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News and Developments 2006: Innocence

Inmates With Severe Mental Illness Underscore Broader Death Penalty Problems

Posted: December 27, 2006
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In his final article for 2006, columnist Richard Cohen (pictured) chose to highlight the "madness of the death penalty" and to draw attention to the execution of those with mental illness. Cohen used the case of Gregory Thompson, a severely mentally ill Tennessee death row inmate, to illustrate some of the broader problems with the death penalty.

Pennsylvania Commission to Study Innocence Cases

Posted: November 29, 2006
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Pennsylvania State Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced the formation of an advisory committee to examine the cases of people who have been wrongly convicted in the state.  The commission will consist of about 30 members drawn from the state's prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, corrections officials, police, victim advocates and others. The commission will report its findings and recommendations to the Senate by Nov. 30, 2008.

NEW RESOURCES: Papers from "The Faces of Wrongful Conviction" Symposium

Posted: October 30, 2006
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The Fall 2006 edition of the Golden Gate University Law Review contains papers from the recent Symposium entitled "The Faces of Wrongful Conviction" that was held at UCLA in April 2006.  The journal includes articles by Simon Cole on fingerprint evidence, by Alexandra Natapoff on the use of snitches, by Craig Haney on expanding beyond innocence when examining injustices in capital cases, and by Thomas Sullivan on the recording of custodial interviews.

BOOKS: The Dreams of Ada

Posted: October 26, 2006
in
"The Dreams of Ada" by Robert Mayer tells a story strikingly similar to that recounted by John Grisham in "The Innocent Man."  Each book involves the murder of a young woman from Ada, Oklahoma in the early 1980s.  In both cases, there are two defendants whose convictions rely on little probative evidence but involve "confessions" that emerged from a dream.  Both prosecutions were led by Bill Peterson and both involved the same jail-house informant.  The defendants in Mayer

NEW VOICES: Federal Appeals Court Judge of the Fifth Circuit Expresses Legal and Moral Problems with the Death Penalty

Posted: October 23, 2006
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Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit was the main speaker at the "Red Mass" on October 4 at the Catholic cathedral in Corpus Christi, Texas.  The Red Mass is an annual liturgy held for members of the legal profession near the beginning of the judicial term.  Its traditions extend back to 13th century Europe.  Judge King spoke about the death penalty, both from her perspective as a judge and as a Catholic.  In both areas, she raised strong concerns about the application of the death penalty in the U.S.

Pennsylvania Man Freed From Death Row

Posted: October 19, 2006
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Dennis Counterman was freed from a Pennsylvania courtroom on October 18, 2006 after serving many years on the state's death row.  Counterman had been convicted and sentenced to death in 1990 for allegedly setting a fire in his own house that resulted in the death of his three children.  That conviction was overturned in 2001 because prosecutors had withheld evidence from the defense indicating that the oldest child had a history of fire-setting. 

Mississippi Death Row Inmate Argues Killing Was In Self-Defense

Posted: October 05, 2006
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Corey Maye was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer in Prentiss, Mississippi, on the day after Christmas in 2001.  The police officer was part of a drug raid on a neighbor's apartment.  Maye claims that the police broke into his duplex unannounced and that he fired his gun in defense of himself and his 18-month-old daughter.  Mississippi Circuit Court Judge Michael Eubanks recently ruled that Maye was entitled to a new sentencing hearing because his defense counsel provided inadequate representation.  The judge said that he would rule later on Maye's motion for a

NEW BOOK: "The Innocent Man" by John Grisham

Posted: October 04, 2006
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On October 10th, 2006, John Grisham's first non-fiction book, The Innocent Man, will be released.  The book is the compelling true story of Ron Williamson, a former hometown baseball hero of Ada, Oklahoma, who was convicted in 1988 of raping and murdering Debbie Carter.  In 1999, Williamson was exonerated of the crime after serving eleven years on death row. In the context of this case, Grisham addresses many of the fundamental issues that surround the death penalty in the United States.

NEW RESOURCE: NPR Radio Interview

Posted: September 29, 2006
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NPR Radio interviews North Carolina Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake, Jr. regarding the new "Innocence Board." This board will investigate claims of innocence among prisoners.
Click Here to Listen to the Interview

New York Man Once Convicted of Rape and Murder Freed Through DNA

Posted: September 21, 2006
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Jeffrey Deskovic had been convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1990 for the rape and murder of a high school classmate in New York.  He was freed from prison on September 20 after DNA evidence from the crime was matched with another man who also confessed to the murder.  The other man was already in prison for a murder in the same county.