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New Mississippi project to open doors this fall
Posted: August 20, 2007 6:09 pm
A new law clinic devoted to overturning wrongful convictions will begin work this fall investigating possible wrongful convictions in Mississippi and representing clients on appeal. Authors John Grisham and Scott Turow will headline a dinner on Oct. 22 to raise money for the new program, which will be housed at the University of Mississippi School of Law. Tucker Carrington, a former public defender and visiting professor at Georgetown Law School, has been named as the director of the new project, which will act as a law course at the University of Mississippi School of Law and also involve law and journalism students from across the state.
"There is a desperate need for these types of centers and the kind of representation and outreach they provide," Carrington said. "The sheer number of exonerations nationally and the discussions about them are irrefutable proof that wrongful convictions are not isolated, rare events. They are a result of systemic defects in our criminal justice system."Currently, Innocence Project New Orleans also accepts some cases from Mississippi.
Read the University of Mississippi press release here.
Many innocence-based organizations from around the world, including the Innocence Project, are members of the Innocence Network. All of these organizations are independent groups, operating as part of a university or college, in affiliation with a private law firm, or as an independent non-profit organization. Click here to find a network group in your area.
Tags: Mississippi
Events benefit projects in Mississippi and Chicago
Posted: October 25, 2007 12:15 pm
Exonerees Dennis Fritz and Cedric Willis and authors John Grisham and Scott Turow were among speakers at an event held this week in Jackson, Mississippi, to raise money for the Mississippi Innocence Project, founded this year at the University of Mississippi Law School. Grisham and Turow were then in Chicago on Wednesday night, at a fundraiser for the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern Law School.
Grisham, whose book, “The Innocent Man,” considers the wrongful convictions of Fritz and his co-defendant Ron Williamson, told the audience in Mississippi that if states continue to carry out the death penalty, an innocent person will be executed.
"It's inevitable," he said. "We're going to wake up one day and know from clear DNA evidence that we killed the wrong guy."Read about the Illinois event. (Daily Northwestern, 10/25/07)
Read the full story here. (Clairon Ledger, 10/22/07)
Mississippi is among the eight states nationwide that lack laws allowing defendants access to post-conviction DNA testing. Illinois has had 27 wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing – including five in which the defendant had been sentenced to death.
A column by Donna Ladd in yesterday’s Jackson Free Press called for Mississippi residents to support the new project:
Now we have our own Innocence Project in Mississippi—the state that may well need it the most, with our historic bloodlust and collective apathy over how the accused are treated. It’s headquartered at Ole Miss, and has virtually no overhead. Nearly every dime goes to helping the innocent, and saving society’s soul.
We need to send the message with our dollars that we care about justice—the real kind, not some kind of political salivating that disregards humanity and the need for members of society to take care of, and honor, one another.
Read the full column here.
Tags: Mississippi, Dennis Fritz, Ron Williamson
Readers respond to book on wrongful convictions
Posted: January 10, 2008 5:15 pm
On Tuesday, we asked blog readers for their feedback on “The Innocent Man,” John Grisham’s book about the wrongful convictions of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz. We heard from many of you, and two of the responses are posted below.
If you ever have feedback to posts on this blog, email us here. (info [at] innocenceproject.org). Tell us if we can post your comments, and include your name (first name only is fine) and your city and state. We’ll occasionally post feedback we receive.
Helen Elliott, Edmond, Oklahoma:
I grew up in Southeastern Oklahoma and am a graduate of East Central University in Ada. I found the story of these wrongful convictions appalling, but not surprising. It's an example of stories I heard my whole life about the so-called justice system in our little corner of the world. I'm glad that this story was able to be told. It also brings to light the good works of the Innocence Project, with the hopes of bringing around reforms related to DNA testing. I've always been a fan of Grisham's work; I think this is his best yet.
J. Dowling, Southern California:
Grisham's book was excellent. It left me both angry & depressed for Ron Williamson & Dennis Fritz. As a retired police detective of 33 years from a medium sized police agency in Southern California, I am especially incensed by both the prosecutorial and police misconduct in this case. I am just sorry that the Justice Department did not go after the police and the prosecutor for massive violations of civil rights in that Oklahoma case. Anyone who truly cares about the American justice system will be very angry after they read Grisham's book. His book has now inspired me to volunteer my time and services to those in California that have been wrongly convicted. Kudos to Grisham for giving us all a huge wake-up call.
