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Links ("old") to articles - as archived from the "Links to Articles" Below are links to press articles, web pages and legal decisions relating to the Alfred Trenkler case and to convictions of innocent people around the country. 28 July 2005. "Bomber gets suspended sentence" in West Roxbury and Roslindale Transcript, by David Harris (Cached copy) The article begins... A mentally ill man who was convicted of planting a bomb in a Roslindale driveway in 1991 that killed a Boston police officer and wounded another received a six-month suspended sentence last Thursday for violating his parole. Thomas Shay Jr., who was diagnosed with a rare psychological disorder that causes him to tell tall tales, served an 11-year sentence in prison for his role in the killing of bomb squad officer Jeremiah Hurley Jr. Prosecutors said Shay and his partner, Alfred Trenkler, were trying to kill Shay's father, Thomas L. Shay, for insurance money. But as Hurley and another officer, Francis Foley of West Roxbury were examining the device when it exploded, leaving Hurley dead and injuring Foley. Foley, who had been a police officer for 24 years, was forced to retire. Shay was arrested by Durham, N.H., police last month after he bolted from a halfway house, the Coolidge House in Boston, two months before he was scheduled to be released. His vanity license plate, police said, was easy to locate: an eye-catching "WASSUP." At his detention hearing last week, Shay said he realized the road ahead would be tough. "I know I need to work hard," he said. "It scares me a little to think I'll be out in the world one day alone and unprotected." U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel sympathized with Shay. Not only did she give him a 6-month suspended sentence, she extended his probation from 2007 to 2008 and sent him back to the halfway house for four months. "I do think he needs a great deal of encouragement," Zobel said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Asiaf reminded Zobel, "This is an extremely serious case that resulted in the death of a police officer." But Zobel snapped, "We don't have to go back to that." Foley was angered by Zobel's decision. "He's a sick individual," said Foley of Shay. "I think his parole should have been revoked. The judge should have a little more compassion for the Hurley family. It's almost like they're trying to make him a victim." ... 22 July 2005. "Bomber who killed Hub cop free again" in Boston Herald by Laurel J. Sweet. The article, in its entirety... A mentally ill misfit convicted of planting a bomb in 1991 that killed a Boston cop - and who was rearrested in May for blowing his probation - yesterday asked a federal justice to set him free. And U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel agreed. "I'm a piece of wood adrift," Thomas Shay, 33, told Zobel in a candy-coated plea for mercy. "I want to give and feel real love. I want to live an ordinary life." Shay was diagnosed with the rare disorder "pseudologia fantastica," which causes him to tell tall tales about himself. He had been out of prison for nearly three years. But in May, just a couple weeks into a mandatory three-month confinement at a halfway house in Boston, he hoodwinked his supervisors and vanished to New Hampshire, where prosecutors said he had secretly leased an apartment in Durham. Shay, who claims to have been studied by 26 psychiatrists and 57 psychologists in his lifetime, invited Zobel to extend the term of his supervised release, but begged her to release him nonetheless. "I know I need to work hard," he said. "It scares me a little to think I'll be out in the world one day alone and unprotected." Shay's mea culpa touched Zobel. She slapped him with a 6-month suspended sentence, stretched his probation from 2007 to 2008 and sent him back to the halfway house for four months. "I do think he needs a great deal of encouragement," Zobel said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Asiaf reminded Zobel: "This is an extremely serious case that resulted in the death of a police officer." But Zobel snapped, "We don't have to go back to that." Shay was found guilty in 1993 of conspiracy and malicious destruction of property for planting a bomb under his father's car in Roslindale. The explosive went off while the Boston police Bomb Squad was trying to disarm it. Officer Jeremiah Hurley, 50, was killed. His partner, officer Francis Foley lost an eye. Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals has tossed out a petition by Shay's accomplice, Alfred Trenkler, 49, to have the Supreme Court review the two life sentences he received for building the bomb. Trenkler's brother, David Wallace and Wallace's wife, Judy Lloyd, drove down from Maine yesterday to be at Shay's detention hearing. They don't believe Trenkler or Shay is guilty of the bombing. "I think he's had a very painful life," Lloyd said of Shay. "Justice should be compassionate." 22 July 2005. Convict returned to facility Involved in plot that led to death of police officer The Boston Globe article by Lisa Fleisher begins... Thomas A. Shay, one of two men convicted of killing a Boston police officer in 1991 by planting a bomb in a Roslindale driveway, was ordered yesterday to return to the halfway house he fled in May and spend an additional year on supervised release after he lied to his probation officer about being in a mental health facility. Shay, 33, pleaded guilty in 1998 to conspiring with Alfred W. Trenkler to kill Shay's father by planting a bomb on his car. When police arrived, the bomb exploded, killing Officer Jeremiah J. Hurley Jr. and maiming his partner, Francis X. Foley. Shay was released from prison in August 2002 and began a five-year supervised release. But last April, he was ordered to spend three months in Coolidge House, a halfway house, after ''technical violations" of his release, said Samantha Martin, spokeswoman for US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan. Martin said she did not know what the violations were.... CONVICT
RETURNED TO FACILITY Shay,
33, pleaded guilty in 1998 to conspiring with Alfred W. Trenkler to kill
Shay's father by planting a bomb on his car. When police arrived, the
bomb 30 June 2005. Supreme Court takes case of convicted murderer in Tennesee, Paul Gregory House, whose appeal was turned down by Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, 8-7, despite exculpatory DNA. The New York Times article is: "Justices to Review Rules for Death Case Appeals" and the CNN story is at "DNA evidence on Supreme Court agenda" The 6 July 2005 story on Alternet is at "Testing DNA's Truth" From the Times: "...The case will provide the court's first occasion, in the years since exonerations based on DNA have become widespread, to reconsider the standards for reopening death penalty cases to present claims of innocence. Those standards, developed by the court in a series of cases in the early 1990's, are nearly impossible to meet.... The Tennessee inmate, Paul Gregory House, came within one vote of persuading a federal appeals court to reopen his case last October when the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, denied his petition for a writ of habeas corpus by a vote of 8 to 7. Of the seven dissenters, six concluded that he had proved his innocence, while the remaining judge said Mr. House was entitled, at least, to a new trial. His Supreme Court appeal, filed by the federal defender's office in Knoxville, Tenn., is supported by a brief filed by the Innocence Project, a legal clinic in New York that has been a leader in the effort to use DNA evidence to challenge findings of guilt. Its brief said that the project's methods had proved the innocence of 155 people, in part by using DNA to refute seemingly airtight scientific evidence that the prosecution used to persuade the jury. In Mr. House's case, the prosecution had claimed to the jury, based on blood typing, that semen stains found on the clothing of the murder victim were his. But DNA testing 15 years later showed that the stain was not Mr. House's semen but that of the victim's husband. Since the prosecution's theory of the case was that Mr. House, a previously convicted sex offender, had murdered the victim after raping her, the new evidence shows that he was wrongly convicted, his lawyers maintain. In addition, the prosecution presented the evidence of rape as the "aggravating factor" for the jury to consider in deciding whether to sentence Mr. House to death. Judge Gilbert S. Merritt, one of the dissenting judges on the Sixth Circuit, said in his opinion that "without any evidence of rape, the state has lost its motive, its theory of the case and the aggravating circumstance on which the state and the jury relied for its death verdict." "
27 June 2005. Updates on Marty Tankleff story. It was featured on A&E's program, "American Justice" with the episode, "Confession in Question" Also, the prosecutors recently filed a long appellate brief. See the New York Times story: "Prosecutors Scorn Appeal In '88 Long Island Slayings" and the Newsday story: "Prosecutor: Tankleff witnesses lack credibility" which begins: In an exhaustive response to Martin Tankleff's request for a new trial in the 1988 murders of his parents, a Suffolk prosecutor said no such trial should be granted because defense witnesses and their evidence presented during a months-long hearing "lack credibility."
