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Stories of the Wrongfully Convicted

Innocents in Prison News
& Views 2010

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August 2010

CALIFORNIA

Wrongly Convicted Man Gets $7.95 Million Settlement

By Rebecca Cathcart New York Times 

08-12-10 -- A man who spent 24 years imprisoned for a murder he did not commit will receive $7.95 million from the City of Long Beach after he sued the police there for withholding evidence in his 1980 trial. . . . The settlement, made public Thursday, is the largest pretrial settlement ever in California for a wrongful conviction and one of the largest in the country, said Barry Litt, a lawyer for the man, Thomas Lee Goldstein. . . . In 2004, Mr. Goldstein was freed from prison after the Los Angeles district attorney dismissed all charges against him in the 1979 killing of a Long Beach drug dealer. The move was based on new evidence that the police had coached the only witness in the case by pointing Mr. Goldstein out in a photo spread as a suspect who had failed a polygraph test.

MISSOURI

Columbia man gets settlement in wrongful conviction

By Associated Press, Columbia Missourian

08-11-10 -- A man who spent nearly 16 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of murder has reached a settlement in a lawsuit filed against the southeast Missouri county that put him behind bars. . . . Terms of the settlement between Joshua Kezer, Scott County and the county's former law enforcement officers were not released. . . . A member of Kezer's legal team confirmed the settlement Tuesday with the Southeast Missourian newspaper but says a judge must still finalize it. Both sides had been meeting with a federal mediator since early spring.

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ILLINOIS

DNA evidence could prompt release of Zion man jailed for murder

By Dan Rozek Chicago Sun-Times  Staff Reporter

08-03-10 -- A Zion man jailed since 2005 on charges he murdered his young daughter and her friend could be released from custody as soon as Wednesday. . . . That’s because Lake County prosecutors may drop the murder charges filed against Jerry Hobbs III — or at least agree to allow him to be released on bail following a recent DNA match that links another man to the killings, sources said Tuesday. . . . Hobbs, 39, is scheduled to appear Wednesday for a hearing on the murder charges he faces in the Mother’s Day 2005 stabbing deaths of his 8-year-old daughter, Laura, and her friend, 9-year-old Krystal Tobias.

NEW YORK  

NY Prosecutors' "Shameful" Screwup Triggers $30 Million Suit Against City, State

By Mark Fass | New York Law Journal | New York Lawyer

08-03-10 -- A Brooklyn man who spent 15 years in prison before his murder conviction was thrown out in June by a federal judge has initiated $30 million in lawsuits against New York City and the state alleging malicious prosecution and a wide variety of constitutional violations. . . . Jabbar Collins was convicted in 1995 of shooting Abraham Pollack during a Williamsburg robbery. After the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office conceded earlier this year that it failed to turn over evidence that a key witness had temporarily recanted his accusations before trial, Eastern District Judge Dora Irizarry granted Mr. Collins' petition for a writ of habeas corpus, vacating the conviction and barring the state from retrying the case.

OHIO

Ohio governor, attorney general push for DNA testing for death row inmate, 7 others

JoAnne Viviano  Associated Press Writer, The Republic

08-03-10 -- DNA testing should be done on evidence collected in the cases of seven men who have served time in Ohio prisons, including one man currently on death row, the governor and attorney general said Tuesday in letters to county prosecutors. . . . Gov. Ted Strickland and Attorney General Richard Cordray asked the prosecutors to make available evidence related to the convictions, which date from 1986 to 1999. . . . The cases were brought to the attention of Strickland and Cordray by the Ohio Innocence Project, which seeks to help prison inmates who claim to be innocent. . . . "We believe that when DNA testing has the genuine and real potential to clarify the guilt, innocence or identity of a person suspected or convicted of a crime, significant efforts should be made to accomplish that testing," the letters say. "We make this request to you only to promote, as best and fairly as we can, confidence and certainty in the administration of justice."

TEXAS

Odds still against clearing convicts

Despite county's new approach on innocence claims, most of Texas still takes a hard stance

By Peggy O'Hare, Houston Chronicle

08-02-10 -- The exonerations of two wrongfully convicted Houston men in a week suggests a new era may be unfolding in Harris County's criminal justice system — a period in which prosecutors are more interested in seeing justice gets done than in winning convictions, some say. . . . But the difficulties of proving one's innocence in court will be just as tough as always — nearly impossible in criminal cases in which DNA evidence has been used up, lost, destroyed or is otherwise unavailable, legal experts agree. . . . While some appellate attorneys are applauding Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos' establishment of a Post Conviction Review Section, whose work led to the freedom of two wrongfully convicted men in the past week, Texas law continues to make it difficult for inmates appealing convictions to be heard in court. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals remains unfriendly to innocence claims, said Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel for The Innocence Project of Texas. . . . "I'm convinced there are thousands of people in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice that are innocent and need to get out," Blackburn said. "But getting them out is very, very difficult."

TEXAS

Books: "False Justice: Eight Myths that Convict the Innocent"

Death Penalty Information Center

08-02-10 -- A new book written by Jim and Nancy Petro offers a comprehensive analysis of how miscarriages of justice result in wrongful convictions. Jim Petro, a former Republican Attorney General of Ohio, has observed the justice system from all sides and was appalled by the frequent mistakes in the criminal justice system.  As attorney general, he advocated along with the Innocence Project to help free a man wrongfully convicted of murder and rape.  In “False Justice,” the Petros expose a series of myths and misconceptions about the American justice system, such as, Only the guilty confess; and Wrongful conviction is the result of innocent human error.  These misconceptions, they argued, not only prevent juries from carefully weighing evidence but also prevent local judges and prosecution teams from examining cases in an unbiased fashion. "False Justice" will be released in October.

July 2010

TEXAS

Innocent prisoner's outburst delays release

Lawyer says he was angered by tight cuffs and having to wear leg irons to court

By Brian Rogers, Houston Chronicle    July 30, 2010, 6:56AM

07-30-10 -- A Houston man expected to be freed Thursday after being imprisoned 27 years for a rape he did not commit had to wait at least one more day after shouting from a holding cell and threatening bailiffs and jailers. . . . Michael Anthony Green reacted "emotionally" to the reality of his release, said Bob Wicoff, his attorney. . . . "He was threatening everybody and anybody, but nobody," Wicoff said. Wicoff said he did not hear Green, 45, threaten anyone specifically. . . . Green blew up after he was put in handcuffs and leg irons for the walk to court, Wicoff said. He also said the jailer who handcuffed Green jerked his arm roughly and put the cuffs on too tight. . . . "T>here was no reason to put leg irons on a guy who is getting out," Wicoff said. "It's totally ridiculous, and it's mean." . . . In a jailhouse interview with KHOU Thursday night, Green blamed the outburst on his anger at a guard he said was hurting his wrists and forcing him to walk faster than the shackles would allow.

TEXAS

DNA clears Houston man 27 years after conviction

By Brian Rogers, Houston Chronicle

07-28-10 -- A Houston man is expected to be freed this week after serving more than 27 years in prison — the longest time behind bars of any Texan who has been exonerated - for a rape prosecutors now say he did not commit. . . . Michael Anthony Green, 45, is expected to be in court today, when his attorney, Bob Wicoff, will ask that he be released on bail while the case moves forward. . . . If freed, Green would be the eighth local man let out of prison in recent years, and the second in a week, after serving time for a crime he did not commit. . . . "He is innocent," Wicoff said. "We've got the bad guys, too. We've pegged the bad guys." . . . Green was sentenced to 75 years in prison for the 1983 rape of a Houston woman based on faulty eyewitness identification, Wicoff said.

TEXAS

Houston judge recommends inmate be freed

© 2010 The Associated Press, Houston Chronicle

07-23-10 -- A judge who says a Houston man spent 19 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit has recommended his release. . . . Members of 39-year-old Allen Wayne Porter's family joyfully jumped from their seats as state District Judge Joan Campbell made her ruling Thursday. . . . Porter's attorney said her client was set to be released on a recognizance bond Friday afternoon while awaiting a final decision by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

FLORIDA

Innocence Commission Created in Florida

Death Penalty Information Center

07-09-10 -- Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canaday issued an Administrative Order creating a Florida Innocence Commission “to conduct a comprehensive study of the causes of wrongful conviction and of measures to prevent such convictions.”  The Administrative Order creating the commission stated the basis for the investigation: "WHEREAS, the occurrence of cases in which the innocent are convicted and punished constitutes a grave injustice; and WHEREAS, the imperative of avoiding such injustice requires a comprehensive examination of the causes of wrongful convictions and an in-depth consideration of measures to prevent the conviction of the innocent." The commission will only review cases that have already been determined to be wrongful convictions.  The 23-member Innocence Commission is scheduled to submit an interim report to the Court no later than June 30, 2011 and a final report and recommendations to the Court no later than June 30, 2012. 

WASHINGTON

2 men cleared by DNA; judge dismisses charges

By Laura Mcvicker, The Columbian     

07-16-10 -- Seventeen years ago, Alan G. Northrop and Larry W. Davis were led from a Clark County courtroom in shackles, convicted of brutally attacking and raping a woman in La Center. . . . Wednesday, they walked out of the courtroom free men, smiling and hugging family members after a judge dismissed their charges, citing new DNA evidence showing they weren't at the scene and pointing to different assailants. . . . The dismissal signaled the future, they told reporters in the courthouse lobby. They can now make up for lost time with children, nieces, nephews and friends, and enjoy the simple things in life, such as having a job and going to the grocery store. Their record is completely cleared; they no longer must register as sex offenders. . . . "It's just a major relief that it's over," Northrop said. "If it wasn't for the Innocence Project and my friends in prison, I don't know if I would have gotten through it."

