Search Term(s):
Blog Tags:
Order by: Date Relevancy
Your search returned 22 entries.
California Senate committee passes three reform bills
Posted: April 19, 2007
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 more about these reforms and others in our Fix The System section.
Read the full story here. (San Jose Mercury News, 4/18/07, free registration required)
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)
Tags: Innocence Commissions, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Informants/Snitches
NYTimes: The DNA 200
Posted: May 21, 2007
In Sunday’s Week In Review, the New York Times examined the first 200 DNA exonerations and the patterns that have caused many more injustices nationwide. A special graphic examined “the time they lost.”
In the 200 cases, often more than one factor led to the initial convictions, the analysis showed. Three-quarters were marked by inaccurate eyewitness identification, and in two-thirds, there were mistakes or other problems with the forensic science. Fifteen percent featured testimony by informants at odds with the later evidence. There were confessions or admissions in about 25 percent of the cases. In about 4 percent, the people had pleaded guilty.Read the full article here. (New York Times, 5/20/07)
As these cases have captured the public’s attention, various states and law enforcement agencies have made reforms, including improving the standards for eyewitness identifications, recording interrogations and upgrading their forensic labs and staffs. Several states have appointed commissions to re-examine cases in which inmates were exonerated by DNA. Some states are reconsidering their death penalty statutes.
Innocence Project Web Feature: “200 Exonerated, Too Many Wrongfully Convicted”
Tags: Innocence Commissions, False Confessions, Informants/Snitches, Eyewitness Misidentification
Doing time for no crime
Posted: July 13, 2007 11:44 am
Arthur Carmona was 16 when he was convicted of two robberies in California. He would serve three years before evidence of his innocence began to mount. He was offered a plea agreement that ended his incarceration, but he would not be fully exonerated. He has now devoted himself to fighting the causes of wrongful conviction. He writes in today’s Los Angeles Times about why he supports three bills pending before the California legislature.
Senate Bill 756, sponsored by Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles), would require the state Department of Justice to develop new guidelines for eyewitness identification procedures. For example, guidelines in other states limit the use of in-field show-ups like the one that led to my wrongful conviction.Read more about the reform bills pending in the California legislature and a recent hearing of the California Commission on Fair Administration of Justice.
Senate Bill 511, sponsored by Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara), would require recording of the entire interrogation, including the Miranda warning, in cases of violent felonies. Electronic recording of interrogations would not only help end false confessions but also discourage police detectives from lying during interrogations — as they did in my case by claiming to have videotaped evidence of me.
Senate Bill 609, sponsored by Majority Leader Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), would prevent convictions based on uncorroborated testimony by jailhouse snitches.
The Legislature should pass all three bills, and the governor should sign them. These reforms are urgently needed to prevent wrongful and unjust incarcerations.
Prison is no place for an innocent man, let alone an innocent kid.
Read the full column here. (Los Angeles Times, 07/13/2007)
Tags: False Confessions, Informants/Snitches, Eyewitness Misidentification
Congressional panel hears testimony on criminal informants
Posted: July 19, 2007 4:19 pm
A hearing this morning of two U.S. House of Representatives judiciary subcommittees featured the testimony of several national experts on the use of criminal informants by police. Among those testifying was Alexandra Natapoff, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Her written testimony advocates for better oversight on the use of criminal informants:
The government’s use of criminal informants is largely secretive, unregulated, and unaccountable. This is especially true in connection with street crime and urban drug enforcement. This lack of oversight and quality-control leads to wrongful convictions, more crime, disrespect for the law, and sometimes even official corruption. At a minimum, we need more data on and better oversight of this important public policy.Read Natapoff’s full written testimony (PDF) or an abstract of her January article from the University of Cincinnati Law Review: “Snitching: The Institutional and Communal Consequences”
Read testimony of other witnesses at today’s hearing.
Read a blog post about today’s hearing on the Texas criminal justice blog Grits for Breakfast.
Read more about how snitches and informants can contribute to wrongful convictions in our Understand the Causes section.
