Recently in Wrongful Conviction Category

Would you confess to a crime you did not commit?  You may say you would never falsely confess to a crime under any circumstance (especially those with great penalties), but the truth is, false confessions happen more often than you realize. 

For instance, take the case of Eddie Lowery.  Although Eddie Lowery deep now knew he was innocent of rape, he inevitably confessed and consequently spent 10 years of his life in prison until DNA evidence and the help of the Innocence Project exonerated him.

False confessions can occur for numerous reasons and some people may be more susceptible to falsely confess.  For example, the mentally ill and children are highly influenced by police during interrogation and subsequently confess more often than individuals who are not mentally ill or are adults.  Other circumstances, such as being deprived of food, water, and the restroom, being interrogated for hours on end (which happened in Lowery's case - he was interrogated for more than 7  hours), and in some instances being beaten,  also lead to more false confessions.   

Interrogations can also plant false memories in the suspect's head to the extent to which they become real (much like the lost in the  mall study described in class).  According to Professor Garrett who studies cases such as Lowery's, facts about the case can be intentionally or accidentally brought up in interrogation which plants a seed in the suspect's memory.  With constant contamination to the suspect's memory, these "seeds" can grow into evidence that one would think only the person responsible for the crime would know. 

Much like you and me, Garrett was shocked by the amount of contamination that had occurred in the cases he studied.  Interestingly, more than half of the cases he studied, the suspect was "mentally ill, under the age of 18, or both."  Along with that, most of the interrogations were lengthy and held in a pressuring environment.  Even more interesting, none of the cases Garrett studied had a lawyer present during interrogation. 

Although in some cases evidence that is leaked during interrogations in accidentally, Eddie Lowery felt that the police intentionally contaminated his memories.  According to Lowery, after he confessed, the police insisted he recall the process of the crime and corrected him when he got key facts incorrect.  For example, Lowery recalled this from his interrogation: "How did he get in (police asking Lowery how the rapist got into the house)" "I kicked in the front door" - Lowery, "But the rapist had used the back door" - Police.  Consequently, Lowery changed his story and admitted to going through the back door.

Why are false confessions so important? -- because juries are highly influenced by them when deciding on a verdict.  Despite being cleared by DNA evidence prior to going on trial, 8 of the individuals in Garrett's study were still found guilty and sent to jail.  Because juries are mostly interested in the details of the case and because false memories have been implanted in the suspect's brain, jury members tend to ignore other facts in the case and focus on the highly detailed confession.

If false confession are so common, what can be done to prevent them?  Some police departments have started videotaping interrogations, especially ones that could result in severe punishments (death penalty).  Ten states require videotaping and many supreme courts are encouraging tapings of interrogations. 

Keeping the case of Eddie Lowery and many others in mind, how do you feel about videotaping interrogations?  Do you feel it is necessary for all interrogations (even those where the consequence if found convicted is not severe) or just crimes that could possibly cause someone to serve the rest of their life in prison or even be put to death?  Are there better ways to reduce the occurrence of false confessions?  What do you feel can and/or needs to be done to free the dozens of innocent people currently serving time behind bars?

 

Here is a link to the article and more about Eddie's case.

(Thank you Alyssa for sharing!)

http://faculty.washington.edu/eloftus/Articles/2003Nature.pdf

I found this article by Elizabeth Loftus, a professor of psychology and professor of law at the University of Washington. Loftus has written many articles about memory, and its vulnerability to manipulation. This article discussed a few studies Loftus and some colleagues conducted to prove the malleability of our memories. She emphasized the importance of memory when it comes to crime and legal issues. Loftus thinks there should be new approaches implemented to reduce and eventually eliminate witness misidentification. America has a much higher rate of wrongful convictions than Canada and Great Britain because they have less faith in witness identification and are more strict on their reviews of cases involving eye witness testimonies.

