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	Commissions take root in NY and TX DNA could overturn Texas death sentence High schoolers study wrongful convictions Why I Give: A Donor Profile News from the innocence movement around the United States Calls for autopsy oversight A leading Mississippi doctor joined the Innocence Project’s call for the appointment of a state medical examiner to oversee autopsies in the state. Dr. Steven Hayne, whose false testimony has led to at least two wrongful convictions, currently conducts 80 percent of the state’s autopsies at a pace of four a day, 365 days a year. Get the latest developments in Mississippi on the Innocence Blog.   New law takes effect July 1st Starting Tuesday, Wyoming prisoners claiming innocence can apply for DNA testing under a new state law. Wyoming is the 43rd state in the U.S. to pass a DNA access law, and the Innocence Project is working to pass similar laws in other states that don’t yet have them. Read more about Wyoming’s new law, and sign our petition to extend DNA testing access to prisoners in the remaining six states. U.S. Supreme Court considers crime lab case The Innocence Network on Monday filed a friend-of-the-court brief at the U.S. Supreme Court Monday in support of Luis Melendez-Diaz, a Massachusetts man who is appealing a drug-related conviction because he was not able to challenge the forensic evidence that was used to convict him. At issue is whether defendants have a constitutional right to cross-examine forensic analysts whose reports are used at trial. The Supreme Court will hear the case later this year. In its brief, the Innocence Network notes that flawed forensic testimony has led to dozens of wrongful convictions that were later overturned through DNA testing and says the right to challenge forensic evidence is crucial to uncovering bad science that could wrongfully convict an innocent defendant. Learn more about the case and read the brief.   Exonerees Calvin Willis and Rickey Johnson, who met in Louisiana's notorious Angola prison while serving life sentences for crimes they didn't commit, were reunited recently after Johnson was exonerated. Watch a new Innocence Project video to see their reunion and hear about their cases. Lawmakers consider DNA testing access South Carolina is one of six states without a law providing access to DNA testing for prisoners claiming innocence. Lawmakers are considering a bill at a hearing today that would extend the right to DNA testing to prisoners and would also improve evidence preservation guidelines in the state. Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck testified in South Carolina that these laws would help exonerate the innocent and also solve cold cases involving biological evidence. Read more here. Use our easy online form to forward this message to friends, family and colleagues. Connect with other Innocence Project supporters on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. We welcome your feedback. Please contact us at the address below. Cases for review must be submitted via postal mail. The Innocence Project Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University 100 Fifth Ave., 3rd Floor New York, NY 10011 info@innocenceproject.org www.innocenceproject.org/			Innocence commissions take root in New York and Texas     Above: Dean Cage in Chicago after he was exonerated. Photo courtesy Center on Wrongful Convictions. Texas, Illinois and New York lead the nation in the number of wrongful convictions overturned with DNA testing, and they have long been the focus of the Innocence Project’s efforts to create state commissions to determine the causes of wrongful convictions and develop reforms to prevent future injustice. Earlier this month, such panels were formed in Texas and New York, and the exoneration of Innocence Project client Dean Cage in Illinois brought added momentum to expand that state’s death penalty commission to examine all criminal cases. In Texas, the new panel was started by the state’s highest criminal court, and invited members include State Sen. Rodney Ellis (who also chairs the Innocence Project Board of Directors), members of Gov. Rick Perry’s staff, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges. The Court of Criminal Appeals was praised widely by professionals and media organizations for creating the new panel, which comes on the heels of a successful Summit on Wrongful Convictions in May. Read some of the editorial and blog coverage here. The New York task force was created by the State Bar Association, and will also include a cross-section of criminal justice professionals. Additionally, a New York State Senate task force will hold a hearing next week on reforms that can prevent wrongful convictions statewide. Expected to attend the hearing are exoneree Alan Newton and Marty Tankleff, who was released from prison last year after serving 17 years for the murder of his parents, a crime he has always maintained that he didn’t commit. Tankleff’s case is still pending, and a hearing is scheduled for Monday, June 30. Check the Innocence Blog for updates. In Illinois, Dean Cage’s exoneration in late May led to increased calls for a state commission to look at non-capital cases and develop reforms beyond death penalty cases. Read more about Cage’s case and policy reform stemming from it here. DNA evidence could overturn Texas death sentence     DNA testing has shown that Innocence Project client Michael Blair didn’t commit the heinous 1994 murder for which he has spent 14 years on death row, and a Texas judge ruled this month at the joint request of prosecutors and Blair’s defense team that the conviction should be tossed. The final ruling on whether Blair should be exonerated from death row now rests with the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals. Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck said one of the most troubling aspects of Blair’s case was the community’s rush to judgement. Less than a year after Blair was convicted, then-Governor George W. Bush signed “Ashley’s Laws,” named after the victim in the case, expanding punishment and registration for sex offenders. "Troubling questions about our criminal justice system are raised any time DNA testing shows that someone on death row is innocent," Scheck said. "But in this case, the community rushed to judgment because Michael Blair had a record as a sex offender — while the apparent real perpetrator, who had no record, evaded justice. More than just an irony, this should give everyone pause about legislating or reaching court decisions based on community fear and outrage." Like many other people whose wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA testing, Blair was convicted based on eyewitness testimony and unreliable forensic science. A state expert testified at his trial that hairs from the crime scene matched Blair’s and hairs from Blair’s car could have belonged to the seven-year-old victim. DNA tests have now proved both of those assertions wrong, and have pointed to the guilt of another man, who is now deceased. Read more about Michael Blair’s case and others pending in Texas here. High schoolers study the lessons of wrongful convictions Today in Maryland and Virginia, Innocence Project Staff Attorney Jason Kreag will meet with hundreds of high school leaders from across the country about DNA exonerations, forensic science and critical reforms needed across the country to prevent wrongful convictions. Joining students at the National Youth Leadership Forum on Law and the National Student Leadership Conference, Kreag’s visit is one of many scheduled this summer and fall by Innocence Project staff and exonerees at high schools and colleges across the country. “While there is exciting progress in courts and statehouses today, I think it will be the generation of young people sitting today in elementary and high school classrooms that ushers in a new era of justice in America,” Kreag wrote in a post today on the Innocence Blog. Young people are among the groups most affected by wrongful convictions, as nearly one-third of the 218 people exonerated by DNA testing were arrested between the ages of 14 and 22. These innocent Americans spent their prime years behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit, and today’s youth leaders have the power to prevent this injustice from befalling their own generation. Key reforms are desperately needed in all 50 states to prevent wrongful convictions from happening. In the last two months, thousands of young people have helped the Innocence Project build momentum for the rights of prisoners to obtain DNA testing in their cases if it can prove innocence. Only six states now lack DNA testing laws, and we’re working as hard as we can on behalf of prisoners in those states. We need your help. Nearly 2,000 people have signed the Innocence Project’s petition for nationwide DNA testing access. Add your name to the petition today. Why I Give: Yvonne Siegel Retired Executive Coach Miromar Lakes, Florida Before reading Sister Helen Prejean’s book “Dead Man Walking” in the 1990s, I thought our criminal justice system worked. Reading that book opened my eyes to a system that was completely broken and wrought with inequality. And then, only recently, a video on the Innocence Project’s YouTube page gave a face and a voice to this injustice. I watched an interview with Chris Ochoa, who served 12 years in Texas for a murder he didn’t commit before he was exonerated in 2002. After interrogating Chris for hours about a murder he knew nothing about, police officers called his mother and told her that her son would get the death penalty if he didn’t confess. She had a stroke as a result of the stress of her son being charged with such a heinous crime, and Chris gave in to spare his mom, telling police what they wanted to hear. As a mother myself, I found that story absolutely devastating and it solidified my commitment to doing what I can to prevent this injustice to happening to anyone else. I support the Innocence Project because I feel responsible for the justice system in my country. The legal system as we know it doesn’t work. People think they’re safe because they don’t have contact with the law, but many of the exonerees thought the same thing. In an unjust society, nobody is safe. And even if it never affects me personally, the criminal justice system is a reflection of our society, so it represents all of us. Since learning about DNA exonerations and the work of the Innocence Project, I’ve shared dozens of stories of exonerated inmates with friends and family. People who have never thought for a second about our criminal justice system are shocked by these cases, and even some of my most conservative friends have become Innocence Project supporters. I hope that the raised awareness of the issue brought about by DNA exonerations is helping to improve the criminal justice system, but I know we still have a long way to go. That’s why I support the Innocence Project. Make a donation to the Innocence Project today.