Category Archives: Reforming/Improving the system

Tuesday’s Quick Clicks…

Posted on June 5, 2012 by | Leave a comment
  • Winston Strawn associate in Chicago volunteered time to free James Kluppelberg, who was exonerated last week after wrongfully convicted of arson
  • After deciding that a fountain was too expensive, the city of Lubbock, Texas still determined to find a way to honor exoneree Timothy Cole; attorney offers to pay for bronze sculpture of Cole
  • Exonerees press hard for reform in New York at legislative session starts to wind down

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Posted in Exonerations, Legislation, Reforming/Improving the system

Effort to Increase Compensation to Exonerees in Louisiana Falls Short

Posted on June 2, 2012 by | 2 comments

Henry James, 50, was released from a Louisiana prison last year after serving 30 years for a rape DNA proved he didn’t commit. If he successfully navigates the state’s compensation process, he’ll receive $8,333 compensation for each year of wrongful incarceration. As reported here, State Representative Herbert Dixon (D) had sought to increase the state’s compensation from the current cap of $250,000 to $500,000, but the effort has failed for a second time.

Exonerees in the state are paid in installments of up to $25,000 per year but first must file petitions for a judge’s eligibility order, then present the order to the Continue reading →

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Posted in Editorials/Opinion, Legislation, Reforming/Improving the system

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Thursday’s Quick Clicks…

Posted on May 31, 2012 by | Leave a comment
  • Video of Barry Scheck and several exonerees speaking out in favor of legislative reform in New York
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit forces government agencies to turn over files in wrongful conviction lawsuit brought by exoneree Chaunte Ott
  • Petitions pouring in from across the U.S. in support of pardons for the Wilmington Ten
  • Illinois Innocence Project looks into arson case
  • New York Bar Association backs recorded interrogatons requirement and double-blind eyewitness identification methods pushed by the Innocence Project
  • New book about the Craughwell Prisoners–several men who were wrongfully convicted in Ireland more than 100 years ago
  • Man exonerated in Cambodia appeals to Prime Minister to make judicial reforms so that it doesn’t happen to others

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Posted in Asia, Book recommendations/discussion, Eyewitness identification, False confessions, Legislation, Reforming/Improving the system

Why Do Innocents Plead Guilty?

Posted on May 30, 2012 by | 4 comments

On the heels of the Brian Banks exoneration, his attorney Justin Brooks tries to explain why innocent Banks originally plead guilty.  And a retired judge asks “Why Do Innocent People Plead Guilty?”

From the Huffington Post:

Prison is Hell for the guilty; it is difficult to envision what it must be like for the innocent. Brian Banks is yet another story of a person not only wrongfully imprisoned, but imprisoned based upon his own “voluntary” act. He was exonerated after serving five years for a rape he did not commit. How and why do innocent people confess or plead guilty to crimes that they did not commit? Roughly 20 percent of those that have been exonerated confessed to the crimes with which they were charged and convicted. Most of those involved persons who had actually gone to trial, but we have no way of knowing how many there are who merely entered guilty pleas through bargains and never appealed as a result. Although we hear and read about criminal trials, the reality is that only about 5 Continue reading →

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Posted in False confessions, Reforming/Improving the system

Innocence Project, NY Bar, Rally Today for Law to Prevent Wrongful Conviction

Posted on May 30, 2012 by | 5 comments

The Innocence Project and the NY State Bar Association are rallying in Albany, NY, today to urge lawmakers to pass legislation requiring best procedural practices to reduce eyewitness misidentification and false confessions. Laws requiring or recommending best practices are in place in New Jersey, Connecticut, Texas, North Carolina, and Ohio, but have met resistance and failed to pass in New York and other states.

The Innocence Project is expected to release data showing that no police departments in NY have reported following recommended identification procedures. These reforms are frequently said to be “cost neutral” when compared to existing procedures. However, they arguably save and protect taxpayers, since the human and financial cost of convicting the innocent and permitting the guilty to continue lives of crime are enormous.

More on this here, here, and here.

