Grits for Breakfast examines one of the many problems at a troubled Houston crime lab: a "team spirit" mentality that places lab workers in a mindset that they are on the prosecution's team. (gritsforbreakfast.com)
Here are the top stories in criminal justice reform, taken from the Justice Newsladder.
Ron Taylor, who was exonerated by DNA evidence after spending 15 years of a 60 year sentence for a rape conviction, was pardoned by Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Taylor suffered the brunt of a double whammy of inaccuracy that led to his conviction: faulty eyewitness identification that was "corroborated" by results from Houston's since discredited crime lab. Misconduct in the HPD crime lab has led to 3 exonerations. (gritsforbreakfast.com)
HPD announced that the crime lab, which has been shut down twice because of shoddy work, inadequate training and poor management, will be reopening soon under the management of Laura Gahn, who was worked in private DNA labs for 12 years. Gahn faces the challenge not only of getting DNA testing back online at the lab, but of restoring the lab's badly damaged credibility. (click2houston.com)
Here are the top stories in criminal justice reform, taken from the Justice Newsladder.
The Texas state criminal appeals court officially exonerated Thomas Clifford McGowan, who spent 25 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. The rape victim picked McGowan from a photo lineup of seven men, saying she "thought" he was the attacker. Police pressed her to say she was certain it was him - McGowan and his attorneys said they initiated a "forced choice response" from the victim. His conviction was overturned by DNA evidence. (pr.inside.com)
Some of the current and former Dallas County prosecutors responsible for sending 17 innocent men to prison for a total of 282 years spoke about those cases for the first time this week. Some feel remorse and regret while others contend they were just doing their jobs. (www.texaslawyer.com)
Here are the top stories in criminal justice reform, taken from the Justice Newsladder.
Tennessee will retry death row inmate Paul House but will not seek the death penalty. The decision meets a deadline set by the U.S. Supreme Court to retry or free House by June 17. In June 2006, the Court concluded that reasonable jurors would not have convicted House if they had seen the results of DNA tests from the 1990s. House has been in prison since 1986. (www.tennessean.com)
Here are the top stories in criminal justice reform, taken from the Justice Newsladder.
Nine DNA exonerees told their stories at the Texas state Capitol last week, underscoring the state's need for an innocence commission; Texas has had 33 DNA exonerations, more than any other state, and yet Dallas County is the only one of Texas's 254 counties that stores biological evidence in all criminal cases. (dallasnews.com)
Here are the top stories in criminal justice reform, taken from the Justice Newsladder.
Dallas prosecutor Mike Ware is backing the shift to mandatory double-blind photo lineups. Dallas County has overturned more wrongful convictions based on DNA evidence than any other county in America. (gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com)
The Tennessee Senate's measure that would require taping of police interrogations is up for deliberation in the Judiciary Committee this week. The measure would follow motions taken elsewhere to reduce the number of false confessions, like the one instituted by the Detroit Police Department which requires videotaped interrogations of all suspects facing a possible life sentence. The Detroit measure came after a retarded man spent 17 years in prison for confessing to a rape and murder which he did not commit. (commercialappeal.com)
Lastly, there's the harrowing story of Herbie Gonzalez of Los Angeles. Gonzalez spent 193 days in custody for a high-profile murder before a judge threw out the charges due to his interrogators' false promises of leniency which caused him to make an incriminating statement, and evidence that he was not fully made aware of his Miranda rights. Detectives have since found a suspect whose DNA matches evidence found at the crime scene. (laweekly.com)
The Justice Project, an organization which aims to address unfairness and inaccuracy in the American criminal justice system, is proud to sponsor the Justice Newsladder, a new tool to find the top news and articles about criminal justice reform.