Assistant District Attorney Leonard Lato's 239-page summation, filed
Tuesday with Suffolk County Court Judge Stephen L. Braslow, is the latest
in an exchange of papers to end the evidentiary hearing.... 27 June 2005. "Police bomber arrested on parole violation" in Boston Globe, by Associated Press (cached copy) DURHAM, N.H. --Thomas Shay Jr. came to a university town thinking he could blend in with the students. But it was his Massachusetts vanity license plate "WASSUP" that gave him away. Shay, 33, was arrested by Durham police on June 18 on a parole violation stemming from his federal conviction for killing a Boston police officer in 1991. Shay served 11 years of a 12-year-sentence for his role in setting off a bomb that killed bomb squad officer Jeremiah Hurley Jr. and wounded another officer. Authorities said Shay and his partner, Alfred Trenkler, were trying to kill Shay's father, Thomas L. Shay, for insurance money. The two bomb squad officers were inspecting the bomb, which was in the father's driveway in Roslindale, Mass., when it exploded. Two of Hurley's sons now work in the Boston Police Department. Trenkler is serving a life sentence. Shortly after Shay was released, he violated the terms of his parole and a warrant was issued last month, Durham Deputy Police Chief Rene Kelley said. A Durham police officer spotted Shay's unoccupied vehicle and recognized the license plate from a "be on the lookout" alert. Another officer was assigned to park nearby in their private car to watch the vehicle. Police knew they would recognize the 6-foot, 5-inch Shay as he walked to his vehicle. Minutes later he was, and police followed him. Within minutes, Shay got into another vehicle that was being driven by someone else. When it was stopped at an intersection, police arrested Shay, Kelley said. Shay had been living in Durham. Police said he had no ties to the area and was only looking to blend in with the college community. [See related article, cached copy, in NH Foster's Daily Democrat, for 27 June,"Police nab fugitive in Durham"]
27 June 2005. New York Times story on PBS Documentaries which bring justice to the wrongfully convicted: 13 in the last 14 years: "Crusading for Prisoners When the System Fails" The article begins: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein started a generation of journalists' fantasizing that their stories would, if not bring down a president, provoke some small change in the system. Ofra Bikel, a producer for the PBS documentary series "Frontline," is one of the few for whom this fantasy has been realized over and over again..... This month, Patsy Kelly Jarrett, a convicted murderer, was released from prison after 28 years, largely, her lawyer said, because of Ms. Bikel's documentary, which was broadcast on PBS last year. Ms. Jarrett was the 13th prisoner released in 14 years of profiles by Ms. Bikel. [See the 16 June 2004 posting here in "Links to Articles - Old" for more on the Patsy Jarrett story. For another article, see "Parole Board Watches "The Plea" and Frees Convicted Murderer Patsy Kelly Jarrett"
24 June 2005. In Illinois: "Judge denies motion for new trial for man serving life sentence in Paris murder" by Jim Paul, Associated Press. PARIS, Ill. - Herb Whitlock, convicted in 1987 of killing of a Paris woman, will remain in prison after an Edgar County judge denied his request for a new trial on several claims including he was the victim of untruthful testimony and a botched police investigation. Circuit Judge H. Dean Andrews, in a 72-page ruling filed Wednesday, said many of the issues raised by Whitlock already had been heard in earlier appeals and his conviction was upheld each time. Nothing in the latest challenge changed his mind, he said. "None of the claims made by the defendant in his petition either separately or together could reasonably be taken to put this whole case in such a different light as to undermine confidence in the verdict," Andrews wrote. Whitlock, 59, is serving a life prison sentence for the murder of Karen Rhoads, who died with her husband, Dyke, in a stabbing rampage at their home on July 6, 1986. Another man, Gordon "Randy" Steidl, also was convicted in the Rhoads killings, was released from prison last year after Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan decided against appealing a federal judge's order that the state either retry or free Steidl. U.S. District Judge Michael McCuskey said it was "reasonably probable" Steidl would have been acquitted had the jury heard additional evidence. That evidence, also cited by Whitlock, includes a reversal by the state's main witness and a conclusion by the Illinois State Police that the initial police investigation had been botched. Whitlock's attorney, Richard Kling, called Andrews' ruling "an absolute travesty of justice." "I am totally dumbfounded how the judge could render the opinion he did. It is not based on law, and it's not based on evidence," Kling said, adding he planned to appeal and was "absolutely confident" the ruling would be reversed..... [See also the Chicago Tribune's stories on this case: "Bid for new trial in '86 murders denied by judge" and "New trial denied for convicted killer"]
21 June 2005. Update on Compensation for Wrongfully Convicted in Massachusetts: "Reilly accused of funds delay for ex-inmates" by Jonathan Saltzman, Boston Globe. Excerpts from the article: Six months after Massachusetts agreed to compensate wrongly convicted felons, 10 former inmates who have applied for money have not received a dime, prompting their advocates to accuse Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly of putting up roadblocks. The former prisoners -- two of whom spent about 19 years each behind bars for crimes they did not commit -- have filed claims dating back to January under a law that provides a maximum of $500,000 for erroneous convictions. However, Reilly, who represents the state in such claims, appears to be adopting an adversarial approach, according to lawyers for the former inmates and lawmakers.... At least 23 people in prison have had their convictions overturned in Massachusetts over the past 23 years, according to the New England Innocence Project. Of the 10 people who have filed claims, six were Suffolk County cases. The rest were from Middlesex, Hampden, and Plymouth counties. For six years, civil liberties groups and advocates for wrongly convicted prisoners lobbied lawmakers to provide compensation to people who lost years of their lives behind bars. But it was not until last December that the Legislature, spurred by several high-profile exonerations, passed a law that Governor Mitt Romney signed. Massachusetts is among 20 states with such laws.....