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Posted in Editorials/Opinion, Events, Eyewitness identification, False confessions, Legislation, Reforming/Improving the system

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Saturday’s Quick Clicks…

Posted on May 26, 2012 by | Leave a comment

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Posted in Capital punishment, Compensation/Exoneree compensation, Exonerations, Latin America, Prosecutorial conduct (good and bad), Reforming/Improving the system

Juries and Race

Posted on May 23, 2012 by | 1 comment

Here is a link to a CNN article reporting the study of three academics on the effect of racial composition of juries.  The article, in turn, includes a link to their actual report.

Their data confirms that all-white juries convict black defendants at a higher rate than juries with even just one black member.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/23/opinion/anwar-bayer-hjalmarsson-jury-racism/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7

More about juries and the justice system from this editor in future posts.

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Posted in Reforming/Improving the system

More laws and more cops means more wrongful convictions

Posted on May 22, 2012 by | 1 comment

One good way to reduce wrongful convictions is to stop passing more arcane criminal laws and funding more police officers to enforce them. But politicians in many countries have been doing just the opposite for the past 30 years.

In the United States, legislators have increased the number of federal offenses by 50 percent since the 1980s and state legislators have been following suit. They’ve also raised funding for increasingly militarized police forces to enforce those laws. This has had dubious impact on public safety while greatly increasing the chance of putting innocent people behind bars, often for mid-level drug offenses that usually don’t earn the attention of those who fight wrongful convictions. A disproportionate number of the innocents swept up in this process are minorities.

It’s time to try a different approach, according to a study released today by the Justice Policy Institute. Rethinking the Blues: How we police in the U.S. and at what cost documents how overpolicing contributes to “a criminal justice system that disconnects people from their communities, fills prisons and jails, and costs taxpayers billions.” You can read more here.

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Posted in Reforming/Improving the system, Scholarship, Victims and victim issues

Important Eyewitness ID Case Out of Hawaii….

Posted on May 22, 2012 by | Leave a comment

From BNA.com:

Last week, the Supreme Court of Hawaii held that “a trial court must grant a defendant’s request to give special cautionary jury instructions on the accuracy of eyewitness identification testimony whenever such testimony is central to the prosecution’s case, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled May 17.  (State v. Cabagbag, Haw., No. SCWC-30682, 5/17/12).  Citing the “widely-recognized perils of eyewitness identification testimony” and numerous studies confirming that false identifications are more common than previously known, the court followed the lead of several other jurisdictions that have decided to abandon the discretionary approach and now require trial courts to grant a defense request for a cautionary instruction whenever eyewitness identification plays a critical role in the case.

Decision here…

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Posted in Eyewitness identification, Reforming/Improving the system

Tuesday’s Quick Clicks…

Posted on May 22, 2012 by | Leave a comment
  • Discussion of new eyewitness identification law in Texas, which takes effect September 1st
  • Recent Colorado exoneree Robert Dewey is still struggling to survive. He’s now living off of food stamps and the generosity of a non-profit group that helps wrongfully convicted inmates.  “It was like being in a room full of people and you’re yelling and no one can hear you, that’s what it felt like,” added Dewey when asked to describe his time in Colorado’s Limon Correctional Facility
  • Pics and award winners of the Innocence Project of Florida’s recent annual gala
  • North Carolina Innocence Commission identifies William James Grimes, convicted of rape, as innocent, and sends his case to a 3-judge panel for further analysis
  • Tampa Bay Times calls for bold reforms in Florida to address wrongful convictions

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Posted in Commissions/Innocence Commissions/Governmental Case Review Agencies, Compensation/Exoneree compensation, Exonerations, Eyewitness identification, Project Spotlights, Reforming/Improving the system

Monday’s Quick Clicks…

Posted on May 21, 2012 by | Leave a comment
  • Experts say Lake County, Illinois must treat its wrongful conviction problem like the medical field would treat the outbreak of a disease
  • UK exoneree Sam Hallam says he’ll need time to recover from his terrible ordeal of wrongful conviction
  • Forensic pathologist accepts $100,000 settlement in defamation suit against the Innocence Project
  • Innocence Network UK founder Michael Naughten radio interview discussing the Sam Hallam exoneration and how he believes more the CCRC has failed to overturn more than 100 unsafe convictions

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Posted in Commissions/Innocence Commissions/Governmental Case Review Agencies, Reforming/Improving the system, United Kingdom

Texas Lawmakers Blast Corpus Christi Lineup Policy…

Posted on May 18, 2012 by | Leave a comment

From MySanAntonio.com:

Legislative sponsors of a law tightening procedures for police lineups on Tuesday faulted Corpus Christi police for allowing eyewitnesses in a 1983 convenience store robbery-murder to identify the suspect as he sat handcuffed in the back seat of a squad car.