TEXAS  

Dallas D.A.'s Office Looking Into Whether Richardson PD Put Wrong Man in Prison in '93

By Robert Wilonsky, Dallas Observer (blog)

07-14-10 -- This morning, the Associated Press tells the tale of Stephen Brodie, a deaf inmate serving time in the TDCJ's Estelle Unit till 2012 -- and, quite possibly, yet another innocent man imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. In 1991, Richardson police detained a 19-year-old Brodie for "stealing quarters from a soda machine," writes the AP's Jeff Carlton. At which point they began peppering him with questions concerning the sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl. And they did so for 18 straight hours, with and often without an interpreter. And so he confessed -- not only to that crime, but others made up by police just to test the kid.

Why Someone Might Confess to a Crime He Did Not Commit

Death Penalty Information Center

07-12-10 -- More often than many realize, innocent people falsely confess to crimes they did not commit, according to a recent review in the Chicago Tribune.  For example, Kevin Fox, was accused of sexually assaulting and murdering his 3-year-old daughter in Illinois.  He confessed to the crime after spending 14 hours in interrogation, during which police ignored his requests for a lawyer and told him that they would arrange for inmates to rape him in jail. Fox was later released after DNA evidence excluded him as a suspect, and another man was subsequently charged with the crime.   Saul Kassin, psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, explained the pressures that could lead to this happening, "The interrogation itself is stressful enough to get innocent people to confess. But add to that a layer of grief and shock and perhaps even some guilt — 'I should have been there' — and then that the parent is trying like hell to be cooperative because they want the murder of their child solved." Trauma, lack of sleep and highly manipulative interrogation techniques can cause false confessions to even the most heinous crimes, including ones carrying the death penalty.  Experts believe that false confessions account for an estimated 25% of wrongful convictions.   "We know that for certain kinds of people, particularly those with mental illness and mental deficiencies, but other people as well, the psychological intensity of an interrogation can prove absolutely as torturous as physical pain," said Lawrence Marshall, a Stanford University law professor who co-founded Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions.

MARYLAND   

Woman arrested on mistaken charge can't sue

Case is thrown out by appellate court even though she was held in cuffs more than 12 hours

By Peter Hermann, The Baltimore Sun

07-08-10 -- Eyrania Smith is, in the words of Maryland's second-highest court, a "truly innocent and injured" person. . . . Eyrania Smith, in the words of the same judges of Maryland's Court of Special Appeals, has no basis to sue over her mistreatment. . . . That ruling comes even though all sides agree that Smith was mistakenly arrested on a city warrant that should never have existed, taken away by a police officer who left her two children alone in a car in a highway parking lot, and was shackled by her left wrist and ankles to a pole for more than 12 hours in a Baltimore County police precinct. . . . Smith had been arrested at 9:08 a.m. on March 26, 2005. She was released from custody at 12:54 a.m. on March 27, 2005. She sued for $2 million in Baltimore County Circuit Court, alleging that her detention amounted to the use of excessive force. A judge threw out the case and on Wednesday the appeals court upheld that ruling. . . . It appears from reading the court's 25-page opinion that there are so many people to blame for Smith's predicament that no one person or agency can be held responsible for the entirety of her mistreatment.

Maryland's Court of Special Appeals (here's the acutal opinion).

FLORIDA  

Editorial: Innocence panel good for Florida

The News-Press

07-06-10 -- The Florida Innocence Commission was created Friday by Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles T. Canady, marking a significant new day for justice in our state. . . . Simultaneously, the Florida Bar Foundation board of directors approved a $114,862 grant to help fund this commission, which Canady created by an administrative order. . . . The commission is charged with studying issues related to wrongful convictions that cost the state millions but, more critically, take away the freedoms of innocent people - while the guilty remain at large. . . . "I am very optimistic about the chances for (the commission) to do important work to improve our justice system," said Sandy D'Alemberte, former American Bar Association president and Florida State University president who has long worked for the creation of this notable research arm of the judicial branch.

NEW YORK

Justice and compensation

Capozzi gets a large check, but it can't replace 22 years

Buffalo News Editorial

07-05-10 -- To start with, here's a test for anyone who might think that Anthony Capozzi is being over-compensated for his wrongful conviction. Imagine your local assemblyman spots you one day and makes you this offer: . . . New York will give you $4.25 million if you will agree to spend 22 of your prime years in some of the worst prisons this state can offer. That would be about a quarter of your likely lifespan, during which time, if you are as unfortunate as Capozzi, your mental health deteriorates significantly. . . . Any takers? . . . Indeed, it is impossible for the people of this state, in whose name Capozzi was wrongfully convicted of rape, to make this right. A few million dollars doesn't qualify even as a down payment on the burden that Capozzi bore, to say nothing of the one inflicted upon his family. . . . What is astonishing, and to some extent unforgiveable … again … is that it took three years since Capozzi's innocence was established for him to win this necessarily inadequate compensation.

TEXAS

Texas Judge to Hold Hearing on Risk of Executing the Innocent

Death Penalty Information Center

07-02-10 -- Texas District Judge Kevin Fine scheduled a hearing in a death penalty case to consider whether there is a substantial risk that Texas's death penalty laws could result in the execution of an innocent person. The hearing, expected to last two weeks, will likely include testimony from experts around the country. Casey Kiernan, one of the attorneys for the defendant, John Green, filed a pre-trial motion regarding the issue of innocence, which led to the hearing.  Kiernan said, "I think everybody in the United States would agree that the possibility exists [an innocent person has been executed]. We think there is much more than a possibility, based on all the exonerations, all the problems with the forensics." Defense attorneys are also planning to raise other issues at the hearing, including the reliability of eyewitness testimony. The hearing will begin on November 8.  Judge Fine had initially granted the motion in March, finding Texas' death penalty law to be unconstitutional.  However, he withdrew that decision so that more evidence from both sides could be submitted.

June 2010

TEXAS

DNA Evidence Could Show If Texas Executed an Innocent Man

Death Penalty Information Center

06-16-10 -- Texas Judge Paul C. Murphy recently ordered prosecutors to hand over key evidence from a 1989 murder case to the Innocence Project and the Texas Observer for DNA testing. In 2007, the Innocence Project and the Observer filed suit to obtain a one-inch strand of hair that allegedly implicated Claude Howard Jones (pictured) in the killing of a liquor store owner in San Jacinto County. Other than vague eyewitness accounts and questionable testimony from Jones's two friends who were also at the scene of the crime (one of whom later recanted his testimony), the only pertinent physical evidence that linked Jones to the crime scene was a strand of hair found on the liquor store counter. At Jones's trial in 1990, a forensic expert testified that the hair appeared to belong to Jones, but DNA technology did not exist at the time to determine if the strand was a match.  Jones was executed on Dec. 7, 2000, one of the last executions overseen by then-Gov. George W. Bush.

ARIZONA  

Governor Rebuffs Clemency Board in Murder Case

By Adam Liptak, NY Times / Sidebar

Ronald Kempfert was a young boy in 1975 when his father was sent to prison for murder, and they had no contact for 28 years. . . . Then, in 2003, Mr. Kempfert heard from a lawyer who had been looking into the case. “Your father is innocent,” said the lawyer, Larry A. Hammond. “And we’re pretty sure your mother framed him.” . . . That would seem a lot to digest, but Mr. Kempfert, 42, said he felt no hesitation. “My reaction was that it didn’t surprise me,” he said. “She’s my mother, and I love her. But I think she’s capable of anything.” . . . Mr. Kempfert is now certain that his father, William Macumber, is innocent. Arizona’s clemency board, citing Mr. Kempfert’s “very moving testimony” and saying there had been “a miscarriage of justice,” unanimously recommended last year that Mr. Macumber be freed. . . . But Mr. Macumber remains in prison, and Gov. Jan Brewer has refused to explain why. . . . The case against Mr. Macumber began in 1974 as his marriage was disintegrating. His wife, Carol, who worked in the local sheriff’s office, went to her superiors with a surprising story. Her husband, she said, had recently confessed to the unsolved murders of a young couple shot to death a dozen years before, in 1962, in the open desert north of Scottsdale, Ariz. . . . Largely on the strength of his former wife’s testimony, Mr. Macumber was convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. . . . But the jury did not hear a significant piece of evidence. . . . In 1967, five years after the murders in the desert, a drifter named Ernesto Valenzuela was charged with a similar double homicide. He told his lawyer that he had also killed the couple in the desert.

NEW YORK  

Judge Orders Release of 'Jailhouse Lawyer,' Blasts D.A.'s Lack of Remorse

Convicted in shooting, Collins filed pro se state and federal lawsuits and conducted at least one undercover investigation

Mark Fass, New York Law Journal

06-10-10 -- In vacating a murder conviction and barring prosecutors from retrying the case, a federal judge in New York has lashed out at the Brooklyn district attorney's Office for failing to take responsibility for its prosecutors' alleged misconduct. . . . At a contentious, 90-minute habeas corpus hearing Tuesday morning, Eastern District Judge Dora L. Irizarry noted that petitioner Jabbar Collins, a renowned jailhouse attorney, had uncovered numerous documents while serving his 34-years-to-life sentence suggesting that prosecutors had withheld evidence, coerced witnesses and lied to the court and the jury. . . . However, in agreeing earlier in the morning not to oppose either Collins' habeas petition or an order barring retrial, the district attorney's office had conceded to a single Brady violation, which it claimed was unintentional.

