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Did you know that in 16% of the first 250 DNA exonerations, suspects gave false confessions to police? Even though it seems counterintuitive to confess to a crime that you did not commit, it is a common occurrence that happens for a variety of reasons. Read a NYT piece that examines some of these reasons.
On Friday, February 17, 2012 Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed bill S.1987 into law, allowing potentially innocent inmates access to DNA evidence in their cases. Friday’s signing represents years of hard work and is a huge step in the right direction for justice in Massachusetts. The cost-neutral bill passed the Massachusetts Senate unanimously in July of 2011 and was again passed unanimously by the Massachusetts House of Representatives on Wednesday February 8, 2012. Representative John Fernandes, who co-sponsored the bill with Senator Cynthia Creem, urged the House to pass the bill saying, “We hold freedom highest among the rights that we cherish. One day, one week, one year, is too long for anybody wrongfully convicted to be held in prison. For the over 280 cases where DNA testing has resulted in reversals the average time in prison was 13 ½ years. No one should miss that much of their life.”
Massachusetts is the second-to-last state to pass a law of this kind and NEIP has worked hard alongside a representative group of stakeholders convened by the Boston Bar Association that included prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement, and crime lab personnel to educate lawmakers about the importance of such legislation. On the House floor on February 8, Representative Fernandes told the story of NEIP exoneree Kenny Waters and his sister Betty Anne Waters, who dedicated 18 years of her life to proving her brother’s innocence. Ms. Waters and NEIP exoneree Dennis Maher, who spent 19 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, testified during the judiciary hearings in June 2011 in support of the bill. Because Massachusetts did not have a DNA access law, Mr. Maher spent an additional 6 years in prison before DNA testing proved his innocence.
You can watch a video of the bill being debated here. Representative Fernandes’ remarks on the bill begin at the 78 minute mark.
The New England Innocence Project (NEIP) is thrilled to announce that on Wednesday February 8, 2012 the Massachusetts House of Representatives unanimously passed bill S.1987 which would allow potentially innocent inmates access to DNA evidence in their cases. The cost-neutral bill passed the Massachusetts Senate unanimously in July of 2011. Representative John Fernandes, who co-sponsored the bill with Senator Cynthia Creem, urged the House to pass the bill saying, “We hold freedom highest among the rights that we cherish. One day, one week, one year, is too long for anybody wrongfully convicted to be held in prison. For the over 280 cases where DNA testing has resulted in reversals the average time in prison was 13 ½ years. No one should miss that much of their life.”
Massachusetts is the second-to-last state to pass a bill of this kind and NEIP has worked hard alongside a representative group of stakeholders convened by the Boston Bar Association that included prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement, and crime lab personnel to educate lawmakers about the importance of such legislation. On the House floor yesterday, Representative Fernandes told the story of NEIP exoneree Kenny Waters and his sister Betty Anne Waters, who dedicated 18 years of her life to proving her brother’s innocence. Ms. Waters and NEIP exoneree Dennis Maher, who spent 19 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, testified during the judiciary hearings in June 2011 in support of the bill. The passage of the bill represents years of hard work and is a huge step in the right direction for justice in Massachusetts. The bill will now be sent to Governor Deval Patrick to sign into law.
Above right: The House Gallery during the momentous vote yesterday.
Today is the day! The MA House of Representatives will be debating the DNA Access bill later today. If passed, potentially INNOCENT inmates in MA will be able to test the DNA evidence which could prove their innocence.
UPDATE-If you an innocent person in prison in Massachusetts, and there is DNA evidence in your case, you do not have the right to test that evidence under current laws. NEIP exoneree Dennis Maher spent 6 extra years in prison because Massachusetts does not have a DNA access law. The bill passed unanimously in the Massachusetts Senate last July. It seems that at long last the Massachusetts House of Representatives is slated to discuss a new bill that would ensure the right to testing. Massachusetts is one of only two states without this law. Please spend 2 minutes to call your representative and tell them this important bill matters to you. Read the Senate Bill here. Find your representative here. Let’s not let Massachusetts be the last state in the US to get this done. Thank you!
Read the Boston Globe Magazine’s cover story about the bill.
(originally published 7/29/11)
Massachusetts Senate passes DNA Bill Unanimously
The Massachusetts State Senate unanimously passed S.1987 yesterday granting inmates access to post-conviction DNA testing. After a 37-0 Senate vote in favor of the bill, the legislation will now be debated by the House of Representatives in the coming weeks. Massachusetts is currently one of only two states without a post-conviction DNA access law. (The other is Oklahoma.) Before debate on the bill yesterday, Senator Cynthia Creem, one of S.1987’s sponsors, recognized NEIP Executive Director Gretchen Bennett and Betty Anne Waters on the Senate floor for their work in support of the bill.
