The Center on Wrongful Convictions (CWC) at Northwestern Law has been instrumental in exonerating four persons in a category that represents less than seven percent of the more than 1,000 persons who have been exonerated in the United States: Women. Today, the Center will launch its new Women’s Project, the first Innocence Project dedicated to the special needs and circumstances of women who have been wrongfully convicted.
A press conference at 10:00 a.m. in Northwestern Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic will be followed by an event and reception at the law school at 6:00 p.m. tonight in Lincoln Hall. CWC Lawyer Karen Daniels, one of the leaders of the project, and exonerees Audrey Edmunds, Gloria Killian, Joyce Ann Brown, and Julie Rea, as well as others who have been instrumental in establishing the Center, will discuss its work and goals.
“Women fighting wrongful convictions face special challenges,” said Rob Warden, executive director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions.
Indeed, these women shared more than the nightmare of wrongful conviction. The four exonerees who were clients of the Center were all single mothers charged with murdering their children. None had a motive to do so. All were grieving the loss of a child when they were charged and were therefore particularly weakened and vulnerable. All endured arguably the worst accusation imaginable, one that garners no sympathy from the criminal justice system or the public.
“There is typically no DNA evidence in cases with female defendants, making their convictions harder to fight,” said Rob Warden. “Sometimes there was not even a crime at all; for instance, a natural or accidental death might be mistaken for shaken baby syndrome or arson. Convictions of women are frequently based on entirely circumstantial evidence.”
The concept for the Women’s Center grew from a national conference on wrongful convictions in Atlanta in April 2010. A handful of women exonerees among the many male exonerees discovered not only many commonalities among their cases but also significant contrasts when compared with those of the male exonerees. This prompted the convening of the Women and Innocence Conference in November 2011 in Troy, Michigan. Among nearly 100 attendees, including exonerated women and supporters of incarcerated women not-yet-exonerated, were CWC lawyers Karen Daniel, Judy Royal, and Stephanie Horten, who had helped win Julie Rea’s exoneration.
Having been convicted of murdering her son, Rea was later found not guilty, when, in a second trial, the CWC lawyers and a pro bono team led by Ronald S. Safer of Schiff Hardin LLP and Jeffrey Urdangen from Northwestern presented to the jury a taped confession to the crime by Tommy Lynn Sells, a serial killer who had committed similar crimes. Additionally, the team provided extensive forensic testimony that the injuries Rea suffered—which she said were the result of her attempt to protect her son from the intruder and murderer—could not have been self-inflicted.
In addition to the direct representation of selected clients, the CWC Women’s Project plans to monitor potential cases of wrongfully convicted women across the country, facilitate the sharing of information about these cases, and educate the public about relevant issues. Through research, discussion and interdisciplinary dialogue, the Center hopes to explore the policies and practices that lead to the wrongful convictions of women and the difficulties they face in reentry into society after the trauma of wrongful conviction. Finally, the Center will seek to foster criminal justice reforms aimed at reducing wrongful convictions of women.
For more information, visit the Center’s website (here).
The Chicago Tribune reports on the Center here.
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