Tags: Informants/Snitches
Snitch testimony and a possible wrongful conviction in Michigan
Posted: August 8, 2007 1:13 pm
Jailhouse informants have contributed to dozens of the 205 wrongful convictions to be overturned by DNA testing. In the ongoing appeals of Frederick Freeman, who is serving life in Michigan for a murder he says he didn’t commit, defense attorneys have shown that a witness against Freeman lied on the stand in exchange for a better sentence. He told the jury, however, that he would get no special treatment in exchange for his testimony.
One of the few would-be strengths of the prosecution's case was a jailhouse snitch who had shared a holding cell with Freeman for a few hours during the week before Freeman's trial. The snitch, Philip Joplin, testified that Freeman had confessed to killing Macklem. Joplin later recanted, saying he had lied to get a better deal from prosecutors and the judge. Documents show he got favorable treatment within a month after Freeman's trial.Read more about Freeman’s case in today’s Detroit Metro Times. (Part Two of a two-pert investigative report)
Read more about snitch cases in our Understand the Causes section.
Tags: Informants/Snitches, Frederick Freeman
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
California governor vetoes justice reforms
Posted: October 16, 2007 3:15 pm
For the second year in a row, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday vetoed three bills passed by the state legislature to reduce the number of wrongful convictions in the state. The bills would have required law enforcement agencies to record interrogations in certain crimes, required jailhouse informant testimony to be corroborated and created a task force to develop guidelines on increasing the accuracy of eyewitness identifications.
The chairman of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice said in a statement yesterday that “Schwarzenegger has taken California out of the front lines of criminal justice reform.”
The vacuum of leadership in the Governor’s mansion will not make the causes of wrongful convictions disappear. We cannot insert our heads in the sand as the parade of innocents who have been wrongfully convicted continues to grow.Schwarzenegger, in his veto messages, said new state policies would “would place unnecessary restrictions on police.”
Read the full statement here. (PDF)
Read the governor’s veto statements here.
More coverage: Gov. vetoes bills on criminal procedures (Los Angeles Times, 10/16/07)
The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, one of six innocence commissions nationwide, will hold its next public meeting tomorrow, October 17, at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California. Click here for the meeting’s agenda.
Tags: California, Innocence Commissions, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Informants/Snitches
Fox News: Schwarzenegger vetoes justice
Posted: November 6, 2007 10:43 am
In a column published yesterday on FoxNews.com, Radley Balko reports on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to veto three criminal justice reform bills last month. The bills would have required law enforcement agencies to record interrogations in certain crimes, required jailhouse informant testimony to be corroborated and created a task force to develop guidelines on increasing the accuracy of eyewitness identifications.
Our criminal justice system is in dire need of repair. The spate of DNA exonerations has at least opened many Americans' eyes to the very real possibility that we're sending innocent people to prison—and even to death row.
But the number of cases in which DNA was found at the scene of a crime was properly preserved, and where testing could establish guilt or innocence, is vanishingly small. DNA testing has exposed the flaws in our system, but those flaws don't exist only in cases where DNA was significant—they also exist in the overwhelming majority of cases where it isn't. That's why we need to apply the lessons we've learned from DNA exonerations to other cases.
And it's why Gov. Schwarzenegger's refusal to adopt even modest reforms is so regrettable.Read the full column here. (FoxNews.com, 11/05/07)
Tags: False Confessions, Informants/Snitches, Eyewitness Misidentification
Innocence Network files brief in Georgia death row case
Posted: November 16, 2007 2:40 pm
Troy Davis has been on Georgia’s death row for more than 15 years for a murder he has always maintained he didn’t commit. Since his conviction, all but three of the 13 witnesses who testified against Davis at trial have recanted, many of them saying they were coerced to offer false eyewitness and snitch testimony by police officers. The Georgia Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Davis’ bid for a new trial on Tuesday, and that same day the Innocence Network filed a brief asking the court to grant Davis a new trial.
The Innocence Network is an association of nearly 40 member organizations, including the Innocence Project, dedicated to providing pro bono legal and investigative services to indigent prisoners whose actual innocence may be established by post-conviction evidence. The Networkn doesn’t represent Davis but filed the brief as “a friend of the court.” www.innocencecetwork.org
The Network brief details the ways in which eyewitness misidentification and snitch testimony, both major factors in Davis’ conviction, have contributed to wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing. The Network is calling on the court to grant Davis a new trial because “the evidence used to convict Troy Davis was entirely unreliable and raises a real question of his actual innocence.”