The Associated Press ran a story about how Innocence Projects and defense attorneys are challenging arson convictions based on advances in science that disprove past methods of determining whether fires were due to natural causes or arson. For example, for years fire investigators were taught that if a fire burned particularly hot, it indicated the presence of an accelerant, suggesting arson. After a series of experiments were conducted in the 1990s, experts learned that in fact, fires can reach flashover (when all combustible surfaces ignite at once) and burn very hot in just four minutes without the presence of accelerants. Despite the experiments of the 90s, it has taken some time for changes to be implemented in fire investigations across the country. The article highlights NEIP exoneree James Hebshie, who was freed in late 2010 after serving four years, after experts ruled out arson as the cause of fire in his case.
The Los Angeles Times also ran a story this week about a court mandated three-day hearing examining the evidence of innocence in an arson case in Modesto, California. George Souliotes was convicted of starting a blaze in a rental home that he owned which killed three tenants in 1997. Fire experts have called into question some of the evidence used in securing the conviction. Steven Carman, who has investigated fires for 20 years, stated that the evidence against Souliotes was, “a laundry list of things we used to believe broadly in this profession that have since been widely discounted.”
Last Friday, a Pennsylvania Court agreed to examine what amounts to new evidence in the case of Han Tak Lee, who was convicted of setting a 1989 fire that killed his daughter. John Lentini, who also testified in support of NEIP exoneree James Hebshie, wrote a detailed affidavit stating that Mr. Lee’s conviction rested on outdated an unreliable beliefs about arson. Mr. Lee may have a chance to win his freedom after the Court ruled on Friday to re-examine his case.
Our evolving knowledge of fire science has lead to a dramatic drop in the percentage of fires classified as arson. In Massachusetts in the early 1990s, 15-20% of fires were classified as arson. In 2009, that number was 1.6%. Despite this drop, many people were convicted of arsons before the experiments of the 1990s, begging the question: how many innocent people are currently sitting behind bars, convicted of starting fires that they did not set?
For more information about evolving arson science, check out the November issue of Discover Magazine.
NEIP was saddened to hear of the passing of Frank Bae, but honored that he chose to recognize us in his obituary. Frank was the longtime director of the Law Library at New England Law Boston and his dedication to the legal system was unparalleled. His contributions to law and legal education will continue to touch many lives. Read his obituary here.
The case of Jimmy Hebshie, NEIP’s most recent exoneree, was profiled in a short article in the winter 2012 volume of the ABA’s Criminal Justice Magazine. The article titled “Ineffective Assistance of Counsel and Expert Testimony” by Paul C. Giannelli examines the discredited arson sciene and sniffer dog testimony used to convict Hebshie. Hebshie was wrongfully convicted of setting the fire that destroyed an office building in Lowell in 2006.
Read the ABA article: Ineffective Assistance of Counsel and Expert Testimony
Juan Rivera, who was profiled in a November 27 New York Times Magazine article, was freed from prison in early January after an Appeals Court overturned his conviction. Rivera gave a confession to police after almost 24 hours of intense interrogation. Despite the confession, DNA tests conducted in 2005 showed that he was not the source of the semen found in 11-year-old Holly Shaker after her rape and murder. After DNA results seemed to exclude Rivera, prosecutor’s had came up with an alternate theory in which 11-year-old Holly Shaker was sexually active, and had had consensual sex with Rivera before her murder. A jury in 2009 re-convicted Rivera on the prosecution’s alternate theory, even though the DNA seemed to point to a different perpetrator. The appeals court was very critical in its decision, stating that the prosecutor’s theories were, “highly improbable”. Rivera, who was 19 when first arrested by police, is now 39 and described his release date of January 6 as, “the beginning of a new life. All I know is prison life and now there’s no longer a prison life but a family life. That’s what I look forward to. … It’s a long-awaited experience, you know, to finally show my innocence.”
Read a Chicago Tribune article about Rivera’s release.
(originally published on 12/9/11) On Wednesday, the Lake County Illinois state’s attorney’s office announced that Michael Mermel, who was featured heavily in a November 25, 2011 piece in the New York Times Magazine about some prosecutors’ resistance to the exculpatory power of DNA will be resigning early in the new year. The New York Times piece examined the case of Juan Rivera, who was convicted of raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl in 1992. After DNA tests were performed on the rape kit in 2005 and the semen didn’t match Rivera, prosecutors revised their theory to conclude that Rivera was still guilty for the murder, but that the 11-year-old victim was sexually active and had had sex with an unknown lover hours before the murder, explaining the presence of the foreign DNA. Rivera gave a confession to police after almost 24 hours of interrogation which he now explains was coerced. Despite the DNA results, Rivera has now been convicted by three separate juries, who believe the confession that he gave to police. Read more about false confessions here.
