The news that DNA testing has shown that the five black and hispanic youths convicted of the brutal 1989 rape of a white Central Park jogger were not the actual rapists has a black police officers' group calling for a new inquiry.

"The advocacy group questioned the manner in which the original confessions were obtained and the ability of those who initially prosecuted the case to investigate themselves. "

"We believe that because of the demand to bring someone to justice from this crime, we believe that there is a strong possibility that there may have been overzealous policing and overzealous prosecuting," said Lt. Eric Adams, a co-founder of the group, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care"

The youths have served time and been released. Another youth, not charged in the original attack, has since confessed. Atrios/Eschaton and Body and Soul have some terrific comments on this outrage.

Update Sept. 11--Read the Village Voice article on this, Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, The Innocence Project reports that in Illinois "twelve people had been executed and thirteen freed from death row after their innocence was proven, five of them due to postconviction DNA testing" by the time Governor Ryan issued his death penalty moratorium two years ago.

Not all wrongful convictions can be established by DNA evidence. Ineffective assistance of counsel is a significant cause of wrongful convictions. According to The Innocence Project, in a study of the first 70 cases of wrongful convictions, 23 involved bad lawyering.

Howard Bashman of <a href="How Appealing found today's 7th Circuit decision granting a habeas action and reversing the conviction of mentally ill Johnnie Brown due to ineffectiveness of counsel in a case the court describes as a "tragic breakdown" of the state's justice system.

"This case exposes a tragic breakdown in the Cook County, Illinois criminal justice system. A mentally ill criminal defendant of recent vintage was arrested, put on trial, convicted of armed robbery, and sentenced to a term of thirty years without anyone taking proper notice of the fact that this same defendant had been diagnosed on more than one occasion, confined and treated (from 1986-88), and medicated intermittently for chronic schizophrenia for an extended period of years. "

"His court-appointed attorneys provided a halfhearted defense, neglecting to thoroughly investigate his medical condition and failing to procure medical Records establishing that he suffered from a myriad of psychiatric problems."

"Thereafter, the attorneys proffered self-serving affidavits once their lackadaisical lawyering was revealed and challenged. Their less-than-lawyer-like attention to duty caused problems for the court-appointed psychologist and psychiatrist. These doctors, relying on inadequate data, filed reports with the court that could best be classified as incomplete, as they ignored essential documentation of his medical history (i.e., his past psychiatric records), a basic element and requirement of any competency evaluation, and furthermore overlooked important information easily ascertainable from the defendant’s family members. "

"The state probation officer, in preparing the pre-sentence investigative report, neglected to interview the defendant’s family members, to make a thorough inquiry about Brown’s prior confinement, (i.e., his adjustment to his institution), to investigate the circumstances surrounding his general discharge from the Navy, or his mental health history. Thus, the sentencing judge was less than well-informed of critical information, including the Defendant’s long and welldocumented history of mental illness, as well as his prolonged period of treatment and confinement in a psychiatric unit during his prior imprisonment."

The opinion concludes with the following sobering language:

"This case is a striking example of a legal system that processed this defendant as a number rather than as a human being; it signals a breakdown of a process that might very well be in need of review, adjustment, and repair. Brown’s psychiatric illness was not given so much as a sideways glance by the parties involved. Not only did Brown’s public defender trial attorneys drop the ball; so did the court-appointed mental health doctors (a psychologist and a psychiatrist) and probation officer, all of whom failed to conduct even a sufficient inquiry into his family background and extensive medical history. As a result, the state trial court proceeded without any awareness of his condition. We have a record before us that mandates—in the interest of justice—the conclusion that Brown was denied his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel on the grounds that his counsels’ failure to investigate his history of mental illness prejudiced the outcome of his trial."

Steve Glassroth, Montgomery, Ala. criminal defense lawyer and member of the board of directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, has an op-ed piece in today's Montgomery Advertiser on the Innocence Protection Act. It provides a thorough analysis of the pending bill and points out a fact too often overlooked:

"...for every wrongful conviction, a real criminal remains free to prey on others. "

For details, visit the Innocence Project, the website of Senator Patrick Leahy and the Justice Project-- all are a wealth of information on the pending legislation-- and then pick up the phone or fax a letter.