Download the full brief here.
Read more about Troy Davis and watch messages sent to him by supporters on the “Free Troy Davis” YouTube page.
Tags: Informants/Snitches
Hundreds of supporters call for DNA testing in Chicago case
Posted: January 17, 2008 4:01 pm
Johnnie Lee Savory was 14 years old when he went to prison for the murders of two teenagers – a crime he says he didn’t commit. Savory served 30 years – two-thirds of his life – in Illinois prisons before he was released on parole last year. Illinois courts have repeatedly denied Savory the right to DNA testing, and yesterday Savory was joined by hundreds of supporters in calling on Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to order testing in the case. Signing letters to Gov. Blagojevich were five former U.S. Attorneys, two former White House chiefs of staff, Noam Chomsky, John Grisham, business and religious leaders and 30 people exonerated by DNA testing.
Savory, who is African-American, was convicted twice by all-white juries, and the second conviction rested partly on the testimony of three informants who testified that Savory had told them about committing the crime. Two of those three informants have recanted their testimony. Physical evidence from the crime scene – including the alleged murder weapon, hairs from the crime scene and fingernail scrapings from the victims – could be tested now for DNA that might identify the real perpetrator in the murders. Savory is represented by lawyers at the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law and at the Chicago law firm Jenner & Block.
In their letter to Gov. Blagojevich, the group wrote:Read the full letter, and learn more about Savory’s case.
Mr. Savory’s efforts to have the biological evidence in the case tested through the courts have failed. Hence, you, in all likelihood, are Mr. Savory’s only hope.
You have the power to order the testing, and there is precedent for you to do so; in fact, in the case of Gary Dotson — the first DNA exoneration in Illinois — Governor James R. Thompson ordered the testing which eventually cleared Mr. Dotson of rape. The testing will not cost the state any money. Mr. Savory will shoulder the entire expense of the DNA testing.
Tags: Informants/Snitches
California case challenges prosecutorial immunity
Posted: April 14, 2008 1:15 pm
Prosecutors nationwide have traditionally been shielded from lawsuits brought by wrongfully convicted individuals. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this immunity is necessary to ensure that prosecutors can do their jobs without fear of personal legal implication.
But last year, the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that supervising prosecutors could be liable if they failed to create a system that safeguarded against wrongful conviction. And now a lawsuit – brought by Thomas Goldstein, who served 24 years in prison before being released on evidence of his innocence – alleges that Los Angeles’ head prosecutor can be held liable for the use of a jailhouse informant in Goldstein’s case. The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it will hear this case during its next term.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office, the nation's largest prosecution office, once made regular use of jail informants, but at the time it had no system for sharing information among prosecutors countywide about which informants were reliable and what they had been promised.The lawsuit names John Van de Kamp, Los Angeles County’s chief prosecutor at the time of Goldstein’s conviction and now the chair of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, one of the country’s most active innocence commissions.
Goldstein was ordered released after 24 years in prison after the sole eyewitness recanted and doubts emerged about a supposed confession by Goldstein to an informant. Years after his conviction, Goldstein learned that his jailhouse accuser -- a three-time felon -- had lied in court when he denied having received promises of special treatment from another county prosecutor in exchange for his testimony.
"This suit is 29 years in the making, and it's about accountability," said Goldstein. "[It] will put every prosecutor's office on notice that they need a system for sharing information. And by doing so, it will result in fewer wrongful convictions."
...Van de Kamp sees a note of irony in the situation. He is the chair of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, a group set up to prevent wrongful convictions. It has pressed for a law that would require corroboration before testimony from a jailhouse informant could be used in a criminal trial.Read more about the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice.
The Legislature approved such a bill last year, but it in October Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it. He called the measure "unnecessary" because this "perceived problem . . . arises in very few criminal cases."
