News and Developments 2005: Innocence

Convictions Overturned In Pennsylvania and New Jersery through DNA Testing

Posted: August 02, 2005
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Thomas Doswell of Pennsylvania and Larry Peterson of New Jersey recently had their convictions overturned as a direct result of DNA testing.  Each defendant had serverd 18 years in prison.  In Peterson's case, the prosecution had sought the death penalty but the jury could not agree and he was sentenced to life.  His case marked the first time a New Jersey court has overturned a conviction because of DNA evidence.  Both reversals stemmed from the work of attorneys at the Innocence Project of the Benjamin Cardoza School of Law in New York City.

Though he has consistently maintained his innocence, Doswell was convicted of the 1986 rape of a nursing home employee. After a request for DNA testing filed by the Innocence Project, a Common Pleas court judge ordered evidence from the crime scene tested and the results cleared Doswell of any involvement in the crime. He was released from prison following the state's withdrawal of charges. In 1999, Doswell had filed a motion with the court to allow DNA testing, but a judge ruled in favor of prosecutors who challenged the motion because it was filed three weeks too late. "Really, this could have been taken care of in 1999. . . . I don't see it as a victory. It's a major loss of 18 years that nobody can compensate; nobody can give back. This is a guy who got railroaded," said one of Doswell's attorneys, James DePasquale. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, July 30, 2005; Associated Press, Aug. 2, 2005).

Protecting Human Life Should be at Least as Important as Protecting Property Rights

Posted: July 28, 2005
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In a recent Washington Post column, Richard Cohen compared the deep objections voiced by many Americans after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that communities can condemn property in distressed areas to make way for economic development to the tepid reaction to strong evidence that a Missouri man may have been wrongly executed for a crime he did not commit. Cohen, noting that it seems "far easier for the government to wrongfully take a life than a parcel of run-down real estate," wrote:

The city of New London, Conn., narrowly (5 to 4) won the right last month from the Supreme Court to condemn a parcel of land in a distressed part of the town to make way for economic development. The ruling has generated a tsunami of objection and an effort in many states and localities to have its effects undone . . . .

At the same time, in a far different area of the law, authorities are wondering if two men long ago convicted of murder might be innocent. This has generated almost no interest, no nationwide protest movement, suggesting that in this country it is far easier for the government to wrongfully take a life than a parcel of run-down real estate. Is this a great country or what?

New Trial Ordered for Death Row Inmate Following DNA Testing

Posted: July 26, 2005
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A North Carolina Superior Court judge orderd a new trial for death row inmate Rex Penland following DNA testing that discredited the state's case.  Penland was convicted of a rape and murder 11 years ago, but DNA testing at the time of his trial was inconclusive.  More recent testing was favorable to Penland and did not place him at the scene of the crime.  Penland was convicted largely on the basis of testimony from his two nephews who were also involved in the crime.  Ken Rose, one of the Penland's attorneys, said: "I think there are substantial questions about whether they got the wrong person.  We have other evidence calling into question the [nephews'] testimony."

Editorial Criticizes Proposed Bill to Limit Death Penalty Appeals

Posted: July 25, 2005
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A recent Philadelphia Inquirer editorial criticized the proposed "Streamlined Procedures Act," federal legislation that would deny or sharply restrict the reach of federal judges in hearing habeas-corpus claims from those on death row. Noting that the measure would increase the possibility of executing an innocent person, the editorial stated:

Amid Washington lawmakers' latest drive to further restrict the appeals of (capital) defendants, they need to recognize what could be at risk with their tough-on-crime crackdown - innocent lives.

In both Senate and House versions, the innocently titled Streamlined Procedures Act amounts to an unconscionable assault on federal court oversight of the fairness of criminal trials in the state courts.

The Republican-sponsored measure would deny or sharply restrict the reach of federal judges in hearing habeas-corpus claims from convicts. These claims range from whether adequate legal counsel was provided to indigent (and often minority) defendants, on up to whether an innocent person may have been convicted wrongly.