In an interview published in yesterday’s Jackson Free Press, Grisham says he met many wrongfully convicted people while researching the book, and “it doesn’t take too many conversations with men who are imprisoned and will probably never get out, who are innocent, to kind of flip you, to make you suddenly aware of this problem. That’s what happened to me.”
Read the full story here. (Jackson Free Press, 01/09/08)
Grisham, who serves on the Innocence Project Board of Directors, also supports the new Mississippi Innocence Project at the University of Mississippi.
Tags: Mississippi, Dennis Fritz, Ron Williamson
Mississippi man to get new hearing based on DNA results
Posted: January 11, 2008 5:40 pm
New DNA test results prove that Arthur Johnson has been in a Mississippi prison for 15 years for a rape he did not commit, according to court papers filed by the Innocence Project New Orleans. Johnson was convicted in 1993 of a rape in Sunflower County, Mississippi, and sentenced to 55 years. He has maintained throughout that he did not commit the rape, and test results completed late last year prove his innocence, says Innocence Project New Orleans Director Emily Maw.
The Mississippi Supreme Court last week ordered a local court to expedite a hearing on DNA evidence in Johnson’s case. The hearing hasn’t been scheduled yet. But if he is eventually freed, he would become the first person to exonerated by DNA evidence in Mississippi.
“This DNA testing proves that Arthur Johnson was telling the truth when he claimed, from the beginning, that he is innocent of this charge,” Maw said in a statement Friday.Mississippi is one of eight states without a law providing access to DNA testing for inmates with claims of innocence. Maw and Mississippi Innocence Project Director Tucker Carrington said the state needs an access law to free other innocent people behind before it’s too late.
“This kind of evidence can only be helpful if its exists – and for that Mississippi needs legislation to ensure that there will be clearly established procedures to provide for preservation and testing of this evidence for those whose claims of innocence could be proven,” Carrington said.Where does your state stand on access to DNA testing? Find out on our interactive map.
Read the full story here. (Sun Herald (MS), 01/11/08)
Tags: Mississippi
Mississippi man could be free in three weeks
Posted: February 5, 2008 4:10 pm
Arthur Johnson has been in prison for 16 years for a rape he’s always maintained he didn’t commit. After years of waiting for his day in court, and additional delays caused by Hurricane Katrina, Johnson’s lawyers at Innocence Project New Orleans obtained DNA testing on his behalf in November. The DNA tests, on semen from the victim’s clothing, point to another man – and show that Johnson is innocent.
Johnson’s lawyers at IPNO, a member of the Innocence Network, have asked for his conviction to be overturned based on the new DNA results. A judge will review the new evidence at a hearing in Sunflower County, Mississippi, on February 25, and Johnson could be set free, or at least granted a new trial. If the charges are dropped, he would be fully exonerated.
As the Arthur Johnson case works its way through the state's courts, it is drawing attention to a justice system that has not yet caught up with DNA technology - and, advocates for reform say, it is pointing out the need for new legislation on evidence preservation and access to DNA testing.
… Mississippi is one of only eight states without a law providing for access to DNA testing for prisoners with claims of innocence.
Nor does Mississippi have a law requiring evidence to be preserved for future testing.
Read more about Johnson’s case here. (Delta Democrat Times, 02/04/08)
Tags: Mississippi
DNA evidence clears two men in Mississippi and uncovers serious misconduct
Posted: February 8, 2008 4:25 pm
Innocence Project client Kennedy Brewer has waited more than 15 years – much of it on death row – for this day to come. DNA evidence proves that Brewer didn’t commit the heinous murder of a three-year-old girl for which he was sentenced to die in 1995, and he is expected to be exonerated at a hearing on Thursday (February 14).
The DNA evidence and other evidence uncovered by the Innocence Project and its partners also point to the identity of the real perpetrator of the murder, Justin Albert Johnson, who has confessed that he alone killed the little girl.
Johnson also confessed this week to killing another three-year-old girl in the same small Mississippi town eighteen months before the murder for which Brewer was convicted. The man convicted of this eerily similar crime, Levon Brooks, is also an Innocence Project client and is still in prison. The Innocence Project filed papers today seeking Brooks’ release. It’s possible that Brooks will also appear at Thursday’s hearing, where his conviction would be thrown out and he may be released.
These pending exonerations reveal startling misconduct in the Mississippi justice system, and the Innocence Project called for a review of the way evidence in the state is collected, analyzed and presented in court.
Read more in today’s Innocence Project press release.
