http://www.thejusticeproject.org Increasing Fairness and Accuracy in the Criminal Justice System Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:55:04 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en By John F. Terzano 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 ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/blog/recording-interrogations-is-a-public-safety-imperative/ By John F. Terzano On April 5th Ohio Governor Ted Strickland signed a reform bill that will help reduce wrongful convictions and improve the fairness and accuracy of our criminal justice system. Among the measures included are safeguards to improve the eyewitness identification process by requiring police to use a ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/blog/ohio-latest-in-reform-trend-to-prevent-wrongful-convictions/ By John F. Terzano San Francisco’s top public defender, Jeff Adachi, recently called for the city’s crime lab to become independent of the police department. This announcement comes on the heels of a series of scandals in the San Francisco Police Department’s forensic laboratory initiated by the discovery that a criminalist ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/blog/crime-labs-need-independence-and-robust-oversight-to-ensure-justice/ By John F. Terzano Earlier this month, Orleans Parish District Judge Lynda Van Davis granted a new trial for Michael Anderson, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in a trial plagued with problematic evidence. Prosecutors have appealed the ruling and indicated that they will go forward with a retrial ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/blog/jailhouse-snitches-sabotage-justice-with-unreliable-evidence/ Texas has seen more than its share of controversy surrounding forensic science in recent months. Most recently, the Houston Chronicle reported that an audit of the Houston Crime Lab’s fingerprint division identified problems in more than half of the 548 cases selected for review. The problems discovered were serious enough to ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/texas/texas-reform-news/latest-forensic-flap/ On March 1 Texas Governor Rick Perry officially pardoned Timothy Cole, who was wrongfully convicted over two decades ago. Tragically, the DNA tests that proved Cole’s innocence came too late: he died in prison in 1999 while serving time for a rape he did not commit. A faulty lineup led ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/texas/texas-reform-news/cole-pardon-a-stark-reminder-of-the-need-to-fix-eyewitness-procedures-2/ By John F. Terzano 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 ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/blog/another-exoneration-demonstrates-the-need-for-criminal-justice-reform/ By Edwin Colfax On March 1 Texas Governor Rick Perry officially pardoned Timothy Cole, who was wrongfully convicted over two decades ago. Tragically, the DNA tests that proved Cole’s innocence came too late: he died in prison in 1999 while serving time for a rape he did not commit. A faulty ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/blog/cole-pardon-a-stark-reminder-of-the-need-to-fix-eyewitness-procedures/ By John F. Terzano Concerns about the validity of forensic evidence have come to the fore in recent years following a series of wrongful convictions and other scandals across the country. The National Academies of Science (NAS) identified a number of systemic flaws that demand attention in their 2009 report Strengthening ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/blog/meaningful-oversight-is-necessary-for-reliable-forensic-science/ By John F. Terzano On the last day of 2009, federal district court judge Ricardo Urbina dismissed homicide charges against five former Blackwater security guards involved in a shooting that killed fourteen Iraqi civilians in 2007. Judge Urbina’s decision cites egregious prosecutorial misconduct by the federal prosecutors handling the case as ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/blog/failing-to-punish-prosecutorial-misconduct-only-invites-more/ Recent Cases Highlight the Risk of False Confessions Two remarkably similar cases recently prompted the Chicago Tribune to ask, “What causes people to give false confessions?” In 2005 police elicited a confession from Jerry Hobbs to the murder of his young daughter and her friend in Lake County, Illinois. Recently, however, ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/home/in-the-news/ By John F. Terzano A spate of recent news reports has called into question the objectivity of some forensic evidence and highlighted the need for effective oversight mechanisms for the nation’s crime labs. Fingerprint analysts told The Missouri Lawyer that when police officers have access to the labs, they often ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/blog/forensic-lab-problems-cry-out-for-more-oversight-and-quality-standards/ By John F. Terzano As advocates of justice, prosecutors play a unique and powerful role in our justice system. Yet too often, prosecutors fall prey to a pervasive “convict at all costs” culture, and neglect their ethical duty to protect the innocent and guard the rights of the accused. The recent ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/blog/prosecutors-must-seek-justice-not-merely-convictions/ In June of 1993, Kirk Bloodsworth’s case became the first capital conviction in the United States to be overturned as a result of DNA testing. On July 25, 1984, a    nine-year-old girl was found dead in a wooded area. She had been beaten with a rock, sexually assaulted, and strangled. ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/kirk/kirk-bloodsworth-story/ By Edwin Colfax Texas has seen more than its share of controversy surrounding forensic science in recent months. Most recently, the Houston Chronicle reported that an audit of the Houston Crime Lab’s fingerprint division identified problems in more than half of the 548 cases selected for review. The problems discovered were serious ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/blog/latest-texas-forensic-flap-shows-major-gaps-in-oversight-of-scientific-evidence/ By Kirk Noble Bloodsworth Forest Shomberg walked free from a Wisconsin prison last month after serving six years for a crime he did not commit. Thanks to post-conviction DNA testing and increasing awareness of the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard announced that the county will not ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/blog/another-case-of-mistaken-eyewitness-identification/ By John F. Terzano Shoddy forensic science has led to a major setback in a murder investigation that could close the door on efforts to bring the killer to justice. The family of murder victim Suzanne Jovin was recently informed that the DNA evidence in her case was useless because it ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/blog/mistakes-continue-to-highlight-the-need-for-forensic-science-oversight/ By John F. Terzano All too often, prosecutors’ offices fall prey to a culture of conviction-seeking at all costs. Prosecutors who become singularly focused on conviction rates often neglect their ethical duty to protect the innocent and guard the rights of the accused. The Kern County District Attorney’s Office in California ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/blog/changing-the-%e2%80%9cconvict-at-all-costs%e2%80%9d-culture-of-prosecutor%e2%80%99s-offices/ “Strengthening Our Criminal Justice System: Extending the Innocence Protection Act” John Terzano's written testimony http://www.thejusticeproject.org/testimony/sentate-judiciary-committee/ Single-suspect identification procedures, or show-ups, are inherently suggestive and should only be used when necessary and with proper safeguards. The Justice Project has released a report based on an extensive review of police agency policies regarding show-ups. The study documents an alarming lack of written policies ... http://www.thejusticeproject.org/reports/show-ups-in-texas-a-review-of-single-suspect-eyewitness-identification-policies/