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WV Senate Considers Bill to Reform Eyewitness Identifications
Posted: February 21, 2007
A West Virginia Senate committee will conduct a hearing today at 3 p.m. on a bill to reform the way eyewitness identification procedures are conducting in the state. The bill would implement blind, sequential administration of lineups (LINKS) as well as other important reforms.
The Innocence Project, along with major criminal justice groups – including the National Institute of Justice and the American Bar Association – support the proposed reforms. Innocence Project Staff Attorney and Mayer Brown Fellow Zeke Edwards will testify today on the bill.
“Science and real-world experience make two things clear: Eyewitness misidentification is a serious problem, and the reforms being considered in West Virginia are proven to increase the accuracy of identifications,” Edwards said Tuesday. “Eyewitness misidentification is by far the leading cause of wrongful convictions. Scientific research conclusively shows that these reforms are effective; this research is borne out by practical experience in jurisdictions that have already implemented these reforms.”
Read more about the bill in the Innocence Project press release.
Read the full text of the bill.
More on eyewitness identification reforms in our Fix The System section.
UPDATE: West Virginia lawmakers consider eyewitness identification reforms
Posted: February 23, 2007
The West Virginia Senate heard testimony on Wednesday on a bill that would improve eyewitness identifications and strengthen the state’s criminal justice system. After deliberations, the bill was advanced by the Judiciary Committee.
The bill would give law enforcement statewide a uniform policy regarding eyewitnesses. It also requires witnesses be told that the suspect may not be in a lineup, that they don't have to make an identification and that "it is as important to exclude innocent persons as it is to identify the perpetrator.''
"It affects the victims as well. They have not put away the perpetrator of the crime,'' Sen. Jon Hunter, D-Monongalia and a co-sponsor, said of bad identifications. "What this really does is help law enforcement in the long run.''
Read the full story here. (Charleston Daily Mail, 02/23/07, LexisNexis subscription required)Read our previous blog post on this bill.
Read the full text of the bill.
West Virginia House Holds Hearing on Improving Eyewitness Identification
Posted: March 6, 2007
The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on SB 82, the bill that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last month and would improve eyewitness identification procedures in West Virginia. Eyewitness misidentification has led to scores of wrongful convictions nationwide, including several in West Virginia.
The reforms in SB 82 have been proven to reduce the possibility for errors that lead to wrongful convictions. The hearing is being held at 5:30 p.m. in room 410M. Rebecca Brown, Policy Analyst at the Innocence Project, will testify.
Read our press release on SB 82 and the full text of the bill.
Click for more information on important eyewitness identification reforms nationwide.
Maryland expert fabricated credentials, testimony is questioned
Posted: March 9, 2007
The former head of the Maryland State Police firearms division suddenly retired days ago and then committed suicide, and police revealed yesterday that an investigation showed that he lied repeatedly on the witness stand about his credentials. Joseph Kopera, 61, had worked as a forensic expert for 37 years on state and federal cases in every Maryland jurisdiction as well as in Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys told the Baltimore Sun last night that this revelation could lead to new trials for dozens of inmates that Kopera helped to convict.
"It raises huge red flags, and it's particularly disturbing because he had been doing this for so long that God knows how many cases he's been involved in," (Public Defender) Michelle Nethercott said yesterday evening in a telephone interview from Annapolis, where she was testifying in favor of a bill that would require oversight of police crime labs in Maryland.
As a firearms examiner - first with the Baltimore Police Department and then the state police - Kopera collected and then analyzed bullets, shell casings, weapons and other forensic evidence. Given the length and breadth of Kopera's work, prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys alike said yesterday that the implications of the investigation could be tremendous, with the analysis of every bullet and every weapon that has passed through Kopera's crime laboratory called into question. …
"The potential problem cannot be overstated," said Thomas J. Fleckenstein, a former Anne Arundel County assistant state's attorney. "Every case he has ever been involved in is open to question. There will be a lot of prosecutors having a lot of heartburn."
Read the full story here. (Baltimore Sun, 03/09/07)The Innocence Project has worked on many cases in which the discovery of crime lab misconduct has led to the exoneration of innocent people. Forensic fraud is troubling because in many cases handled by these notorious experts, evidence that could have proven innocence has been lost or destroyed after conviction. Cases is which DNA evidence can lead to exoneration are rare, and they point to larger problems in the criminal justice system.
- Former West Virginia lab chief Fred Zain testified in 12 states over the course of his career, and his faulty work led to the wrongful conviction of Gilbert Alejandro, James Richardson, William O’Dell Harris and others.
- The Innocence Project represents Thomas Siller, who was convicted partly based on false testimony by a notorious forensic analyst, Joseph Serowik, whose forensic fraud also led to the wrongful conviction of Anthony Michael Green.
- The Innocence Project is also involved in the case of Curtis McCarty, who has been convicted twice and sentenced to death in Oklahoma and is currently awaiting his third trial. His first two trials were tainted by the faulty forensic testimony of Joyce Gilchrist, who was also involved in the wrongful convictions of Jeffrey Todd Pierce and Robert Miller.
- Read more about forensic science misconduct.
States are slow to fix crime lab problems
Posted: March 26, 2007
Oversight of forensic crime labs has developed slowly around the United States, despite a 2004 federal law that requires states to conduct inquiries into allegations of fraud, mistakes or misconduct.
Tackling critical problems in the nation's justice system, Minnesota, Texas and Virginia have each founded powerful oversight boards in the last two years that can investigate misconduct in crime labs.Read more on crime lab oversight in our Fix The System section.
But not one of the new boards has yet reopened a case — either because they have refused to do so or because they haven't been funded.
"The country has to have trust that we're convicting the guilty and not the innocent," said Texas state Sen. Juan Hinojosa, a Democrat whose bill to create the Texas Forensic Science Commission became law in 2005.
The flaws in his state and elsewhere are "the tip of the iceberg," Hinojosa said. "Prosecutors are supposed to do justice. Instead, they just want notches on their belt. It permeates the whole criminal justice system."Read the full story. (San Francisco Chronicle, 3/24/07)
Actual killer in Earl Washington case pleads guilty
Posted: April 12, 2007
A 62-year-old man pleaded guilty yesterday to a 1982 rape and murder in Virginia for which Earl Washington Jr. was wrongly imprisoned and nearly executed. Kenneth Tinsley, 62, was already imprisoned for two other rapes and was sentenced yesterday to two additional life sentences. "I'm sorry for everything I did," he told the judge yesterday.
Washington, who falsely confessed to the 1982 rape, was sentenced to death in 1984. He came within nine days of execution before questions about his guilt led the Virginia governor to commute his sentence to life in prison in 1994. He would spend another seven years in prison – for a total of 17 years served – before DNA conclusively proved his innocence and led to his exoneration.
Read the full story. (Daily Press, Newport News, VA - 04/12/07, Payment required for full article)
Read more about the case of Earl Washington, Jr.
Eyewitness reforms gain momentum nationwide
Posted: April 20, 2007
Eyewitness identification was a factor in more than 75 percent of wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA testing. This legislative session, 16 bills including eyewitness identification reforms were introduced in a dozen states. One, in West Virginia, has been passed and is awaiting the governor’s approval. Ezekiel Edwards, Innocence Project staff attorney/Mayer Brown eyewitness fellow, told the National Law Journal that DNA exonerations have helped drive interest in these reforms.
Whether the pending bills pass or not, Edwards said there is definitely more activity now, which he attributed to wrongful convictions.
"They allow us to kind of look back at the cases as a collective and see what went wrong and the overreaching answer is eyewitness identification," said Edwards, who recently testified in favor of West Virginia's bill.What do these reforms include? Click here to learn more about blind sequential lineups and more in our Fix The System section.
Read the full story here. (National Law Journal, 4/20/07)
Read about pending reforms in Texas and California and the West Virginia reforms that were recently approved by the legislature.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
New Video: Marvin Anderson
Posted: June 19, 2007 12:40 pm
In a new interview posted today on our site, Virginia exoneree Marvin Anderson talks about the misleading lineups used in his case (his was the only color photo among several black and white photos) and the day he learned he would be exonerated. Click here to watch the three-minute video, or visit our page on YouTube to watch interviews with exonerees Robert Clark, Chris Ochoa, Ken Wyniemko and Alan Newton.
Evidence in Anderson's case was preserved because a Virginia lab analyst took it upon herself to keep an extra set of evidence in her file. If it weren't for her, he may never have been proven innocent by DNA. Read more in "Issue in Focus: Evidence Preservation."
Tags: Marvin Anderson
Virginia governor proclaims exoneree's innocence
Posted: July 20, 2007 12:46 pm
It was more than two decades ago that Virginia came within nine days of executing an innocent man. Earl Washington, Jr., was convicted at age 22 of a 1982 rape he didn’t commit after he gave police a false confession riddled with facts that didn’t correspond to the crime. He served 17 years in prison – including 10 on death row – before he was released after DNA testing proved his innocence. Upon his release, he took the state to court – and was opposed – as he sought compensation for the injustice he suffered. Last year, the lawsuit was finally settled, and this month, the state of Virginia finally admitted that he is innocent.
In a new pardon issued July 6, which revised one issued in 2000 by a former governor, Gov. Timothy Kaine wrote: "I have decided it is just and appropriate to grant this revised absolute pardon that reflects Mr. Washington's innocence." The previous pardon only admitted that a rational jury would not convict Washington.
An editorial this week in the Virginia Daily Press calls for the state to treat exonerees with dignity and to enact reforms based on the lessons of Washington’s case.
The case has also taught us some lessons — that police and prosecutors can be pursuing something other than the truth, that confessions can be false, that just because someone is on death row doesn't mean he's guilty. We should remember them every time a defendant comes to trial, and every time a life hangs in the death penalty's balance.Read more about the July 6 pardon.
Read the full editorial here. (Daily Press, 07/16/07)
Read more about Washington’s case and exoneree compensation nationwide.
Tags: Virginia, Earl Washington, Exoneree Compensation
New York Times: Study suggests thousands more may be wrongfully imprisoned
Posted: July 23, 2007 10:47 am
A new study by a University of Virginia law professor finds that several factors, like eyewitness misidentification and limited and unreliable forensic testing, contributed to many of the first 200 wrongful convictions to be overturned by DNA testing. The study, conducted by Prof. Brandon Garrett and to be published in the Columbia Law Review in January 2008, suggests that thousands of innocent people may be behind bars in the United States.
"DNA testing is available in fewer than 10 percent of violent crimes," said Peter Neufeld, a founder of the Innocence Project at Cardozo Law School, which was instrumental in securing many exonerations. "But the same causes of wrongful convictions exist in cases with DNA evidence as in those cases that don’t."Read the law review article abstract and download the full article.
Professor Garrett’s study strongly suggests, then, that there are thousands of people serving long sentences for crimes they did not commit but who have no hope that DNA can clear them.
Read the full story. (New York Times, 07/23/07, paid subscription required)
DNA exonerations highlight flaws in U.S. justice system (International Herald Tribune, 07/22/07, no subscription required)
The Norfolk Four: False confessions in Virginia?
Posted: August 20, 2007 1:52 pm
A New York Times Magazine article today investigates the case of four men convicted of a 1997 Virginia murder based almost entirely on their questionable confessions. Read background on the case and find more resources.
Read the New York Times Magazine story.
Learn more about compelling evidence of evidence and watch an online video at Norfolk4.com.
Tags: False Confessions, Norfolk Four
Hearing Thursday on lost evidence in death row case
Posted: August 21, 2007 4:51 pm
Prosecutors in a Kentucky death row case have said they are not able to find crucial evidence that was alleged to place the defendant, Brian Keith Moore, at the crime scene. Moore has said that he was framed by the actual perpetrator and has been granted access to DNA testing in order to determine whether clothing found at the scene belong to the alternate suspect – who has since died.
In legal papers filed in 2006, prosecutors said pants and shoes from the crime scene were available for testing. But now, they say they can’t find the evidence – and defense attorneys are asking a judge to overturn Moore’s death sentence. A hearing in the matter is scheduled for Thursday. Although the Innocence Project is not involved in the Moore case, Staff Attorney Vanessa Potkin discusses evidence preservation in an article in today’s Lexington Herald-Leader:
Old evidence was found after multiple searches in recent cases in Virginia, New Jersey and New York, Potkin said. In the New York case, Alan Newton waited 11 years for a rape kit to be located and was released in 2006 after serving 21 years of a 40-year sentence.A major Denver Post investigation last month revealed shoddy evidence preservation standards in police departments and prosecutor’s offices around the country, and a Maryland court ruled last week that prosecutors must search more widely for evidence before reporting it missing.
Maryland's highest court last week ordered prosecutors to keep searching for evidence that could be tested in a 33-year-old murder.
"Evidence just doesn't disappear," Potkin said. "You really need to be diligent. In this case, the significance could be life or death."
Read the full story here. (Lexington Herald-Leader, 08/21/07)
Read more about evidence preservation in our Fix the System section.
Tags: Kentucky, Evidence Preservation, Death Penalty
Critics say Virginia DNA testing project is moving slowly
Posted: August 28, 2007 5:01 pm
Two years ago, Viriginia officials said they would begin to test crime scene evidence in hundreds of cases that may have been wrongful convictions, and now critics say the state’s crime lab is moving too slowly in completing the task.
The process has its roots in the 2002 exoneration of Innocence Project client Marvin Anderson. After officials declared that evidence in Anderson’s case had been destroyed, samples of evidence were found preserved in the notebook of a lab technician, along with samples from hundreds of other cases. After DNA testing on this evidence led to the exonerations of Anderson and two other men (Julius Earl Ruffin in 2003 and Arthur Lee Whitfield in 2004), the Innocence Project urged officials to conduct a broader review of cases. Then-Governor Mark Warner ordered a review of a 10 percent sample of the 300-plus cases in which the technician had saved evidence. Two more men (Phillip Thurman and Willie Davidson) were proven innocent by this review.
Based on these results, Warner ordered a systematic review of all Virginia convictions in which biological evidence led to convictions, and officials said the project would take two years. However, two years into the $1.4-million project, testing has not been completed on even the first 30 remaining cases. Critics have accused lab officials of dragging their feet:
Betty Layne DesPortes, an area defense lawyer and member of the board of directors of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, isn't satisfied. "They didn't complete four cases, so we really don't know the magnitude of the problem. . . . They left over 10 percent of these cases incomplete."But crime lab director Peter Marone said the undertaking has grown since inception. His department has searched over 500,000 files for potential evidence so far, he claimed.
"Why haven't they done it already? They have no sense of urgency or commitment to this project," she said.
"I do not see how this is foot-dragging," Marone wrote in an e-mail. "This is not an easy process on 20-to-30-year-old cases."Read more about the cases of Anderson, Ruffin, Whitfield, Thurman and Davidson.
Read the full story here. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 08/28/2007)
Watch a video interview with Marvin Anderson.
Tags: Virginia, Marvin Anderson, Willie Davidson, Julius Ruffin, Phillip Leon Thurman, Arthur Lee Whitfield
Kevin Byrd celebrates the tenth anniversary of his exoneration
Posted: October 8, 2007 7:00 am
Wednesday marks the tenth anniversary of Kevin Byrd’s exoneration. After serving 12 years for a Texas rape he did not commit, DNA testing proved his innocence.
Byrd’s wrongful conviction was based on eyewitness misidentification. Nearly four months after the crime, the victim was grocery shopping when she spotted Byrd and told her husband that he was the man who raped her. Based on her identification, Byrd was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA testing. Read more about how Byrd’s case and others are helping to spark reforms in eyewitness identification procedures.
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
Wednesday: William O' Dell Harris, West Virginia (Served 7 years, Exonerated 10/10/1995)
Calvin Washington, Texas (Served 13 years, Exonerated 10/10/2001)
Friday: Allen Coco, Louisiana (Served 9 years, Exonerated 10/12/2006)
Tags: Kevin Byrd, Allen Coco, William O’Dell Harris
Innocence Project calls on lawmakers to fix New York State's justice system
Posted: October 18, 2007 2:22 pm
At a press conference this morning, Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld and two New York exonerees announced the release of a major new Innocence Project report: “Lessons Not Learned.” The report details the 23 wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing in New York State and lays out a clear path to reform.
Only two states – Texas and Illinois – have had more wrongful convictions overturned with DNA testing than New York. Some more facts from the report:
• In 10 of New York’s 23 DNA exonerations, the actual perpetrator was later identified.But while other states have passed reforms proven to address these issues and prevent future injustice, New York lawmakers have failed to act.
• In nine of those 10 cases, the actual perpetrators of crimes for which innocent people were wrongfully convicted went on to commit additional crimes while an innocent person was in prison.
• In 10 of the 23 cases in New York, innocent people falsely confessed or admitted to crimes that DNA later proved they did not commit.
• Six states – but not New York – have formed Innocence Commissions to identify the causes of wrongful convictions and develop remedies to prevent them. All but one of those states (Illinois) have far fewer wrongful convictions overturned through DNA than New York does.Download the full report here.
• 22 states – but not New York – have statutes mandating the preservation of crime scene evidence. The 22 states with such laws include California, Florida, Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma, Montana and Kentucky.
• Nine states – but not New York – require at least some interrogations to be recorded (either through state statute or ruling of the state high court). In addition, more than 500 local jurisdictions record at least some interrogations. Even though more people have been exonerated by DNA after falsely confessing to crimes in New York than in any other state, only two of these 500 local jurisdictions are in New York State.
Read the Innocence Project press release.
New York Times: New York State Not Doing Enough to Prevent Wrongful Convictions, Report Says
Virginia editorial: Crime lab review should be transparent
Posted: October 25, 2007 4:35 pm
After DNA testing on biological evidence discovered in the files of a long-retired Virginia forensic analyst led to the exoneration of five innocent people between 2002 and 2005, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner ordered a systematic review of possible DNA cases in the state lab. Officials say that review is moving forward, but the procedures have not been made public.
An editorial in today’s Virginian-Pilot calls for more transparency from the lab and prosecutors regarding their methods of reviewing cases for possible exculpatory evidence.
Lab leaders have sought assistance from local prosecutors in gathering information about the original crimes in each case. But an obvious bias exists if prosecutors are helping to decide whether a criminal case should be re-opened….Those convicted of the crimes have a right to know if new questions are being raised about their guilt, or alternatively if their guilt has been confirmed by new evidence.Lab officials announced last week that the first batch of 66 cases had been analyzed, and that two convicted defendants would be notified that their DNA was not found in the evidence from their case.
Read the full editorial here. (Virginian-Pilot, 10/25/07)
Read the full story here. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 10/22/07)
While searching for evidence in the case of Marvin Anderson, Virginia lab officials discovered that retired analyst Mary Jane Burton had been saving samples of biological evidence in her files. Anderson was exonerated by tests on the evidence in 2002, and the other four men exonerated by these samples were Julius Earl Ruffin, Arthur Lee Whitfield, Phillip Leon Thurman and Willie Davidson.
Tags: Marvin Anderson, Willie Davidson, Julius Ruffin, Phillip Leon Thurman, Arthur Lee Whitfield
Men wrongfully convicted in the 'Central Park Jogger case' mark fifth exoneration anniversary
Posted: December 19, 2007 3:25 pm
Today is the fifth anniversary of the exonerations of Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise. They were wrongfully convicted of committing the brutal 1989 attack and rape of a central park jogger. Police investigations quickly focused on the five teenagers, who were in police custody for a series of other attacks perpetrated in the park that night. At the time, the defendants were between 14 and 16 years old. They were convicted in two separate trials in 1990 and sentenced as juveniles to 5 to 10 years; Wise, convicted as an adult, was sentenced to 5 to 15 years. The men were exonerated on December 19, 2002, after another man, Matias Reyes, confessed to the crime and subsequent DNA testing excluded all five as suspects. They had served between 5 and 11 years for a crime they did not commit.
Faulty forensics and false confessions contributed to the wrongful convictions of McCray, Richardson, Salaam, Santana and Wise. After prolonged periods of police interrogation, all five confessed to being involved in the attack. McCray, Richardson, Santana and Wise all gave videotaped confessions. These tapes were presented as evidence at trial (despite the glaring inconsistencies among the confessions); the prosecution also presented forensic evidence that was said to link the defendants to the crime. This forensic evidence was later dismissed when DNA testing of the rape kit in 2002 matched Reyes, corroborating his confession and excluding the five as suspects.
Learn more about faulty forensics here. The convictions of these five teenagers have also raised questions regarding police coercion and false confessions, as well as the vulnerability of juveniles during police interrogations. Learn more about false confession, which have contributed to 25 percent of wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA testing.
Matias Reyes is currently serving a life sentence for a murder and four rapes that occurred after the Central Park attack.
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
Monday: Clyde Charles, Louisiana (Served 17 years, Exonerated 12/17/99)
Thursday: McKinley Cromedy, New Jersey (Served 5 years, Exonerated 12/20/99)
Billy Wayne Miller, Texas (Served 22 years, Exonerated 12/20/06)
Friday: John Kogut, New York (Served 17 years, Exonerated 12/21/05)
Larry Mayes, Indiana (Served 18.5 years, Exonerated 12/21/01)
Saturday: Willie Davidson, Virginia (Served 12 years, Exonerated 12/22/05)
Dwayne Scruggs, Indiana (Served 7.5 years, Exonerated 12/22/93)
Phillip Leon Thurman, Virginia (Served 19 years, Exonerated 12/22/05)
David Vasquez marks 19 years of freedom
Posted: January 4, 2008 4:15 pm
David Vasquez, a Virginia man who served four years in prison for a 1984 murder he didn’t commit, was exonerated on January 4, 1989. Today marks the 19th anniversary of the day of his release from prison after DNA proved that another man had committed the murder. The Virginia Governor pardoned Vasquez based on his innocence, making him one of the first people to be exonerated by DNA testing in the United States.
