Friday Roundup

Posted: November 14, 2008 5:00 pm

Cases, causes and comments we didn’t get to cover on the Innocence Blog during the week:

At a Bar Foundation luncheon Wednesday in Memphis, Innocence Project Staff Attorney Craig Cooley talked about the importance of preserving biological evidence:

“They can’t find any of the evidence,” Cooley told those at the luncheon who included prosecutors as well as criminal court judges. “I have five cases in Shelby County. In two cases, we found it. In three cases, we can’t find anything. … Evidence preservation is a huge issue that we are trying to change.”

The need for preserving evidence is clear: DNA testing has helped police solve cold cases and also helps to exonerate the innocent. But news from crime labs this week also shows the importance of forensic oversight and funding.

Last month, we learned that the Los Angeles Police Department had 7,000 untested rape kits. This week, the LA County Sheriff’s Office acknowledged that it has another 5,600 untested rape kits. Human Rights Watch estimates that some 400,000 rape kits could be awaiting tests nationwide. Meanwhile, the federal government has cut spending aimed at reducing backlogs. A New York Times editorial on Monday called on federal lawmakers to act immediately to address these backlogs.

William Dillon, who has been in Florida prison for more than two decades for a murder he says he didn’t commit, will have another day in court on Tuesday. Dillon’s attorneys, working with the Innocence Project of Florida, say new DNA testing proves his innocence, and will present this evidence to a judge at Tuesday’s hearing.

Attorneys at the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project got a bill this week for $37.78 from the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office, for documents and recordings in the case of Thomas McMillen. The sheriff’s office had originally said the copies would cost $700, but media reports pointed out that state law requires public agencies to charge only actual reproduction costs for information requests. An editorial in the State Journal-Register says that this episode illustrates the need for Freedom of Information reform in the state.

The Texas State Legislature is considering reforms to enhance the jury experience statewide, and the Innocence Project of Texas submitted written testimony yesterday to the House Judiciary Committee on the topic. The testimony begins:

“While most of the discussion here today is likely to focus on payments to jurors for their time, jury recruitment and other such measures, we cannot forget that some of the worst juror experiences come not from waiting in long lines or losing time at work but participating, unknowingly, in the false conviction of an innocent person.”

The testimony goes on to point out that reforms to prevent wrongful convictions also help juries function more effectively, because they all aim to get more accurate information to jurors. Read the full testimony here.

Also in Texas this week, Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins was named one of Governing Magazine’s Public Officials of the Year – and was featured on the magazine’s cover.

 

Eight years free

Posted: November 14, 2008 4:52 pm

Anthony Robison spent ten years in prison for a rape he did not commit and thirteen years fighting for the DNA testing that would finally exonerate him. Today marks the eighth anniversary of his exoneration.

On the day of the crime, Robinson was picking up a car for a friend at the University of Houston. University police blocked his car and accused him of raping a woman. According to the victim, her attacker was a black man wearing a jacket. Despite the victim stating the perpetrator had a moustache, which Robinson did not, he was brought in for questioning. No physical evidence linked him to the crime. Based solely on the victim’s testimony, Robinson was sentenced to 27 years in 1987. When reflecting on how he felt at the time of his wrongful conviction, Robinson said, “It was not so much the fear of imprisonment. It wasn’t so much the fear of what was going to happen. Everything that I had lived for, everything that I had done had been boiled down to — we think you’re a rapist with no evidence whatsoever other than your skin and someone saying you did this.”

After serving ten years of his sentence, he was paroled and began raising funds to obtain DNA testing on the evidence used in his trial. He saved $1,800 through working jobs such as an order clerk at a local oil field supply company and other temporary jobs. Although he was a college graduate and a former Army officer, his status as a registered sex offender excluded him from higher paying jobs. Robinson hired an attorney, Randy Schaffer, and obtained access to DNA testing on evidence in his case. The results proved what he had known all along – another man had committed the crime.

On November 14, 2000, Governor George W. Bush pardoned Robinson. Since his exoneration, Robinson has spoken to lawmakers and the media, playing a key role in the passage of a law in Texas compensating the wrongfully convicted after their release.

Robinson went on to graduate from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University, and currently works in international law.

While Robinson worked on parole in order to pay for DNA testing, many others are unable to pay for the expensive tests. Make a donation today to help the Innocence Project pay for DNA testing for our current clients.

