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posted by Justice on Jan 16

“The Wronged Man,” a moving new Lifetime film, tells the story of Calvin Willis’ wrongful conviction in Louisiana and the fight to free him. The movie premieres on Lifetime Movie Network Sunday night at 8 p.m

Sunday on Lifetime: "The Wronged Man"

“The Wronged Man,” a moving new Lifetime film, tells the story of Calvin Willis’ wrongful conviction in Louisiana and the fight to free him. The movie premieres on Lifetime Movie Network Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET.

Watch a trailer here and find Lifetime Movie Network in your local listings.

Calvin Willis served more than 21 years in Louisiana prisons for a child rape he didn’t commit before DNA testing obtained by the Innocence Project proved his innocence and led to his exoneration. For 15 years, a paralegal named Janet “Prissy” Gregory advocated on Willis’ behalf, filing appeals for a new trial and raising money to pay for DNA testing. Gregory is played in the film by Julia Ormond. Willis is played by Mahershalalhashbaz Ali. Pictured above is a scene from the film with Ormond (left), Tonea Stewart (playing Momma Newton, the grandmother who raised Calvin) and Ali.

Learn more about Willis’ case. Watch an Innocence Project video of Willis' reunion with long-time friend and fellow exoneree Rickie Johnson.

Airing with the film is a new Public Service Announcement featuring Julia Ormond on wrongful convictions and the work of the Innocence Project. Watch the PSA here.

Tags: legal, Innocence Project, pro bono

posted by Justice on Jan 2

Happy New Year from all of us at the Innocence Project to our wonderful blog readers and our online community.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from all of us at the Innocence Project to our wonderful blog readers and our online community. We're looking forward to working with you the bring about more exonerations in 2010 and to pass critical reforms across the country that will prevent injustice from happening.

There are just a few hours left to make a tax-deductible donation to the Innocence Project in 2009, the deadline is midnight tonight. We wouldn't be here without your support. Please make an online donation today.

Thank you for your dedication and generosity, here's to overturning injustice together in the New Year!

Tags: injustice, legal, law

posted by Justice on Dec 28

Donald Eugene Gates was freed from prison and his conviction was vacated last week when a D.C. Superior Court judge acted at the prosecutor’s request and acknowledged Gates was wrongfully imprisoned for 27 years

27 Years Later, Donald Gates is Declared Innocent

Donald Eugene Gates was freed from prison and his conviction was vacated last week when a D.C. Superior Court judge acted at the prosecutor’s request and acknowledged Gates was wrongfully imprisoned for 27 years. DNA testing and other evidence showed that Gates was innocent. The U.S. Attorney’s Office initially said it would block Gates’ exoneration, but backed down late Friday.

The Washington Post writes:

“The court finds by clear and convincing evidence that Mister Gates is actually innocent,” Judge Fred B. Ugast wrote in his opinion issued Friday, clearing Gates of all charges….

Prosecutors also acknowledged in a letter Friday to Ugast that they had found correspondence alerting them in 1997 to 12 discredited FBI crime analysts, including one whose testimony they had relied on heavily during Gates’s trial. Prosecutors previously indicated in court that they had not been told about the analysts, a mistake that Ugast had called “outrageous.” Also, prosecutors had relied on testimony from a paid informant who testified that Gates confessed the killing and rape to him.

Read the full article here.

Gates, who is now 58, was released from an Arizona prison last Tuesday. A hearing in his case that was scheduled for today was canceled once prosecutors agreed to drop the case – and admitted that they have known for 12 years that the forensic expert who testified at his trial has been discredited.

The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia handled Gates’ post-conviction case. The Innocence Project has called for thorough review and follow-up of other cases involving the discredited FBI analysts who testified in Gates’ case.

Tags: pro bono, legal aid, Barrister

posted by Justice on Dec 28

Two recent Florida exonerees are celebrating their freedom this holiday season after marking too many New Year’s Days behind bars. Jamie Bain was freed December 17 after spending 35 years in Florida prisons for a crime DNA now proves he didn’t commit. He served more time for his wrongful conviction than any other DNA exoneree in U.S

Florida Exonerees Celebrate Freedom

Two recent Florida exonerees are celebrating their freedom this holiday season after marking too many New Year’s Days behind bars.