Read the full article here. (LA Times, 04/13/08)
Tags: Informants/Snitches, Government Misconduct
Gov. Schwarzenegger can’t wait another year
Posted: September 11, 2008 4:00 pm
Cross-posted from The California Progress Report
By Herman Atkins
Over 20 years ago, a woman was brutally raped and robbed in a shoe store in Riverside. To this day, no one knows who committed the crime. But because of other people’s mistakes, I spent almost 12 years in prison for his crime—until the Innocence Project used DNA to prove I was innocent. Even though I lost 12 years of my life and suffered the indignities and horrors of more than a decade in California’s prisons, I am one of the lucky ones. For most people, there is no DNA to prove their innocence and no free lawyers to help them.
Four bills that would help reduce wrongful convictions in California were introduced in the legislature this year, and two have finally made it to the Governor’s desk. The state’s budget crisis killed the other two bills even though they had very moderate price tags. Nonetheless, the two bills on Gov. Schwarzenegger’s desk are important first steps and he must sign them now.
Failing to enact these reforms puts public safety at risk. As in my case, when an innocent person is convicted, the investigation stops and the real perpetrator is often never found. We cannot wait one more year to take action to reduce wrongful convictions.
The first bill, SB 1589, would require corroboration for jailhouse informant testimony. Informants have good reasons to lie: they are getting something in exchange for what they say. Yet, they are persuasive. In fact, informants are the leading cause of wrongful convictions in death penalty cases. We already require corroboration for co-defendant informants; SB 1589 simply extends that same precaution to jailhouse informants.
The second bill, AB 2937, would provide more services to wrongfully convicted people and remove some of the hurdles to compensation for the innocent. Currently, wrongfully convicted people receive even less assistance than parolees who actually committed the crime. Indeed, my wife and I have established a foundation to provide assistance to wrongfully convicted people because the state does nothing. As the chair of the Council for the Wrongfully Convicted, I had the opportunity to testify before the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice about the difficulties we face after exoneration. My testimony led the Commission to recommend the reforms in this bill.
Also known as the Arthur Carmona Justice for the Wrongfully Convicted Act, AB 2937 is named after a brave young man who was wrongfully convicted at just 16 years old, and whom I had the opportunity to work with before he was tragically killed earlier this year. Arthur and I shared a couple of things in common: we were both wrongfully convicted based on mistaken eyewitness identification and police misconduct, and we also both had loving and dedicated families who fought for and supported us. Even with our strong support systems, we both struggled to cope with life outside of prison with virtually no help from the state that took our best years from us.
The Arthur Carmona Act would change that by ensuring that wrongfully convicted people have the same access to resources that ex-offenders receive when released from prison. It would also require that criminal records relating to a wrongful conviction are sealed, and would remove procedural hurdles to compensation for the factually innocent.
All of these reforms are based on recommendations by the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, which spent the last three years studying our justice system and developing recommendations to make it better and more accurate. The Commission was created by the Senate in 2004, and the legislature has even passed similar bills based on the Commission’s recommendations in the last two sessions. But Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed these bills in the past, causing even a commentator on Foxnews.com to lead with the headline: “Schwarzenegger Vetoes Justice.” Now the Governor can redeem himself, at least partially.
The bills that did not make it to the Governor this year, SB 1591 and SB 1590, would have addressed two other common causes of wrongful convictions – eyewitness misidentification and false confessions. Mine was a case of eyewitness misidentification, so I understand the need for reform, and am disappointed that our budget crisis has once again gotten in the way of justice.
Every year that goes by without these reforms, we risk sentencing more innocent people to prison or even the death penalty, we let guilty people go free, and we continue the cycle of injustice by failing to help the wrongfully convicted who are released. Justice cannot wait one more year; Gov. Schwarzenegger must sign the bills in front of him today.
Please contact Gov. Schwarzenegger and urge him to sign SB 1589 and AB 2937.
Herman Atkins lives with his family in Fresno California. He is the founder of the LIFE Foundation, which provides immediate support to wrongfully convicted people on release from prison. He is also the chair of the Council for the Wrongfully Convicted, a coalition of innocent men and women who were wrongfully imprisoned. His story is one of eight featured in the acclaimed documentary, Life After Exoneration. He is a frequent lecturer and public speaker on wrongful convictions and the struggles of the wrongfully convicted on release.Read Herman's last post on the Innocence Blog.
