Paul Modrowsky and the Felony Murder rule

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Who here has heard of Paul Modrowsky and his incredibly absurd situation?

Let me begin by describing the Felony Murder rule. It states that people participating in a felony that causes a death, that all of them are considered to be equally blameworthy and get a capital murder conviction, there is no need to prove intent to kill for any of the people involved.

The Modrowsky case in that way is not so egregious as he is accused of being in on a murder plot, but let me continue...

It was in Illinois.

Modrowsky was accused of lending out his car to some other person who then used it as part of a plot to kill someone. All that they were saying he did essentially was to lend out his car. Modrowsky's counsel did not offer a defence because the Prosecution did not prove that he did this at all. However, the media had insinuated, and the Prosecution it seems also did so during the trial, that Modrowsky was involved in some other murders. These were solved eventually, but the damage was done. Modrowsky was found guilty and sentenced to life without possibility of parole.

During the trial, they used Modrowsky's demeanour and appearance against him; guess what, it was Asperger Syndrome. They successfully demonised him this way.

The alleged killer in the plot in question was put on trial for the murder. The alleged killer was acquitted. Thus, according to one jury, Modrowsky was guilty of lending out his car to someone who supposedly used it to help kill somoene, but another jury ruled that this person did not actually kill the person. Modrowsky thus was convicted of a plot that never happened, according to another jury! They never went into the actual killing in Modrowsky's trial because they did not have to. As far as they were concerned it was about the car, nothing else.

Modrowsky remains in prison 20 years later; no possibility of parole.

That is strange. I don't see how lending out your car to someone would be considered a felony. If that is true I would hope more attention would come to the case.

A search on Google for the name "Paul Modrowsky" brings up only this page with an exact match on the first page. A search on the Illinois DOC's website for "Modrowsky", with [Last Name] selected, turns up no inmate:

http://www2.illinois.gov/IDOC/OFFENDER/ ... earch.aspx

Please provide a reliable source that is about Paul Modrowsky's case.

OK. The correct spelling of his name is Paul Modrowski.

Here, they don't mention him lending the car at all:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1995 ... restaurant

It seems if anything they said he was there with the other guy; they just don't know who pulled the trigger.

http://paulmodrowski.blogspot.com/

That's just one side of the story, though. I do want to get a bigger picture.

True.

From article: "Modrowski told investigators that he saw Faraci take a 9mm Beretta and heard Faraci say he was going to kill Fawcett, according to testimony from police. When Faraci allegedly asked Modrowski to go along, he declined, but offered to let Faraci use his car to carry out the murder, police testified, based on Modrowski's statement".

Now it seems that Modrowski claims he was given a lengthy interrogation in which he was beaten. I hear a lot of stuff like this, Where the cops keep up the pressure until they hear what they want to hear from the suspect, and then go use the suspect's statement against them. It was this old-school practice that resulted in so many innocent people being convicted and sentenced to long terms, as shown by the results of the efforts of the Innocence Project.

With so much time having passed, however, it can be really difficult to overcome this. The situation really sucks for Modrowski, and due to the particularities of the felony murder law, the state didn't have much burden of proof in the first place. I suppose he could try to argue ineffective assistance of counsel, but if he could, I'm sure he already would have.

Without commenting on this particular case, which I'm not up on, the felony murder rule in general needs to be heavily reformed or tossed all together, as it's involved in far too many grave miscarriages of justice.

I totally agree that Paul Modrowsky is in prison unjustly. I would like to support him by writing letters to news media in Illinois. And anywhere else he needs it. He is posting on his blog again. You can mail letters to him and he responds. He has a facebook page or two. But Im not seeing many people posting. I would like to know just how many people who have been diagnosed with autism end up being locked up although being innocent of the crime ....due to their autistic behaviors. I learned about him on the Reply All podcast which is called On The Inside. There are four episodes. The reporter goes from talking to him about his blog to getting into the crime he was convicted for. She brings up his autism. She seems to be supporting that he is innocent then turns on him when he responds to being accused like many autistic people would respond. Then she acts like he must be guilty. She really did him an injustice by that last episode. I would also like to encourage other podcasters to interview him or to investigate his case and make his situation more known to the public. I could use help tho. Anyone with me????