The article summarizes a few of the studies Loftus and her colleagues have performed concerning the power of false memories, and the ease of misleading a person to believe they saw or did something  that never happened. Memory is vulnerable and it should be treated with care to avoid tampering with real memories.

http://www.justiceforkurt.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Kurt_Cobain

 

 

As a grunge-junkie, I have had a long time interest in the alleged suicide of famous musician Kurt Cobain. For those of you who do not know who Kurt Cobain is, he is the lead singer of popular 90's grunge rock band Nirvana. Nirvana is considered by many to be the anthem band for the generation growing up during this time period. Kurt Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home on April 8^th, 1994. Investigators ruled the death a suicide by gunshot blast coming from his jaw then exiting through the top of his head. Much controversy surrounds Kurt Cobain's death leaving many speculators to wonder if Cobain actually did commit suicide. These two websites highlight some of the controversy surrounding the death. Cobain's death is still largely considered a suicide. Those who advocate that his death was in fact a suicide site Cobain's alcohol and drug abuse, his history of depression, and a suicide note left behind. Despite the enormous amount of evidence, there is still a collective group of people who believe that Cobain was murdered. The main advocator that Cobain's death was indeed homicide is Thomas Grant, a private investigator that was under the employment of Cobain's wife prior to his death. Grant's main arguments are so strong that they have led many others to believe his theory. Some of Grant's main arguments are

-          According to the toxicology report, Cobain had an enormous amount of heroin in his blood at the time of his death. Cobain had so much heroin in his system that it would have been impossible to steady a shotgun and pull the trigger. The amount of heroin in Cobain's system would have left him completely incapacitated and unconscious  

-          There are complications with the suicide note including so irregularities in the handwriting

-          Inconsistency in the police reports including: failure to take finger prints off the shotgun trigger, inconstancies with the discharged shell in relation to his body, no finger prints were found on the suicide note yet Cobain was not wearing gloves at the time of the murder

-          Evidence that came out after Cobain's death that Courtney Love (Cobain's wife at the time of his death) attempted to pay someone to murder Cobain

Those who still feel Cobain's death was a suicide believe this evidence to be circumstantial.

I personally feel that there were many signs in this case that indicate foul play but due to Cobain's history of drug abuse and depression they were all overlooked by police officials. If the police had investigated further into the theory of murder then there might be a lot more evidence out there that was not "circumstantial."

 

After our class discussion on false confession during Tuesday's class I have been noticing the integration techniques we discussed is class. One news report on the E channel stood out above the rest. Kevin Fox's 3 year old girl was said to be missing on the morning of June 6^th 2004. Kevin's wife Melissa was in Chicago for the weekend therefore he was home by himself with Tyler and the later missing daughter Riley. Police investigated the crime scene however, when police continued the investigation they ignored a lot of the evidence indicated there was an intruder. Instead investigators went after father Kevin Fox. The interrogation of Kevin Fox lasted 14 ½ hours. Over this time Kevin had asked to speech to his brother and a lawyer. Police told him that he did not need to speech to anyone and just needed to confess that he killed and sexually assaulted his daughter Riley. Police used tactics such as telling Kevin that if he didn't confess then there were some inmates in jail that would make him pay for what he did. They even went as far as to lie by stating that Melissa was going to divorce him if he did not cooperate with them. The interesting this about this statement is that Melissa stayed by Kevin's side throughout the entire investigation and police never said she would divorce him if he didn't tell the truth, they said she would divorce him if he did "cooperate" with them.  Eventually after this horrible interrogation Kevin admitted to killing his daughter using the information authorities gave him during his interrelation to make up his story.

 

After the confession investigator told the FBI to stop DNA testing. Kevin spent 8 months in jail before he would be cleared through the DNA testing that the FBI stopped.  Interestingly enough this is also the same procedure that was used during the interrogation of JonBenet Ramsey. Both fathers in this cases we told the killing of their daughter was an accident and they were trying to cover it up, and both fathers were exonerated by DNA evidence that in both cases were originally never carried out.

 

 

Below are a couple of links to some highlights of the ABC broadcast of the situation. The whole hour version of the episode in the links below because they were presented in parts and I was unable to find all the video clips. However, if you are interested there is a lot of information about the case on the ABC website if you search for either Kevin Fox or Riley Fox.

 

Introduction to the Case and the 911 phone call

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6210664

 

News article:Kevin Fox and his statements on the integration process.

http://www.truthinjustice.org/kevin-fox.htm

 

Video Clip about DNA exoneration of Kevin Fox

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6210784

False confessions are one way that innocent individuals find themselves behind bars, or even on death row. False confessions are even more reliable than eyewitness identification, so if someone makes the mistake of "confessing" they may be in for a long haul. The innocence project is striving to get more knowledge out about false confessions and also has ways in which the problem can be fixed. Below are a few links to their website. The first talks about false confessions, the second is a page dedicated to ways to fix the problem and the last link is to a video clip of a Texas man named Chris Ochoa who was exonerated after being in prison for a false confession!