Mermel told the Chicago Sun-Times last year in response to a question about a different case where he has a theory explaining why DNA does not match the person convicted of the crime, ‘The taxpayers don’t pay us for intellectual curiosity. They pay us to get convictions.’
Read the NYT Magazine piece here.
Read about Mermel’s resignation here.
The National Academy of Sciences released a report in 2009 detailing major flaws in the way forensic evidence collected from crime scenes is analyzed in the United States. The NAS report detailed how many labs draw conclusions from unproven and non-peer reviewed techniques such as bite-mark analysis. The report recommends implementing enforceable standards for various forensic science areas and requiring mandatory certification for labs and lab workers. Despite the findings of the NAS report, and subsequent Senate hearings on ways to improve the system, Congress has taken little action to strengthen the validity of forensic science in the United States. Bill Leahy, U.S. Senator from VT, proposed a bill in early 2011 that would address some of these concerns, but it has not made much progress. Faulty forensic science has played a role in many wrongful convictions and the until changes are made, this faulty “science” may help send more innocent people to prison.
Read the full ProPublica article.
Read more about unvalidated forensic science here.
Dixmoor Cases
(originally ran 11/9/11) Prosecutors in Chicago vacated the convictions of three men, Robert Taylor, Jonathan Barr, and James Harden, serving sentences ranging from 80-85 years in prison. Taylor, Barr and Harden were convicted as teenagers of raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl in a Chicago suburb in 1991. Police also charged two others, Robert Lee Veal and Shainne Sharp. The five co-defendants and the victim knew each other from school. Veal and Sharp falsely confessed to the crime after police told them that they would receive more lenient prison sentences. Veal and Sharp were sentenced to 20 years in prison, and records indicate that they were released after about 10 years. Veal has learning disabilities and was unable to read at the time he signed a written confession. Despite inconsistencies in the two confessions, and DNA evidence that did not match the five teenagers, all five were convicted. While some people cannot imagine anyone confessing to a crime they did not commit, false confessions remain one of the main factors leading to wrongful convictions.
In 2009, defense attorneys requested new DNA testing in the case. Then, earlier this year, prosecutors re-opened the case after the DNA profile came back matching none of the five original co-defendants, but rather a separate, convicted rapist. When Robert Taylor was asked to describe the feeling of walking out of prison a free man, he summed it up in one word: Beautiful.
UPDATE (12/9/11)- This article catches up with Robert Taylor after several weeks of freedom. Read the story here.
Englewood Cases
UPDATE (1/18/12)- Prosecutors announced yesterday that they would not re-try four men who were convicted of raping and murdering a Chicago woman in 1994. All four were teenagers at the time of the crime and despite DNA testing performed before trial that excluded the four, a jury convicted the men based on their false confessions. Two of the men, Michael Saunders and Harold Richardson were released from prison in November 2011, while Terrill Swift and Vincent Thames had previously been released but were forced to register as sex offenders. Today’s decision officially clears the names of the four, who spent years behind bars for another’s crime.
Read the Chicago Tribune article here.
(originally ran 12/6/11) In the second similar case in two months, a judge vacated the convictions of four Chicago men who falsely confessed as teenagers to the rape and murder of a prostitute in 1994. Although the four confessed to the crime, the confessions varied greatly on the details, including the order that the youths supposedly raped the victim, as well as the number of people involved in the crime. Recent DNA tests conducted returned semen from convicted felon Johnny Douglas, who was in the area the night of the murder, but no DNA was found that matched the four teenagers who confessed to the crime. Although many people cannot understand why a person would ever confess to a crime they did not commit, people will often times view confessing as the only way to escape an often hours long police interrogation; youths are more likely to give false confessions than adults. Although Terrill Swift, Vincent Thames, Michael Saunders and Harold Richardson have had their convictions vacated, they still face a battle to officially clear their names. Douglas passed away in 2008.
Read the NYT article here.
Rickey Wyatt held his 4-year-old granddaughter for the first time today after he was freed from prison after spending 31 years behind bars for a rape he insists he did not commit. Judge John Creuzot freed Wyatt and recommends that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacate his conviction after it recently came to light that prosecutors withheld evidence that could have cleared Wyatt at trial in 1981. Evidence included a photo showing Wyatt with facial hair and documentation showing that he weighed 135 lbs at the time of the crime. Victims said the rapist was clean-shaven and weighed upwards of 170 lbs. The information was recently uncovered after the DA’s office allowed Wyatt’s defense attorneys to examine their files. To date, 22 men in Dallas County, Texas alone have been exonerated through DNA testing.