17 June 2005. A father, in pretrial jail for eight months is cleared of murdering his daughter: "DNA tests clear Kevin Fox of murder charges" from the Chicago Tribune. See also the Sun-Times articles: "Judge frees dad accused of killing daughter" In this case, a new District Attorney sought DNA testing in a case filed by his predecessor, whose police had extracted incriminating statements during a videotaped 14 hour interrogation. His attorney thanked the new district attorney.
"Zellner said, 'I want to thank Mr. Glasgow for his integrity, his
courage. As soon as he got the results last night, he made a decision.' Residents of the town of Wilmington, where the crime occurred, remain divided with some still believing the original accusations, even after the DNA exoneration.
13 June 2005. In the "Globe and Mail", CANADA: "Judicial accountability urged in wrongful-conviction cases" by Kirk Makin, JUSTICE REPORTER "ST. JOHN'S -- Trial judges should not be allowed off the hook when someone is wrongly convicted of a crime, former Newfoundland Court of Appeal judge William Marshall says. The recently retired jurist said that judicial error can be "the ultimate cause" of a wrongful conviction, and that inquiries held later to identify mistakes are not complete unless judicial conduct has been thoroughly examined. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with such critiques," Mr. Marshall told a conference of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted on Saturday. In an interview later, Mr. Marshall said that judges ought to avoid retreating into a "bunker mentality," and that they should perhaps even testify at public inquiries. "The stakes are just too high for society, and most particularly, for the wrongly convicted and their families," he said. As long as inquiries "are measured, civil, focused on the alleged miscarriage of justice and devoid of aspersion, such scrutiny can be an earmark of a healthy, democratically mature society," he told the conference. The former judge is respected in Canada's wrongful-conviction movement for helping overturn the conviction of Ronald Dalton, a St. John's resident who spent eight years in prison for a murder he did not commit. In his comments, Mr. Marshall also criticized the fact that exonerations that do not feature DNA evidence are no longer seen as complete exonerations. And he blasted the Ontario government for making Stephen Truscott, convicted 46 years ago in the murder of 12-year-old Lynn Harper, keep waiting to have his case reheard at the Ontario Court of Appeal. Last October, federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler referred Mr. Truscott's plea for exoneration to the Court of Appeal. The Crown has refused to concede the case, yet a hearing date is still far off. "There is a very good, sound opinion, which I share, that you don't need any further process at all in that case," Mr. Marshall said in the interview. "But if there must be, then the process of the state must occur right away." The role of judges at inquiries into wrongful convictions has long been a sore point; the inquiries are almost always set up in such a way as to preclude close examination of any shortcomings of the trial judge involved. Mr. Marshall said respecting judicial independence is important, but not if it means shielding the judiciary from public scrutiny. "It is difficult to perceive how any credible inquiry into a wrongful conviction could be commissioned without expectation that every stage of the judicial process leading to the miscarriage -- including the judiciary's acquittal of its responsibilities -- would be vetted," Mr. Marshall told his audience. The subject arose recently at the Lamer inquiry, which is examining various elements of the wrongful convictions of Newfoundlanders Gregory Parsons, Randy Druken and Mr. Dalton. AIDWYC lawyer Jerome Kennedy has tried unsuccessfully to have judges put in the witness box, and to have their courtroom conduct and rulings made a central issue. Mr. Kennedy has also been critical of the inquiry for not looking at the Dalton case thoroughly because Mr. Dalton was not cleared by DNA. Instead, he was acquitted at his retrial amid overwhelming evidence that his wife, Brenda, actually choked to death on a morsel of cereal, not because Mr. Dalton strangled her. Mr. Marshall said it "heaps injustice upon injustice" to deny a man such as Mr. Dalton all the benefits of an exoneration -- including compensation -- simply because DNA did not factor into the case. "This man spent eight years in jail, but he should never have spent one day," Mr. Marshall said. "He's just as entitled to compensation as anyone acquitted through DNA . . . It is singularly dangerous for such a notion to be adopted as the sole criterion of wrongful conviction."
12 June 2005. The Kennebec Journal and USA Today and other papers carry AP story of storytellers at Philadelphia Historic center of one of the first wrongful imprisonments, but not conviction: "Storytellers to drop familiar tales for untold Philly history" In one paragraph... "...His stories include a narration about America's first bank robbery at the Bank of Pennsylvania in Carpenters' Hall in 1798 — a whodunit with the familiar elements of a man wrongly imprisoned, the contentious court case that freed him, and the book he wrote afterward about his ordeal." [For the full story of Patrick Lyon, a man who reported himself to the police to clear his name, but was jailed, pending a trial, see "America's First Bank Robbery". The police were sure they had their man, until another man started making large cash deposits into the SAME bank! Even after the real culprit confessed and returned the stolen money, Lyon was kept in jail by the police who were still sure he was an accomplice. Ultimately, he sued for wrongful imprisonment and won a sum of about four years' wages.]
10 June 2005. Newspaper coverage helps reopen a Canadian claim of wrongful conviction: "Hope at last, and a bid for freedom: Government reopens 12-year old murder case following Citizen report" by Gary Dimmock, The Ottowa Citizen. (but covering a case in New Brunswick) The article begins... "George Pitt never screamed his innocence, never said he deserved anything other than a fair trial. Again and again, the convicted child murderer has tried to kill himself in a New Brunswick prison because, he says, nobody bothered to take seriously his claims of wrongful conviction. Nobody could believe that the Saint John police were still quietly investigating the 1993 rape and killing of his girlfriend's six-year-old daughter months after Mr. Pitt was condemned to life in prison for the crime. Last summer the Citizen publicized a secret Correctional Service Canada report, saying not only that police had been investiating the case months after Mr. Pitt's conviction, but that the police chief actually suspected someone else of the murder. Yesterday, the New Brunswick government re-opened the case, finally deciding to examine exhibits seized from the crime scene that somehow have gone untested until now. The case was introduced to Jerome Kennedy, a lawyer with the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted, known for freeing Guy Paul Morin, Donald Marshall and David Milgaard, last year after the Citizen investigated the case.
