Innocence Project Bournemouth

posted by Justice on Aug 27

On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals granted a new trial for a Wisconsin man who was convicted in 1996 of an armed robbery and attempted murder that another man has confessed to committing.

New Evidence, Testimony Points to Wisconsin Man’s Innocence
On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals granted a new trial for a Wisconsin man who was convicted in 1996 of an armed robbery and attempted murder that another man has confessed to committing. Cody Vandenberg will get a new trial in order to present new evidence about the other man’s confession and the unreliability of the eyewitness who identified him.

Vandenberg was convicted of repeatedly stabbing an acquaintance, Blake Renard, in his home and stealing his credit cards. He was sentenced to 80 years in prison.

Defense lawyers say another man, Larry Pearson, who testified for the state at Vandenberg’s trial after receiving immunity, has confessed to committing the crime. Pearson’s bloody shoeprint was also found at the crime scene.

Additional evidence casts doubt on the reliability of the victim’s eyewitness identification of Vandenberg. It was known at trial that Renard was drinking the night of the crime, but the level of intoxication was never disclosed. Tuesday’s ruling revealed that based on hospital records from that evening, Renard had a blood-alcohol level of 0.22 percent, nearly three times the legal driving limit.

John Pray, Vandenberg’s lawyer and co-founder of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, who accepted Vanderberg’s case in 1999, told the Greenbay Press-Gazette that his client was misidentified by the victim, who said he knew his attacker.

“When you’re drunk and you’re being stabbed by someone at 4 a.m. within an inch of your life, it’s pretty understandable he can’t remember the details,” he said. “No one is blaming the victim in this case. He was trying to make an identification under difficult circumstances.”

In light of the new evidence and confession, Pray hopes the state’s attorney will agree to drop the charges against Vandenberg, allowing him to be freed after 14 years in prison.

Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in more than 75% of convictions overturned through DNA testing.

Read the full story here.

Read about eyewitness misidentification here.

Tags: legal aid, law, Barrister

posted by Justice on Aug 12

A Pennsylvania man sent to death row based on questionable arson evidence is seeking a new hearing based on expert findings that the fire may have been accidental. Daniel Dougherty was sentenced to death in 2000 for allegedly setting the blaze in that killed his children. Dougherty has always maintained his innocence and says he is a victim of flawed arson science.

Death Row Prisoner Appeals Arson Conviction
A Pennsylvania man sent to death row based on questionable arson evidence is seeking a new hearing based on expert findings that the fire may have been accidental.

Daniel Dougherty was sentenced to death in 2000 for allegedly setting the blaze in that killed his children. Dougherty has always maintained his innocence and says he is a victim of flawed arson science.

Reviews of evidence in Dougherty’s case have turned up similarities to the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas man who was convicted of murder in 1992 after his three young daughters died in a fire at his home. Willingham was executed in 2004 despite evidence available at the time that the science used to convict him was invalid.

According to CNN, two arson investigators who re-examined the evidence from Dougherty’s case reported that they didn’t find any conclusive indicators of arson. Dougherty’s original lawyer never introduced expert testimony in his 2000 trial and has since admitted to never seeking assistance from independent fire investigators.

“We have an innocent man on death row who has been languishing there, and there is absolutely no evidence that a crime occurred,” said his [new] attorney, David Fryman. “We’ve been trying our best to right that wrong.”

Across the country, people are convicted of arson based on outdated science that has been discredited for years. As a result of advancements in the field, lawyers and investigators are now questioning previous arson convictions.

Dougherty filed a petition for post-conviction relief in 2006 and hopes the arson experts’ reports will help the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decide to hear his case. There is no execution date set.

Read the full story here.

Learn more about Cameron Todd Willingham here.

Tags: legal, pro bono, injustice

posted by Justice on Aug 6

Jerry Hobbs was freed yesterday in Illinois after spending five years in jail awaiting trial for the murder of his daughter and another young girl, a crime for which DNA tests implicate another man. His case is an example of the vast damage that can be caused even when injustice is uncovered before trial

After Five Years in Jail, Illinois Man Is Freed
Jerry Hobbs was freed yesterday in Illinois after spending five years in jail awaiting trial for the murder of his daughter and another young girl, a crime for which DNA tests implicate another man. His case is an example of the vast damage that can be caused even when injustice is uncovered before trial.

Shortly after alerting police that he had discovered his daughter and a friend murdered in 2005, Hobbs was charged with the crime. He signed a written confession after a daylong police interrogation, but he soon recanted the statement, saying it had been coerced.