Vasquez, who has limited mental capacity, allegedly confessed to the murder before pleading guilty, in order to avoid the death penalty. The DNA tests that proved his innocence led to the conviction of another man, who was executed for the murders in 1994.
Read more about Vasquez’s case and the nine other Virginia exonerees here.
Tags: David Vasquez
New trial overruled in "Norfolk Four" case
Posted: January 11, 2008 5:35 pm
Four men who say they were wrongfully convicted of a 1997 Virginia murder were dealt a setback today when the Virginia Supreme Court reversed an earlier ruling granting one of the men, Derek Tice, a new trial. Tice, 37, had argued that he was wrongfully convicted based on a false confession that never should have been presented to the jury. Tice and three other men, Danial Williams, Joseph Dick and Eric Wilson (collectively know as the “Norfolk Four”) were convicted of the murder that another man, Omar Ballard, has admitted he committed alone. DNA evidence has since shown that Ballard is telling the truth, but Tice, Williams and Dick remain behind bars, serving life sentences.
Today’s state Supreme Court decision overrules a Norfolk judge’s ruling that Tice deserved a new trial because his confession should have been suppressed. At a news conference scheduled for this afternoon in Richmond, Virginia, four former Virginia attorneys general are expected to announce their support for the claims raised by the “Norfolk Four” defendants. The four men also have clemency petitions pending before Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. In 2006, 11 jurors from Tice’s trial signed letters stating they now believe he is innocent.
Read the full story here. (Washington Post, 01/11/08)
Read more about the case, and about how false confessions can lead to wrongful convictions.
Tags: Norfolk Four
Virginia conducts review of DNA cases, but doesn't plan to share results with inmates
Posted: January 16, 2008 5:31 pm
After a report last week revealed that Virginia officials do not plan to tell convicted defendants if an audit has revealed untested biological evidence in their case file, editorials and experts have criticized the plan as unfair to people who may be wrongfully imprisoned.
The audit began after Marvin Anderson was exonerated in 2002 by DNA evidence in his case that was uncovered in the files of a retired lab analyst. Gov. Mark Warner then ordered that 10% of cases in the analyst’s files be tested for a possible wrongful conviction. Two more men – Phillip Leon Thurman and Willie Davidson – were exonerated by this review, and Warner ordered a complete audit of all sex assault and murder convictions between 1973 and 1988 involving biological evidence. That audit turned up 2,215 cases, and officials plan to share this list of cases with police, prosecutors and the governor, but not to notify defendants if biological evidence has been found in their case.
Leading voices across the state are outraged by the plan to notify only police and prosecutors.
From an editorial in the Bristol Herald Courier:
Now, the state’s prosecutors, court clerks and police are fine, honorable people. But we’re not so certain that they will be zealous advocates on behalf of individuals that their colleagues put away years ago. It’s human nature to prefer not to kick over a hornet’s nest.
…The Department should move forward with testing and notify those whose convictions might be affected by the results of that testing. It’s the only fair way to proceed.
Read the full editorial here.
From an editorial in the Roanoke Times:
Unless Virginia is taking its lead from the White House's treatment of detainees, it should let prisoners and their attorneys know what new evidence is available. Those prisoners could then decide whether to pursue DNA testing independently of the state.
Yet the state Forensic Science Board does not think that is appropriate. On a 6-5 vote, it chose to keep prisoners and the General Assembly in the dark.
…Those opposed to notification raised concerns about the cost of testing, difficulty tracking down each felon and sending a message that the state doesn't trust police and prosecutors. None of those inconveniences is particularly convincing when the alternative is to deny a wrongfully convicted prisoner an opportunity to prove his innocence.
Read the full editorial here.
Read more about this issue in the Richmond-Times Dispatch.
Tags: Marvin Anderson, Willie Davidson, Phillip Leon Thurman
DNA leads to suspect in Connecticut exoneration case
Posted: February 1, 2008 10:22 am
Police announced yesterday that DNA has identified a suspect in the 1988 rape for which James Tillman spent more than 16 years in prison. Hartford Police and the State’s Attorney’s Cold Case Unit announced that a DNA profile from evidence at the crime scene has matched Duane Foster, who is currently serving time in a Virginia prison for unrelated crimes.
Foster previously lived in Hartford, where the 1988 crime happened, and Tillman’s attorney said the two served time in the same prison at one point. Officials have a warrant for Foster’s arrest on a first-degree kidnapping charge in the 1988 case, as the statute of limitations on sexual assault has expired. It was unclear Thursday if and when he would be extradited to Connecticut.
Read the full story here. (Hartford Courant, 02/01/08)
Tillman was released from prison on July 11, 2006 after serving more than 16 years for the 1988 rape. DNA testing proved that he did not commit the crime. Read more about his case here.
In 81 of the 212 DNA exonerations nationwide, DNA didn’t just exonerate people who were wrongfully convicted – it helped identify the true perpetrators who evaded justice for years or decades. The policy reforms the Innocence Project pursues nationwide are proven to protect the innocent and help apprehend the guilty. Learn more about these reforms here.
Tags: Connecticut, James Tillman
USA Today: DNA tests fuel urgency to free the innocent
Posted: February 19, 2008 4:24 pm
Charles Chatman is adjusting to his newfound freedom after 27 years in the Texas prison system. Each of the six rooms in his new apartment – including the bathroom – is bigger than his prison cell. Last month, he traveled to Washington last month to join Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld in calling for better federal support for DNA testing and oversight of crime labs. Now, he is thinking about going to college.
A USA Today article today chronicles Chatman’s case and examines the role of the innocence movement nationwide in reshaping America’s criminal justice system.
As DNA technology and investigations identify a mounting number of wrongful convictions, the urgency to find others like Chatman is increasing. From Virginia to California, local prosecutors, law students and defense attorneys are combing through hundreds of thousands of old files in search of flawed convictions.Read more about Chatman’s case here.
Read the full story here. (USA Today, 2/19/08)
New book examines Innocence Commissions
Posted: March 7, 2008 4:41 pm
A new book by George Mason University law professor Jon Gould examines the Innocence Commission for Virginia and the model of creating panels of experts to review the injustice of wrongful convictions and make recommendations for states to reform their criminal justice systems. The book, titled “The Innocence Commission: Preventing Wrongful Convictions and Restoring the Criminal Justice System,” received a strong review from the Library Journal.
“Written for the general public, Gould's book has important lessons for attorneys and policymakers as well,” the journal wrote.
Criminal justice reform commissions – also called innocence commissions – are a centerpiece of the Innocence Project’s reform proposals nationwide, and have been extremely effective in several states in bringing about reforms to protect the innocent and assist law enforcement agencies and prosecutors.
Buy the book here via Amazon.com – a portion of your purchase will support the Innocence Project.
Learn more about Innocence Commissions here.
Tags: Virginia, Innocence Commissions
Arthur Mumphrey marks two years of freedom
Posted: March 17, 2008 4:36 pm
Today marks the second anniversary of Arthur Mumphrey’s exoneration in Texas. Mumphrey was released on January 27, 2006, after serving nearly 18 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit. He was pardoned on March 17, 2006.
In 1986, Mumphrey was wrongfully convicted of the brutal crime based on the false testimony of co-defendant Steven Thomas. Thomas pleaded guilty during the 1986 trial and testified against Mumphrey in exchange for a 15-year sentence. DNA testing would later prove that Mumphrey’s younger brother, Charles, committed the crime with Thomas. Charles attempted to confess guilt to police at the time of the crime, but investigating officers apparently thought he was trying to take the blame for his brother because he was a juveline and would face a lighter sentence.
Read more about false testimony and informants here.
In 2002, Mumphrey hired Houston defense attorney Eric Davis to represent him in appeals seeking DNA testing. Davis and Mumphrey were twice told that the biological evidence couldn’t be located, but they demanded a third search. The evidence was found, and DNA tests proved Mumphrey’s innocence. Read more about Arthur Mumphrey’s case here.
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
Tuesday: Wiley Fountain, Texas
(Served 16 years, Exonerated 3/18/03)
Wednesday: Edward Green, District of Columbia (Served 1 year, Exonerated 3/19/90)
Julius Ruffin, Virginia (Served 20 years, Exonerated 3/19/03)
Friday: Andrew Gossett, Texas (Served 7 years, Exonerated 3/21/07)
Tags: Wiley Fountain, Andrew Gossett, Edward Green, Arthur Mumphrey, Julius Ruffin
How many innocent behind bars? Nobody knows.
Posted: March 25, 2008 4:25 pm
An article in today’s New York Times asks a question often heard by the Innocence Project: How many people convicted in the United States are innocent?
Observers from across the criminal justice system have weighed in.
Samuel Gross, a law professor at the University of Michigan, has found the rate of wrongful conviction in death row cases to be somewhere between 2.3 and 5 percent.
A recent review of biological evidence in 31 randomly chosen Virginia cases led to DNA testing that could yield results in 22 cases, two of which resulted in exonerations – a small sample size but an indicator that the rate could be as high as 9 percent.
A couple of years ago, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia cited questionable and discredited calculations from Oregon Prosecutor Joshua Marquis (who divided the number of DNA exonerations by the total number of felony convictions) to make his claim that the wrongful conviction rate is .027 percent. As Gross points in a recent law review article: “By this logic, we could estimate the proportion of baseball players who’ve used steroids by dividing the number of major league players who’ve been caught by the total of all baseball players at all levels: major league, minor league, semipro, college and Little League — and maybe throwing in football and basketball players as well.”
Today’s Times article notes that while there is disagreement about which calculations might help suggest the magnitude of the problem, there is a consensus that nobody ruly knows how many innocent people are in prison – and we may never know.
The Innocence Project has always said that DNA exonerations are just the tip of the iceberg, since only 5-10% of all criminal cases involve biological evidence that can be subjected to DNA testing (and even in those cases, the evidence is often lost, destroyed or too degraded to yield results in DNA testing). But the 215 wrongful convictions overturned to date by DNA testing illustrate the broader causes of wrongful conviction and show the need for reforms that can prevent injustice. As today’s Times article says:
…a few general lessons can be drawn nonetheless. Black men are more likely to be falsely convicted of rape than are white men, particularly if the victim is white. Juveniles are more likely to confess falsely to murder. Exonerated defendants are less likely to have serious criminal records. People who maintain their innocence are more likely to be innocent. The longer it takes to solve a crime, the more likely the defendant is not guilty.
Read the full article here. (New York Times, 03/25/08)
Kentucky lawmakers ponder eyewitness identification reforms
Posted: March 25, 2008 4:20 pm
In the last three years, dozens of states have considered bills to reform eyewitness identification procedures and prevent wrongful convictions. So far this year, Kentucky is one of six states considering such a proposal. A bill introduced by Kentucky State Rep. Kathy Stein would require law enforcement agencies to change the way they conduct lineups – they would present participants simultaneously and the witness would give a statement assessing their confidence in the identification. (For more detail on these reforms, visit our eyewitness identification page)
And although Kentucky’s bill is unlikely to be passed this year, advocates say they are laying groundwork for reforms in future legislative sessions. Dozens of law enforcement agencies around the country have reported that reforms have improved the way they investigate crimes.
Margie Long, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Beach, Va., Police Department, said the recommendations were adopted three years ago and have improved police work by taking away bias in putting together photo lineups.Read more about eyewitness identification reforms around the country here.
"We've added a great deal of credibility to our line-up process," Long said.
Read the full story here. (Associated Press, 03/25/08)
Tags: Kentucky
Virginia lawmakers approve measure to tell prisoners about old evidence
Posted: March 26, 2008 3:40 pm
A budget amendment awaiting the signature of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine would require the Virginia Forensic Science Board to alert prisoners when biological evidence is found in their old lab files. The measure, already approved by lawmakers, was introduced by Virginia State Crime Commission Chairman David Albo.
In January, (Virginia Forensic Science Board) members expressed concern about the burden on state agencies searching for the felons, many presumably released from prison.In January, two newspaper editorial boards joined the call to support notification of prisoners when evidence was found. Read those editorials here.
As a result, it is largely up to authorities to determine whether DNA testing is warranted and to interpret whether the results have any bearing on innocence -- even though qualified felons have a right to petition the court for testing.
Some advocates and experts are concerned that for the most part, only authorities are being told the evidence exists and not those who potentially have the most at stake.
Read the full story here. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 03/25/08)
Tags: Virginia
Supreme Court decides lethal injection case, hears arguments on capital punishment for sex offenders
Posted: April 16, 2008 2:10 pm
The U.S. Supreme Court today signaled that executions in the United States could resume, with a decision in the high-profile case of Baze v. Rees, which challenged the constitutionality of the country’s most common method of lethal injection. In a decision that split justices among several lines of argument, the final vote was 7-2 to allow lethal injections to continue. The justices adopted a standard that an execution method is only unconstitutional if it poses a “substantial risk of serious harm.”
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has already announced that the state will resume executions after the decision.
Justice John Paul Stevens, who voted in the majority that reinstated the death penalty in the U.S. in 1976, joined the majority in Baze v. Rees, but in result only. He wrote in his concurring opinion that “the time for a dispassionate, impartial comparison of the enormous costs that death penalty litigation imposes on society with the benefits that it produces has surely arrived." He went on to cite the possibility of executing an innocent person as another reason the U.S. should reconsider its support of the death penalty.
There has been a de facto moratorium on executions in the U.S. while states waited for the court’s decision in this case. Today’s decision means that the chances of an innocent person being executed are once again very real, as executions will likely resume immediately. One Innocence Project client on death row, Tommy Arthur in Alabama, was scheduled for execution before challenges to lethal injection led to a delay in the execution date. Will Alabama Gov. Bob Riley grant him the DNA testing that could prove his innocence before allowing him to be executed? Learn more about Arthur’s case here and send an email to Riley here.
Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck commented on today’s decision, and the irony that it came down on the same day Thomas McGowan is expected to walk free in Dallas.
“It’s a bitter irony that on the same day the Supreme Court paved the way for more executions and is considering expanding the death penalty beyond murder cases, a man is being released from prison in Texas after serving 23 years for a crime that DNA proves he didn’t commit. The same flaws in the criminal justice system that led to Thomas McGowan’s wrongful conviction exist in countless case where DNA testing is not an option – cases that sometimes end in death sentences. Our challenge as a nation is not to make it easier to execute people, or make more people eligible for the death penalty, but to do everything possible to make our criminal justice system more fair and accurate.”
Read more about Baze v. Rees on the SCOTUS blog.
Also today in Washington, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Kennedy v. Louisiana, in which death row inmate Patrick Kennedy challenges the constitutionality of capital punishment for child rape. In a friend-of-the-court brief at the Supreme Court, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers raised the concern that impressionable witnesses (such as children) increase the chances of wrongful conviction. The Louisiana law, the group says, presents “an intolerably high risk” that innocent defendants will be put to death.
Read more about Kennedy v. Louisiana on the SCOTUS blog.
Tags: Death Penalty
Brandon Moon marks three years of freedom
Posted: April 21, 2008 4:29 pm
Today marks the third anniversary of Brandon Moon’s exoneration in Texas. He was wrongfully convicted of a brutal rape in 1988 and sentenced to 75 years in prison. He served more than 16 years in prison before DNA testing proved his innocence and led to his release.
Moon became the main suspect after the victim viewed a photographic array and indicated that although Moon looked like the perpetrator, she couldn’t be sure. Resting on this hesitant identification, police secured a warrant and arrested Moon.
Moon was the only person in both the photographic and live lineup procedures and the victim identified him as the perpetrator in the live lineup. Additionally, Moon was identified as the perpetrator by two other women also believed to have been attacked by the same man.
Read more about eyewitness misidentification here.
At trial, a lab technician testified that Moon was a possible contributor of the evidence from the crime scene. Further testing during Moon’s appeals would prove that this testimony was seriously flawed, as the lab technician made inaccurate conclusions.
Read more about unreliable science here.
From the moment of his conviction, Moon began filing motions and appeals for DNA testing. He won access to DNA testing in 1989, but the results were deemed inconclusive because comparisons against the victim’s husband were not performed. He petitioned the court to allow for further testing, but was denied due to the court’s misconception that the other samples were unusable.
Finally, in 2001, Moon won access to further DNA testing and the results again excluded him as the perpetrator. In December 2004, Brandon Moon was released from prison and he was officially exonerated on April 21, 2005.
Read more about Brandon Moon’s case here.
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
Today: Anthony D. Woods, Missouri (Served 18 years, Exonerated 4/21/05)
Wednesday: Anthony Hicks, Wisconsin (Served 5 years, Exonerated 4/23/97)
Walter Snyder, Virginia (Served 6.5 years, Exonerated 4/23/93)
Thursday: Hector Gonzalez, New York (Served 5.5 years, Exonerated 4/24/02)
Ray Krone, Arizona (Served 10 years, Exonerated 4/24/02)
Friday: David Shephard, New Jersey (Served 9.5 years, Exonerated 4/25/95)
Saturday: Alejandro Dominguez, Illinois (Served 4 years, Exonerated 04/06/2002)
Tags: Hector Gonzalez, Anthony Hicks, Ray Krone, Brandon Moon, David Shephard, Walter Snyder, Anthony D. Woods
DNA tests overturn more wrongful arrests
Posted: April 22, 2008 4:32 pm
In countless cases across the U.S. each year, DNA testing conducted before trial releases an innocent person from jail, and eliminates the risk of their wrongful conviction. But months or years spent in jail – or on bond – while awaiting trial can take a damaging toll on a person’s family, career and life. And these cases point to the certainty that innocent people are still being arrested and convicted.
In Kansas City last week, 19-year-old Deangilo Minor was released from jail after serving 10 months behind bars awaiting trial on an attempted rape and a rape. He was identified by the victim in one of the crimes, but DNA testing conducted before trial proved that another man had committed the crimes. Based on the DNA results, Minor was released and the charges were dropped. During the 10 months he spent in prison, Minor lost his apartment and parted ways with his girlfriend.
“This case casts into doubt the reliability of eyewitnesses,” said Dan Ross, Minor’s defense lawyer.Wrongful convictions are still happening in the age of DNA testing. Testing is not conducted in all cases involving biological evidence. Innocent defendants take plea bargains before expensive tests are conducted in an attempt to avoid harsh sentences at trial. And then there are the vast majority of cases – more than 90% of all criminal cases – that don’t involve any biological evidence that can be tested. The risk of a wrongful conviction based on eyewitness misidentification or snitch testimony is just as strong – or stronger – in these cases today.
Ted Hunt, assistant county prosecutor, said the case showed the link between DNA and justice.
“It convicts and also exonerates,” Hunt said. “That’s a good thing for people to keep in mind.”
Read the full story here. (Kansas City Star, 04/17/08)
In a similar case, prosecutors in Virginia dropped charges last week against Anthony Worrell, a 20-year-old man who spent 17 months awaiting trial on charges he robbed a drug store. Charges were dropped after DNA testing on specks of blood believed to be from the perpetrator did not match Worrell. Prosecutors said they decided to drop charges “With our ID being a little shaky and without DNA…”
Read the full story here. (Southwest Virginia Today, 04/16/08)
Massachusetts man marks eight years of freedom
Posted: May 9, 2008 3:32 pm
Neil Miller spent almost the entire 1990s in Massachusetts prison for a rape he didn’t commit before DNA testing proved his innocence and led to his exoneration on May 10, 2000. Tomorrow, he marks the eighth anniversary of his release.
Miller is one of more than 160 exonerees whose wrongful convictions were caused, at least in part, by eyewitness misidentification. The victim in Miller’s case identified him in a book of mug shots, and again at trial. He claimed his innocence throughout the ordeal but was convicted and sentenced to 26-45 years.
Read more about Miller’s case here.
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
Sunday: Glen Woodall, West Virginia (Served 4.5 years, Exonerated 05/04/92)
Wednesday: Jeffrey Pierce, Oklahoma (Served 14.5 years, Exonerated 05/07/01)
Tags: Neil Miller, Jeffrey Pierce, Glen Woodall
Friday links
Posted: May 9, 2008 3:10 pm
More stories from across the country this week on wrongful convictions, forensics and criminal justice reforms.
Dallas Morning News editorial: Bad prosecutors should face prison
NPR Morning Edition: Dallas man exonerated after 27 years in prison
Fingerprint error leads to wrongful arrest in Georgia case
American Bar Association Journal: Bite-Mark Evidence Loses Teeth
Innocence Project files for testing in Pennsylvania case (Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, 05/08/08)
Lack of funds stalls Virgina DNA testing project (Associated Press, 05/08/08)
Texas exoneree Brandon Moon blogged this week about spending Cinco de Mayo in Texas prisons, and his trip to Texas for the Summit on Wrongful Convictions.
Tags: Brandon Moon
Virginia pauses massive DNA review to wait for federal funds
Posted: May 13, 2008 5:00 pm
The state of Virginia is seeking a $4.5 million federal grant to continue an unprecedented systematic review of DNA evidence in hundreds of convictions. The project, ordered over two years ago by then-Governor Mark Warner, has halted temporarily after spending $1.4 million in state funds.
