Many states have 'innocence projects' which assist in exonerating people who have been wrongfully convicted. The original one is here: http://www.innocenceproject.org/
Their Mission: The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
Other Innocence Projects:
Innocence Project of Texas:
http://www.innocenceprojectoftexas.org/
The Wisconsic Innocence Project:
http://www.law.wisc.edu/fjr/clinicals/ip/index.html
The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project:
Georgia Innocence Project:
http://ga-innocenceproject.org/
Medill Innocence Project:
http://www.medillinnocenceproject.org/
Innocence Project New Orleans:
Midwest Innocence Project:
http://www.innocenceprojectmidwest.org/
Northern California Innocence Project:
Idaho Innocence Project:
http://www.idahoinnocenceproject.org/
The Pennsylvania Innocence Project:
http://www.innocenceprojectpa.org/
Innocence Project of Minnesota:
Innocence Project Northwest Clinic:
http://www.law.washington.edu/Clinics/IPNW/
California Innocence Project:
http://www.cwsl.edu/main/default.asp?nav=cip.asp&body=cip/home.asp
Connecticut Innocence Project:
http://www.ocpd.state.ct.us/Content/Innocence%20Project/Innocence%20Project.htm
Innocence Project of Florida:
http://floridainnocence.org/content/
New England Innocence Project:
http://www.newenglandinnocence.org/
Kentucky Innocence Project:
http://www.kyinnocenceproject.org/home.html
Innocence Project Bournemouth:
http://innocenceprojectbournemouth.com/
Mississippi Innocence Project:
http://www.mississippiinnocence.org/
Innocence Project of Iowa:
North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence:
Montana Innocence Project:
http://www.mtinnocenceproject.org/
Justice Brandeis Innocence Project:
http://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/innocence/
Oregon Innocence Project:
http://www.law.uoregon.edu/org/oip/
Alaska Innocence Project:
http://www.alaskainnocence.org/
Nebraska Innocence Project:
https://people.creighton.edu/~plw92048/
Life After Innocence Project:
http://blogs.luc.edu/afterinnocence/
One thing that many people may forget when thinking about the legal system and crimes is that innocent people do end up behind bars. As I researched the website, I came across many profiles and stories where a criminal's innocence was proved by the Innocence Project.
The case that I examined was that of Ronald Taylor, an african american male who lived in Texas. Taylor was convicted of aggravated sexual assault after a brief trial, and sentenced to 60 years in prison. The prosecutor's main reason for suspecting Taylor was that he fit the description provided by the victim and lived in the area. Taylor was sentenced in 1995 to 60 years in prison.
There were many things about this trial that had missing pieces. The description provided by the victim was an african american male, who had afro hair. Taylor fit the description at the time. While he fit the description, it was also so vague that many people could have been accused.
Another major thing that was left out was that there was no DNA evidence of the rape. The Houston PD crime lab claimed that there was no DNA left by the perp and ruled out any chance of further testing.
Another thing that was brought by the defense was that another man, who was in the area at the time, could have been the rapist. The man fit the description, and he was also notorious for committing sex crimes.
All of this evidence being overlooked, the trial was based on solely an eye witness testimony. After little deliberation, Taylor was sentenced and went to prison.
The IP evaluated Taylor's case and retested the evidence that was presented initially. The IP found that there WAS evidence on the sheets, and presumed Taylor's innocence. The DNA found on the sheets was also linked to the man that was mentioned in the first trial, who was already in prison.
Researching the Innocence Project helped me realize that there are many people in prison that are serving time without committing any crimes at all.
Upon doing this assignment, I did not know that Innocence Projects existed. I knew that people were wrongly accused and convicted of things they didn't do, but I didn't know there was an actaul organization to helpt those individuals. It is sad to think about how many people lie during trials. It is mostly to save themselves from getting in trouble, but it is still wrong. For example, I was reading a case in California about a woman accused of murdering her boyfriend. The prosecutor claimed that she changed out of her bloody clothes before calling the police. There was no evidence for this and the prosecuter knew that. The jury, however, believed the story and convicted her as guilty, much to the shock of the judge. He allowed her to not be incarcerated, but supervised since there was so little evidence that she committed the crime. However, she was finally taken into custody. This began the appeal process. The prosecutor eventually told the jury that he was lying. Also, jury members claimed that they would have aquited her and that they didn't know what happened with the jury's decision. I think a lot of this has to do with being in a group. Again, people make quick decisions that don't always make sense. They are usually just conforming to the group, or they want to go home.