 

http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/False-Confessions.php

 

http://www.innocenceproject.org/fix/False-Confessions.php

 

http://www.innocenceproject.org/news/playvideo.php?file=/Images/748/ochoa_c.wmv&title=&time=04:25

 

image from: http://www.jaydeehypnotist.com/wp-content/gallery/misc/hypnosis.jpg

 

I always thought it was interesting how some people used the concept of hypnosis to get unknown information out of people. Hypnosis relaxes your mind, and makes you more at ease with your surroundings.  But there is a problem with using hypnosis within the medical field.

Hypnosis can create false repressed memories. The courts have decided to refrain from using hypnosis as a possible way to convict people of certain crimes, because of it's high rate of inaccuracy.  Below is an article from WebMD that talks about the process of hypnosis and hypnotherapy.  Sometimes hypnosis CAN be helpful in getting people to stop smoking, stop drinking, and can also treat phobias.  But hypnosis can also be bad, as suggested in it can create false memories. I have always been interested in the concept of hypnosis, and find it an interesting topic.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dna/photos/eye/text_06.html

I found this article by Dr. Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham in their book "Witness For the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitness, and the Expert Who Puts Memory On Trial." It discusses everything we have been talking about in class the last 2 weeks: memory as evidence, witness misidentification, and wrongful conviction. It's kind of long, but it covers a lot of information, and provides cases and examples of the different topics discussed. The authors discuss how memory works, and how studies have shown that people have a hard time identifying objects they would see on a regular basis, such as: pennies, the letters that correspond to the numbers on a telephone, etc.

They also discuss how people can create memories from stories/information they are told.

 "...Child psychologist Jean Piaget, in his Plays, Dreams, and Imitation in Childhood, related a personal story about the malleability of memory:

'...one of my first memories would date, if it were true, from my second year. I can still see, most clearly, the following scene, in which I believed until I was about fifteen. I was sitting in my pram, which my nurse was pushing in the Champs Elysees, when a men tried to kidnap me. I was held in by the strap fastened around me while my nurse bravely tried to stand between me and the thief. She received various scratches, and I can still see vaguely those on her face. Then a crowd gathered, a policeman with a short cloak and a white baton came up, and the man took to his heels. I can still see the whole scene, and can even place it near the tube station. When I was about fifteen, my parents received a letter from my former nurse saying that she had been converted to the Salvation Army. She wanted to confess her past faults, and in particular to return the watch she had been given as a reward on occasion. She had made up the whole story, faking the scratches. I, therefore, must have heard, as a child, the account of this story, which my parents believed, and projected into the past in the form of a visual memory.'..."

Another topic they discuss is what psychologists refer to as "event factors,"  defined as 'those factors inherent within a specific event that can alter perception and distort memory.' The case used as an example of this follows.

"Two men in their mid-twenties were hunting for bears in a rural area of Montana. They had been out all day and were exhausted, hungry, and ready to go home. Walking along a dirt trail in the middle of the woods, with the night falling fast, they were talking about bears and thinking about bears. They rounded a bend in the trail and approximately twenty-five yards ahead of them, just off the trail in the woods, was a large object that was moving and making noise. Both men thought it was a bear, and they lifted their rifles and fired. But the "bear" turned out to be a yellow tent, with a man and a woman making love inside. One of the bullets hit the woman and killed her. When the case was tried before a jury, the jurors had difficulty understanding the perceptual problems inherent in the event; they simply couldn't imagine how someone would look at a yellow tent and see a growling bear. The young man whose bullet killed the woman was convicted of negligent homicide. Two years later he committed suicide." 

The two hunters were in the woods all day, looking for bears, thinking about bears, wanting to see a bear. In the low light, they saw a large object moving and heard noises, they assumed it was a bear, and shot.

Loftus and Ketcham also discuss witness misidentification and wrongful conviction. They use the case of Jimmy Landano, an ex-convict who spent time in prison, who was wrongfully convicted by four eyewitnesses and three accomplices as the man that killed a police officer in 1976. Despite overwhelming evidence and an alibi proving his innocence, he is still in prison writing letters to lawyers and other wrongfully convicted people trying to prove his innocence.