The process has its roots in the 2002 exoneration of Innocence Project client Marvin Anderson. After officials declared that evidence in Anderson’s case had been destroyed, samples of evidence were found preserved in the notebook of a lab technician, along with samples from hundreds of other cases. After DNA testing on this evidence led to the exonerations of Anderson and two other men (Julius Earl Ruffin in 2003 and Arthur Lee Whitfield in 2004), the Innocence Project urged officials to conduct a broader review of cases. Gov. Warner ordered a review of a 10 percent sample of the 300-plus cases in which the technician had saved evidence. Two more men (Phillip Thurman and Willie Davidson) were proven innocent by this review and Gov. Warner ordered a systematic review of all convictions with biological evidence.
The review came under fire last year for not moving quickly enough because testing had not been completed on even 30 cases. The Washington Post now reports that lab workers have gone through 534,000 case files and sent thousands of relevant samples for testing.
The review has identified more than 2,100 files that contain forensic evidence with named suspects. The state has sent hundreds of samples to a private Fairfax County lab, Bode Technology Group, for testing.Virginia’s lab director Peter. M. Marone said the testing will continue with state funds if the grant doesn’t come through.
"We're just trying to make sure we'll expend federal grant money rather than state money," he said.
Read the full story. (Washington Post, 8/12/08)The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project is monitoring the case review and has raised questions about why the state is not notifying defendants when testing is being conducted in their cases. Read more on the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project blog (http://www.exonerate.org/category/blog)
Read more about the cases of Anderson, Ruffin, Whitfield, Thurman and Davidson.
Watch a video interview with Marvin Anderson.
Tags: Virginia, Willie Davidson, Julius Ruffin, Phillip Leon Thurman, Arthur Lee Whitfield
Innocence Project Co-Director calls for reform in West Virginia
Posted: June 12, 2008 1:20 pm
Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck said in a speech last night that West Virginia – and dozens of other states – were ready for bipartisan criminal justice reforms to prevent future wrongful convictions. Scheck spoke at an Innocence Project fundraiser in Charleston last night and this afternoon at a West Virginia lawyers’ conference.
We are heading into (a judicial reform) era right now," Scheck said. "The Innocence Project is something Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives can both support.View our interactive map for a snapshot of West Virginia exonerations and criminal justice policies – or in your state.
"It's all about public safety and all about getting things right."
One of the events sponsors, attorney Troy Giatras, said he was proud to help the organization, which he called a worthy cause.
"It's a shame that there needs to be such an organization, but the Innocence Project does great work," Giatras said. "It helps address one of the worst nightmares a victim of the American legal system can face, being wrongfully convicted."
Read the full story here. (West Virginia Record, 06/12/08)
Click here for advice on organizing an Innocence Project event or fundraiser in your area.
Tags: West Virginia
Dispatch from Maryland: The generation that could end injustice
Posted: June 25, 2008 12:22 pm
By Jason Kreag, Innocence Project Staff Attorney
DNA testing has brought sweeping changes to our criminal justice system, proving that wrongful convictions aren’t rare at all and exposing the weakness and unreliability of evidence that many people have trusted for too long – including eyewitness testimony, snitch testimony, unreliable science and alleged admissions of guilt.
The Innocence Project is working to make sure DNA exonerations will lead to the construction of a stronger system, one that prevents injustice by relying only on solid evidence and reliable law enforcement procedures. These changes, like everything in the law, take time. While there is exciting progress in courts and statehouses today, I think it will be the generation of young people sitting today in elementary and high school classrooms that ushers in a new era of justice in America.
I’m in Maryland and Virginia today to meet with two groups of high school students who are already making a difference. At the University of Maryland, I’ll be meeting with about 70 students at the National Student Leaders Conference in Forensic Science to talk about the role of forensic science in criminal law. Later in the day, I’ll give a speech on the role of evidence in the law to the National Youth Leadership Forum on the Law in Fairfax, Virginia. It is truly inspiring to see these young audiences taking an interest in our criminal justice system, and it means good things for the future of the system.
Kellie Davis of Alaska posted on our Facebook page recently that she was excited to see young prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges beginning to leave a mark on the system by treating each case with an open mind and seeking justice for all Americans. There’s only more of this to come.
If you’re in high school or college – or you know someone who is – you can get involved today. Join our Facebook and MySpace pages and invite your friends. Start a group at your school, invite an exoneree of Innocence Project staffer to speak, or collect signatures for our petition for DNA testing access. You can get started here.
Virginia DNA tests point to real perpetrator and could clear a wrongful conviction
Posted: August 13, 2008 1:10 pm
New DNA tests could posthumously exonerate Curtis Jasper Moore, who was convicted in 1978 of killing and raping an 88-year-old Virginia woman three years earlier. Moore, who suffered from schizophrenia, was committed to a state mental hospital for three years, until he was released when his conviction was overturned on appeal due to law enforcement officers’ failure to properly advise Moore of his rights before interrogating him. Prosecutors never retried him. Moore died of natural causes four years ago.
New DNA tests, conducted as part of a thorough review of hundreds of Virginia cases in which DNA testing could overturn wrongful convictions, have pointed to the involvement of another man, Thomas Pope, Jr., who has now been arrested and charged with rape and murder in connection with the case.
Moore was arrested shortly after the crime in 1975 after police received complaints about his “suspicious behavior.” Three police officers questioned Moore for some time, promising that he could go home if he told them what had happened at the murder scene. Police brought Moore to the victim’s home, and he allegedly made statements incriminating himself in the crime. A federal court reviewed the record and determined that Moore’s conviction, based on illegally-obtained admissions of guilt, must be vacated.
A Virginia spokesperson said the state is reinvestigating the crime to determine if Moore may have had a role.
Read more:
Richmond Times-Dispatch: New DNA test leads to arrest in ’75 rape, slaying (8/12/08)
Richmond Times-Dispatch: Man not cleared despite DNA test (8/13/08)
The ongoing review of hundreds of DNA cases in Virginia was ordered over two years ago by then-Gov. Mark Warner. The process has its roots in the 2002 exoneration of Innocence Project client Marvin Anderson. After officials declared that evidence in Anderson’s case had been destroyed, samples of evidence were found preserved in the notebook of a lab technician, along with samples from hundreds of other cases. After DNA testing on this evidence led to the exonerations of Anderson and two other men (Julius Earl Ruffin in 2003 and Arthur Lee Whitfield in 2004), the Innocence Project urged officials to conduct a broader review of cases. Gov. Warner ordered a review of a 10 percent sample of the 300-plus cases in which the technician had saved evidence. Two more men (Phillip Thurman and Willie Davidson) were proven innocent by this review and Gov. Warner ordered a systematic review of all convictions with biological evidence.
The review came under fire last year for not moving quickly enough because testing had not been completed on even 30 cases. The Washington Post now reports that lab workers have gone through 534,000 case files and sent thousands of relevant samples for testing.
Last week, Virginia officials announced that they would notify defendants by certified mail if biological material was found in their file, rather than using pro bono attorneys to track down and contact the defendants.
Tags: Virginia, False Confessions
Sixth exoneration anniversary for Virginia man
Posted: August 22, 2008 3:15 pm
Marvin Anderson never stopped fighting to prove his innocence. Despite being released on parole in 1998—after serving 15 years in a Virginia prison for a rape he didn’t commit—he kept searching for the evidence that could officially exonerate him. In 2001, a portion of the rape kit from his case — said to have long been destroyed — turned up in the old lab books of Mary Jane Burton, a former forensic analyst. After testing proved Anderson didn’t commit the rape, he was officially exonerated on August 21, 2002. This week marks the sixth anniversary of his exoneration.
Anderson’s exoneration was just the beginning. With the discovery of the evidence from Anderson’s case, Virginia authorities discovered that Burton had systematically stored a portion of case evidence in her case files. Because it was stored in files, this evidence had not been destroyed along with lab samples after an inmate’s conviction. Soon, Virginia had exonerated four more men and then-Governor Mark Warner had ordered the state to search for DNA evidence in thousands of cases from the 1970s and 1980s.
These exonerations wouldn’t have been possible if Burton had simply discarded the evidence—as was the standard procedure at the time. Even today, only 26 states have laws regarding the preservation of evidence. What’s your state’s procedure? Click here to find out?
And watch a two-minute video about Anderson’s case here.
Just last week, DNA testing conducted as part of Virginia’s massive case review led to new charges in a 1978 murder and could posthumously clear a man who was wrongfully convicted of the crime. Read more here.
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
Friday:
Charles Dabbs, New York (Exonerated 8/22/91, Served 7 Years)
Michael Evans and Paul Terry, Illinois (Exonerated 8/22/2003, Served 26 Years)
Saturday:
Charles Irvin Fain, Idaho (Exonerated 8/23/2001, Served 17.5 Years)
New innocence clinic launches at University of Virginia Law School
Posted: October 2, 2008 4:45 pm
Law students are receiving hands-on experience this year in a new innocence clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law. The Innocence Project and more than 40 other organizations worldwide form the Innocence Network, an affiliation of organizations dedicated to providing pro bono legal and investigative services to individuals seeking to overturn wrongful convictions. With the addition of the UVA Innocence Project in June, the network became one project stronger.
And the new project at UVA will accept cases in which defendants are seeking to prove their innocence by means other than DNA. Only 5 to 10 percent of criminal convictions do not involve biological evidence, and there are certainly innocent people in Virginia’s prisons whose cases cannot be resolved by DNA testing. Law students at UVA will investigate these cases to determine if there is evidence of innocence that can overturn a conviction on appeal.
Led by Deirdre Enright, a 1992 Law School graduate and experienced capital post-conviction lawyer, the clinic includes 12 students each year and will soon employ a full-time investigator to help collect evidence for appeals.
“This is sort of the dream class if you’re a law student because it involves great issues for research that are topical – DNA, new techniques in DNA, new testing, eyewitness ID, jailhouse informants, poor lawyering, poor prosecuting —it’s all these great cutting-edge issues,” Enright said.
“The Innocence Project at UVA School of Law will bring critical expertise and resources to investigating wrongful conviction cases,” Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld said. “We know that innocent people are convicted and spend years or decades in prison in Virginia, and this clinic will help exonerate more of them.”
Read more here. (UVA press release, 09/30/08)
Tags: Virginia
Six years free: Jimmy Ray Bromgard
Posted: October 2, 2008 4:10 pm
Today marks the sixth anniversary of the day Jimmy Ray Bromgard was exonerated in Montana, after serving more than 14 years for a crime he did not commit. Bromgard was convicted at 18 and released at 32, losing the prime years of his life behind bars. Participating in a prison program for sex offenders could have led to his early release, but he refused to take them. “I would have had to admit my guilt,” he said after his release. “I'd rather sit there in prison for all my life than admit my guilt."
On March 20, 1987, an intruder broke through a window into the home of an eight-year-old girl in Billings, Montana, and raped her. The perpetrator escaped after the attack, stealing a purse and jacket. Later in the day the victim was examined, and police collected hairs and semen from the crime scene.
Based on the victim's description, the police drew a composite sketch of the intruder. An officer linked the sketch to a local teenager he knew, Jimmy Ray Bromgard. After officers videotaped a lineup including Bromgard, the tape was shown to the victim, who said she was "60% or 65% sure" that Bromgard was the perpetrator. During trial, the victim continued to say she was unsure whether Bromgard was the assailant. Yet, Bromgard's assigned counsel never objected to the victim's identification.
The prosecution tied Bromgard to the crime by using the testimony of a state forensic hair examiner, Arnold Melnikoff, who claimed hairs found on the victim's bed were similar to Bromgard's, and further argued there was less than a one-in-10,000 chance that the hairs did not come from Bromgard. Melnikoff’s testimony was fraudulent; there has never been a standard by which to statistically match hairs through microscopic inspection.
Despite stating he was at home and asleep when the crime was committed, Bromgard's attorney did not follow up the investigation or obtain an expert to challenge the state's forensic expert. Bromgard was convicted of three counts of sexual intercourse without consent and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Bromgard spent his twenties in prison, and was finally freed after the Innocence Project attorneys obtained DNA testing on his behalf, which proved that biological evidence from the crime scene came from another man.
Fraudulent science may have played a large role in Bromgard's wrongful conviction, but Bromgard's own court-appointed lawyer also failed to show the inconsistencies in the state's case. Click here to read more about bad lawyering.
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
Earl Washington, Virginia (Served 17 years, Exonerated in 2000)
George Rodriguez, Texas (Served 17 years, Exonerated in 2005)
Albert Johnson, California (Served 10 years, Exonerated in 2002)
Tags: Montana, Jimmy Ray Bromgard
New York man marks second exoneration anniversary
Posted: October 10, 2008 3:40 pm
After spending two decades in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Scott Fappiano was exonerated on October 6, 2006. Tuesday marked his two-year anniversary.
Fappiano was convicted of a Brooklyn, New York, rape in 1983 and sentenced to 20-50 years in prison. The victim of the crime was the wife of a New York City police officer, and the officer witnessed the attack. While the victim identified Fappiano in a photo lineup and a subsequent lineup, the officer identified one of the lineup “fillers” as the perpetrator. (Fillers are the lineup participants who are not suspects.)
Fappiano was granted access to DNA testing in 1989, four years after he was convicted, but tests at the time were inconclusive. The Innocence Project accepted his case in 2003, and secured more advanced testing. The tests, conducted in 2005, proved that Fappiano could not have been the perpetrator. Greeting his family after his conviction was vacated in October of 2006, he said, "I missed having a family. I feel like I never left. Maybe I'm in shock. I feel like I could go on like tomorrow is just another day."
If the Innocence Project had been unable to locate evidence from the crime scene in 1983, Fappiano may never have been cleared. New York City has had a history of problems with evidence preservation; when Fappiano was exonerated, the Innocence Project had six open cases and 17 closed cases where evidence could not be found.
Find out if your state requires the preservation of evidence.
Other Exoneree Anniversaries This Week
Brian Piszczeck, Ohio (Served 3 years, Exonerated 1994)
Douglas Echols, Georgia (Served 5 years, Exonerated 2002)
Samuel Scott, Georgia (Served 15 years, Exonerated 2002)
Kevin Byrd, Texas (Served 12 years, Exonerated 1997)
William Harris, West Virginia (Served 7 years, Exonerated 1995)
Calvin Washington, Texas (Served 13 years, Exonerated 2001)
Tags: Kevin Byrd, Scott Fappiano
Seven years of freedom for Ohio man
Posted: October 17, 2008 4:40 pm
Tomorrow, Anthony Michael Green will mark the seventh anniversary of his exoneration in Ohio. Although he was freed in 2001, he and the Innocence Project had been working since 1997 to clear his name. In all, he spent 13 years in prison before DNA testing proved his innocence.In 1988, a Caucasian woman in a health clinic was raped at knifepoint. The attacker cleaned himself with a washcloth before fleeing the room, and threw it on the floor. The victim immediately rinsed herself off and called security. The police collected the washcloth and brought the victim to a medical center, where a rape kit was prepared. Green, who had previously worked for the clinic, became a suspect because a security officer said the victim's physical description of the attacker reminded him of Green.
The prosecutor's main evidence at trial relied on the victim's misidentification of Green and on misleading blood type testing from a state expert. The expert testified that Green could have contributed the semen found on the washcloth – along with only 16 percent of the male population. But the percentage of the population that could have contributed the sample was actually much higher. Based in part on this faulty testimony, Green was convicted and sentenced to 20-50 years in prison.
Green’s stepfather, Robert Mandell, investigated his case relentlessly in an attempt to overturn the wrongful conviction. It was not until Mandell located the washcloth in a courthouse storage room in 2001 that DNA testing could be conducted, proving Green’s innocence. After proving his innocence, Green said, "You can't get the lost years back. You just have to pick up the pieces and go on with your life."
The DNA testing in Green’s case didn’t only exonerate him, but also led to the identity of the real perpetrator. A man named Rodney Rhines confessed to the rape after reading an Ohio newspaper article that documented Green's ordeal. Also, the city of Cleveland agreed to compensate him and created the "Anthony Michael Green Forensic Laboratory Audit." The audit addresses the causes of faulty and falsified forensics, a factor that played a significant role in many wrongful convictions. Read more about unreliable and limited forensic science here.
Other Exoneree Anniversary This Week:
Thursday: Troy Webb, Virginia (Served 7.5 Years , Exonerated 10/16/1996 )
Tags: Anthony Michael Green, Troy Webb
Twelve Years of Freedom
Posted: October 24, 2008 5:05 pm
Today marks the 12th anniversary of Fredric Saecker's exoneration in Wisconsin. He served six years in prison before DNA testing – paid for by his mother – proved his innocence and led to his release.
In June 1989 a woman was kidnapped from her home in Bluff Siding, Wisconsin. The perpetrator raped her twice and then left her by the side of her road. The victim initially described the attacker as 5-feet-7-inches tall, but the 6-foot-3-inch Saecker became a suspect after police found him near the victim's home wearing a bloodstained T-shirt. Under questioning from police, Saecker allegedly made incriminating statements. He was convicted of the crime in 1990 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Although his mother obtained DNA testing on his behalf in 1993 and the results proved his innocence, his request for a new trial was denied until 1996. Finally, the District Attorney dismissed all charges against him and he was released.
Countless people have been wrongfully convicted in the United States based on false confessions or admissions of guilty. Read more about why innocent people sometimes confess to crimes they didn’t commit.
Other Exoneree Anniversaries this Week:
Tuesday: Edward Honaker, Virginia (Served 9.5 Years, Exonerated 10/22/1994)
Today: Victor Ortiz, New York (Served 11.5 Years, Exonerated 10/24/1996)
Tags: Wisconsin
Crime Labs Suffer Under Backlogs and Budget Crunches, Help on the Way
Posted: November 10, 2008 4:30 pm
Towns and cities in Arizona are refusing to pay the state for forensic tests that used to be done for free. After the Arizona state legislature cut the state crime lab’s budget by half in July, lab officials announced that they would bill law enforcement departments for forensic tests, hoping to collect $2.5 million this fiscal year. But law enforcement officials say they can’t afford the fees for testing.
Police in Douglas, a border town in southeastern Arizona, owe about $23,000 in lab fees. To pay the Department of Public Safety would mean Douglas police could not hire an officer or buy a squad car, Chief Alberto Melis said. The department has four vacancies.
Melis of Douglas said, "For me to come up with this money, I'm going to have to do without something. In a profession where 95 percent of your cost is personnel, I might not be able to hire somebody."Officers in Payson, Arizona, said they are sending less evidence for testing, which is slowing down investigations.
Detective Matt Van Camp said he uses every aspect of the crime lab, from firearm testing to its criminalists.Lab backlogs are hurting police investigations in Texas, as well. Results from state labs can take months.
“We used to send everything, but now we have to screen what we send out automatically,” Van Camp said. “This limits the tools available for the prosecutor and police.”
Prosecutors may now have to decide if they want to go to trial before they have the necessary evidence in hand.
“This makes the prosecutor’s job harder,” he said. “Crime labs also prove people innocent, not just guilty.”
Read the full story here. (Payson Roundup, 11/4/08)
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley explains that in today's 'CSI world' where jurors see scientific evidence easily gleaned from most crime scenes in TV dramas, they expect to see the same in court cases. But because there are so many requests for testing, and too few state technicians to keep up with demand, he says, "When you ask for DNA testing and results, you're buying in to a six month to one year delay in your case."
Read the full story here. (Key TV, 11/06/08)
Federal assistance should help to defuse the crisis somewhat in Arizona and Texas. The two states, along with Washington, Kentucky and Virginia, recently received a combined $7.8 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Justice to help with DNA testing in serious felony cases. The DOJ’s grant program requires states to comply with standards for storage and testing of evidence, and also to significantly reduce backlogs through improved training and technology. Read more about the DOJ grant program here.
Tags: Arizona, Texas, Access to DNA Testing
FBI Agents Call for Justice in Virginia Case
Posted: November 12, 2008 4:10 pm
A group of more than two dozen retired FBI agents called on Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine this week to pardon four men who say they were wrongfully convicted of a murder in Norfolk in 1997. The men, known as the “Norfolk Four” say they falsely confessed to involvement in the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman. Three of them are still behind bars today, thr fourth was released after serving his full sentence but he also seeks a pardon to clear his name. Another fifth man, whose DNA matches evidence from the crime scene, has since confessed to committing the crime alone. He is also in prison for the crime.
The group of FBI agents sent a letter to Kaine in July, but they haven’t received a reply. They held a press conference on Monday to announce their position. Jay Cochran, Jr, a 29-year FBI veteran and former commissioner of the Virginia State Police, is a leader of the group.
"They stand falsely convicted and imprisoned for a crime they did not commit," Cochran said. "Our members are not bleeding hearts. We do not have an interest in the outcome. Our only interest is in serving the interests of justice." …Delacey Skinner, a Kaine spokeswoman, said Monday that the governor is "committed to giving the case thorough and thoughtful consideration" but has made no decision and has not established a deadline for doing so. Lawyers for three of the Norfolk Four, working for free on behalf of the Virginia Innocence Project, first filed clemency petitions … when Mark Warner (D) was governor.Read more:
Read the full story here. (Washington Post, 11/11/08)
The Disturbing Case of the Norfolk Four (Time Magazine, 11/11/08)
Visit the Norfolk Four website for a complete background on the case.
Tags: False Confessions, False Confessions
His First Year of Freedom
Posted: December 4, 2008 4:50 pm
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the day Chad Heins walked out of a Florida prison after spending 13 years behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit. After his exoneration, he returned to his home state of Wisconsin to live with his family.
