Innocence Project Bournemouth

posted by Justice on Feb 8

A bill that would address the causes of wrongful conviction and help innocent parolees seek exoneration is stalled in the Ohio House of Representatives, seven months after passing the Senate. The measure would require that law enforcement agencies preserve crime scene evidence and conduct “blind” identification procedures — in which the administering officer doesn’t know the identity of the suspect

Politics Delay Reform in Ohio

A bill that would address the causes of wrongful conviction and help innocent parolees seek exoneration is stalled in the Ohio House of Representatives, seven months after passing the Senate.

The measure would require that law enforcement agencies preserve crime scene evidence and conduct “blind” identification procedures — in which the administering officer doesn’t know the identity of the suspect. It would also open a path for people on parole to seek DNA tests that can prove innocence.

Although the bill has bipartisan support and the Governor has said he will sign it if passed, the Columbus Dispatch reports that progress seems to be delayed by a legislative logjam.

The delay has frustrated supporters, including Mark Godsey, director of the Ohio Innocence Project.

“All parties, including prosecutors, police, Democrats and Republicans, worked for years to create a consensus bill. It's a shame it's being delayed at this point,” Godsey said, noting that the bill would help prevent convictions of innocent people.

Read the full story here. (Columbus Dispatch, 2/5/10)

If you live in Ohio, sign up for Innocence Project email updates today to receive breaking news and actions relating to this issue in the weeks ahead.

Tags: legal, , Barrister

posted by Justice on Jan 16

Here are some of the stories we didn’t get to on the Innocence Blog this week.

Friday Roundup: Ringing the Liberty Bell

Here are some of the stories we didn’t get to on the Innocence Blog this week. For breaking news, follow us on Twitter @innocenceblog.

James Bain served 35 years in Florida prisons for a rape he didn’t commit before DNA testing obtained by the Innocence Project of Florida led to his exoneration in December. On Monday, he will ring the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia in a celebration of one of his heroes, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Oklahoma State Sen. Constance Johnson filed a bill yesterday that would create a commission to study the causes of wrongful convictions and recommend reforms to address them.

A wave of drug-related crime has led to a spike in demand for forensic tests in Mexico. Educational opportunities for aspiring forensic analysts are expanding as well.

British exoneree Sean Hodgson could receive several million Pounds in compensation after serving 27 years in U.K. prisons for a crime he didn’t commit. He spoke with the BBC this week about the challenges of life after exoneration.

A new paper from University of Houston Law Center Professor Sandra Guerra Thompson explores how state courts across the U.S. have handled evidence of eyewitness misidentifications.

Tags: Layla D’monte, Miscarriage of Justice, pro bono

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: pro bono, legal, Innocence Project

posted by Justice on Jan 2

As we wrote yesterday in our post on ten great moments of the decade , it has been an eventful and successful 10 years for individuals and groups working to overturn wrongful convictions – but there’s plenty of work left to do. As we embark on a new decade, here’s a roundup of 10 must-read books on wrongful convictions and criminal justice reform from the last 10 years, in no particular order. There were many more great books on the issue in the 2000s than we can name here, however, so please visit our book list for more good reads .

Ten Great Books of the Decade

As we wrote yesterday in our post on ten great moments of the decade, it has been an eventful and successful 10 years for individuals and groups working to overturn wrongful convictions – but there’s plenty of work left to do.

As we embark on a new decade, here’s a roundup of 10 must-read books on wrongful convictions and criminal justice reform from the last 10 years, in no particular order. There were many more great books on the issue in the 2000s than we can name here, however, so please visit our book list for more good reads.

“Picking Cotton” by exoneree Ronald Cotton and crime victim Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, with Erin Torneo. Set to come out in paperback on January 4, this book was a highlight of 2009 and tells the moving story of a wrongful conviction and the fight for reform from the perspectives of an exoneree and crime victim.

“Actual Innocence“, by Innocence Project Co-Directors Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, with Jim Dwyer, this groundbreaking book examines the emergence of DNA testing and the causes of wrongful conviction it unveiled.

“Exit to Freedom,” an autobiography by Georgia exoneree Calvin Johnson, with Greg Hampikian of the Idaho Innocence Project, describes Johnson’s 1983 wrongful conviction, his fight for freedom and the challenges of building a new life after exoneration.

“The Innocents,” is a visually stunning collection of exoneree photos by Taryn Simon, with commentary by Innocence Project Co-Directors Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld.

“Surviving Justice: America’s Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated,” includes first-hand accounts of injustice and exoneration from 13 men and women who were wrongfully convicted. Edited by Dave Eggers and Lola Vollen.