5 June 2005. Boston Globe Magazine article: "Innocent. But Never Free" About the question of what happens to exonerees, and what might happen to Alfred Trenkler after he is exonerated... "Peter Vaughn was convicted of a supermarket robbery, Donnell Johnson of a child's murder. They spent years in prison proclaiming their innocence. And then one day it happened: Their convictions were overturned. They were free to go. One man pieced his life back together. The other fell apart. "
30 May 2005. Milgaard inquiry resumes with Chief detective testifying for the first of several days: "Former Saskatoon cop tells Milgaard probe that Miller murder was a challenge". The article focuses on the pressure to solve the terrible rape and murder of a 21 year-old nurse: "SASKATOON (CP) - The shocking rape and murder of a 21-year-old nursing assistant would have instilled a sense of responsibility in every single police officer to do whatever could be done to solve the case, an inquiry has heard. Former Saskatoon police chief Joe Penkala made the comment when he took the stand Wednesday at the inquiry into David Milgaard's wrongful conviction. "My general perception of the whole police force was that any serious crime was a challenge to every police officer," Penkala said as he began his testimony."
27 May 2005. The case of Kylleen Hargrave-Thomas, also from "Innocence Case Archives" at www.talkleft.com. Kylleen has served 9 years after an investigation and trial. "Hanging by a nail " by Katie Merx for Metrotimes, Detroit. Among other problems, her attorney called no witnesses at the trial. The police and the prosecutor failed to give her attorney a considerable amount of exculpatory information, including information about alternate suspects. There was no physical evidence directly linking Kylleen to the crime. She was the victim's girlfriend. Finally, this is one of the cases where a newspaper correctly understood the role of a prosecutor in correcting injustice. The Detroit Free Press asked the prosecutor to support a new trial in the editorial, "Call for Justice - Kylleen Hargrave-Thomas deserves a fair trial" but the prosecutor refused. The editorial also asked for the Governor's help. (Amazingly, a U.S. District Court had ordered a new trial on a writ of habeas corpus, but the prosecutor had appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals which overturned the order for a new trial.)
27 May 2005. The case of Bruce Lisker from "Innocence Case Archives" at www.talkleft.com. Bruce has served 19 years in prison for killing his mother, but now the newspapers report doubts about the conviction: "Five Jurors Question Old Conviction". The now-retired prosecutor is among those who question the original verdict. The most recent newspaper article is from the Los Angeles Times on 22 May, "New Light on a Distant Verdict". Bruce Lisker is the one who CALLED the police to report that his mother was wounded. He was also high on methamphetamines. So, he was convicted of murdering his mother. Simple case. Case closed. [See Peter Reilly Story in "Links to Articles (old)". The number of wrongful convictions which began with the exonerees calling the police to report a crime is scary.]
27 May 2005. "Suit seeks pay for wrongful conviction" by Laurin Sellers, Orlando Sentinel (Florida) TITUSVILE -- Wilton Dedge returned to the same courthouse Friday where two separate juries convicted him of a 1981 rape he didn't commit. This time, he asked that a third jury decide just how much those 22 lost years are worth. In a lawsuit filed in Brevard Circuit Court against the state of Florida and its Department of Corrections, attorneys said Dedge and his parents should be fairly compensated for the time he spent behind bars. "When a person offends against the laws of the state, he must 'pay his debt to society' because he was taken from society by misconduct," the suit states. "Conversely, when a person is entirely innocent of wrongdoing and is imprisoned, it is society that owes the debt." The 22-page lawsuit does not specify a dollar amount. "Let a jury decide," said attorney Sandy D'Alemberte, a former president of Florida State University who took on Dedge's case for free. "Let them understand what he experienced and how it wiped out his parents' entire retirement account." Dedge, 43, was finally freed last year when DNA evidence proved his innocence. State prosecutors immediately released him from custody, later apologized and said he deserved to be compensated. Dozens of state legislators agreed. But when the legislative session ended May 6, Dedge walked away with nothing because the Senate and the House failed to agree on an amount. "This is an American tragedy what happened to the Dedge family," Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, said Friday. "Since we failed to do the right work in the Legislature, I support this [lawsuit]." Haridopolos, who pushed for a bill that the Senate passed and would have allowed Dedge and others like him to seek up to $5 million, vowed to introduce another bill next year. According to the suit, Dedge's constitutional rights to liberty, to pursue happiness and to find a job were taken away from him by the wrongful conviction. "He was not permitted to start a family, acquire property, build a retirement fund, visit with friends or relatives, exercise his political and social rights," the suit says. "For more than 22 years, he was exposed to the severe psychological stress of imprisonment." At times, he was threatened and forced to live in isolation for his own protection, his attorney said. Praised by officials as a model inmate, Dedge worked for the state for all those years without payment. His parents, Gary and Mary Dedge, spent their retirement and borrowed money to pay for his defense. While in prison, Dedge lost his grandparents and a couple of close friends. "You can't put a price on friendship, on family, on people I'll never see again," Dedge said Friday. His confinement was "all the more cruel," D'Alemberte said, because the state refused to allow Dedge to demonstrate his innocence through DNA testing.