 

 

 

Recently I've seen that Johnny Depp has taken interest in the trial of the West Memphis Three.  If you don't know who the Memphis Three are here's a brief overview
   The West Memphis Three are three teenagers who were tried and convicted of the murders of three children in the West Memphis Arkansas in 1993.  One was sentenced to death, another to life with out parole and the third to life in prison plus 40 years.  One of the boys (Misskelley) was questioned for 12 hours without counsel or parental consent, and was mentally disabled confessed back to the police what he was told to say.  There was no physical evidence, no weapons, and no connection to the victims.  The prosecution said it was because these boys were involved in a satanic cult.  I've found a couple of really good websites to look at as far as other celebrities being involved in this case and just basic information on the case.

http://www.wm3.org/Updates
http://freewestmemphis3.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=62&28e5bbf660cb545fc854f5c048c7be7c=baacd10c92e1a750bd13df143f510787

After our discussion in class on Tuesday about how the brain can fabricate false memories, I decided to look up more about this topic.  I came across an interesting website from pbs.org that showcases the show "Don't Forget!"  This series covers such topics as short term memory loss, the role of the hippocampus in remembering and identifying faces, new potential treatments for Alzheimer's and how to evade memory loss, why emotional memories are more easily recalled, and how our memories are sometimes subject to suggestions.

I watched a short clip about how memory lies.  In this clip, researcher Elizabeth Loftus from the University of California, Irvine is trying to get Alan to believe that a certain event happened in his childhood that he does not recall.  It turns out she was just making up the event; however, Alan's mind was partially influenced by her suggestive memory.  Loftus is trying show that there is an increased confidence in a memory that is suggested to a person but was completely made up.  Sometimes you can get people to change how they behave based on those false memories.  I thought that this clip related to the story that Dr. Maclin told in class about the two girls who accused their grandfather of taking pornographic videos of them when they were younger because of leading questions by interviewers. 

Just as this clip and Dr. Maclin's story suggest, misleading and misguided suggestions can often lead witnesses to wrongfully accuse and prosecute innocent people because of their false memories.  I think the clip of Loftus trying to trick Alan gives us a good perspective on how are brains can create AND believe false memories.  Something as little as a suggestive or persuasive comment from even a stranger can cause us to second guess ourselves.  We saw this example between adults, imagine the effects of implementing a false memory could have on a young child whose brain is still developing and maturing.  If our own brain lacks confidence in little scenarios such as turning off the stove before leaving or using a blinker at that last turn, it is only plausible that other people who are persistent and persuasive in their suggestions could have a profound impact on our "memory." 

On November 1st, 2007 Meredith Kercher was found dead on the bedroom floor partly naked with stab wounds on her neck, many bruises, and signs of being sexually assaulted.  At the time, Meredith was a foreign exchange student in Perugia, Italy along with Amanda Knox, an American foreign exchange student.  Five days after interrogation, Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were arrested and later convicted with murder, sexual violence, as well as other charges (Knox was sentenced to 26 years while Sollecito was sentenced for 25 years).  DNA and fingerprint evidence at the scene both inside and around Meredith's body pointed to another man, Rudy Hermann Guede.  Guede was later arrested, tried, and was also convicted of murder an sexual assault.  Guede was initially sentenced to 30 years in prison but appealed his sentence which was then reduced to 16 years. 

I had never heard of this case before but I happened to turn on Oprah today and caught the tail end of the story. I got the sense that it was a pretty well known case and I found this to be true when I was searching online and I did end up finding a lot of information about it.  Here is the link to the Wikipedia article which I think does a great job summarizing the case and is a good place to start if you haven't heard of the case before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MurderofMeredith_Kercher

There seems to be quite a bit of controversy going on about the differences in the criminal justice system and culture of Italy compared to that of the United States when dealing with this case.  I haven't looked into this issue very extensively, but what I have gathered is that many people feel that if Amanda was tried in the United States rather than Italy, she would have never been convicted.

Regardless of this controversy, it became apparent to me while watching the rest of the Oprah show and reading and watching the videos online (http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Amanda-Knoxs-Family-Speak-Out/7), being wrongfully convicted has substantial consequences not only for the person wrongfully convicted, but for their family as well. 