“Journey Toward Justice,” is Dennis Fritz’s personal account of his conviction in Oklahoma for a murder he didn’t commit.

“True Stories of False Confessions,” gathers articles and stories of false confessions, one of the leading causes of wrongful conviction. Edited by Rob Warden and Steve Drizin of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law.

“Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town,” by Nate Blakeslee, explores injustice and the drug war through the lens of a wrongful conviction scandal in Texas.

“The Innocent Man,” John Grisham’s first non-fiction book tells the heartbreaking story of a murder in Oklahoma and an unimaginable injustice suffered by two innocent men: Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz.

“Bloodsworth,” by Tim Junkin, is the story of Kirk Bloodsworth, the first person exonerated through DNA testing in the U.S. after serving time on death row.

Tags: legal aid, Barrister, injustice

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: legal, injustice, law

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: , injustice, Innocence Project

posted by Justice on Dec 7

Ten years ago this week, Timothy Cole died in a Texas prison while serving a 25-year sentence for a crime DNA now proves he didn’t commit. In an op-ed this week in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Cole’s brother Cory D. Session, Sr., writes that his brother deserves a posthumous pardon, fully clearing his name

Ten Years Later, a Texas Family Seeks a Posthumous Pardon

Ten years ago this week, Timothy Cole died in a Texas prison while serving a 25-year sentence for a crime DNA now proves he didn’t commit. In an op-ed this week in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Cole’s brother Cory D. Session, Sr., writes that his brother deserves a posthumous pardon, fully clearing his name. Session writes:

This year, (Cole) became the first person to be posthumously exonerated, thanks to state District Judge Charlie Baird.

In many of the letters Tim wrote from prison after being convicted of a rape he didn’t commit, he mentioned three things that he longed for – vindication, exoneration and a full pardon from the governor.

The quest for the pardon continues.

On July 1, 2009, Tim’s 49th birthday, Gov. Rick Perry said that he does not have the power to pardon the dead. Perry said he needed a constitutional amendment because of a several-decades-old opinion from former state Attorney General Waggoner Carr that prevents him from doing so. We await a modern opinion from the current attorney general, Greg Abbott.

Read the full op-ed here. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 12/1/09)

Also marking the anniversary of his death this week, the Texas Tech University School of Law yesterday announced a scholarship in Cole’s name that will support the studies of aspiring law students. Cole was a Texas Tech student in 1985 when he was arrested for a rape he didn’t commit.

The scholarship fund was started with a $100,000 endowment, which included funds donated by Lubbock attorney Kevin Glasheen and Innocence Project of Texas Chief Counsel Jeff Blackburn.

Read more. (KCBD, 12/2/09)

Tags: Layla D’monte, legal, 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: Miscarriage of Justice, Barrister, injustice

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, legal aid, Layla D’monte

posted by Justice on Aug 25

Long-time Innocence Project client Ralph Armstrong was cleared in Wisconsin this week after almost three decades in prison. His case is one of the worst examples of prosecutorial misconduct the Innocence Project has ever seen

Friday Roundup: Uncovering Misconduct

Long-time Innocence Project client Ralph Armstrong was cleared in Wisconsin this week after almost three decades in prison. His case is one of the worst examples of prosecutorial misconduct the Innocence Project has ever seen. Here’s more on Armstrong and a roundup of some other news from the week:

Several people discussed the implications of misconduct – and prosecutorial immunity – on Facebook and Twitter after the Armstrong case broke. Join the conversation on facebook and twitter.

CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360″ continues its series on forensic science tonight at 10 p.m. EST with a report on Dr. Steven Hayne in Mississippi, who has been accused of reaching conclusions that go beyond science to fit what prosecutors need to secure convictions (this story was pushed back by breaking news last night). Read the AC360 blog here.

Reason Magazine reported on the release of Bernard Baran in Massachusetts and asked why the prosecutor in the case has never been investigated or disciplined for his role in the case.

We reported here on the U.S. Supreme Court’s groundbreaking decision in the case of Troy Davis, and Innocence Project Staff Attorney Ezekiel Edwards spoke about the case with DemocracyNow!

The Guardian focused on eyewitness misidentification and the case of William Mills.

Connecticut Innocence Project client Kenneth Ireland was fully cleared this week – he told the Associated Press being freed is like “waking from a coma.”

Two Chicago men freed last month were officially cleared Wednesday when they received certificates of innocence, which entitle them to collect compensation under the state law (about $192,000 after serving 21 years in prison).

Virginia lawmakers voted to compensate Arthur Lee Whitefield and Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland said he supports a bill that would expand prisoner access to DNA testing that can prove innocence.

Tags: legal aid, Barrister, Miscarriage of Justice