If the state had agreed when it was first sought in 1988, the suit
says, it would have saved Dedge from "16 additional years in prison, saved
the state from the expense of imprisoning an innocent man and the expense
of extensive litigation the state undertook to prevent the testing." 24 May 2005. Canada launches a full, independent inquiry into another wrongful conviction: "Former judge asked to review Driskell case" (from the Globe and Mail) "Winnipeg -- A prominent former Ontario judge .... has been asked by Manitoba Justice to oversee the inquiry into the wrongful conviction of James Driskell. The province is in the final stage of negotiations with Patrick LeSage, a former chief justice of the Ontario Superior Court, to take on the task of reviewing the thousands of pages of new evidence that led to Mr. Driskell's murder conviction being quashed this year, the Winnipeg Free Press reported. Mr. Driskell spent 12 years in prison...." 22 May 2005. Convicted cop killer appeals to high court (cached copy) Boston Herald by Jessica Fargen. The article begins... Jeremiah Hurley is the only Boston cop ever killed by a bomb, and, 14 years after his death, closure still seems to have eluded the family of the convicted bomber and the fallen hero's widow. Now, one of two men convicted in the 1991 bombing has taken what could be his final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, further frustrating his victim's family but leaving his parents hoping he'll walk free.... 21 May 2005. "Freed man sues Adams County, police" This is about Barry Laughman of Pennsylvania who servd 16 years for murder before being freed by DNA testing. As with almost every wrongful conviction, ther are some aspects which relate to Alfred Trenkler. Here are some excerpts: ....While Laughman's blood type is different from that of semen left on the victim, Roadcap [the state's chemist] offered explanations for the discrepancies. In later testimony, experts called her explanations "junk science." ... The prosecution had sought the death penalty against Laughman, but the jury spared his life after former Adams County Judge Oscar Spicer told them they should consider the fact that the police had destroyed evidence that could have exonerated Laughman. ... [emphasis added on website] DNA testing was in its infancy at the time, but Spicer [the judge!] gave the remaining samples to Laughman's court-appointed attorneys and left the case open. An attorney sent the samples to a Penn State University professor in 1994, but never followed up when the professor asked for a comparative sample. In May 2003, The Patriot-News traced the DNA to Professor Mark Stoneking, who was teaching at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Stoneking had preserved the samples, and subsequent testing cleared Laughman. [showing what a dedicated press can do for justice] After his release in November 2003, Laughman returned to his job as a laborer at a fertilizer company where he had worked before his arrest. The boss gave him his job back, saying no one in the community ever believed he was guilty. [emphasis added on website]
2 May 2005. Louisiana and compensation for the exonerated: "Fund may pay the exonerated" (Associated Press, and The Advocate, by Doug Simpson) The district attorney has apologized to Gregory Bright. The corrections department gave him a $10 check. He's been a free man for two years. But Bright still wonders: He was convicted, sentenced to life and spent 27 years inside Louisiana prisons for a murder he didn't commit. Doesn't the state owe him more than $10 and an apology? "There should be some compensation," Bright said. "It's more than fair, if you think about people that may get caught in a situation like mine, put in prison wrongly. There should be some compensation." Louisiana has no law providing for payment to people who were wrongly imprisoned. A bill introduced in the Legislature would change that, creating a fund to pay people like Bright $25,000 for each year they spent in prison. The measure also would pay for job training and counseling expenses -- an effort to make up for lost income and the psychological damage caused by years spent among hardened criminals. Bright is one of 18 people exonerated in Louisiana since 1989 after convictions that carried either a life sentence or the death penalty, according to court files and a 2004 study by University of Michigan Law School faculty. "In the rare instance that there is a mistake in our justice system, we owe it to that person to compensate him. And we owe it to ourselves," said Rep. Cedric Glover, D-Shreveport, who introduced the bill. Similar bills have failed to get through the Legislature in the past, but Glover said his bill has a good chance this year, partly because the measure sets up the system for payment, but requires no immediate funding from the cash-strapped state. Public awareness of the subject has been rising -- partly due to "The Exonerated," an acclaimed stage play and Court TV movie. A documentary, "After Innocence," focusing on seven exonerated men, won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival this year; Showtime has acquired its broadcast rights. Eighteen states, plus the District of Columbia and the federal government, provide compensation for people who have been wrongly convicted. In Alabama, people like Bright receive at least $50,000 for each year they spent behind bars. Glover's bill is similar to the law in Texas, where exonerated people get $25,000 per year, but not more than a total of $500,000. "My mind is, $25,000 is fair," Glover said. "It doesn't come close to the actual loss the person has seen, but it's fair." The bill faces no clear opposition. The Louisiana District Attorneys Association has opposed similar measures in the past, but Executive Director Pete Adams said the group will not lobby against it this year. Bright was released after his conviction was thrown out because the only eyewitness to the 1975 killing was shown to be a mentally ill drug addict -- a fact that prosecutors withheld from Bright's defense lawyers at trial. The New Orleans district attorney decided against trying the case again. He apologized to Bright, then blamed the previous district attorney for the wrongful conviction. Bright was convicted at age 20 and was released from prison at age 47. He now lives in Pike County, Miss., near his sister. A local car dealership heard his story and gave him a 1991 Nissan Stanza. The car has since broken down, and Bright said he doesn't have the money to fix it. He does odd jobs -- house painting, roofing, stripping and buffing floors -- but developed no valuable skills in prison. He picked cotton at the state penitentiary at Angola. He also worked as a butcher. Because of good behavior, he worked in the kitchen at the Governor's Mansion during the administrations of Dave Treen and Edwin Edwards, occasionally striking up conversations with the one person who could set him free with a pardon. But the corrections department had one important rule for prisoners lucky enough to work at the mansion: Don't talk to the governor about your case. "He was the No. 1 guy I wanted to talk to about my case," Bright said. "I certainly was tempted to, over and over. But I never did." On the interNet: House Bill 663 can be viewed at: www.legis.state.la.us/
30 April 2005. Wisconsin Innocence Project frees previously convicted policeman: "Case closed in killing retrial" This case involves a retrial, so it should be of interest to those following the Alfred Trenkler case. Below are excerpts: In a stunning move in the middle of a retrial, prosecutors Friday dropped homicide charges against a man who previously had been convicted of strangling his former girlfriend and sentenced to life in prison. Witnesses who were less convincing four years after the first trial and rulings that favored the defense were cited as reasons. The decision means former police officer Evan Zimmerman, who served nearly 19 months in prison before the retrial was ordered, can't be prosecuted again in the 2000 slaying of Kathleen Thompson in Eau Claire. ... Innocence Project co-director Keith Findley, who filed an appeal that won Zimmerman the retrial, immediately renewed his call for a new state law. Accusing police of twisting statements made by Zimmerman, he wants law enforcement agencies to be required to record most interrogations of criminal suspects. State Rep. Mark Gundrum (R-New Berlin) said he would introduce legislation in January that would create incentives and funding for police agencies to record interrogations on audio or video. He said that although the bill would not require such recording, he hoped it would become "second nature" among investigators after they see how useful it can be. ... White said Eau Claire police would have to decide whether to reopen their investigation, but it would be "naive" to think that "something astonishingly significant has happened that would allow for charges to be filed against someone else." [See earlier story about the lead-up to the trial "Dodge County in national spotlight as site for new trial in murder case"]
