For most Americans, spending one day behind bars for somebody else’s crime would be difficult. Twenty innocent individuals in Georgia, however, spent nearly 170 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. In Convicting the Innocent in Georgia: Stories of Injustice and the Reforms that Can Prevent Them, The Justice Project highlights the cases of these twenty individuals and presents Georgia with common sense solutions that must be implemented in order to improve the quality of evidence used in criminal cases and reduce the risk of wrongful convictions.
Georgia’s criminal justice system is in serious need of reform. Mistaken eyewitness testimony is largely recognized as the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the United States, and Georgia is no exception. Of the twenty men highlight in this report, half were convicted on the basis of mistaken eyewitness identifications. Prosecutorial misconduct also plays a significant role in Georgia’s wrongful convictions. Half of the individuals in this report were prosecuted by attorneys who either deliberately or inadvertently failed to meet their legal, ethical, or constitutional obligations. Wrongful convictions are also caused by false jailhouse informant testimony, faulty forensic testimony or methods, and inadequate defense counsel.
Convicting the Innocent in Georgia outlines the common causes that lead to wrongful convictions and provides Georgia with a clear path towards a more fair and accurate criminal justice system.
The Justice Project’s Recommendations for Georgia’s Criminal Justice System
|
Profiles of Injustice
Robert Clark
In 1982, Robert Clark was convicted of kidnapping, rape, and armed robbery after the victim misidentified him as her attacker during a suggestive lineup. In 2005, DNA testing exonerated Clark and identified another individual as the true perpetrator. Robert Clark spent nearly twenty-four years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
Jerry Banks
In the late 1970s, Jerry Banks was tried and convicted twice for the murder of two people in Henry County, Georgia. In both cases, inadequate legal representation and the suppression of exculpatory evidence contributed to Bank’s wrongful convictions. Jerry Banks spent six years on death row before new volunteer lawyers got his conviction overturned on the basis of newly discovered evidence. Prosecutors dropped all charges against him when the chief detective in the case was implicated in evidence tampering.
Calvin Johnson
In 1983, mistaken eyewitnesses and inaccurate forensic testimony led to Calvin Johnson’s conviction of the rape of a young woman in College Park, Georgia. After two rapes and several attempted assaults, police put together a photo line up to show the victims. Because the victim said the attacker was clean shaven, police included a picture of a clean-shaven Johnson in the photo lineup – at the time Johnson had a full beard and mustache. Three of the four victims chose Johnson as their attacker, though later in a live line up, they each identified another suspect. At trial, misleading testimony by a forensic expert convinced the jury of Johnson’s guilt despite Johnson’s alibi and corroborating witnesses. In 1999, DNA testing proved that Calvin Johnson was innocent, after sixteen years behind bars.
