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Exoneree Advocates for Reform in Massachusetts
Posted: April 2, 2010 4:05 pm
Maher was charged with three sexual assaults in Ayer and Lowell, Massachusetts in 1983, based solely on the victims' identification of him at photographic lineups. Maher, then 23 years old and an Army sergeant with no criminal record, had apparently worn a red hooded sweatshirt similar to the one worn by the perpetrator, and he was spotted near the crime scene shortly after the second Lowell rape. No other evidence linked Maher to any of the sexual assaults, but he was convicted in two separate trials and sentenced to life in prison.
After his conviction, Maher consistently proclaimed his innocence and sought DNA testing on biological evidence. Yet the trial judge repeatedly refused his requests, and police claimed that all biological evidence from his case had been destroyed. In 2001, however, a law student discovered two boxes containing the pants and underwear collected from one of the Lowell rape victims. Testing on the underwear, and a second slide located by prosecutors from the Ayer case, excluded Maher as the source of semen. This conclusive evidence prompted his release from prison on April 3, 2003.
Since his release, Maher has successfully rebuilt his life. He is married with two children, ages 4 and 3, and works as a diesel mechanic in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. In 2009, Maher settled a federal civil rights lawsuit against the town of Ayer for $3.1 million.
Maher continues to advocate for reform, especially since Massachusetts is one of only three states in the country without a statute explicitly allowing prisoners access to post-conviction DNA testing. If such a statute had been in place at the time of his conviction, it is likely that Maher would have spent significantly less time in prison. Instead, Maher's access to DNA testing was at the whim of the judges and prosecutors in his case.
The Innocence Project urges states to offer broad access to post-conviction DNA testing, with reasonable limits, to ensure that the wrongfully convicted do not face the difficult legal hurdles that Dennis Maher overcame. Read the Innocence Project's proposed model reform statute here.
Read more on post-conviction DNA access here.
Other Exoneree Anniversaries This Week:
Antonio Beaver, Missouri (Served 10 years, Exonerated 3/29/07)
Anthony Capozzi, New York (Served 20 years, Exonerated 4/2/07)
Miguel Roman, Connecticut (Served 18.5 Years, Exonerated 4/2/09)
Eddie James Lowery, Kansas (Served 9.5 years, Exonerated 4/3/03)
Tags: Dennis Maher
Editorial Calls for More Action from Connecticut Innocence Panel
Posted: October 5, 2009 5:42 pm
An editorial in today’s Connecticut Law Tribune calls on the Connecticut Advisory Commission on Wrongful Convictions to end a lull in activity and make recommendations to the state legislature on reforms that can prevent wrongful convictions. The panel is one of eight such commissions around the country, but the Connecticut group -- expected to meet quarterly -- has met only once since November 2006.
Three men have been cleared through DNA testing in Connecticut since 2006: Miguel Roman, James Tillman and Kenneth Ireland. From today’s editorial:
To date, the Advisory Commission on Wrongful Convictions has yet to conduct an in-depth review of any of these cases. Nor has it examined any of the major causes of wrongful conviction or made any recommendations for the reform of practices and procedures necessary to insure that similar miscarriages of justice do not occur. In fact, since its inception in 2003, the commission has not issued a single report.Learn about the other innocence commissions in the U.S. on our interactive map.
Read the full editorial here. (Connecticut Law Tribune, 10/05/09)
Tags: Connecticut, Innocence Commissions
Race and Wrongful Conviction in Connecticut
Posted: April 9, 2009 2:45 pm
When Miguel Roman was arrested in 1988 for the murder of a 17-year-old Connecticut woman, he was interrogated mostly in English – a language he didn’t speak. His trial proceeded in English, and despite Roman’s continuous claims of innocence, he was convicted. He would serve two decades in prison before DNA proved his innocence and implicated another man in the crime.
A column by Helen Urbiñas in today’s Hartford Courant argues that a language and cultural barrier may have contributed to Roman’s wrongful conviction. She goes on to say that society’s lukewarm welcome for Roman’s exoneration may also be colored by his limited command of the language.
When I spoke some months ago to a juror who had served on Roman's case, he recalled Roman's demeanor, how disconnected he seemed from it all, how difficult it was to read him. I asked the juror then if he thought that Roman's inability to speak English well had anything to do with it. Maybe, he said.This argument has been raised before – even in Roman’s case. In 1992, the Connecticut Supreme Court denied an appeal from Roman argued that his conviction had been unconstitutional. One justice – Robert Berdon – dissented. He wrote:
It's a question that underscores the importance of what the Innocence Project is trying to do — using DNA, science, to offset some of the biases that creep into our courts. Of the 235 convicts exonerated through DNA testing in the U.S, nearly three-quarters were people of color.
