Justin Brooks
Professor, California Western School of Law; Director,
California Innocence ProjectOrder his book
Wrongful Convictions Cases & Materials 2d ed. here
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore
Daniel Ehighalua
Nigerian Barrister
Associate Professor of Justice Studies, Montclair University
Carey D. Hoffman
Director of Digital Communications,
Ohio Innocence Project@OIPCommunicati1
Shiyuan Huang
Associate Professor, Shandong University Law School; Visiting Scholar, University of Cincinnati College of Law
Professor of Criminology, Law & Society and Sociology, University of California-Irvine
Phil Locke
Science and Technology Advisor, Ohio Innocence Project and Duke Law Wrongful Convictions Clinic
Dr. Carole McCartney
Reader in Law, Faculty of Business and Law, Northumbria University
Nancy Petro
Author and Advocate
Order her book
False Justice here
Professor, Faculty of Law, Konan University Innocence Project Japan
Professor, Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Northern Arizona University; Executive Director, Arizona Innocence Project
Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, Norway
Author and Private Investigator
Order his book
Presumed Guilty here
Yes, absolutely. The education of the “voting electorate” is essential to accomplishing the legislative actions and reforms required to address so many of the wrongful convictions issues.
Your reply is not only helpful but spot-on! That’s what we have been trying to do in Arizona but they chose to ignore us. The legislators answer to the top law enforcers, the Attorney General Tom Horne and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery and their “prosecutor lobbyists” who live at the State Capitol. Need suggestions on how to break through this wall of power and control. They say Arizona has no wrongful convictions and no Brady violations! Please enlighten them. They’ve slammed the lids on us, the families of the falsely accused, wrongfully convicted and wrongfully imprisoned and gotten away with it for years — at least since Ray Krone was exonerated.
Well posted. As in so many human challenges, the solution lies in individual awareness, which is interesting when you consider what a potent force many people working together can be.
Great post and suggestions!
Camille,
For at least two “suggestions,” see this previous post.
https://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2013/05/20/prosecutorial-misconduct-whats-to-be-done-a-call-to-action/#more-14391
Phil Locke
Can start by prosecuting bad prosecutors,and send them to jail for a long time the way they treat poor innocent people. Cut federal funding for some of these prosecutions The ones that willfully and intentionally go after people with no evidence probable cause, or due process, like the one that maliciously prosecuted me because I filed false arrest complaint against him, and the judge for violating my 4th amendment right (no Preliminary Hearing) for stopping pay on my own check to a fraudulent unlicensed contractor in the aftermath of of Hurricane Katrina. This was a grant to repair my home by FEMA. i had no priors, and a senior citizen. My credit admitted it was their fault, my conviction remained. The same prosecutor prosecuted my then 17 yr. old son because a predator teacher 50 plus yrs. old said she saw his private part, when I asked to see school cameras no one would talk. I had 2 paid lawyers on my case, and 3 on his, and none would use compelling evidence i had, nor put up a decent defense. My son was convicted of Attempted obscenity (no such crime, or statue but has obscenity in his record, no priors. he spent 4 months in jail, had a job, and had graduated from high school and went on to a technical college. One of the teachers they used to corroborate the 1st teachers story (active bipolar disorder) that testified against him was already convicted for DWI, and on probation when she lied on him at trial, and when he was sentenced she was back in court, with her second DWI. My son was in and out of this court since 17 about this, and was convicted April 24, 2012. (all that time)Our story is shared in the Lawless America movie. my appeal was denied, cronyism! i was ordered to pay $388 per month restitution out of my retirement pension of $586. the appeals court said restitution should be based on my income. The district judge said this is what he wanted me to pay. I paid it for 10 months with help from family, and is in arrears, although I have been paying $100 per month since. He said if my payments aren’t current by 6/18/2013 I will be imprisoned. I couldn’t get any organization to look into this for me, I thought there would have been some senior citizen services that would at least try to get this installment reduced. This judge or prosecutor does not go by the law, and there are so many just like them. And they are three times as bad in these rural towns. Please feel free to open this link and read my story.
http://thechangetheworldmovement.com/2012/05/louisiana-justice-east-feliciana-parish/#comments
Thank you for posting this Nancy. This is an excellent message for all organizations working to correct wrongful convictions.
Bottom line this could happen to anyone. I often am told that if someone is in prison they must have caused it to happen. In reality prisons are big business. The United States puts more people in prison than any other country on the planet. All that needs to happen is someone has a story. You can land in prison because someone said you did something. There does not need to be proof. Just a good story will do. This must stop. End wrongful convictions today !
The justice system needs to be reformed. It Could Happen To You is working in NY to reduce the wrongful convictions. To learn more about our efforts visit http://www.itcouldhappen2you.com
It is hard to get people involved with the truth or even to help someone who is in prison that is wrongfully convicted. My husband is not only wrongfully convicted of two crimes but is ILLEGALLY in prison. He is the only man, as we know of, where all of his Civil Rights were thrown out of the window. He has been in prison now for 34 years. We have new evidence and DNA. But no Innocent project will touch his case, which is not right. We need help. Here is our blog site with his story and some evidence: misnfits.blogspot.com Will anyone help us????
The Long Island Cover-Up
https://www.facebook.com/The-Long-Island-Cover-Up-1647492322193817/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
Allison Vernick-Chaikin