Wrongful Conviction

Doubly Victimizing the Wrongfully Convicted

David Protess | Posted 05.29.2012

Read More: Exoneration, Wrongful Conviction, Jacques Rivera, Chicago Crime, Eyewitness Identification, Illinois Restitution Law, Illinois Restitution, Wrongful Conviction Restitution, Wrongful Conviction Compensation, SB2781, Chicago News

In Illinois restitution isn't assured unless a freed prisoner first proves his innocence. That's right. Even if the charges have been dropped, he must convince the county's presiding judge that he didn't do the crime.

Read Post

Boxer Is 1 Of 2,000 Exonerated For Crimes They Didn't Commit

HuffingtonPost.com | Michael McLaughlin | Posted 05.22.2012

Read More: Dewey Bozella Debut, Video, Conviction-Integrity-Unit, Crime, Craig Watkins, University of Michigan, National Registry of Exonerations, Wrongful Conviction, Northwestern University, Center on Wrongful Convictions, Crime News

Some tales of wrongful conviction are well known, like the case of amateur boxer Dewey Bozella. Bozella was found guilty in 1983 for the murder of ...

Read Whole Story

Jury Foreman in McKinney Case: "Justice Was Perverted"

David Protess | Posted 05.09.2012

Read More: Anthony McKinney, Chicago Crime, Wrongful Conviction, Troy Davis, Anthony Mckinney Case, Anthony Mckinney Conviction, Chicago News

It is a saga of murder and injustice that spans three decades, and even now a surprising new chapter is being written.

Read Post

Life After Death Row

Brad Rothschild | Posted 05.04.2012

Read More: Wrongful Conviction, Resurrection After Exoneration, Derrick Jamison, Death Row, Prisoner Rehabilitation, Dan Bright, John Thompson Exonerated, Crime News

Once released, exonerees rejoin a society that they aren't prepared for and don't know much about. Hardened by their years in jail, many find it difficult to re-connect with their families and jobs can be hard to come by.

Read Post

Texas Lawman to High Court: DNA Testing "Frivolous" in Death Penalty Case

David Protess | Posted 05.04.2012

Read More: Wrongful Conviction, Dna Testing, Hank Skinner, Death Penalty, Rick Perry, Hank Skinner Dna Testing, Hank Skinner Death Penalty, Chicago News

If the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals grants the motion for DNA testing, a little blood and sweat on a jacket may be the difference between life and death for Hank Skinner. Could anything be less frivolous?

Read Post

The Price of Freedom

David Protess | Posted 05.28.2012

Read More: Wrongful Conviction, Restitution, Chicago Police Torture, Jon Burge, Innocence, Eric Caine, Job Burge Torture, Illinois Compensation Law, Illinois Restitution, Eric Caine Innocence, Chicago News

What do we owe an innocent prisoner after he is freed? Apparently nothing in the 27 states with no laws to compensate the wrongfully convicted.

Read Post

Gov. Quinn's Proposal to Close Tamms Supermax Prison Got It Right

Locke Bowman | Posted 05.13.2012

Read More: Governor Pat Quinn, Wrongful Conviction, Supermax Prison, Illinois Supermax Prison, Prison, Tamms Correctional Center, Darrell Cannon, Chicago News

For those of us who've seen Tamms at close range, it was a welcome surprise to learn that Governor Pat Quinn proposes shuttering the prison.

Read Post

Supreme Court Overturns Quintuple Murder Conviction For Juan Smith

HuffingtonPost.com | John Rudolf | Posted 01.10.2012

Read More: Supreme Court, New Orleans District Attorney, Brady Rule, Wrongful Conviction, Brady Evidence, Juan Smith, John Thompson, Harry Connick, New Orleans District Attorneys Office, Juan Smith Supreme Court, Crime News

A Louisiana man convicted of killing five people during an armed robbery will get a new trial after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that prosecut...