When the defendant’s primary language is Spanish, and the police officers insist on conducting the interrogations in English, the entire process smacks of unfairness that will results in the perception by the Hispanic community that the criminal justice system is titled against them….In order for the public to have confidence in our criminal justice system, it is important not only that we do justice but also that all racial and ethnic segments of our population perceive that justice is done.In his dissent, Berdon went on to quote another of his recent dissents in 1992, in the case of James Calvin Tillman:
In our system of justice, not only must the accused be afforded a fair trial, but equally important there must be a perception of fairness by the community and the accused. Anything less not only undermines the credibility of this branch of government but also threatens the very fabric of our democracy.As many readers of this blog know, Tillman was exonerated by DNA evidence in 2006. Although signs of unfairness were evident in the cases of both Tillman and Roman in 1992, it would be more than 14 years before either attained justice.
Tags: Connecticut, Miguel Roman, James Tillman
Friday Roundup: What’s Next?
Posted: April 3, 2009 6:06 pm
Miguel Roman was officially exonerated in Connecticut this week, and there are dozens of additional cases around the country in which exculpatory evidence – DNA or otherwise – has surfaced and may lead to exoneration. Here’s a roundup of cases and other news that we’re watching closely:
A comprehensive review of thousands of Virginia cases is ongoing, and testing has uncovered evidence of innocence in at least two additional cases there. Victor Anthony Burnette is seeking a pardon from Gov. Tim Kaine and lawyers for Thomas Haynesworth say DNA clears him as well.
Articles in the Wall Street Journal and Slate considered new forensic research aiming to determine physical characteristics from DNA tests. While investigators say this could be a helpful tool to corroborate other evidence, others worry that this discipline, which is not 100% accurate, could lead to wrongful convictions.
The new Pennsylvania Innocence Project officially opened this week and has begun working to uncover injustice in the state.
Mississippi adopted a new exoneree compensation law this week, and Georgia lawmakers awarded $500,000 to John Jerome White, who spent 22 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted. There’s momentum in several other states to pass compensation laws – will your state be next?
The exonerated continued working to raise awareness of wrongful convictions and press for criminal justice reform this week. Several exonerees, including Innocence Project client James Waller, testified on behalf of a package of reforms in the Texas legislature.
Marty Tankleff, who was freed in 2007 after serving 17 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, spoke about a new book on his case in a City University of New York podcast. And British exoneree Michael O’ Brien will discuss his book “The Death of Justice” at a festival in May in the United Kingdom.
Tags: James Waller
Miguel Roman Exonerated in Connecticut
Posted: April 2, 2009 5:20 pm
After serving more than two decades in Connecticut prison for a murder he didn’t commit, Miguel Roman was freed in December due to DNA evidence of his innocence. Today, his name was fully cleared as a Connecticut judge dropped all charges pending against him. He becomes the 235th person exonerated in the United States and the second in Connecticut.
Miguel Roman's family and friends cheered Thursday as Judge David Gold dismissed the charges. Roman had been sentenced to 60 years in prison for the 1988 murder of his girlfriend, 17-year-old Carmen Lopez, but recent DNA tests showed could not have been the killer.Roman was represented by the Connecticut Innocence Project, a member of the Innocence Network.
"I'm glad to have everything finished," Roman said after the hearing. "I've got my freedom, and that's it."
Read the full story here. (Associated Press, 04/02/2009)
Tags: Connecticut, Miguel Roman
Friday Roundup: News from Connecticut, Texas, Maryland and More
Posted: January 30, 2009 6:05 pm
Connecticut exoneree James Tillman, who served 16 years in Connecticut prison for a rape he didn’t commit, told members of a Greenwich church this week that he is “blessed to be alive.”
Also in Connecticut, Pedro Miranda pled not guilty on Tuesday to three murders between 1986 and 1988. Investigators say DNA from the crime scene of at least one of these murders matches Miranda’s profile. Another man, Miguel Roman, served 20 years in Connecticut prison before he was freed based on the same DNA tests. Roman is still awaiting a final decision in his case.
Two arson cases made news this week. Texas officials are investigating whether the state executed Cameron Todd Willingham based on flawed arson science. And investigators in Maryland were able to conduct DNA testing for the first time on evidence left behind at the scene of an arson fire.
