• The jury never heard the numerous inconsistencies in Hallock's account of what happened.

Crosley Green's murder conviction appeal heard in Atlanta

Green and his attorneys fought for DNA testing post-conviction. Two body hairs found in Flynn's truck could not rule Green out. But the previous owner of the truck testified that his brother, O'Connor Green -- who has the same mitochondrial DNA as Crosley — would drive the truck on occasion and was often in the vehicle. There is no more DNA remaining to test using the more advanced methods available today.

Nielan, representing the state, continued to argue even after Appellate Judge Stephen J. Murphy stated Wednesday that it appeared the lower court made an error in saying the case was time barred and the appeal could not be heard.

Shouldn't the state be interested in hearing whether yet another innocent man has been in prison for decades? Shouldn't the state be interested in justice?

Appellate Judge Beverly Martin made Nielan aware of another error on the state's part as well in a slightly combative exchange.

"Can I point out what I believe is a mistake in your argument?" Martin asked. "You say repeatedly that Mr. Green never asserted actual innocence in his petition but on the day he filed his petition, he filed a memorandum of law in support of his petition and front and center is his claim of actual innocence. You acknowledge this is true?"

"Actual innocence is..."

"You acknowledge that this is true?" Martin interrupted.

"Correct," Nielan finally admitted.

Torres: '48 Hours' takes close look at Brevard prosecutors

It's that "defend-the-conviction-at-all-cost" attitude that continues to make prosecutors look bad. We heard it during the first two seasons of the award-winning podcast "Murder on the Space Coast," which profiled the wrongful convictions of William Dillon, Wilton Dedge and Juan Ramos, the execution of Gerald Stano for a murder he likely did not commit and the sad case of Gary Bennett, who remains in prison after 34 years.

Every one of these cases contained the use of jailhouse snitches, the same prosecutors and the involvement of fraudulent dog handler John Preston, who was exposed as a liar and a cheat.

Green's case fits perfectly with these but was not included in the podcast only because the dog handler was someone other than Preston. And just as in Bennett's case, the state refuses to budge or consider that Green did not receive a fair trial.

Brevard County State Attorney Phil Archer -- who took office decades after these cases were prosecuted -- refused to look further into Bennett's case and instead defended the conviction. He even asserted that the jury would have found him guilty without the dog handler malarkey.

It's preposterous to think we know what a jury would have done had fraudulent testimony not been used to convict Bennett. To suggest so is just plain hubris. 

If the state continues to defend the work of Brevard County prosecutors then it will be up to appellate judges -- in the 11th Circuit Court in Green's case -- to do the right thing and allow his claim of actual innocence to be heard.

"Crosley Alexander Green has spent 28 years in prison for a crime he did not commit," Green's attorney Keith Harrison of Crowell & Moring said in addressing the trio of appellate judges Wednesday. "The decision below should be reversed for two reasons: the petition was timely filed and Mr. Green is actually innocent." 

Wilton Dedge was actually innocent and the state fought his release. William Dillon was actually innocent and the state fought his release as well. But thanks to DNA evidence, which no longer exists in Green's or Bennett's case, Dedge and Dillon prevailed and both are free today.

The state has shown it will continue to fight these cases. Hopefully they will start to lose.

Contact Torres at 321-242-3684 or at jtorres@floridatoday.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter @johnalbertorres or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/FTjohntorres.

Tuning in

Listen to Torres discuss Murder on the Space Coast and similarities with Crosley Green's case Monday morning between 9 and 10 on WMFE-FM 90.7