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
posted by Justice on Sep 10
Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today about the need for federal standards and for research in forensic science.
Senators Consider Federal Forensic Reforms
Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today about the need for federal standards and for research in forensic science. And Neufeld and other witnesses found bipartisan support for a federal role in stimulating research, training forensic analysts and setting standards.
Forensics have been a central part of the criminal justice system for decades. Defendants are regularly convicted of crimes based on analysis of fingerprints, hair samples or blood spatters from a crime scene. A recent report by the National Academy of Sciences said many of those techniques have never been scientifically tested.
That report “is one of the most important developments in forensic science since the creation of the first crime laboratory in the 1920s,” Case Western Reserve professor Paul Gianelli told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Al Franken (D-MI) called the report's conclusions “damning” and “terrifying.”
With Neufeld at today’s hearing was Roy Brown, who spent 15 years in prison in New York for a murder he didn’t commit. He was convicted based on faulty bite mark analysis.
“The forensic dentist [at Roy Brown's trial] used what was then the prevailing method of comparing bite marks found on a body with the dentures of a suspect,” said Neufeld. “He examined them and decided that he had a match with Roy's bite. He so testified in court, and Roy was convicted.”
Read (and listen to) the full story. (NPR All Things Considered, 09/09/09)
Watch a webcast of the full hearing.
Take action today: Tell Congress you support the creation of the National Institute of Forensic Science.
Tags: Layla D’monte, legal aid, Miscarriage of Justice
posted by Justice on Mar 22
It was another busy week in the innocence movement – with testimony on forensics before the Senate Judiciary Committee and Mississippi adopting DNA access and evidence preservation laws.
Friday Roundup: Seeking A Clean Slate
It was another busy week in the innocence movement – with testimony on forensics before the Senate Judiciary Committee and Mississippi adopting DNA access and evidence preservation laws. Here are some more stories on wrongful convictions and forensic evidence from around the world in the last few days:
Sean Hodgson was freed this week in England after serving 27 years in prison for a rape and murder DNA now proves he didn’t commit. He petitioned for DNA testing more than a decade ago but was told – falsely – that evidence in his case had been destroyed. Testing on that evidence finally proved his innocence this year.
Two Illinois men who were pardoned in the 1990s after serving years in prison were dealt a setback in court this week. Stanley Howard and Dana Holland were seeking to expunge their records of wrongful convictions, but the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that gubernatorial pardons based on innocence do not automatically clear criminal records. Holland was exonerated by DNA testing in 2003 after serving more than 10 years. Howard was sentenced to death based on a confession he says was coerced through torture. He was cleared based on non-DNA evidence.
The Georgia House of Representatives approved a bill today that would compensate John Jerome White with more than $700,000 for the years he spent in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate and signed by the Governor before White is compensated. Georgia is one of 25 states without a statewide compensation law; but the legislature has passed bills in recent years compensating individuals.
A story on National Public Radio’s Day to Day this week explored the fallibility of eyewitness identification evidence. In a guest post on the Innocence Blog yesterday from Erin Torneo explored the story behind the new book “Picking Cotton” and the ripples of injustice still felt 11 years after a wrongful conviction.
And the Los Angeles Times considers questions raised about fingerprint evidence by the recent National Academy of Sciences report on forensics.
Tags: law, Miscarriage of Justice, legal aid