Tags: California, Exoneree Compensation, Informants/Snitches
Innocence Network urges U.S. Supreme Court to maintain safeguards against prosecutorial misconduct
Posted: September 16, 2008 3:18 pm
In a new Supreme Court brief, the Innocence Network is arguing that top-level prosecutors must be held accountable when they set policies that ignore or violate people’s rights and lead to wrongful convictions. False testimony from a jailhouse informant was central in the 1980 murder conviction of Thomas Goldstein, who is suing the former Los Angeles County District Attorney because the office had no safeguards in place at the time of Goldstein’s conviction to prevent snitches from testifying falsely.
Read today’s Innocence Project press release on the Innocence Network’s friend-of-the-court brief in the Goldstein case and download the full brief.
Also today, the Texas criminal justice blog Grits for Breakfast focuses today on the difficulty to prove innocence in non-DNA cases, especially those involving snitches and informants.
A situation involving a mendacious jailhouse snitch out of Orange, Texas shows how such cases play out when DNA evidence doesn't exist to prove innocence to a certainty. KPRC-Channel 2 in Houston recently told the story of Daniel Meehan (Sept. 4) whose 1998 conviction and 99-year sentence was based in part on testimony by an informant who now says he lied to get his own cases dismissed and that prosecutors told him what to say.A bill passed this year by the California legislature and currently awaiting Gov. Schwarzenegger’s signature would require corroboration of jailhouse snitch testimony. Send Schwarzenegger an email today urging him to sign the bill and prevent wrongful convictions in his state.
Read the full Grits post here. (9/16/08)
More resources:
“The Snitch System” – a report by the Center on Wrongful Convictions in Chicago.
Learn more about the role of snitch testimony in wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA testing.
Tags: California, Informants/Snitches, Government Misconduct
Dispatch from Austin: The Criminal Justice Integrity Unit meets
Posted: September 29, 2008 5:40 pm
The Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit held meetings in Austin on Thursday and heard from witnesses on a variety of topics, including snitch testimony and evidence collection and preservation. The Integrity Unit was created earlier this year by the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals to review criminal justice practices in the state and its members include a cross-section of the criminal justice community.
Scott Henson, who writes the blog Grits for Breakfast and works as a consultant with the Innocence Project of Texas, attended the meeting and wrote about his reactions on Grits. Here’s what he found:
Pat Johnson, who's the field supervisor for DPS' state-run crime labs and a member of the Integrity Unit panel, performed an informal survey of non-DPS crime labs in Texas operated by local jurisdictions. Respondents said that less than 10% of evidence collected at crime scenes was gathered by lab personnel, with most of it being collected by cops. Austin PD is the main exception, he said, with an entirely civilian Crime Scene Investigation unit.
A majority of labs, when asked how good a job they were doing, replied that some improvements were needed.
One lab said they did not believe they were receiving all available evidence that should be examined, while a majority said "we don't know."
…
John Vasquez from the Texas Association of Property and Evidence Inventory Technicians (TAPEIT) gave an interesting presentation about evidence preservation failures and the need for greater professionalism and implementation of best practices by police department property rooms. TAPEIT has about 600 active members who work in law enforcement agencies around the state, he said. (See their rather active message boards.)
…
One of the CCA "Integrity Unit" members, Texas House Corrections Chairman Jerry Madden, posed a question to Justice Project President John Terzano regarding snitches during his presentation yesterday that inspired me to (perhaps rudely?) interject from the audience a response to his concerns. (I was attending as part of my consulting gig with the Innocence Project of Texas.)
Terzano was arguing that informants whose testimony will be compensated by money, reduced charges or more lenient sentences for other crimes they've committed should be subjected to a pre-trial reliability hearing in which a judge, outside the purview of the jury, makes an independent determination whether the informant is a reliable source.