Press coverage of Brewer’s and Brooks’ cases:
New York Times: New suspect is arrested in two Mississippi killings (02/08/08)
Associated Press: New suspect charged in 1982 Miss. Murder (02/08/08)
Picayune Item: Future unclear for death row inmate after another charged with crime (02/08/08)
Tags: Mississippi, Kennedy Brewer, Government Misconduct, Death Penalty
Mississippi legislators pass DNA testing bill
Posted: February 28, 2008 4:10 pm
The Mississippi House of Representatives passed two bills this week providing DNA testing access to small groups of people convicted of – and charged with – murder. The bills would provide access to post-conviction DNA testing for people on death row, and would provide DNA testing access to people facing capital murder charges.
Mississippi is one of eight states in the U.S. with no state law allowing access to DNA testing. But the Innocence Project recommends that states allow testing in all cases in which DNA testing could change the conviction – not only death-penalty cases.
Earlier this month, the Mississippi Senate passed a bill addressing preservation of evidence in cases so that DNA testing can be done to determine guilt or innocence. That bill now moves to the House for consideration.
Read more about the bills here. (The Commercial Dispatch, 02/28/08)
The bills, which will now go to the Mississippi Senate, come in the wake of the Feb. 15 exoneration of Kennedy Brewer and the release of Levon Brooks, both of whom spent 15 years behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit. Read more about their cases here.
Tags: Mississippi, Kennedy Brewer, Evidence Preservation, Access to DNA Testing
Mississippi cases continue to draw national attention
Posted: February 29, 2008 4:10 pm
Questionable forensic practices in Mississippi have remained in the national news in the wake of the hearings earlier this month clearing two men after they served 15 years for separate murders they didn’t commit. The exoneration of Kennedy Brewer and release of Levon Brooks on Feb. 15 has led to serious questions about the work of medical examiner Steven Hayne and forensic dentist Michael West, and the Innocence Project has been joined by several other organizations in calling for forensic reform in Mississippi. Here are excerpts from an Associated Press article running around the country today:
The turn of events has shocked the community, especially the victims' families, and led to accusations that West deliberately falsified evidence.
"You have people who engaged in misconduct and manufactured evidence and we've proved it," said Peter Neufeld, co-director of the Innocence Project, which has won the exoneration of more than 200 inmates nationwide and assembled the expert panel that examined the Brewer case. "These two cases are going to be an eye-opener for the people of Mississippi about some of the problems they have in criminal justice and how easy it will be to make it right."
…
Brewer, who was released on bail last year, a few years after DNA tests excluded him as the rapist, was finally exonerated by a judge on Feb. 15.
"I ain't worried about the past. I'm thinking about the future," Brewer said. But he offered some advice to prosecutors: "They need to get the truth before they lock up the wrong somebody. It doesn't feel good to be called a rapist and murderer."
…
The district attorney who prosecuted both defendants, Forrest Allgood, disputed any suggestion that his office knowingly sent the wrong men to prison.
"It torments the innocent individual, undermines the public confidence in the justice system, and the bad guy is still running loose," he said. "Why people would believe that's something we would want to do is beyond me."
Allgood said he has not used West as a forensic expert since the mid-1990s. He said West was once considered one of the world's foremost authorities in his field, lecturing in China and England.
"Subsequently the whole situation turned into a train wreck," the district attorney said.
Read the full story here. (Associated Press, 02/29/08)
Read more about calls for reform in the wake of the Brewer and Brooks cases here.
Tags: Mississippi, Kennedy Brewer
Mississippi officials agree that state reforms are badly needed
Posted: March 3, 2008 3:11 pm
Innocence Project clients Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer were freed last month after DNA proved that they were convicted of murders they didn’t commit. Their cases have sparked a thorough review of forensic testing in Mississippi, and lawmakers this week are calling for significant changes to ensure that more innocent people are not convicted in the state.
State Attorney General Jim Hood said a key way to prevent wrongful convictions is to upgrade how Mississippi processes DNA evidence.
“Some of it may cost money, but it keeps innocent people from going to the penitentiary, and we will put a whole lot more people in the pen that have committed crimes if we had a DNA lab that tested every sample that we pulled,” Hood said.Read more recent coverage of reforms in Mississippi.
“These cases are an urgent call for a thorough review of how crime-scene evidence gets analyzed and makes it into Mississippi courtrooms and how we can make sure only the most credible, objective, reliable science is used in criminal cases,” (Innocence Project Co-Director Peter) Neufeld said in a statement issued by the Innocence Project.Hood agreed such improvements are needed - with upgrading the state crime lab and state coroner's office being the most important steps to take.
