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Released without an apology
Posted: August 6, 2007 11:08 am
"It’s like a bad story on the twilight zone," David Pope tells a PBS reporter about his wrongful conviction. "The man wakes up in jail and he keeps waking up there and he can’t believe it’s really happening."
A recent episode of Life & Times, on Los Angeles PBS affiliate KCET, covered wrongful convictions and the lack of compensation for many exonerees nationwide.
In a guest blog on the show’s website, Innocence Project Co-Directors Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld write that compensation should come packaged with reforms:
Even in their first days of freedom, the euphoria that many exonerated people feel is tempered by a personal understanding of the larger problem and an unwavering resolve to help fix a broken system. They don’t want anyone else to be robbed of life and liberty as they were.
Watch the episode and read the full blog post here. (KCET)Read more about David Pope’s case and the case of Herman Atkins, who was also featured on the episode.
Read more about proposed exoneree compensation reforms.
Tags: Herman Atkins, David Shawn Pope, Exoneree Compensation
Innocence Network calls on FBI to investigate agent
Posted: September 5, 2007 1:08 pm
In April, a federal jury found that former sheriff's deputy Danny Miller fabricated evidence that led to the wrongful conviction of Innocence Project client Herman Atkins. Miller now works for the FBI, and the Innocence Network yesterday called for him to be suspended and investigated. Atkins served 11 years in prison before he was exonerated by DNA testing, and he was awarded $2 million in a federal civil suit in April.
This is the first time that the Innocence Network, a consortium of 31 innocence organizations around the country, has asked that a law enforcement officer be suspended or investigated. The letter was signed by Kathleen Ridolfi, executive director of the Northern California Innocence Project at Santa Clara University Law School.
Ridolfi's letter to the Justice Department said that "in light of these extraordinary developments," the Innocence Network was asking that Miller be the subject of a formal investigation, "which could result in the termination of his employment with the Bureau. Indeed, given the security and sensitivity of Miller's assignment, we urge you to consider suspending him pending the outcome of the investigation."Read more about the Innocence Network and Herman Atkins’s case.
"We are confident that the FBI and the Department of Justice will conclude . . . that it is inconceivable that our nation's homeland security will rely on the intelligence analysis of a man found in a court of law to be a liar and an evidence fabricator," Ridolfi added.
Read the full news story. (Los Angeles Times, 09/05/07)
Watch a video of Atkins telling the story of his wrongful conviction.
Tags: Herman Atkins, Government Misconduct
Former prosecutor calls for governor to sign California bills
Posted: September 26, 2007 3:03 pm
Three bills awaiting the signature of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would reform the state’s criminal justice system to provent wrongful convictions. In an op-ed in today’s Sacramento Bee, former federal prosecutor Thomas Sullivan calls for the state to improve its justice system for all parties involved.
I have sat on both sides of the table -- prosecuting crimes as a U.S. attorney and representing the accused as a defense lawyer. This broad experience has shown me that if we can bolster the reliability of evidence in the courtroom, we can strengthen our system of justice for everyone's benefit. California now has a vehicle for that brand of change with three significant bills. If enacted, the trio would enhance the overall accuracy of evidence -- and ensure that California heeds the lessons of (wrongful convictions).Read more about the pending bills in our previous blog post.
Read the full column here. (Sacramento Bee, 09/26/07)
Watch a video of California exoneree Herman Atkins, explaining how these reforms would prevent others from suffering the injustice he did.
Tags: California, Herman Atkins, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Informants/Snitches
Herman Atkins marks eight years of freedom
Posted: February 21, 2008 12:20 pm
Monday marked the eighth anniversary of Herman Atkins’ exoneration in California. Atkins served 12 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted in 1988 of a robbery and rape. After the crime in the spring of 1986, the victim was taken to the police station and shown several photos in an identification procedure. She did not identify anyone, but saw a photo of Atkins elsewhere in the station. After identifying the other photo, the victim was shown a photo lineup including Atkins and identified him again.
Eyewitness misidentification is the most common cause of wrongful conviction, playing a role in 75 percent of convictions overturned by DNA testing. Read more about eyewitness misidentification here.
Herman Atkins’ case was accepted by the Innocence Project in 1993. The evidence for DNA testing was found in 1995, but the prosecution refused to allow access to the evidence. In 1999, the Innocence Project filed a motion to compel the prosecution to allow DNA testing. The motion was finally granted and all DNA test results conclusively excluded Atkins from the crime. In February 2000, Herman Atkins was exonerated after spending 12 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
Since his exoneration, Atkins has graduated from college and gotten married. He and his wife, Machara, have started the Life Interventions for Exonerees foundation to help exonerees get back on their feet after their release.