Read the three posts on the meeting. (Grits for Breakfast, 09/26/08)
Tags: Texas, Innocence Commissions, Evidence Preservation, Informants/Snitches
The Danger of Courting Informants
Posted: December 9, 2008 2:15 pm
False testimony from jailhouse snitches is a leading cause of wrongful convictions, involved in 15% of the 225 DNA exonerations cases to date. When someone receives an incentive to testify against a defendant – whether that incentive is money or a reduced sentence – the witness will often lie for his or her own benefit.
Some police departments across the country have taken steps to corroborate any snitch testimony they use in investigations. California lawmakers have passed bills two years in a row requiring that snitch testimony be corroborated for it to be used at trial, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed the bills both times.
And, as we reported previously, the Albuquerque Police Department ran a newspaper ad recently seeking paid informants. USA Today has an article today on the controversy over Albuquerque’s program and changes that other police departments are making to avoid false testimony from snitches misleading criminal investigations and causing wrongful convictions.
"Make some extra cash! Drug use OK. Criminal record? Not a problem." The ad in the Weekly Alibi prompted 93 calls during its two-week run before it was taken down last week, police spokesman John Walsh said…
The ad is drawing criticism from legal analysts who say it could lead to inaccurate information when some agencies are re-evaluating how they deal with paid informants…
"In an economy when jobs are scarce, this is just asking people to make up information for money," said Ellen Yaroshefsky, a legal ethics professor at New York's Benjamin Cardozo School of Law. "This is extremely dangerous."
Read the full story here. (USA Today, 12/09/08)
Tags: Informants/Snitches
Steven Barnes Officially Exonerated in New York
Posted: January 9, 2009 4:30 pm
Steven Barnes was able to spend the holidays with his family for the first time in almost 20 years when DNA testing proved that he did not commit a murder for he was convicted in 1989. Even though he was released as a result of the testing, the state said the charges against Barnes would stay until further investigation.
At a hearing this morning in Utica, New York, Barnes was officially exonerated when the county apologized for his wrongful conviction and the court lifted the original indictment. Barnes is the 227th person to be exonerated by DNA evidence and is the 24th in New York.
Read the Innocence Project's press release here.
Highlights of today’s news coverage of Barnes’ case:
Utica Observer-Dispatch: It's official: Barnes exonerated on all charges
Associated Press: Wrongly jailed NY man formally cleared of murder
WKTV: Steven Barnes fully exonerated for 1985 rape and murder
Tags: New York, Eyewitness Identification, Forensic Oversight, Informants/Snitches, Steven Barnes
U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Lawsuit by Freed California Man
Posted: January 29, 2009 5:46 pm
Thomas Goldstein served 24 years in California prison before a federal appeals court ruling in 2004 found that he had been wrongfully convicted and led to his release. His 1979 murder conviction was based largely on testimony of a jailhouse snitch, who said he had not received anything for his testimony – a claim which was later revealed to be untrue.
After being freed, Goldstein sued former Los Angeles District Attorney John Van de Kamp, seeking to hold the prosecutor liable for not having procedures in place to track testimony from unreliable snitches. In 2008, Goldstein’s case went before the U.S. Supreme Court, which considered whether office policies created by Van de Kamp were protected by prosecutorial immunity. Individual prosecutors have absolute immunity from lawsuits seeking to hold them accountable for their trial-related “adversarial” conduct but not for “investigative” or “administrative” actions.
In a unanimous decision this week, the court found that Van de Kamp could not sue in this instance.
Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in the opinion that immunity covered claims about a failure to train or supervise prosecutors or to set up an information system with material that calls into question the truthfulness of informants.
Breyer said allowing the lawsuit to go forward would permit criminal defendants to bring claims for other trial-related training or supervisory failings, affecting the way in which prosecutors carried out their basic courtroom tasks.
Read the full story here. (Reuters, 01/26/09)Before the case was argued, the Innocence Network filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Supreme Court, arguing that Van de Kamp’s role in this case was administrative, not trial-related. The Supreme Court disagreed.
Download the Innocence Network amicus brief here.
View other amicus briefs and read commentary on the decision at the SCOTUS blog.