“As far as a review of our criminal justice system, there's always room for error with humans. And there's always room for re-evaluations of how we do it. But there are nut-and-bolts things...like fully funding our crime lab and medical examiner's office,” he said.
Read the full article here. (Commercial Dispatch, 03/01/08)
Tags: Mississippi, Kennedy Brewer
How much is Steven Hayne using state labs for his botched autopsies?
Posted: March 5, 2008 1:46 pm
The Innocence Project today sent formal requests to nearly two dozen Mississippi officials, requesting documents that will show how much Medical Examiner Steven Hayne has been using state labs for autopsies that are clearly erroneous.
Hayne’s forensic misconduct has come to light in recent weeks, following court hearings last month where two Innocence Project clients – Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks – were cleared after serving 15 years for murders they didn’t commit. Hayne’s faulty work contributed to both men’s convictions.
Read today’s Innocence Project press release on the new developments, and download the full content of the letter.
Learn more about the cases of Brewer and Brooks here.
Also today, a column in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal calls on Mississippi officials to reform forensic and legal practices to ensure that the innocent aren’t convicted of crimes they didn’t commit.
Aside from ending the personal injustices endured by Arthur Johnson, Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, The Innocence Project is also showing the state how it can do better.
For instance, the Legislature could add Mississippi to the 42 states that already provide post-conviction DNA testing where there's a claim of innocence.
Mississippi could modernize the Crime Lab, which is seeking a total of $9 million this year out of the state's nearly $6 billion general fund budget.
Mississippi could hire a medical examiner, who would be the first since the last one left in 1995.
Mississippi could expedite post-conviction hearings when new or additional evidence tends to show a jury has been misled, even if the evidence against a person was offered in good faith.
Read the full column here. (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 03/05/08)
Read Radley Balko’s post on the Reason Magazine blog about today’s Innocence Project document requests.
Tags: Mississippi, Kennedy Brewer
Leading Mississippi Newspaper Supports Investigation of Steven Hayne
Posted: March 10, 2008 4:50 pm
The Hattiesburg American published an editorial Sunday in support of the Innocence Project’s efforts to investigate misconduct by Mississippi pathologist Steven Hayne. The Innocence Project has called upon Mississippi state authorities to comply with Public Records Act requests for information on Hayne, who contributed to the wrongful convictions of Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks.
Even if it means that all of the cases that Hayne and West worked on come under review, the investigation should advance. Even if it costs thousands of dollars and thousands of hours, it will be worth it if even one person wrongly convicted is freed or wins a new trial.The Innocence Project has sent letters to the state crime lab director and 22 district attorneys around the state in an effort to uncover information that might lead to additional evidence of wrongful convictions. Hayne conducts 80% of all criminal autopsies in the state and is not properly board-certified. The Innocence Project has also urged the Mississippi Department of Public Safety to fill the State Medical Examiner position that has been vacant for over a decade and provides critical oversight on the work of medical examiners in the state.
Read the full editorial here. (Hattiesburg American, 03/09/08)
Read the Innocence Project press release here.
Read more about Brewer and Brooks cases here.
Tags: Mississippi, Kennedy Brewer
Hearing Thursday in Mississippi for Levon Brooks
Posted: March 11, 2008 4:28 pm
District Attorney Forrest Allgood, of Noxubee County, Mississippi, has announced that he intends to drop the capital murder indictment against Innocence Project client Levon Brooks at a hearing Thursday morning in Macon, Mississippi.
Brooks spent 15 years in prison for the rape and murder of his girlfriend’s three-year-old daughter – a crime he did not commit. He was wrongfully convicted with the flawed forensic analysis of medical examiner Steven Hayne and bite mark analyst Michael West. Hayne and West also helped secure the wrongful conviction of Innocence Project client Kennedy Brewer, who was exonerated in February after 15 years behind bars. DNA evidence in the Brewer case led to the identification of the real perpetrator, Justin Albert Johnson, who confessed to both the Brewer and Brooks crimes.
Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld and Staff Attorney Vanessa Potkin will represent Brooks at Thursday’s hearing.
Read today’s Jackson Clarion Ledger article here.
Read more about Brooks and Brewer’s cases here.
Read about calls for reform to the Mississippi criminal justice system here.