Read the full story here.
The Innocence Network released its annual report today revealing that 21 people across the country were exonerated by Innocence Network member organizations for crimes they didn’t commit in the past year. Two men served more than 3 decades behind bars before being exonerated. There are 64 member organizations, including NEIP. While each organization in the Network operates independently they coordinate to share information and expertise.
The New England Innocence Project had a major victory this year with the exoneration of James “Jimmy” Hebshie. His conviction was based on fire science that has since been widely discredited. Read his whole story here.
The report, “Innocence Network Exonerations 2011,” provides information about each of this year’s 21 exonerations in 13 states. Misidentification was by far the leading cause of the wrongful convictions that were overturned, but this year also saw false confessions, faulty forensics and police and prosecutorial misconduct as contributing factors.
“These 21 exonerations expose the cracks in our deeply flawed criminal justice system,” said Keith Findley, President of the Innocence Network. “We urge legislators and other political leaders to take notice of these numbers and implement reforms to reduce the risks that such grave injustices will happen in the first place.”
This is the third year that the Innocence Network compiled a report of the year’s exonerations. The 21 people profiled in this year’s report served more than 365 combined years in prison before they were finally freed. Each case represents countless hours and sometimes years of ardent advocacy by attorneys, paralegals, investigators and students that comprise the Innocence Network.
In addition to helping overturn wrongful convictions, Innocence Network organizations increasingly work to bring substantive reform to the criminal justice system. Last year, Network member organizations lobbied statehouse across the country for reforms to improve identification procedures, reduce false confessions, put limits on the use of jailhouse informants, improve access to post-conviction DNA testing and ensure compensation for the years lost in prison unjustly.
Innocence Network members range from successful clinics that have operated for many years at some of the most respected universities to full-fledged nonprofit organizations with a solid staff and base of funding to small clinics at law schools that are still setting up a process to review cases. You can learn more about the Innocence Network or find an organization near you at www.innocencenetwork.org.
Kerry Porter was granted an official exoneration and was released from prison on Monday after spending 14 years in prison for a murder that he always maintained was committed by another person. The Kentucky Innocence Project in conjunction with Louisville Metro Police re-investigated the case and uncovered new evidence which helped free Porter. Metro Police recently took a statement which, “clearly implicates a different person” and DNA tests conducted on a piece of duct tape that was used to make a homemade silencer returned a profile of a different, unidentified man.
Police initially suspected Porter killed the victim, Tyrone Camp, out of jealousy. Camp was married to Porter’s former girlfriend. Tyrone Camp’s twin brother, Jerome Camp, says he believes another suspect, Juan Leotis Sanders, who is currently in prison on unrelated manslaughter charges, committed the crime. He said, “I feel real good for Kerry,” adding, “I think he is getting the justice he deserves.” Porter’s mother has also urged the public not to forget Camp’s family and the struggles they have faced. Contributing factors to the wrongful conviction included a bad eyewitness identification and jailhouse snitch testimony.
Local NPR station WBUR ran a powerful two-part story recently about how false confessions occur. Many people cannot imagine why anyone would admit to committing a crime that they did not commit and in fact, confessions are the single most convincing piece of evidence to a jury, even more so than DNA. What’s frightening then is that in the first 250 DNA exonerations in the United States, 16% of exonerees gave false confessions to crimes that they did not commit and were eventually exonerated for. The WBUR story, and accompanying videos of a young 16-year-old mother who was pressured into falsely confessing to the murder of her baby, demonstrates how false confessions can occur and why they are not the slam dunk evidence they are often thought to be. Learn more about false confessions.
Read, listen and watch the story: Part 1
Read, listen and watch the story: Part 2
(originally posted 9/30/11) In 1984 18-year-old Thomas Haynesworth went to the grocery store to pick up a few things for his mother. He never made it home. He was arrested by police on suspicion of committing five different rapes in the area after one of the victims identified him as the perpetrator. Haynesworth was convicted and sentenced to 84 years in prison. After DNA testing became available, tests conclusively demonstrated that Haynesworth could not have committed two of the rapes; rather, the test results pointed to a serial rapist who committed rapes in the area after Haynesworth’s conviction. The DNA results, along with strong circumstantial evidence, led a Virginia parole board to release Haynesworth from prison this past March on his 46th birthday, 27 years after he was first stopped by police.