Massachusetts Governor's Proposed Death Penalty Law Meets Strong Opposition at Hearing

Posted: July 19, 2005
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Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney recently testified that the proposed "foolproof" death penalty statute he hopes will bring capital punishment back to the state does not eliminate the possibility that an innocent person could be executed. Romney acknowledged to members of the joint House and Senate Judiciary Committee that the proposed law cannot protect the state against the potential for human error, stating, "A 100 percent guarantee? I don't think there's such a thing in life. Except perhaps death - for all of us."

Representative Michael A. Costellow, one of the lawmakers who questioned Romney during the hearing, said that the Governor's admission "does knock out the initial premise" that the plan is foolproof, adding, "I think they put the best and the brightest together to try to come up with a foolproof policy, and it isn't foolproof."

POSSIBLE INNOCENCE: Doubts Linger About Guilt of Arizona Juvenile Offender

Posted: July 19, 2005
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More than a decade after juvenile offender Martin Soto Fong and two other men were tried and sentenced to death in Arizona, questions about Fong's guilt linger and are underscored by the fact that he is the only one of the three men to remain convicted of the crime. The prosecutor who won their convictions, Kenneth Peasley, was disbarred last year for intentionally eliciting false testimony to win capital murder convictions in the re-trials of Soto's co-defendants, Christopher McCrimmon and Andre Minnit. McCrimmon was aquitted in a retrial and Minnit was released when the Arizona Supreme Court vacated his conviction. 

In ordering Peasley's disbarment, a rarity for someone of his stature, the state Supreme Court stated, "We cannot conceive of a more serious injury, not just to the defendants but to the criminal justice system, than a prosecutor's presentation of false testimony in capital murder cases." Though Fong was removed from death row after the Supreme Court outlawed the execution of juvenile offenders earlier this year, he remains in jail and those familiar with Peasley's misconduct believe Fong may be innocent. "I do not believe McCrimmon and Minnit did this. I have seriously strong doubts about Fong," notes Karen Clark, the State Bar of Arizona attorney who headed the effort to disbar Peasley. Clark states that among the problems with Soto's case are 2 police reports covering the same anonymous tip that name different suspects.

Execution of Arguably Innocent Man Spurs Reaction

Posted: July 15, 2005
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Following an investigation indicating that Missouri may have executed an innocent man for the 1980 murder of Quintin Moss, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote that the case was filled with problems that are typical of wrongful convictions in capital cases. Herbert stated that St. Louis circuit attorney Jennifer Joyce has taken "the extraordinary step of officially reopening a murder investigation after the defendant was executed," adding that it is difficult to prove that an innocent person has been executed because official investigations cease once the death penalty has been carried out. Herbert wrote:

If Larry Griffin were being tried today for the murder of Quintin Moss, he would almost certainly be acquitted. The evidence is overwhelming that he did not kill Mr. Moss.

But Mr. Griffin is not being tried today. He has already been executed for the murder.

Investigation Finds Executed Man May Have Been Innocent

Posted: July 12, 2005
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A year-long investigation by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund has uncovered evidence that Larry Griffin may have been innocent of the crime for which he was executed by the state of Missouri on June 21, 1995. Griffin maintained his innocence until his death, and investigators say his case is the strongest demonstration yet of an execution of an innocent man. The report notes that a man injured in the same drive-by shooting that claimed the life of Quintin Moss says Griffin was not involved in the crime, and the first police officer on the scene has given a new account that undermines the trial testimony of the only witness who identified Griffin as the murderer. Based on its findings, the NAACP has supplied the prosecution with the names of three men it suspects committed the crime, and all three of the suspects are currently in jail for other murders.  Prosecutor Jennifer Joyce said she has reopened the investigation and will conduct a comprehensive review of the case over the next few months. "There is no real doubt that we have an innocent person. If we could go to trial on this case, if there was a forum where we could take this to trial, we would win hands down," stated University of Michigan law professor Samuel Gross, who supervised the investigation into Griffin's case.