Tags: Mississippi, Kennedy Brewer
New pressure on Mississippi medical examiner
Posted: May 7, 2008 3:12 pm
For months, Mississippi medical examiner Steven Hayne has come under fire for years of false forensic testimony, unethical methods, nepotism and potential illegal activities. His flawed autopsies led two innocent men to spend a combined three decades in prison before they were exonerated earlier this year. He claims to work 110 hours a week and conduct 1,500 autopsies a year – earning him more than a million dollars annually.
The Innocence Project has formally asked for his medical license to be revoked, and this week the Hattiesburg American asked why Mississippi district attorneys are still supporting – and hiring—Hayne. Three DA’s told the newspaper that they had no problem with Hayne’s work. An editorial criticized these comments as ignorant:
This strikes as three ostriches putting their heads in the sand. How can these DA's be at all confident in Hayne's work given the information that has come out about the pathologist?
The DA's have been asked by the Innocence Project to turn over any documents pertaining to Hayne, including official reports on autopsies.Read more about Hayne’s activities and the exonerations of Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks.
We hope they are complying. They must, if they believe in justice.
Meanwhile, the Legislature has funded $500,000 this year for a state medical examiner. The state has been without one since 1994 and if more of Hayne's work is found to be faulty, the state will have no one but itself to blame.
Read the full editorial here. (Hattiesburg American, 05/04/08)
Tags: Mississippi, Kennedy Brewer
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 more about the Innocence Project’s work in Mississippi.
Read the full story here. (Clarion–Ledger, 07/02/08)
Tags: Mississippi
Ousted Mississippi medical examiner's alarming backlog deepens concerns about his work
Posted: August 21, 2008 2:45 pm
Steven Hayne, who was recently removed from Mississippi’s list of approved pathologists, has 90 days to turn in reports on his backlog of cases. Public Safety Commissioner Steve Simpson announced the decision to remove Hayne from the state’s list on August 5, amid increased public scrutiny of Hayne’s work in the aftermath of the exonerations of Innocence Project clients Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks earlier this year.
When the state announced that it is severing ties with Hayne, Simpson said Hayne had “400 to 500” autopsy reports to complete within 90 days of the announcement. From the Jackson Clarion-Ledger the day after the state announced Hayne’s contract was being terminated:
Asked why Hayne's name alone was removed from the list, Simpson replied, "Because they don't owe me 400 or 500 reports."But information in today’s Clarion Ledger suggests that claim was false -- and raises troubling new questions. Rather than 400-500 outstanding autopsy reports, Hayne’s lawyer now says there are 600. To put that number – which accounts for just the outstanding autopsy reports that Hayne has not completed – in context, mainstream professional associations say that a pathologist should not conduct more than 250 autopsies a year. Hayne has claimed to conduct 1,500 to 1,800 autopsies a year, a volume that could help explain why he apparently struggles to complete the critical autopsy reports in a timely fashion.
Simpson said he wants Hayne to wrap up the outstanding autopsies within 90 days, when Hayne's contract with the state expires.
Hayne's attorney, Dale Danks Jr. of Jackson, said the only reason up to 500 of Hayne's reports are pending is that Hayne is awaiting toxicology reports from the state Crime Lab in the cases.
Read the full article here.
Today’s Clarion Ledger also makes it clear that the state crime lab is not the reason so many of Hayne’s autopsy reports are incomplete. In fact, fewer than 15% of Hayne’s outstanding autopsy reports are awaiting toxicology reports from the state crime lab. From today’s Clarion Ledger:
On Wednesday, Danks said Hayne planned to turn in the 600 reports by the end of next week, regardless of whether toxicology reports have been completed or not.Danks does not explain why 500 or more cases (for which Hayne is not waiting for toxicology reports) are still pending – or for how long those autopsy reports have remained incomplete.
About 150 of them lack toxicology reports, Danks said. "He got one toxicology report in yesterday that was three years old. Apparently the Crime Lab sent it out of state."
Sam Howell, director of the state Crime Lab, said according to his records, there are only about 100 toxicology reports outstanding at this time.
"I don't know how many of those 100 cases are Dr. Hayne's," Howell said. "They could be coroner cases that have nothing to do with autopsies."
More than half that number are less than 30 days old, he said.
Read the full article here.
The Innocence Project investigated how Hayne’s shoddy work contributed to the wrongful convictions of Brewer and Brooks and is now calling for a comprehensive list of all cases Hayne has handled and records relating to those cases. The Innocence Project and the Mississippi Innocence Project have challenged Hayne’s work for months, calling on the state to fill the long-vacant State Medical Examiner position and also filing a formal allegation with the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure to revoke Hayne’s license to practice medicine. The Innocence Project is currently reviewing hundreds of cases in which Hayne testified.