The Heins family’s nightmare began on April 17, 1994. Chad had recently moved from Wisconsin to Florida and was living with his brother, Jeremy, and sister-in-law, Tina. Jeremy was in the Navy and on board his ship that night. Chad woke up on the couch at 5:45 a.m. to find three small fires burning in the house. He ran to Tina’s bedroom and found that she had been stabbed to death. Although Heins immediately called police, he quickly became a suspect in the case. Despite the lack of physical evidence, prosecutors developed a case against him. They theorized that Heins had made a sexual pass at his sister-in-law. When Tina Heins refused, they alleged, he broke into a jealous rage and repeatedly stabbed her.
Aside from his presence in the apartment, no evidence suggested that Chad Heins was Tina Heins' murderer. There was no blood on his clothes or under his fingernails, no scratches or scrapes on his body. Furthermore, DNA tests performed on pubic hairs in the victim's bed did not belong to Tina, Chad or Jeremy. However, at trial, two jailhouse snitches testified that Heins spontaneously confessed his guilt to them. Despite the lack of physical evidence, Heins was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
In 2001, Heins wrote to the Innocence Project, which took the case with help from the Innocence Project of Florida. Together with Heins’ pro bono attorney, the Innocence Project filed a motion for DNA testing on the skin cells collected at an autopsy from underneath the victim's fingernails. Additional testing was done on the pubic hairs and semen found at the crime scene. The test results proved that the skin cells, semen and hair all came from an unknown male. As Heins' innocence became clear, key evidence surfaced. During the original trial, prosecutors suppressed evidence that indicated a third person's fingerprints were found in the apartment. After the test results and the suppressed evidence were released, a Florida judge tossed Heins’ conviction and he was exonerated on December 4, 2007. He had been only 19 years old when Tina was murdered and today he is 34.
Learn more about Heins’ case, and read about jailhouse informants as a cause of wrongful conviction.
Other Exoneree Anniversaries:
Marcellius Bradford, Illinois (Served 6.5 years, Exonerated 2001)
Dewey Davis, West Virginia (Served 7 years, Exonerated 1995)
Larry Ollins, Illinois (Served 13.5 years, Exonerated 2001)
Calvin Ollins, Illinois (Served 13.5 years, Exonerated 2001)
Omar Saundars, Illinois (Served 13.5 years, Exonerated 2001)
Tags: Florida, Chad Heins
Three Years Later, Virginia Case Review Goes On
Posted: December 24, 2008 12:02 pm
Three years ago this week, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner pardoned two former state prisoners, announcing that a random audit of 10 percent of cases in the files of a former analyst had led to DNA tests that proved the innocence of Phillip Thurman and Willie Davidson.
The sequence of events leading to the audit, and the exoneration of Thurman and Davidson, was sparked by an Innocence Project case in 2001. That year, attorneys at the Innocence Project obtained DNA testing in the case of Virginia inmate Marvin Anderson, who had been convicted of rape in 1982. Evidence from Anderson’s case, thought to have been lost, had been located in the notebook of Mary Jane Burton, who performed conventional serology testing in Anderson’s case. The DNA test proved that Anderson could not have committed the rape for which he was convicted. In 2003 and 2004, evidence saved by Burton was instrumental in proving the innocence of Virginia inmates Julius Earl Ruffin and Arthur Lee Whitfield.
Burton’s unusual practice of saving evidence in her notebooks has now contributed to five exonerations in all, and Warner ordered a full review of her case files after the exonerations of Thurman and Davidson in 2005. The review is ongoing, read an update on the progress from a post on the Innocence Blog in August.
Other Exoneration Anniversaries This Week:
Dwayne Scruggs, Indiana (Served 7.5 Years, Exonerated 12/22/1993)
Entre Nax Karage, Texas (Served 6.5 Years, Exonerated 12/22/2005)
Keith Turner, Texas (Served 4 Years, Exonerated 12/22/2005)
Tags: Marvin Anderson, Willie Davidson, Phillip Leon Thurman
Arizona State University to Host Forensic Science Conference
Posted: January 7, 2009 4:00 pm
Some of the world's leading scholars and experts in evidence, forensic science and criminalistics will gather to discuss the future of forensic science in the criminal justice system in April. The Center for the Study of Law, Science, & Technology at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University announced this week that it is hosting "Forensic Science for the 21st Century: The National Academy of Sciences Report and Beyond" April 3 and 4.
Organizers said the conference is being held “in light of the highly anticipated report of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences on Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Sciences Community” that is expected to be released within the next couple of months. Harry T. Edwards, Chief Judge Emeritus of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Co-chair of the NAS Forensic Science Committee, is scheduled to deliver the Center's annual Willard H. Pedrick Lecture, titled "Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward."
The event will also feature discussions about the NAS report, an unprecedented examination of forensic science nationwide that will outline findings and recommendations for how to ensure that the criminal justice system relies on sound science.
In addition to experts from major research institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley, Harvard Law School, the University of Michigan Law School, the University of California, Irvine, the University of Virginia and ASU, among others, participants will include state and federal judges, the co-chairmen of the National Academy of Sciences Forensic Science Committee, the president of the American Association of Forensic Sciences. The directors of the FBI Crime Laboratory and the Innocence Project, and prosecutors, defense attorneys, forensic scientists, and criminalists also will be involved.Visit the conference's website for more information, including registration and scheduled events.
Tags: Arizona, Reforms, Forensic Oversight, Evidence Preservation, Access to DNA Testing
Virginia Man Celebrates Almost 20 Years Since Exoneration
Posted: January 9, 2009 4:00 pm
After supposedly confessing to a crime he did not commit and serving four years in prison, David Vasquez was exonerated 19 years ago when DNA testing proved he could not have been responsible for other similar murders.
Officially exonerated in 1989, Vasquez previously pled guilty to the murder of a woman in Arlington County, Virginia, and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Vasquez made “dream statements” about the crime, which officers turned into a confession even though he was considered to be borderline mentally impaired. Prosecutors depended heavily on forensic evidence found on the victim that supposedly matched Vasquez, and told Vasquez they had two eyewitnesses that placed him at the scene of the crime.
It was only after multiple DNA tests that police linked the murder for which Vasquez was convicted to another string of crimes. The tests eventually concluded that there was no match between Vasquez and the evidence found at the scene of the crime, at which time the prosecution secured a pardon for Vasquez and pursued a case against the actual perpetrator.
Other exoneree anniversaries this week:
Sunday: Larry Holdren West Virginia (Served 15 Years, Exonerated, 2000)
Tuesday: Mark Diaz Bravo California (Served 3 Years, Exonerated, 1994)
Tags: California, Virginia, West Virginia, Mark Diaz Bravo, Larry Holdren, David Vasquez
Live Webcast Today: Exonerees and the Supreme Court
Posted: February 26, 2009 10:54 am
Today’s Innocence Project event in Washington, D.C., featuring exonerees, legal experts and others directly affected by wrongful conviction, will be broadcast live on the web at 12:30 p.m. EST here. Tune in, and follow our live tweets at www.twitter.com/innocenceblog
If you're in the D.C. area, head over to today's event - it's free and won't be one you soon forget.
Speakers at today's event include:
Marvin Anderson, who served 15 years in prison for crimes he didn’t commit. He was exonerated with DNA testing in 2002 – becoming the first person in Virginia exonerated through post-conviction DNA testing.
Rickie Johnson, who served 25 years at Louisiana’s notorious Angola Farm Penitentiary for a 1982 rape he didn’t commit. Johnson was exonerated in 2008 after the Sabine Parish District Attorney quickly agreed to DNA testing in his case.
Dennis Fritz, who was convicted of murder in Oklahoma and served 11 years in prison before DNA testing exonerated him in 1999. The wrongful convictions of Fritz and his co-defendant, Ron Williamson, are the subject of John Grisham’s best-selling nonfiction book, “The Innocent Man.”
Michele Mallin, who was brutally raped in 1985 when she was a 20-year-old sophomore at Texas Tech. She was the fifth victim of a serial rapist on campus, and she identified Timothy Cole as her assailant. Cole was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 1999, Cole died in prison at the age of 39. Last year, Mallin learned about evidence of Cole’s innocence and joined his family in an effort to exonerate him posthumously. Mallin testified at an unprecedented hearing in Austin earlier this month, where a judge recommended throwing out Cole’s conviction.
Det. Jim Trainum, a 25-year veteran of the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department who oversees the department’s Violent Crime Case Review Project, reviewing “cold cases.” Trainum, who handles murder cases, obtained a false confession from an innocent suspect several years ago and now educates fellow police officers and others about wrongful convictions.
David Rudovsky, one of the nation’s leading authorities on post-conviction remedies under federal law. Rudovsky is a Senior Fellow at University of Pennsylvania Law School and has written scholarly articles and litigation-related books on criminal law, constitutional criminal procedure and evidence. He recently presented about the Osborne case to a National Institute of Justice conference.
They will be joined by several other people exonerated through DNA testing and other leading attorneys in the field. The event is sponsored by Georgetown’s Office of Public Interest and Community Service, the Innocence Project and the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project.
Read more about the Osborne case.
Osborne Case Draws Near
Posted: February 27, 2009 1:17 pm
Oral arguments are scheduled for Monday in the case of District Attorney’s Office vs. William Osborne. Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld will argue before the U.S. Supreme Court that prisoners have a constitutional right to DNA testing when it can prove their innocence. We’ll update the case here – and on twitter – as we have details on Monday. For more background on Osborne, get briefs, press releases, media coverage and more on the case here.
Yesterday, exonerees and others whose lives were directly affected by wrongful conviction came together in Washington, D.C., to discuss the case and the importance of DNA testing. Watch a video of the event here. Today, Louisiana exoneree Rickie Johnson spoke to students about the case at a Virginia High School’s Case Day.
And legal experts from across the country continued this week to speak out on Osborne’s behalf. In today’s New York Daily News, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Mogenthau wrote that Alaska prosecutors have no logical reason for failing to grant Osborne a DNA test.
When a defendant who has always protested innocence will pay for a test that will resolve that protest one way or the other, only stubbornness can explain denying him access to the evidence. What can Alaska be afraid of - finding that it has imprisoned the wrong man?Attorney David C. Fathi writes in today’s Huffington Post that he strongly disagrees with the choice by the Obama administration to proceed with the brief filed under Bush that argues against the right to DNA testing.
The Bush administration argued in its brief -- now effectively adopted by the Obama administration -- that the decision about whether to allow DNA testing should be left up to the states as part of a "vibrant democratic process." But some things shouldn't be put up for a vote -- and the liberty of a possibly innocent person is one of them.
Tags: William Osborne
Eight Years Later, an Exoneration Case Approaches the Spotlight
Posted: March 16, 2009 10:06 am
Eight years ago today, Kenneth Waters walked out of a Massachusetts prison a free man after serving 18 years for a crime he didn’t commit. He was wrongfully convicted in 1983 based in part on false testimony from informants. Although fingerprints collected from the victim’s house did not match Waters, police did not share this information with prosecutors or defense attorneys. Waters was sentenced to life in prison and would serve nearly two decades before DNA proved his innocence. Sadly, he died in an accident just six months after his release.
It has been eight years since Waters was freed, but his case is about to get a new wave of attention. A film about his wrongful conviction and his sister Betty Anne Waters’ fight to free him is currently in production. Starring two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank as Betty Anne, the film will tell the incredible story of her struggle and dedication to free her wrongfully imprisoned brother.
After Kenneth lost all of his appeals, Betty Anne, a single mother of two, decided to take action. Convinced of her brother’s innocence and desperate to challenge the conviction, she began what would be a 12-year process of putting herself through college and law school. In 1998, she graduated from the Roger Williams University School of Law and began to work tirelessly on her brother’s case. By the time she contacted the Innocence Project, she had already located the biological evidence and was trying to have it subjected to DNA testing. Finally, the Innocence Project helped secure DNA testing that conclusively excluded Waters as the perpetrator and he was freed in 2001.
The movie, which has just begun shooting in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will be directed by Tony Goldwyn. Other cast members include Sam Rockwell, who will play Kenneth Waters, Minnie Driver, Juliette Lewis, Melissa Leo and Peter Gallagher.
Other anniversaries this week:
Tuesday: Arthur Mumphrey, Texas (Served 17 years, exonerated 3/17/06)
Wednesday: Wiley Fountain, Texas (Served 16 years, Exonerated 3/18/03)
Thursday: Edward Green, District of Columbia (Served 1 year, Exonerated 3/19/90)
Julius Ruffin, Virginia (Served 20 years, Exonerated 3/19/03)
Tags: Kenneth Waters
New Study on Forensics and Wrongful Conviction
Posted: March 18, 2009 11:15 am
A new law review article by Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld and University of Virginia Law Professor Brandon Garrett finds that forensic analysts often overstated evidence in wrongful conviction cases. The pair spent over a year reviewing 137 DNA exoneration cases in which a forensic analyst testified at trial, and found that in 60 percent of these cases, the forensic expert gave invalid testimony.
Watch a video with Garrett discussing the paper, and download the full Virginia Law Review paper.
While conducting the research for this paper, both Garrett and Neufeld testified before the National Academy of Sciences committee that recently released a report on the need for forensic reform in the United States. The NAS report called for a new federal agency to oversee and support forensic sciences in order for the disciplines to play a more reliable role in the American court system.
The Innocence Project also recently completed a review of the role of forensic science in wrongful convictions. The review went beyond transcripts of testimony to analyze all forensic science evidence used in the cases, and found that in more than 50% of the first 225 DNA exonerations, unvalidated or improper forensics played a role in the wrongful conviction. Learn more about the Innocence Project study here. (PDF)
Garrett said studies like these are rare, despite the fact that the systematic review of wrongful conviction cases can reveal a great deal about the causes of wrongful conviction.
“These trial transcripts were fascinating to read, because in retrospect we know that all of the defendants were innocent,” he said. “Yet few have looked at these records. Even after these wrongful convictions came to light, crime laboratories rarely conducted audits or investigations to review the forensic evidence presented at the trial.”
Tags: Forensic Oversight, Unvalidated/Improper Forensics
DNA Clears Virginia Man of 1984 Rape
Posted: March 24, 2009 4:46 pm
When Thomas Haynesworth was arrested for rape in 1984, he told police that he was innocent and that he believed an acquaintance, Leon Davis, could be the perpetrator. Now, after Haynesworth has served 25 years in prison, DNA testing has implicated Davis in the crime and cleared Haynesworth, according to media reports.
Haynesworth, represented by the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, will not be released immediately because he is also serving for another rape he says he didn’t commit. Prosecutors involved in the other case are searching for evidence to test.
Testing in the case was conducted as part of a state-run review of possible Virginia wrongful convictions that was sparked after Marvin Anderson’s exoneration in 2002.
Reached last week by telephone at the Greensville Correctional Center, Haynesworth said of Davis, "I knew all along he was the man. I told my lawyer. I told [police]. He lived right down the street from me."
"I told them: 'This man fit the description.' But nobody ever listened to me," he complained. "Everybody said we looked alike. Only difference between me and him, he is taller and weighed more," said Haynesworth.Read the full story here. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 03/24/09)
Tags: Virginia, Marvin Anderson
Friday Roundup: Hearings on the Horizon
Posted: March 27, 2009 2:03 pm
A federal appeals court granted review this week in the case of Innocence Project client Kevin Siehl. Innocence Project attorneys are seeking DNA testing on a washcloth, knife and cigarette butt from the scene of a murder for which Siehl says he was wrongfully convicted.
The Detroit Free Press reported on the case of Temujin Kensu, who has served more than two decades in Michigan prison for a murder he says he didn’t commit. His appeals have been repeatedly denied and there’s no biological evidence that could prove his innocence. Six people, however, testified at his trial that he was 400 miles away at the time of the shooting.
A Texas judge scheduled a two-day hearing in May in the infamous 1991 “yogurt shop murders” in Austin. New DNA testing on crime scene evidence in the case has revealed profiles that exclude two men in prison for the murders, which they say they didn’t commit.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch checked in with recent exonerees and found that the path to restoring lost lives after exoneration is a difficult one.
A crime lab employee in upstate New York was fired for allegedly falsifying documents and failing to follow lab procedures. Reason Magazine continued its coverage of a case of possible forensic misconduct in Mississippi. An Ohio coroner said crimes are going unsolved because of growing lab backlogs. And an audit found that the Illinois State Police sat on money intended to reduce the state’s crime lab backlog.
The new book “Picking Cotton” continues to garner rave reviews and strong sales. The book is number 20 on the New York Times bestseller list, and is number six on Amazon.com’s true crime bestseller list. But your copy here and a portion of proceeds will go the Innocence Project.
Author Dave Eggers talked to Mother Jones this week about “Surviving Justice,” a book of first-person stories from exonerees that he edited with Lola Vollen.
And Innocence Project Co-Directors Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld will be awarded the prestigious Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law from the University of Virginia next month for their contributions to criminal justice and legal reform.
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
Two Are Pardoned in Virginia and a Texas Man Is Cleared Posthumously
Posted: April 8, 2009 4:35 pm
On Monday, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine pardoned two former prisoners based on DNA evidence of their innocence. Arthur Lee Whitfield was exonerated in 2004 but has remained in a legal limbo until his pardon became official this week. He served more than 22 years in prison before biological evidence in his case – previously believed to be lost – was located in the files of former forensic analyst Mary Jane Burton. The results proved Whitfield’s innocence and implicated the real perpetrator, who was in prison for another sexual assault.
Victor Anthony Burnette, who served eight years in prison for a 1979 rape, was also pardoned Monday based on evidence of his innocence. The Innocence Project is reviewing his case for possible inclusion in our database of DNA exonerations nationwide.
Read more about Whitfield and Burnette and Virginia’s ongoing review of cases in which DNA testing could overturn a wrongful conviction. (Virginian-Pilot, 4/7/09)
Meanwhile, a Texas judge yesterday recommend that Timothy Cole, who died in prison in 1999 while served a 25-year sentence for a rape he didn’t commit, be fully exonerated based on DNA evidence that another man committee the crime. Read more about Cole’s case and pending reforms to prevent future wrongful convictions in Texas here.
Tags: Arthur Lee Whitfield
Events This Week in New York and Virginia
Posted: April 13, 2009 1:25 pm
Today in Virginia, Innocence Project Co-Directors Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck will be awarded the prestigious Thomas Jefferson Medal from the University of Virginia for their decades of service to public interest law and the impact of their work on the criminal justice system. They will discuss “innocence, science and due process” at the law school in Charlottesville, Virginia, at 4:15 p.m. ET. The event is free and open to the public. Get directions here.
And at noon this Thursday, April 16, Innocence Project Staff Attorney Vanessa Potkin and exoneree Alan Newton will speak at New York University in New York City. They will discuss Newton’s case, proposed reforms to prevent wrongful convictions and Newton’s new organization to support the exonerated after release.
Alan Newton was imprisoned for 21 years in New York. His repeated requests over many years for DNA testing on biological evidence from his case were denied because the evidence was not located and believed to have been destroyed. When Newton became a client of the Innocence Project, the involvement and the persistence of the chief prosecutor of sex crimes in the Bronx, Elisa Koenderman, resulted in a successful search for the rape kit. DNA testing in 2006 showed that Alan Newton was not the rapist. He was released and exonerated of the rape, assault and robbery charges against him.
Since his release, Alan completed his bachelor’s degree and is now planning to attend law school. He is a co-founder of A.F.T.E.R. , Advocates for Freedom, Transformation, and Exoneree Rights, Inc., which provides services and a support network for exonerees.
Join them this Thursday, April 16th, from 12-2 p.m. in Kimmel 905 at New York University. To RSVP for the event, please email Bindi Patel at bindi.patel@nyu.edu today.
Tags: Alan Newton
Eight Years Ago Today
Posted: May 7, 2009 3:54 pm
Today marks the eighth anniversary of the day Jeffrey Pierce walked out of an Oklahoma prison a free man for the first time in more than 14 years. He was convicted in 1986 of a rape he didn’t commit, based in part on the misleading testimony of notorious forensic analyst Joyce Gilchrist.
In 1985, a woman was raped in her Oklahoma City home, and Pierce became a suspect because he was working in the area with a landscaping crew. He didn’t match the victim’s initial description of the perpetrator, however, and she did not identify him when he was pointing out as a suspect. Months later, he was included in a photo lineup wearing clothes that matched her description of the perpetrator and she identified him as the attacker.
Gilchrist, whose testimony has been involved in at least four wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing, testified at Pierce’s trial that hairs collected from the victim’s apartment shared unique characteristics with Pierce’s hair. He was convicted and sentenced to 65 years in prison. He served nearly 15 years before he was freed by DNA testing that proved his innocence and implicated the real perpetrator.
Today, Pierce lives in Michigan with his family, including his adult twin sons who were infants at the time of his conviction.
Other Anniversary This Week:
Monday: Glen Woodall, West Virginia (Served 4.5 Years, Exonerated 1992)
Tags: Jeffrey Pierce
John Grisham Developing Screenplay on 'Norfolk Four' Case
Posted: July 9, 2009 3:46 pm
John Grisham, whose first non-fiction book “The Innocent Man” raised awareness around the world about wrongful convictions, is working on a screenplay about the cases of four men convicted of a Norfolk, Virginia, murder they say they didn’t commit. Known as the “Norfolk Four” case, it is the subject of the recent book “The Wrong Guys.” The four men say they were wrongfully convicted based on coerced false confessions.
