Innocence Project and local allies urge New York State to adopt criminal justice reforms

Posted: July 3, 2008 2:30 pm

At a New York State Senate Democratic Task Force hearing in New York City, Innocence Project Policy Director Stephen Saloom and others testified about the prevalence of wrongful convictions in the state and the need for criminal justice reform. A New York Times article outlines the proposals discussed at the hearing, including preservation of DNA evidence, eyewitness identification reform, creating a state criminal justice reform commission, and requiring electronic recording of all custodial interrogations.

Bronx-native Alan Newton, who was exonerated through DNA testing in 2006, spoke at the hearing in support of the reforms, along with Marty Tankleff who was wrongfully convicted in Long Island for the murder of his parents because of a false confession.

“I was one of the lucky ones,” said Mr. Tankleff, who testified at the forum before rushing off to his college class. “I was a white guy who lived in a nice area with a great family.”

Read the full New York Times article here.

The hearing was the second in a series of four forums (called “Preventing Wrongful Convictions in New York State: Systematic Reforms to Convict the Guilty and Protect the Innocent”) to be held across the state by the Senate Democratic Task Force headed by State Senator Eric Schneiderman. At each forum, legislators and the public hear testimony from experts and exonerees on reform issues. With 23 DNA exonerations, New York State has one of the highest rates of wrongful convictions later overturned through DNA testing — yet the state lags behind in criminal justice reform.

Read the Innocence Project press release about yesterday’s forum:

Read “Lessons Not Learned,” the Innocence Project’s report on wrongful convictions in New York State and reforms that can prevent them.

Tags: New York

 

Dallas man freed after DNA proves his innocence

Posted: July 3, 2008 2:20 pm

Patrick Waller is a free man today after spending more than 15 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit. Recent DNA tests proved Waller’s innocence and led investigators to two other men, who have both now admitted to their roles in the crime. Waller, who is represented by Dallas attorney Gary Udashen, is the 19th person cleared by DNA testing in Dallas County. The Innocence Project of Texas has consulted on his case.

“I’m free.”

Patrick Waller, 38, said those two words when he called his North Carolina relatives after being released from prison this morning. He had spent more than 15 years in prison for crimes he did not commit.

Read the full Dallas Morning News article here.

An editorial in the Dallas Morning News this week said that wrongful convictions deny justice twice – once for the innocent person sent to prison, and another time as society fails to find the real perpetrator.

And a column yesterday by James Ragland pointed to the role of evidence preservation in all of the Dallas DNA exonerations.

A national Reuters article today looks at evidence preservation in Texas and nationwide.

Some 218 people have been exonerated in the United States using DNA since the technique was first used to overturn convictions in 1989.

But for many others, the evidence has either been lost or simply was not preserved, the Innocence Project says. Only 25 of America's 50 states and Washington have legislation compelling authorities to preserve evidence of old cases. Even where such laws exist, they are often inadequate, while storage procedures and facilities are poor.

"In New York City we have around 20 cases we are working on where the evidence simply cannot be located. It's unavailable to us for testing and we don't know if it is lost or if it has been destroyed," said Rebecca Brown, a policy analyst at the Innocence Project.

 

The weekly roundup

Posted: July 3, 2008 8:30 am

Here are some of the stories we were following this week, but just didn’t get around to blogging about.

The Innocence Project filed for DNA testing in the case of client Robert Conway, who has served nearly two decades in Pennsylvania prison for a murder he says he didn’t commit.

New evidence surfaced in Texas, suggesting that Lester Leroy Bower is on death row for a crime he didn’t commit, but he hasn’t been able to get DNA testing approved in the case. He is scheduled to be executed this summer, and the blog Grits for Breakfast asked how prosecutors “could even consider opposing DNA testing of old evidence before they put a defendant to death this summer who's claiming actual innocence.”

The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice issued a report calling the state’s administration of the death penalty "dysfunctional" and "close to collapse." Read media coverage here and download the full report here.

Funding was approved for a new state crime lab in Missouri, an upstate New York county planned a new $30 million crime lab, and Massachusetts children got a hands-on experience with forensics when a state lab investigator visited a local library.

Tags: Innocence Commissions, Crime Lab Oversight, Death Penalty

 

13 years of freedom for North Carolina man

Posted: July 3, 2008 8:00 am

After spending over 10 years in a North Carolina prison for a rape he didn’t commit, Ronald Cotton was exonerated on June 30, 1995. Monday marked the 13th anniversary of his exoneration.