TEXAS  

Judge: DNA exoneree's family can't depose police

By Betsy Blaney  / Associated Press, Dallas Morning News  

06-10-10 -- A judge threw out a motion Wednesday that sought depositions of Lubbock police who worked on the investigation that led to the wrongful rape conviction of a man who later died in prison. . . . The motion was filed on behalf of the family of Tim Cole, who was convicted of the 1985 rape of a Texas Tech University student. DNA evidence cleared the Army veteran in 2008, nine years after he died in prison of complications from asthma at age 39. . . . State District Judge Les Hatch granted the city of Lubbock's motion to dismiss the petition, ruling that Cole's family lacked legal standing to take the depositions. . . . Gov. Rick Perry granted Cole the state's first posthumous pardon in March. Attorneys for the city of Lubbock had argued Cole's conviction needed to be overturned before he died for his survivors to be have a claim to depose the officers. . . . "Our position is shown by our pleadings we've filed and apparently the judge agreed with us," said William Wade, an attorney for the city.

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ILLINOIS  

Lawyer: Man framed, awarded $1.3M

Sun-Times Media

06-09-10 -- A Southwest Side man who spent three years in jail was awarded $1.3 million Tuesday after a Cook County jury found two police detectives and a police polygraph administrator framed him for the 2001 murder of his elderly neighbor, according to the man's lawyers. . . . The jury awarded Donny McGee -- who had previously faced the death penalty -- $1.3 million, including $330,000 to come from the officers' personal funds as punitive damages, according to a news release from the law firm Loevy & Loevy.

NEW YORK  

State Bar and Lawmakers Unveil Proposals to Curb Wrongful Convictions

By Joel Stashenko | New York Law Journal | New York Lawyer

06-07-10 -- State bar leaders joined lawmakers last week to unveil a package of proposals designed to curb wrongful convictions. . . . The proposals were among those advanced by a New York State Bar Association task force on wrongful convictions chaired by Acting Supreme Court Justice Barry Kamins, who is now administrative judge for the criminal term in Brooklyn Supreme Court. . . . Former state bar president Bernice Leber, of Arent Fox, who appointed the task force, said in an interview that its ideas were developed in consultation with the state's "top legal minds" and deserve serious consideration by legislators.

Read The Task Force on Wrongful Conviction's Final Report.

FLORIDA  

Our views: Still seeking justice

Innocence panel a start, but probe of Preston-era cases still needed

Florida Today Editorial  

06-04-10 -- Tallahassee lawmakers delivered in one key area this year:

Providing for a commission to improve Florida’s judicial system by studying ways to prevent wrongful convictions that imprison far too many innocent persons, leave actual criminals on the streets and saddle taxpayers with steep compensation costs when they are later exonerated. . . . At least 11 wrongful convictions have been reversed in Florida in recent years through new DNA evidence. . . . State Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, helped secure $200,000 for the commission in a tough budget year and deserves credit. . . . The panel will consist of prosecutors, public defenders, judges, law enforcement leaders, scholars and victims’ advocates, operating under the oversight of Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Peggy Quince.

NEW YORK

NYC Agrees to Pay Man Framed for Murder by "Mafia Cops" $9.9 Million

By Mark Fass | New York Law Journal | New York Lawyer

06-04-10 -- The City of New York has agreed to pay $9.9 million to a man who spent nearly 19 years in prison after being framed for murder by former police officer Louis Eppolito, one of the two so-called "Mafia cops." . . . The deal, which must still be approved by Eastern District Judge I. Leo Glasser, constitutes the largest individual civil settlement in the city's history. . . . Plaintiff Barry Gibbs, a 61-year-old former postal worker, was arrested in 1986 and convicted in 1988 of murdering prostitute Virginia Robertson. He was sentenced to 20 years to life. . . . Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Michael A. Gary vacated the conviction in September 2005, after the only eyewitness against Mr. Gibbs admitted that he lied on the stand after being threatened by Mr. Eppolito.

May 2010

NEW YORK  

Murder Conviction Voided Over Prosecutors’ Conduct

By A. G. Sulzberger, New York Times

05-25-10 -- He was known as a jailhouse lawyer, a high school dropout turned amateur legal adviser who helped other inmates file legal motions and craft appeals while he served a sentence of 34 years to life for a murder he swore he never committed. . . . But the cause for which the inmate, Jabbar Collins, most zealously advocated was his own. He requested public records; tracked down old witnesses; and, on at least one occasion, impersonated a law enforcement officer — all in an effort to gather evidence of prosecutorial misconduct. . . . The fruit of Mr. Collins’s efforts wound its way to United States District Court in Brooklyn on Tuesday and into the hands of Judge Dora L. Irizarry, who indicated that she would vacate his 15-year-old murder conviction because of concerns about how the prosecution was handled by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office. . . . “I found the allegations to be quite troubling,” Judge Irizarry said at the beginning of the daylong proceeding. “The whole history of this case is quite troubling.” . . . The formal decision to grant Mr. Collins’s habeas corpus petition, in which he challenged his state-court conviction in federal court, was postponed by Judge Irizarry pending an evidentiary hearing that will begin Wednesday, during which lawyers for Mr. Collins are likely to highlight the conduct of the prosecution team, most notably that of Michael F. Vecchione, now the chief of the rackets division in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.

WISCONSIN

Man convicted in 1998 killing to be released

By Ryan Haggerty of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 

05-24-10 -- A judge Monday ordered that a man convicted in the 1998 strangulation of a Milwaukee prostitute be released from prison based upon a new DNA test that proves he was not the killer. . . . William Avery, 38, was convicted in 2005 of first-degree reckless homicide in the killing of 39-year-old Maryetta Griffin and sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment. . . . In April, however, Avery wrote a letter to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm asking that a specific DNA sample taken from Griffin's body be sent to the State Crime Laboratory for testing. . . . The analysis excluded Avery and revealed that the DNA sample matched the profile of accused serial killer Walter E. Ellis.

ILLINOIS

July 22 court date set in Beaman innocence case

Associated Press, Chicago Tribune 

05-21-10 -- A judge has scheduled a July 22 hearing in a 37-year-old man's efforts to get a certificate of innocence after spending 13 years in prison before his murder conviction was overturned. . . . Judge Jeffrey Ford was named in April to hear a petition that could declare Alan Beaman innocent of the 1993 murder of Illinois State University student Jennifer Lockmiller. . . . Ford scheduled the hearing to determine if he should handle the proceedings. Beaman's petition was moved to the Urbana judge because of a possible conflict.

OHIO

DNA test clears American musician after 28 years in jail for rape

Giles Whittell, Times Online 

05-08-10 --  “You’re going to have to bear with me,” the judge said. “I know you’re anxious.” . . . For a man wrongly convicted of rape almost 30 years ago, Raymond Towler did not look anxious. Perhaps it was because a few more minutes in custody made little difference after so long. Perhaps it was because he had a reasonable idea of what Judge Eileen Gallagher was about to say. . . . In an extraordinary scene, barely noticed in America this week amid coverage of the enormous oil spill and the New York bomb plot, Mr Towler, a 52-year-old musician, walked free from a Cleveland court after spending more than half his life in prison for a crime of which he always maintained his innocence and which DNA analysis proved he did not commit. . . . His case is not unique, but the way it ended was uniquely moving. It may serve to galvanise a national movement of lawyers and activists who have used DNA evidence to free more than 250 inmates since 1992, almost all of them black men, but who have so far lacked the resources to tackle thousands of other cases in which experts’ fear of “junk science” and racial bias have produced unsafe convictions.

OREGON

Court overturns 17-year sentence for Oregon man

Associated Press  

05-07-10 -- A 17-year prison sentence for an Oregon man arrested while trying to get back into his mother's house because he did not have a key has been overturned by a federal appeals court. . . . The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that police must get a warrant or make a reasonable attempt to determine actual trespassing before an arrest. . . . Rian Struckman was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm after police confronted him in his mother's back yard and found an unloaded gun in a backpack. . . . The appeals court ruled Tuesday that Portland police had no probable cause to arrest or search Struckman because he lived at the house and was not trespassing or committing any other crime.

Stevens: Risk of wrongful sentences higher

By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY

05-06-10 -- Modern pressures on the judicial system have raised the chance a defendant could be wrongly sentenced to death, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said Wednesday, explaining his changed view on the constitutionality of capital punishment. . . . "The risk of an incorrect decision has increased," he told an audience of hundreds of lawyers and judges at a judicial conference here, responding to a question about his 2008 assertion that the death penalty should be abolished. He said that because of advances in DNA testing, which have led to the freeing of some innocent convicts, "we're more aware of the risk than we might have been before." . . . In a lethal-injection dispute from Kentucky two years ago, Stevens concluded for the first time that "the death penalty represents the pointless and needless extinction of life with only marginal contributions" to society.