Other exoneration anniversaries this week:

David Brian Sutherlin, Minnesota (Exonerated 2002)

Paula Gray, Illinois (Served 9 years, Exonerated 2002)

Donald Reynolds, Illinois (Served 9.5 years, Exonerated 1997)

Billy Wardell, Illinois (Served 9.5 years, Exonerated 1997)

Tags: Texas, Anthony Robinson

 

Texas Senator Introduces Legislation To Prevent Wrongful Convictions

Posted: November 14, 2008 4:15 pm

Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis has said  that in the 2009 term he would introduce legislation to reform eyewitness identification procedures, and this week he did just that. On Monday, Senator Ellis (who also serves as the Innocence Project Board Chairman) submitted three key pieces of legislation to improve the criminal justice system in Texas, and prevent further wrongful convictions.

SB 115 would create an Innocence Commission to investigate the causes of wrongful convictions in Texas, and propose solutions to prevent similar injustices.  SB 116 would require the videotaping of custodial interrogations, which greatly reduce the possibility of false confessions and, perhaps most importantly, provide judges and juries with the best evidence of what transpired during an interrogation. SB 117 requires police departments to adopt eyewitness identification procedures that are proven by research and experience to minimize the possibility of eyewitness misidentification, and to also commit those eyewitness identification procedures to writing.

An investigative report by the Dallas Morning News in October showed that faulty eyewitness testimony played a major role in 18 of the 19 Dallas County wrongful convictions proven by post-conviction DNA testing. Praising The Dallas News and maintaining the need for these reforms, Senator Ellis wrote:

As evidenced by The Dallas News' series…which did the state a great service by investigating the causes of Dallas County's 19 DNA exonerations, eyewitness identification procedures must be overhauled, with the goal of making evidence as reliable as possible. Under my proposal, police departments must adopt procedures based on science and proven best practices and train detectives in these methods.

Eyewitness identification reform is being embraced in municipalities, counties, and states across the country, but there is still a long way to go before the most accurate eyewitness identification practices are standard practice. These bills in Texas, and other reforms set to be introduced across the country in 2009, are a sign that critical reforms to aid law enforcement and prevent wrongful convictions could be on the horizon.

Learn more about the Innocence Project’s recommended policy reforms here.

Tags: Texas, Eyewitness Identification

 

Twenty Years Later, Man Faces Charges in Rape Case

Posted: November 13, 2008 4:42 pm

Duane Foster is expected to be arrainged tomorrow in Connecticut for a kidnapping and rape he allegedly committed in 1988. It took 20 years for him to face these charges because another man – James Calvin Tillman – was in prison for the crime.

Tillman served over 16 years for the crime before DNA testing finally proved his innocence and led to his exoneration in 2006. Prosecutors say the same DNA profile that proved Tillman’s innocence points to Foster as the perpetrator.

Read the full story here. (Newsday, 11/13/08)

Read more about James Tillman’s wrongful conviction.

In 88 of the DNA exoneration cases, DNA tests have led to the identity of the real perpetrator. These perpetrators committed at least 74 additional violent crimes after an innocent person was convicted of their earlier crime.

 

Tags: James Tillman

 

Maryland Panel Calls for Repeal of Death Penalty

Posted: November 13, 2008 1:16 pm

Citing the risk of executing an innocent person and several other concerns with the administration of capital punishment, the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment yesterday voted 13-7 to recommend repealing the state’s death penalty.

The panel was created by the legislature in May and Gov. Martin O’Malley appointed a wide range of legal experts and observers to review the state’s practice of capital punishment and determine whether the death penalty is good public policy. Last night’s vote came in advance of the presentation of a full report to the governor and legislature next month.

Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck testified before the panel in September, telling members that states with capital punishment risk executing the innocent because the root causes of wrongful convictions have not been remedied. DNA exoneree Kirk Bloodsworth also testified, telling the panel that he is “living proof that Maryland gets it wrong.”

And commission chairman Benjamin Civiletti told the Washington Post why he voted to recommend abolishing capital punishment:

"I don't have a firm opinion on the morality of the death penalty," said Civiletti, who served as attorney general under President Jimmy Carter (D) and was tapped by O'Malley (D) last summer to lead the panel. But he said he opposed execution for "pragmatic" reasons, among them that "it's haphazard in how it is applied."

Read the full story. (Washington Post, 11/13/08)

Tags: Kirk Bloodsworth, Death Penalty

 

A Forensic Case Ignites the Blawgosphere

Posted: November 12, 2008 5:05 pm

Bloggers around the world are focused on forensics this week, after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument Monday in the case of Melendez-Diaz vs. Massachusetts. The case turns on whether criminal defendants have a Constitutional right to cross-examine lab analysts that conducted forensic testing in their case.