Read Innocence Project press release on Hayne’s termination – and the need for the state to compel him to turn over a list of all cases he has worked on, along with autopsy reports for each of those cases -- here.
Read more on the Brooks and Brewer cases here.
Read the summary letter of the Innocence Project’s pending complaint with the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure here.
Read more about Hayne in Reason Magazine Senior Editor Radley Balko’s groundbreaking investigative report, “CSI: Mississippi,” here.
August 5 Mississippi medical examiner press conference [audio: 17:25]
Tags: Mississippi, Kennedy Brewer
Mississippi task force will study evidence preservation
Posted: September 3, 2008 3:00 pm
A group of officials from across Mississippi’s criminal justice system has begun work reviewing the state’s evidence preservation practices and may recommend a state law requiring law enforcement agencies or the state crime lab to store evidence.
Most evidence is currently kept by court clerks, and court basements are often crowded, messy and poorly secured. Mississippi Innocence Project Director Tucker Carrington is the chairman of the new task force, and he says the group may recommend a centralized storage facility at the state crime lab.
Mississippi was jarred into action by the release earlier this year of two Noxubee County men wrongly convicted in separate child murder cases. One of the men was on death row.Does your state preserve crime scene evidence? View our interactive map to find out.
Mississippi's 82 counties handle DNA evidence in different ways. Some may not collect DNA in every investigation because it is too costly.
The task force will recommend statewide standards for identification, collection and preservation of DNA, as well as training for law enforcement officers and others.
Read the full story here. (Jackson Clarion-Ledger, 09/03/08)
Tags: Mississippi
Friday roundup
Posted: September 5, 2008 3:07 pm
New projects and investigations launched this week by innocence organizations, law schools, prosecutors and attorneys general across the country show the momentum nationwide to overturn wrongful convictions and address the root causes of wrongful conviction to prevent future injustice. Here’s this week’s roundup:
Questions were raised about standards of DNA collection and preservation in Massachusetts after improper procedures were revealed in a high-profile case. Mass. is one of 25 states without a DNA preservation law.
The Mississippi Attorney General said this week that the state is underfunding DNA tests and DNA collection and a new task force is examining the state problem.
San Jose opened California’s largest crime lab, training began in Maryland before a new law expanding the state’s database took effect and cutbacks in Georgia led to furloughs for prosecutors and could cause lab closings.
The Midwest Innocence Project this week launched an investigation into a 1988 fire that killed six Kansas City firemen and led to the conviction of five people who say they’re innocent. The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, a first-of-its-kind panel dedicated to investigating cases of possible wrongful conviction, finished reviewing its first case, deciding that there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the conviction of Henry A. Reeves. And Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins asked county officials to allow filming in his offices in coming months for a Discovery Channel documentary.
Some of the best policy analysis and research to help improve our criminal justice system comes, of course, from our nation’s law schools – and now many of those schools have blogs. Marquette University Law School launched a new faculty law blog, and a post by Keith Sharfman finds that “blogging’s potential as a medium for serious legal discourse can no longer be doubted.”
A column on Law.com asks: “Is the future of legal scholarship in the blogosphere?”
Here at the Innocence Project, we read law school blogs everyday. Among our favorites are Crim Prof Blog and Evidence Prof Blog
New York University Law School has formed a new Center on the Administration of Criminal Law, which will seek to promote “good government practices in criminal matters.”
Tags: California, North Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Texas, Innocence Commissions, Evidence Preservation, Access to DNA Testing, DNA Databases
More revelations in Mississippi
Posted: September 8, 2008 2:17 pm
Last month, Mississippi officials cut ties with medical examiner Steven Hayne, whose forensic misconduct led to at least two wrongful convictions that have been overturned. In a post on the Reason Magazine blog yesterday, Radley Balko discusses a trove of documents showing that state officials knew about problems with Hayne’s work as long as 15 years ago, but did nothing about it.
Balko says he will roll out significant documents from this dossier over the coming days on the Reason blog. Stay tuned.
Read more about the cases of Innocence Project clients Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks, and the misconduct of Steven Hayne.
