Innocence/Wrongful Convictions
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For related news and information, visit the NY Capital Defense, DNA, Eyewitness Evidence, and Police Misconduct pages.

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Current Developments_______________________________

 

Current Developments Outside New York__________________

 

Legislative Developments_______________________________

  • Governor Pataki seeking stiffer penalties for perjurers in reaction to wrongful convictions based on false testimony. Governor to Seek Harsher Penalties for Perjurers in Criminal Cases, New York Times, June 13, 2001 and Bill Makes False Sworn Testimony in a Criminal Trial a Class C Felony - Cites Blake Case, Governor's Press Release, June 13, 2001
     
  • Assembly Bill would permit Tyson to seek damages against New YorkState for wrongful conviction. Bill Would Allow Wrongfully Imprisoned Woman to Sue State, New York Law Journal, June 12, 2001. Read Assembly Bill A8545
     
  • Innocence Protection Act of 2001 (Senator Leahy). "The Innocence Protection Act of 2000 is a comprehensive package of criminal justice reforms aimed at reducing the risk that innocent persons may be executed. Most urgently, the bill would:(1) Ensure that convicted offenders are afforded an opportunity to prove their innocence through DNA testing(2) Help States to provide competent legal services at every stage of a death penalty prosecution (3) Enable those who can prove their innocence to recover some measure of compensation for their unjust incarceration and(4) Provide the public with more reliable and detailed information regarding the administration of the nation's capital punishment laws."

Innocence Projects___________________________________

 

Starting an Innocence Project__________________________

Freeing the Innocent (NACDL). The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers has collected materials from its seminar on "How to Start an Innocence Project" and is making them available to NACDL members and others interested forming innocence projects.

So You Want to Start an Innocence Project (Truth in Justice). "In recent years numerous wrongly convicted individuals have been released from prison after new evidence, often in the form of scientific evidence such as DNA, has established that they were actually innocent.  Many of these wrongly convicted individuals were released through the efforts of non-profit innocence projects organized for the purpose of investigating and litigating post-conviction claims of actual innocence.  These successes have stirred a rising interest in forming more innocence projects to address the staggering backlog of applications for assistance."

 

Special Reports______________________________________

JAILHOUSE INFORMANTS
In a series of articles, Newsday examined the history, practice and detrimental impact of relying on jailhouse informants in criminal prosecutions.

LEGACY OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS
The Chicago Tribune published a series of articles about the aftereffects of being exonerated. It describes the struggle of wrongfully convicted people to restart their lives, and ongoing problems with the justice system.

WRONGED MEN
This Newsday series examines the impact of wrongful convictions in New York City and on the justice system as a whole. According to the Newsday study, 13 men have been wrongfully convicted of murder in 11 cases since 1998. 

CENTRAL PARK JOGGER CASE
The convictions of five young men in the 1989 New York City Central Park jogger attack have been overturned. New DNA evidence connected the crime to a serial rapist, who confessed to acting alone. The videotaped confessions and forensic evidence presented at the original trial have been called into question.

MISTAKEN IDENTITY
Innocent people have been the target of law enforcement investigations and arrests, and later found to be the victim of a mistake, misidentification or computer error.

 

VIDEOTAPING POLICE INTERROGATIONS
The reliability of confessions derived from police interrogations has been questioned by many DNA exonerations. In light of developments in the Central Park Jogger case, in which DNA evidence has pointed to a new suspect, the New York Civil Liberties Union has requested the NYPD to tape its interrogations. Letter From NYCLU to NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, September 17, 2002. A bill has been submitted to the New York City Council to achieve the same end. Int. No. 027-2002 (September 25, 2002). Articles and developments on this issue in New York and elsewhere appear below.

COPS AND CONFESSIONS
Chicago Tribune published a series of articles highlighting the results of their investigation into questionable confessions obtained by police over a ten-year period. 

JUSTICE TURNING ON A DOUBLE HELIX
Series of articles published by Law.com about the challenges facing inmates seeking to establish their innocence through post-conviction DNA.

FALSE REPORTS ARCHIVE
This is an archive of court decisions and news articles concerning various types of crimes that have been falsely reported. The archive is part of the Premises Liability Resource site created by Det. John J. Baeza, NYPD (ret.) of Special Victims, Inc. and Brent E. Turvey, MS of Knowledge Solutions, LLC. Det. Baeza also prepared a list of Red Flags for spotting false claims.
 

TWO BROOKLYN MEN WRONGLY CONVICTED OF MURDER
Charles Shepard and Anthony Faison were convicted of murder and spent 14 years in jail before they were exonerated.