State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, and Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, stopped short of claiming Texas wrongfully executed suspect Carlos DeLuna for the February 1983 murder of store clerk Wanda Lopez. However, Gallego said the way police handled the suspect’s identification was a “textbook example” of why the system needs to be reformed.

“What appears to be very faulty eyewitness identification was the main evidence used to reach a conviction in this case,” Ellis said in an email. “The chief witness appears to have gone back and forth on how certain he was that Mr. DeLuna was the culprit. You cannot have this level of uncertainty in death penalty cases.”

Accounts of the crime, the investigation and DeLuna’s prosecution were presented in a 400-page article published Tuesday in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. Columbia University Law School authors argue the crime actually was committed by Carlos Hernandez, a DeLuna acquaintance with a history of convenience store robberies. Hernandez, the article says, boasted of killing the store clerk

DeLuna was executed by lethal injection in 1989. Hernandez, convicted of a knife attack on a female acquaintance, died in prison in 1999.

Fully story here…

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Posted in Eyewitness identification, Reforming/Improving the system

Reflections on System Resistance to Innocence Part II

Posted on May 18, 2012 by | 2 comments

In a blog post that appeared on March 14, 2012 entitled Bryant ‘Rico’ Gaines to Walk Free Today in Ohio:  Reflections on System Resistance to Innocence (Blog Post), I expressed frustration over how the criminal justice system in Cincinnati reacted to a post-conviction claim of innocence, in the context of a specific case, in a way that I felt did not comport with a prosecutor’s duty to search for truth and ‘do justice.’

After the Blog Post was published, I heard that at least one member of the Prosecutor’s Office was upset because he or she believed that the Blog Post contained some inaccurate facts.  As a result, I invited the Prosecutor or his representative to respond to the Blog Post in the comment section and asked them to specifically address any mistakes I had made so that we could flesh them out through discussion.

I later received this 10-page letter dated April 3, 2012 (‘the Letter’).  After receiving the Letter, representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that it was intended as a public response to the Blog Post and encouraged me to post it in my blog, which I have done above.  [Note:  The Letter responded to my Blog Post by using the names of the various actors in the case.  I did not use names in the original Blog Post because I see this as an academic discussion about the criminal justice system broadly rather than a discussion that is personal in nature.  Therefore, I have redacted most names from the Letter.]

My response to the Letter:

I.  Global Comments

A.   Prosecutorial Tunnel Vision and Resistance to Innocence Claims

First, I would like to clarify the point of my Blog Post.  I intended to explore the concept of prosecutorial tunnel vision in post-conviction cases and to allow blog readers to contrast the reaction of the Prosecutor’s Office when presented with post-conviction evidence of Gaines’ potential innocence with how police and prosecutors have reacted in other similar cases I have celebrated on the blog, such as in the articles here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Specifically, in the Blog Post, I pointed out examples of prosecutorial behavior Continue reading →

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Posted in Editorials/Opinion, Forensic controls, Inquisitional and adversarial systems of justice, Junk science, Prosecutorial conduct (good and bad), Reforming/Improving the system

Fire Science! Fire Science! Wherefore Art Thou, Fire Science?

Posted on May 17, 2012 by | 1 comment

We’ve talked a lot about the progress that has been made in replacing “junk” fire science with “real” fire science.  Sadly, however, the “junk” has not been completely purged.  This is a process that will require, along with ongoing training, education, and research, that “old line” fire inspectors retire or die and be replaced with properly educated and trained fire inspectors who understand the real science.

Below is a link to a very good article from Discover Magazine (online) which makes that very point.   Spark of Truth: Can Science Bring Justice to Arson Trials?  Here is the lead from the article: “Fire researchers have shattered dozens of arson myths in recent years. Yet American courts continue to convict people who are likely innocent of the crime.”