Tags: Mississippi, Kennedy Brewer
Mississippi man still fighting for DNA test
Posted: October 20, 2008 12:37 pm
A former Jackson, Mississippi, police officer has been seeking DNA testing since 2006 to prove that he was wrongfully convicted of robbing a bank. Steve Fasano is currently in federal prison, and could be released to a halfway house next year. But even if he is released, he says, he will continue to fight to prove his innocence.
Fasano was convicted of robbing a Citizens Bank branch in 2002. Eyewitnesses identified Fasano as the perpetrator, who was wearing a hard hat, sunglasses and a T-shirt during the crime. The perpetrator discarded this disguise, and police collected the items as evidence. Now, Fasano’s attorney is seeking DNA testing on the clothing under the federal Innocence Protection Act of 2004, but a district judge has already denied his request for testing. Fasano is appealing the ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
He vowed to continue to fight to clear his name. "I will pursue this till I'm an old man," he said. "I can't live knowing a felony is placed on my shoulders for something I didn't do.
"A great injustice has been done. I want to get home because I'm an innocent man, not because my time has run out."
Read the full story here. (Jackson Clarion-Ledger, 10/19/08)
Tags: Mississippi
Mississippi Adopts Exoneree Compensation Law
Posted: March 31, 2009 5:03 pm
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour signed a new state law yesterday compensating the wrongfully convicted upon their release. The law pays the exonerated $50,000 for each year they served in prison after being convicted of a crime they didn't commit – up to a maximum of $500,000. Unlike some other states, however, the new law does not provide any services – such as job training, health care or counseling – upon exoneration. Read the full text of the law here.
Mississippi is the 26th state in the U.S. to pass a law compensating the wrongfully convicted. Efforts are also underway to pass new compensation bills in Nebraska and New Jersey and to improve an existing bill in Texas. Although Georgia does not have a law compensating the exonerated, state lawmakers have been working in recent weeks to individually compensate John Jerome White, who spent more than two decades in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
Read more about these developments here.
And view our interactive map to learn about the laws in place in your state.
Tags: Mississippi, Exoneree Compensation
Friday Roundup: Compensation and Crime Lab Woes
Posted: June 5, 2009 5:00 pm
William Dillon of Florida was denied compensation from the state on Tuesday as a result of a "clean hands" law, which prevents exonerees with unrelated prior convictions from receiving compensation. The Innocence Project of Florida is pursuing measures to exempt Dillon from the statute, which would allow Dillon to receive $1.3 million in compensation for his wrongful conviction, but requires finding a sponsor in the state legislature, filing the claims bill and having it pass.
Two states are facing budget cuts that may put their crime labs at risk. In Wisconsin, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen is trying to convince the state Justice Department to restore funds that were cut by the state legislature. Hollen says the budget cuts would force him to lay off staff and would result in increased backlogs.
The North Carolina legislature is considering closing the Greensboro crime lab, less than a year after it opened, to reduce state spending. The state has a $4 billion budget shortfall. Crime lab supporters argue that keeping the lab open could actually save the state more money in the long run.
According to Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes, the lab not only takes on work that would otherwise have to be done in Raleigh, but it also saves local departments travel time. If getting a particular result is urgent, Barnes said, officers can wait for evidence to be processed on-site rather than having to drive back and forth twice.
“That has value you just can’t imagine or put a price on,” he said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will hear arguments in the case of a Mississippi man requesting DNA testing to prove his innocence. Steve Michael Fasono and his attorneys argue that Fasono was not involved in the 2002 robbery of a bank, and that DNA testing of clothing used during the crime can conclusively prove he was not involved with the crime.
Meanwhile, Tim Kennedy is awaiting retrial with his family in Colorado while on bond after DNA tests proved not only that another man was present and left the tested samples at the scene of a murder, but that Kennedy’s DNA was not found on any of the evidence collected. Having spent 14 years in prison for the murder of a Colorado Springs couple, Kennedy’s retrial is scheduled for Sept. 21.
Kennedy’s case, along with various others, is posted on the Just Science Coalition’s news page – you can visit Just-Science.org for weekly updates on forensic news.
Tags: North Carolina, Colorado, Florida, Mississippi, Wisconsin, William Dillon
Two Mississippi Women Freed After Review of Bite Mark Evidence
Posted: July 2, 2012 4:45 pm
After spending nearly 11 years behind bars, two Mississippi women were released from prison last week when a judged vacated their aggravated assault convictions.
