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."