First of all, being wrongfully convicted puts a huge financial burden on the person who is desperately fighting for their freedom.  The book I am reading for this class (Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter) also touches on the tremendous debts one can be in when fighting their conviction.  Thousands upon thousands of dollars were spent, not only by Carter himself, but by his supporters.  Amanda's case seems to be no different.  When searching through sites online, I came across her official site where you could donate money to contribute to her defense fund which will hopefully someday free her.

Being wrongfully convicted also takes a emotional toll on the person who has been wrongfully convicted as well as their family.  On Oprah's website, you can watch a short video of an interview of Amanda's three sisters.  The oldest of the three talks about her new responsibility of being the older sister since Amanda is away and how she struggles at being a good example for her younger sisters.  Amanda's youngest sister talk about how she feels like she doesn't have a family because she describes a family as everyone being there, which is not the case.  Her younger sister struggles with her emotions and her need to stay strong for Amanda and her parents.  My book focuses a lot on Carter's emotional struggles to keep his identity while in prison and the shame he feels, which inevitable causes him to distance himself from his former wife and children.  Carter's family was torn apart by his wrongful conviction, but Amanda's has come together.  Her parents divorced when she was three, but since her conviction, they have combined forces in attempt to free their daughter.  Every Saturday her family gets together for the weekly phone call from Amanda. 

Being wrongfully convicted has tremendous repercussions for the individuals and their families.  Stories like these really make me understand the importance that psychology plays in the law.  I'm not sure how heavily eyewitnesses played in Amanda's conviction, but eyewitness evidence was the only thing used to convict Carter of his sentence of triple-murder.  In order to keep the innocent out of prison, it is evident that a better understanding and acceptance of faulty eyewitness testimonies is necessary, but I'm afraid that no matter how hard we try, there will always be people who are wrongfully convicted.  Even if our criminal justice system improves on keeping the innocent out of jail from now on, there are currently many innocent people in prison, most of which are more than likely desperately trying to free themselves.
 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-interrogation-on-film,0,1131791.story

I think that this is a great idea for the exact reasons that the ABA states: it will reduce the allegations by suspects that the detectives coerced them into a confession and it will help detect false confessions when they occur. I don't agree with the DEA that the videotapes will teach the criminals the detectives' techniques because from what I understand, these tapes won't be open to the public, and certainly not to  criminals.

The part that I like best is that it will prevent suspects and their attorneys to portray the police as abusive. I have full confidence that the "roughing up" that you sometimes see in TV shows rarely if ever occurs.

To touch on the innocence project, this could be another method to prove someone's innocence - by reviewing the interrogation tapes to see if they were in any way coerced to confess or if they seem mentally ill.

This is a very interesting article about how the point of a finger gave a man a 50 year prison sentence on a rape charge.

Three days after the rape, Detective Gauldin called the rape victim Jennifer Thompson in to do a photo lineup. He lay six pictures down on the table, said the perpetrator may or may not be one of them, and told her to take her time.

Thompson did not immediately identify a photo, taking her time to study each picture.

"I can remember almost feeling like I was at an SAT test. You know, where you start narrowing down your choices. You can discount A and B," Thompson said.
.

I find it so interesting that the flaws of eyewitness identification can be so obvious. When taking a multiple choice test you being narrowing down the answers. When you come down to the bottom two you seem to make an educated guess. When dealing with 50 years in prison, I would hope the question only has one obvious answer, and isn't multiple choice.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/06/60minutes/main4848039_page2.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Throughout this class we have dealt with many aspect of witness identification. Through the construct a line up project I was amazed at how many people actually guessed the suspect right. So not only is this whole process biased in that a person basically picks as a multiple choice guess sometimes, but also that a line up can be very biased. Many line ups are made with an obvious answer to be picked. Many of think us probably think, so what! That person is probably guilty. However, in this above case we see that a man was wrongly picked from a line up and the consequence was major jail time. When picking out of a line up the person is basically choosing the course for the person. We also learned in class that eye witnesses are of HUGE impact to a jury. This can also lead to false testifying which can easily sway a jury. It starts to make you really reflect upon our justice system and the ways that eye witnesses, juries, and even line ups can be extremely biased.