Jamie Bain was freed December 17 after spending 35 years in Florida prisons for a crime DNA now proves he didn’t commit. He served more time for his wrongful conviction than any other DNA exoneree in U.S. history. He spent Christmas at home this year for the first time in 35 years, and said it was a dream come true.

The entire time he was in prison, Bain said he dreamed he could spend a Christmas with his mother.

“Wishing and hoping I was with her throughout the years, just wishing and hoping,” he said. “Hoping one day I could get out and be with her.”

William Dillon spent his second Christmas at home this year, and a new video documentary and interactive web feature on Florida Today digs into the details of his wrongful conviction. Dillon served 26 years in prison for a 1981 murder he didn’t commit before he was freed last November.

Both Bain and Dillon were exonerated through the work of the Innocence Project of Florida, a member of the Innocence Network.

Tags: Layla D’monte, Innocence Project, Miscarriage of Justice

posted by Justice on Dec 7

This week marks the second anniversary of the day Chad Heins (left) walked out of a Florida prison, free at 33 years old for the first time since he was 19. Heins was convicted in 1996 of murdering his sister-in-law Tina Heins. Chad recently moved from Florida to Wisconsin and was staying with his brother Jeremy and Jeremy’s wife, Tina, when Tina was killed in her bedroom

Chad Heins: Two Years Free

This week marks the second anniversary of the day Chad Heins (left) walked out of a Florida prison, free at 33 years old for the first time since he was 19.

Heins was convicted in 1996 of murdering his sister-in-law Tina Heins. Chad recently moved from Florida to Wisconsin and was staying with his brother Jeremy and Jeremy’s wife, Tina, when Tina was killed in her bedroom.

Jeremy, who was in the Navy, was on board his ship the night of the crime. Chad had returned home at 12:30 a.m. that night, two hours before his sister-in-law, and was asleep on the sofa during the crime. He woke up around 5:45 a.m. to find three small fires burning in the living room and kitchen, one on the very sofa where he slept. After putting out the fires and disarming the smoke alarm, he discovered Tina Heins in her bedroom; she had been stabbed 27 times.

Heins immediately became a suspect. During his trial, a forensic analyst testified that DNA testing performed on three hairs collected from the victim's bedroom showed that the hairs came from one person, and that person wasn't Chad or Jeremy Heins. Two jailhouse snitches testified at his trial that Heins had spontaneously confessed his guilt to them, and he was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and attempted sexual battery on December 20, 1996, and sentenced to life in prison.

In 2001, Heins wrote to the Innocence Project, which took the case with help from the Innocence Project of Florida. In 2003, along with pro bono counsel Robert Beckham of Holland & Knight, the Innocence Project filed a motion for DNA testing on skin cells collected at autopsy from underneath the victim's fingernails. She had defense wounds on her hands, meaning that biological evidence from the attacker could be under her fingernails. The DNA test results showed that male DNA under Tina's fingernails did not come from Chad or Jeremy Heins. Additional testing showed that the profile from the hairs was consistent with the DNA from the fingernails — all belonging to an unknown male.

Attorneys for Heins also learned that a fingerprint had been discovered before trial on the faucet of the blood-stained sink in the Heins' bathroom, where it was undisputed that the perpetrator attempted to clean up after the murder. Although the fingerprint did not match Chad, Jeremy or Tina, prosecutors did not relay this information to the jury.

Heins' conviction was vacated in 2006 based on the DNA evidence, but prosecutors demanded a retrial – further delaying Heins' freedom. The Innocence Project sought DNA testing of semen found at the crime scene. The results showed that the semen came from the same person as the hairs and the cells found under the victim's fingernails. On December 4, 2007, prosecutors dropped the pending charges against Heins and he was freed. Days after his release, Heins moved to Wisconsin to rejoin relatives.

Watch a video interview with Heins and read more about his case in our Know the Cases section.

Other Exoneration Anniversaries This Week:

Dale and Ronnie Mahan, Alabama (Served 11.5 Years, Exonerated 11/30/1998)

Calvin Lee Scott, Oklahoma (Served 20 Years, Exonerated 12/3/03)

Gerald Davis, West Virginia (Served 8 Years, Exonerated 12/4/1995)

Calvin Ollins, Illinois (Served 13,5 Years, Exonerated 12/5/01)

Larry Ollins, Illinois (Served 13,5 Years, Exonerated 12/5/01)

Marcellius Bradford (Served 6.5 Years, Exonerated 12/5/01)

Tags: Barrister, Miscarriage of Justice, injustice

posted by Justice on Dec 2

In 2004, Kentucky improved its evidence preservation law, requiring that law enforcement agencies save evidence from most major crimes. But an Associated Press report this weekend shows that evidence is missing in several key cases across the state and casts doubt on preservation policies in practice

Missing Evidence Presents a Problem in Kentucky

In 2004, Kentucky improved its evidence preservation law, requiring that law enforcement agencies save evidence from most major crimes. But an Associated Press report this weekend shows that evidence is missing in several key cases across the state and casts doubt on preservation policies in practice.