WAIVING RIGHT TO POST-CONVICTION DNA TESTING
California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ) has posted information about a document that instructs prosecutors how to obtain waivers from defendants of their right to post-conviction DNA testing under Penal Code Section 1405. It "was produced by a working group appointed by the California Attorney General's Office and reportedly shared with prosecutors and police around the state."

CONFESSION TO PRIEST LEADS TO EXONERATION
In Morales v. Portuondo, No. 97-CV-02559 (2nd Cir. July 24, 2001) testimony from a priest about the true murderer's confession in a Bronx homicide convinced a federal judge to release two men serving time for that crime.

YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG MAN
It's everyone's worst nightmare, a case of mistaken identity that condemns an innocent man to waste away behind prison bars for two years. This is what happened to Kerry Sanders, a mentally ill man from Los Angeles. Read about his saga and the failures of law enforcement and the New York State Department of Corrections that led to this tragedy.

WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS
The Chicago Tribune conducted a nationwide investigation into homicide cases that involved prosecutorial misconduct. The study covers homicide cases that were overturned or dismissed because prosecutors withheld evidence or presented false evidence. The cases go back 36 years. New York State tops the list. Trial and Error , Chicago Tribune, 1999
 

WIN AT ALL COSTS:
GOVERNMENT MISCONDUCT IN THE NAME OF EXPEDIENT JUSTICE
In 1998, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette investigated "a law enforcement culture that has allowed the pursuit of a conviction to replace the pursuit of justice, no matter what the cost." 

LIFE AFTER DEATH ROW
CBS special reports on about experiences of death row inmates whose convictions were overturned by DNA evidence or other revelations after trial.

SUSPECT CONFESSIONS
False or coerced confessions plague the justice system resulting in the wrongful convictions of adults and children alike.

 

Reports_____________________________________________

Lessons Not Learned (Innocence Project 2007). This report details the wrongful convictions in New York that have been overturned through DNA evidence. It provides background on each case. It also examines the causes of wrongful convictions in New York and nationwide – and explains how the system can be fixed with sensible, straightforward reforms by the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

Achieving Justice: Freeing the Innocent, Convicting the Guilty (ABA 2006). This report was prepared by the Ad Hoc Innocence Committee to Ensure the Integrity of the Criminal Process. It focuses on key issues surrounding wrongful convictions, and makes recommendations for improving the justice system.

 Police Experiences With Electronic Recording Custodial Interrogations (Center on Wrongful Convictions 2004). This study surveys the experiences of more than 200 law enforcement agencies in 38 states that record suspect interviews in felony investigations. Among the topics covered: Logistics of Recording; Benefits of Recording for Police Officers and Prosecutors; Recording Does Not Affect the Ability to Obtain Cooperation, Admissions, and Confessions; Relative Costs and Savings Associated With Recording; and Safety Valves for When Things Go Wrong. It also includes appendices about police departments that record custodial interviews. The study was published by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law.

Exonerations in the United States 1989-2003 (University of Michigan Law School 2004). This is a study of exoneration cases nationwide since the inaugural use of DNA in 1989. It examines such issues as false confessions and problems in the functioning of the criminal justice system overall. The study was prepared by Samuel R. Gross, Thomas & Mabel Long Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School.

Harmful Error (Center for Public Integrity 2003). This is a national database of prosecutorial misconduct compiled by the Center for Public Integrity. The Center examined nearly 12,000 judicial opinions, and other sources, spanning a 30-year period. Information is organized by jurisdiction and searchable by defendant, prosecutor, state or jurisdiction. It includes summary analyses and citation references for individual cases, as well as other resources illuminating the problems created by prosecutorial misconduct, such as wrongful conviction.

Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology (US 2003). This report describes the President's initiative and funding plan for the application of DNA technology to solve crimes, identify missing persons and protect the innocent. It describes the need to clear up backlogs and improve administration of DNA testing at the federal, state and local levels. A small portion of the fund will be devoted to post-conviction testing.

An Ordinary Crime (Frontline 2002). This web site was created in conjunction with a Frontline investigation into the question of Terence Garner's innocence—he was convicted of robbery and attempted murder in North Carolina—and the many issues concerning the identification evidence and the prosecution of the case. A new trial has been ordered based on new evidence concerning his innocence. New Trial Ordered for Garner, News and Observer, February 5, 2002

 What Jennifer Saw (Frontline 1998). Collection of stories and reports concerning misidentification, wrongful imprisonment and the work of The Innocence Project at the Cardozo School of Law.

