Category Archives: Events

Today, Watch Major Conference on Wrongful Convictions Live….

Starting at 8am EST (New York time) in the U.S.  Watch here….


Friday’s Quick Clicks…

Tuesday’s Quick Clicks…

  • During post-conviction evidentiary hearing in Missouri in the case of Ryan Ferguson, witness recants and says prosecutor talked him into falsely implicating Ferguson
  • Decision on whether Michael Hash will be retried in Virginia awaits outcome of DNA testing initiated by the special prosecutor (more here)
  • Exoneree in the UK awarded 841,000 pounds in compensation for his ordeal (more here)
  • State of New York called out for failing to move on innocence reform
  • The Innocence Project of Florida will host its inaugural awards gala next week where it will honor Holland & Knight 
  • New Book: Falsely Accused:  former police officer explains the problems in the system that lead to wrongful convictions
  • Texas opens inquiry into Austin crime lab
  • Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project’s annual awards lunch will be honoring the lawyers and artists who helped the West Memphis Three gain their freedom and the Hunton & Williams legal team who helped secure the release of MAIP Client Michael Hash
  • Misdeeds by Texas judges are not released to the public

Watch an International Symposium on Death Penalty Online!

The delegation of the European Union (EU) to Japan will hold an International Symposium “Towards Death Penalty Abolition: European Experience and Asian Perspectives” at Waseda University (Tokyo) tomorrow. You can watch the symposium online here!

The symposium will start at 13:30 on Wednesday, 18 April, 2012 (Japan Standard Time =5:30 on 18 April GMT, 0:30 on 18 April EST).

There will be speakers from EU, Asia and the USA. Speakers will include former Japanese Justice Minister Hideo Hiraoka, Mongolia’s Presidential Advisor Sosormaa Chuluunbaatar, Professor William Schabas (National University of Ireland), David T. Johnson (University of Hawaii) and more. Simultaneous interpretation is available.

Click here for details of the Symposium.

 

Sunday’s Quick Clicks…

Tuesday’s Quick Clicks…

Wrongful Conviction: A Worthy Topic for Continuing Legal Education

The Innocence Project model—the free legal clinic that utilizes DNA analysis of crime scene evidence to prove the innocence of the wrongfully convicted—has now been widely duplicated across the United States and the globe. While most Innocence Project clinics are attached to law schools and rely upon selected law students who earn academic credit and hands-on legal experience in challenging post-conviction efforts, wrongful conviction per se is not an emphasis in the curriculum of most law schools. It’s therefore troubling but not surprising that many lawyers are unfamiliar with the primary causes of wrongful conviction, the implications wrongful convictions have had on the reliability of important forms of evidence such as eyewitness testimony and confessions, and recommended reforms that can reduce conviction error.

After all, the lessons of DNA are relatively recent. Just two decades ago most Continue reading

Thursday’s Quick Clicks…

  • Article on the Kevin Lane murder case, one of the cases being pushed by the Innocence Network UK for CCRC review
  • Cincinnati public defender ousted from office after one year due to scathing independent report of her management style
  • Innocence conference in Rochester, New York on April 20th featuring John Jay College psychology professor Saul Kassin, an expert in false confessions; Peter Neufeld, co-founder of the Innocence Project;  John Jay College Professor Jennifer Dysart, an expert in eyewitness identification; Steven Barnes, who spent 20 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit; and Eugene Pigott Jr., an associate judge on New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals
  • Article about exoneree Juan Rivera’s talk this week at Northern Illinois University
  • Joe McCulloch, director of the Palmetto Innocence Project in South Carolina, running for state Senate
  • Upcoming episode of U.S. TV show Pysch to focus on wrongful conviction case of an Innocence Project client
  • Death row exoneree Kirk Bloodsworth on Maryland’s annual failure to repeal the death penalty

Wednesday’s Quick Clicks…

Tuesday’s Quick Clicks…

Pic of Exoneree Band in Kansas City (at Innocence Network Conference)

….courtesy of Justin Brooks…William Dillon on the left, I believe.  Raymond Towler shredding the guitar next to Dillon…Not sure of the names of the remaining exonerees.  If you know, please comment….

Saturday’s Quick Clicks…

Friday’s Quick Clicks…

Major London Conference Tomorrow on Reforming the CCRC

Details of conference here.   Prior coverage of INUK’s challenges to the CCRC here.  INUK’s extensive report on the 45 cases of “plausible innocence” that the CCRC has rejected here.

Speakers at tomorrow’s conference include:

Chris Mullin (Former MP)
Professor Michael Zander QC (Emeritus Professor, LSE and Member of the
Royal Commission on Criminal Justice)
Mark George QC (Garden Court North)
Mark Newby (Solicitor Advocate, Jordans Solicitors)
Dr Michael Naughton (Founder and Director, Innocence Network UK)
Laurie Elks (Ex-Commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission)
David Jessel (Ex-Commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission) Professor Richard Nobles (Queen Mary University, London)
Dr Eamonn O’Neill (Investigative Journalist, University of Strathclyde)
Paddy Joe Hill (One of the Birmingham Six)
Susan May and Eddie Gilfoyle (alleged victims of wrongful conviction)
Bruce Kent (Chair, Progressing Prisoners Maintaining Innocence
Russ Spring (West Midlands Against Injustice)

Thursday’s Quick Clicks…

Tuesday’s Quick Clicks…

Innocence Project Model Highlighted at 2012 NCIP Event

The non-profit legal clinic known as the Innocence Project, founded by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld in 1992 at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, has inspired and informed a network of 66 Innocence Projects today spanning the U.S. and the globe. The Northern California Innocence Project’s (NCIP) Fifth Annual Freedom for All Dinner last evening in San Jose highlighted this successful model. Winning post-conviction reversals of wrongful convictions requires  dedication, persistent hard work, and the leadership of Innocence Projects’ lawyers, staff, and law students, combined with important support from many others.

The NCIP utilizes its annual Justice For All Dinner to celebrate hard-won victories, raise critical financial resources, and recognize their partners in the pursuit of justice. Among last evening’s recognized colleagues… Continue reading

Friday’s Quick Clicks…

Wednesday’s Quick Clicks…

  • CNN this Sunday night, March 25th will at 8pm EST in the U.S. will have a show on the topic of exoneree compensation (or lack thereof).  Your DVR guide may indicate a different show (I think Dr. Sanjay Gupta) but I’m told it will be this show regardless
  • Houston beefing up spending on forensics and plans to make crime lab independent of prosecutors
  • How to attack shaky eyewitness identification testimony in court
  • Claims of innocents convicted and imprisoned in Zimbabwe in sham trials designed to stifle political dissent
  • The Innocence Network UK has posted its latest newsletter, which includes case updates and reform issues.  
  • Death row exoneree Ray Krone to speak tonight at a public forum in New York

“Miscarriages of Justice and Australian Criminal Appeals – a public presentation

Australia’s Bond University have a talk on Miscarriages of Justice at The Faculty of Law on 22nd March, by

Dr Robert Moles on the
“Miscarriages of Justice and Australian Criminal Appeals – a failure of human rights and the ‘rule of law’.”

see more details and register here….