After the four men were convicted, DNA testing matched evidence from the crime scene to a man named Omar Ballard, who was then also convicted of the crime. Although Ballard says he committed the crime alone, three of the four original defendants remain in prison serving life sentences.
Grisham, who serves on the Innocence Project Board of Directors, said he was drawn to write about the story after reading “The Wrong Guys,” by Richard Leo and Tom Wells.
"It's the most egregious case of wrongful conviction I've seen, and I travel around the country listening to stories about these cases," said Grisham, who lives outside Charlottesville. He said the prosecution "should have been a fairly clear-cut DNA case, involving a man who later pled guilty, and to this day confesses he did it and did it alone."Read more background on the Norfolk Four case.
Read the full story here. (Washington Post, 07/08/09)
Buy “The Wrong Guys” at Amazon.com (a portion of the purchase price supports the Innocence Project)
Buy “The Innocent Man” at Amazon.com (a portion of the purchase price supports the Innocence Project)
Tags: Dennis Fritz, Ron Williamson, Norfolk Four
Friday Roundup: Freed, and Still Fighting
Posted: July 10, 2009 6:05 pm
There’s freedom in the air this week after Independence Day. Two men – an uncle and nephew – were granted a new trial in Michigan today, and two others were freed Tuesday in Chicago after two decades in prison. Even after exoneration, however, some former prisoners find a hard road. Here’s a roundup of news from the week:
DeShawn Reed and his uncle Marvin Reed were granted a new trial in Michigan today, more than eight years after they were convicted of a shooting they say they didn’t commit. The case was the first legal victory for the new Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School.
Ronald Kitchen and Marvin Reeves were freed in Chicago after two decades in prison when the state Attorney General’s office opted not to press charges. Kitchen says he confessed to murders he didn’t commit after detectives beat him.
Meanwhile, Missouri became the 16th state to mandate recording of interrogations by law enforcement agencies. We reported on the Kitchen/Reeves case and advances in recording of interrogations here. More on Kitchen and Reeves from the Chicago Tribune is here.
But even after earning freedom, some exonerees find little support in the outside world. Arthur Whitfield was exonerated in 2004 in Virginia, but told a Virginian-Pilot reporter this week: "I understand that life isn't easy, but I thought it would be a little bit better than what it is."
A New York City detective wrote in a New York Times blog Q & A that detectives need to be aware of the possibility of a false confession when conducting an interrogation.
Author John Grisham, a member of the Innocence Project Board of Directors, announced this week he’s working on a screenplay about the Norfolk Four case, and documentarian Ken Burns is making a film about the Central Park jogger case, in which five teenagers spent years in prison for a rape they didn’t commit.
The Innocence Project of Florida and local attorneys continued to call for an investigation of dog scent cases in Florida.
California Innocence Project Director Justin Brooks discussed a recent case on a new podcast.
Tags: False Confessions
Friday Roundup: Fighting Injustice and Reforming Forensics
Posted: July 24, 2009 6:10 pm
Here's this week's roundup of news on innocence, injustice and forensic science:
The Texas Forensic Science Commission met today in Houston to plan next steps in the panel’s review of the arson convictions of Cameron Todd Willingham and Ernest Willis. Grits for Breakfast has more.
Attorneys for Illinois prisoner Michael Tillman are seeking a new trial based on allegations that Tillman falsely confessed after being tortured by Chicago Police officers under the command of former Detective Jon Burge.
A Michigan judge this week ordered a new trial for Lorinda Swain, who has served eight years in prison for a crime she says she didn’t commit. Swain was convicted in 2002 of sexually assaulting her 13-year-old son, who has since recanted statements he made against her. Attorneys and students at the University of Michigan Law School Innocence Clinic worked on the case.
Also in Michigan, prosecutors opposed a new trial for Davontae Sanford – who was convicted at age 17 of a murder he says he didn’t commit – despite a confession from another man who says he committed the crime.
The Governors of Massachusetts and Virginia are proposing new state laws to adjust the ways courts handle forensic evidence in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts.
For more forensic news, visit the Just Science Coalition website.
Tags: Cameron Todd Willingham
Friday Roundup: Cases and Reforms Move Forward
Posted: July 31, 2009 5:30 pm
Around the country this week, individual cases moved forward – as did efforts to reform the criminal justice system to prevent wrongful convictions and assist the exonerated.
A judge in Wisconsin this morning dismissed rape and murder charges against Ralph Armstrong, who has been in prison for 28 years. Evidence shows that a prosecutor concealed substantial evidence that Armstrong was innocent. Armstrong will remain in custody while the state decides whether to appeal the ruling. The Innocence Project has worked on Armstrong’s case since 1993, and Co-Director Barry Scheck today called Armstrong’s case a “particularly chilling” example of prosecutorial misconduct.
Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County may be the home of pilot programs for identification reforms, according to District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr., who chairs the county’s investigations section of the state Committee on Wrongful Convictions. The news comes on the heels of the Innocence Project’s new report on eyewitness identification reforms, released earlier this month. Read more in the press release here.
Republican and Democratic leaders are asking Virginia’s General Assembly to provide compensation for exoneree Arthur Whitfield, who spent more than 22 years in prison and was released when DNA tests proved his innocence. Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds, the respective Republican and Democratic gubernatorial candidates, are calling for action during the assembly’s special session in August.
DNA may play a key role in the case of a Florida man convicted of murder 25 years ago. David Johnston was scheduled for execution in May, but the Florida Supreme Court delayed his execution when defense attorneys requested DNA testing on blood samples and nail clippings kept as evidence.
Tags: Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, Arthur Lee Whitfield, Exoneree Compensation, Eyewitness Identification
Connecticut Man Freed After Two Decades in Prison
Posted: August 5, 2009 3:50 pm
Kenneth Ireland walked out of a Connecticut courthouse today a free man for the first time in 21 years. A state judge overturned Ireland’s conviction today, based on DNA evidence that he didn’t commit the murder of which he was convicted in 1988. The Connecticut Innocence Project, a member of the Innocence Network, represents Ireland.
Charges are pending against Ireland case, but it is unclear whether prosecutors will pursue a new trial. Ireland’s next court date is August 19.
"This is yet another Connecticut example of an innocent person having spent two decades in prison for a very serious crime while an actual rapist and murderer has been roaming free since 1986," said Judiciary Committee Co-Chairman Mike Lawlor, D-New Haven. "This is not acceptable."In another case in Virginia this week, a former Navy SEAL trainee was cleared of murder and abduction charges in a 1995 case. Dustin A. Turner is the first person cleared under a 2004 law that allows prisoners to present non-DNA evidence of their innocence. The Virginia Court of Appeals yesterday granted Turner a “writ of actual innocence.” He remains in prison pending action by a local court.
Read the full story. (WFSB, 08/05/09)
Pardons in "Norfolk Four" Case Fall Short
Posted: August 6, 2009 5:47 pm
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine announced today that he had granted conditional pardons to three former Navy sailors based on “serious doubts” about their guilt of a 1997 Norfolk murder. Known as the “Norfolk Four,” the defendants have sought for years to clear their names of a crime DNA shows they didn’t commit. (Clockwise from top left, the men are Joseph Dick, Eric Wilson, Danial Williams and Derek Tice)
Three of the four (Dick, Williams and Tice) remain in prison today and could be released soon based on the governor’s announcement, which reduces their sentences to time served. Attorneys for the men said today they were happy the defendants would be freed, but extremely disappointed that Kaine refused to acknowledge their innocence and fully clear them. DNA testing on several items at the crime scene has been matched to another man, who has pled guilty and confessed to committing the crime alone.
"The Governor’s decision is illogical. He agrees that there was absolutely no physical trace at the crime scene of any of the innocent sailors and that their conflicting confessions create substantial doubt. His pardon statement today never asserts that the Norfolk Four were involved in this terrible crime in any way," said George Kendall, Joe Dick's attorney. "Instead, all he has said is that our clients have failed to conclusively prove that they are innocent. Governor Kaine's failure to grant absolute pardons based on innocence to these innocent Navy men further compounds the many mistakes of the Norfolk police and prosecutors that led to their wrongful imprisonment."Read more about the case on the official Norfolk Four site.
Added Don Salzman, Danial Williams' attorney, "Governor Kaine has set an impossible standard for the grant of an absolute pardon. The Norfolk Four case is no different than the other 40 or so false confession cases that led to complete exonerations based on DNA evidence."
More on today’s announcement:
Associated Press: VA Governor Pardons Three in 1997 Rape/Slaying
Virginian-Pilot: Gov. Kaine pardons three members of the Norfolk Four
Gov. Kaine’s statement.
Tags: Norfolk Four
Friday Roundup: A Big Week
Posted: August 7, 2009 6:20 pm
It was a big week for freedom. On Wednesday, Kenneth Ireland was freed in Connecticut. On Thursday, three Virginia men were pardoned, and today Innocence Project client Ernest Sonnier walked out of a Texas courtroom a free man for the first time in 23 years.
The three sailors pardoned yesterday in the Norfolk Four case were also freed from prison today.
Time Magazine and CNN investigated the questionable science behind dog scent evidence, and Florida exoneree Bill Dillon discussed the role of a police dog in his wrongful conviction on Detroit’s WCSX radio.
A new interview with Anthony Steel surfaced on the web this week, two years after his death. Steel spent spent more than two decades in a British prison for murder before evidence of his innocence led to his release. He never spoke publicly about the case while alive.
The Detroit Metro Times ran a feature this week on Deshawn and Marvin Reed, who were freed from prison after eight years with the help of the new University of Michigan Innocence Clinic.
A hearing is set for Monday for a judge to review DNA test results in the case of Tommy Arthur, who is on Alabama’s death row for a crime he says he didn’t commit.
Innocence Project Policy Director Stephen Saloom spoke with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette about the need for improvements in evidence handling and preservation.
California Man Could Be Freed After 24 Years
Posted: August 11, 2009 6:20 pm
Bruce Lisker could be freed as early as this evening after 24 years in California prisons for a murder he says he didn’t commit. A judge granted him bail today after overturning his conviction on Friday based on the finding that he was convicted of killing his mother based on “false evidence.”
He could become the sixth person freed based on evidence of innocence in the last six days. Last Wednesday, Kenneth Ireland was freed in Connecticut based on DNA evidence of his innocence. On Thursday, three men in the Norfolk Four case in Virginia were pardoned. On Friday, Innocence Project client Ernest Sonnier was freed in Texas.
A Los Angeles Times editorial today called Lisker’s case “deeply disturbing” and said frequent exonerations prove that criminal justice reform is needed in California.
The truth is that this is an ongoing problem in California. And thanks to knee-jerk obstruction by district attorneys and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state has made little progress in fixing it.Visit our What Can I Do? page to take action today on exoneree compensation and other issues.
Last year, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice issued a 196-page report outlining procedural and structural flaws in the state's criminal justice system, along with recommendations to ameliorate them. The Legislature responded by passing bills in 2006 and 2007 regarding eyewitness identification and the video recording of police interrogations, but Schwarzenegger vetoed both. Legislation regulating the use of jailhouse informants passed as well, but met the same fate as did a bill increasing compensation for wrongfully convicted people.
Virginia Lawmakers Consider Improved Exoneree Compensation
Posted: August 18, 2009 6:11 pm
Arthur Lee Whitfield served more than 22 years in Virginia prisons for a rape he didn’t commit before DNA testing proved his innocence and led to his release. He has not received state compensation, however, because the state Supreme Court denied him a writ of actual innocence, which is required to receive compensation under state law.
Lawmakers are returning tomorrow for a special session and will review proposals for bills that would pay Whitfield between $445,000 and $750,000. Delegate Kenny Alexander said he would propose a bill next year to compensate people who are exonerated but don’t receive a declaration of innocence.
Read the full story here. (Virginian-Pilot, 08/18/09)
Virginia is one of 27 states with compensation laws, but it is among several states that exclude certain populations of people even after DNA testing proves them innocent. The Innocence Project works to pass fair, just compensation laws across the country. Find your state’s law on our interactive map here.
Tags: Arthur Lee Whitfield
Virginia Man to Receive $632,000
Posted: August 20, 2009 2:40 pm
We reported Tuesday that Virginia lawmakers were returning to the capitol for a special session and would consider proposals to compensate Arthur Lee Whitfield, who served 22 years in state prisons before DNA testing proved his innocence. He was freed in 2004, but has not been compensated due to a legal technicality – he was refused a writ of actual innocence because the state’s highest court didn’t have the power to grant it to non-prisoners. Lawmakers on Wednesday unanimously approved payment of $632,867 to Whitfield, based on the formula in the state’s compensation law. He will receive $126,573 within a month and the remainder as an annuity.
Whitfield , 54, was recently diagnosed with liver cancer and missed the special session because he was receiving chemotherapy. He works in a produce factory and has been struggling financially.
Only about half of the 241 people exonerated by DNA testing to date have been compensated.
Read more about Whitfield's case and life after exoneration.
Tags: Arthur Lee Whitfield, Exoneree Compensation
Marvin Anderson Marks Seven Years of Freedom
Posted: August 21, 2009 1:10 pm
Today marks the seventh anniversary of the day Marvin Anderson was pardoned by Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, ending a two-decade nightmare that began when he was just 17 years old.
Anderson was convicted in 1982 of a rape he didn't commit and sentenced to 210 years in prison. He was released on parole after 15 years, but he continued to fight to overturn his wrongful conviction. It would be five more years before DNA testing obtained with the help of the Innocence Project finally proved his innocence. Today he works as a truck driver and a firefighter.
More than one-third of the people exonerated through DNA testing were arrested, like Anderson, before their 22nd birthday. They lost the prime of their lives for crimes they didn't commit and there's very little doubt they left innocent people behind them in prison when they walked out. Together, people wrongfully convicted in their youth served a combined 947 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit.
For a video on Anderson's case and multimedia features on 10 other cases, and to take action today, visit the Innocence Project's youth action campaign - "947 Years"
Learn more about the extraordinary events that led to Anderson's exoneration.
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
Charles Dabbs, New York (Exonerated 8/22/91, Served 7 Years)
Michael Evans and Paul Terry, Illinois (Exonerated 8/22/2003, Served 26 Years)
Tags: Marvin Anderson
Friday Roundup: Uncovering Misconduct
Posted: August 21, 2009 5:45 pm
Long-time Innocence Project client Ralph Armstrong was cleared in Wisconsin this week after almost three decades in prison. His case is one of the worst examples of prosecutorial misconduct the Innocence Project has ever seen. Here’s more on Armstrong and a roundup of some other news from the week:
Several people discussed the implications of misconduct – and prosecutorial immunity – on Facebook and Twitter after the Armstrong case broke. Join the conversation on facebook and twitter.
CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” continues its series on forensic science tonight at 10 p.m. EST with a report on Dr. Steven Hayne in Mississippi, who has been accused of reaching conclusions that go beyond science to fit what prosecutors need to secure convictions (this story was pushed back by breaking news last night). Read the AC360 blog here.
Reason Magazine reported on the release of Bernard Baran in Massachusetts and asked why the prosecutor in the case has never been investigated or disciplined for his role in the case.
We reported here on the U.S. Supreme Court’s groundbreaking decision in the case of Troy Davis, and Innocence Project Staff Attorney Ezekiel Edwards spoke about the case with DemocracyNow!
The Guardian focused on eyewitness misidentification and the case of William Mills.
Connecticut Innocence Project client Kenneth Ireland was fully cleared this week – he told the Associated Press being freed is like “waking from a coma.”
Two Chicago men freed last month were officially cleared Wednesday when they received certificates of innocence, which entitle them to collect compensation under the state law (about $192,000 after serving 21 years in prison).
Virginia lawmakers voted to compensate Arthur Lee Whitefield and Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland said he supports a bill that would expand prisoner access to DNA testing that can prove innocence.
FBI Agents: Norfolk Four Are Innocent
Posted: August 26, 2009 6:04 pm
Earlier this month, three members of the “Norfolk Four” were freed from a Virginia prison after Gov. Tim Kaine granted them a conditional pardon based on “serious doubts” about their guilt. The fourth man was freed in 2005 and not pardoned. All four were convicted of a 1997 murder in Norfolk they say they didn’t commit. DNA testing has tied a fifth man, Omar Ballard, to the crime and he has confessed to killing the victim alone.
The pardons don’t declare the men innocent, however, and a group of FBI agents wrote in the New York Times yesterday that justice won’t be done until the men are granted full pardons.
Our comprehensive review of the Norfolk Four matter left us with no doubt that the so-called confessions given by the Norfolk Four were coerced, false confessions and as such were completely unreliable.
The governor should grant the Norfolk Four absolute pardons. It is the least that can now be done for these four men who served their nation honorably as members of the United States Navy.The New York Times wrote in an editorial on August 17, writing that “the men should not give up” because “the miscarriage of justice in this case has been diminished, but not wiped away.”
Read the FBI Agents’ letter.
Read the NY Times editorial.
Learn more about the Norfolk Four case at the defendants’ official website.
Tags: Norfolk Four
One Norfolk Defendant is Cleared
Posted: September 15, 2009 5:42 pm
One of the four men wrongfully convicted in the Norfolk Four case has finally been cleared.
Derek Tice was one of four former Navy sailors convicted of a 1997 rape and murder in Norfolk, Virginia, they say they didn’t commit. Tice and two other men were freed in August after Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine granted them a conditional pardon – the fourth defendant was freed in 2005.
Despite strong evidence indicating that the men are innocent, Kaine’s pardons were conditional and did not fully clear the Norfolk Four. Today, a federal judge threw out Tice’s conviction on the grounds that his defense attorney didn’t seek to suppress his alleged confession. The ramifications of the conditional pardon and vacated conviction are unclear at this point.
Tice's father, Larry Tice of Clayton, N.C., called (the) decision vacating his son's convictions "exceptionally good news," but said he is still not satisfied.The evidence of the men’s innocence includes DNA test results pointing to a man who says he committed the crime alone. Prosecutors alleged at trial that the four men had confessed to killing 18-year-old Michelle Moore-Mosko in Norfolk in 1997, but the details of their confessions didn’t match and the men have since said they were coerced to confess.
"What I eventually want is for all four members of The Norfolk Four to be totally exonerated," he said. "It's not just Derek. I want all four men cleared."
Read the full story. (Daily Press, 09/14/09)
Read more about the Norfolk Four case here.
Tags: Norfolk Four
Friday Roundup: The Lessons of Wrongful Conviction
Posted: September 25, 2009 5:20 pm
The 242 wrongful convictions overturned through DNA testing in the United States to date have taught us countless lessons about how the criminal justice system is broken -- and how we can fix it. Below is this week’s roundup of news from around the country, including some exciting developments on reforms that can stop injustice before it happens.
Eyewitness identification expert Gary Wells testified yesterday in New Jersey on how the state’s guidelines could go further to prevent misidentifications. "Once the witness has view of a photo or lineup, that later description of the perpetrator may be reflections of what they picked up from the photos or live lineups," rather than what they remember, Wells said. More from the Philadelphia Inquirer.
We reported last week on the Indiana Supreme Court’s order requiring recording of interrogations. Indianapolis Star columnist Jon Murray followed up this week, finding that the new rule is more thorough than many on the books across the country.
The Virginia Supreme Court granted a writ of actual innocence this week in the case of Thomas Haynesworth, who has been cleared by DNA testing of a 1984 rape. He was also convicted of two similar crimes, however, which he says he didn’t commit. Biological evidence may not exist in those cases, and the Innocence Project is working with partners at the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and a law firm to ensure the other two cases are fully investigated.
Offers of help and support are pouring in for Anthony Caravella, a Florida man who was freed from prison last week after 25 years for a crime he says he didn’t commit. DNA testing now points to another individual in that case and prosecutors are investigating.
Attorneys at the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted in Canada have filed a bail request on behalf of Stanley Ostrowski, saying new evidence proves he was convicted more than 20 years ago of a Manitoba murder he didn’t commit.
Barney Brown marked his first year of freedom this week after 38 years behind bars for a murder he has always maintained he didn’t commit. He will speak October 8 in Chicago at the launch of the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth at Northwestern University School of Law.
Last but not least, the California Innocence Project at California Western School of Law is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Tags: False Confessions
Montana Man Marks Seven Years Free
Posted: October 2, 2009 12:48 pm
This week marks the seventh anniversary of Jimmy Ray Bromgard’s exoneration in Montana, after serving more than 14 years for a crime he did not commit. Bromgard was convicted at 18 and released at 32, losing the prime years of his life behind bars. Participating in a prison program for sex offenders could have led to his early release, but he refused to take the classes. “I would have had to admit my guilt,” he said after his release. “I'd rather sit there in prison for all my life than admit my guilt."
Bromgard was convicted based in part on forensic science misconduct. The prosecution tied Bromgard to the crime by using the testimony of a state forensic hair examiner, Arnold Melnikoff, who claimed hairs found on the victim's bed were similar to Bromgard's, and further argued there was less than a one-in-10,000 chance that the hairs did not come from Bromgard. Melnikoff’s testimony was fraudulent; there has never been a standard by which to statistically match hairs through microscopic inspection.
Unvalidated or improper forensic science has played a role in more than 50% of the 244 wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing to date. Forensic problems include the kind of fraudulent testimony that led to Bromgard’s conviction, but they also include testimony in fields -- such as bite mark comparisons or firearm analysis -- that simply have not been subjected to rigorous scientific research.
To learn more about recommended federal forensic reforms and to sign a petition supporting improved support and oversight for forensics, visit the Just Science Coalition website.