I found an article about a man that has been in prison for 35 years for something he didn't do. He was released from prison on December 17, 2009 because they used DNA do find out that it wasn't him who raped a 9-year-old boy in 1974.

http://www.newser.com/story/76448/innocent-man-free-after-35-years.html

What I don't really understand is why hadn't they used the DNA testing before on this man? They always take the fingerprints of each criminal when they go to prison, and this case could have been prevented or at least reduced in the years that the man was in prison if they would have been able to do the testing. To answer my own question, I found another article about the history of DNA testing in criminal cases that is really interesting. DNA testing has only been used in criminal cases for about 24 years, so the case with the man in prison for 35 years makes sense. They were only able to do the testing after he was in prison for a while.

http://www.ehow.com/about_5285970_history-dna-testing-criminal-cases.html

I was going to use this case for project #7: wrongfully convicted, but it hasn't been proven yet so I just decided to write my blog about it because I found it very interesting. Under the subject of wrongfully convicted, I found a website from Alaska that works on freeing the wrongfully convicted. I found an update on this website about a man named Gregory Marino who was convicted of murder and attempted murder in 1994 with no physical evidence supporting this conviction. The reason Marino's case was on this Alaskan website is because they are raising money to get the fingerprints found at the scene tested to prove Marino's innocence. Although Marino hasn't been proved innocent yet, I feel that he is. I found an article in the Anchorage Daily News from July 7, 1994. This article states that there is no physical evidence proving that Marino committed the crime, but that a 7 year old recalls seeing him commit the murder. I find this completely ridiculous! It really shows some of the problems with our legal system. Marino has been in jail for 16 years all due to a 7 year olds memory of a nighttime murder.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1828&dat=19940707&id=-c8pAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YL4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2576,2662787

The website above is one of the articles written in 1994 about Gregory Marino and the "evidence" the proves he was guilty.

This article I found in the NewYork times is about how New York judges are trying to make it easier for people to appeal there sentencing when they are wrongfully convicted.  As of right now, people have to show that there is new evidence in the case and that their rights have been violated. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/nyregion/23innocence.html

While I was looking into an activity to do for this week, I came across this youtube clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd-5HFipAqI

This is a short clip on a man named Herman who was wrongfully convicted of a rape about 12 years ago. He served 12 years in jail until someone took up his case to prove his innocence. During the interview, Herman talks about how it had to affect his mom. I found this point to be extremely interesting because I guess I've never thought about how it affects the family members of a wrongfully convicted victim. He said that when he saw his mom for the first time she looked warn down, and aged so much. Granted that 12 years had past, I can't imagine what this would do to a mom especially because her son got convicted of a rap. I'm sure many people believe that he was guilty, so by assumption I'd guess that they viewed the family of Herman totally differently after the sentence. I tried to put myself in his moms position, and it'd be extremely hard. To have to go through 12 years of your life thinking that your son raped someone would be a concept I can't even grasp. I can only imagine that she beat herself up for it and assumed it was her fault, like any mother would do. Another interesting point in this story is the fact that Herman's dad was a police officer himself. So, as Herman said, he was raised to believe everything the court system did was just. It just goes to show that innocent people, who do believe in what the law does, can be wrongfully convicted.

Clarence Elkins-Wrongfully Convicted

 

After reading the article about the wrongful conviction of Eddie Joe Lloyd it led me to research other people who have been wrongfully convicted. This is an article about Clarence Elkins who was wrongfully convicted of raping and murdering his mother-in-law and raping his niece. He ended up serving six years in prison.  It all began one night when his niece slept over at her grandmother's house. An intruder came into the house; rapped and murdered her grandmother, and raping the young girl (Elkins' Niece). The niece claimed that she knew the intruder was her Uncle Clarence.  After testifying in court Clarence was convicted and sentenced for the rape and murder of his mother-in-law and the rape of his niece. Go a head and read about the conviction, trial details, the young nieces place in the courts decision, and how Clarence Elkins was freed an the real killer was found

 

 

http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/92.php

 

This is an article about a man that was falsely identified in a lineup and spent 22 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. I couldnt imagine the amount of frustration and agony that he experienced during the 22 years that he served! DNA finally exonerated him of the crime but only after he served his sentence. The article shows how not only a witness can falsely identify the perpetrators but also how the victim themselves can also be mislead or mistaken of the actual criminal. I thought this article was very interesting because of the amount of time it took to exonerate the accused and also that the victim was in a way unknowingly persuaded to pick the wrong person in the lineup. Its pretty scary to think that this actually occurs and the amount of actually innocent people in prison is higher them we probably assume.