The Hamster today has a recap of death penalty statistices from the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

"*Twenty three (23) innocent people have been mistakenly executed this century. Each year, approximately 4.5 people are convicted of capital crimes who are actually innocent. Over 100 people have been released since 1972 as a result of being wrongly convicted. "

According to the latest numbers from the Innocence Project which tracks the exonerations, there are now 110 people who have been freed from prison as a result of being found factually innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted.

The system is broken and needs to be fixed. Thanks, Hamster, for bringing it to our attention today.

For more, see our post on the 110th exoneration of Eddie Joe Lloydthis past week.

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While we are on the subject of false confessions and wrongful convictions, don't miss Daily Kos: Karma not on Ryan's side.

The Rolando Cruz case is one of the most infamous examples ever of police misconduct. We hadn't realized until Kos pointed it out the original prosecutor in the case, Jim Ryan, is now a candidate for Governor in Illinois. He's trailing in the polls which we agree, is his kharmic due.

Just to add a few more details about the Cruz false confession from the Northwestern University Legal Clinic:

"In his third trial in 1995 a key State's witness, Lieutenant James Montesano, recanted his earlier testimony that he was informed by Cruz's interrogators that Cruz gave a "dream statement" in which he related details of the crime only the killer could know. Montesano testified that he had actually been out of state at the time of Cruz's interrogation, so could not have been told of the alleged statement -- a confession which was neither videotaped nor even mentioned in police records. "

"Additionally, there was no other physical evidence nor any witnesses linking Cruz to the crime. After hearing the Lieutenant's recantation, DuPage County Circuit Court Judge Ronald Mehling delivered a verdict in Cruz's favor, ending the ordeal. "

"Only a year after Cruz was first incarcerated, another man, Brian Dugan, confessed to killing Nicarico after pleading guilty to raping and killing another girl and a woman. He has not been tried of the Nicarico murder, however, because prosecutors say that inconsistencies in his story make him unbelievable. "

They quote as sources:

Ken Armstrong & Christi Parsons, Half of State's Death-Penalty Cases Reversed; A Variety of Errors Found in 130 Trials, Chi. Trib., Jan. 22, 2000, at 1.

Man Jailed 12 Years is Freed in Trial for Girl's Killing; Acquittal Comes After Twice Being Convicted, Balt. Sun, Nov. 5, 1995 at 18A.

Eddie Joe Lloyd's confession had his signature, but the DNA did not. He is about to be released from prison after serving 18 years for a murder he did not commit.

Here's what happened:

After a series of fatal child abductions in Detroit, including the brutal rape and murder of 16 year old Michelle Jackson, the city was on edge.

Eddie Joe Lloyd was an involuntarily-committed patient at a mental hospital. He wrote the police letters about the crime. They came to the mental hospital to question him. He confessed. His detailed account, contained in a six page statement and on tape, was described as "chillingly accurate."

But...the confession was false.

"At a hearing on Monday, prosecutors and defense attorneys will appear together before the judge who sentenced Mr. Lloyd to life in prison in 1985, lamenting as he did so Michigan's lack of the death penalty. They plan to present DNA evidence to show that Mr. Lloyd is the wrong man and request his release."

What went wrong?

Barry C. Scheck, the co-director of the Innocence Project and Mr. Lloyd's lawyer, says "This cop had to know, he had to know, that he was feeding a paranoid schizophrenic guy, a guy with a mental disorder, in a mental institution, facts in order to clear a major homicide so everybody could look good," Mr. Scheck said. "If you permit this kind of questioning, you're going to end up not just with innocent people in jail but the real perpetrators still out there."

Scheck is calling for the criminal prosecution of case detective Thomas De Galan. He also has called for misconduct investigations into William Rice, the sergeant who oversaw the case, and the prosecutor, Timothy Kenny, because biological evidence available at the time that could have cleared Mr. Lloyd was never pursued.

Eddie Joe Lloyd will be the 110th person freed from jail after DNA evidence has proven their factual innocence. About 20% of these wrongful conviction cases involve false confessions.

A fairly simple remedy exists: Require the police to videotape all confessions. Currently only two states, Minnesota and Alaska, require this.

Michelle Jackson's case has been reopened. The DNA doesn't match anyone in the DNA databases. As with most of the 110 cases of wrongful convictions, this means that the real killer is still out there.

