Charged with dual roles as advocates and ministers of justice, prosecutors are the most powerful actors in our criminal justice system. They have sole responsibility for decisions regarding what charges to bring against an individual, what sentence to seek, what plea bargain to offer, and what evidence to present to...

Texas has had more than its share of tragic wrongful convictions. Of the more than 40 people exonerated by DNA in Texas, one of the most heartbreaking cases is that of Timothy Cole. Cole was wrongly convicted in 1986 for a Lubbock rape. DNA testing conclusively exonerated him last...

Two more innocent men have been freed from death row. Just last week, Yancy Douglas and Paris Powell became the 137th and 138th people to be exonerated from death row. The two men were convicted of a drive-by shooting in 1993 based on the testimony of an in-custody informant...

Last week, Texas Governor Rick Perry removed three members from the Texas Forensic Science Commission. The changes come at a critical juncture in the investigation of the flawed forensics behind the conviction of Cameron Willingham, who was executed in 2004 for allegedly setting the fire that killed his three...

Twenty innocent men spent almost 170 years in prison in Georgia for crimes they did not commit. What does eight years mean to you? For these twenty innocent Georgians, eight years is the average length of time each spent behind bars for a crime they did not commit. Just...

Last week, the San Jose Mercury News reported that Jeffrey Rodriguez, a man from San Jose who spent five years in prison for a crime he did not commit, was awarded a $1 million settlement from Santa Clara County for his wrongful conviction. Jeffrey's wrongful conviction and his subsequent...

Another innocent man is free in Texas. Ernest Sonnier was released from custody on Friday after DNA testing implicated two different men in the 1986 rape for which Sonnier was convicted. Sonnier has spent twenty-three years in prison, always maintaining his innocence.

The release of Ernest Sonnier is just...

One of the most troubling trends that foster prosecutorial misconduct is the failure of state bar and disciplinary agencies to take action against prosecutors who violate their ethical obligations.

Earlier this year, Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice (DOJ) took swift and almost unprecedented action...

Why would anyone confess to a crime they did not commit? What would it take to get you to confess to a crime? For Christopher Ochoa, it took twenty hours of questioning and badgering and threats to get him to falsely confess to the murder of a woman in...

George Rodriguez is seeking justice. In 2004, DNA testing exonerated Rodriguez for the 1987 abduction and sexual assault he had been convicted of seventeen years earlier. During his trial, a Houston Police forensic analyst testified that biological evidence pointed to Rodriguez's guilt; it was later discovered that the analyst lied....

The continued lack of standard policies in the states for post-conviction DNA testing is troubling. It is time for states to act. With so many exonerations across the country proving that our criminal justice system is broken, post-conviction DNA testing offers the unique opportunity to correct mistakes and help...

Last night, as the Texas House of Representatives hit the deadline to consider Senate bills, the state lost the opportunity to act on a host of important legislative initiatives, including several significant criminal justice reform bills. A partisan meltdown over a bill requiring photo identification for voters led to parliamentary...

Prosecutors are rarely held accountable for acts of misconduct or abuses of power in our country. Yet another example of this reality comes from a case out of Florida, where prosecutors engaged in egregious, intentional courtroom misconduct throughout the trial. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately upheld the...

Prosecutors have power. They have been given that power in part to effectively ensure public safety. Yet, everyday in courtrooms across the country, prosecutors are abusing their broad powers and engaging in misconduct that can and does lead to flawed verdicts and the conviction of innocent people. It is a...

This week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder dismissed the case against former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska. Citing prosecutorial misconduct as the primary reason, the Justice Department determined that the fairness of the trial had been too damaged by government misconduct to proceed further. Holder stated that, "[a]fter careful review,...

Last week, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia introduced The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 -- an important piece of legislation with broad bi-partisan support that would create a commission to "look at every aspect of our criminal justice system with an eye toward reshaping the process from...

This week, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico signed legislation repealing the death penalty, replacing it with life in prison without the possibility of parole. Governor Richardson based his decision on a lack of "confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates" and the very real possibility of...

It is difficult to fathom that thirty nine innocent Texans have spent more than five hundred years in prison for crimes they did not commit. This alarming figure is detailed in a new report issued this week by The Justice Project: Convicting the Innocent: Texas Justice Derailed.

Unfortunately, five...

Earlier this week, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a prestigious research organization that advises Congress, released a long-awaited report detailing comprehensive recommendations to improve the practice and use of forensic science in the American criminal justice system. The report concludes that forensic labs and the system of oversight of...

Last year, Tim Masters was exonerated of a 1987 Fort Collins, Colo. murder following post-conviction DNA tests that pointed to his innocence. Masters had already spent nearly a decade in prison when he was finally released. A lawsuit recently filed by Masters claims law enforcement and prosecutors involved in his...