Author Archives: Mark Godsey

Blind ambition, tunnel vision, and blind denial all played a role in Kirstin Lobato’s case. Read the details of the gruesome murder, the ignored evidence, how Lobato was convicted, and the prosecution’s post-conviction arguments that failed to keep Lobato incarcerated here. 

Looks at this. It appears to be based on the premise that certain facial movements definitely indicate lying in all humans. That is a faulty premise. The robot is 92% accurate at picking up those facial expressions, which the manufacturer equates with 92% accuracy in lie detection. I call BS!

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#BlindInjusticeChapter5BlindMemory

 Not on point but interesting new article on how memory works...

How unreliable bitemark evidence played a key role in wrongfully convicting NJ man of murder

New York’s Highest Court Rules that Juries Should be Briefed on Problems with Cross-Racial Identification

Are We Witnessing The Death Of The Death Penalty?

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Junk Science of the future. Just like lie detector tests today some things cannot be measured accurately enough to ever be used in court.

No Country imprisons a larger share of its people than America. Its incarceration rate—693 of every 100,000—is nearly five times Britain’s, six times Canada’s and 15 times Japan’s. And that rate masks huge variations: Washington, DC, Louisiana and Georgia each lock up more than one in every 100 residents. Why?

It’s time to abolish the coroner

Orange County’s Informant Scandal Yields Evidence of Forensic Science Deception in Murder Trials

Chicago approves paying $31M to 4 wrongfully convicted men

Making of a Murderer’ inspires a bitterly contested decision

Steve Drizzen wrote in response to this article:

James Warren calls Brendan Dassey’s conviction a “criminal outrage.” I am glad to see that the Seventh Circuit decision compelled Jim to put pen to paper — he usually doesn’t weigh in on federal court criminal law decisions. But his wife, Cornelia Grumman, won a Pultizer prize at the Chicago Tribune, in part, for her editorials about the unique vulnerability of children to police pressure and the problem of false and coerced interrogations of juveniles. I disagree with Jim in one respect — I think Cornelia’s work demonstrated that there are no limits to what journalists can accomplish. Cornelia’s relentless work on the editorial pages of the Tribune (along with great investigative reporting by Steve Mills, Maurice Possley, and Ken Armstrong) not only helped lead to the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois but also led Illinois to become the first state to enact laws requiring police to record interrogations (of adults and juveniles) and to require that children be represented by counsel during police interrogations. Hopefully, Jim’s piece will just be the first of many from commentators, both usual suspects and unusual suspects from all walks of life, in the days to come. There may be some new limits to journalism, and the editorial pages of newspapers don’t quite hold the sway they once did in this age of social media, but what we need now is a consistent drumbeat of commentators from all walks of life, calling for greater protections of children during interrogations — in schools and in the stationhouse — and in the courts. If watching Brendan’s interrogation made your “skin crawl”, if you believe that a profound “miscarriage of justice may have occurred” in Brendan’s case, follow Jim’s lead. Be part of that drumbeat.

Matthew Speiser reviews Judge Alex Kozinski’s (one of America’s most prominent jurists,) new article attacking many assumptions about criminal justice in the US. The assumptions range from eyewitness identification and prosecutorial misconduct to forensic evidence. Read about the 12 assumptions here.

Sharp said, “Wrongful convictions, we don’t hear a lot about them. Being overturned. And when we do, they are often cases in which the defendant have been incarcerated for decades. Henry McCollum, Leon brown, 31 years. For Henry on death row before being exonerated. And in that case he was exonerated only through DNA evidence right. And so this was a case where there was no physical evidence against Timothy (Britt) to begin with. Which at the trial level that makes the case, defense case stronger. Right, there’s no physical evidence. But from a post conviction standpoint, it often makes it more difficult to prove someone is innocent, if you don’t have that physical evidence to exonerate down. And so I would you say that this is a case of hope. And I hope that it will give that to other people who are similarly situated. Other people who’ve been wrongfully convicted. Who thinks that there’s just not a chance for them. I think this is a story of hope for them.”

Interesting Harvard study on overzealous prosecutors….

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This article is exhaustive of review of California, Louisiana, Missouri, and Tennessee state appellate court opinions addressing claims of prosecutorial misconduct between January 1, 2010 – December 31, 2015.

Elected prosecutors in New Orleans, Memphis, Orange County, and the City of Saint Louis engage in more misconduct than other offices throughout their states.

The misconduct by these prosecutors has had a direct and devastating effect on people’s lives. Read more about the study and the offending prosecutors here.

Philly paying millions to resolve allegations of police misconduct

I-Team: ‘Recycled cops’ move from department to department despite discipline issues

Tunnel vision convicts and open-mindedness exonerates 39 years later…

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The criminal justice system needs to start learning from its mistakes

Prosecutors Keep Their Jobs by Putting People in Jail. Can They Be Leaders in the Fight for Criminal-Justice Reform?

After momentous week, prosecutor Kim Foxx says ‘we have to right wrongs’

By Innocence Staff

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An op-ed in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan celebrated New York’s comprehensive new rule that makes New York the first in the nation to require all of its criminal trial judges to issue so-called “Brady orders” to all prosecutors in every case (named after the 1963 case of Brady v. Maryland).  As Judge Sullivan explains, the landmark administrative order is a critical step in ensuring that prosecutors across the state honor their legal and ethical obligations to turn over all evidence that is favorable to a defendant.

Judge Sullivan, who presided over the trial of former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens—which was marred by prosecutorial misconduct—is one of the prominent judges that has long issued his own individual Brady orders. But soon, as of January 2018, under the new order, all criminal court judges in New York will be mandated to do so.

As Sullivan explains in his op-ed, the purpose of the judge-issued Brady orders is, ultimately, to educate prosecutors on their legal and ethical obligations, to prevent wrongful convictions throughout the state and to provide a mechanism for sanctioning the small minority of prosecutors who deliberately conceal favorable evidence.

Earlier this month, New York’s Chief Administrative Judge issued an order directing all courts to issue “Brady” orders in criminal cases. The Innocence Project lobbied in support of the order, because judicial oversight of discovery was key in holding former Texas prosecutor Ken Anderson in criminal contempt for the misconduct that resulted in Innocence Project client Michael Morton wrongly serving 25 years for the murder of his wife before he was cleared by DNA evidence.

Sullivan wrote the following:

It’s one thing for prosecutors to know they are supposed to follow the law. But it’s far more likely actually to happen when a judge’s order tells them exactly what is expected, and what the consequences are for noncompliance. A Brady order also ensures that prosecutors who commit intentional misconduct can be held accountable. Often it takes years for a wrongly convicted defendant to discover that exculpatory evidence was withheld. By that time, the statute of limitations for bringing disciplinary or criminal charges against the prosecutor may have already expired. If a Brady order is in place, however, the prosecutor can be held in contempt of court or subjected to other judicial sanctions.

Wrongfully Convicted Man Freed After 45 Years Doesn’t Hold a Grudge – He Just Wants Some Gumbo

Can you spot an unethical prosecutor?

Petition claims DNA proves innocence of Virginia man sentenced to 100 years for 1990 rape of 10-year-old girl

Blind Injustice Chapter 8 Solutions

After years of going head to head with Wayne County prosecutors and building a reputation for freeing the wrongfully convicted, criminal defense attorney Valerie Newman is joining the prosecutor’s office.  Newman was asked to help prosecutors get better at what they do and she hopes to prevent wrongful convictions before they happen.

Evin King becomes the 2121 exoneration in America.

The success of conviction integrity units exonerating innocent inmates proves every county should have one.

Meet The Black District Attorney Leading The Fight Against Wrongful Convictions