Hello, My Name Is....The Faces of Wrongful Conviction
At UCLA this weekend, attendees at the Faces of Wrongful Conviction Conference, got to hear first hand from those whom the system in California failed.
One by one they ascended the stage and introduced themselves, each an embodiment of the legal system's fallibility in California. My name is Herman Atkins," a tall ponytailed man said. "The state of California stole 12 years of my life for a rape and robbery I did not commit in Riverside."
"Good morning, my name is Gloria Killian," a well-spoken middle-aged woman said. "The state stole 22 years of my life for a robbery and murder I did not commit in Sacramento." "Good morning. My name is Ken Marsh," a third speaker said. "The state took 21 years of my life for a murder I did not commit in San Diego in 1983."Seventeen people in all reiterated the point to a packed ballroom at UCLA on Saturday: that although they now were free, countless other innocent people are imprisoned in the state. ...They took part in the event, called "The Faces of Wrongful Conviction," to dramatize the flaws in the state's criminal justice system.
Who are they and what caused their wrongful convictions?
There were whites, African Americans, Latinos, an Asian American and a Native American.
....Summaries of their cases indicate they were victims of such problems as inaccurate eyewitness identifications, unreliable jailhouse informants, the failure of police and prosecutors to disclose exculpatory evidence and faulty forensics.
Our criminal justice system is flawed. We need to fix it. When the innocent get convicted, the guilty go free.
From the Factsheet (pdf):
- Across the country, 123 people have been exonerated and released from death row since 1973.
- The average time spent in prison by persons who were sentenced to death and later found to be wrongfully convicted is nine years.
- There are approximately 650 current death row inmates in California. Since 1981, six people have been freed from death row as a result of proven wrongful convictions.
- A 2004 study of over 30 cases of wrongful conviction in California indicates that African Americans have been wrongfully convicted at a much higher rate than people of other races and that the majority of wrongful convictions occur in just a few counties
The primary causes of wrongful convictions:
The three primary causes of wrongful conviction are:
* False and unreliable evidence
* Illegal conduct and serious errors by police and prosecutors
* Lack of adequate defense
Furthermore, these factors rarely operate in isolation.
The Center on Wrongful Convictions of Northwestern University School of Law identifies four types of false or unreliable evidence:
- False testimony by informant or "snitch" witnesses
- Incorrect eyewitness identification
- False confessions
- False or unreliable forensic evidence or "junk science"
More information is available at The Innocence Project.
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