US won’t appeal verdict in case of four framed by FBI

Plaintiffs to get damage judgment of $101.7 million

By Jonathan Saltzman, Boston Globe Staff

05-01-10 -- The federal government has decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court a landmark verdict for four men framed by the FBI in a gangland slaying, meaning the plaintiffs will receive a damage judgment that totals $101.7 million, according to one of their lawyers. . . . US Solicitor General Elena Kagan let the deadline pass yesterday for the government to challenge the award before the high court, said Victor J. Garo, the lawyer for Joseph Salvati, who lives in the North End. . . . His 77-year-old client spent more than 29 years in prison as a result of his wrongful conviction. . . . Garo said Salvati will receive the $31 million he was awarded by US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner in 2007 plus more than $2 million in interest that accumulated since then. . . . Garo said he and the lawyers for the other plaintiffs went to Washington several weeks ago to urge Kagan’s office not to appeal. The Justice Department, which had refused to pay up, tried to persuade Kagan’s lawyers to continue the legal fight.

April 2010

NEW YORK

DNA Clears Man Wrongly Convicted of Murder

Death Penalty Information Center

04-29-10 -- A New York truck driver, who spent nearly 19 years in prison for murder, was released on April 28, after testing of DNA found in the victim's clothing excluded him as the killer. Frank Sterling, now 46, was convicted of the 1988 murder of Viola Manville after he confessed to the crime during an all-night interrogation. He later recanted this confession, claiming he had slipped into an hypnotic state during the lengthy questioning and parroted details given to him about the crime.  The DNA test pointed to another man, Mark Christie, as the killer. Christie, who is serving a sentence for strangling a 4-year-old in 1994, confessed to the murder earlier this month. He had been questioned about Manville's killing in 1988 but was discounted as a suspect after he denied involvement.  (Sterling was convicted in 1992, shortly before New York adopted the death penalty in 1995.  The state abandoned capital punishment again in 2007.)

GEORGIA

Evidentiary Hearing Set for June 30 in the Case of Troy Davis

Death Penalty Information Center  

04-27-10 -- Federal District Court Judge William Moore set a date of June 30, 2010, at 10 AM in Savannah, Georgia, for the evidentiary hearing regarding Troy Davis' (pictured) claim of actual innocence.  Davis filed an original habeas corpus petition with the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009 asserting that new evidence from witnesses who had recanted their trial testimony established his innocence. He had been denied an evidentiary hearing in the Georgia state and lower federal courts.  On August 17, 2009, the Court directed the District Court in Savannah to hold a hearing to "receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes petitioner's innocence."  Judge Moore also issued a ruling on various discovery requests made by both parties in the litigation.  For more information on the Troy Davis case, click here.

MINNESOTA   

Lawyer: Stuck Throttle Found in Car of Imprisoned Toyota Driver

'New Hope' for Man Convicted of Vehicular Homicide After Possible Cruise Control Fault Identified in 1996 Camry

By Joseph Rhee, Brian Ross & Angela Hill, ABC News.com

04-21-10 -- The lawyer for a Toyota owner serving an eight-year prison sentence for vehicular homicide says a new inspection of his car found a possible fault in the car's cruise control that may have jammed the throttle into an open position. . . . "There is enough evidence now to support a new trial," said Robert Hilliard, the lawyer for Koua Fong Lee, 32, of St. Paul, Minnesota, who was convicted following a 2006 accident that killed three people when his car slammed into a vehicle at a stop sign. . . . "If the cruise control was working properly, it would allow the brakes to take over and the car to stop," said Hilliard. . . . At the trial, Lee insisted his Toyota, a 1996 Camry, suddenly sped out of control and that he was pumping the brakes up until the point of impact. . . . "We see a mechanical device that appears to stick open and therefore keeps the throttle from closing," attorney Bob Hilliard told ABCNews.com following an inspection of the car yesterday by experts hired for him.

WASHINGTON   

Judge vacates 2 men's convictions after DNA test

The Associated Press, Seattle Post Intelligencer

04-21-10 -- A judge has vacated the convictions of two men who were found guilty in 1993 of attacking a woman in La Center. . . . The Columbian newspaper says Clark County Superior Court Judge Diane Woolard ruled Wednesday that new DNA testing indicates Alan Northrop and Larry Davis were not at the scene. The new test was performed at the request of the Innocence Project Northwest.

TEXAS  

The coddled lawyers of our fair state

By Rick Casey Houston Chronicle 

04-20-10 -- Criminal defense attorneys will tell you that the most important question to ask a potential client is not whether he is innocent or guilty. . . . It's how much money does he have. . . . Houstonian Brisby Brown has learned that it might be useful to turn the tables. . . . Brown sat in jail for about 18 months on drug charges as, he claims, his attorney pressured him to plead guilty while refusing to look at evidence showing his innocence. Only on the day a jury was being selected did the lawyer send an investigator to the scene of the alleged crime, he said in a complaint to the State Bar. . . . Apparently when prosecutors got around to examining the evidence, they weren't impressed. They dropped the charges. . . . In addition to filing a complaint with the Bar, Brown engaged an attorney to sue his defense attorney for malpractice. But the attorney, who would be paid from the winnings, dropped the matter when he learned that the defense attorney had no malpractice insurance. . . . A jury might have awarded Brown a nice chunk of money for sitting in jail needlessly, but it would be hard to collect that money from an uninsured lawyer, and the new lawyer didn't feel he could afford to spend a lot of time on the case with little chance of getting paid. . . . So before hiring a lawyer, you may want to ask if he or she has malpractice insurance. . . . But asking such a question can feel awkward, and one lawyer I talked to said it could discourage a lawyer from taking your case.

The Innocence Project Has Sparked a Movement, Founder Says

By Meredith Hobbs | Daily Report | New York Lawyer

04-20-10 -- The effort to free wrongfully convicted people from prison has grown from a few projects to an "international human rights movement in pursuit of the rule of law," said the Innocence Network's co-founder, Peter J. Neufield, at the group's 10th annual conference Friday at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. . . . "The movement," said Neufield, "is making its way into the zeitgeist and public consciousness," which he attributed in part to press coverage of the increasing number of exonerations the umbrella group's members have brought about. . . . The Innocence Network's 59 member organizations prompted the release of 30 people from prison last year, said Keith Findley, the group's president, after they'd been wrongfully convicted based on mistaken eyewitness identifications, false confessions, faulty evidence or other problems. He said 12 were exonerated based on DNA evidence. . . . Neufield said there were only eight projects nationwide in 2000, when he and Barry C. Scheck started the Innocence Network. Just last year, he said, nine new projects joined, including ones in Canada and Australia. The network is an outgrowth of the Innocence Project, which Neufield and Scheck co-founded in 1992 and is housed at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

OHIO

Innocence Groups Petition Supreme Court to Hear Case

Death Penalty Information Center

04-08-10 -- Innocence groups from around the country, along with a group of eyewitness testimony experts, recently filed amicus briefs asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case of Kevin Keith, an Ohio man who is on death row for fatally shooting three people in 1994. The innocence groups stated that Keith's conviction was based on faulty eyewitness testimony that was improperly influenced by the police. In addition, Keith's counsel uncovered another possible suspect, a man with a violent criminal history, who told a confidential police informant that he was paid to "cripple" the person who was the target of the shooting.  Defense lawyers asserted that the state withheld important information about the possible other suspect.  Keith has an alibi for the time of the crime supported by four witnesses.  No forensic evidence conclusively links him to the crime.  Keith is scheduled for execution on September 15.

ILLINOIS

Appeals court upholds finding that cops framed Riley Fox's dad

Steve Schmadeke, Chicago Breaking News

04-07-10 -- An appeals court today agreed with a federal jury's 2007 finding that Will County police framed Kevin Fox for the rape and murder of his 3-year-old daughter Riley, but reduced the damages awarded to Fox and his wife from $12.2 million to $8 million. . . . The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals chastised the investigators on the case, implying that their decision to quickly rule out Riley's 2004 death as the work of a sexual predator was "absurd." . . . The court, in a 52-page decision by Judge Terence Evans, also found that detectives lacked probable cause to arrest Fox using the "exceedingly weak evidence" they had assembled. . . . Fox was arrested four months after the death of his daughter, who was sexually assaulted, bound with duct tape and drowned in a Wilmington creek. Fox gave police a videotaped confession that he said was fabricated. The videotape was not shown during the civil trial.

VIRGINIA  

Va. judge orders DNA test in 1984 case

-- Richmond Times-Dispatch, By Washington Post Editors

04-05-10 -- Richmond Circuit Court judge has ordered DNA testing in a 26-year-old sexual assault case. . . . Thomas E. Haynesworth's lawyers requested the testing even though he was acquitted of the crime. . . . Haynesworth's lawyers say in court papers that the DNA testing would provide further evidence to support Haynesworth's claim of innocence in several other rapes and robberies in 1984. . . . Haynesworth is serving 64 years for a rape in Henrico County and an abduction and robbery in Richmond. No evidence in these cases remains for DNA testing.

CALIFORNIA  

De-bug's role as legal watchdog grows

By Tracey Kaplan, mercurynews.com

04-04-10 -- Ramon Vasquez's urban nightmare began when San Jose police surrounded him at gunpoint in a parking lot of a Coca-Cola distribution center. Instead of coaching his son's Little League game that day, the soft-drink deliveryman wound up jailed for a gang-related murder, facing a possible life sentence. . . . Few outside his family and friends believed he was innocent until his fiancee heard about a free legal clinic offered every Sunday near downtown San Jose by the grass-roots group De-Bug. With De-Bug's help, all charges against Vasquez were dismissed and he was set free five months after being arrested. In February, he was deemed factually innocent by a judge, erasing his record and increasing his chances of remuneration from the county. . . . "It was like I had a law firm behind me," Vasquez, 29, said of De-Bug's efforts, including urging his government-appointed attorney to mount a more aggressive defense. "I probably would have fallen through the cracks if it wasn't for my family and De-Bug." . . . Now, De-Bug's coordinator, Raj Jayadev, has been awarded a $75,000 fellowship by the liberal Soros Foundation to teach local pastors and leaders in minority communities nationwide to be legal watchdogs on behalf of defendants and their families trying to navigate a confusing criminal justice system.

