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Jeffrey Deskovic celebrates his first year of freedom on Friday
Posted: October 30, 2007 11:55 am
On November 2, 2006, Jeffrey Deskovic was officially exonerated of an upstate New York rape and murder for which he had spent nearly half his life behind bars.
Deskovic’s injustice began in 1989, when police focused on him as a suspect after his high school classmate was raped and killed in Westchester County, New York. Despite being cleared as a suspect by DNA testing before the trial began, the prosecution continued with their case against Deskovic on the basis of an alleged confession he gave after three polygraph sessions and six hours of extensive questioning by detectives. He was convicted of murder based on this confession and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
In January 2006 the Innocence Project took Deskovic’s case, asking state officials to check the foreign DNA profile from the crime scene against the state database. In September 2006, the semen was matched to a convicted murderer and Deskovic was subsequently released from prison, his conviction overturned. Deskovic was released later that same month, and officially cleared on November 2.
In July 2007, the Westchester County District Attorney released a report on Deskovic’s wrongful conviction, “showing the urgent need for reform – and what’s at stake.” Read the full report here.
Today Deskovic is working toward his bachelor’s degree at Mercy College in New York and speaks frequently on the issues of wrongful convictions and false confessions. Visit his website for more information on his upcoming appearances.
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
Saturday: Rolando Cruz, Illinois (Served 10.5 years, Exonerated 11/3/1995)
Tags: Rolando Cruz, Jeff Deskovic
Twelve Years on Death Row
Posted: November 3, 2008 4:00 pm
Today marks the 13th anniversary of Rolando Cruz's exoneration in Illinois. In 1985, he another man, Alejandro Hernandez, were wrongfully convicted of the brutal rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl. The men spent 12 years on death row before DNA testing proved their innocence and led to their release. On February 23, 1983, Jeanine Nicarico disappeared from her Chicago home. The police discovered her body several days after she had gone missing. After months of investigation, Alejandro Hernandez became a suspect, and he directed police to Rolando Cruz in exchange for a reward. The two men incriminated each other in exchange for cash rewards.
Since the police had no physical evidence linking the men to the crime, the case against them was based on the men's alleged statements. Witnesses testified that Cruz and Hernandez seemed to have intimate knowledge of the crime. The most incriminating evidence came from the sheriff's detectives who testified that Cruz had confessed to having "visions" of the murder that closely resembled the details of the crime. Despite no record confirming these visions, it was used as evidence and a jury convicted them.
Cruz’s conviction was overturned on appeal, but he was retried and convicted again. Then, with the help of professors and students at Northwestern University, Cruz was finally able to overturn his conviction and secure DNA testing on sperm cells found near the crime scene. The results proved the men could not have committed the crime, but prosecutors retried Cruz again. On November 3, 1995, Cruz was finally acquitted after his the third trial. Charges against Hernandez were dropped a month later.
If DNA evidence from the crime scene had not been preserved in this case, Cruz and Hernandez may have been executed for a crime neither of them committed.
What’s the evidence preservation law in your state?
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
David A. Gray, IL, (Served 20 years, Exonerated 1999)
Bruce Dallas Goodman, UT, (Served 19 years, Exonerated 11/3/2004)
Walter Smith, OH, (Served 10 years, Exonerated 11/8/1996)
Bernard Webster, MD, (Served 20 years, Exonerated 2002)
Tags: Illinois, Rolando Cruz
Another Chapter in a Notorious Chicago Murder Case
Posted: July 28, 2009 6:18 pm
Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez spent more than 10 years on Illinois death row before DNA tests proved their innocence of a child murder in 1995. The DNA tests at the time implicated a man named Brian Dugan, who had been convicted of two other murders and was charged with the murder in 2005. Yesterday, he pled guilty and told a judge he committed the crime alone. He has yet to be sentenced.
"A little girl died a horrible death, a family was twisted and tormented by the criminal justice system for a quarter century, but it's time to move on," said Scott Turow, a best-selling author and lawyer who handled the appeal of one of the men convicted in the slaying.DNA testing doesn’t only exonerate the wrongfully convicted, it helps to identify the people who actually committed the crimes in question. The Cruz / Hernandez case is among 104 DNA exoneration cases in which the real perpetrator of the crime has been apprehended.
Read the full story here. (MSNBC, 07/28/09)
Tags: Rolando Cruz, Alejandro Hernandez
An Illinois Man's Long Struggle for Freedom
Posted: November 15, 2010 12:05 pm
Innocent defendants made incriminating statements or false confessions in about 25% of DNA exoneration cases. These confessions are usually the result of external factors, including duress, coercion, intoxication, diminished capacity, mental impairment, ignorance of the law, fear of violence, the actual infliction of harm, the threat of harsh sentence, and misunderstanding the situation. Otherwise lacking significant substantial evidence, the prosecution capitalized on Cruz's false confessions.
The injustice Cruz subsequently endured was further compounded when the sheriff's detectives' testified that Cruz had reported "visions" of the murder. The detectives contested that while recounting his "vision," Cruz alluded to details of the crime, proving his involvement. The alleged "vision statement" was never recorded, yet it was entered into evidence and central to Cruz's conviction. The Innocence Project has recommended reforms in the practice of suspect interrogation, including mandatory electronic recording, which has been shown to reduce the number of false confessions.
A new episode of PBS "Frontline" examines the issue of false confessions and wrongful convictions. Watch the full episode online.
Northwestern University's David Protess and Larry Marshall assigned their students to investigate Rolando Cruz's case. After three trials and three convictions, Cruz was finally granted a new bench trial. DNA tests showed that spermatozoa found near the crime scene could not have come from Cruz or Hernandez and that Brian Dugan could not be excluded as a source.
Rolando Cruz was officially exonerated on November 3, 1995 after spending over 10 years in prison for an egregious crime he didn't commit. There have been 30 DNA exonerations in the state of Illinois where Cruz was wrongfully convicted. False confessions have played a role in 14 of those cases and government misconduct in eight.
Other Exoneration Anniversaries Nov. 1 to 13:
Jeffrey Deskovic, New York (Served 15.5 Years, Exonerated 11/2/2006)
David A. Gray, Illinois (Served 20 Years, Exonerated 11/6/1995)
Bernard Webster, Maryland (Served, Exonerated 11/7/2002)
Walter Smith, Ohio (Served 10 Years, Exonerated 11/8/1996)
Bruce Dallas Goodman, Utah (Served 19 Years, 11/9/2004)
Joseph White, Nebraska (Served 19 Years, 11/10/2008
David Brian Sutherlin, Minnesota (Served 0 Years, 11/13/2003)
Tags: Rolando Cruz