Former DA has right to innocence

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June 22, 2012

Former DA has right to innocence

Anonymous The Muskogee Phoenix Fri Jun 22, 2012, 12:01 AM CDT

Former District 27 District Attorney Richard Gray is innocent.

And, as such, had every right to get his criminal record expunged recently.

Gray was the chief prosecutor for District 27 — covering Wagoner, Cherokee, Sequoyah and Adair counties — from 2003 to 2007.

Gray was accused of taking $9,000 from a drug task force safe in 2006.

The judge in the case dismissed the charges in 2008.

In our system of justice, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

Because Gray was never proven guilty, that makes him innocent.

Gray asked that his criminal record — the arrest, charge and dismissal — be sealed from the public.

None of the law enforcement agencies notified showed up at the courthouse for the hearing. Their absence voiced no objection to Gray’s record being sealed.

That means none of Gray’s record will be made available to the public.

Gray won in court. He deserves to clear his permanent record.

There are those who always will believe he committed a crime.

But even those people should realize that our judicial system — though the best in the world — has flaws.

Too many deathrow inmates are freed through definitive DNA evidence for anyone to believe that only the guilty get arrested, charged and convicted.

We would rather guilty people go free than have innocents in jail.

That’s a main principle behind our judicial system.

A judge said Gray was not proven guilty.

That means Gray is innocent, and therefore had every right to clear his record.

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Former DA has right to innocence

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