Wrongful Convictions

Stories About Our Judicial System's Biggest Mistakes.

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Part two! If you have any comments please feel free to msg me!

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For those of you who don't know much about the West Memphis Three, here are two great videos to help you catch up!  Here's part 1.

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Can you identify the Correct Suspect?

An interactive game to test how well you can identify the suspect from a composite picture. FYI this is based on the case of Robert Cotten Jr. which I just blogged about in my last post. Try out this game before you watch the video from my last post!

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10360/1113306-115.stm

[id-by-dna]

Construction has started on the $37.8-million State Police Metro-East Forensic Science Laboratory in Belleville.

The facility will create 260 construction jobs and provide the Illinois State Police with state-of-the-art forensic capability to help solve crimes.

Gov. Pat Quinn’s Illinois Jobs Now! capital construction program is funding the 64,100-square-foot facility. It will include equipment for crime scene services, trace and drug chemistry, polygraph, latent prints, firearms and DNA testing.

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A great interactive video from the Innocence Project about witness misidentification and how easy it is for a witness to be persuaded (even on a subconscious level) by investigators into picking who they have already deemed as the perpetrator of the crime. Would it surprise you to know that in cases of over-turned convictions in the United states (exoneration by DNA), 75% of the of suspects were misidentified by a witness.

Please check out this interactive video to find out more!

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This is concerning. An unnamed Muslim woman in Ottawa is reporting that she's been harassed by CSIS on three separate occasions both at work and at home. I get that CSIS is protected by terrorism laws, but since when are "casual drop-bys" by a spy agency a concrete strategy in combating terrorism? What do you guys think?

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I definitely agree with your point about the difference between the crowd cheering a man's death vs. an automated response against liberal elitism. Personally I think it sucks that our society has such a us vs. them mentality. Especially when it comes to the death penalty. We don't live in a world of black and white, but rather one with shades of grey. So when it comes to the death penalty, guilty beyond a reasonable doubt must be observed to the fullest.

One thing that really bothers me about this case (and other cases of wrongful convictions) is that once a conviction is shrouded in doubt, why is it that the judicial system has such a slow and (almost) combative response? What's wrong with admitting fault? We really need to start checking our egos at the door when it comes to trying suspects and the death penalty.

[id-by-dna]

People have a strange and worrying tendency to admit to things they have not, in fact, done

SINCE 1992 the Innocence Project, an American legal charity, has used DNA evidence to help exonerate 271 people who were wrongly convicted of crimes, sometimes after they had served dozens of years in prison. But a mystery has emerged from the case reports. Despite being innocent, around a quarter of these people had confessed or pleaded guilty to the offences of which they were accused.

The number of innocent confessors jumps when various interrogation techniques are added to the mix. Several experiments, for example, have focused on the use of false evidence, as when police pretend they have proof of a person’s guilt in order to encourage him to confess. This is usually permitted in the United States, though banned in Britain.

[realpocket66]

This shirt is really rad. It is meant to raise awareness and funds for The Innocence Project. That is also really rad.

Before being killed, Troy wrote ”This movement to end the death penalty, to seek true justice, to expose a system that fails to protect the innocent must be accelerated.”

[parsecstogo]

[staterun-radio]

I really don’t know what to say, or how to communicate what I’m feeling right now. This whole Troy Davis case really just floors me.

I’m sixteen, rather young in the world, but from the time I could walk I was taught that the American Justice system was there to protect me. I spent my time in...

[background-of-malfunction]

Interview with Damien Echols - 1996

The following interview was conducted between Damien Echols and Rick Staton in May, 1996. RICK: Please state your age, date of birth, and full legal name with an explanation as to why you changed it. Some people seem to be intimidated by the suggested link to “that movie,” hence the connection to the so-called “ritual slayings.” Were you a fan of “The Omen” films? DAMIEN: I am 21 years old, my birthdate was December 11, 1974. My full name is Damien Wayne Echols. My name was changed to Echols when I was adopted and I chose the name Damien because of Father Damien the priest who spent his life in the Hawaiian islands taking care of lepers. No, I was not a fan of “The Omen” movies; l found them to be quite boring. RlCK: How long have you known Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. ? Please list any and all incidents of unlawful activity with these people. DAMIEN: Jason Baldwin has been my best friend for the past six or seven years. I have only met Jessie Misskelley a few times; we were on speaking terms but were not really “friends” because I never truly knew him. The present situation is the only brush with the law that I have been involved in with either person.

Read More

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Everything you need to know about Staying the Trial vs. Full Exoneration.

What is the difference between a Judge ruling a case Stayed vs. Granting full exoneration?

Stay of trial: In layman’s terms, this means that all court proceedings are put on hold for an unspecified amount of time. In many cases it is implemented so that the prosecution may find more evidence, while not infringing on the defendant’s rights. Other things to be considered when a stay of trial is granted:

·         It is NOT a concrete proclamation of one’s innocence

·         Suspends court proceedings and therefore gives the Crown the right to continue the case at a future date.

·         In some situations it is a way for defendants to stay out of jail (for those who are likely innocent), while NOT giving a judgement of innocence.

·         Examples of Stayed court proceedings:

o   James Driskell

§   Convicted to life in prison for the murder of Perry Harder after three hair samples were found in his vehicle. After further test results it was found that the hair did not belong to the victim and the Manitoba justice system was forced to re-open and try the case again. They instead declined to further prosecute and decided to stay the trial, instead of fully exonerating Driskell.

Exoneration: A complete change in the status of guilty to innocent. Those who have been completely exonerated have the distinction of the Crown admitting that though they were once found guilty, they are now without a reasonable doubt, innocent. Some things that may arise from this include:

·         Freedom from incarceration

·         An expunged record and apology from the Crown

·         Allows those who were exonerated to take legal action against the Crown, because there has been a proclamation of fault on their part.

·         Can lead to financial restitution

·         Examples of Exonerated people in Canada:

o   David Milgaard

§  Convicted in 1969 for the rape and murder of Gail Miller in Saskatoon, SK. After decades of claiming innocence DNA evidence provide that he was innocent. This same evidence also proved that Larry Fisher (a man already tried and found guilty of other sexual assaults), was the true perpetrator of the crime. In 1997 Milgaard was finally exonerated.

What does this all mean? In many cases a stay of trial is implemented to fix injustices within the legal system, however this does not fully expunge an innocent person’s record, nor does it force the judicial system to admit to any fault. This can also leave the door open for future prosecution and therefore infringes on a person’s right to a speedy trial. This legal grey area is truly an excuse for the Crown to gloss over wrongful convictions and not admit to wrong doing. 

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Happy to hear Alvarez is putting together a unit to look into allegations of Wrongful convictions, but wouldn't an outside body of attorneys be a better option. Why not prove your office is truly unbiased and    fair by allowing Attorney's without any professional/personal stake.

  But at least in this case, baby steps are being taken towards serious change.

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One of the biggest commonalities between wrongful conviction cases, tend to be witness misidentification. Yet eye witness accounts are always the cornerstones of all criminal cases. 

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Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.

William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England

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A great article about the difficulties the Innocence project has faced when it comes to getting full exoneration for wrongfully convicted people and how difficult it can be to find testable DNA within a broken system.

"In at least 23 of the 280 DNA exonerations, evidence was initially reported lost or destroyed. If not for the Innocence Project’s persistence, many of these 23 exonerees would still be incarcerated."