Defense attorneys say evidence has gone missing in Kentucky, resulting in problems for six capital cases and possibly hundreds of other prosecutions, including rapes and robberies.

All the cases predate DNA testing, which can now be used to determine guilt.

“It's really becoming an issue,” said Kentucky Innocence Project chief Ted Shouse, whose office is reviewing more than 4,000 old cases. “This is going to be a huge problem.”

… “Clearly, the number of exonerations from DNA in this country should be a wake up call to preserve evidence,” Shouse said.

The catch is making sure the law is followed by all parties – clerks, court reporters, law enforcement, said Rebecca Brown, a policy advocate for The Innocence Project, a New York-based national organization that seeks to free those wrongly convicted.

“There's sometimes a disconnect between what's on the books and actual practice,” Brown said. “A mandate doesn't necessarily make it down to all the people charged with retaining that evidence.”

Read the full story here. (Associated Press, 11/26/09)

Procedures mandating proper collection, cataloguing and storage of crime scene evidence are crucial to a fair justice system — preserving evidence doesn’t only help free the innocent, it also helps law enforcement agencies solve cold cases.

View a map of evidence preservation policies nationwide.

Learn more about the Innocence Project’s recommended policies for evidence preservation.

Tags: pro bono, , Miscarriage of Justice

posted by Justice on Dec 2

Many of the 245 people exonerated through DNA testing were represented at their original trial by public defenders or appointed attorneys who were underfunded, overburdened, in over their heads, or all of the above. And the threat of wrongful convictions caused by bad lawyering isn’t an issue of the past.

Public Defense and Wrongful Conviction

Many of the 245 people exonerated through DNA testing were represented at their original trial by public defenders or appointed attorneys who were underfunded, overburdened, in over their heads, or all of the above.

And the threat of wrongful convictions caused by bad lawyering isn’t an issue of the past. A new report from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics finds public defense offices around the country stuggling to stay above water – even before the recession took hold in 2008. Today, states and counties are facing budget cuts that could compromise the quality of representation and contribute to more wrongful convictions.

An editorial in the Detroit Free Press today calls of the Michigan Legislature to address the state’s inadequate indigent defense system, which is 44th in the country in spending, through a package of bills introduced last month. The paper writes:

An effective public defense system will save money by reducing wrongful-conviction lawsuits, keeping innocent people out of prison and making sure defendants who can't afford counsel don't get unjustifiably long sentences.

…In calling attention to Michigan's abysmal public defense system, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently cited the wrongful conviction of Eddie Joe Lloyd, who served 17 years in prison for a murder and rape he didn't commit. Lloyd's appointed attorneys failed to investigate, or even cross-examine police about, Lloyd's false confession. As Holder pointed out, Lloyd's imprisonment and appeals cost Michigan nearly $1 million, not including the $4-million civil judgment Lloyd later won for his wrongful conviction.

Legislators ought to remember cases like Lloyd's as they consider overdue bills to fix Michigan's morally indefensible and economically shortsighted system for public defense.

Other states are facing similar burdens. Over the weekend, a Kentucky county learned that it must cut 30 percent of its budget for next year and an Indiana county announced that it was cutting several attorney and support staff positions.

Read more about bad lawyering and wrongful convictions here.

Tags: Miscarriage of Justice, Innocence Project, Barrister

posted by Justice on Nov 15

Anthony Robinson spent ten years in prison for a rape he didn't commit and 13 years fighting for the DNA testing that would finally exonerate him. Today, he is a successful attorney practicing in China and Texas and Saturday marks the ninth anniversary of his exoneration.

Nine Years After Exoneration, Practicing Law Across Borders

Anthony Robinson spent ten years in prison for a rape he didn't commit and 13 years fighting for the DNA testing that would finally exonerate him. Today, he is a successful attorney practicing in China and Texas and Saturday marks the ninth anniversary of his exoneration.