Tags: Informants/Snitches, Government Misconduct
Friday Roundup: Identification and Informants
Posted: April 17, 2009 6:45 pm
A Georgia death row inmate lost his federal appeal this week and a Chicago man goes to trial next week for the third time for a murder he says he didn't commit. Here are stories of injustice and reform from the week:
A federal court rejected Troy Davis’ appeal this week and announced a 30-day stay of execution so he could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Davis has been on Georgia’s death row for two decades for a murder he says he didn’t commit and has come within hours of execution three times before receiving stays.
Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn wrote that Juan Rivera’s third trial for a murder he says he didn’t commit – set to begin on Monday – sounds eerily similar to the wrongful conviction and repeated trials and appeals of exoneree Rolando Cruz.
The Texas Senate passed bills this week requiring law enforcement agencies in the state to establish written identification procedures, and requiring corroboration for testimony from jailhouse informants. Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail reported that Ontario has nearly phased out the use of jailhouse informants.
The Constitution Project released a groundbreaking report on the state of indigent defense in America. The report, “Justice Denied,” says that public defense systems are struggling across the country, and that many are failing. Read more about the effects of bad and overburdened lawyers in wrongful conviction cases.
Tags: Informants/Snitches, Bad Lawyering, Eyewitness Misidentification
Deadline Extended: Help Us Pay for DNA Testing
Posted: September 24, 2009 2:05 pm
We have been honored and moved by the strong interest in our campaign this month to raise funds for client DNA testing. We deeply appreciate the generosity of hundreds of people from all over the world who have given so far this month. It is thanks to your support that we are able to free the innocent.
We have just $5,470 to go in order to reach our goal of $25,000 and we think we can make it. That’s why we extended the deadline to September 30. For one more week, you can donate here and 100% of your gift will go to support DNA testing.
Spreading the word about this work is critical as well - click here to post this campaign to Facebook and here to post on Twitter.
Thank you from all of us at the Innocence Project.
Tags: False Confessions, Unvalidated/Improper Forensics, Informants/Snitches, Bad Lawyering, Government Misconduct, Eyewitness Misidentification
Jailhouse Snitch Recants in Florida Case
Posted: November 2, 2009 5:30 pm
A Florida man said today at a legislative hearing that he was coerced into testifying falsely against William Dillon 28 years ago, contributing to Dillon’s wrongful conviction for a murder he didn’t commit. The hearing was focused on state compensation for Dillon, who spent 27 years in prison before DNA testing obtained by the Innocence Project of Florida proved his innocence and led to his release one year ago this month.
Roger Dale Chapman, who was in jail on a drug charge when Dillon was arrested, said at the hearing that Brevard County law enforcement officers offered to set him free in exchange for his coached testimony against Dillon. Two officers sat with him during a recorded interview and wrote answers in a notebook for him to read on tape, he said. Chapman apologized to Dillon today for his role in the injustice, and Dillon forgave him, saying: "I know you were used. I know they pressured you."
Another Brevard County exoneree, Innocence Project client Wilton Dedge, was convicted based in part on the testimony of a notorious jailhouse snitch, who testified that Dedge confessed to him while the two men were in jail. Informant or snitch testimony has played a role in at least 15% of the 245 wrongful convictions overturned through DNA testing to date.
Dillon is seeking $1.35 million in compensation for the 27 years he spent in prison.
Read the full story here. (Florida Today, 11/2/09)
Read more about Dillon’s case.
Read more about Dedge’s case.
Visit the Innocence Project of Florida website.
Tags: Wilton Dedge, William Dillon, Informants/Snitches
Ten Great Moments of the Decade
Posted: December 30, 2009 11:00 am
It goes without saying that DNA testing and the issues surrounding wrongful convictions have left their mark on the criminal justice system in the last ten years. When the decade began, DNA testing had been used in American courtrooms for more than 11 years, but exonerations were still fairly rare.
In the last ten years, 182 people have been exonerated through DNA testing and states have passed dozens of laws addressing the causes of wrongful convictions. Yet there is plenty of work to do — countless innocent people remain behind bars as we pass into 2010 and the threat of wrongful convictions in today’s courtrooms is still very real.
As we look forward to freeing more innocent people than ever in the decade ahead and enacting major reforms to prevent wrongful convictions, here is a list (in chronological order) of 10 seminal moments from the 2000s.