CONNECTICUT  

Two Men Free After 16 Years In Jail

By Christine Dempsey The Hartford Courant

04-02-10 -- Gerald O'Donnell's eyes glistened with tears as he stood outside Superior Court, his right arm around Ronald Taylor and his left around George Gould. . . . Because of the private investigator's probing, the men who flanked O'Donnell were about to walk free. Each had been convicted of a homicide that a judge says they didn't commit. The two have spent the past 16 years behind bars. . . . "Justice is served, they're free," O'Donnell said. He called Taylor and Gould "two great guys" who, with patience, "sat there and waited for the system to work." . . . Earlier, inside a hushed courtroom, Judge Stanley Fuger Jr. cleared the way for the men to be set free by asking a prosecutor if there were any more motions opposing their release. Prosecutor Michael O'Hare — who previously had opposed the men's release — answered no. He did, however, file an appeal of Fuger's March 17 order to reverse the men's convictions. Because of the appeal, their release comes with a series of conditions, including that they wear GPS tracking devices.

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March 2010

MINNESOTA   

Driver Imprisoned Over Fatal Toyota Crash Seeks New Trial

Tresa Baldas, The National Law Journal

03-29-10 -- After months of insisting he was wrongfully convicted of vehicular homicide, a Minnesota man in prison for a fatal Toyota crash sought a new trial last week. . . . Attorneys for Koua Fong Lee filed their petition seeking a new trial on March 23 in Ramsey County District Court and provided county prosecutors with new evidence to support Lee's alleged innocence. The day before, prosecutors had agreed to a new inspection of Lee's vehicle in mid-April. . . . "The county attorney herself -- I've seen her twice on TV say, 'We need to see evidence.' Well, here it is. It's time for her to act," said Lee's lawyer, Robert Hilliard of Corpus Christi, Texas' Hilliard Munoz Guerra. . . . Hilliard said that he's given the prosecutor "more than enough evidence" to prove that a new trial is warranted. He said he's submitted 16 affidavits from individuals who experienced sudden acceleration in older model Toyota vehicles, including seven with the same 1996 Camry model that Lee drove.

MASSACHUSETTS   

SJC says judges cannot expunge criminal records

Woman in case wrongly identified

By Kyle Cheney, State House News Service, Boston Globe

03-26-10 -- Judges have no authority to purge criminal records, even when such records were issued by mistake, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday. . . . The ruling reversed a split decision by an Appeals Court panel that said keeping criminal records based on a mistake would be “unacceptably Kafkaesque.’’ . . . At issue is a 2006 ruling by a Boston Municipal Court judge expunging the criminal record of a woman who was mistakenly identified by authorities as the driver of a car in a hit-and-run accident. . . . The car involved was registered to the woman, identified by the pseudonym Tina Boe, but was driven by a male when the accident occurred, according to the court’s description. . . . Police summoned Boe to a hearing to determine whether she would be criminally charged, but Boe was directed to the wrong hearing room, according to the ruling.

FLORIDA  

Exonerated inmate given freedom, judge's apology

After 26 years in prison, DNA testing clears man.

By Paula Mcmahon, Mcclatchy-tribune News Service

03-25-10 -- Anthony Caravella got two things Thursday that he waited for since he was 15: total freedom and an apology from a Broward Circuit judge for the nearly 26 years he wrongfully spent in prison. . . . Caravella, 41, of Miramar was locked up for more than half his life for a 1983 rape and murder until DNA testing exonerated him this week. . . . Broward Circuit Judge Thomas M. Lynch IV tossed Caravella's life sentence and convictions for murder and rape Thursday, at the request of prosecutors and the defense. . . . "The past couple of years a lot of people have worked very hard for you ... on the other hand, there are some people who may owe you an apology," the judge, who is new to the case, told Caravella.

CONNECTICUT  

Exonerated Inmates Ordered To Be Set Free

By David Owens, The Hartford Courant   

03-24-10 -- Two men who have served 16 years in prison for murder were ordered released today by the judge who overturned their convictions a week ago. . . . Judge Stanley T. Fuger Jr. ruled today in Superior Court in Rockville that 51-year-old Ronald Taylor and 48-year-old George Gould should be freed. . . . He placed a 10-day delay on his order that will expire April 1, the last business day before the end of the 10-day period. . . . Fuger set bail at $100,000 non-surety each, meaning that they do not have to post bail to be released but would owe that amount if they fail to appear in court. . . . On March 17, in a sharply worded ruling, Fuger ordered their "immediate" release after DNA evidence and testimony convinced him that the men did not commit the crime.

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

Supreme Court to Rule on Prosecutorial Immunity

Tony Mauro, The National Law Journal

03-23-10 -- The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to rule on a Louisiana dispute that could be an important test of prosecutorial immunity in a death penalty case. . . . In Connick v. Thompson, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court verdict that awarded accused murderer John Thompson $14 million for the district attorney's failure to train its lawyers about so-called Brady violations, a failure that led to his wrongful conviction and death sentence in 1985. . . . Current Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizaro Jr. appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, asserting that upholding the 5th Circuit's decision "exposes district attorney's offices to vicarious liability for a wide range of prosecutorial misconduct."

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

Movie Script Revision Needed?
High Court Accepts Case of Exonerated Inmate

By Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal

03-22-10 -- The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the New Orleans District Attorney’s office may be liable for failing to turn over a crime lab report that could have helped an inmate avoid the death penalty. . . . Touchstone Pictures has signed a deal to produce a movie on the case of the inmate, John Thompson, who was acquitted of murder in a retrial after spending 18 years in prison for the crime. The Supreme Court granted cert on Monday to decide the liability issue, the Associated Press reports. . . . In 2007, a jury awarded Thompson $14 million for the district attorney’s failure to train its employees about turning over exculpatory evidence. On appeal, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals evenly split in an en banc ruling, which had the effect of upholding the judgment. . . . In the first trial, prosecutors had used Thompson’s conviction in a separate carjacking to obtain the death penalty. A crime lab report had found Thompson’s blood type did not match that of the carjacking perpetrator, but it was never turned over to the defense.

NORTH CAROLINA

Historical North Carolina Exoneration Almost Never Happened

Death Penalty Information Center

03-22-10 -- Gregory Taylor recently became the first person exonerated by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, the only state-run agency in the country with the power to overturn convictions based on claims of innocence. Taylor had been convicted of the brutal murder of a prostitute, a crime for which he might have been executed in many states.  In 1993, prosecutors relied partly on a lab report indicating that blood was found in Taylor's SUV, which was found parked near the victim's body. The lab report, however, did not mention that a second test came back negative for the presence of blood. The results of the second test were filed away in informal notes that did not surface until Taylor's case came before the Innocence Commission. Even these notes would not have been discovered if it were not for Assistant District Attorney Tom Ford, who prosecuted Taylor's case in 1993.  Ford said state investigators did not tell him until July 2009 about the negative second blood test. He subsequently told the Commission investigators where to find the bench notes, saying that he felt it was his duty to do so. Taylor was cleared of all charges after other parts of the state's case also were discredited, and he was freed after spending nearly 17 years in prison.

CONNECTICUT

Judge Orders Two Prisoners To Be Set Free After Wrongful Murder Conviction

By Jenna Carlesso, Hartford Courant

03-19-10 -- Two men serving life sentences for the murder of a Fair Haven bodega owner have been ordered set free after more than 16 years behind bars. . . . Calling the matter a "manifest injustice," Superior Court Judge Stanley Fuger Jr. reversed the convictions of George Gould, 48, and Ronald Taylor, 51, the two New Haven men charged with the July 1993 slaying of bodega owner Eugenio DeLeon Vega. . . . Fuger's decision hinged on admissions by two key witnesses who said they had been pressured by police to give false testimony. Investigators also found that DNA on the electrical cord used to bind the hands of the slain shop owner didn't belong to either of the two men convicted of killing him, nor were their fingerprints among those found on the door handle of the store's safe. . . . "It is now an inescapable conclusion that a manifest injustice has been done to these two men," Fuger wrote in his decision, dated Thursday. "George Gould and Ronald Taylor have been convicted and spent over 16 years in the custody of the Connecticut Department of Correction for a crime that, based upon all of the available evidence, they did not commit." . . . Taylor's wife, Mary, with whom Taylor has a 21-year-old daughter, said Thursday she was pleased with the judge's findings. . . . "I always knew Ron didn't do this. There was never a day ... that I ever believed Ron had anything to do with this. I lived with the man. I know the man," she said. . . . "When you know someone's a decent human being and you know they're innocent of something, you stand by them."