And these two quotes from the text:  “Despite the surge in fire science, pseudoscience remains entrenched in arson investigation.” and “One can only hope that in ten to twenty years we get trained scientists doing these investigations.”

http://discovermagazine.com/2011/nov/12-spark-truth-science-bring-justice-arson-trials/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C=

And to “add more fuel to the fire” (so to speak), here is a link to an ABC 20/20 episode detailing the cases of two mothers who each survived a fire in their home, but their children did not.  Both mothers were (wrongfully) convicted, based upon junk fire science, and sent to prison for murdering their children.  The episode also briefly covers two other arson cases (both from Texas), one being the Willingham case.  This is a fascinating video.  Watch it!

http://abc.go.com/watch/2020/166626/260464/fire-scientist-questions-arson-finding

And by the way, if you haven’t been able to watch the documentary film “Incendiary”, which won the 2011 Innocence Network Journalism Award, it’s a “must see”.  It chronicles the Cameron Todd Willingham arson case in Corsicana, TX.  It’s available for download online.

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Posted in Forensic controls, Junk science, Reforming/Improving the system

Recent Developments in Eyewitness ID Reform

Posted on May 11, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Courtesy of Professor Jacqueline McMurtrie of the Innocence Project Northwest.

Here is a recently published article in the ABA Journal on eyewitness ID.

Excerpt:

Gary Wells, an Iowa State University psychology professor who’s been studying problems with police lineup procedures for 35 years, says the progress made in the past few years “seems like a runaway train” compared with what he witnessed during the first 30.

In the past year:

• Texas became the 10th state to pass a law requiring police departments to adopt written lineup procedures designed to reduce the risk of faulty identifications.

• The New Jersey Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling on the use of eyewitness identification evidence at trial.

• A new field study of police lineup procedures confirms what scientists like Wells have long been saying.

• And the U.S. Supreme Court heard its first case on eyewitness identification evidence in 34 years.

“We still have a long way to go,” Wells says, “but we’re definitely making headway.”

Continue reading →

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Posted in Eyewitness identification, Legislation, Reforming/Improving the system

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Nigeria:Blessing Effiong Must Regain her Freedom Now!

Posted on May 10, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Following on the heels of the Patrick Obinna Okoroafor saga in Imo state, a fledgling situation is emerging in Lagos, of the detention of a minor for over 4years in police custody. Miss. Blessing Effiong was 16 when she was taken into police custody following disagreements, arising from the purchase of a mobile phone transaction that had gone awry. She claimed she was 16, but the police would have none of that. Not that they had any proof, or evidence to the contrary. Still, they proceeded to keep her in detention despite entreaties, pleadings and complaints from her guardian. She was never charged to court. She is awaiting trial. Read report here 

This speaks volume about the nature of the workings of the Nigerian police force; but I am more worried about the involvement and the role played by the ministry of justice, and indeed, the Office of the Lagos state Public Defender. The Lagos state Office of the Public Defender is reputed to be doing a good job, supplementing at the state level, the work of the Nigerian legal aid council. For both arms of the justice delivery system to have simultaneously failed Miss. Blessing Effiong leaves no one in doubt about the accuracy and veracity of the numerous independent reports, of the state of decay within the system of administration of justice in Nigeria. In the Patrick Obinna Okoroafor case, it was the concerted efforts of Amnesty International, along with some local NGOs that finally ensured justice was done.

The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice Ade Ipaye is a well respected Lagos lawyer and academician. His office, working in tandem with the Office of the Lagos state Public Defender should do the needful and ensure Miss Blessing Effiong does not remain in detention a day longer than necessary. That, of course, should be followed by an apology and a serious impact assessment of the ministry, and the Office of the Lagos state Public Defender. It is also about time that Lagos state begin to engender and implement legal reforms that will truly deliver justice. I trust the Attorney General will take the lead and prioritise this, within his tenure of office.

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Posted in Commissions/Innocence Commissions/Governmental Case Review Agencies, Editorials/Opinion, Reforming/Improving the system, Victims and victim issues

Barry Scheck on Holding Bad Prosecutors Accountable…

Posted on May 7, 2012 by | 12 comments

Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck

From source:

In February, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson affirmed the finding of state District Judge Sid Harle that there was probable cause to believe former Williamson County prosecutor Ken Anderson had violated the criminal laws of Texas by disobeying a court order to disclose evidence pointing to the innocence of Michael Morton, who in 1987 was wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. A court of inquiry will now try Anderson on these charges.