Another case I read about was a woman accused of arson. She was convicted on three accounts of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. A fire started in her home one night, killing her three kids. Police suspected that the fire was not accidental and that she had to have started it. Nineteen years later, fire investegators reviewed her case again. The technology and training back when she supposedly committed the crime was not very good. New evidence supported the fact that the fire came from another origin other than the woman convicted. They found carbon monoxide in the children's lungs which also supported the evidence that the fire was accidental. Fire investegators did not know much about carbon monoxide back then and how it contributed to the spread of fires. It is good to know that they still review nineteen year old cases. I was actually surprised to read that!
These cases are just two of many. There are so many individuals wrongly accused in the United States. The amount of lying that goes on in the legal system is incredible. Also, stories are constantly being made up to make the victim look guilty. It makes me wonder what kind of impact that has on the person convicted. They may actually start to believe that they did the crime. If they hear a story repeated over and over, they may internalize it as something that really happened. A person may be emotionally damaged by some of the convictions put upon them. They may start to feel really guilty or even enraged. Overall, I'm glad that something like this exists. It helps wrongly accused victims prove their innocence and get their side of the story heard.
Terms Used: Innocence, Groups, Emotionally Damaged, Incarcerated, Convictions, Prosecutor, Guilty
When first reading about this project it seems like something that shouldn't be as recent as it actually is. It is very interesting to me to realize the influence of authority over people's thinking and perceptions of others. Until recently, many believed that police could not make any mistakes. Since they were considered one of the highest authorities around it would be devestating to people to find out that cops are not the angels most people think they are and they, just like everyone else, make mistakes sometimes.
This thinking also goes along with inmates and people who have been convicted of crimes. People assume that if you are in jail you must be guilty. They have this stigma of criminals that if you are in jail you must be violent, when there are a lot of not only innocent people but also non-violent offenders in jail. This stigma sticks with anyone even accused of a crime for the rest of their lives.
This project I believe that it is a great thing for any state to have. As we have discussed a lot in class, many people in jail are there for the wrong reasons or they have been wrongly convicted due to any number of factors.
I concentrated my review of the website on the many reasons one may be wrongly convicted and what evidence the innocence project can use to prove any persons guilty.
The first thing I looked at was the video about informants. When I first think about informants I think about people that are maybe being blackmail or they are getting some sort of incentive for the information that they are being asked to give. The section of the website on informants lists that most of them are fellow inmates or cellmates. This may be due to many different factors such as being offered a reduced sentence or some extra privilages if you can get a confession or some evidence out of your fellow inmate that may help the prosecution in their case. The website says that these testimonies must be taken with a grain of salt because they can be so subjective and very easily influenced by outside factors.
The other aspect of the website that I found really interesting was the part about the sometimes faulty forensic work. I learned from the video that blood analysis isn't as definitive as many people believe it to be and actually it has been disregarded in many courts because it has been proven to be very subjective and very easily subject to faulty scientific work.
Terms: blood analysis, innocence, witness, testimony, confession, evidence, forensic, prosecution, informants, stigma, criminals, convicted, inmate,
I first learned of the Innocence Project after researching my book about Ronald Cotton. Ronald's story is posted here on this website. He was wrongfully convicted of rape and sentenced to life plus 54 years. He served 10.5 years of this sentence until finally exonerated in 1995. The contributing causes to his sentencing were listed as eyewitness misidentification and unvalidated or improper forensic science.
While I read his and Jennifer's story (the woman who misidentified him) I couldn't help but get drawn in. I can't imagine being sentenced to jail for a crime I didn't commit and having the entire courtroom not believe me. These kinds of cases happen too frequent and many may not realize this. Some cases have been extreme while some haven't.