Read more about Bromgard’s case here.
Other Exoneration Anniversaries This Week:
George Rodriguez, Texas (Served 17 years, Exonerated 9/29/05)
Steven Phillips, Texas (Served 24 Years, Exonerated 10/1/08)
Arthur Johnson, Mississippi (Served 15.5 Years , Exonerated 10/1/08)
Earl Washington, Virginia (Served 17 years, Exonerated 10/2/00)
Albert Johnson, California (Served 10 years, Exonerated 10/3/02)
Tags: Jimmy Ray Bromgard
Scott Fappiano's New Life
Posted: October 8, 2009
Three years ago this week - October 6, 2006 - Innocence Project client Scott Fappiano was exonerated after having served 21 years in prison for a Brookyn, NY, rape he didn't commit.
Since his release, Fappiano has built a new life. On October 18, he will be married to his fiancee Joanne, his girlfriend before he went to prison. He is planning to enroll next year in school to become a funeral director.
His ordeal began in 1983. An armed male broke into the Brooklyn home of an NYPD officer and his wife. The perpetrator instructed the woman to tie up her husband in the bed with a length of telephone wire, and he proceeded to rape her. The victim was taken to the hospital, where a rape kit was collected. Swabs from the kit tested positive for the presence of sperm, as did a pair of jogging pants worn by the victim after the attack.
The woman described her attacker to police as a white male of Italian descent, and was shown a series of photographs of individuals. She pointed to Fappiano as the attacker, and then chose him again in a live line-up in which several police officers stood in as "fillers." That same day her husband, the police officer, viewed a live line-up, too. He chose one of the fillers.
Fappiano was tried twice for this crime. Serology tests before trial showed the blood from a stained towel and a cigarette butt matched the victim's husband. Other tests were inconclusive. After the jury could not reach a verdict in his 1984 trial, he was tried again in 1985. He was convicted of rape, sodomy, burglary and sexual abuse and the court sentenced him to 20-50 years in prison.
The Innocence Project began representing Fappiano in 2003, but it took two years for the evidence from the case to turn up - including the jogging pants worn by the victim during the crime that could not be tested previously. DNA testing showed that while the sweatpants contained DNA that matched the woman's, the male DNA found did not match Fappiano's - nor did it match the victim's husband.
Fappiano is one of 13 New York exonerees whose wrongful convictions were caused in part by eyewitness misidentification. His case and others have led to a push for reforms to the way lineup procedures are conducted. Learn more about progress of these reforms in the recent Innocence Project report: "Reevaluating Lineups: Why Witnesses Make Mistakes and How to Reduce the Chance of a Misidentification."
Other Exoneration Anniversaries this Week:
Leonard Callace, New York (Served 5.5 years, Exonerated 10/5/92)
Brian Piszczeck, Ohio (Served 3 years, Exonerated 1994)
Douglas Echols, Georgia (Served 5 years, Exonerated 2002)
Samuel Scott, Georgia (Served 15 years, Exonerated 2002)
Kevin Byrd, Texas (Served 12 years, Exonerated 1997)
William Harris, West Virginia (Served 7 years, Exonerated 1995)
Calvin Washington, Texas (Served 13 years, Exonerated 2001)
Tags: Scott Fappiano
Three Years Later, a Somber Anniversary
Posted: October 13, 2009 5:00 pm
Three years ago this week, post-conviction DNA testing proved Allen Coco innocent of the crimes for which he was serving a life sentence. By the time he was exonerated, Coco had spent more than 11 years in custody – nine of them behind bars – chiefly as a result of eyewitness misidentification. Sadly, Coco died a short time after his release.
One late-May morning in 1995, a Louisiana woman awoke in her home to a man standing over her bed. The man grabbed her, held a knife to her throat and sexually assaulted her. However, the victim struggled and eventually managed to get hold of the knife, stabbing her assailant in his buttocks. Attempting to run, the man jumped out the window and was caught in the mini-blinds, leaving significant biological evidence on the blinds and on the floor: his blood from the stab wound.
Police showed the victim a series of photographic lineups and in June– almost a month after the crime – she identified Allen Coco. There were a number of discrepancies between the victim’s description of her attacker and Coco’s actual appearance: Coco has large tattoos on both of his arms (including a 3½ inch tattoo of his own name) but the victim didn’t describe any tattoos, despite her telling police that the perpetrator wore shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. Coco also had no stab wounds.
Unfortunately, the rapist’s blood stains found on the mini-blinds and floor of the victim’s home matched Allen Coco’s blood type, which only 5.8% of African Americans have. No DNA testing was conducted. The forensic evidence, combined with the eyewitness testimony, led to Coco’s wrongful conviction in 1997, and he was sentenced to life in prison without probation or parole.
The Innocence Project of New Orleans took on Coco’s case and secured an order for DNA testing. The knife and swabs were submitted for testing and results in March 2006 proved that Coco could not have been the perpetrator of this crime. The state of Louisiana demanded re-testing at its own laboratory and confirmed the previous test. In July 2006, Coco’s conviction was vacated and he was granted a new trial; further tests were soon performed on his blood samples and the district attorney dropped the charges on October 12, 2006.
Eyewitness misidentifications contribute to over 75% of the wrongful convictions in the United States overturned by post-conviction DNA evidence and is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide. What’s the law in your state? Find out here.
Other Exoneration Anniversaries this Week:
Troy Webb, Virginia (Served 7.5 years; Exonerated 10/16/96)
Tags: Allen Coco, Troy Webb
James Ochoa: Three Years Free, a New Start in Texas
Posted: October 23, 2009 2:01 pm
Three years ago this week, James Ochoa was exonerated after serving 10 months in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He was freed when the profile of another man in a DNA database matched evidence from the crime for which Ochoa was convicted.
Ochoa now lives in Texas with his wife and children and works in sales for a clothing company.
Ochoa became a suspect in a 2005 Buena Park, California, carjacking after a highly questionable eyewitness identification procedure and involvement of a police scent-tracking dog.
After two young men were carjacked, they described the perpetrator to a police officer, who immediately thought of Ochoa, whom he had seen earlier that night nearby. The officer showed the victims a picture of Ochoa from his laptop computer. One victim saw only a picture of Ochoa; the other saw photographs of Ochoa's two friends (who did not resemble the description just taken) first and then Ochoa. Both victims said Ochoa "looked like" the perpetrator.
The car was found in the neighborhood later that night -- a B.B. gun used in the crime and a hat worn by the perpetrator were inside. A bloodhound dog named "Trace" was brought to the scene. Trace allegedly followed the scent from a swab from the perpetrator's baseball cap to Ochoa's front door. The use of dog sniffing evidence has come under fire in several states in recent months.
Ochoa was charged with the crime, despite DNA test results that showed one profile on the hat and gun, excluding Ochoa. Against the advice of his attorney, Ochoa accepted a guilty plea in exchange for a two-year sentence, after a judge threatened him with a 25-year sentence if convicted by a jury.
Ten months later, another man was arrested in Los Angeles on unrelated carjacking charges. His DNA profile matched the profile from the hat and gun in Ochoa's case and he confessed to committing the crime. Ochoa was freed after ten months in prison.
Read more about his case - as well as with background on eyewitness misidentification and unvalidated science.
Other exoneree anniversaries this week:
Edward Honaker, Virginia (Served 9.5 years/Exonerated 10/21/94)
Fredric Saecker, Wisconsin (Served 6 years/Exonerated 10/24/96)
Victor Ortiz, New York (Served 11.5 years - exonerated 10/24/96)
Tags: James Ochoa
Chad Heins: Two Years Free
Posted: December 4, 2009 3:19 pm
This week marks the second anniversary of the day Chad Heins (left) walked out of a Florida prison, free at 33 years old for the first time since he was 19.
Heins was convicted in 1996 of murdering his sister-in-law Tina Heins. Chad recently moved from Florida to Wisconsin and was staying with his brother Jeremy and Jeremy’s wife, Tina, when Tina was killed in her bedroom.
Jeremy, who was in the Navy, was on board his ship the night of the crime. Chad had returned home at 12:30 a.m. that night, two hours before his sister-in-law, and was asleep on the sofa during the crime. He woke up around 5:45 a.m. to find three small fires burning in the living room and kitchen, one on the very sofa where he slept. After putting out the fires and disarming the smoke alarm, he discovered Tina Heins in her bedroom; she had been stabbed 27 times.
Heins immediately became a suspect. During his trial, a forensic analyst testified that DNA testing performed on three hairs collected from the victim's bedroom showed that the hairs came from one person, and that person wasn't Chad or Jeremy Heins. Two jailhouse snitches testified at his trial that Heins had spontaneously confessed his guilt to them, and he was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and attempted sexual battery on December 20, 1996, and sentenced to life in prison.
In 2001, Heins wrote to the Innocence Project, which took the case with help from the Innocence Project of Florida. In 2003, along with pro bono counsel Robert Beckham of Holland & Knight, the Innocence Project filed a motion for DNA testing on skin cells collected at autopsy from underneath the victim's fingernails. She had defense wounds on her hands, meaning that biological evidence from the attacker could be under her fingernails. The DNA test results showed that male DNA under Tina's fingernails did not come from Chad or Jeremy Heins. Additional testing showed that the profile from the hairs was consistent with the DNA from the fingernails -- all belonging to an unknown male.
Attorneys for Heins also learned that a fingerprint had been discovered before trial on the faucet of the blood-stained sink in the Heins' bathroom, where it was undisputed that the perpetrator attempted to clean up after the murder. Although the fingerprint did not match Chad, Jeremy or Tina, prosecutors did not relay this information to the jury.
Heins' conviction was vacated in 2006 based on the DNA evidence, but prosecutors demanded a retrial - further delaying Heins' freedom. The Innocence Project sought DNA testing of semen found at the crime scene. The results showed that the semen came from the same person as the hairs and the cells found under the victim's fingernails. On December 4, 2007, prosecutors dropped the pending charges against Heins and he was freed. Days after his release, Heins moved to Wisconsin to rejoin relatives.
Watch a video interview with Heins and read more about his case in our Know the Cases section.
Other Exoneration Anniversaries This Week:
Dale and Ronnie Mahan, Alabama (Served 11.5 Years, Exonerated 11/30/1998)
Calvin Lee Scott, Oklahoma (Served 20 Years, Exonerated 12/3/03)
Gerald Davis, West Virginia (Served 8 Years, Exonerated 12/4/1995)
Calvin Ollins, Illinois (Served 13,5 Years, Exonerated 12/5/01)
Larry Ollins, Illinois (Served 13,5 Years, Exonerated 12/5/01)
Marcellius Bradford (Served 6.5 Years, Exonerated 12/5/01)
Tags: Chad Heins
One Year Free, New Questions Raised
Posted: December 10, 2009 6:13 pm
One year ago today, William Dillon was exonerated from a Florida prison after serving 27 years for a murder DNA proves he didn’t commit. Dillon was convicted in 1981 based in part on a dog-scent lineup conducted by a now-discredited dog handler.
On August 17, 1981, James Dvorak was found beaten to death in a wooded area near Canova Beach, FL. That same morning a driver picked up a hitchhiker near the beach wearing a bloody yellow T-shirt. Police recovered the T-shirt from a trash can and collected other evidence from the driver's truck.
John Preston, a purported expert in handling scent-tracking dogs, was hired for the investigation. Preston said his dog, “Harrass II,” linked a T-shirt allegedly worn by the perpetrator to the crime scene and to Dillon. Dillon was arrested and charged with the murder. At Dillon’s trial, a former girlfriend claimed to have seen him wearing the blood-stained shirt as he stood over the body and a jailhouse snitch testified that Dillon had confessed to the crime. With this evidence added to the testimony of the dog handler, Dillon was convicted and sentenced to life.
In 2007, after years of attempts at an appeal, Dillon was helped by public defenders and attorneys at the Innocence Project of Florida. Dillon’s advocates obtained access to DNA testing on the bloody shirt, which had been preserved. The results proved Dillon’s innocence and he was freed on November 18, 2008. His exoneration became official when charges were dropped three weeks later, on December 10.
Since Dillon's exoneration the use of dog-scent lineups and scent-tracking dogs to make identifications has come under intense questioning across the country. Two men are suing a Texas deputy because his dogs played a role in their wrongful arrests. Other states are reexamining the practice.
Preston also played a role in the case of Innocence Project client Wilton Dedge, who was exonerated in 2004 after 22 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Preston’s work was challenged as early as the 1980s when his dog failed an accuracy test conducted by a Brevard County judge. The Arizona Supreme Court later called him a “charlatan.” In 2008, a Brevard County judge said Preston was used by prosecutors “to confirm the state’s preconceived notions.”
Other Anniversaries This Week:
Dewey Davis, West Virginia (Served 7 years, Exonerated 12/7/1995)
Alejandro Hernandez, Illinois (Served 10.5 years, Exonerated 12/8/1995)
Marlon Pendleton, Illinois (Served 10 years, Exonerated 12/8/2006)
Robert Clark, Georgia (Served 23.5 years, Exonerated 12/8/2005)
Nicholas Yarris, Pennsylvania (Served 21.5 years, Exonerated 12/9/2003)
Timothy Durham, Oklahoma (Served 3.5 years, Exonerated 12/9/1997)
John Jerome White, Georgia (Served 22.5 years, Exonerated 12/10/2007)
Tags: Wilton Dedge, William Dillon
Improper Forensics and Two Decades in Prison
Posted: January 8, 2010 10:40 am
In 1989, Steven Barnes was convicted of the rape and murder of 16-year-old Kimberly Simon in Utica, New York. The prosecution's case against Barnes was based in part on unvalidated and improper forensic science. After serving almost two decades in prison, Barnes was officially exonerated one year ago this week
Today, Barnes works helps oversee a youth program for his county's workforce development office and recently moved into his own apartment. He frequently speaks to community groups and policymakers about the importance of addressing the causes of wrongful conviction to prevent injustice.
Faulty forensics were a central cause of Barnes' wrongful conviction. Three types of forensic evidence were used against Barnes: fabric print analysis, soil comparison, and microscopic hair analysis. None of these three techniques has been proven in empirical studies to be reliable and aspects of this evidence clearly misled the jury in Barnes' case.
The fabric print analysis allegedly linked the victim's unusual jeans to a dust print on the outside of Barnes' truck, but the methods used to determine a link were unproven and unreliable. Soil from Barnes truck was chemically compared to soil at the crime scene, but technicians didn't offer an analysis of whether the soil in either sample was particularly unique.
Testimony regarding microscopic hair comparisons in particular can mislead juries to believe that a similarly is actually a "match." According to a report released in 2009 by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), "No scientifically accepted statistics exist about the frequency with which particular characteristics of hair are distributed in the population. There appears to be no uniform standards on the number of features on which hairs must agree before an examiner may declare a 'match.'" Nearly one in five wrongful convictions overturned through DNA testing involved faulty hair analysis.
Despite the groundbreaking recent NAS report on forensic science, there remains a grievous lack of oversight of crime labs across the country. Moreover, methodologies and standards vary by examiner. Countless innocent people have been sent to prison in the U.S. based on faulty forensics while the real perpetrators of crimes remain free. In response, the Innocence Project, spearheading the Just Science Coalition, has developed a plan for reform that includes the creation of a national Office of Forensic Science Improvement and Support (OFSIS). OFSIS, with input from law enforcement, prosecutors, crime laboratories, the judiciary and the defense bar, will support research in forensics practices, set mandatory accreditation and certification standards and ensure compliance with those standards.
These reforms are critical to prevent future injustices like the one endured by Steven Barnes. Learn more about federal forensic reforms and take action here.
Other Exoneree Anniversaries This Week:
Mark Diaz Bravo, California (Served 3 Years, Exonerated 1/6/94)
David Vasquez, Virginia (Served 4 Years, Exonerated 1/4/89)
Larry Holdren, West Virginia (Served 15 Years, Exonerated 1/4/00)
Tags: Steven Barnes, Forensic Oversight
Supreme Court Revisits Right to Confront Forensic Witnesses
Posted: January 11, 2010 3:55 pm
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments this morning in a case that could affect last term’s decision granting criminal defendants the right to call forensic analysts as witnesses.
The court ruled 5-4 last term in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts that defendants in criminal cases have a right to cross-examine experts who conduct forensic tests in their case. This morning, the justices heard another forensics case, Briscoe et. al. v. Virginia, that some observers said could lead to a narrowing of the Melendez-Diaz ruling.
The Innocence Network filed a friend-of-the-court brief last year in Melendez-Diaz, pointing out that flawed forensic testimony has led to dozens of wrongful convictions later overturned through DNA testing – and arguing that the right to challenge forensic evidence is crucial to uncovering bad science that could wrongfully convict an innocent defendant.
An editorial in today’s New York Times said any change to last year’s ruling would be “a significant setback for civil liberties.”
Read the full editorial here.
Read more about Briscoe et. al. v. Virginia here.
Read more about Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts and download the Innocence Network brief.
Tags: Forensic Oversight
Lobbying for the Freedom of Others
Posted: January 26, 2010 6:10 pm
In 2004, Virginia lawmakers passed a measure intended to allow people to challenge wrongful convictions based on evidence of innocence. So far, however, only one person has had a murder conviction overturned under that law, and his mother was in the state capitol yesterday lobbying for an expansion of the law that would help others.
Former Navy SEAL trainee Dustin Turner was convicted of 1995 murder he has always said he didn’t commit, and his conviction was tossed out last year based on the confession of a fellow Navy SEAL. The state is appealing his case, and the Virginia Court of Appeals heard oral arguments this morning. But yesterday Turner’s mother, Linda Summit, was thinking of others like her son.
The law is too narrow to be effective, she said, pointing to examples of people like Arthur Lee Whitfield, who was exonerated through DNA testing and eventually pardoned, but not eligible for a writ of actual innocence under the 2004 law because it only applies to prisoners.
“At least we have that avenue,” Summit told the Virginian-Pilot. “Why I'm here today is, other people don't have that avenue. I'm here advocating for them,"A bill before the Virginia House of Delegates would expand access to the writ of actual innocence to people who have been pardoned or paroled, would make them eligible for state compensation and restore their civil rights – including the right to vote, serve on juries and run for office.
Read the full story here. (Virginian-Pilot, 1/26/10)
Tags: Arthur Lee Whitfield
Friday Roundup : Redemption, After a Decade of Injustice
Posted: February 12, 2010 6:20 pm
Ted Bradford was acquitted by a Washington state jury yesterday, finally clearing him of a 1995 rape evidence shows he didn’t commit. Bradford spent nearly a decade in prison for the rape before he was released on parole. Once free, he continued fighting to prove his innocence, with the help of the Innocence Project Northwest. DNA evidence from the crime scene was tested in 2007 -- revealing an unknown male’s profile on a key item.
Former federal judge H. Lee Sarokin wrote at the Huffington Post that Texas prosecutors are making a mistake by seeking to go forward with Hank Skinner’s scheduled execution February 24 despite untested DNA evidence in the case.
We wrote last week about Innocence Project client Dean Cage’s appearance on the Dr. Phil show. This week, CNN profiled Cage and the victim in the case -- who are now working together to raise awareness about the issues of wrongful conviction and eyewitness misidentification.
A Florida man spent over a month in jail awaiting trial in an attempted murder, but was freed after his lawyer proved that he had been hundreds of miles away at the time of the crime. The wrongful arrest was caused in part by an eyewitness misidentification.
Lawmakers in Virginia are seeking to reform the state’s eyewitness identification procedures to reduce the possibility of misidentification -- and wrongful conviction.
A Florida lawmaker is pushing for the creation of a state innocence commission to evaluate the causes of wrongful conviction and recommend reforms to prevent future injustice.
A Florida dance company will perform a piece Saturday inspired by the wrongful conviction and exoneration of James Bain.
An Extraordinary Exoneration, Seven Years Later
Posted: March 19, 2010 12:30 pm
Initially, the woman was shown more than 500 mug shots by the police, but could not identify the perpetrator. In the weeks after the attack, the victim recounted that she would scan the faces of black males on the street in search of the perpetrator. One afternoon, while riding the elevator at work, the woman saw Ruffin, a maintenance man at Eastern Virginia Medical School, who she believed was her attacker. She informed the police and confirmed her earlier identification of Ruffin at a lineup.
Unlike the woman’s description, Ruffin was 6’1 and light-skinned. He also had two gold teeth and facial hair. Ruffin was indicted, yet it took three separate trials before he was ultimately convicted. In the first two trials, the juries contained a mix of black and white jurors. Yet both panels were unable to reach a verdict, and mistrials were declared. The jury in Ruffin’s third trial was all white. The victim also described the rapist as taller than she had initially reported. The jury deliberated for seven minutes before convicting Ruffin of rape, sodomy and robbery. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Ruffin first learned of DNA testing in 1994, but was told that all evidence from his case had been destroyed. In an incredible stroke of luck, however, authorities soon learned that evidence had been saved by the unorthodox practices of a former lab technician. Mary Jane Burton, a state forensic scientist who died in 1999, habitually saved samples of biological evidence before they were sent to Virginia authorities for destruction.
In 2002, Ruffin wrote to John R. Doyle III, the Norfolk commonwealth’s attorney, who subsequently discovered that Burton had saved the relevant biological evidence from his case in her lab notebooks. DNA testing excluded Ruffin and implicated another man in Virginia’s DNA database who was already serving three life sentences for other sexual assaults. Testing also revealed that the man had committed the crimes attributed to another exoneree, Arthur Lee Whitfield.