Since his exoneration, Cotton has traveled the country talking about his experiences and fighting for criminal justice reform. In his travels, he has had an unlikely companion: Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, the victim who misidentified Cotton as her rapist. Today, Cannino often works alongside Cotton to raise awareness about the flaws of eyewitness identification, which contribute to over 75% of wrongful convictions.

Click here to learn more about eyewitness misidentification.

Over the years, the pair has also worked to increase compensation for exonerees in North Carolina, which offered only $500 for every year spent in prison when Cotton was exonerated. Now, North Carolina offers $20,000 a year. But many states—25 in all—have no law requiring exoneree compensation at all.

Click here to learn more about exoneree compensation.

Cotton and Cannino are also working on a new project together. The duo (with Erin Torneo) received a Soros Justice Grant to write a book about their experiences: Picking Cotton: A True Story. Read more about the book here.

Other exoneration anniversaries this week:

Wednesday: Kenneth Adams, Illinois (Served 17.5 years, Exonerated 7/02/96)

Willie Rainge, Illinois (Served 17.5 years, Exonerated 7/02/1996)

Dennis Williams, Illinois (Served 17.5 years, Exonerated 7/02/96)

Saturday: William Gregory, Kentucky (Served 7 years, Exonerated 7/05/00)

Tags: Kenneth Adams, Ronald Cotton, William Gregory, Willie Rainge, Dennis Williams

 

Judge: Chicago police can keep study data secret

Posted: July 2, 2008 5:38 pm

An Illinois judge ruled this week that the Chicago Police Department doesn’t have to share all of the raw data from its controversial and discredited 2006 report on eyewitness identification procedures. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed a lawsuit last year seeking access to the data used in the report, which has been soundly discredited by leading social scientists for its lack of scientific methods. The judge ruled that the police must share closed case data, but could keep information on active cases a secret.

Access to data from closed cases alone isn't sufficient, argued Locke Bowman of the MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of NACDL.

A healthy public debate requires full disclosure, he said.

"If the data supports the report's findings that traditional lineups work better than reform methods, the Chicago Police have nothing to hide," he said after the ruling. "But if the data doesn't support those findings, it's time for the Chicago Police Department and departments around the state to change the way they handle eyewitness identifications."

Read the full story here. (Chicago Tribune, 06/30/08)

And a post on the Eyewitness Identification Reform blog points to an interesting first-hand account of Chicago’s lineup procedures posted in the comments section of the Chicago Tribune website.

Three decades of solid social science research has pointed to sequential lineups as a critical reform to reduce misidentifications. The Innocence Project and other leaders in the field have called for additional field study – using solid scientific techniques — of the reform. A blue-ribbon panel of social scientists convened to review the difference in data between various studies of eyewitness education procedures, found that the Chicago report’s "design guaranteed that most outcomes would be difficult or impossible to interpret. The only way to sort this out is by conducting further studies." Read more here.

Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification

 

SC lawmakers consider veto override in DNA bill

Posted: July 2, 2008 3:23 pm

Last week, the South Carolina legislature passed a bill allowing prisoners to seek DNA testing when it could prove their innocence. The bill was coupled, however, with another that would collect DNA samples from people who are arrested for crimes but never convicted. Gov. Mark Sanford, citing civil liberties concerns about the database expansion, vetoed the bill today, as he vetoed a similar bill last year. The legislature may vote to override the veto. 

In an Associated Press article yesterday, Innocence Project Policy Director Stephen Saloom said the pairing of the bills was unfortunate. Access to DNA testing is a critical reform to overturn wrongful convictions, and it should not have been tied to the database bill.

Read the full article. (Associated Press, 07/01/2008)

Wyoming yesterday became the 43rd state with a DNA access law, when its new guidelines took effect. Learn about the law in your state and get involved today in changing the system.

Tags: Access to DNA Testing

 

New task force will review forensic shortcomings in Mississippi

Posted: July 2, 2008 12:26 pm

A new panel created by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood will meet next month to review critical needs in the state’s death investigation system and its crime lab. The Innocence Project has led calls in recent months for the appointment of a state medical examiner, who would oversee criminal autopsies. Steven Hayne, the medical examiner who currently conducts 80 percent of the state’s autopsies (more than 1,500 a year) has been widely discredited and his testimony has led to at least two wrongful convictions later overturned through the work of the Innocence Project.

Earlier this year, state lawmakers allotted $500,000 for a state medical examiner’s office, but the position has yet to be filled. The former head of the Mississippi State Medical Association said “it’s high time” that the position be filled, and the director of the Mississippi Innocence Project said the task force should include diverse perspectives.

Tucker Carrington, director of the Mississippi Innocence Project, said the task force needs to include more voices. "We ought to include as many people as we can. Nobody can tell more stories about the lack of a medical examiner's office than victims and defense lawyers."

