How An Innocent Man Died of Cancer After 35 Years On Death Row
Max Soffar was my client for the last 10 years, but also my soft-spoken, Texas-drawling, loyal friend who asked after my family and life as often as he inquired about the status of his appeals.
He was a death-row prisoner wrongly locked up 35 years ago as a troubled, brain-damaged, drug-addicted mental patient, and self-professed “knucklehead.” He falsely confessed to one of Houston’s most notorious multiple murders under the influence of a police officer he thought was his friend.
He then spent decades on death row despite strong evidence that a man named Paul Reid was guilty of the murders.
Max died an innocent 60-year-old man, still fighting his appeals and protesting his innocence, finally reduced to gaunt skin and bones after a three-year battle with liver cancer. Max was convicted, imprisoned, and sentenced to die even though not a shred of reliable evidence tied him to the crime: No DNA, no fingerprints, no blood, no hair, not a single witness.
For decades, so-called law and order politicians have pushed for limits on prisoners' rights to appeal their convictions. They raise the specter of prisoners who are guilty of their crimes getting off on technicalities and running wild through the streets.
This concern about technicalities offends me. Technicalities kept my old friend Max in prison for crimes he did not commit, year after year, decade after decade, from youth to old age.
These technicalities pose the true risk to justice.
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