OHIO  

Joe D'Ambrosio, once on death row on murder charge, now free after judge dismisses all charges

By Peter Krouse, The Plain Dealer

03-05-10 -- A judge declared Joe D'Ambrosio a free man Friday afternoon, ending more than 21 years of incarceration -- mostly on death row -- for a crime he has always said he didn't commit. . . . D'Ambrosio, 48, remained subdued as supporters hugged in the courtroom. He marched from the Justice Center to the nearby probation offices to have an electronic bracelet removed from his ankle, the last vestige of his imprisonment. . . . On the way back out, he extended his hand to one of the guards. . . . "Take it easy," D'Ambrosio said. "I'm done." . . . "Enjoy your life," the guard replied. . . . D'Ambrosio's newfound freedom is the culmination of a long struggle to win the release of a man several judges ruled was denied justice by prosecutors. . . . Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Joan Synenberg dismissed all charges against D'Ambrosio and ordered him released without any conditions. The move came two days after U.S. District Judge Kate O'Malley ruled D'Ambrosio cannot be retried for the 1988 killing of Tony Klann.

NEW YORK  

Prosecutor in Manhattan Will Monitor Convictions

By John Eligon, New York Times    

03-04-10 -- The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., announced Thursday that he would start a program to safeguard against wrongful convictions, addressing one of the most talked-about topics during his campaign for the office. . . . Known as the Conviction Integrity Program, the effort will be led by Bonnie Sard, a veteran assistant district attorney, who will monitor cases that raise red flags and oversee reinvestigations. The program will also include a panel of 10 of Mr. Vance’s top assistants to review cases and the office’s prosecutorial practices, as well as a panel of outside experts to advise on policy. . . . While Mr. Vance said he believed the office had long tried to make sure that it did not make mistakes, he said a structured system would take the approach one step further. . . . “I think this will help lawyers do better what they already were doing, and with more consistency,” Mr. Vance said in an interview.

TENNESSEE

Man Accused of Medically Impossible Murder

Autopsy Report Points to James Suttle's Guilt, but 'Body Farm' Experiment Says He's Innocent

By Geoff Martz & Rashida Johnson, ABC News

03-02-10 -- When James Suttle was arrested for first-degree murder in January 2001, it was a dramatic turnaround for a man who until that moment seemed to be living a golden life. . . . Suttle left the town of Pulaski, Tenn., as a teenager and headed to Las Vegas, where he became a high-stakes professional gambler and entrepreneur. He hadn't been back to Pulaski in nearly 20 years, but he returned in part to see his cousin Stevie Hobbs. . . . "Me and Stevie were inseparable," Suttle, 49, said. . . . But during his October 1998 visit, Suttle was awakened by Hobbs, who rushed into his bedroom and appeared to be having some kind of attack. . . . "The first thing I remember was him trying to call my name," Suttle said. "He couldn't get my whole name out." . . . Suttle said his cousin had his hands in the air and spun in a full circle, before ultimately falling backward on top of a glass coffee table. When the table broke, one of the shards of glass entered Hobbs' back, apparently killing him. . . . Suttle called 911. But over the next few days, Suttle said he sensed police didn't believe his story. . . . "I could tell that they were trying to pin this off on me as a murder," he said.

February 2010

TEXAS

Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends clemency for Tim Cole

By Mitch Mitchell, star-telegram.com

02-28-10 -- More than a decade after his death and nearly 25 years since his arrest, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is recommending clemency for a Fort Worth man who died in prison after being wrongfully convicted on rape charges. . . . The board sent a letter to Tim Cole's attorney at the Innocence Project of Texas on Friday saying that it had voted to recommend clemency and forwarded its decision to Gov. Rick Perry for his signature. . . . It would be the state's first posthumous pardon, and Perry has indicated that he would sign an order clearing Cole's name if recommended by the board. . . . "Gov. Perry looks forward to pardoning Tim Cole pending the receipt of a positive recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles," Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Saturday. . . . Cory Session, who has been fighting to clear his brother's name for years, said he anticipates that the governor will sign Cole's pardon in March during a ceremony in Fort Worth. . . . "To say that the wheels of justice turn slowly would be an understatement," Session said Saturday. . . . "The question is: How many more Tim Coles are out there?"

NEW YORK

This case was a crime: DAs must learn tough lessons from false rape conviction

New York Daily News Editorial

02-26-10 -- Five years after crying rape and sending a man to prison for a crime that never happened, Biurney Peguero has been slapped with a one- to three-year sentence for committing perjury. . . . She deserves that much - and more. Peguero should have been required to spend at least as much time behind bars as did William McCaffrey, the innocent man she locked away. . . . That Peguero eventually admitted fabricating her account of a brutal assault by McCaffrey and two other men does not mitigate her offense. Nor was hers garden-variety perjury of the kind that witnesses perpetrate to, say, dodge an indictment. . . . Peguero's sworn words stole the freedom of a blameless individual as surely as if she had kidnapped and held him hostage for 50 months. Her eligibility to apply for parole in a year pales in comparison. . . . She also played the criminal justice system - the police, the Manhattan district attorney's office, a judge and two juries - for fools. They bought a story that in the clear light of hindsight had grounds for doubt. . . . And, so, the Peguero case must serve as an object lesson for law enforcement authorities and judges as to the makings of a wrongful conviction. It should also reinforce for them the need for speedy reconsideration when there is substantial evidence that an injustice has been done.

NEW YORK  

Woman who falsely accused man of rape, sending him to prison for 4 years, gets 1-3 years jail

By Rich Schapiro, Daily News Staff Writer

02-23-10 -- A Manhattan judge on Tuesday excoriated a young woman who falsely accused a man of rape - sending him to prison for nearly four years - then tossed her behind bars. . . . "What happened in this case is one of the worst things that can happen in our criminal justice system," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon said before sentencing Biurny Peguero to one to three years. . . . "She testified that an entirely innocent person committed an extremely heinous crime. ... It's hard for me to imagine how she could do that."

Landlords’ Convictions Overturned in Deaths of 2 Firefighters

By Sam Dolnick,  New York Times 

02-23-10 -- A Bronx judge on Tuesday overturned the convictions of the owner and former owner of a building where two firefighters leapt to their deaths from a fourth-floor window to escape advancing flames. . . . A jury convicted the defendants of criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment a year ago; prosecutors had argued that they knew about the illegal partitions that had turned the apartment building into a dangerous maze that helped disorient the firefighters as the flames quickly spread. . . . But Justice Margaret L. Clancy of State Supreme Court took the unusual step on Tuesday of overturning the verdict because, she said, prosecutors had failed to prove that the defendants — the company that owned the building, and Cesar Rios, its former owner — knew about the partitions. . . . “An individual or entity cannot be convicted of a crime without evidence of actual knowledge,” Justice Clancy said. . . . On the frigid morning of Jan. 23, 2005, firefighters were called to a blaze in a building at 236 East 178th Street in Tremont. Tenants had built partitions inside apartments on the third and fourth floors that created small, windowless rooms cut off from the fire escape and the hallway. . . . Six firefighters trapped in the warren of rooms were forced to jump 50 feet from the building to escape. Firefighter John G. Bellew and Lt. Curtis W. Meyran died; the other four suffered serious injuries.

NEW YORK  

Appeals Court Reverses Homicide Conviction for Leaving Overdose Victim on Lawn

Mark Fass, New York Law Journal

02-22-10 -- An upstate New York appeals panel has thrown out the negligent homicide conviction of a man who, after a woman overdosed on heroin and passed out in his car, dropped her off on the lawn of a trailer park. . . . The woman, who was unconscious but breathing when defendant Carl Erb pulled her from his car, died in a hospital after she was discovered two hours later. . . . The unanimous Appellate Division, 4th Department, panel found that the woman was no worse off on the lawn than in Erb's car. . . . "We agree with defendant that the evidence failed to establish that his acts in any way caused the death of the victim. Defendant did not procure or inject the drugs that caused the death of the victim, nor did he place her in a location that made her less likely to obtain medical assistance," the panel found in its unsigned opinion, People v. Erb, 138. "There is no evidence that removing the victim from the vehicle or leaving her outside contributed to her death."

NORTH CAROLINA  

State commissions would cut years innocents found guilty serve

By Joe Sommers,  Kansas State Collegian

02-22-10 -- Last week, a man in North Carolina was released after a panel of judges ruled he had been wrongfully convicted of murdering a prostitute. . . . Gregory F. Taylor, who had been in jail since 1991 after receiving a life sentence, was released after a special commission discovered he had been convicted on what the judges decided was flawed evidence and unreliable testimony. . . . The reason this case is noteworthy is not just because a wrongfully imprisoned man was freed, but also because it was made possible through the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission. . . . The eight-member commission, which was created in 2006, investigates post-conviction claims and decides if there is sufficient new evidence to overturn the conviction. It then hands the case over to a special three-judge panel that gives an official ruling. . . . The commission is currently the only one of its kind in the United States, which is something that needs to change.

NORTH CAROLINA

Prosecutor Reflects On Taylor Case

Written by Mike Raley/David Horn, North Carolina News Network  

02-19-10 -- Friday marked the second full day of freedom for Greg Taylor, declared innocent by a three-judge panel on Wednesday of the murder of a prostitute in Raleigh in 1991. Wake County Prosecutor Colon Willoughby's office was in charge of the original case. . . . Willoughby said he prosecuted the case based on the evidence available.  "I think that what we need in the criminal justice system is all of the information that is available about particular pieces of evidence," said Willoughby.  "In this case I think neither the defense or the prosecutor were aware of information that later appeared to be very important."

