Last month, Frank Sterling was exonerated by DNA evidence after being incarcerated 18 years for a crime he did not commit. Sterling was wrongfully convicted of murdering an elderly woman in Rochester, New York in 1988. His conviction was based entirely on a false confession. In the meantime the actual killer remained free, and six years later he murdered four-year-old Kali Poulton. This tragedy leaves no question that addressing the flaws in our criminal justice system that lead to wrongful convictions is a public safety imperative.
After seventeen years, Gregory Taylor was finally freed on February 17th when the three judge panel of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission unanimously ruled to exonerate him. North Carolina created the commission to investigate and evaluate post-conviction claims of innocence in 2006 and is the first of its kind in the United States. Taylor, wrongfully convicted of first degree murder in 1993, is the first person to be exonerated by the commission.
Two more innocent men have been freed from death row. Just last week, Yancy Douglas and Paris Powell became the 137th and 138th people to be exonerated from death row. The two men were convicted of a drive-by shooting in 1993 based on the testimony of an in-custody informant who had been offered leniency from the prosecution. The prosecutors at trial withheld information about this plea-deal from the defense, which resulted in a new trial. All charges against the two men have now been dropped because of the unreliability of the in-custody informant's testimony, the only evidence that linked Douglas and Powell to the crime.
These exonerations highlight the power prosecutors have in securing convictions by utilizing in-custody informant testimony, even when no physical evidence links a defendant to the crime. Testimony by in-custody informants or "jailhouse snitches" as they are often referred, is a leading cause of wrongful convictions.
The continued lack of standard policies in the states for post-conviction DNA testing is troubling. It is time for states to act. With so many exonerations across the country proving that our criminal justice system is broken, post-conviction DNA testing offers the unique opportunity to correct mistakes and help make our criminal justice system more fair and reliable. Public safety is served when the correct person is held responsible for his or her crimes. Post-conviction DNA testing helps boost the public's confidence in the accuracy and reliability of the criminal justice system. Yet, few states have adopted standards and prosecutors often fight to deny access to such testing.
It is difficult to fathom that thirty-nine innocent Texans have spent more than five hundred years in prison for crimes they did not commit. This alarming figure is detailed in a new report issued this week by The Justice Project: Convicting the Innocent: Texas Justice Derailed.
Unfortunately, five hundred years does not reflect the actual amount of time all innocent people have spent wrongfully imprisoned in Texas because the report only focuses on individuals who were exonerated by DNA evidence, which is available in only a fraction of cases. Each DNA exoneration exposes flaws in our criminal justice system that lead to unreliable evidence and inaccurate verdicts in our courts. It is time Texas and the rest of the country confront these flaws and learn from these costly mistakes.
The costs of wrongful convictions are profound, and begin with the devastation suffered by the wrongfully convicted person and family. Everyone involved in these cases is affected, from jurors who are presented with faulty evidence, to the crime victims who are denied the justice of seeing the real perpetrator convicted. Further, every wrongful conviction undermines public safety. When the wrong person is prosecuted and convicted, the actual perpetrator remains free to commit more crimes-crimes that could have been prevented.
Last week, after spending 28 years in prison for a murder he did not commit William Dillon was finally freed. DNA testing conducted by the Florida Innocence Project convinced prosecutors in Brevard County, Florida not to re-try Dillon for the 1981 murder. A story in the Florida Today newspaper recounted the numerous acts of prosecutorial misconduct in Dillon's case that led to this miscarriage of justice.
(Increasing awareness of the rampant wrongful convictions of the innocent is an important step in the battle to roll back the Prison Industrial complex and rebut "tough on crime" conservative catchphrases. - promoted by Daniel De Groot)
Here are the top stories in criminal justice reform, taken from the Justice Newsladder.
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