Now that's chilling.

Joseph Salvati spent 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. The New York Times reports today that he has provided notice to the Department of Justice that he will sue the F.B.I. for $300 million.

The unusual part about his case is that the FBI, including J. Edgar Hoover, knew Salvati didn't commit the murder and let him languish in jail anyway. They were protecting their informants.

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation had evidence ahead of time that two well-known gangsters were planning a murder and that the head of the New England Mafia was involved."

"But when indictments in the case were handed down in 1967, the real killers — who also happened to be informers for the F.B.I. — were left alone. Four other men were tried, convicted and sentenced to death or life in prison for the murder, though they had had nothing to do with it."

Mr. Salvati's case "is the latest in a series of lawsuits against the F.B.I., the Justice Department and some F.B.I. agents growing out of the tangled, corrupt collaboration between gangsters and the F.B.I.'s Boston office in its effort to bring down the mob."

"The lawsuits are based on evidence uncovered in the last five years in a judicial hearing and a Justice Department inquiry. The documents show that officials at F.B.I. headquarters, apparently including Mr. Hoover, knew as long ago as 1965 that Boston agents were employing killers and gang leaders as informers and were protecting them from prosecution."

The new investigation has already taken down one retired agent, John J. Connolly. A jury recently convicted Connolly on racketeering and obstruction of justice charges for helping two other mob leaders who were F.B.I. informers, James Bulger and Stephen Flemmi. He is awaiting sentencing.

Salvati had his sentence commuted in 1997, and the murder charges were officially dismissed against him last year.

Two of his innocent but convicted co-defendants were not so lucky. They died in jail.

The fourth defendant, Peter Limone, was sentenced to die in the electric chair. His death sentence was overturned in 1974 when Massachussetts abolished its death penalty.

Limone and survivors of the two who died in prison have sued the FBI for $375 million.

There's one more unusual aspect to Mr. Salvati's case: His wife Marie stood by him during the 30 years he spent in prison and visited him every week.

The Salvatis now reside in a modest apartment in Boston's North End.

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The Cardozo Law School Innocence Project, led by esteemed lawyers Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, have a new, continually updated feature on their website called DNA News.

The column is written by Peter J. McQuillan , who retired in 1992 after serving 21 years as a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court. He is presently a member of the State Commission on Forensic Science and the Criminal Jury Instructions Committee.

We highly recommend adding the column to your bookmarks.

From the Death Penalty Information Center

Another Innocent Defendant Released From Death Row:

Kentucky Acquits Juvenile, Nation's 102nd Mistake

Larry Osborne became the nation's 102nd exonerated death row inmate since 1973 when he was acquitted of all charges and freed on August 1 in Kentucky. The Kentucky Supreme Court reversed his conviction because the trial court allowed inadmissible hearsay testimony from a witness, Joe Reid. [Commonwealth v. Osborne, 43 S.W.2d 234 (Ky. 2001)] Reid passed away prior to the original trial and, therefore, could not face cross-examination. Osborne was sentenced to death in 1999 following his conviction for the murder of two elderly victims in Whitley County, Ky. Osborne was only 17 at the time of the crime. He is the fourth exonerated death row inmate in the nation this year.

See Louisville Courier-Journal, August 2, 2002.

Read DPIC's Press Release.

See also, Innocence

Larry Johnson, the Missouri man who has served 18 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit was freed from prison today.

Read our prior post on it, and why no thanks goes to the prosecutor.

Larry Johnson has served 18 years of a life sentence for a rape he did not commit. He is about to be freed since DNA tests have confirmed he could not have been the rapist.

We would like to note his counsel's comments in the article about the prosecutrix, Jennifer Joyce, who is now trying to sound sorry about the conviction and waste of a man's adulthood.

Barry Scheck, co-director of the New York-based Innocence Project, said Joyce was "personally responsible" for a two-year delay in freedom for Johnson.

"We have found she has been one of the most obstinate district attorneys in the United States, with respect to DNA testing," Scheck said. "By obstinately refusing to go along with testing ... she is getting in the way of innocent people getting out of jail.... She deserves no credit for the case."

We join Scheck and others in calling for Joyce to stop opposing DNA testing for inmates asserting factual innocence and to drop all "frivolous" appeals.