This blog got me to browse the actual website and learn what the innocent project was all about.
Its a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating the innocent through DNA testing. DNA testing has become the backbone in freeing these people. DNA and testing has become a concrete fact that our justice systems convicts innocent people.
This organization solely relies on us the people. I found this fact interesting on the website: "We receive 45% of our funding from individuals, 30% from foundations, 15% from our annual benefit dinner, 7% from the Cardozo School of Law and most of the rest from corporations."
The site also provided this statistic which is shocking to me: "We will never know for sure, but the few studies that have been done estimate that between 2.3% and 5% of all prisoners in the U.S. are innocent (for context, if just 1% of all prisoners are innocent, that would mean that more than 20,000 innocent people are in prison)." To know that there can potentially be this many innocent people in prison is baffling.
I think it is important and beneficial that every state has an innocence project. I was intrigued in reading Iowa's and that we have one.
The one thing I find unfortunate when reading Iowa's project is that its an "all-volunteer" organization they are very selective in which cases they view. This means that to some inmates, their case may never be investigated.
For an individual to step up and believe that our justice system CAN make mistakes and DOES it huge. These projects would not be successful without those who step up fighting and believing that people are innocent regardless of what the evidence may "show" and what the jury's verdict is.
terms: investigated, innocent, eyewitness, convict, inmate, prisoner,misidentification, crime, forensic science, evidence
You always hear about people who have been wrongfully convicted but I always thought that it was the person who was sent to jail that would have his case sent to a lawyer who would then help them I actually had no idea that such a thing as this organization even existed. I looked through much of the website looking at a lot of the cases, and I also looked at the general information that the case provides about whom and why someone was wrongfully convicted. The Innocence Project website showed that many of the people wrongfully convicted were of different race also majority of wrongful convictions were because of eyewitness accounts being wrong and the second highest cause of conviction was from improper forensics. This website was just very interesting in helping me understand how so many innocent people are being sent to prison. One thing I had to know after looking through this website was who had been in prison the longest before they were freed from DNA testing.
The man that fit this bill was James Bain from what I could see he had been sent to prison for thirty five years which was the longest time an innocent person has served till they had been exonerated. The crime committed was the raping of a little boy. The victim pointed out James Bain from a line up even though only two of them had sideburns which the victim prior to the lineup stated that the person who attacked him had sideburns. A sample of semen was taken from the victim’s underwear and even though there was no DNA testing at the time of the crime in 1974 they were able to get the blood type B from the sample. James though had an AB. James even had an alibi and his sister was able to corroborate his whereabouts. Though he has not been shown to have any real correlation with the attacker other than the sideburns and the criminal saying his name was Jim when he attacked the boy James Bain was arrested. After DNA testing became possible wrote several motions for the DNA to be tested again. In 2009 James Bain was released after thirty five years in prison.
The Innocence Project website also has their own opinion on what should be done to the justice system in helping the betterment of those suspected in a crime. Over the years of discovering so many people who were wrongfully convicted there is not much change in how the justice system works or how they go along processing information to find their criminal. Though not much has been done there is progress such as reformed eyewitness accounts in several states and big cities, prisoners allowed to apply for post-conviction DNA testing, and electronic recordings of interrogations.
Terms: wrongfully convicted, eyewitness, DNA testing, exonerated, victim, crime, rape, blood type, alibi, corroborate, motions, and criminal
Throughout my major I have heard of the Innocence Project before. People sometimes believe that the Criminal Justice System is correct during trials and are always putting guilty people in jail, but that's not always the case as we learned from the Innocence Project.
I visited a few of the different Innocence Projects for different states. They had different examples of people that they put in prison for committing the crime, and then years later because of DNA testing they were found to be innocent. Even though it's a good thing that they finally figured out that the person didn't do it, I still think it's awful with how many people are wrongly imprisoned and I read on one of the websites that on average those who are wrongly imprisoned spend an average of 12 years in prison before they are finally released. It's as if the Criminal Justice System needs to be a lot more careful and thorough when processing these trials and the supposed criminals.