26 April 2005. St. Petersburg, Florida editorial, "A monstrous injustice" with powerful words about injustice. Although it's specifically addressing the upcoming deadline in DNA test applications for Florida prisoners, some statements have broader meaning, such as the first sentence.] It ought to be impossible to imagine an American government that deliberately leaves innocent people in prison. But in Florida, present reality is precisely that savage scenario. In 157 cases across the nation, it has been established to a moral certainty that innocent prisoners can be exonerated by the recent science of DNA testing. Wilton Dedge, the Floridian who lost 22 years of his life for a rape he did not commit, is one of them. Without doubt, there are more prisoners whose innocence cries to Florida's collective conscience. Yet with less than two weeks left in this year's session, the Florida Legislature is not only apparently unwilling to compensate Dedge, but it is also failing to extend an Oct. 1 deadline to file testing petitions on behalf of at least 700 other people still in prison. Their cases have languished because only a handful of volunteers, unpaid by the state, are available to help them or to lobby for extension of the deadline. On that date, clerks of court and other keepers of DNA evidence in closed cases will be technically at liberty to destroy it. This unconscionable situation owes to no external force. The state attorneys do not oppose an extension. Neither does the governor. Attorney General Charlie Crist said in an interview last week that the prisoners' advocates are entitled to "the appropriate amount of time to do the job and do it right." The reason appears primarily a matter of indifference on the part of committees that should have undertaken to extend the deadline, complicated by turf-guarding, finger-pointing and ego among some members who could not be bothered to listen. "It just fell through the woodwork," claims House Criminal Justice Committee Chairman Dick Kravitz, R-Jacksonville. None of that resembles a pardonable excuse. Were Florida legislators not listening, or did they choose not to hear, when President Bush spoke to the subject in his State of the Union address? This is what the president said: "Because one of the main sources of our national unity is our belief in equal justice ... we need to make doubly sure no person is held to account for a crime he or she did not commit - so we are dramatically expanding the use of DNA evidence to prevent wrongful conviction." The president also asked Congress for money to finance DNA testing grants for state prisoners under a law he signed last year. To qualify, Florida needs the legislation that the House and Senate will not hear. Many technicalities stand in the way of pending attempts to pass the extension as amendments to other legislation. There is almost nothing the Legislature cannot do, however, when its leaders set their minds to it. It is now the inescapable moral duty of House Speaker Allan Bense and Senate President Tom Lee to get the extension enacted. It bears remembering that everything that Florida legislators do, or do not do, is in the name and by the authority of the people. In our names and by our authority, they are on the verge of perpetrating a monstrous injustice.
25 April 2005. From Marc Wathen, of the Hong Kong chapter of Trial and Error, comes the story of She Xianglin, who spent 11 years in prison for murdering his wife - until she returned home, alive: "Murderer Exonerated after 11 Years' Imprisonment" "After serving 11 years in prison for the murder of his wife, She Xianglin has been proved innocent following the appearance of his spouse with her second husband and son. She Xianglin, 39, from Shayang County of Hubei Province, was declared innocent and set free Wednesday. At Wednesday's retrial, the judge overruled the former verdict and acquitted She Xianglin of the murder. As stipulated by China's Law on State Compensation, She Xianglin has the right to apply for compensation from the state. The provincial high people's court requested all courts in Hubei Province regard the case as a lesson and deliver their rulings in accordance with the law and the evidence offered."
22 April 2005. A wrongful conviction story, "Paris (Ill)waiting for answers in '86 killings" with some focus on the views of the mother of one of the victims. Excerpts follow: "The killings were like nothing the town had seen before: newlyweds stabbed more than 50 times each before their home was set ablaze. Just 13 months after the crime, two men were in prison - one of them on death row. The town thought the murders of Karen and Dyke Rhoads had been solved. ... Karen Rhoads' mother, Marjorie Spesard, has watched since the murders on July 6, 1986. She still waits to see justice done.
"I just find it interesting because there's always been questions
that we've never understood," said Spesard, who lives not far from Paris.
"I guess I'm interested in finding out the truth."... 21 April 2005. Editorial from the "Tallahassee Democrat" about the DNA Testing law in Florida: "Just Cause" It has two interesting pieces: Estimates of % of wrongful convictions and a statement about justice: "Many citizens, and certainly most lawmakers, have little sympathy for prison inmates. If they did the crime, they deserve to be punished. Fair enough. But what about those who are wrongfully convicted and languish in prison, possibly for years? Or, worse, face execution? They didn't do the crime - and clearly don't deserve to do the time. Advocates for prison and sentencing reform can only guess the percentage of inmates in Florida and throughout the United States who were wrongfully convicted. One estimate puts it as high as 10 percent, but many probably assume the percentage is so infinitesimally small as to be irrelevant. Just one wrongful conviction, however, is an assault on justice. Mistakes are inevitable. When the technology exists to correct errors, but potentially innocent inmates are prevented from using it, that's beyond injustice. It's criminal."
21 April 2005. "DNA test upsets death conviction" (by Judi Villa, Arizona Republic) The entire article is pasted below. New DNA testing has cast enough doubt to overturn the conviction of a death-row inmate who has spent 15 years trying to prove his innocence. Clarence David Hill, 56, was condemned for the 1989 murder of his landlord, Dale Edmundson, who was burned alive in Mohave County. At Hill's trial, prosecutors said he hit Edmundson on the head, wrapped him in a bedsheet and drove him in Edmundson's truck to a desert area south of Bullhead City, where Hill doused Edmundson with paint thinner and set him on fire. Recent DNA testing found that Edmundson's blood was not the blood found on Hill's clothing and on the bedsheet, said Hill's attorney, Rick Williams. In fact, Williams said, the blood on the bedsheet was from a female. "It is our position that it exonerates Mr. Hill," Williams said of the evidence. "Mr. Hill has been on death row for 15 years, and he has always maintained his innocence." At the very least, the DNA evidence could have changed the way the case was argued and might have affected the jury's verdict. "It is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have convicted Mr. Hill in light of the present DNA evidence," Judge Richard Weiss of Mohave County Superior Court wrote in an April 14 ruling to overturn Hill's conviction. But Assistant Attorney General Kent Cattani said, "We still are of the view that it would not have changed the jury's verdict." Since the country's first DNA exoneration in 1989, more inmates have attempted to overturn their sentences with genetic tests that weren't available when they were convicted. Nationwide, 157 inmates have been exonerated, including two in Arizona. In other cases, like this one, DNA testing doesn't clearly exonerate a suspect but raises enough doubt to force new trials. Two other Arizona death-row inmates have had their convictions or sentences overturned because of post-conviction DNA testing. One is awaiting a new sentence. The other was allowed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and sentenced to time served; he walked free in August. The state Attorney General's Office is expected to decide within weeks whether to appeal Weiss' ruling. If they don't, the case will be sent back to Mohave County, where prosecutors will decide if Hill will face a new trial, be offered a plea bargain or if the case will be dismissed. Cattani said the blood evidence was "one minor piece of evidence" and "certainly was not the linchpin of the state's case." "It's not DNA evidence that shows that somebody else committed this crime," Cattani said. "It may have changed the way the case was argued, but it does not exonerate the defendant." Hill's shoe prints were found at the scene and leading from where the truck was found to the victim's home, according to a 1993 Supreme Court ruling on Hill's case. Hill lived in a mobile home on Edmundson's property and witnesses testified the two had quarreled over money about a week before the murder. Hill, who had no steady source of income, had more than $200 and the victim's grocery receipt in his wallet when he was arrested. Edmundson's wallet was empty. Still, Williams said, "There's no way Mr. Hill could have killed Mr. Edmundson, wrapped him in a bedsheet and carried him that far without getting blood on his clothes or on the bedsheet." Williams said he would file a motion within the next few days asking for Hill's release. Hill, he said, is in poor health. He uses a wheelchair and uses oxygen to breathe.