Haynesworth is now seeking full exoneration for all five of the rapes. Since he has not been exonerated on all the prior convictions, he has to register as a sex offender and request permission to visit his nieces. In July, a three-judge panel in the Court of Appeals for Virginia requested additional briefs, rather than granting Haynesworth’s request for a writ of actual innocence. One of Haynesworth’s supporters is Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli who believes that the judges are interpreting the law governing granting writs of actual innocence too strictly. He argues that they should not focus narrowly on identifying “conclusive” exonerating evidence, pointing out that the state destroyed the DNA evidence in the other cases, and saying, “It seems paradoxical to demand ‘conclusive’ evidence from Haynesworth when the commonwealth has deprived him of the opportunity to produce such evidence.” As Haynesworth fights to clear his name, the other pieces of his life seem to be falling into place. He was offered a job soon after his release working in Attorney General Cuccinelli’s Richmond office.
Read the NYT article here.
UPDATE- Thomas Haynesworth’s long journey towards establishing his innocence is finally over. Today the Virginia Court of Appeals granted Haynesworth a writ of actual innocence, officially clearing him of any involvement in a series of rapes from the 1980s. Haynesworth spent 27 in prison for the crimes, despite always maintaining his innocence. In March, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell released Haynesworth on parole after DNA tests cleared him and instead implicated a convicted rapist from the same area named Leon Davis. Despite his release from prison, Haynesworth was still considered responsible for the crimes in the eyes of the law and had to register as a sex offender. Today’s decision officially expunges Haynesworth’s record and validates his 27-year-odyssey to clear his name.
Wellesley Deputy Chief of Police William Brooks spoke before a legislative task force in CT in mid-November to discuss the feasibility of implementing best practices for criminal line-ups, particularly in small police departments. Studies have shown that when suspects in line-ups are shown to witnesses one-by-one, accuracy rates improve. When presented with each photo individually, witnesses were more likely to examine each photo individually to see if it looked exactly like the perpetrator, rather than comparing all the photos to find the photo that most resembled the perpetrator.
Similarly, when the officer administering the line-up does not know at which photo the witness is looking, accuracy rates also improve. This technique is called blind administration. Studies suggest that officers can give unintentional and non-verbal cues to witnesses if they know which photo the witness is viewing. Blind administration seeks to limit the officers’ influence over the witnesses’ decision making.
Brooks’ department first implemented some of these best practice techniques in 2005. While Brooks said he was initially hesitant to change line-up procedures after conducting them in the same manner for years, once he learned about the science behind different types of line-ups, he embraced the recommend changes. He explained how even small departments can improve the accuracy of eyewitness identification by using simple techniques such as putting photos in folders and shuffling them before giving them to witnesses. Brooks’ department has had no problems implementing the new procedures and routinely conducts trainings about improving line-up practices.
You can watch a video of the folder shuffle technique on our website here.
As the House of Representatives debates pending legislation granting inmates access to post-conviction DNA testing several news outlets have written stories exploring the topic. In July, the Massachusetts State Senate unanimously passed S.1987 granting inmates access to post-conviction DNA testing. The legislation is currently under review by the Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives. The House has until July to pass the bill by majority vote, or next December by unanimous vote. Massachusetts is currently one of only two states without a post-conviction DNA access law. (The other is Oklahoma.) Bills relating to post-conviction DNA testing have been brought before the legislature several times since 2003, although to date none have passed. Below is a compilation of recent articles about the proposed DNA access bill.
WGBH 89.7 Public Radio: part 1- 11/21/11 & part 2-11/22/11
WBUR 90.9 Boston’s NPR News Station: 11/23/11
Executive Director, Gretchen Bennett, exoneree Dennis Maher, and reporter Michael Blanding will be featured on another local NPR station, WBUR 90.9 FM, tomorrow, discussing the DNA access bill. You can listen to them live on Wednesday, 11/23 at 3:00 pm. During the segment they’ll also take calls from listeners. The live call in number is (800) 423-TALK.
UPDATE:
Portions of the post below were originally posted on November 21, 2011.
Local NPR station WGBH 89.7 has featured a two-part story on DNA access in Massachussetts. The pieces aired on Monday, November 21 and on Tuesday, November 22. Both interviews are available online.
NEIP executive director Gretchen Bennett and Betty Anne Waters were both interviewed for this story.
NPR interviews Doug Starr, co-director of Boston University’s Center for Science and Medical Journalism, on new arson science. Strong research and controlled lab experiments in recent years have challenged long held beliefs about the nature of fire, raising significant questions in arson investigations and convictions across the country.
Read the article and listen to the interview at the link.