One year after the crime, investigators learned that DNA testing on semen from one victim’s body pointed to another unknown man. They pressed forward with charges against Hobbs, however, saying they intended to seek the death penalty. In June, the DNA profile from the crime scene implicated a man in custody in Virginia, police say, and charges were dropped yesterday against Hobbs.

Prosecutors didn’t offer an apology to Hobbs, saying they were dropping the charges because they couldn’t prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
While 258 people have been exonerated through post-conviction DNA testing, countless others have spent months or years in prison while facing charges before they are freed. In a 1995 study of 10,000 criminal cases by the by the U.S. National Institute of Justice, suspects were excluded 25 percent of the time after DNA tests came back. While wrongful convictions are avoided in these cases, the contact with the criminal justice system and time spent behind bars is incredibly damaging to the life of an innocent individual.

The Chicago Tribune recently examined the cases of Hobbs and another Illinois man, Kevin Fox, who spent eight months in jail awaiting trial for the murder of his daughter before DNA tests pointed to his innocence. Unlike Fox’s case, however, Hobbs remained in prison for four years after the results came back.

False confessions play a role in more than 25 percent of wrongful convictions overturned through DNA testing. Read more about the Innocence Project recommendations to record all custodial interrogations.

Tags: injustice, pro bono, legal

posted by Justice on May 17

A Detroit police officer testified in court last week that a hit man told him authorities had convicted the “wrong guy” of four murders in 2007. Davontae Sanford was 16 years old when he pled guilty to the murders, but his attorneys say he did not commit the crime and signed a confession he could not read

A Michigan Teen Fights for Freedom
A Detroit police officer testified in court last week that a hit man told him authorities had convicted the “wrong guy” of four murders in 2007. Davontae Sanford was 16 years old when he pled guilty to the murders, but his attorneys say he did not commit the crime and signed a confession he could not read.

Police say an accused hit man, Vincent Smothers, has confessed to the murders. Smothers is awaiting trial on eight other murders and has not been charged with the 2007 killings. A Michigan judge is holding hearings on whether Sanford can withdraw his plea.

Read the full story here.

Our previous coverage of Sanford’s case is here.

Learn more about false confessions as a cause of wrongful convictions.

Tags: legal, pro bono,

posted by Justice on Feb 26

Eight years ago this week, Arvin McGee was exonerated through DNA testing after spending more than 12 years in Oklahoma prisons for a crime he didn’t commit.

Eight Years of Freedom
Eight years ago this week, Arvin McGee was exonerated through DNA testing after spending more than 12 years in Oklahoma prisons for a crime he didn’t commit. After his release, he would fight the city of Tulsa in court for years before settling a civil suit. One city councilman would later write that his case was “flubbed from beginning to end” at an enormous cost to McGee and to taxpayers.

McGee was charged with the 1987 rape despite inconsistencies in the evidence against him. The victim’s description of the perpetrator differed significantly from McGee’s appearance, and she picked a different man in the first photographic lineup. At a second lineup almost four months after the crime, she took almost 15 minutes to identify McGee.

Significantly, McGee was suffering from an injury that rendered him physically unable to commit the crime. The victim had been carried over the perpetrator’s shoulder, but McGee was awaiting surgery for a hernia operation, and it was extremely unlikely that he would have been able to carry the victim. Eyewitness misidentification is the single most common cause of wrongful convictions.

Despite these issues, McGee was charged with the crime, based mainly on the second identification. He would be tried three times before he was ultimately convicted of rape, kidnapping and forcible sodomy and sentenced to over 200 years in prison. The first trial ended in a mistrial, and the second in a hung jury.

McGee spent almost 13 years in prison before the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System took his case and arranged for DNA testing on the remaining biological evidence. These tests excluded McGee. A second round of testing ordered by Tulsa County prosecutors on the rape kit recovered from the victim produced the same results, which implicated another Oklahoma prisoner. The other man was charged with the crime, but his case was dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired.

Due to the conclusive evidence of McGee’s innocence, Tulsa prosecutors joined with his attorneys in seeking his release. McGee, who was 27 years old when he was wrongfully convicted, was 39 on the day he was freed in February 2002.

Read more about McGee’s case and the role of eyewitness misidentification in causing wrongful convictions.