Read Whole Story

We Must Insist on Accountability for Wrongful Convictions

John Conroy | Posted 01.31.2012

Read More: Wrongful Conviction, Randy Steidl, Center on Wrongful Convictions, Chicago Police Misconduct, Police Misconduct, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Armchair Detective, Chicago News

Wrongful convictions have ruined lives and wasted tax dollars. They represent a shameful and reprehensible miscarriage of justice. But a measure of accountability can still be salvaged, even decades after the fact.

Read Post

Post-Conviction DNA Testing in Massachusetts

Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism | Posted 01.20.2012

Read More: Dna, Wrongful Convictions, DNA Access Bill, DNA Access Law, Dna Testing, Criminal Justice System, Crime, Wrongful Conviction, Criminal Justice, Massachusetts, Boston Bar Association, Politics News

Nationwide, DNA tests have helped exonerate 280 innocent men and women. Since the first DNA exoneration 22 years ago in 1989, 49 states have passed laws granting inmates the right to test DNA evidence.

Read Post

When Juveniles Confess to Murders They Didn't Commit

David Protess | Posted 01.18.2012

Read More: Dna Testing, Wrongful Conviction, Chicago News, Central Park Jogger, False Confessions, Anita Alvarez, Ryan Harris, Chicago News

False confessions happen all the time. They are particularly common in cases involving juveniles. What is distinctive about the Englewood Four case, and deeply troubling, is that State's Attorney Alvarez will not acknowledge the mistake.

Read Post

Is Justice at Hand for Victim of Burge Cops -- Or Was He Tortured "Harmlessly"?

David Protess | Posted 01.15.2012

Read More: Wrongful Conviction, Chicago News, Chicago Police Torture, Jon Burge, Crime, Jon Burge Torture, Stanley Wrice, Stanley Wrice Wrongful Conviction, Armchair Detective, Chicago News

Stanley Wrice was wrongfully convicted, and he finds himself at the center of one of the most controversial legal battles of our time. The question that will soon be resolved by the Illinois Supreme Court: Can police torture be legally harmless?

Read Post

The Texas D.A.s Who Denied Hank Skinner Justice

David Protess | Posted 01.08.2012

Read More: Texas, Hank Skinner, Dna Testing, Crime, Nancy Grace, Wrongful Conviction, Chicago News, Death Penalty, Rick Perry, Republicans, Lynn Switzer, Harold Comer, Rick Roach, John Mann, Chicago News

Yesterday, the Texas high court agreed to decide whether a new state DNA law applies to Skinner's case -- or if he should be executed without the tests. So how did we get to this point?

Read Post

What Texas Isn't Telling You About Hank Skinner's Case

David Protess | Posted 01.07.2012

Read More: Dna Testing, Hank Skinner, Wrongful Conviction, Chicago News, Death Penalty, Crime, Rick Perry, Hank Skinner Death Penalty, Chicago News

Prosecutors swear up and down that they are acting on principle, that Hank Skinner had his chance for DNA testing and blew it, like a guilty man would.

Read Post

Time Is Not on Texas Condemned Man's Side

David Protess | Posted 01.03.2012

Read More: Dna Testing, Hank Skinner, Wrongful Conviction, Chicago News, Death Penalty, Crime, Rick Perry, George W. Bush, Post-Conviction-Dna-Testing, Hank Skinner Death Penalty, Chicago News

Governor Perry seems to have his own problems lately. Why add the execution of Hank Skinner, a possibly innocent man, to the list?

Read Post

When a Child Vanishes in the Night

David Protess | Posted 01.01.2012

Read More: Elizabeth Smart, Crime, Baby Lisa Irwin, Wrongful Conviction, Chicago News, Jaclyn Dowaliby, Kansas City News, JonBenet Ramsey, Missing Children, Dna Testing, Hank Skinner, Death Penalty, Rick Perry, Chicago News

As I've watched the drama unfold surrounding 11-month old Lisa Irwin, who vanished overnight on Oct. 3, my thoughts have turned to an eerily similar case.