Doyle, in cooperation with the Virginia Parole Board, paroled Ruffin the day after the results were disclosed, reuniting him with his family and son, who was only nine years old at the time of his conviction. A month later, he was officially pardoned by then Governor Mark Warner. Ruffin, who was 49 when he was released, now resides in Virginia with his family and girlfriend. He received $1.5 million in compensation for serving over 20 years in prison.
DNA testing of evidence from Burton’s casefiles has led to four other exoneration to date, including Marvin Anderson, Willie Davidson, Phillip Thurman, and Victor Burnette. A review of the remainder of Burton’s notebooks is ongoing.
Other Exoneree Anniversaries This Week:
John Willis, Illinois (Served 7 years, Exonerated 3/15/1999).
Arthur Mumphrey, Texas (Served 17.5 years, Exonerated 3/17/06)
Wiley Fountain, Texas (Served 16 years, Exonerated 3/18/03)
Edward Green, Washington D.C. (Served 1 year, Exonerated 3/19/2009)
Friday Roundup: DNA Testing That Has Lead to Exonerations
Posted: April 16, 2010 5:15 pm
A new book by Jon B. Gould, describes how the first commission stabled to reinvestigate wrongful convictions, the Innocence Commission for Virginia, operates. Gould, an associate professor and director of the Center for Justice, Law and Society at George Mason University details how advancement in forensic science and access to DNA testing has led to numerous exonerations nationwide.
Alan Beaman, who served 13 years in prison before the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the conviction for a murder he did not commit, asked for an official document confirming his innocence at his clemency hearing in front of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board yesterday. Beaman’s 1995 murder conviction in the death of his ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Lockmiller, in Normal, Illinois was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2008. He is now seeking a pardon from the governor.
Anniversaries Mark the 100th and 200th DNA Exonerations
Posted: April 23, 2010 4:50 pm
His first conviction was overturned, but another jury found Krone guilty. The judge refused to sentence him to death, saying "the court is left with a residual or lingering doubt about the clear identity of the killer." Finally, in 2002, Krone’s appellate attorney obtained access to biological evidence that prosecutors had claimed to have lost. The results excluded Krone and implicated another man as the real perpetrator. Read more about Krone’s case here, and learn about other wrongful convictions based on faulty bite mark analysis.
Jerry Miller, who was exonerated three years ago today after serving nearly a quarter-century in Illinois prisons, was wrongfully convicted based almost exclusively on eyewitness misidentification, the leading cause of wrongful convictions overturned through DNA. Read more about his case here.
Other Exoneree Anniversaries This Week:
Walter Snyder, Virginia (Served 6.5 Years, Exonerated 4/23/93)
Anthony D. Woods, Missouri (Served 18 years, Exonerated, 4/21/05)
Anthony Hicks, Wisconsin (Served 5 Years, Exonerated 4/23/97)
Hector Gonzalez, New York (Served 5.5 Years, Exonerated 4/24/02)
Tags: Jerry Miller
Eyewitness Identification: Could You Identify a Suspect?
Posted: May 5, 2010 5:00 pm
The students’ memories were varied. Some remembered the perpetrator being white, but none accurately assessed his height, weight or attire. Others focused more on the victim, who was described as white, black, blonde, and dark-haired among many inconsistent details.
Anderson, now a lieutenant with the Hanover, Virginia, volunteer fire department, was wrongfully convicted of rape based in large part on the victim’s misidentification. He says he is proof that eyewitness identification isn’t enough to convict someone. Despite his alibi and several inconsistencies in the case, Anderson was convicted in 1982. He was exonerated with DNA evidence 20 years later. In addition to working for the fire department, Anderson now runs his own trucking company.
Professor Mauriello conducted a similar experiment in his classes 15 years ago. The suspect was a white male and was stealing from a black female. But, many students reported that they saw a black suspect robbing a white victim.
Both demonstrations and Anderson’s wrongful conviction are proof that even when a crime happens right in front of people, they might not be able to recall the events accurately.
See the segment here.
Read about Marvin Anderson’s case here.
Learn about the causes of eyewitness misidentification here.
And, learn about eyewitness identification reform here.
Tags: Maryland, Marvin Anderson
A Trail of Misconduct and the Need for Reform
Posted: May 7, 2010 3:32 pm
A 1993 investigation into Zain's work was undertaken by the State and a special judge was appointed. The initial investigation looked at 36 cases, and an independent team of serologists ultimately concluded that Zain had fabricated or manipulated evidence to win convictions in every one of the cases reviewed.
A wider investigation would reveal the extent of Zain's massive fraud. The 1993 investigation found that Zain overstated the strength of his results, overstated and misreported the frequency of genetic matches on multiple pieces of evidence, reported inconclusive tests as conclusive, failed to report conflicting results, reported scientifically impossible or improbable At least 182 cases bore the mark of Zain’s misconduct, and the special judge granted West Virginia prisoners the opportunity to seek habeas relief if Zain's misconduct played a role in their convictions.
Zain died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 52 while awaiting retrial on charges of obtaining money from the State of West Virginia under false pretenses. He was also charged with perjury in Texas, but the case was dismissed because of statute of limitations issues. Though he may have escaped conviction, his misconduct has informed all levels of the criminal justice system about the necessity for national forensic standards that exclude improper and unvalidated forensic science. Read more about the Innocence Project’s call for federal forensic oversight here.
Other Exoneree Anniversaries This Week:
Clark McMillan, Tennessee (Served 22 Years, Exonerated 5/2/02)
Danny Brown, Ohio (Served 18.5 Years, Exonerated 5/3/01)
Jeffrey Pierce, Oklahoma (Served 14.5 Years, Exonerated 5/7/01)
Tags: Glen Woodall
The Need for a Federal Criminal Justice Commission
Posted: June 7, 2010 1:58 pm
The measure is championed by Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and has drawn broad bipartisan support in Congress and from the criminal justice community. A recent New York Times editorial pointed out that it “is a rare cause in Washington that has the backing of the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the A.C.L.U. and the Marijuana Policy Project.”
We will post more about our efforts to support the creation of this commission in the weeks ahead. Read more detail on the bill here.
Law Students Help Reduce Virginia’s DNA Backlog
Posted: June 14, 2010 5:45 pm
This sweeping review of old evidence in Virginia grew from the state’s history of evidence and exonerations. For years, Innocence Project client Marvin Anderson was told that evidence from his case had been destroyed. Upon a search requested by the Innocence Project in 2001, however, lab officials discovered evidence from the case in the lab notebook of a former analyst named Mary Jane Burton. Tests on this evidence would exonerate Anderson in 2002.
In the years since, Virginia officials have undertaken a comprehensive review of the samples discovered in Burton’s notebooks. Testing on this evidence has led to at least five other exonerations, including Arthur Lee Whitfield, Julius Earl Ruffin , Willie Davidson, Phillip Thurman, and Victor Burnette.
Read more about Burton and the Virginia DNA review project.
The Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law is a member of the Innocence Network.
Make the Call for Reform
Posted: September 15, 2010 2:03 pm
The proposed criminal justice commission legislation was introduced last year by Virginia Senator Jim Webb and 15 co-sponsors from both political parties. The resulting bipartisan commission would review and identify effective criminal justice policies and make recommendations for reform.
This commission could do critical work to examine why wrongful convictions happen and recommend improvements that would help prevent miscarriages of justice and increase public safety.
Thanks for taking action. Once you’ve made the call, please consider helping us to spread the word by clicking the links below.
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Deadline Nears for a National Commission
Posted: October 1, 2010 10:42 am
Sen. Jim Webb (who first introduced the bill) spoke on the Senate floor this week, calling on his fellow senators to prioritize its passage.
He said: I certainly hope that before the end of this year, we will see this national commission come into place. It is 18 months of getting the finest minds in America to come together and examine all aspects of our criminal justice system so we can do two things: one, reduce mass incarceration in this country but also reduce the fear in our communities with the present rate of crime.
Read Webb's full comments here.
Take action today. Urge your senators to form a national criminal justice commission.
After 21 Years in Prison, Four Free
Posted: October 13, 2010 2:49 pm
The victim described her attacker as a white male of Italian descent and selected Fappiano’s photograph out of a lineup at the police station. Her husband, presented with a live line-up, picked out a police “filler,” not Fappiano.
Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause in wrongful convictions nationwide, factoring into more than 75% of convictions later overturned through DNA testing. In case after case, DNA evidence proves that eyewitness identification is often inaccurate. In Fappiano’s case, 21 years would pass before he and the Innocence Project obtained access to the DNA tests that would prove what Fappiano already knew – that he was innocent.
After the Innocence Project accepted Fappiano’s case in 2003, it took two years to locate key evidence that could be tested. During the summer of 2006, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner performed several rounds of testing and found that there was DNA from one female and one male in the sample. The female contributor was the victim. The male portion matched neither the victim’s husband nor Fappiano, proving his innocence.
There is no law in New York State that requires the preservation of evidence http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Preservation_Of_Evidence.php, and without those vials of DNA, Fappiano might still be in jail for a crime he didn’t commit.
After his official exoneration on October 6, 2006, Scott Fappiano campaigned alongside fellow exonerees in support of the creation of an innocence commission in New York. In 2009, New York’s highest Judge, Court of Appeals Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, created the Justice Task Force, a commission devoted to implementing and monitoring reforms in the court and justice systems. New York is one of only nine states nationwide that has established a criminal justice reform commission.
Read more about these commissions, their goals and legislation.
Other Exoneration Anniversaries this week:
Leonard Callace, New York (Served 5.5 years, Exonerated 10/5/92)
Brian Piszczeck, Ohio (Served 3 years, Exonerated 1994)
Douglas Echols, Georgia (Served 5 years, Exonerated 10/7/02)
Samuel Scott, Georgia (Served 15 years, Exonerated 10/7/02)
Kevin Byrd, Texas (Served 12 years, Exonerated 1997)
William Harris, West Virginia (Served 7 years, Exonerated 10/10/95)
Calvin Washington, Texas (Served 13 years, Exonerated 10/10/01)
Three Consecutive Life Sentences for An Innocent Man
Posted: October 27, 2010 6:01 pm
The Innocence Project and Centurion Ministries helped obtain the evidence that led to Honaker's exoneration, and he was freed and pardoned in 1994, after spending a decade in prison.
Since then, there have been seven other exonerations in Virginia, and eyewitness misidentification was a factor in each. In 2003, the state enacted a law requiring each local police department and sheriff's office to establish a written policy and procedure for conducting in-person and photograph lineups. It is one of ten states with an eyewitness identification reform policy in place. Read about the others here.
Other Exoneration Anniversaries This Week:
James Ochoa, California (Served 10 Months, Exonerated 10/19/06)
Fredric Saecker, Wisconsin (Served 6 Years, Exonerated 10/24/96)
Victor Ortiz, New York (Served 11.5 Years, Exonerated 10/24/96
Tags: Edward Honaker
Down to the Wire: Call on Senate Leaders to Create a Criminal Justice Commission
Posted: November 16, 2010 12:51 pm
The bill has already passed the House of Representatives, but would need to be reintroduced in both chambers if the 2010 Senate session ends without action.
The bipartisan commission, originally proposed by Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, would thoroughly examine our criminal justice system and recommend reforms. This blue-ribbon panel could help prevent wrongful convictions by researching and recommending reforms to prevent misidentification, false confessions and other central causes.
Virginia Hopeful for Eyewitness Identification Reform
Posted: November 30, 2010 5:50 pm
House Bill 207 would require that lineup participants are presented sequentially (rather than all at once), a reform shown to decrease the rate at which innocent people are identified. Research has demonstrated that when viewing several subjects at once, witnesses tend to choose the person who looks the most like – but may not actually be – the perpetrator. The proposed law would also require lineups to be “double-blind” in which neither the administrator nor the eyewitness knows who the suspect is. This prevents the administrator of the lineup from providing inadvertent or intentional verbal or nonverbal cues to influence the eyewitness to pick the suspect.
Earlier this year, the Virginia Crime Commission surveyed law-enforcement agencies across the state and got responses from 127. According to their results, only 75 percent said they had written policies. And while most of the agencies reported using sequential presentation of lineups, only 25 percent said they used an independent administrator in lineups.
Garrett said he was concerned that so many departments still had no written policy. But, he said, "what I found even more troubling, was . . . the vast majority of those polices do not require double-blind administration and that's the single crucial reform."
"The double-blind aspect is really important. Even an administrator acting with the best of intentions, or even one that is blind, cannot avoid the problem that the eyewitness will naturally look to the police administrator for guidance and reassurance," he said. "An eyewitness may perceive cues and reinforcement even where it is not intended, so it is crucial that the eyewitness be told that the administrator has no idea which person is the suspect."
Departments that adopt only sequential lineups and not double-blind administration "may have actually made their lineup procedures less accurate and less reliable," he said.
The Virginia Crime Commission will vote on the bill December 8.
Read the full article.
Read about eyewitness misidentification and learn how to reform eyewitness identification procedures.
Image: Lineup in the John Jerome White case in Georgia.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Science Thursday: Testing for Hair Color and Family Ties
Posted: January 13, 2011 6:25 pm
Google has refused to cooperate in a UK investigation of a crime captured by its Street View cameras.
A former FBI firearms expert partially confirmed the conclusion of a North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation firearms examiner in a disputed case. The lab terminated agent Duane Deavers, whose forensic analysis was the center of a recent exoneration.
Misconduct at the San Francisco Police Crime Lab has jeopardized both proper and improper convictions.
A recent hearing of the Texas Forensic Science Commission on the investigation of the arson forensic methods used in the Cameron Todd Willingham case pitted scientists against lawyers, according to Houston Chronicle columnist Rick Casey.
A Texas man will not receive a new trial for an arson murder case in which unscientific arson investigation methods were used.
Virginia will soon join California and Colorado as states that use familial DNA searching for law enforcement purposes.
A public defender told West Virginia lawmakers that civilian oversight or public disclosure is needed at the state's crime lab.
The D.C. City Council is considering a bill that would move the crime laboratory from police control into a new department of forensics under the mayor.
The handwriting evidence central to a French bombing case is being challenged in court.
In the wake of Donald Gates' exoneration based on faulty forensic analysis, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project will be reviewing cases involving FBI analysts who were previously implicated by the Inspector General.
An Oklahoma forensic meteorologist re-creates weather events as evidence in cases.
Forensic artists can be employed to sculpt the likeness of a deceased person using only a skull, and forensic anthropologists use dimensions of skull features to infer ancestry, gender, and age of human remains.
A Kentucky medical examiner volunteers her time to do animal autopsies in animal abuse cases.
Army, Marine Corps, and now Air Force units learn battlefield forensic science to identify the makers of improvised explosive devices.
Virginia Man Seeks Freedom After 27 Years
Posted: February 3, 2011 5:58 am
Haynesworth was 18 and had no criminal record when he was charged with committing five rapes or attempted rapes in the Richmond area in 1984. Prosecutors dismissed one of the cases, but he was ultimately convicted of three of the crimes and acquitted of one. After his arrest, similar attacks continued to happen in the area by a man who began to refer to himself as the “Black Ninja” to his victims. Eventually, Leon Davis was arrested for 12 crimes that bore striking resemblance to the crimes for which Haynesworth was convicted. Davis was later convicted of at least three of these crimes and is serving multiple life terms. Despite maintaining his innocence from behind bars and requests to have his case reopened, Haynesworth’s pleas were ignored for more than two decades.
In 2005, after DNA testing on old evidence exonerated five Virginia men, then-Gov. Mark Warner ordered a review of all cases between 1973 and 1988 where there was evidence suitable for DNA testing. DNA tests were conducted in one of Haynesworth’s cases, and the results cleared him and pointed to Davis. The Innocence Project and Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project sought further testing, and DNA tests also cleared Haynesworth in the crime for which he was acquitted. Although there is no biological evidence available in Haynesworth’s other two convictions, two local prosecutors conducted a careful review of the evidence and now agree that Haynesworth is innocent of these as well.
Despite the fact that both prosecutors and the Attorney General agree that Haynesworth is innocent, he can only be freed by the Virginia Court of Appeals. He will likely remain incarcerated while the court considers his case.
Read the press release.
Timeline of Events in the Case of Thomas Haynesworth.
Media coverage:
Washington Post: Man imprisoned for 27 years hopes that some evidence is enough for freedom (2/2/11)
Times-Dispatch: Prosecutors back exoneration for man convicted in rapes (2/2/11)
Mid Atlantic Innocence Project
Science Thursday: Questions Surround Death Investigations
Posted: February 3, 2011 8:10 pm
Dane County, WI, welcomes its first medical examiner, who hails from New York City, as it replaces its coroner system.
Scottish scientists from Abertay University worked with the Scottish Police to develop a technique to lift fingerprints off fabric. While the research demonstrates that this technique is possible, scientists warn that it is not a silver bullet.
Forensic botany can be used to evaluate an alibi or assist in determining time since death.
A West Virginia forensic chemistry professor received a grant from the National Institute of Justice to study factors that affect interpretation of data by fire debris analysts and the associated error rate.
Tags: Forensic Oversight, Unvalidated/Improper Forensics
Send Thomas Haynesworth a Message of Support
Posted: February 16, 2011 3:53 pm
Haynesworth was 18 and had no criminal record when he was charged with committing five rapes or attempted rapes in the Richmond area in 1984. Prosecutors dismissed one of the cases, but he was ultimately convicted of three of the crimes and acquitted of one. After his conviction, however, similar attacks continued in the area. Eventually, another man, who described himself to his attackers as the "Black Ninja," was convicted of committing several crimes bearing striking resemblance to the crimes for which Haynesworth was convicted. Haynesworth proclaimed his innocence from prison and asked for his case to be reopened, but his pleas went unheeded for more than two decades.
In 2005, a statewide evidence review led to DNA testing in one of Haynesworth’s cases. The results pointed to the "Black Ninja," clearing Haynesworth. The Innocence Project and Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project sought further testing, and DNA tests also cleared Haynesworth in the crime for which he was acquitted. Although there is no biological evidence available in Haynesworth’s other two convictions, two local prosecutors conducted a careful review of the evidence and now agree that Haynesworth is innocent of these as well.
Read more about Haynesworth's case
Tags: Pending Cases
Science Thursday: 4000 Drug Cases Under Review in Nassau County, NY
Posted: February 24, 2011 5:49 pm
The West Virginia state legislature is considering a bill to designate Marshall University as the state’s official laboratory for DNA typing, testing and research.
A Washington Post editorial supports the creation of a crime laboratory that reports to the mayor rather than to the police.
South Africa’s national crime laboratory has a 10-year backlog of toxicology cases.
The Laboratory Accreditation Board has issued a statement denying responsibly for problems at the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.
Argument Scheduled for Virginia Man Seeking Exoneration
Posted: March 16, 2011 2:19 pm
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli also announced his support of the writ and asked the court to move as soon as possible.
The court of appeals has granted only one writ of actual innocence, in 2008, though it has yet to free anyone from prison.
Among other things, Haynesworth must show, "no rational trier of fact could have found proof beyond a reasonable doubt based upon the newly discovered evidence."
His lawyers say that if the DNA evidence was available in 1984, no reasonable juror would have found him guilty.
Haynesworth's petition argues, "If, as the Virginia legislature plainly contemplated, there is ever to be a case for which a writ of actual innocence is granted based on non-biological evidence, this is it."
Innocence Project Co-founder Peter Neufeld will be appearing on Haynesworth’s behalf at the hearing.
Read the full story.
Science Thursdays: Nassau County Lab Scandal May Cost $500,000
Posted: March 17, 2011 6:35 pm
The FBI began using a new computer system that can search a database of 70 million sets of fingerprints in seven minutes, down from 17 minutes with the old system.
A Virginia judge approved state funds to pay for a private investigator and an expert in forensic pathology as defense experts in an Orange County murder trial.
For the first time since 1995, Mississippi will have a Chief Medical Examiner.
Radley Balko discusses his approach to reforming forensic science.
The “Shaken Baby” Death Review Committee in Ontario has chosen to review four cases for possible wrongful conviction after examining 48 criminal convictions that had relied on evidence of abusive head trauma.
Due to budget cuts, the average number of samples police in the UK send for forensic analysis has been reduced by 23 percent.
Wrongfully Convicted Virginia Man Released After 27 Years
Posted: March 21, 2011 5:56 pm
While DNA and other evidence proves that Haynesworth is innocent, his conviction can only be overturned by either the Virginia Court of Appeals or by a pardon. Earlier this year, the Innocence Project, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and Hogan Lovells US LLP filed paperwork to the Court of Appeals requesting that Haynesworth be exonerated. The court will hear oral arguments in the case on March 30th.
In his statement lauding Haynesworth’s parole, McDonnell emphasized the uniqueness of the case and wrote that he is still considering granting a pardon.
"The Parole Board thoroughly reviewed this case according to their standard procedures and policies. Mr. Haynesworth is being conditionally released according to terms set by the Parole Board and will remain under the supervision of the Department of Corrections. I will follow the Writ of Actual Innocence process as it moves forward and will consider a petition for pardon, should one be filed."
Post-conviction DNA has already exonerated 12 men in Virginia; find out how many men and women have been exonerated in your state here.
Science Thursdays: Crime Labs Under Investigation for Inconsistent Results
Posted: March 24, 2011 3:21 pm
UK courts will now consider a pre-trial reliability test for the admissibility of forensic evidence.