Other Exoneree Anniversaries This Week:

Charles Chatman, Texas (Served 26.5 years, Exonerated: 2/26/08)

Tags: law, pro bono, injustice

posted by Justice on Dec 17

As we reported yesterday , Donald Eugene Gates was freed in Arizona after serving nearly three decades behind bars for a Washington, D.C., crime he didn’t commit.

Forensics and the Gates Case
As we reported yesterday, Donald Eugene Gates was freed in Arizona after serving nearly three decades behind bars for a Washington, D.C., crime he didn’t commit. An examination of the forensics behind his wrongful conviction makes a strong case for federal forensic reform to prevent injustices like this in the future.

FBI forensic analyst Michael Malone testified at Gates’ trial in 1982 that hairs found at the scene of the 1981 rape and murder were “microscopically indistinguishable” from Gates’ hairs. His statements vastly overstated the possible conclusions that could be drawn from a hair comparison. Unlike some other forensic disciplines (DNA testing, blood type testing), hair comparison analysis can only reveal potential similarities between specimens, not the statistical likelihood that two specimens might share common characteristics.

Although Malone’s forensic conclusions have been challenged in other cases, and a 1997 Justice Department review discredited his work, no formal review of his convictions has ever been conducted. The Judge who presided over the Gates case recently ordered the U.S. Attorney’s Office to conduct such a review.

Gates joins a growing group of exonerees whose wrongful convictions were caused, at least in part, by unvalidated or improper forensic science. More than 100 people have been exonerated through DNA testing after unvalidated or improper forensic science contributed to their wrongful conviction (flawed analysis of hair was a factor in many of those cases).The National Academy of Sciences has reported a systemic lack of forensic standards and oversight and has proposed the creation of an independent federal agency to oversee the forensic sciences. According to a report released by the National Academy of Sciences earlier this year, microscopic hair analysis is not a valid science.

In response to the groundbreaking NAS report finding serious problems with forensic science nationwide, the Innocence Project recently drafted a proposal for federal legislation to create the a federal Office of Forensic Science Improvement and Support (OFSIS). The office would be established within the Department of Commerce, which would help define the office’s agenda for research. OFSIS would also engage existing government entities to regulate the mandatory accreditation of crime labs and certification of forensic practitioners; support science-based education and training throughout the criminal justice system; provide periodic needs assessments of the forensic system; and oversee compliance. To learn more and sign a petition in support of the agency visit the Just Science Coalition website.

Tags: Innocence Project, law, legal aid

posted by Justice on Dec 17

Yesterday, Michael Marshall was freed in Georgia after spending more than two years behind bars for a crime DNA proves he didn’t commit. He is the 247th person exonerated through DNA testing in the United States, and his case is a troubling example of the failure of many jurisdictions across the country to address the causes of wrongful conviction.

Georgia Man Freed After 2008 Conviction Is Overturned

Yesterday, Michael Marshall was freed in Georgia after spending more than two years behind bars for a crime DNA proves he didn’t commit.

He is the 247th person exonerated through DNA testing in the United States, and his case is a troubling example of the failure of many jurisdictions across the country to address the causes of wrongful conviction. Marshall was convicted based in part in part on an unreliable eyewitness identification procedure, and although DNA testing could have been conducted before his conviction, it was not.

Marshall was homeless in 2007 when a police officer decided he resembled a composite sketch of a perpetrator in a truck theft case. He was identified by a man who saw the perpetrator steal the truck and would eventually plead guilty, receiving a four-year sentence.

Yesterday, Michael Marshall was freed in Georgia after spending more than two years behind bars for a crime DNA proves he didn’t commit.

He is the 247th person exonerated through DNA testing in the United States, and his case is a troubling example of the failure of many jurisdictions across the country to address the causes of wrongful conviction. Marshall was convicted based in part in part on an unreliable eyewitness identification procedure, and although DNA testing could have been conducted before his conviction, it was not.

Marshall was homeless in 2007 when a police officer decided he resembled a composite sketch of a perpetrator in a truck theft case. He was identified by a man who saw the perpetrator steal the truck and would eventually plead guilty, receiving a four-year sentence.

Moments after the crime happened, police officers pursued a man driving the stolen truck. The perpetrator escaped capture, but officers noted that he dropped a T-shirt, cell phone and cell phone case during his flight. These items were collected, and testing obtained this year by the Georgia Innocence Project found the DNA profile of another man on all three items, proving that Marshall was not the perpetrator. A check of the national DNA database found a match to another man, whose name has not been revealed.