During oral arguments on Monday, Justice Stephen Breyer cited the friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Innocence Network, which argued that denying defendants the chance to challenge forensic evidence against them raised the chance of a wrongful conviction. Read more case details, and download the Innocence Network brief, here.
 
Here’s a sample of what bloggers are saying:

Lyle Denniston writes at the SCOTUS Blog that this case, like so many others, could swing on the vote of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy:

The case, at its core, is simple: is a crime lab report a form of testimony, so that the prosecution may not use it at trial to buttress its case unless the technician or chemist who prepared it is at the trial to defend the test results under cross-examination?

Kennedy initially saw a potential problem if the Court were to answer yes to that question.  He foresaw ”a very substantial burden” on the prosecution and on the courts, and told counsel advocating for confrontation that he was significantly underestimating the impact.  But, as the hearing moved along, Kennedy saw as “a very important point” that California has not experienced such a burden and “gets along all right” with summoning lab analysts to the stand with some frequency. He faulted the two lawyers arguing against confrontation for lacking a rationale that would keep the prosecution’s use of unexamined lab reports in check.

Preaching to the Choir writes that this case “ought to be a no-brainer”:

The 6th Amendment protects the right of criminal defendants to confront their accusers. It's obvious that an eyewitness who will testify he saw you commit the crime is an accuser as is the police officer who found the baggie of white powder in your coat pocket. But what about the lab tech who tested that white powder and decided it was cocaine? Well, isn't the person who says the stuff you had is illegal just as much of an accuser as the person who says you had it? Like I said, it seems pretty obvious to me.

And Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast points out that Justice Antonin Scalia was the most ardent supporter of requiring analysts to testify:

Justice Scalia was the most ardent champion of requiring confrontation, reports Denniston, while the main concerns were pragmatic: Would the requirement overburden crime labs that in most cases (as in Texas) already experience significant backlogs? Even so, Scalia agreed with the argument put forward by Melendez-Diaz's attorney, as quoted in USA Today:

"Introducing forensic laboratory reports (without live witnesses) is the modern equivalent of trial by affidavit," said Stanford University law professor Jeffrey Fisher, representing Luis Melendez-Diaz

And Steve Hall of the StandDown Texas Project summarized more coverage from blogs and some mainstream media outlets.

 

Tags: Crime Lab Oversight

 

FBI Agents Call for Justice in Virginia Case

Posted: November 12, 2008 4:10 pm

A group of more than two dozen retired FBI agents called on Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine this week to pardon four men who say they were wrongfully convicted of a murder in Norfolk in 1997. The men, known as the “Norfolk Four” say they falsely confessed to involvement in the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman. Three of them are still behind bars today, thr fourth was released after serving his full sentence but he also seeks a pardon to clear his name. Another fifth man, whose DNA matches evidence from the crime scene, has since confessed to committing the crime alone. He is also in prison for the crime.

The group of FBI agents sent a letter to Kaine in July, but they haven’t received a reply. They held a press conference on Monday to announce their position. Jay Cochran, Jr, a 29-year FBI veteran and former commissioner of the Virginia State Police, is a leader of the group.

"They stand falsely convicted and imprisoned for a crime they did not commit," Cochran said. "Our members are not bleeding hearts. We do not have an interest in the outcome. Our only interest is in serving the interests of justice." …Delacey Skinner, a Kaine spokeswoman, said Monday that the governor is "committed to giving the case thorough and thoughtful consideration" but has made no decision and has not established a deadline for doing so. Lawyers for three of the Norfolk Four, working for free on behalf of the Virginia Innocence Project, first filed clemency petitions … when Mark Warner (D) was governor.
    
Read the full story here. (Washington Post, 11/11/08)

Read more:

The Disturbing Case of the Norfolk Four (Time Magazine, 11/11/08)

Visit the Norfolk Four website for a complete background on the case.

Tags: False Confessions, False Confessions

 

Crime Labs Suffer Under Backlogs and Budget Crunches, Help on the Way

Posted: November 10, 2008 4:30 pm

Towns and cities in Arizona are refusing to pay the state for forensic tests that used to be done for free. After the Arizona state legislature cut the state crime lab’s budget by half in July, lab officials announced that they would bill law enforcement departments for forensic tests, hoping to collect $2.5 million this fiscal year. But law enforcement officials say they can’t afford the fees for testing.