There are different reasons as to why wrongful people are imprisoned. The videos that we watched in class about Ronald Cotton was an example of what the Innocence Project explains to us. The idea of the Innocence Project is to find those in prison who are innocent. The reason why Ronald Cotton had been imprisoned was because of misidentification. Throughout the video we saw how the lady who identified him knew 100% that it was him, but later in the video when the real man who had raped her was in the same courtroom as her, she still was sure that Ronald Cotton was her rapist. Also, Ronald's alibi was inaccurate because he had gotten his weekends mixed up during the trial. People don't have the greatest memory and I could even forget what I did two weekends ago. He spent 10.5 years of his life in prison before finally being found innocent. It's great that the Innocence Project freed him and the hundreds others they've been able to free since the Innocence Project began.
It's a great thing that the Innocent Project brings to the table. It's a lot of work to look at case by case and that's why they have to be very selective at the case they choose to look into once again to see if maybe the person convicted was wrongly convicted. The Innocence Project wants to help the Criminal Justice System because they know their are flaws in the system and they want to help those that the Criminal Justice System didn't help. Eventually hopefully there can be less wrongful convictions and the Innocence Project bringing out more innocent people.
Terms used: wrongful convictions, Innocent Project, Criminal Justice System, trial, guilty, prison, DNA, misidentification, alibi
Exploring the different innocence websites really puts our justice system and imprisonment into perspective. When viewing a prison, many people blindly believe that everyone in the prison is guilty and the prison itself is justice. When you hear of people becoming exonerated after so many years that had been innocent, it is scary to reevaluate a prison. How many people in the United States’ prisons are actually innocent and how were they convicted?
People become wrongly convicted from both estimator and system variables. Some of these variables include eyewitness inaccuracy, police brutality, authentic- coerced false confessions, and more. Fortunately however, forensic science has evolved and DNA testing is now more accurate and available. Many people have become exonerated from prison after DNA testing and to help other innocent people many universities have adopted the innocence project.
The innocence project is conducted by universities which allow students to investigate and litigate wrongful convictions, educate students on why they occur and how to help prevent them, and finally help justify the wrongfully punished with scholarship opportunities and more. These innocence projects that are provided throughout the nation have helped free many wrongfully imprisoned people and have helped in the education of future law enforcement officials.
One case I read about was the University of Wisconsin’s innocence project’s involvement in the case of Seneca Malone. Seneca Malone was accused of the shooting and murder of Ricardo Mora. The case it states was almost entirely based on one eyewitness. Once the students investigated the case farther, they learned that the trial counsel had not hired an investigator to check the suspect’s statement to the police and had not called a single witness for Malone. With this information, the students called many witnesses to the stand during several days of evidentiary hearings. The students also provided evidence that the witness (now the alternative suspect) had lied to police and that this new alternative suspect was in fact the shooter. Due to this evidence the court granted Malone a new trial.
Overall these innocence projects have not only been helpful for education purposes, but also in helping exonerate innocent men and giving them their lives back. I believe these innocence projects are important and should be practiced in many more colleges throughout the nation. With programs such as the innocence project, justice may prevail.
Terms: murder, eyewitness, trial, exoneration, justice, innocence, police brutality, authentic- coerced false confessions, estimator variables, system variables, alternative suspect, imprisonment, wrongful convictions, DNA, prison
There are always stories of people that are incarcerated that are trying to prove their innocence, however I was unaware of just how many people could be telling the truth because I tend to just think they are trying to avoid jail time, or find a loop hole in the legal system. Before this assignment I was not aware that numerous states had an ‘innocence project’ to help those who are wrongfully convicted, I naively thought that once a person goes to prison the others no longer try and assists them. However, it was enlightening to learn that it is a political policy that uses DNA and forensic evidence to help overturn wrongful convictions, and help set innocent people free with the hopes to prevent future wrongful convictions from occurring.
