Crime Labs at Risk

June 11th, 2009

Budget cuts stemming from state spending crunches caused by the economic downturn are placing crime labs at risk in Wisconsin and North Carolina and negatively impacting resources available to the nation’s law enforcement community. In Wisconsin, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen is spearheading lobbying efforts to restore $5.4 million in budget cuts to the justice department that are scheduled to take effect between 2009 and 2011. The Chicago Tribune reports that, “Van Hollen said those cuts … could result in evidence backlogs at the state crime labs, agency attorneys turning down cases and delays in responding to local police’s requests for help.” Similarly, cuts in North Carolina have placed a Greensboro crime lab on the chopping block, threatening to cut off a valuable scientific resource to law enforcement officials in up to 12 counties. These budget reductions place an added burden on the police community that increases the potential for backlogs and errors that could delay the justice system and increase the probability of improper convictions.

Texas Inmate Exonerated by DNA Evidence

June 4th, 2009

On May 27, 2009, after 22 years in prison for a rape that he did not commit, 47 year old Jerry Lee Evans was exonerated by DNA evidence making him the 20th inmate in Dallas County to have his conviction successfully overturned. According to the Dallas News, Evans made a brief address where he commented that he bore “no ill will” towards the court and was greeted by family members and several previously exonerated inmates who meet regularly as a support group. His release comes amid the backdrop of a failed attempt at state legislation reforming Texas’ system for handling DNA evidence and addressing the state’s unusually large number of wrongful convictions.

To read more:
“Says DNA Exoneree Jerry Lee Evans of His Freedom, ‘I Knew It Would Come One Day’”, The Dallas Observer, Read the article.

Investigative Reporting Cuts Limiting Pursuit of Justice

June 4th, 2009

Cutbacks in investigative journalism budgets and the general shrinking of the funding of newspapers nationwide has had the unforeseen effect of restricting lawyers’ abilities to pursue the cases of potentially wrongly convicted and incarcerated individuals. This downsizing in reporting has reduced the number of sources outside the legal world that are performing research and independently investigating miscarriages of justice. A lively outside source of investigation is important for procedural attempts to gain access to evidence and the dissemination of information to the public. Tim Arango of the New York Times recently reported that “media involvement provides lawyers’ with the ability to have the media act as the plaintiff in posthumous cases to obtain information through state sunshine laws in addition to performing an informative role when procedural mechanisms begin to fail, [and] the press is the last resort for the public to find out the truth.” Media investigations have also fallen out of practice for non-economic reasons as editors have become increasingly reluctant to mix reporting with what they perceive as law enforcement functions. Reporter Eamonn O’Neil has recently addressed this issue in a series on miscarriages of justice in The Guardian commenting that “the media has a duty to wrongfully accused.” The future of investigative journalism may will most likely be closely tied to the ability for lawyers to use the media as a force multiplier in the hunt to exonerate wrongly convicted individuals.

Texas ‘Innocence Committee’ Legislation Fails

June 4th, 2009

In an attempt to reduce the number of wrongful convictions, the Texas state legislature recently attempted to craft a series of bills intended to “expand prisoner access to DNA testing, clarify how to handle pardoning innocent Texans after their death and change how departments interrogate and collect eyewitness evidence” (Elliot Blackburn, Lubbock Online). Calls for action were spurred by the high rate of wrongful conviction in the State and the posthumous exoneration of Timothy Cole in 2008 for an incorrect rape conviction. Passage was eventually derailed by the close of the legislative session on Monday, June 1, 2009, after debates over photo identification requirements for voting pushed the issue off the agenda. State Governor Rick Perry did recently sign a bill providing compensation to wrongly convicted individuals and members of the Senate hope to renew the attempts at reform in the next session.

DNa Testing Under Fire

June 4th, 2009

Despite state statutes protecting the ability of defendants to utilize DNA testing as evidence in their trials, recent studies have revealed a nationwide tendency for prosecutors to attempt to deny the admissibility and reliability of this forensic data. According to Shaila Dewan of the New York Times, “a recent analysis of 225 DNA exonerations by Brandon L. Garrett, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, found that prosecutors opposed DNA testing in almost one out of five cases.” This prosecutorial backlash against DNA evidence is largely attributed to the desire to “to avoid having their work second-guessed by objective science,” (The Right to DNA Testing, New York Times) and the perception that attempts to obtain DNA tests are often a delay tactic to merely postpone inevitable convictions on other grounds. Attempts to block DNA testing and admissibility presents a problem for poorly represented defendants who have a significant path towards proving their innocence blocked and hampers the effectiveness of the criminal justice system by preventing the possibility of the discovery of guilty third parties.

To read more:
Professor Brandon Garrett’s Analysis, Read the analysis.
“Study: Prosecutors Resist DNA Testing”, United Press International, Read the study.