News and Developments: Innocence

Louisiana Must Pay $14 Million to Man Exonerated From Death Row

Posted: December 23, 2008
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a $14 million award to John Thompson, a former death row inmate in Louisiana who was exonerated after withheld evidence was revealed.  Thompson spent 18 years in prison, including 14 years in the solitary confinement of death row in Angola Prison.  He came within one month of being executed in 1999 when his attorneys discovered blood evidence that should have been turned over to the defense years ago.  The new evidence cleared Thompson of an armed robbery conviction, which in turn had influenced his trial for an unrelated murder.  At his re-trial on the capital murder charge, Thompson was acquitted in thirty-five minutes by a jury in 2003.  Thompson sued the District Attorney's Office of Orleans Parish in 2003 and won a jury verdict in 2007.  The jury also awarded $1 million for attorneys' fees.

Federal Appeals Court Considers Sufficiency of Evidence in Troy Davis Case

Posted: December 10, 2008
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A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta heard arguments in the Troy Davis case on December 9.  The judges weighed whether Davis' new evidence was sufficient to merit a more extensive hearing and perhaps a new trial.  One of the judges, Rosemary Barkett, said she would like to see the innocence claims fleshed out in a further hearing.

Judge Barkett expressed her frustration with the fact that none of the eyewitnesses were shown another primary suspect’s photo or presented with a lineup with him in it.  Barkett also speculated that Savannah police faced so much pressure to quickly solve the high profile murder that they did not focus enough on the other primary suspect.  While acknowledging the possibility of executing an innocent person, Barkett added, “It’s also possible the real guilty person who shot [the victim] Officer MacPhail is not being prosecuted.” 

The Court did not indicate when it would issue a ruling and at the close of the hearing, Judge Dubina called the appeal a “very difficult case.”  Judge Marcus called the case “murky,” without the availability of DNA evidence that could categorically clear Davis. The high profile case has garnered attention as seven of the nine eyewitnesses in the case have recanted their original testimony.

STUDIES: Coping with Innocence After Death Row

Posted: November 25, 2008
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Professsors Saundra Westervelt and Kimberly Cook of the University of North Carolina recently published a study entitled “Coping with Innocence After Death Row.” The study appeared in "Contexts" published by the American Sociological Association. The authors studied the lives of 18 innocent men and women exonerated from death row. The unique research uncovers the difficulty the exonerees have had in adapting to life outside of prison without the process of “delabeling,” or recognition of their innocence by society.

“Frequently, community members still see them as guilty criminals who ‘beat the system,’” noted the authors. One exoneree often found “child killer” written in the dirt on his truck, and neighbors told another exoneree’s children that their mother was “a babykiller.” The study explores the coping strategies and continued struggles of those who had been exonerated.

STUDIES: Eyewitness Identification Procedure in Texas

Posted: November 24, 2008
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A new study concerning criminal justice procedures in Texas has been released by the Justice Project. Their research found that only 12% of Texas law enforcement agencies have any written policies or guidelines for the conduct of photo or live lineup procedures. Furthermore, they discovered that the few existing written procedures are often vague and incomplete. Eighty-two percent of Texas’ 38 wrongful convictions exposed by DNA testing, which includes non-capital cases, were based largely or exclusively on incorrect eyewitness identifications.

Overall, the study found that most jurisdictions in Texas fail to implement widely endorsed best practices that have been proven to increase reliability of eyewitness testimony. Only 7% or less of all Texas departments have written policies in line with such endorsed best practices designed to minimize eyewitness error.

The Justice Project is a non-profit and non-partisan organization that works to improve the fairness and accuracy of the criminal justice system. The full research report may be found here.

Federal Appeals Court to Hear Arguments in Troy Davis' Appeal

Posted: November 20, 2008
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Attorneys for Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis will have the opportunity to argue before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on December 9 in Atlanta. The Court will hear arguments on whether Davis can file a second federal challenge to his conviction based on new evidence of his innocence. The Court stayed Davis' execution shortly before he was to receive a lethal injection so that it could review the constitutional issues in his case.

NEW VOICES: 30 FBI Agents Call for Pardon in VA Case with Death Penalty Implications

Posted: November 17, 2008
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On November 10 in Richmond, Virginia, thirty former FBI agents held a press conference calling for the pardon of four sailors, known as the Norfolk Four, who were convicted of rape and murder. Their convictions were based mainly on their own confessions, which were apparently made out of fear that they might otherwise receive the death penalty. The FBI agents pointed out that DNA and forensic evidence now points to a prison inmate who has confessed as the sole perpetrator of the crimes. They asked Virginia Governor Tim Kaine to pardon the men. “After careful review of the evidence we have arrived at one unequivocal conclusion: The Norfolk Four are innocent,” said Jay Cochran, a former assistant director of the F.B.I. and former special agent who served at the bureau for 27 years. “We believe a tragic mistake has occurred in the case of these four Navy men, and we are calling on Governor Kaine to grant them immediate pardons.”

“We are not bleeding hearts, and we don’t take this type of public action lightly,” said Cochran. “However, we also believe that law enforcement has an obligation to protect the most innocent from wrongful conviction.” The agents joined a long list of notable people calling for a pardon, including 4 former Virginia attorneys general, 12 former state and federal judges and prosecutors, and a past president of the Virginia Bar Association.