State budget cuts could eliminate 181 of the 600 staff at New York City’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
A University of Virginia professor who studies wrongful convictions will release a new book this spring titled, "Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong.”
Virginia Enacts Familial DNA Testing Law
Posted: March 24, 2011 5:43 pm
In a public statement, McDonnell says that law enforcement should be able to use familial DNA tests as another means of investigation, albeit with care:
"Familial DNA searching, which must be used cautiously and sparingly, provides another important tool to assist law enforcement in some of their most difficult and heinous cases where the safety of the public remains a concern.”
However, opponents have voiced concern over this issue. Executive Director of the ACLU of Virginia Kent Willis told local news station CBS 6:
“It’s guilty by genetic association. It creates suspects out of people solely because they’re related to someone who may have committed the crime. You can be discriminated in Virginia because you’re a suspect in a crime. You can lose you’re job because you’re a suspect.”
Virginia becomes the third state to adopt familial DNA testing after California and Colorado.
Road to Justice for One of Norfolk Four
Posted: April 25, 2011 5:22 pm
The Richmond Times-Dispatch covered the federal appeals court’s decision.
"I think it's just one more piece of a huge puzzle that shows that these guys — all of them — really deserve justice here," said Des Hogan, Tice's lawyer. "These other guys have suffered the same injustices and should be cleared as well," he said.
"The time has come for Virginia to correct a travesty of justice and announce that it will not appeal or seek to retry Derek," Hogan said.
A spokesman for the Virginia Attorney General's Office said they were disappointed by the ruling and exploring all their options.
U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams originally overturned Tice's conviction in 2009 on the grounds that Tice’s trial lawyers failed to ask the judge to suppress his confession since it was made after he invoked his right to remain silent.
Read the full article.
Read more about the Norfolk Four case.
Read The New York Times Magazine story on the Norfolk Four.
Learn more about recording of interrogations, a reform shown to prevent false confessions and assist in law enforcement investigations.
Judge Overturns Virginia Death Sentence Due to Prosecutorial Misconduct
Posted: July 15, 2011 1:32 pm
In his ruling, the judge calls attention to prosecutors Paul Ebert and Richard Conway for depriving the jury of critical information.
The judge wrote, "Essentially, in an effort to ensure that no defense would be 'fabricated,' Ebert and Conway's actions served to deprive Wolfe of any substantive defense in a case where his life would rest on the jury's verdict. The Court finds these actions not only unconstitutional in regards to due process, but abhorrent to judicial process."
If the Virginia Attorney General appeals Monday’s ruling, Wolfe could remain in prison for another year while the federal appeals court considers the appeal.
Read more in the Washington Post.
Read the UVA press release.
Standing with Thomas Haynesworth
Posted: July 27, 2011 6:06 pm
And although Haynesworth is still not fully cleared, he is backed by key supporters. The Innocence Project, along with the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and Hogan Lovells US LLP helped secure his parole release and continue fighting for his full exoneration. The Commonwealth’s Attorneys in the two counties where his convictions occurred have called for his exoneration. Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli says he “will do everything in his power” to ensure Haynesworth is cleared.
Hundreds of Innocence Project supporters have also sent messages to Haynesworth to show their support. Join them by sending your message here.
Read more about Haynesworth’s case.
Science Thursday: Arson, Anthropology and Entomology
Posted: August 18, 2011 6:33 pm
An Australian forensic anthropologist describes his discipline and the standard-setting work that the Forensic Anthropology Research Group at the Centre for Forensic Science is undertaking.
An average of three people in North America die in attacks by black bears or grizzlies each year. Researchers collect hair and scat samples for DNA analysis for grizzly research and to identify bears that have been involved in an attack.
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy appointed a 17-member panel of experts and legislative leaders to develop a plan to address the problems of the state crime lab in Meriden. The lab recently failed two federal audits leaving it unable to upload DNA profiles to the national DNA databank and lost its national accreditation.
After winning $79 million, Powerball winner Randy Smith purchased a $150,000 state-of-the-art mobile forensic unit for the West Virginia State Police.
False Confessions and the West Memphis Three
Posted: August 23, 2011 3:07 pm
Garrett’s new book, “Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong,” examines the central causes of wrongful convictions, and he partnered with the Innocence Project to create our new multimedia widget, “Getting it Right.”
The vast majority of criminal cases lack usable DNA evidence. Like the West Memphis Three case, the 250 cases that I studied are all unusual cases in which the “truth machine” of DNA can call into question seemingly rock-solid evidence. That is why it is so important to learn from the wrongful convictions that do come to light – so that we can get it right.
Read the full post.
View the new “Getting it Right” widget.
Visit Garrett’s website for more on his book.
New York Times: Fixing Lineups
Posted: August 29, 2011 5:26 pm
Brandon L. Garrett, a law professor at the University of Virginia whose book, “Convicting the Innocent,” was cited by the New Jersey Supreme Court justices in their ruling, said resistance to changing the witness identification process has not been limited to police officers. Judges and district attorneys have been slow to recognize the shortcomings of the current procedures.
Now, more than a decade after the National Institute of Justice sent guidelines for changing lineup procedures to every department in the United States, the Police Executive Research Forum is conducting a survey of lineup practices in more than 1,400 randomly selected police departments around the country.
Yet even in departments that have enacted changes, police officers sometimes fail to comply with the new procedures. Stanley Z. Fisher, a law professor at Boston University, did a pilot study on compliance with changes in two jurisdictions in Massachusetts. He found that in Middlesex County, for example, where police officers are urged but not required to conduct blinded lineups, they recorded doing so in only 2 of 11 photo arrays.
Despite solid proof of the inaccuracy of traditional methods – and the availability of simple measures to reform them – eyewitness misidentification remains the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in more than 75% of convictions overturned through DNA testing.
Read the full article.
Read the Times’ summary of five key reforms to eyewitness identification procedures.
Read the Innocence Project press release on last week’s New Jersey Supreme Court decision.
Tags: Eyewitness Misidentification
Senate Votes Against National Criminal Justice Commission
Posted: October 21, 2011 5:40 pm
The Innocence Project has long supported the creation of a National Criminal Justice Commission because such a body could address the root causes of wrongful convictions, along with dozens of other critical problems in the American criminal justice system.
Thousands of Innocence Project supporters have called on Congress in recent months to form this critical commission, and your voices helped get the commission this far. The effort isn’t over. Stay tuned for next steps.
Read the full article.
Read more about the vote against a National Criminal Justice Commission from Politico.
See how your Senator voted.
Potential Wrongful Convictions Revealed in Virginia Study
Posted: January 10, 2012 3:30 pm
Tags: Virginia
Virginia Fails to Notify Individuals Who May Have Been Wrongfully Convicted
Posted: February 6, 2012 1:45 pm
Tags: Virginia
Friday Roundup: Claims of Innocence and Fighting for Justice
Posted: February 17, 2012 4:15 pm
Tags: Connecticut, Texas, Virginia
Federal Judge Tosses Virginia Murder Conviction
Posted: February 29, 2012 4:30 pm
Tags: Virginia
Virginia Exoneree Could Receive $800,000 in Compensation
Posted: March 6, 2012 2:45 pm
Tags: Virginia, Thomas Haynesworth
Science Thursday
Posted: March 15, 2012 5:30 pm
Tags: District of Columbia, Ohio, Texas, Virginia
Wrongfully Convicted Man Seeks Removal from the Sex Offender Registry
Posted: March 19, 2012 12:25 pm
Tags: Virginia
Virginia Exoneree Receives Compensation
Posted: April 10, 2012 4:00 pm
Tags: Virginia, Thomas Haynesworth
Virginia Attorney General Supports Bennett Barbour Exoneration
Posted: May 2, 2012 5:00 pm
Tags: Virginia
Virginia Must Notify Individuals Who May Have Been Wrongfully Convicted
Posted: May 10, 2012 4:45 pm
Tags: Virginia
Florida Editorial Emphasizes Need for Reform
Posted: May 23, 2012 3:30 pm
The Tampa Bay Times has called for bold changes in Florida’s criminal justice system in order to reduce the number of wrongful convictions across the state. Thirteen of the 291 people exonerated through DNA testing were wrongfully convicted in Florida. Only Texas, Illinois, New York and Virginia have more.
On Monday, the Florida Innocence Commission embarked on several weeks of hearings to review how wrongful convictions occur and how to prevent them in the future. The commission, which is comprised of prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement and other professionals in the criminal justice community, is expected to propose criminal justice reforms at the end of June.
When the criminal justice system gets it wrong, innocent people are denied their liberty. Their families are left behind often without a father or provider. Crime victims don't get justice because the real perpetrator went free, possibly to offend again. Everyone loses.
The Florida Innocence Commission is studying the most common contributing factors of wrongful conviction. It has already recommended reforms to improve police lineup procedures and reduce the rate of eyewitness misidentification.
It was an important step, but without more far-reaching and substantial recommendations from the commission, there won't be real change. This is Florida's opportunity to better its system of justice.
Read the full editorial.
Read about the formation of criminal justice reform commissions. Read more.
Tags: Florida, Innocence Commissions
Virginia Attorney General Supports Bennett Barbour Exoneration
Posted: May 29, 2012 3:30 pm
It has been two years since DNA testing cleared Virginia man Bennett Barbour of a 1978 rape and implicated the real perpetrator, but the fight to clear his name continues. On Tuesday, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli urged the State’s Supreme Court Justices to expedite a writ of actual innocence for Barbour, reported the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
"We certainly agree that the court should expedite this review. There's really no question about the facts, as the attorney general acknowledges. Mr. Barbour is innocent and the court should act as hastily as it can and exonerate him," Matthew Engle with the Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law said.
According to notes filed by Cuccinelli’s office, the victim has been notified about the effort to declare Barbour innocent and is on board with the prosecution of the real perpetrator.
Read the full article.
Innocence Project Submits New Evidence of Innocence in West Virginia Case
Posted: June 5, 2012 5:45 pm
The Innocence Project recently filed a petition presenting new DNA evidence that clears Joseph Buffey, of Clarksburg, West Virginia. Buffey pled guilty of the rape and robbery of an elderly woman in 2001 after having falsely confessed to the crime. Recent DNA tests on crime scene evidence definitively exclude Buffey, yet local officials have denied requests to enter the DNA profile into a national database to see if it matches any known criminals.
One week after the rape and robbery, Buffey and two other men were arrested in connection to a string of robberies. After being questioned for nearly eight hours, Buffey confessed to the rape, then recanted minutes later. The Gazette-Mail reports:
Minutes after giving his confession, Buffey recanted it, the petition states. The officers went back into the interrogation room, and Matheny told Buffey that he was going to give him an opportunity "to sing."
"You really want to know the truth?" Buffey asked, according to the petition.
"Yeah, we want the truth," was the reply.
"I didn't do it."
The petition also states that at trial, the lead detective presented at least four pieces of blatant false information as facts to the grand jury. The Innocence Project has requested a hearing to consider the petition and seeks to vacate Buffey’s conviction.
Read the full article.
Understand The Causes: How False Confessions Happen
Read more about False Confessions & Mandatory Recording of Interrogations
Tags: West Virginia
Exoneree Anniversary: Kirk Bloodsworth
Posted: June 28, 2012 1:40 pm
Tags: Kirk Bloodsworth
Virginia Police Departments Fall Short on Identification Procedures
Posted: July 16, 2012 4:45 pm
Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, and Virginia is no exception. Eyewitness misidentification played a role in 80% of Virginia’s convictions overturned through DNA testing.
Although the state has introduced improved identification procedures, several municipalities have not conformed to the new policies, reported The Virginian-Pilot. Virginia Beach has already made the change and was one of the agencies to assist the state Department of Criminal Justice Services in establishing the reform, the most important being blind administration. Research and experience have shown that the risk of misidentification is sharply reduced if the police officer administering a photo or live lineup is not aware of who the suspect is.
Virginia officials hoping to eliminate eyewitness misidentifications also want to implement sequential photo arrays of suspects to witnesses. This simply means that the photos are shown sequentially rather than all at once. Research has shown that presenting lineup members one-by-one decreases the rate at which innocent people are identified. When viewing several subjects at once, witnesses tend to choose the person who looks the most like – but may not actually be – the perpetrator.
"Suggestion is unconscious and it's incredibly powerful," said Brandon Garrett, a law professor at the University of Virginia who helped Virginia write its new policy. "People are really powerful nonverbal communicators."
In some wrongful convictions, police told witnesses things such as, "Good job, you picked the right guy," he said.
"That kind of reassurance and confirmation and encouragement had such a powerful effect that these eyewitnesses were sure they had picked the right one, even though they had picked innocent people," he said.
Read the full article.
Read the Innocence Project Report: Reevaluating Lineups.
Understand The Causes: Eyewitness Misidentification.
Tags: Virginia
Two Virginia Men Fight Arson Convictions
Posted: August 7, 2012 1:50 pm
Arson experts are questioning the science in two Virginia convictions, reported the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Davey Reedy is on parole after serving 20 years for the 1987 arson deaths of his two children, and Michael Ledford is serving a 50-year sentence for the 1999 arson death of his one-year-old son. Although prosecutors remain firm on Reedy and Ledford’s guilt, critics believe faulty and outdated science is responsible for the convictions.
John Lentini, a fire science expert who reviewed evidence in the high-profile Cameron Todd Willingham case, said that many of the principles used in arson investigations during the 1980s and 1990s were based on inaccurate evidence at best and "witchcraft" at worst.
"When you can prove some other dude done it you're in much better shape. With fires, it's not 'some other dude done it,' it's 'nobody done it,' and that's very difficult to prove once you're convicted," said Lentini.
Ledford claims that he falsely confessed to starting the fire after investigators misled him to believe that he had failed a polygraph test. Authorities originally classified the cause of fire as undetermined but changed the finding to arson. Experts reviewing the case for the defense said the fire was not intentionally started and that photographs taken at the scene show compelling evidence of an electrical fire.
In Reedy’s case, the local fire department concluded the fire was set by pouring and igniting gasoline on the back porch and kitchen areas. A former federal prosecutor who is part of Reedy’s legal team asserts that the only evidence of arson were test results from the state forensics lab stating there was gasoline on Reedy’s shirt and the wood floor, and the fire marshal's assertion of burn patterns. In 2006, Lentini examined the state’s chemical analysis and found the test results were inaccurate.
"Even by the standards used in 1987, this should have made the identification of gasoline in these two samples suspect," Lentini wrote.
Science now shows that burn patterns for arson can be mistaken for patterns found in an accidental fire.
Read the full article.
Read about the Cameron Todd Willingham case.
Tags: Virginia, Cameron Todd Willingham
Volunteer Attorney Aids Virginia's Post-Conviction Testing Project
Posted: August 20, 2012 5:40 pm
The Virginia Department of Forensic Science post-conviction DNA testing project has taken the next step in its massive review of state forensic cases from before DNA testing was available—notifying people who have been convicted of crimes for comparison DNA samples. In 63 cases, the DNA evidence from the crime scene exists for testing, but without the comparison sample, there is no way of knowing if the individual was wrongfully convicted.
Assisting with the effort is volunteer attorney Jon Sheldon who has had some success finding people when the state couldn’t. Sheldon previously helped the project by tracking down more than 20 people whose DNA results were excluded in post-conviction testing. Among the people authorities were unable to locate was Bennett Barbour, convicted of a rape in 1978 and exonerated earlier this year.
Sheldon says it’s a hard decision for people to make without a lawyer and that they need to understand their DNA sample can only help them if they are innocent of the crime for which they are convicted. On the other hand, if they’re not innocent, or if they have committed other unsolved crimes, it could be detrimental.
Sheldon says that under circumstances where the door is potentially open for using the DNA sample in other cases, he would not advise any of the 63 to give a DNA sample unless they clearly understood the implications and risk.
"This was one of my concerns," Sheldon said. "It's going to be a little bit sticky."
To advise someone to give a sample, he said, "I would need a client behaving like Bennett Barbour — jumping up and down saying, 'This is the call I've waited for all my life. I am innocent and … I've never been involved in any other criminal activity, ever.' "
Kristen J. Howard, executive director of the Virginia State Crime Commission, is coordinating the offender notification work in the project and said it has yet to be worked out what Sheldon and any other volunteer lawyers will say to the 63 people.
That will be worked out with the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, Howard said. "We may have to exactly define what legal advice will be provided because this is very different from what we previously did," she said.
Read the full article.
Read more about Barbour’s case.
Tags: Virginia
Virginia Exoneree Credits Faith in a Speech at Baptist Church
Posted: August 22, 2012 2:00 pm
Tags: Virginia, Thomas Haynesworth
LAPD Resist Eyewitness Identification Reform
Posted: August 28, 2012 10:20 am
Though a Los Angeles Police Department investigation has exposed police misconduct during lineup procedures, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck remains opposed to adopting identification reforms. According to the Los Angeles Times, one recorded identification procedure reveals police Detective John Zambos continually encouraging a witness to select the suspect in the fourth slot.
“I kept seeing you go to four…And you kept returning to four,” Zambos said, according to a transcript reviewed by The Times. “Was [there] a reason why you kept comparing everybody to No. 4?”
The detectives then showed the witness a separate photo of the man in the fourth position. Eventually, she selected him as the killer.
Decades of social science research has shown that when the detective conducting the lineup knows the identity of the suspect, they are more prone to provide clues to the witness—either intentionally, as in this instance, or unintentionally. However, many law enforcement agencies nationwide have failed to update their procedures to incorporate scientific research. Some have no written guidelines for procedures at all.
Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions later overturned through DNA testing. An increasing number of cities and states—from Denver to Boston, and from Texas to Virginia—have adopted comprehensive eyewitness identification reforms to address the problem.
Read the full article.
Read more about eyewitness identification reform.
Tags: California, Eyewitness Identification
Fixing Forensic Oversight, a National Priority
Posted: September 6, 2012 4:35 pm
In a three-part series for the Huffington Post, University of Virginia Law Professor Brandon Garrett tells the story of Donald Gates, the D.C. exoneree whose case led to an FBI crime lab investigation, and explains why federal legislation to improve forensic oversight is so urgently needed.
Donald Gates spent 28 years in prison before DNA testing exonerated him in 2009, despite the fact that prosecutors had known for over a decade that the FBI analyst who testified at Gates’ trial had been discredited and his testimony unfounded. According to research that Garrett conducted for his 2011 book, Convicting the Innocent, Gates is just one of many people whose wrongful conviction was caused at least in part by unvalidated or erroneous forensic science.
Gates was convicted of a rape and murder in 1981 based largely on improper forensic testimony from an FBI analyst who claimed that two stray hairs found on the victim belonged to Gates. He maintained his innocence and first sought DNA testing in 1988 but the results were inconclusive.
Meanwhile, the FBI analyst who had testified with such confidence at Gates' trial himself came under investigation in the late 1990s, after a whistle-blower repeatedly spoke out about shoddy work at the FBI lab. A 1997 review by the Department of Justice found that the analyst in Gates' case and 13 other FBI analysts reached false results and used inaccurate methods in a host of cases. The report found that the FBI analyst in Gates' case had "resorted to fabrication rather than admitting he did not know the answer."
In his research, Garrett has found similar problems with serology analysis, bite mark analysis, fiber comparisons, and other traditional forensics.
I even saw several more recent cases where analysts botched DNA tests. Analysts even concealed evidence of defendant's innocence. Had DNA tests not been done years later, these people might have spent the rest of their lives in prison. Still worse, some forensic analysts mistakenly ruled out people who were later shown by DNA to have been the actual culprits.
In the remaining two parts of the series, to be posted on Thursday and Friday, Garrett will discuss other forensic scandals across the country and make the case for federal forensic science reform.
Read Forensics on the Hill: Part I
Read about Gates’ case.
Read more about forensic oversight.
Tags: Forensic Oversight
West Virginia University Law School Opens Innocence Clinic
Posted: October 15, 2012 12:45 pm
Tags: West Virginia, Innocence Network
Virginia Exoneree Wishes He Could Vote
Posted: October 22, 2012 4:55 pm
Tags: Virginia, Bennett Barbour
Virginia Exoneree to Vote After All
Posted: November 6, 2012 11:40 am
Tags: Virginia, Bennett Barbour
Science Thursday - December 6, 2012
Posted: December 6, 2012 2:30 pm
Tags: Massachusetts, Nebraska, West Virginia, Washington
DNA Evidence Proves West Virginia Man's Innocence, Implicates Real Perpetrator
Posted: December 13, 2012 5:55 pm
Tags: West Virginia, Joseph Buffey
Science Thursday - December 27, 2012
Posted: December 27, 2012 3:45 pm
Tags: Colorado, District of Columbia, Virginia, Washington, Science Thursday
DNA Evidence Proves West Virginia Man's Innocence, But He Remains Behind Bars
Posted: January 4, 2013 4:30 pm
Tags: West Virginia, DNA Databases, Joseph Buffey
In Memory of Bennett Barbour
Posted: January 11, 2013 5:45 pm
Tags: Virginia, Bennett Barbour
Science Thursday - January 17, 2013
Posted: January 17, 2013 11:30 am
Tags: North Carolina, Iowa, Minnesota, Virginia, New York, Science Thursday
Innocence Project to Give Black History Month Lecture at VCU
Posted: February 1, 2013 1:00 pm
Tags: Virginia, Marvin Anderson
Virginia Man Continues Fight to Clear His Name
Posted: February 27, 2013 3:45 pm
Tags: Virginia
Virginia Man Exonerated by DNA Evidence
Posted: March 12, 2013 4:35 pm
Tags: Virginia