The case against Anderson (who is now a state district judge and denies wrongdoing in the Morton case) made national headlines because, as a recent article in the Yale Online Law Review thoroughly documents, our system rarely disciplines, much less brings criminal charges against, prosecutors who have engaged in acts of intentional misconduct. Far too often, prosecutors, who wield enormous power over our lives, aren’t investigated at all, even for intentional misconduct that has led to a wrongful conviction, much less “harmless” intentional misconduct in cases in which the defendant was guilty.

Texas appears to be no exception to the national pattern. The Innocence Project, the Northern California Innocence Project, Innocence Project of New Orleans and Voices of Innocence joined forces to investigate the problem of prosecutorial misconduct in Texas — no small task, given the lack of public data on the issue. In the end, the groups decided to review all of the published trial and appellate Continue reading →

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Posted in Prosecutorial conduct (good and bad), Reforming/Improving the system

Is it ever Possible to Undo the Damage Wrought by Wrongful Conviction?

Posted on April 30, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Would you prefer to be declared ‘not guilty’ rather than being ‘factually innocent’? Before you rush to judgement, there is a marked difference between both terms beyond semantics. Assistant Professor Christopher Sherrin of the University of Western Ontario, Canada successfully engaged with the differences and nuances of both terms in his article entitled – ‘Undoing the damage of wrongful convictions’. In Canada, it appears the best an erroneously accused person can hope for is an acquittal.

He opines that: ‘The primary concern has been that by declaring some people more than not guilty, we would diminish the verdicts given to the remaining acquitted. Not guilty for them would come to mean just not proven to be guilty, and thus probably guilty’. He however concludes that: ‘The real debate should focus not on whether we should declare innocence, but on how we should most wisely do so, in order to offer all innocent accused a fair chance at leaving their erroneous prosecution truly in the past’. Read fuller analysis herehttp://canadian-lawyers.ca/Understand-Your-Legal-Issue/Criminal-Law/Undoing-the-Damage-of-Wrongful-Convictions.html

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Posted in Editorials/Opinion, Exonerations, Reforming/Improving the system

Ex MP Chris Mullin, Mauls over the Plight of the Innocent and Wrongfully Convicted

Posted on April 29, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Chris Mullin is a mercurial British politician. He is passionate about the plight of the innocent, and those wrongfully convicted by the system. He writes about this in his blog entitled – Miscarriages of justice in the UK. He not only gives a personal account of his experiences with victims, and how in his own little way he interceded on their behalf; but identifies the problems, progress made thus far, and solutions. He says for instance that -‘In the long run only a complete overhaul of the recruitment, training and disciplinary codes of the police will make any difference. In the meantime it must be obvious that the single most useful reform that could be made is to outlaw convictions on the basis of uncorroborated confession. The only admissible confessions should be those recorded in the presence of a qualified solicitor’.

He lampooned the police; the judiciary and Judges; the Home Office; the state of forensic science  and concluded thus: ‘Locking up the wrong people is also very expensive. Tens of millions of pounds of public money has been wasted on apprehending, imprisoning and in due course compensating innocent people. Even those who do not care about the ruin of innocent lives, might at least reflect in these other aspects of a miscarriage of justice. Above all, however,  wrongful convictions rot public confidence in our system of justice and that ought to concern all of us who care about upholding it’ Read entire commentary herehttp://www.chrismullinexmp.com/speeches/miscarriages-of-justice

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Posted in Commissions/Innocence Commissions/Governmental Case Review Agencies, Police conduct (good and bad), Reforming/Improving the system, Scholarship, United Kingdom

Bromwich urges reforms to avoid more lab scandals

Posted on April 26, 2012 by | 1 comment

Former U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Bromwich, whose investigation first documented flawed forensic testing in the FBI crime lab in the 1990s, weighs in here on The Washington Post’s revelation last week that many defendants were never notified of his findings.

Bromwich, who went on to expose even worse problems at the Houston Police Department Crime Lab, laments that innocent defendants had their lives ruined when they were denied crucial information with which they could challenged their wrongful convictions.

“Unfortunately, this story is not unique in our criminal justice system,” Bromwich says. He recommends several specific reforms to address what he calls “systemic failures” in the practice of forensic science in the United States.

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Posted in Forensic controls, Junk science, Police conduct (good and bad), Reforming/Improving the system