Lawyers at the Georgia Innocence Project point to two troubling aspects of Marshall’s conviction. First, the identification procedure was deeply flawed. Marshall was identified in a highly suggestive “show-up” procedure ten days after the crime, in which a victim who witnessed the crime was brought to the location of Marshall’s arrest.

The second issue is the lack of DNA testing before Marshall’s conviction. Although DNA testing was available and widely used in 2007, there is no record that the shirt, phone or phone case were subjected to DNA testing before Marshall’s conviction.

Watch video of Marshall’s release here. (Fox 5 Atlanta)

Read more about Marshall’s case on the Georgia Innocence Project website.

Above, Marshall enjoys his first moments of freedom with Georgia Innocence Project intern Christina Rupp.

Tags: Barrister, legal aid, pro bono

posted by Justice on Dec 10

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in a case challenging the wording of the Miranda rights that law enforcement officers read to suspects before questioning.

Supreme Court Reviews Miranda Warnings
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in a case challenging the wording of the Miranda rights that law enforcement officers read to suspects before questioning. Miranda rights, established in a 1966 Supreme Court decision, alert suspects to their rights before and during an interrogation, including the right to remain silent and to speak with an attorney. At issue in Monday’s case was the wording about the right to have an attorney present throughout an interrogation.

These details are critical to preventing wrongful convictions, because 25% of the wrongful convictions overturned through DNA testing involved false confessions, many of which were made by suspects who were interrogated by police without a lawyer present.

Monday’s case, Florida v. Powell, involved a Tampa, Florida, case where the defendant, Kevin DeWayne Powell, signed a statement that included the language: “You have the right to talk to a lawyer before answering any of our questions. If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer, one will be appointed for you without cost and before any questioning. You have the right to use any of these rights at any time you want during this interview.''

Powell’s attorneys challenged the Tampa version of the rights, saying they didn’t meet the Miranda standard, which includes a clause informing suspects that an attorney can be with them during questioning, as opposed to before. The Florida Supreme Court agreed, tossing his conviction because the rights were too vague. According to SCOTUSblog, some of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices suggested at oral arguments that narrowing the required rights could be dangerous, while Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia argued that the court had established a standard set of rights that did not include a warning about the continued presence of a lawyer.

Read the full analysis at SCOTUSblog.

Read more coverage of oral arguments in the Miami Herald.

Learn more about the role of false confessions in wrongful convictions.

Tags: legal, injustice, Miscarriage of Justice

posted by Justice on Dec 10

James Bain was 19 years old when he was convicted of kidnapping and raping a young boy in Florida and sentenced to life in prison. Now, 35 years later, his attorneys say new DNA tests prove he is innocent of the crime. The Innocence Project of Florida, working with local public defenders, requested DNA tests in July and received the results yesterday.

DNA Evidence Points to Florida Man’s Innocence

James Bain was 19 years old when he was convicted of kidnapping and raping a young boy in Florida and sentenced to life in prison. Now, 35 years later, his attorneys say new DNA tests prove he is innocent of the crime.

The Innocence Project of Florida, working with local public defenders, requested DNA tests in July and received the results yesterday. They show that biological evidence from the perpetrator did not come from Bain. The results were sent to the State’s Attorney’s office today, and Bain’s attorneys are requesting that his conviction be overturned immediately, “before he spends his 36th Christmas locked up for a crime he didn't have anything to do with.”

An assistant state’s attorney told the St. Petersburg Times that his office is reviewing the DNA results and considering what steps to take next. Bain was denied DNA tests in 2001, 2003 and 2006 before they were finally granted this year.

The victim identified Bains in a photo lineup before trial. The St. Petersburg Times has more background:

Police said the child described the rapist this way: “Bushy sideburns … 17 or 18 … he said his name was Jim.”

The boy's uncle, who was at the house, said the description pointed to Jimmy Bain.

Jimmy Bain, 18, who had been a student at the high school where the uncle was assistant principal. Jimmy Bain who had bushy sideburns and rode around town on a motorcycle. Jimmy Bain, whom the boy said he had seen before, though it was hard to describe him because he wore a helmet.

Police went to Bain's home and took his picture. They mixed it in with color Polaroids of four other young men. The boy picked Bain.

Later, in a deposition, the boy described how he identified his attacker to a police officer.

“He asked me can I pick out Jimmie Bains,” the boy said. “And I picked him out.”

Read the full story here. (St. Petersburg Times, 12/09/09)

Visit the Innocence Project of Florida website.

Tags: , Innocence Project, injustice

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: Miscarriage of Justice, Barrister, injustice