Hinds County Assistant Public Defender Matthew Eichelberger applauded Hood's task force, but said he wishes it included someone to represent public defenders.

"This is not a Democrat or Republican issue, not a state versus city issue, not a prosecutor versus defense lawyer issue - it's a public safety issue," he said. "It's a Mississippi issue."

Read the full story here. (Clarion–Ledger, 07/02/08)

Read more about the Innocence Project’s work in Mississippi.
 

Tags: Mississippi

 

Another false confession revealed

Posted: July 1, 2008 3:48 pm

Robert Gonzales, 22, spent more than two years in a New Mexico jail awaiting trial for a murder he didn’t commit before DNA testing led authorities to the actual perpetrator of the crime. Gonzales, who has a history of mental illness, allegedly confessed to his involvement in the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in 2005, and a grand jury decided that the confession was enough evidence to hold him for trial. But new DNA testing indicates that Israel Diaz, in custody for another crime, actually committed this murder and rape. Gonzales’ attorney, Jeff Buckels, said he confessed because he wanted to please the officers interrogating him.

"For Robert, it basically was a matter of finding out 'What is it that these police officers want me to say,?'" said Buckels. " When he found out, he said it."

Read the full story here. (KOAT Albuquerque, 06/27/08)

Read more on this case on the Center on Wrongful Convictions’ blog.

False confessions or admissions have played a part in more than 25 percent of the 218 wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing to date, and have been involved in a countless number of cases like Gonzales’, in which a defendant is arrested based on a confession or admission, then released when other evidence reveals the truth.

The Innocence Project recommends electronic recording of police interrogations to prevent false confessions. Read more on this critical reform here.

Tags: False Confessions, False Confessions

 

New projects in Iowa and New York

Posted: July 1, 2008 3:34 pm

As momentum continues to grow in the innocence movement, new groups are forming around the world to investigate and appeal possible wrongful convictions. In the news this week are two new projects: the Innocence Project of Iowa and the Arson Screening Project at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Professors at John Jay announced today the formation of the Arson Screening Project, to investigate a growing backlog of questionable convictions based on unreliable arson science. The group was formed with a $250,000 grant from the JEHT Foundation, a major Innocence Project supporter. Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck said the new group is "an important effort to see below the tip of an iceberg, to a generation of cases based on bad science."

And the Innocence Project of Iowa is among the newest members of the Innocence Network. The new organization has begun work to investigative the cases of state prisoners claiming to have been wrongfully convicted. The group was formed last year by pro bono attorneys and professors at Drake University and the University of Iowa, and paralegal students at Lakes Community College have begun reviewing cases and recommending innocence claims for further investigation.

Brian Farrell, a Cedar Rapids attorney, said the group could not find a home or funding at Drake or The University of Iowa, but both schools supported the involvement of students in the program.

"The motivation goes back to our belief that one of the worst things that can happen in society is for an innocent person to be deprived of liberty," said Farrell, one of the group's board members. "Even if it happens once, that's too much."

Read the full story here. (Chicago Tribune, 06/30/08)

The Innocence Project is a founding member of the Innocence Network, an affiliation of more than 40 legal organizations devoted to overturning wrongful convictions around the world. Visit the Innocence Network website to learn more.

 

DNA proves Texas man innocent nine years after he died in prison

Posted: June 30, 2008 6:01 pm

New DNA tests prove that Timothy Cole died in a Texas prison while serving time for a rape he didn’t commit, according to papers filed Friday by his attorneys at the Innocence Project of Texas. Cole was convicted of raping a Texas Tech student in 1986 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Nine years later, another inmate, Jerry Johnson, sent a letter to the Lubbock court claiming that he – and not Cole – had committed the rape. Johnson’s claims, however, fell on deaf ears, and Cole died of asthma in prison at age 38.

But Johnson’s family didn’t give up. In 2007, the Innocence Project of Texas took on the case and began investigating. Biological evidence from the crime was located in the Lubbock County archives. DNA test results received last months proved that Johnson was indeed the perpetrator of the crime.

And now Jeff Blackburn, the lead counsel at the Innocence Project of Texas, is seeking to have Cole’s record cleared.

"If we're going to live in a society where the court system operates in a fair way, then it's got to do it across the board," Blackburn said. "They have a right to have a court of record tell them that their son was innocent."

Read a three-part story and watch a video with Cole’s family on the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

Texas has more DNA exonerations than any other state in the U.S., with 32 uncovered so far. Several, like Cole’s, are pending final court determination. When there’s more news in Cole’s case, we’ll post it here.