Police in Douglas, a border town in southeastern Arizona, owe about $23,000 in lab fees. To pay the Department of Public Safety would mean Douglas police could not hire an officer or buy a squad car, Chief Alberto Melis said. The department has four vacancies.

Melis of Douglas said, "For me to come up with this money, I'm going to have to do without something. In a profession where 95 percent of your cost is personnel, I might not be able to hire somebody."

Officers in Payson, Arizona, said they are sending less evidence for testing, which is slowing down investigations.  

Detective Matt Van Camp said he uses every aspect of the crime lab, from firearm testing to its criminalists.

“We used to send everything, but now we have to screen what we send out automatically,” Van Camp said. “This limits the tools available for the prosecutor and police.”

Prosecutors may now have to decide if they want to go to trial before they have the necessary evidence in hand.

“This makes the prosecutor’s job harder,” he said. “Crime labs also prove people innocent, not just guilty.”

Read the full story here. (Payson Roundup, 11/4/08)

Lab backlogs are hurting police investigations in Texas, as well. Results from state labs can take months.

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley explains that in today's 'CSI world' where jurors see scientific evidence easily gleaned from most crime scenes in TV dramas, they expect to see the same in court cases. But because there are so many requests for testing, and too few state technicians to keep up with demand, he says, "When you ask for DNA testing and results, you're buying in to a six month to one year delay in your case."

Read the full story here. (Key TV, 11/06/08)

Federal assistance should help to defuse the crisis somewhat in Arizona and Texas. The two states, along with Washington, Kentucky and Virginia, recently received a combined $7.8 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Justice to help with DNA testing in serious felony cases. The DOJ’s grant program requires states to comply with standards for storage and testing of evidence, and also to significantly reduce backlogs through improved training and technology. Read more about the DOJ grant program here.

 

Tags: Arizona, Texas, Crime Lab Oversight, Access to DNA Testing

 

Friday Roundup

Posted: November 7, 2008 5:30 pm

It was a big week for the United States – we have a new President elect, a new landscape in Congress, and new state legislatures across the land. We blogged earlier this week about the opportunities for bipartisan criminal justice reform on the horizon.

Meanwhile, politics bumped news on wrongful convictions and forensics from the national radar for a few days. Here are some of the stories you might have missed:

A panel discussion last night at Southern Methodist University in Dallas brought together exonerees and officials from all corners of the criminal justice system. Innocence Project client James Waller told the audience why he kept his anger at bay while appealing his conviction. "If I were to stay angry," he recalled, "I wouldn't have been able to work on my case. Bein' angry wouldn't do me no good." Blogger Bethany Anderson covered the event here.

At several other events around the country this week, exonerees told their stories and discussed the reforms that can prevent wrongful convictions in the future.

Florida prosecutors said they have new “people of interest and new DNA tests” in the case of William Dillon, who has served 27 years for a murder he says he didn’t commit.

And a new innocence organization will open its doors in Glasgow on November 12.

 

A Case for Compensation in Nebraska

Posted: November 7, 2008 4:15 pm

Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers this week on called on lawmakers to consider passing a law compensating the wrongfully convicted after their release. Chambers told the Omaha World-Herald this week:

“It’s an issue of fairness, when the state wrongfully jails someone, it should compensate that person for the loss of their freedom. Simple justice would indicate that something ought to be done for someone who’s gone through this.”

Chambers is leaving office at the end of this year, but he said he would ask another Senator to introduce legislation in 2009 to address compensation. Lawmakers in Nebraska would have to consider issues such as who qualifies as exonerated, how much compensation is fair, and what process needs to be done to obtain it. Chambers’ proposal comes on the heels of the release of Thomas Winslow and Joseph White, who were cleared by DNA testing last month. They were the first defendants in Nebraska history freed due to DNA testing, but their exonerations aren’t yet official.

Compensation statutes exist in 25 states, as well as in the District of Columbia.  In 2004, Congress passed a law granting exonerated federal prisoners up to $50,000 a year in compensation (and up to $100,000 per year for those who were on death row). This federal legislation urges states to follow suit. The recent trend in compensation statutes is to also provide the immediate assistance and services that the wrongfully convicted need and deserve to seek to successfully resume their lives.

Read the full article here. (Omaha World Herald, 11/04/08)

Does your state have a compensation law? Find out here.
 

Tags: Nebraska, Exoneree Compensation