Read Post

Keeping You Posted: Is Texas About to Kill an Innocent Man? Also, the Subpoena That Keeps on Giving

David Protess | Posted 12.25.2011

Read More: Anthony McKinney, Hank Skinner, DNA Tests, Wrongful Conviction, Death Penalty, The Reader, Casey Anthony, Rick Perry, Anita Alvarez, Michael Miner, Medill Innocence Project, Chicago News

Even if Perry intervenes simply to prevent Hank Skinner's death from becoming a campaign issue, the most he can do under Texas law at this point is grant a 30-day reprieve.

Read Post

Chicago Ought to Change the Standard Ending to That Old Wrongful Conviction Story

Locke Bowman | Posted 12.20.2011

Read More: Wrongful Conviction, Wrongful Convictions, Chicago Police Department, Chicago Police, Jacques Rivera, Eyewitness Identification, Cook County Jail, Chicago Wrongful Conviction, Chicago News

Behind each wrongful conviction lie broken lives and shattered dreams. Each one represents a serious and substantial failure of law enforcement: the wrong person locked up; the actual perpetrator at large.

Read Post

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

David Protess | Posted 12.17.2011

Read More: Dna, Corruption, Wrongful Conviction, Chicago News, Capital Punishment, Death Penalty, Jon Burge, Torture, Nathson Fields, Restitution, Compensation, Eric Caine, Chicago News

If you're convicted of a crime you didn't commit, good luck getting compensation for your time behind bars.

Read Post

Tortured by Police, Wrongly Imprisoned, Chicago Man Perseveres

David Protess | Posted 12.13.2011

Read More: Wrongful Conviction, Chicago News, Capital Punishment, Death Penalty, Jon Burge, Chicago Police Torture, George Ryan, Eric-Caine, Rahm Emanuel Chicago Mayor, Certificate of Innocence, Chicago News

For a man who has been dealt an horrific fate, Eric Caine remains undaunted. He speaks of a hopeful future. Perhaps that is because his future has brightened in recent months. But perhaps it is also because his past is too painful to discuss.

Read Post

Public Records Helped Free Texas Man

Kenneth F. Bunting | Posted 12.06.2011

Read More: Texas, Dna, Cameron Todd Willingham, John Bradley, Forensic Science, Wrongful Conviction, Michael Morton, Innocence Project, Public Records, Rick Perry, Crime News

If you care about good government and justice, now would be a good time to ask if the records that helped to free Michael Morton would be readily available under your state's public disclosure laws.

Read Post

We Are All Troy Davis... And We Are Free!

Patrick McDermott | Posted 11.28.2011

Read More: Supreme Court, Wrongful Conviction, Troy Davis Execution, Capital Punishment, Court of Appeals, Clarence Thomas, Troy Davis, DC News

If justice is a product of equitability, then the conviction and now murder of Troy Davis was anything but equitable.

Read Post

Troy Davis Never Had a Chance

David Protess | Posted 11.26.2011

Read More: Capital Punishment, Death Row, George Ryan Pardon, Troy Davis Appeals, Wrongful Conviction, Troy Davis Execution, Death Penalty, Stay of Execution, Troy Davis, Mark MacPhail, Girvies Davis, Chicago News

"How could this happen in America?" was the question repeated on talk radio and around the water coolers. Now it's time for a postmortem, and the troubling answer is: it happens all the time.

Read Post

How F***** Up Is This?

David Protess | Posted 11.21.2011

Read More: Anthony McKinney, Illinois Wrongful Convictions, Medill School of Journalism, Cook County Prosecutor, Wrongful Conviction, Northwestern University, Medill Innocence Project, Armando Serrano, Center on Wrongful Convictions, Chicago News

Anthony McKinney and Armando Serrano are serving long prison terms for murder. Both were wrongfully convicted. And Cook Co. prosecutors have turned their fight for freedom into a bizarre sideshow.

Read Post

Are Gangsters Playing Cop Lotto With Your Tax Payer Money?

Karen Salmansohn | Posted 11.07.2011

Read More: Police Misconduct, Cop Lotto, Wrongful Conviction, Police Lawsuits, Chicago Cops, Flipping Testimony, Flipped Testimony, Chicago Wrongful Conviction, Chicago Police, Cops, Crime News

What you presently know to be true about wrongful conviction cases might not be the whole truth.

Read Post