Leigh Stubbs and Tammy Vance were convicted of a 2001 aggravated assault, based largely on bite mark analysis, after a third female travel companion was found injured and unconscious in a hotel room. Earlier this year, attorneys from the Mississippi Innocence Project, who represent both women, argued that the original prosecutors failed to turn over favorable evidence for the defense.
Prosecutors at the original trial relied heavily on the testimony of local dentist, Dr. Michael West, who claimed he could match bite marks on the victim's body to Stubbs and Vance, reported the Daily Leader. West has testified for the prosecution in cases in nine states, and his testimony has contributed to the wrongful convictions of DNA exonerees Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks. Despite being the first member ever suspended by the American Board of Forensic Odontology, Prosecutors continued to use West as an expert and courts continued to allow his testimony. According to the Daily Leader, West has said he now doubts the validity of bite mark analysis.
Family members of the women, including Stubb’s brother-in-law Steve Wade, expressed their disappointment in the attorney general for defending cases in which testimony by West was used. The Daily Leader reports:
"The Mississippi attorney general and Lincoln County district attorney should commit to pursue charges against Dr. Michael West for fraudulent testimony and perjury," Wade said.
A hearing scheduled for August 6 will determine if prosecutors will seek a retrial or drop the charges.
Read the full article.
Tags: Mississippi
Former Bite Mark Expert Dismisses the Discipline
Posted: August 6, 2012 5:55 pm
After nearly three decades of conducting bite mark analysis in nine states, Mississippi forensic dentist Michael West now rejects the science he once embraced, according to the Clarion-Ledger.
"I no longer believe in bite-mark analysis," he said in a 2011 deposition obtained by The Clarion-Ledger. "I don't think it should be used in court. I think you should use DNA. Throw bite marks out."
...
"The science is not as exact as I had hoped."
At one point, the science of identifying bite marks was cutting edge, he said. "DNA has made it fairly obsolete."
West contributed testimony in the cases of Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks, both of whom were later exonerated through DNA testing. And earlier this year, two Mississippi women who were convicted of aggravated assault based, in part, on West’s bite mark analysis were released from prison when a judge vacated their aggravated assault convictions and ordered a new trial. Leigh Stubbs and Tammy Vance, who are represented by the Mississippi Innocence Project, will be arraigned today in Brookhaven.
Brewer and Brooks were wrongfully convicted of separate child murders in 1992 and 1995 respectively. After steadfastly maintaining their innocence for years, they were exonerated in 2008 when DNA evidence led authorities to the real perpetrator in both cases. Even after Brooks and Brewer were cleared, West maintained that the men bit the victims.
He reiterated that claim in the deposition. "I never accused them of killing or raping anybody - just biting them while they were alive," West said. "If I have a bite mark on one part of the body and semen on another part of the body, to me it's evidence that there are two people involved."
West estimates that he's worked on 16,000 cases, and has testified as a bite mark expert 81 times. Of the 38 Mississippi criminal trials in which The Clarion-Ledger could find a record of West's testimony, 31 ended in convictions.
Given West's recent dismissal of bite mark analysis, Stubbs and Vance are hopeful the Attorney General will drop the charges against them. Read the full article.
Tags: Mississippi
Mississippi Exoneree Enjoys His Freedom
Posted: August 15, 2012 2:45 pm
Photo: Levon Brooks (right) with Kennedy Brewer in a California Redwood State Park
Four years after his exoneration, Levon Brooks continues to enjoy his freedom and rebuild his life. Brooks spent 16 years in prison for the 1990 murder of a three-year-old girl. The real perpetrator was identified through DNA testing and has since been convicted. WCBI, the CBS network of Columbus, Mississippi, recently caught up with Brooks:
"And right now I'm happy. And I done put all that behind me. Because I told them all on national TV that I forgave everybody for, you know the tragedy that I went through," said Brooks.
These days you can find Brooks hunting, fishing, and operating his small poultry farm in Lowndes County.
Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, who was wrongfully convicted in the same county of a similar crime, are also touring the country to promote a new documentary about their case.
Read the full article.
Read more about Brooks’ case.
Watch the trailer for the documentary.
Tags: Mississippi
Federal Lawsuit Filed Against Law Enforcement in Mississippi False Confession Case
Posted: January 18, 2013 4:30 pm
Tags: Mississippi, Phillip Bivens, Bobby Ray Dixon, Larry Ruffin, False Confessions
African American Wrongful Convictions Throughout History
Posted: February 28, 2013 4:35 pm
Tags: Alabama, Georgia, New Jersey, Mississippi, Tennessee, Racial Bias