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Thread: The Innocence Project |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 15
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Kerry Porter, imprisoned for murder, is exonerated, freed after 14 years
Convicted murderer Kerry Porter talks from prison: Police and prosecutors in Kentucky are investigating whether they got the wrong man when they convicted Kerry Porter on murder charges in 1998 for a 1996 Louisville homicide..... |
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BladeD
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Nov 17, 2004 Post Count: 28976 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Kerry Porter, imprisoned for murder, is exonerated, freed after 14 years Convicted murderer Kerry Porter talks from prison: Police and prosecutors in Kentucky are investigating whether they got the wrong man when they convicted Kerry Porter on murder charges in 1998 for a 1996 Louisville homicide..... A little late for that.  But that was a NICE Xmas present for Kerry!  |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sure it was BladeD.
---------------------------------------- Michael Morton at a court hearing in October with his Innocence Project attorney Nina Morrison. An editorial in the New York Times calls for further inquiry into allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the Texas case of Michael Morton who was wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife 25 years ago and exonerated through DNA testing earlier this month. The Innocence Project and partnering attorneys discovered, through a Public Records Act request and subsequent litigation, that prosecutors had failed to disclose exculpatory evidence to the defense at trial and also attempted to block Morton's requests for post-conviction DNA testing to prove his innocence. Arguing that prosecutors are very rarely disciplined, the Times points to the Morton inquiry as a valuable opportunity to send a message that prosecutors can be subject to criminal sanctions for misconduct. Mr. Morton's lawyers have asked that the judge recommend a "court of inquiry" to investigate whether Mr. Anderson violated the law and should be charged in a criminal proceeding. While this process is an urgent matter for Mr. Morton, it is also a test of American justice - whether a prosecutor who flouts his duty under the Constitution to disclose crucial evidence to a defendant is subject to any meaningful sanction. Read the full article here [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Dec 30, 2011 2:05:32 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
An editorial in Saturday's Washington Post celebrates the continuing decline in sanctioned executions across the country in 2011 and explores reasons for the drop, including fear of executing an innocent person, reduced crime rate, difficulty obtaining the drugs used in executions and more. Similarly, judges and juries have shown a greater reticence to impose death sentences.
There can be no denying that the criminal justice system makes mistakes. Seventeen people sentenced to die in the United States have been exonerated by DNA evidence, after serving a combined 209 years in prison, according to the Innocence Project. Hundreds more subject to non-capital sentences have also been freed as a result of DNA testing. For many convicts proclaiming innocence, there isn't and will never be DNA evidence to provide certainty. Read the full editorial |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Innocence Project client Rickey Dale Wyatt will be released in Dallas, Texas, today after spending 31 years in prison for a rape that he didn't commit. The Dallas County Conviction Integrity Unit has joined the Innocence Project in requesting that Wyatt be released on bond based on new DNA and other evidence. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is expected to vacate his conviction later this year.
Trial prosecutors withheld evidence that Wyatt didn't match the original description of the perpetrator. If the defense had been able to present this evidence at trial, Wyatt may never have been convicted. Wyatt will be greeted today by ten Dallas County DNA exonerees who also served years in prison for crimes that they didn't commit. Read about here |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
At the insistence of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, the State Fire Marshal Office has joined forces with the Innocence Project of Texas to determine whether the state has wrongfully convicted people for arson-murders based on outdated science.
The review comes in the wake of the Cameron Todd Willingham arson case which left forensic scientists among others, calling for the re-examination of arson-murder cases in which evidence could have been analyzed by outdated or questionable scientific methods. Since the Fire Marshal's office is still evaluating the commission's recommendations to adopt new procedures to review arson evidence, skeptics are unsure if the review will really happen, reported the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In a case similar to Willingham, a Midland resident was convicted of starting the fire that resulted in the death of his common-law wife and their baby. And like Willingham's case, there are scientists who believe he may have been convicted based at least in part of outdated science. Read the full article |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
A comprehensive study of Virginia's convictions from 1973 to 1988 have revealed a six percent wrongful conviction rate.
After a series of DNA exonerations in 2002, 2003 and 2004, the Innocence Project urged then-Governor Mark Warner to order an audit of all convictions covering the 15-year span where there was evidence suitable for DNA testing. The six-year study was largely aided by a massive discovery of untested biological evidence found in the notebooks of lab technicians, including Mary Jane Burton. Evidence from Burton's notebooks have aided in at least six DNA exonerations in Virginia. The Virginia Department of Forensic Science recently reported the findings, and the Urban Institute is analyzing them. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports: John Roman, a senior fellow in the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute, said institute researchers reviewing 638 Virginia cases have identified 37 "that might support exoneration and that certainly support further investigation." Samuel Gross, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School and an expert on wrongful convictions was surprised by the error rate uncovered in the study. "I would have guessed an error rate of 1 or 2 percent. Six percent is surprisingly high," Gross said. Read the full article. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
The U.S. Supreme Court, in an 8-1 majority decision, overturned the conviction of Juan Smith on Tuesday because New Orleans prosecutors had withheld important evidence of his innocence from the defense. Prosecutors have announced that they intend to retry the Smith case. Smith's 1995 murder conviction provides yet another example of misconduct by the New Orleans District Attorney's Office. From the Huffington Post:
Most notably, in 1999 Louisiana came within 48 hours of executing John Thompson, convicted in a 1985 murder in New Orleans, before a private investigator hired by his defense attorneys chanced upon blood evidence buried in crime lab archives that ultimately led to a retrial and a full acquittal. A prosecutor later confessed that he and others had "intentionally suppressed" the blood evidence, according to federal court documents. Thompson brought a civil lawsuit against the New Orleans District Attorney's Office and was awarded $14 million dollars in damages for the 14 years he wrongly served on death row. In March 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court stripped Thompson of his compensation in a decision that granted prosecutors almost complete immunity for their misconduct. . Thompson has now joined the Innocence Project and other advocacy groups in calling for greater prosecutorial accountability. Read the full article |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
An Ohio Supreme Court Justice reconsiders the state's death penalty law
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