http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/gwells/The_Misidentification_of_John_White.pdf

 

http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/False-Confessions.php

This website shows the reality of false confessions by giving real life examples of people who have been sentenced based of false confessions.  This website also goes into detail on why and how false confessions occur.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=920

After a decade in which DNA evidence has freed over 100 people nationwide, it's become clear that DNA evidence isn't just proving wrongdoing by criminals, it's proving wrongdoing by police and prosecutors. In this show, we look at what DNA has revealed to us: how police get innocent people to confess to crimes they didn't commit and how they get witnesses to pin crimes on innocent people. There have always been suspicions that these kinds of things take place. With DNA, there's finally irrefutable proof.

http://www.facebook.com/innocenceproject

https://people.creighton.edu/~plw92048/

 

http://www.alaskainnocence.org/

The Alaska Innocence Project is an Alaska based non-profit corporation that provides legal, educational, and charitable services to identify and exonerate individuals who have been wrongfully convicted in the state of Alaska and to provide educational opportunities that foster a culture that champions the defense of the innocent. Prior to its formatiom, individuals wrongfully convicted in Alaska could turn to the dedicate staff of the Innocence Project Northwest Clinic at the University of Washington School of Law for assistance; however, workload has forced that project to turn down requests from inmates in Alaska. To fill this need, a dedicated group of criminal attorneys, investigators, and concerned individuals banded together to form the Alaska Innocence Project. The AIP is currently staffed by an Executive Director and an intern, and overseen by a 13 member volunteer board of directors.

 

http://www.centurionministries.org/

The primary mission of Centurion Ministries is to vindicate and free from prison those who are completely innocent of the crimes for which they have been unjustly convicted and imprisoned for life or death. We also assist our clients, once they are freed, with reintegration into society on a self-reliant basis.

http://www.innocentinprison.org/

The Innocent In Prison Project International (IIPPI) is a medium, which supports errors of justice awareness. Errors of justice concern anyone. When innocent individuals are imprisoned, the guilty ones are at large and may commit more crimes. IIPPI illustrates cases of possibly false or wrongful convictions. Public documents, audio and video files enrich this website beyond detailed analysis. IIPPI has been an informative and inspiring source to students, journalists, governmental officials, activists and others since 2004.

http://www.law.uoregon.edu/org/oip/

Oregon Innocence Project ("OIP") was formed in 2005 as a clinic at the University of Oregon School of Law . The work of the organization is now carried out by student volunteers. We are a group of committed law students interested in helping innocent inmates and their attorneys with their cases.

http://blogs.luc.edu/afterinnocence/

The Life After Innocence Project advocates for innocent people adversely affected by the criminal justice system, helping them reenter society and enabling them to reclaim their rights as citizens, through individualized legal and support services and wider-reaching public policy initiatives.

http://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/innocence/

The Justice Brandeis Innocence Project addresses an ethical crisis in the United States: the incarceration of thousands of innocent people. For most, class and race make them more vulnerable to arrest and conviction and least able to afford effective legal representation.

http://twitter.com/InnocenceBlog

The twitter account of the Innocence Project - Exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system.

http://www.mtinnocenceproject.org/

The Montana Innocence Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to exonerating innocent Montana inmates and preventing future wrongful convictions. We provide the legal and investigative assistance necessary to identify and advance credible claims of innocence.
We also advocate for public policy reforms to improve the criminal justice system,
and work to educate Montanans throughout the state.

http://www.nccai.org/

The North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, established in 2000, is located in Durham, N.C. and is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The Center was founded to heighten communication and efficiency between the Innocence Projects® at Duke University School of Law and University of North Carolina School of Law. The Center now coordinates case investigations by Innocence Projects® at each of North Carolina's law schools, including Campbell, Charlotte, Duke, Elon, NCCU, UNC, and Wake Forest. Although the Center's primary resources are hundreds of North Carolina law student volunteers, necessary staffing and operating expenses are funded by grants from Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, NC IOLTA, the North Carolina Bar Foundation, the Park Foundation, and private donations. We are immensely grateful for their support. However, even with grant funding, the Center operates on a very tight budget and has never had the opportunity to staff to the level needed to efficiently meet demand for case review and investigation and opportunities for policy reform in North Carolina.