With several states considering abolishing the death penalty – and the issue of wrongful convictions a factor in each – Amnesty International considered the question of innocence and the death penalty.
And the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case in which an undercover informant allegedly heard incriminating statements from his cellmate.
Tags: James Tillman
Two Connecticut Men Seek New Trial Based on DNA and Other Evidence
Posted: January 7, 2009
Ronald Taylor and George Gould are currently serving 80 years for the 1993 murder of a local shop owner. Both men have always maintained that they did not commit the crime, and new DNA evidence secured by an unlikely source may help them get a new trial.
Taylor and Gould were both found guilty of murdering Eugenio Vega DeLeon 15 years ago. They were convicted largely based on eyewitness testimony and other circumstantial evidence. The men are currently waiting for a judge to decide whether they should get a new trial.
A private investigator hired by the public defender's office says that DNA found on an electrical cord used to tie the victim's hands together matches neither Taylor nor Gould. Despite the fact that this testing was done in 2006, New Haven State's Attorney Michael Dearington's office has yet to run the DNA profile from the cord in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) databank – which could identify who actually committed the murder. In nearly 40% of DNA exoneration cases nationwide, the actual perpetrator was later identified, often through DNA database searches.
The man who helped secure the DNA testing on the cord, Gerald O'Donnell, is a former Cheshire police officer who previously did work for Dearington's office. Over the course of three years, O'Donnell has compiled a thorough report that supports Taylor's and Gould's case; among his findings:
Gould and Taylor served time on the same cellblock as Miguel Roman, who was released from prison a couple of weeks ago when DNA testing supported his claim of innocence.
- fingerprints found on the door handle of a safe in the victim’s store (where he was killed) are not Gould’s or Taylor’s, and police are now either unable or unwilling to locate the fingerprints for new analysis,
- the state's main witness now admits in a taped interview that she lied at trial because police were threatening to send her to jail, and
- another witness recanted her testimony, now saying that she was pressured by police to say she saw two black men in the victim's store.
Read the full story here. (Hartford Courant, 1/4/09)
Read more about Miguel Roman’s case.
Read more about James Tillman, who was exonerated through DNA testing in Connecticut in 2006.
Tags: Connecticut, James Tillman, Eyewitness Misidentification, DNA Databases, Fingerprints
Friday Roundup: Two Are Freed, While Three Continue to Fight
Posted: December 19, 2008 5:05 pm
Friday Roundup: Two Are Freed, While Three Continue to Fight
Two people were freed from prison this week as new evidence cast doubt on their convictions and three others were fighting to overturn convictions for crimes they say they didn’t commit.
Miguel Roman was freed today in Connecticut after 20 years in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit. See today’s blog post on his case for more.
Jimmy Ates, who served ten years in prison for allegedly killing his wife, was released in Florida after a prosecutor requested his conviction be tossed. Ates’ conviction was based in part on FBI bullet lead analysis tests, which have since been shown to be unreliable. His is the first conviction nationwide overturned based on this evidence.
A Colorado man, Timothy Kennedy, was in court this week fighting to overturn his conviction in a 1991 double murder he says he didn’t commit. DNA evidence from the crime scene proves Kennedy’s innocence, his attorneys say.
In Michigan, Efren Paredes is seeking a commutation from Gov. Jennifer Granholm for a murder he says he didn’t commit. Paredes, who was 15 when he was arrested, told a parole board: "I will not take responsibility for a crime I did not commit. I never will do that even if it meant I could leave today."
A Chicago man is suing for damages based on the two years he spent in prison for a robbery he says he didn’t commit. Michael Glasper, 39, served two years of a life sentence before an appeal he wrote himself led to a new trial, which ended in acquittal.
Crime labs were also making news this week:
Detroit Prosecutor Kym Worthy created a panel to review convictions involving ballistic evidence dating back to 2003. The lab’s firearms testing division was closed in September after an audit found a 10% error rate.
An editorial in the Athens Banner-Herald called for the state to address a 10,000-case backlog to stop delays in criminal cases.
The dispute over control of the Orange County (California) crime lab continued this week, as experts warned that having a district attorney control a crime lab is a conflict of interest.
And the Innocence Institute of Point Park University launched the first issue of Justice Magazine, focusing on crime scene investigation and “junk science.”
Connecticut Man is Freed
Posted: December 19, 2008 3:21 pm
Miguel Roman was released from a Connecticut prison today after serving 20 years for a murder he has always said he didn’t commit. Prosecutors said DNA testing in Roman’s case had matched crime scene evidence to another man, Pedro Miranda. Prosecutors charged Miranda with the murder – and two other similar murders – on December 5.
