LETTERS, Dec. 27: DA at fault in Small's case

Blame DA in Small case

EDITOR: The recent front page article about Johnny Small’s case being thrown out after being in prison for 28 years unfairly tarnished the Wilmington Police Department and totally neglected the real culprits the District Attorney’s Office. Unless these were totally rogue police officers, which I doubt, the failure of serve justice for Johnny Smalls and the Pamela Dreher family lies with the District Attorney.

Police, unless they are the FBI (see below), need lawyers from the District Attorney’s Office to execute warrants and build and oversee cases against offenders. In this case, exonerating evidence uncovered in the investigation was withheld from Small’s lawyer and witnesses were coerced into giving false testimony. OK, police work hard to solve cases, but our protection from government and police overreach is the District Attorney’s office, which is required to make sure justice is served in prosecuting cases, not just getting convictions.

One of the most egregious cases of prosecutorial misconduct, with ramifications today, was the investigation, trial and conviction against sitting U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens from Alaska, eight weeks before his 2008 re-election, which he lost. According to The Washington Post and ABC News, the judge who had repeatedly rebuked the prosecutors for failing to provide discovery material to the defense during trial, overturned the conviction six months after the trial of now former Sen. Stevens because the FBI and Justice Department lawyers blatantly disregarded the judge’s order and failed to turn over exonerating discovery material to the defense. Six months after the trial the material was finally turned over to Stevens lawyers showing the FBI and Department for Justice had not only NOT TURNED over required material but actually changed testimony of witnesses to make their case against Stevens. FYI, the director of the FBI during this fiasco was the current Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller.

Dave Miller, Southport

Vaccinate schoolchildren

EDITOR: I read with horror that 36 children in a private school in Asheville have developed chickenpox. Not surprisingly this school has the greatest number of parents who, citing religious reasons, receive exemptions from vaccinations. Those parents, of course, are from a generation who probably did not suffer from the usual children’s diseases. But I surely remember chickenpox, mumps, red measles, whooping cough and polio.

My younger brother nearly died from chickenpox and was more than a month recuperating from an infection brought on when the pox fused into huge sores. The red measles put me into bed for two weeks while a child we knew died from measles’ complications. An adult man I know well is sterile because as a teenager mumps infected his testicles. Both my brother and I had whooping cough one summer, and by fall we were skinny skeletons brought on by the vomiting that followed the ugly coughing spells.

The worst, however, was the polio epidemic. Children from my small rural town went to the hospital never to return home or came home with braces on their legs and arms. Now those same children as adults have post-polio syndrome, which leaves them with weak muscles.

So parents, if you don’t care if your children suffer and even die from these diseases, continue to refuse to vaccinate them. You endanger my grandchildren and even some adults. God has given us the miracle of prevention, and you refuse to acknowledge one of his greatest gifts.

Maryann K. Nunnally, Wilmington, NC

Carolers' magic

EDITOR: Last night as I stepped onto the porch to go out for supper, I was presented with a group of children and their parents on the sidewalk. After a brief pause, I heard one of the children say “there is a light on here.”

They walked up onto the steps and began singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." They sang as if on loan from a celestial choir. It brought back childhood memories of caroling with my church group.

I had no idea then how much our singing meant to the listeners. I do now. The light they saw on was not generated by electricity, but by the reflection of their spirit. Merry Christmas.

Buddy Milliken, Wilmington