NORTH CAROLINA

Unique Innocence Commission in North Carolina Frees Murder Defendant After 17 Years

Death Penalty Information Center

02-18-10 -- In an historic decision, a panel of judges outside of the state's court system unanimously voted to exonerate and release Gregory Taylor, a North Carolina man who was imprisoned for nearly 17 years for first-degree murder.  In April 1993, Taylor was convicted of the 1991 murder of Jacquetta Thomas, a prostitute found dead at the end of a cul-de-sac in Raleigh. Police arrested Taylor after finding his SUV about 100 yards from the crime scene, even though there was never any physical evidence linking Taylor to the victim.  Taylor became the first person in the state to be exonerated by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, the only state-run agency in the United States with the power to overturn convictions based on claims of innocence. Earlier, the eight-member Commission had voted unanimously to send Taylor's case to the next level of review before the panel of  three judges.

COLORADO   

Attorney: Masters can move forward

By Nate Taylor • The Coloradoan

02-17-10 -- With his civil court battle partially over against those he claims conspired to wrongfully imprison him, Timothy Masters is finally able to begin to move on with his life, his attorney David Lane said. . . . "Tim can now begin to put this behind him, and the financial pressure is behind him," Lane said in a phone interview Tuesday. . . . Larimer County commissioners approved a $4.1 million settlement with Masters Tuesday, but his suit continues against the other defendants, the city of Fort Collins and its current and former officers. . . . Lane said he believes the police were more culpable in his client's conviction and wrongful imprisonment in the 1987 slaying of Peggy Hettrick than prosecutors Jolene Blair and Terence Gilmore. . . . A visiting judge in 2008 overturned Masters' conviction, and he was set free.

FLORIDA

Wrongfully convicted Broward man to be compensated

By Diana Moskovitz, MiamiHerald.com

02-17-10 -- Convicted of a robbery he didn't commit, Leroy McGee's life consists of two parts: before prison and after prison. . . . Before prison, McGee was a young man with a family, four children and big dreams. . . . After prison, three years and seven months later, McGee was divorced, living with his mother and working three jobs to get by. . . . On Tuesday, with a few strokes of a pen in Fort Lauderdale, the 42-year-old signed the papers that will deliver compensation from the state for his lost years: $179,000. The amount will be spread out over at least 10 years. . . . He could have signed the papers six months ago, said his lawyer, David Comras. . . . Instead, McGee waited to draw attention to what he and several lawyers called flaws in the current laws that could exclude from compensation most people who have been wrongfully convicted.

TEXAS

Family requests pardon for man wrongly convicted of rape

Jeff Carlton, The Associated Press, Dallas Morning News

02-17-10 -- Attorneys for a man who died in prison after he was wrongly convicted of rape have filed for a pardon with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. . . . Tim Cole's pardon application was mailed this week to Austin by The Innocence Project of Texas. . . . Cole, an Army veteran, died behind bars in 1999 at age 39. He was convicted of a 1985 rape of a Texas Tech student in Lubbock. . . . A 2008 DNA test cleared Cole and implicated convicted rapist Jerry Wayne Johnson, who confessed in several letters to court officials that date back to 1995. . . . Cole's family has been asking for a pardon from Gov. Rick Perry, who was sympathetic but maintained he legally could not issue a posthumous pardon. . . . Last month, Attorney General Greg Abbott ruled that the Texas Constitution limits pardon power only in cases of treason or impeachment.

FLORIDA

Fort Lauderdale man to get $179,000 under new law

He unjustly spent 3 years, 7 months in prison

By Jon Burstein, Sun Sentinel

02-14-10 -- A Fort Lauderdale man who spent three years and seven months in prison for a robbery he didn't commit will become the first wrongfully convicted person to receive compensation under a new Florida law. . . . Leroy McGee, 42, plans to sign legal papers on Tuesday that will allow him to start receiving $179,000 under the state's Victims of Wrongful Incarceration Compensation Act. The father of five is the first to apply for and receive compensation — $50,000 for every year unjustly spent in prison — under the law that took effect in July 2008. . . . McGee became eligible for the money in July 2009 but had refused to sign all the paperwork. His reluctance stemmed from the state's refusal to pay the legal costs he racked up in his fight for compensation. He said he feared that if the state refuses to cover such costs, other wrongfully convicted people would be unable to hire attorneys to seek reparations. . . . But McGee, a carpenter with the Broward School District, said last week that because of the uncertain economy and his desire to help his kids and move out of his mother's house, it's time to sign the papers. . . . "I still want to fight the fight," he said. "If you are willing to pay knowing I didn't do this crime, why wouldn't you pay the legal fees also?"

MINNESOTA

Defense Attorney in Fatal Crash Case Wants Toyota Vehicle Re-Examined

The Associated Press, Law.com

02-12-10 -- The attorney for a man imprisoned after a fatal car crash says he'll seek to have the man's Toyota re-examined in light of the automaker's recent recall over accelerator issues. . . . Koua Fong Lee is serving eight years in prison for a high-speed crash in Minneapolis that killed three people in 2006. . . . Accident reconstruction experts estimated Lee was going 72 to 91 mph when he left Interstate 94 and repeatedly pumped what he believed were the brakes before slamming into another car and killing three people.

KANSAS

Wrongfully Convicted: He spent 10 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit; now he’s getting $7.5M

By Shaun Hittle, Lawrence Journal World

02-11-10 -- Over the past 30 years, Eddie Lowery has been a soldier, a convicted rapist, an ex-convict, a registered sex offender, a husband and a father. . . . But Lowery, 50, is also an exonerated man who spent 10 years in a Kansas prison for a rape he didn’t commit. . . . After nearly three decades, Lowery’s struggle with the criminal justice system is almost complete. . . . “I feel now that justice is coming full circle,” he said in a recent interview. . . . Lowery has reached a $7.5 million settlement with the Riley County officials who worked to wrongfully convict him. And, last week, officials in the Kansas attorney general’s office announced they had arrested the man they believe actually committed the crime. . . . “Who could ever imagine a story like this?” Lowery said.

MISSOURI   

Man convicted of statutory rape may get new trial after DNA report

By Mark Morris, The Kansas City Star

02-10-10 -- A Jefferson City man convicted of the statutory rape of a 12-year-old girl won a key court ruling Wednesday in his push for a new trial. . . . The reason: New DNA evidence proves that the girl lied. . . . Antoine Terry was 17 at the time he allegedly impregnated the girl, who testified at Terry’s 2008 trial in Cole County that he had to be the father of her unborn child. He was the only man with whom she’d had sex in the summer of 2007, she said. . . . But DNA testing after the child’s birth showed that Terry was not the father, court records say. . . . The Missouri Supreme Court ordered a lower court Wednesday to consider a new trial.

NORTH CAROLINA  

Editorial: Pressing for justice

Salisbury Post Editorial

02-10-10 -- North Carolinians have been up in arms about a court order that threatened to release dozens of convicted murderers and rapists after serving only 30 years of their life sentences. . . . In addition to keeping the guilty behind bars, fair-minded citizens should also be passionate about freeing the innocent. It's in their interest to follow the work of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission. . . . This week in Raleigh, a three-judge panel is hearing the case of Greg Taylor, 47, of Cary. Taylor has been in prison almost 17 years for a murder he says he didn't commit — the beating death of a prostitute whose body was found near his abandoned car. . . . The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission pressed for this hearing after putting Taylor's case through a rigorous screening process. The commission's staff reviews public records and court records, conducts field investigations, contacts witnesses, evaluates new evidence and takes a case through a formal inquiry and a commission hearing before it can go to a three-judge panel — the stage where Taylor's case is now. The burden is on Taylor's lawyers to prove his innocence by clear and convincing evidence.

How Many More Are Innocent?

America's 250th DNA exoneration raises questions about how often we send the wrong person to prison.

Radley Balko, Reason.com

02-08-10 -- Freddie Peacock of Rochester, New York, was convicted of rape in 1976. Last week he became the 250th person to be exonerated by DNA testing since 1989. According to a new report by the Innocence Project, those 250 prisoners served 3,160 years between them; 17 spent time on death row. Remarkably, 67 percent of them were convicted after 2000—a decade after the onset of modern DNA testing. The glaring question here is, How many more are there? . . . Calculating the percentage of innocents now in prison is a tricky and controversial process. The numerator itself is difficult enough to figure out. The certainty of DNA testing means we can be positive the 250 cases listed in the Innocence Project report didn't commit the crimes for which they were convicted, and that number also continues to rise. But there are hundreds of other cases in which convictions have been overturned due to a lack of evidence, recantation of eyewitness testimony, or police or prosecutorial misconduct, but for which there was no DNA evidence to establish definitive guilt or innocence. Those were wrongful convictions in that there wasn't sufficient evidence to establish reasonable doubt, but we can't be sure all the accused were factually innocent.

January 2010

ILLINOIS  

Ill. man sues police, lawyers he says framed him

By David Mercer, Associated Press Writer, Chicago Tribune

01-27-10 -- A Rockford man who spent 13 years in prison before his murder conviction was thrown out is suing investigators and two prosecutors in central Illinois whom he claims disregarded and hid evidence that could have cleared him. . . . Lawyers for Alan Beaman filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday in Peoria against the five former police officers, the prosecutors -- current McLean County Judges James Souk and Charles Reynard -- the city of Normal and Mclean county. . . . Beaman, who is now 37, was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to 50 years in prison in the death of Illinois State University student Jennifer Lockmiller, his ex-girlfriend. The state Supreme Court threw out the conviction in 2008. . . . "They tried the case on the premise that Alan Beaman was the only person in a small circle of possible suspects with the motive and the opportunity to commit the crime; that was a false premise," Beaman's attorney, Locke Bowman, said Wednesday after a news conference in Bloomington announcing the lawsuit.