An eyewitness misidentification played a key role in Robinson’s wrongful conviction. On the day of the crime, he 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. Although the victim said the perpetrator had a mustache and Robinson didn’t, he was brought in for questioning. No physical evidence linked him to the crime. Based almost entirely on the victim’s testimony, Robinson was convicted in 1987 and sentenced to 27 years in prison.

He would later reflect on the feeling of being wrongfully accused: “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 worked a variety of temporary jobs to raise the funds for DNA testing. 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 actively about the issue of wrongful conviction to lawmakers and the media and played a key role in the passage of a law in Texas compensating the wrongfully convicted after their release.

After Robinson was cleared, Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis and other Houston attorneys helped raise funds for him to attend law school. He graduated from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University in 2004, and currently works in international law. He is also a member of the Innocence Project of Texas Board of Directors and the Texas Exoneree Council.

Other exoneration anniversaries this week:

Bruce Dallas Goodman, Utah (Served 19 Years, Exonerated 11/9/04)

Joseph White, Nebraska (Served 19 Years, Exonerated 11/10/08)

David Brian Sutherlin, Minnesota (Exonerated 11/13/02)

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

Tags: Miscarriage of Justice, , law

posted by Justice on Sep 21

ABC News' “Nightline” focused on the wrongful execution of Cameron Todd Willingham last night, interviewing the original arson investigator and prosecutor, who both say they are comfortable with their role in the case despite clear new evidence that Willingham was innocent. Willingham was convicted of setting a fire in his own house that killed his three daughters.

Texas Prosecutor Untroubled by Willingham Evidence
ABC News' “Nightline” focused on the wrongful execution of Cameron Todd Willingham last night, interviewing the original arson investigator and prosecutor, who both say they are comfortable with their role in the case despite clear new evidence that Willingham was innocent.

Willingham was convicted of setting a fire in his own house that killed his three daughters. An exhaustive report in the September 7 issue of the New Yorker deconstructs the evidence against Willingham, proving that the fire was an accident and the other evidence used against Willingham was false.

John Jackson, who was the prosecutor in the case and is now a senior judge, tells ABC News reporter Terry Moran that the unanimous findings of arson experts in recent years that the fire was an accident have cast strong doubt on the forensics used against Willingham at trial. He admits that “without question” the scientific evidence was not valid. Asked if this new evidence gives him pause about sending a man to death, however, Jackson says “not a man like Todd.”

Jackson goes on to claim that because Willingham liked the band Iron Maiden, he was likely to be a devil worshipper. He also says it's likely that the fire burned in a pentagram pattern on the floor, further showing “an obsession with Satan” that he says makes it “more likely” that Willingham intentionally set the fire – even though there is no evidence that the fire was anything more than a tragic accident

Watch the Nightline segment here.

Post the Nightline segment to Twitter or Facebook.

Read background on the Willingham case and download documents and media coverage.

Tags: injustice, law, Innocence Project

posted by Justice on Sep 21

An editorial in today’s Los Angeles Times makes a strong case for federal forensic reform, pointing out that Cameron Todd Willingham, an innocent man executed in Texas in 2004, is among countless people sent to prison in the U.S. based on faulty forensic evidence. Willingham’s case is heartbreaking: He lost his children to fire and his wife to divorce, spent 12 years in prison and died still protesting his innocence

LA Times: We Can Do Better with Forensics

An editorial in today’s Los Angeles Times makes a strong case for federal forensic reform, pointing out that Cameron Todd Willingham, an innocent man executed in Texas in 2004, is among countless people sent to prison in the U.S. based on faulty forensic evidence.

Willingham’s case is heartbreaking: He lost his children to fire and his wife to divorce, spent 12 years in prison and died still protesting his innocence. But his is not an isolated case. There are thousands of Willinghams in prisons across the country. If not on death row, they are nonetheless serving decades-long or even life sentences after having been convicted on the basis of erroneous scientific conclusions made by poorly trained “experts.”

The editorial refers to the Senate Judiciary hearings earlier this month on forensic science, where Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld called for an expanded federal role in forensic reforms. The LA Times editorial calls for the creation of a federal entity to stimulate forensic research, set standards and enforce those standards.

Read the full editorial here.

Get background on the Willingham case here.

Visit the Just Science Coalition website to sign a petition for federal forensic reform.

Tags: legal aid, Layla D’monte, legal