Innocence Blog
April 19, 2007
California Senate committee passes three reform bills
The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, one of six “innocence commissions” around the country, is supporting three critical reform bills in the California legislature this year. Lawmakers heard testimony from three exonerees on Tuesday, and the Senate Public Safety Committee passed the three bills, which would improve eyewitness identification procedures, require recording of certain custodial interrogations and place requirements on prosecutors to verify information before a jailhouse informant testifies.
Two similar bills were vetoed last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"This isn't a foolproof guarantee that we won't have wrongful convictions," said Gerald F. Uelman, a noted defense attorney and professor at Santa Clara University School of Law. "But it would substantially reduce the risk." Uelman and former two-term Attorney General John Van de Kamp lead the panel, formally known as the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice.
Read the full story here. (San Jose Mercury News, 4/18/07, free registration required)
Read more about these reforms and others in our Fix The System section.
The San Jose Mercury News published a special series on wrongful convictions last year, entitled “Tainted Trials, Stolen Justice,” click here to read the articles.
Read the bills now pending before the California Senate:
SB756 (eyewitness identification reforms)
SB511 (recording of interrogations)
SB609 (snitch testimony reforms)
Death row inmate’s hopes are on Texas’s highest court
Michael Blair, an inmate on Texas’ death row, will wait for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to decide whether he deserves a new trial for a 1993 murder. DNA testing in the case has shown that biological evidence used against Blair at trial doesn’t actually belong to him. The Innocence Project is consulting with Blair's attorneys on the case.
A district court judge ruled yesterday that Blair doesn’t deserve a new trial based on the DNA evidence – which includes materials recovered from the body of the seven-year-old victim that don’t match either Blair or the victim. The ruling acknowledged that there are serious questions of fact and law in the case but said the law requires the Court of Criminal Appeals to address those questions. Blair is serving three life sentences for other crimes and would not be released if he is vindicated in this murder – but he would no longer be on death row.
"Every piece of biological evidence that was used to link Michael Blair to this crime at trial has been discredited by DNA, which also shows that someone else committed this crime," said Philip Wischkaemper, an attorney for Mr. Blair.
Read the full story here. (Dallas Morning News, 4/19/07)
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