Convicted by Juries, Exonerated by Science: Case Studies in the Use of DNA Evidence to Establish Innocence After Trial (NIJ 1996). "This report reviews more than two dozen cases in which forensic DNA typing ultimately exonerated suspects or defendants. Most were prosecuted at a time when forensic DNA typing was not available to police or prosecutors. Each case has a slightly different sequence and series of events. Because of these differences, each case provides additional insight into how the legal system might avoid the pitfalls of the past, whether or not the testing is performed in pending or postconviction cases."

 

Law Reviews and Scholarly Articles______________________

Actual Innocence (Doubleday 2000). Written by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, Cardozo Innocence Project and Jim Dwyer, Columnist for the New York Daily News, "raises a powerful challenge to the assumption that all is pretty much well with the legal system, and that the safeguards against wrongful conviction are adequately in place." Actual Innocence: DNA Tests and the Road to More Reliable Justice, New York Times, February 25, 2000

Wrongly Convicted: Perspectives on Failed Justice (RutgersUniversity Press 2001). "Essays in Part 1 show that eyewitnesses are often wrong, police trick suspects into making confessions, informants lie to gain benefits, and police can be incompetent or venal. Part 2 argues that those who are unpopular, uneducated, or members of a racial minority invite harsher treatment by authorities. The next section offers case studies on convictions that were wrongly obtained, followed by suggestions for changes in the criminal justice system, such as more active judges, an 'innocence commission' to examine convictions, liberal use of DNA evidence, and better training for lawyers." Library Journal

Convicted but Innocent: Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy (Sage Publications 1996). "Even if the American system of criminal justice proved 99.5% accurate, it would still generate more than 10,000 wrongful convictions a year--and those would reflect only the eight serious index crimes. And each time an innocent offender is wrongfully convicted, the actual offender remains free to continue victimizing. Insightful and stimulating, Convicted But Innocent grapples with the very specific, difficult issues surrounding wrongful convictions and the implications for society."

Presumed Guilty: When Innocent People Are Wrongly Convicted (Prometheus Books 1991) "Yant, commentary editor of the Columbus Dispatch, clearly has the evidence to prove this thesis as he collects several dozen examples of justice gone awry. From Sacco and Vanzetti and Bruno Hauptmann to Randall Dale Adams (subject of the documentary film The Thin Blue Line) and several lesser-known defendants who fell through the cracks of the criminal justice system." Library Journal

 

Books_______________________________________________

Innocent: Inside Wrongful Conviction Cases (NYU Press 2004). “Innocent graphically documents forty-two recent criminal cases to find evidence of shocking miscarriages of justice, especially in murder cases. Based upon interviews with more than 200 people and reviews of hundreds internal case files, court records, smoking-gun memoranda, and other documents, Scott Christianson gets inside the legal cases, revealing the mistakes, abuses, and underlying factors that led to miscarriages of justice, while also describing how determined prisoners, post-conviction attorneys, advocates, and journalists struggle against tremendous odds to try to win their exonerations.”

Actual Innocence (Doubleday 2000). Written by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, Cardozo Innocence Project and Jim Dwyer, Columnist for the New York Daily News, "raises a powerful challenge to the assumption that all is pretty much well with the legal system, and that the safeguards against wrongful conviction are adequately in place." Actual Innocence: DNA Tests and the Road to More Reliable Justice, New York Times, February 25, 2000

Wrongly Convicted: Perspectives on Failed Justice (RutgersUniversity Press 2001). "Essays in Part 1 show that eyewitnesses are often wrong, police trick suspects into making confessions, informants lie to gain benefits, and police can be incompetent or venal. Part 2 argues that those who are unpopular, uneducated, or members of a racial minority invite harsher treatment by authorities. The next section offers case studies on convictions that were wrongly obtained, followed by suggestions for changes in the criminal justice system, such as more active judges, an 'innocence commission' to examine convictions, liberal use of DNA evidence, and better training for lawyers." Library Journal

Convicted but Innocent: Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy (Sage Publications 1996). "Even if the American system of criminal justice proved 99.5% accurate, it would still generate more than 10,000 wrongful convictions a year--and those would reflect only the eight serious index crimes. And each time an innocent offender is wrongfully convicted, the actual offender remains free to continue victimizing. Insightful and stimulating, Convicted But Innocent grapples with the very specific, difficult issues surrounding wrongful convictions and the implications for society."

Presumed Guilty: When Innocent People Are Wrongly Convicted (Prometheus Books 1991) "Yant, commentary editor of the Columbus Dispatch, clearly has the evidence to prove this thesis as he collects several dozen examples of justice gone awry. From Sacco and Vanzetti and Bruno Hauptmann to Randall Dale Adams (subject of the documentary film The Thin Blue Line) and several lesser-known defendants who fell through the cracks of the criminal justice system." Library Journal

 

Research Links______________________________________

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