Read more about Herman Atkins’ case here.
Watch a video interview with Atkins.
Other exoneration anniversary this week:
Monday: Peter Rose, California (Served 8 years, Exonerated 2/18/05)
Tags: Herman Atkins, Peter Rose
Helping those who come after me
Posted: May 15, 2008 3:45 pm
By Herman Atkins, California Exoneree
In 1986, I was arrested for a rape I didn’t commit when a victim more than 60 miles from my house misidentified me as the perpetrator. I was just 20 years old, and I went to trial, believing the truth would come out in a court of law. It didn’t; I was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison. I served more than 11 years in a California prison before DNA tests obtained by my lawyers at the Innocence Project finally cleared my name.
When I was released from prison in 2000, I was on my own. There wasn’t then – and there still isn’t today – any system to automatically provide services to people when they are exonerated after serving years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. The system institutionalizes people and then releases them into a society they may not even recognize anymore. It’s an uphill battle. I’m doing what I can to improve this situation for the recently exonerated.
In January, my wife, Machara, and I founded Life Intervention for Exonerees (LIFE). Through this new organization, we are reaching out to recently exonerated individuals across the country to offer them help to start a new life, through gift cards and donated services. Most importantly, we are offering them a helping hand and connecting them to the growing community of exonerees in the United States. Many exonerees have found this community to be the key to rebuilding their lives after decades stolen by a criminal justice system that immediately forgets you.
We also hope that by providing these goods and services we can highlight a critical social need. This should not be a task carried out by small non-profit organizations. The government that sent a person to prison for a crime they didn’t commit should be responsible for helping that person adjust to life once they have been exonerated. And while 23 states have some sort of law compensating the exonerated, many fall dreadfully short and none take effect on the day of exoneration.
Until the states learn to support those that they have wronged, LIFE will be here to help the exonerated begin to rebuild. If you would like to support our work or contact us to set up a partnership or local program, please write to us at the addresses below.
LIFE Inc.
PO Box 9623
Fresno, CA 93793
exonereelife [at] att.net (replace [at] with @ before sending)
Tags: Herman Atkins
Nine Years Free
Posted: February 20, 2009 5:31 pm
Wednesday marked the ninth anniversary of Herman Atkins’ exoneration in California. After serving nearly 12 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit, Atkins was freed on February 18, 2000 based on DNA testing proving his innocence.
He was wrongfully convicted of 1988 of a robbery and rape. After the crime in the spring of 1986, the victim was taken to the police station and shown several photos in an identification procedure. She did not identify anyone, but saw a photo of Atkins elsewhere in the station. After identifying the other photo, the victim was shown a photo lineup including Atkins and identified him again.
Since his exoneration, Atkins has graduated from college and gotten married. He and his wife, Machara, have started the Life Interventions for Exonerees foundation to help exonerees get back on their feet after their release. This week, LIFE launched its new website, at www.exonereelife.org. Atkins wrote last year on the Innocence Blog about why he and Machara founded the Life Foundation.
Other Exoneration Anniversaries This Week:
Wednesday: Peter Rose, California (Served 8 years, Exonerated (2/18/05)
Tags: Herman Atkins
A Decade Later, Wrongful Conviction Still Haunts Herman Atkins
Posted: August 26, 2010 5:50 pm
Atkins said the exonerated face countless challenges after they're freed, and he felt a calling to help.Two years ago, Atkins and his wife founded Life Intervention for Exonerees, a nonprofit that presents recent exonerees with welcome-back baskets that include a $250 gift card for that allows them to make purchases immediately following their release from prison.
"You have guys who refuse to take another step, in hopes of society giving back to them every day that they had took. ... These guys [needed] help," Atkins says. "If someone was going to give it to them, it had to be me."
In the years following Atkins' exoneration, he has returned to the courtroom to lobby for criminal justice reforms and at 44 years-old he will begin law school at California Western School of Law in San Diego in January.
Read the full story here.
Watch a new Innocence Project video with Atkins talking about life after exoneration below.
Read more about Atkins' case.
Tags: Herman Atkins
Tune-In: BET Series "Vindicated" Profiles Eight Exonerees
Posted: December 3, 2012 4:25 pm
Tags: Herman Atkins, Charles Chatman, Timothy Cole, Thomas Haynesworth, Darryl Hunt