"Naturally, he was ecstatic," Williams said
of Hill. "He broke down and cried from the news."
21 April 2005. "Texas may have put innocent man to death, panel told" (from the Chicago Tribune) Excerpted paragraphs from the article are relevant to the case of Alfred Trenkler: "AUSTIN, Texas -- With Texas' criminal justice system the subject of intense scrutiny for a crime lab scandal and a series of wrongful convictions, a state Senate committee heard testimony Tuesday about the possibility that Texas had experienced the ultimate criminal justice nightmare: the execution of an innocent person. Fourteen months after Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in the nation's busiest death chamber, a renowned arson expert and Willingham's lawyer told the Senate Criminal Justice Committee that they believed Willingham might have been innocent but found nobody willing to listen to their claim in the days before the execution in February 2004.... Texas Gov. Rick Perry has, by executive order, set up his own committee. But critics, including state Sen. Rodney Ellis, a longtime advocate of criminal justice reform in Texas, and Barry Scheck, a co-founder of the New York-based Innocence Project, told the senators that to be effective the governor's panel needed to subpoena sworn testimony, obtain documents and seek forensic testing. Ellis, a Houston Democrat, has sponsored legislation to beef up the power of Perry's panel. "Without subpoena power and the ability to order testing, I don't see how the committee can get to the bottom of these cases," Scheck said after testifying. "I haven't heard of a committee that didn't want all of those things. If you want to find out the truth, you have to have the mechanisms to do it." ....
Willingham maintained his innocence until the end. Strapped to a gurney
in the death chamber last year, an angry Willingham said: 'I am
an innocent man, convicted of a crime I did not commit.' "
Excerpted paragraphs from the article are relevant to the case of Alfred Trenkler, even if he is not sentenced to death: .....Starr had left his job as independent counsel and returned to his law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, where Lovitt's case had become a pro bono project. Last year, Starr became one of Lovitt's lead attorneys after being disturbed by how much he says went wrong, both in Lovitt's childhood and in his legal proceedings, including the destruction of nearly all physical evidence from his trial. "A compassionate and decent society has to ensure that a death penalty regime is as error-free as humanly possible and as fair as humanly possible," Starr said in an interview. For Lovitt, he said, the system has failed that test. Moreover, he said: "He is maintaining his innocence, and as his counsel, I am maintaining his innocence.".... When Starr came to the case, Lovitt had been on death row for nearly four years. He had always maintained his innocence. His attorneys at Starr's firm won a new evidentiary hearing in 2002 but have not been able to persuade a court to throw out the death sentence or conviction. Now their arguments are in the final stages. Among their biggest concerns is a court clerk's decision in May 2001 -- against the warnings of two fellow clerks -- to discard nearly all evidence in Lovitt's case, in spite of his continuing appeals. "The fact that evidence would be destroyed where additional testing could be done is extraordinary and, frankly, outrageous," Starr said in an interview. The lack of evidence left Lovitt's attorneys with no way to do further DNA testing on the scissors that prosecutors identified as the murder weapon. At trial, experts said that the victim's DNA was identified on the scissors but that other DNA tests were inconclusive. "No one ever took apart the scissors, and we know from many other cases that criminalists often uncover important blood evidence in the screws or joints of scissors," said Peter Neufeld, co-founder of the Innocence Project in New York, who has worked on DNA-based appeals for scores of inmates and testified at Lovitt's 2002 hearing. DNA technology and training have become far more sophisticated since Lovitt's 1999 trial, Neufeld pointed out. To proceed with an execution in spite of missing evidence, he said, "constitutes a gross injustice." "I know no [other] case where the evidence has been lost or destroyed within two years of conviction," he said.
20 April 2005. "Milgaard inquiry finishes first phase" (Canadian Broadcasting Corp) SASKATOON – The first phase of the inquiry into the wrongful conviction of David Milgaard has wrapped up in Saskatoon after hearing from nearly 50 witnesses. All of the witnesses were involved in the 1969 investigation that lead to Milgaard's conviction for the murder of Gail Miller. He spent more than 20 years in prison before being exonerated by DNA evidence. Larry Fisher was later convicted of the crime. The Commission has heard 41 days of testimony since mid-January. Among those who testified were the three people who first told police that Milgaard killed Miller. One man recanted his testimony 20 years later leading to a review of Milgaard's case. The commission also heard from a number of women who were sexually assaulted by Larry Fisher in the months before and after Miller's murder. When the hearings resume in June the commissioner will start hearing from the police. Witnesses will include the officers who investigated Miller's murder, as well as those who were investigating the sexual assaults that Larry Fisher would eventually confess to. The next phase of the inquiry is expected to last until July. [For more information about Canada's most infamous wrongful conviction case, see "Links to Articles (Old)" for 17 January and 1 January 2005. The inquiry described above is what should be done in the Alfred Trenkler case.] 11 April 2005. Playwrights Eric Benson and Jessica Blank write book about their creation of the play, "The Exonerated": "Living Justice: Love, Freedom and the Making of 'The Exonerated' " A review of the book and essay appears online at the Gothamist website and begins: Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen are not your average struggling actors, first-time playwrights, married couple, or just about anything else. These talented activists and artists are the force behind the anti-death penalty play The Exonerated , and have recently authored a behind-the-scenes peek into their creative process and political awakening entitled Living Justice: Love, Freedom and the Making of The Exonerated (Atria, February 2005). The play was culled from their interviews with over 40 exonerated death row inmates, stemming from a symposium they attended on the death penalty at Columbia University, which sparked their interest and gave them a vision for the play they wanted to create. From there, they traveled the country conducted interviews, learning about the judicial and penal system, and ultimately writing and staging a play with actors such as Gabriel Byrne, Kristin Davis, Richard Dreyfuss, Mia Farrow, Sara Gilbert, Lyle Lovett, Debra Winger and support from the likes of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, at New York's 45 Bleecker Theater , as well as across the country. The play's political reach was wide as well: it's been performed at the United Nations and in front of the likes of Janet Reno, Supreme Court Justice David Souter, Senator Patrick Leahy, and members of the Justice Department. One of the most gripping moments in the book details a performance given in Chicago as then-Governor Ryan was deciding whether to exonerate people being held on death row in Illinois. The Exonerated also garnered Blank and Jensen numerous awards, including the 2003 Lucille Lortel Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play, and a Drama Desk Award."