"Actual Innocence” is published (2000)— Written by Innocence Project Co-Directors Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, with Jim Dwyer, this groundbreaking book examines the emergence of DNA testing and the causes of wrongful conviction it unveiled. During the decade, it became a blueprint for overturning wrongful convictions and reforming the criminal justice system.
Larry Mayes becomes the 100th Exoneree (2001) — Mayes spent 21 years in Indiana prisons before DNA testing obtained by the Innocence Project and the Innocence Project at the Indiana University School of Law proved his innocence and led to his release.
Illinois clears death row (2003) — Pointing clearly to the frightening rate of exonerations in his state (since 1977, 13 death row prisoners had been cleared while 12 had been executed), Gov. George Ryan granted blanket clemency to all 167 people on death row on January 10, 2003.
Congress passes the Justice for All Act (2004) — The JFAA is the most significant legislation to ever address wrongful convictions in the United States. It provides an avenue for federal prisoners to seek DNA testing and funds incentives for states to offer similar testing and to improve DNA testing capacity. It also provides compensation for federal exonerees.
“After Innocence” premieres (2005) — An award-winning documentary chronicling the lives of seven men released from prison after serving years for crimes they didn’t commit, After Innocence brought the issue of wrongful convictions to America’s movie theaters and living rooms. Watch a trailer here.
“The Innocent Man” published (2006) — John Grisham’s first non-fiction book tells the heartbreaking story of a murder in Oklahoma and an unimaginable injustice suffered by two innocent men. The book reached best-seller status around the world and a film version is in development. Following the book’s publication, John Grisham joined the Innocence Project’s board of directors. Several other excellent books also chronicled wrongful conviction cases during the decade, check back tomorrow for the decade's must read list.
Jerry Miller becomes the 200th Exoneree (2007) — It took 12 years to exonerate the first 100 people through DNA testing. It was just seven years later that Innocence Project client Jerry Miller became the 200th person exonerated through DNA. He served 25 years in Illinois prisons before he was cleared.
Dennis Fritz and Peggy Carter Sanders Dance on Stage (2008) — the history of criminal justice in the United States is filled with poignant moments of injustice overturned, from tear-filled homecomings to stirring speeches and courtroom victories. One of the most memorable is the moment Dennis Fritz, who was exonerated after 11 years in prison for an Oklahoma murder he didn’t commit, unexpectedly danced onstage with the mother of the murder victim at a New York event. Watch this touching moment on video here.
50th Member Joins the Innocence Network (2008) — the Innocence Network is an international affiliation of groups working to overturn wrongful convictions. As the field has broadened over the last 10 years, more organizations have been created to meet the growing need for pro bono legal services and advocacy. In 2008, the Innocence Network reached a membership of 50 organizations, today there are 54.
National Academy of Sciences releases forensic report (2009) — Faulty forensic evidence played a role in more than half of the wrongful convictions later overturned through DNA testing. Many forensic techniques used in courtrooms today have never been subjected to rigorous scientific evaluation. In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences released a landmark report calling for the U.S. federal government to create a federal entity to oversee and support the forensic disciplines. Learn more here.
Photo: Innocence Project client Luis Diaz was exonerated in Florida in 2005 after 25 years in prison for a series of crimes he didn't commit. Courtesy South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Tags: Innocence Commissions, Exoneree Compensation, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Forensic Oversight, Evidence Preservation, Access to DNA Testing, False Confessions, Unvalidated/Improper Forensics, Informants/Snitches, Bad Lawyering, Government Misconduct, Eyewitness Misidentification
CA Governor Signs Jailhouse Informant Bill to Prevent Wrongful Convictions
Posted: August 2, 2011 5:46 pm
In more than 15% of wrongful conviction cases overturned by DNA testing, an informant or jailhouse informant testified against the defendant. Often, statements from people with incentives to testify – particularly incentives that are not disclosed to the jury – are the central evidence in convicting an innocent person.
The bill was supported by defense attorneys and the San Francisco and Los Angeles district attorneys.
Read the full article.
Read more about informant testimony.
Tags: Informants/Snitches