posted by on May 31
A wealth of news appeared this week on wrongful convictions and criminal justice reforms. With Dean Cage’s exoneration on Wednesday, we didn’t get it all on the Innocence Blog. Here are a few of the stories we found intriguing and enlightening this week:
An executed Australian man was posthumously pardoned due to evidence of his innocence, the case entered the public eye as the result of “Gun Alley,” Kevin Morgan’s book about the case.
The Mississippi Innocence Project is reviewing about 80 convictions with signs of forensic fraud, and will seek to overturn any of them in which a defendant was wrongfully convicted. Between 60 and 70 of these cases involve notorious medical examiner Steven Hayne.
Meanwhile, the Dallas District Attorney’s Office has approved DNA testing in three cases where defendants have claimed innocence and applied for testing but were denied by the previous district attorney.
The New York Times reviewed the “distinctly American” practice of electing our judges and the effect it has on the justice system. And a Buffalo detective involved in the cold case investigations that led to two overturned wrongful convictions in recent months announced that he is running for State Senate.
Another wrongful conviction was avoided in Vacaville, California, when carjacking charges were dropped against an innocent man, but the cost of a wrongful arrest based on eyewitness misidentification can be severe.