I was unsure what to expect when entering the website, whether it was going to be only horror stories of innocent people going to prison and losing years of their freedom due to a hiccup in the system, however I was surprised that it was so easy to navigate as well as informational. I was interested in how it got started and learned that it was founded at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in 1992. I was surprised when the site stated that since its beginning, only twenty short years ago, it has been able to free 292 former prisoners, and 17 who were previously sentenced to death. The fact that one organization can save so many lives through proving the legal system wrong was very impressive.
I was curious as to how many inmates write to them, expressing their wrongful convictions and how they decide which inmates to represent. Considering the fact that there are so many in the United States prison system, I expected that more than only 3,000 would write to them each year, but the fact that at any time they were examining anywhere from 6,000 to 8,000 cases that they may represent was extensive. It must be stressful to have to decide whom one would choose to help, when so many are pleading for assistance.
Another interesting tab in the site was the one that gave explanations for the causes of wrongful convictions. It states that there are multiple factors that may help explain why innocent people go to jail for crimes they did not commit. The first one was misidentification through eyewitness testimony, and after reading Picking Cotton and learning about the errors that can occur through encoding, storing, and retrieving memory, I can understand that this occurs a lot more often then people tend to think. Another reasoning was improper forensic evidence, such as using shoe prints as physical proof, even though it had not been scientifically evaluated as a useful way to identify a suspect. One that was difficult for me to grasp was wrongful confessions, it seems unlikely that a person would admit to a crime that they did not commit, however due to the stressful environment of an interrogation room and constant questioning by detectives, or not seeing a way to persuade them of one’s innocence, making a confession may seem like the only way to put an end to the situation. The one that most surprised me was misconduct in the police department, it seems hard to believe since they are the ones that are responsible for protecting our freedom. However, sometimes they can lose sight of what’s most important and focus solely on getting a conviction, especially for high profile crimes or ones that gain a lot of media attention. Another reason that was given was due to informants that testified against a suspect in the trial, and is often doing it for reasons that are not made known to the jury. The last reason was because of poor defense teams, which seemed like the easiest of me to understand. The fact of the matter is that the majority of those that are incarcerated are poor are do not have a way to pay the amounts that good defense attorneys demand for their services. Most get state appointed attorneys to defend them, and although they are educated in the legal system, that does not mean that they are invested in winning the case or put everything they have. They are also not given the resources that may be needed to prove one’s innocence.
This was an interesting site, that allowed me to get informed about the fact that innocent people are incarcerated due to problems in the legal system. The Innocence Project is an impressive organization that does just put blame on the legal system but offers a way to inform people and help them to assist in the project by making connections and donations. It is important for others to know that not all inmates deserve their sentences, and some even deserve freedom.
Terms: The Innocence Project, legal system, DNA, convictions, encoding, storing, retrieving, memory, eyewitness testimony, defense lawyers, informants, police officers, interrogation, confession
The thing that leapt out at me immediately upon going to the Innocence Project is the Fix the System section. It is incredibly detailed with specific delineated steps that a police station or a state could take in order to improve it's evidentiary procedures. It is incredibly detailed, even including references to federal legislation that are in place but lack proper mechanisms for making certain the money gets to where it is supposed to be going. That strikes me as odd because of how easy it is to follow money these days.
The Innocence Project has a lot of good ideas, and a lot of them should be implemented, not only that, but they would not be too hard to make policy on local and possibly even state-wide levels. The project also calls for the creation of a National Forensic Science organization of some kind. I think that would be the tricky part overall. I think, despite the necessity, that would be the hard sell.
The United States already have an abundance of acronyms for government agencies, and it seems like every single one of them has an adjoining coordinating committee or organization of some kind that should have been part of the initial formation of the organization. Some of them need to be pruned, and stream-lined.
The National Institute of Justice mission statement includes and I quote "Creating a more effective and fair justice system." I feel like this would fall under that umbrella, that it should be an expansion of the National Institute of Justice if it isn't already involved. This is the organization that we need to be pressuring to do it's job better.