9 April 2005. National Geographic TV Channel: "DNA Frees Death-Row Inmates, Brings Others to Justice" by Brian Handwerk. The article begins: "After five years on Louisiana's death row, Ryan Matthews received a second chance at life. He was exonerated last year with the help of DNA evidence. "He was 17 years old at the time of his arrest and is borderline retarded," said Martha Kashickey, the public-education associate for the Innocence Project at Yeshiva University's law school in New York City. "Post-conviction DNA testing on the mask the perpetrator left at the scene both exonerated Matthews and revealed the identity of the actual perpetrator," Kashickey said from New York City. The Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reports that 13 other death-row inmates have also been exonerated with the help of DNA evidence...."
9 April 2005. Florida struggles with amount of compensation for the wrongfully convicted: "Helping Mr. Dedge" [See 14 April Update to Florida legislature consideration of wrongful conviction compensation: "A pittance or a capital gain?" ] This link has an article and several letters to the newspaper, "Florida Today". Some are about Wilton Dedged who was exonerated after 22 years in prison for a rape commited 46 mile from where he was on the day of the crime. See, in this website, "Links to Articles (old)" Wrote one letter writer: "Senators should move to boost compensation In my not-so-humble opinion, the piddling sum the Florida Legislature is ramming through to compensate Wilton Dedge is a travesty. They want to give him a measly $200,000 for 22 years of his life. Can anyone imagine what it's like to forfeit 22 of the best years of your life in the hellhole that prison is, taken away from your family with no recourse? And what about two years in solitary confinement he spent for his own protection? Those two years alone are worth $200,000. Overzealous state prosecutors are ultimately responsible for this outrage. Having seen how some of them work, I think they should be disbarred, or, in cases like Dedge's, prosecuted themselves. I am severely disappointed that Sens. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge and Mike Haridopolos, R-Indialantic, have not submitted any counter legislation to give Dedge what he rightfully deserves. Pay him for those endless years of humiliation, suffering, defamation, loss of consort, loss of freedom and wrongful conviction. The sum of $1.2 million should be the minimum amount awarded, with his parent's legal fees added on. If you think so, too, contact your state senators."
4 April 2005. "A reform agenda for state’s justice system (Virginia) (From the Virginian-Pilot) When an airplane crashes, government conducts a full-fledged investigation, unearthing causes and demanding steps to avoid future calamity. When an innocent person turns up in prison, government responds in a piecemeal, half-hearted fashion. Whether due to embarrassment, stubbornness or myopia, too often the event is treated as a blue-moon occurrence, unfortunate but unavoidable. Thanks to the State Crime Commission and individual lawmakers such as Sen. Ken Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, and Del. Dave Albo, R-Fairfax County, Virginia has responded to a series of wrongful convictions in recent years by enacting meaningful reforms. Relaxing the odious 21-day-rule, which decreed that evidence of innocence could only arrive in court within three weeks of sentencing, ranks prime among them. But Virginia government has never done what it ought: conduct a full-scale, scientific investigation into the mounting exonerations, looking for common breakdowns and recommending broad-based solutions. Fortunately, the Innocence Commission for Virginia has elected to step in. The bipartisan, nonprofit organization — sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, the Administration of Justice Program at George Mason University and the Constitution Project of Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute — has conducted an exhaustive review of 11 cases of wrongful conviction in Virginia courts between 1982 and 1990. Given the incredible strokes of luck and zealous commitment of private attorneys usually necessary to produce these exonerations, only an ostrich could pretend that these 11 represent close to the true number of innocent people condemned to Virginia prisons during the period. And given what students of the criminal justice system now know about the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, the dangers of tunnel-vision police and prosecutorial work, the appallingly low pay of Virginia's public defenders and the constraints on post-conviction remedies, individuals committed to true justice will not shy from the report's findings. Some of the proposals are expensive, but others would be far cheaper to achieve. Three in particular ought to become standard practice: - Improving eyewitness identification procedures, including having an individual who does not know the identity of the suspect show photos to victims one at a time. - Videotaping interrogations of suspects in all homicide and serious felony cases whenever possible. A growing number of localities and even states using the practice praise the results. - Training police officers to remain skeptical throughout an investigation, and requiring prosecutors to open their entire files to defense attorneys. Steps to avoid wrongful convictions too often are viewed as encumbrances to rightful convictions. That mind-set should change. The goal of politicians, lawyers, judges and citizens responsible for justice in Virginia must be to strike the proper balance between pursuit of the guilty and protection of the innocent. 23 March 2005. Ray Krone to be compensated: "County to approve settlement for wrongfully convicted man" by Beth DeFalco, Associated Press. PHOENIX - Maricopa County, Arizona, has agreed to a $1.4 million settlement with a man who was twice wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death. County supervisors were expected to approve the lump-sum settlement Wednesday, nearly three years after Ray Krone's release from prison, said Krone's attorney, Alan Simpson. "It's a start in the right direction," said Krone, who spent a decade in prison, including more than two years on death row. "There is starting to be some accountability, some responsibility." Krone said he plans to use the money to pay back his parents, who mortgaged their York County, Pa., home to pay for his defense. He estimates they spent as much as $300,000 on lawyers and experts. Krone said he also owes around $500,000 in attorney's fees. Krone still has a lawsuit pending against the city of Phoenix. [See Parade Magazine, 2/23/2003 and article below on this page, and also the book about the death Penalty on Trial at 2 January 2005, below. Much of it is about Ray Krone.]
19 March 2005. A Massachusetts Wrongful Conviction: "JUSTICE FOR BOBBY JOE" Boston attorneys Robert Muse and his son Chris worked for |