MICHIGAN  

Professors, students to attack murder case at hearing today

By Joe Swickard, Free Press Staff Writer

01-27-10 -- Law professors and student of the University of Michigan Innocence Clinic will continue their attack on the murder case against Dwayne Provience in a hearing this morning at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. . . . The clinic succeeded in getting Provience’s 2001 murder conviction tossed out last year saying key evidence was improperly withheld in the first trial, but Wayne County prosecutors are pressing to retry the case. . . . After the last hearing in December, Larry Wiley – the only witness to name Provience as the killer – said he was not at the scene and that police squeezed and coached him to testify against Provience.

NEW YORK

Man released from prison to speak at forum

Poughkeepsie Journal

01-25-10 -- Dewey Bozella, a Dutchess County man released from prison after a judge ruled he had been wrongfully convicted of murder, will take part in a panel discussion on prison issues Sunday at a Town of Poughkeepsie church. . . . Bozella will share his prison experiences at the Justice for All Speakers Forum at the Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church on New Hackensack Road. The event will start at 4 p.m. . . . Bozella, 50, was convicted in two separate trials of murdering 92-year-old Emma Crapser in 1977 during a robbery at the woman’s home in the City of Poughkeepsie. . . . Last year, acting Dutchess County Court Judge James T. Rooney ruled evidence that could have convinced a jury to find Bozella not guilty had not been made available to Bozella’s attorneys.

CALIFORNIA  

9th Circuit: Police Can Be Sued for Coercive Interrogation of Teenage Murder Suspect

Cheryl Miller, The Recorder

01-15-10 -- A 9th Circuit panel on Thursday reinstated many of the legal claims of a Southern California man, who, as a 14-year-old boy, falsely confessed to killing his younger sister after a series of grueling and coercive interviews with police. . . . Writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, Judge Sidney Thomas said authorities' marathon questioning of Michael Crowe and his accused accomplice, Aaron Houser, "shocks the conscience."(pdf) . . . "Michael and Aaron -- 14 and 15 years old, respectively -- were isolated and subjected to hours and hours of interrogation during which they were cajoled, threatened, lied to, and relentlessly pressured by teams of police officers," Thomas wrote. "'Psychological torture' is not an inapt description."

FEDERAL COURT

3rd Circuit Revives Suit, Opening Door to DNA Evidence

Shannon P. Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer

01-14-10 -- An Erie, Pa., man who was sentenced to 75 years in prison for three rapes he claims he did not commit has won an important victory in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in his battle for access to DNA evidence that he says will prove his innocence. . . . A unanimous three-judge panel revived the case, Grier v. Klem, and ordered new hearings on the issue of whether Pennsylvania's rules on DNA testing can have unfair results (pdf) by barring access to DNA evidence whenever a defendant has already confessed to the crime. . . . The panel found that a lower court erred in tossing out Emmitt Grier's §1983 civil rights suit on the grounds that it violated the Heck rule. Named for the U.S. Supreme Court's 1994 decision in Heck v. Humphrey, the rule bars state prisoners from bringing a civil rights suit "if the success of that claim would undermine the prisoner's conviction or sentence, unless that conviction or sentence has already been called into question."

FEDERAL COURTS

Ex-Banker Begins 3-Year Prison Term Wondering Why

Commentary by Ann Woolner, Bloomberg   

01-08-10 -- One of the perks of wearing the robe of a federal judge is that you don’t have to explain yourself. . . . But when a judge sends to prison for three years-plus the man who pointed U.S. tax collectors to billions of dollars of untaxed American wealth, who tore open the veil of secrecy surrounding Swiss banking, he ought to say why. . . . If Bradley Birkenfeld hadn’t blown the whistle on his former employer, UBS AG, thousands of Americans would still be evading taxes instead of paying them on some $20 billion they had stashed away overseas at the bank. Switzerland wouldn’t have been forced to agree to make banking more transparent. . . . And hundreds of suspected tax evaders wouldn’t now be under investigation, spawning guilty pleas and multimillion-dollar recoveries for the national treasury. . . . “Without Mr. Birkenfeld walking into the door of the Department of Justice in the summer of 2007, I doubt as of today that this massive fraud scheme would have been discovered by the United States government,” Birkenfeld’s chief prosecutor, Kevin Downing, told the sentencing judge in August. . . . So, why is Birkenfeld headed to a federal prison in Pennsylvania today? . . . U.S. District Judge William Zloch gave no explanation in August when he sentenced him to 40 months, 10 months longer than prosecutors recommended. A transcript shows Zloch was silent on the point.

CALIFORNIA

Santa Clara County judge orders man freed

By Tracey Kaplan, mercurynews.com

01-07-10 -- In a stunning rebuke to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, a county judge on Wednesday ordered a man who had been sentenced to 38 years to life freed on the grounds the trial prosecutor in the child molestation case committed "numerous acts of misconduct,'' including giving false testimony. . . . The ruling by Superior Court Judge Andrea Y. Bryan means Augustin Uribe, 66, will be released within several days after spending four years behind bars for a crime that even the alleged victim says he did not commit. . . . The decision casts a shadow over the career of Deputy District Attorney Troy Benson and further tarnishes the reputation of the District Attorney's Office, which has come under fire in recent years for alleged prosecutorial misconduct.

TEXAS

Texas attorney general says governor can pardon man exonerated by DNA after dying in prison

Jeff Carlton Associated Press Writer, Los Angeles Times

01-07-10 -- With a pardon for her dead son finally possible, the mother of a Texas man wrongly convicted of rape said she knows what to do now: take flowers to his grave and share the news. . . . An attorney general's opinion Thursday cleared the way for Gov. Rick Perry to issue a posthumous pardon for Tim Cole, an Army veteran and innocent man who died behind bars in 1999 at age 39. The opinion brings Cole's family a step closer to ending a 25-year effort to clear his name. . . . "He knows," Ruby Session said of her son. "I am sure he probably knew before the rest of us." . . . A sympathetic Perry embraced a tearful Session last year but said he did not have the power to issue a posthumous pardon, citing a 45-year-old attorney general's opinion. Current Attorney General Greg Abbott overturned that, saying the Texas constitution limits pardon power only in cases of treason or impeachment.

IOWA

Prosecutor conduct case before Supreme Court is settled

Two Iowa men freed after spending 26 years in prison for murder had sued, saying prosecutors framed them. With justices signaling they might favor the men, the county settles for $12 million.

By David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times

01-05-10 -- Reporting from Washington - A Supreme Court case testing whether a prosecutor can be sued for framing suspects for a murder ended Monday when an Iowa county agreed to pay $12 million to two men who were freed after spending 26 years in prison. . . . In the past, the high court had said prosecutors could not be sued for doing their jobs, even if they sometimes convicted the wrong defendant. And in November, an Obama administration lawyer argued on behalf of Pottawattamie County, asserting that there is no constitutional "right not to be framed." . . . But several justices said they found that argument appalling. They signaled they were not prepared to shield prosecutors who knowingly fabricated a case against a suspect. . . . Over the holidays, the county and its lawyers offered to settle the case by paying $12 million to Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee, who were convicted as teenagers in 1978 of murdering a night security guard. Both men are black. . . . On Monday, the Supreme Court said it was dismissing the case because it was settled. . . . "We're delighted to have this settled. It has been a long time coming for them," said Doug McCalla, a lawyer who sued on behalf of Harrington. "Cases like Terry's make it very clear that we need the powerful remedies provided by this country's civil rights statutes."

WISCONSIN   

Brown County District Attorney John Zakowski confident he convicted the men who murdered Tom Monfils

By Paul Srubas • greenbaypressgazette.com

01-03-10 -- Brown County District Attorney John Zakowski, who prosecuted the 1995 case against six paper mill employees accused of killing co-worker Tom Monfils, said a new book on the case does not raise any issues that were not covered during the trial. . . . The book, “The Monfils Conspiracy,” claims that six men were wrongly convicted of beating Monfils and dropping him alive into a paper pulp vat at the former James River paper mill. His body was found the next day, a 40-pound weight tied to his neck. . . . Authors Denis Gullickson and John Gaie wrote the book with the help of Michael Piaskowski, Gaie’s former brother-in-law and one of the six convicted men. . . . Piaskowski was released from prison when a federal judge ruled there had been insufficient evidence to convict him.

florida

The Age of Innocents

Opening Statements

By Mark Hansen, ABA Journal

01-01-10 -- Barney Brown should have listened to his mother that fateful day in 1970 when she told him to stay home while she was at work. . . . But Brown, then 13 and living in Hollywood, Fla., did what many teens do: He ignored his mother and snuck out with friends. . . . “I thought I’d be back before she got home,” he says. But Brown didn’t come home for 38 years. . . . While out with his friends that day, police stopped the car in which he was a passenger. Brown, an African-American, was arrested for raping a white woman and robbing her husband. . . . Police then held the teen without charges for four days, during which time, Brown claims, they brutally beat and interrogated him while trying to force a confession. His parents weren’t notified that their son was in police custody, even though they had called police to report him missing. . . . Despite Brown’s repeated protestations of innocence—and numerous lineups in which the victims failed to identify him—prosecutors tried him as a juvenile for rape and robbery. After an acquittal, prosecutors used a quirk in the law to retry Brown as an adult. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. . . . Brown was released from prison in September 2008 after lawyers persuaded a judge that the second prosecution violated the constitutional protection against double jeopardy.

BREAKING THE RULES
Who suffers when a prosecutor is cited for misconduct?

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