NIJ been around since 68, so it's older than the Innocence project, and they share the same goals. Many of the listed goals for the Innocence Project are also found in the methods section in the NIJ. Why do we not hear of this Institute working hand in hand with the Innocence Project?
Terms:
Innocence Project
Evidentiary Procedures
Oversight Committees
National Institute of Justice
Before reading what we had to do for this assignment I never knew that Project Innocence existed. I never knew that there was an actual organization to help ones that have been wrongfully convicted. I think it’s awesome that there are groups of people out there that do this.
I looked into the exoneration of Drayton Witt. Drayton Witt was convicted of a ten year sentence for murdering his four month old infant due to shaken baby syndrome. When Witt was first convicted his case was treated just like any abusive or shaken baby syndrome case, but when the case was further investigated they realized that Steven the infant was born with many health issues.
When Steven was boring his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. After a few weeks when Steven went home from the hospital he had a fever and couldn’t stop vomiting. Steven was then diagnosed with pneumonia. After taking antibiotics Steven couldn’t focus and he went limp. Steven went on the having many seizures. He would vomit all the time and shake. One day when Maria the mother was at work Witt was home alone with Steven and he began to have more seizures so Witt decided to take him to the hospital. Steven died the next day. The doctors stated it was due to Shaken baby syndrome and since Witt was the last person to be with the child he was accused of murder.
After the doctors did more investigating into the conditions of Steven they came across that he didn’t have any external bruising or trauma and it was all internal. The doctors didn’t realize that all the health problems that Steven faced caused him to have internal illnesses and that can also look just like the baby had shaken baby syndrome. Some people still believed that Witt killed the four month old baby. After having many people testify for Witt saying that he is innocent and the medical issues Steven had made it look like he had shaken baby syndrome when really he didn’t.
Witt was lucky to have the innocence project help him out so he was able to start his life over again with his wife Maria. The judge dismissed the charges against Witt with prejudice, which means that Witt will never have to go back to prison for Stevens death.
It’s very interesting to read these stories about how many people the innocence project has helped people. You would think that our justice system would change something knowing that they are putting innocent people behind bars.
When it comes to the innocent projects it's said and annoying to think that we are putting innocent people behind bars. From what I have learned so far it's not just corrupt cops or prejudice that is putting innocent people behind bars it seems to be much more than that. I believe that the media has a big part to play in all of this. 20 murders could have happened in one week but the media will focus on just one case then the police officers get heat from the boss or captain to finish the case fast because they are getting heat from higher up. So the first suspect they get weather they did it or not seems to be made to the fall. Im glad to see that there are people out there willing to get to the bottom of all of this get the truth out and help these people and hopefully get the right person. Putting innocent people behind bars dose not help society in any way people want to fell safe. there are people who are afraid to walk to there cars at night even if its a short walk. DNA is becoming more and more precise each year. Hopefully less innocent people will be put behind bars and in the end none and keep the really criminals off the streets so people can fell safe walking to there cars at night.
I found these websites to be very comforting. One thing I've always felt very strongly about were the wrongly convicted. In fact, I just wrote a research proposal on eyewitness testimonies and wrongful convictions. Knowing that projects like this are out there really excites me!
I went and reviewed the Georgia Innocence Project by random and came across a case involving a man by the name of Troy Davis. This man was mistakenly identified as the murderer of a Savannah Police Officer in 1989. I do not have access to both sides of the story, but from this website there were nine eyewitnesses involved in the case. The site talks about the things the CJS did wrong and how they even let the witnesses talk amongst themselves about the identity of the murderer. This was an obvious mistake! They also stated that seven of the nine witnesses who originally identified him as the shooter actually recanted their testimony. Of the two witnesses remaining, one was thought my many to be the real perpetrator and the other was over 120 feet away, therefore could not have made a clear identification of the perpetrator at all.
I strongly agree with the case from what I've read of it and I hope that these Innocence Projects spread everywhere because I truly think they are a great thing to invest in. There are so many innocent people that are behind bars today while the real perpetrators are allowed to roam the streets and reek more havoc on today's society.