Roman has another court date set for February 5, and it is unclear whether prosecutors will seek a new trial or move to dismiss the charges.
"It feels good. It feels good," Roman said, surrounded by family and friends who had packed the courtroom for the hearing.
Roman's daughter, Ana Roman, was 8 years old when her father went to prison. She said, for the first time in two decades, the family will make a home-cooked meal for him. She said her father is religious and patient, and that he was the one who got the family through his long incarceration.
Even in prison, Roman said, "he's always been a father figure."
Read the full story here. (Hartford Courant, 12/19/2008)
Connecticut Man Could Be Freed Friday
Posted: December 17, 2008 3:20 am
Miguel Roman has been in Connecticut prison for two decades for a murder he has always said he didn’t commit. DNA testing conducted in his case earlier this year pointed to his innocence, and implicated another man – Pedro Miranda – who has now been charged with this murder and two others.
Roman has a hearing scheduled for Friday in Hartford, where his lawyers from the Connecticut Innocence Project will argue that his conviction should be tossed out based on the DNA evidence. His family said they hoped he would be freed.
"He's been through a lot, the 20 years that he did," Rafael Otero, Roman's nephew, said outside Superior Court in Hartford Tuesday afternoon.
"We're anxious to see him."
Read the full story here. (Hartford Courant, 12/17/08)
Connecticut Hearing Set for January
Posted: December 15, 2008 5:12 pm
A hearing is scheduled for January 5 in the case of Miguel Roman, a Connecticut Innocence Project client who is seeking to overturn his murder conviction based on DNA evidence proving that another man committed the crime. Roman has been in prison for nearly two decades for the crime DNA proves he didn’t commit. Prosecutors last week charged another man, Pedro Miranda, with the murder and two other killings.
Read the update here. (WTIC, 12/12/08)
Friday Roundup: Walking Free
Posted: December 12, 2008 6:04 pm
DNA testing cleared three people this week – in Florida, Texas and Connecticut. We reported on all three, but here are quick updates on their case:
In Florida, prosecutors dropped charges against William Dillon, who served 27 years for a murder he has always said he didn’t commit. Dillon was represented by the public defender’s office and the Innocence Project of Florida. His attorneys announced today that he will seek compensation from the state.
Ricardo Rachell was freed today in Houston after serving five years for a rape he didn’t commit. See today’s blog post for more.
And Miguel Roman is still behind bars tonight in Connecticut, four days after prosecutors charged another man in the murder for which Roman has served 20 years. Roman is represented by the Connecticut Innocence Project, which is seeking his release and exoneration. More on his case is here.
An op-ed in the Hartford Courant said Roman’s case makes it clear that Connecticut needs criminal justice reform to protect the innocent.
James Lockyer, the founder of the Association in Defense of the Wrongfully Convicted, an innocence organization in Toronto, was nominated for the Globe and Mail Nation Builder award for his commitment to freeing the innocent from Canada’s prisons.
While the Alabama Attorney General sought to prevent DNA testing in the case of death row inmate Tommy Arthur, the Tuscaloosa News called for a moratorium on executions while the process could be studied.
And a Mississippi Supreme Court Justice wrote in an unrelated opinion that the exonerations of Innocence Project clients Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks point to the strong likelihood that innocent people have been executed in the state.
“Just as a cockroach scurrying across a kitchen floor at night invariably proves the presence of thousands unseen,” he wrote, “these cases leave little room for doubt that innocent men, at unknown and terrible moments in our history, have gone unexonerated and been sent baselessly to their deaths.”
DNA Tests Could Exonerate Connecticut Man
Posted: December 8, 2008 1:53 pm
Prosecutors in Connecticut arrested a 51-year-old man on Friday in connection with the 1988 murder of a 17-year-old girl after DNA testing of evidence from the crime scene pointed to his involvement. And another man, who has always said he was wrongfully convicted of the same murder, is seeking his released from prison based on the same DNA tests.
Miguel Roman has been behind bars since 1988 for allegedly killing 17-year-old Carmen Lopez. Authorities reopened the case after the Connecticut Innocence Project, which represents Roman, asked them to conduct DNA testing on evidence from the crime scene. The test results excluded Roman and pointed to another man, Pedro Miranda, who authorities plan to charge with Lopez’s murder and two other unsolved murders from 1986 and 1987.
Read the full story here. (Hartford Courtant, 12/08/2008)
We will post updates on this case here on the Innocence Blog as we receive them.
Tags: Connecticut