2000 People Falsely Convicted, Then Exonerated, in 23 Years

[marmar]

Shocking: 2000 People Falsely Convicted, Then Exonerated, in 23 Years


False prosecution: a new study has shown that over 2000 people have been falsely convicted, then exonerated, of crimes in the US over the past two decades. The number comes from a new database compiled by the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law, in a joint effort to examine wrongful convictions. The researchers have details for 873 cases among those in the database, through which they found that most exonerations involved men, half of whom were black, and half of which were murder cases. Over one hundred of the wrongful convictions had received the death penalty. Washington Post:

The overall registry/list begins at the start of 1989. It gives an unprecedented view of the scope of the problem of wrongful convictions in the United States and the figure of more than 2,000 exonerations “is a good start,” said Rob Warden, executive director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions.

“We know there are many more that we haven’t found,” added University of Michigan law professor Samuel Gross, the editor of the newly opened National Registry of Exonerations.

Counties such as San Bernardino in California and Bexar County in Texas are heavily populated, yet seemingly have no exonerations, a circumstance that the academics say cannot possibly be correct.

Further, the database includes over 1200 cases about which the researchers had scant evidence, but many of which were thrown out during police corruption exposes. That, and the allegedly juked numbers in San Bernardino and Bexar County bring to light the overall problem that leads to false convictions: when quotas are more important than justice. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/932554/shocking%3A_2000_people_falsely_convicted%2C_then_exonerated%2C_in_23_years/

[The Magistrate]

1. And In Most, Sir, There Was Deliberate Misconduct By Prosecutors And Police, That Will Go Unpunished

The way to halt this is to jail prosecutors and police for their misconduct.

[EFerrari]

5. But who has the money to mount that kind of campaign, Sir?

I don't think you are mistaken, but don't see how it could be funded. These would be de facto political efforts, wouldn't they?

[The Magistrate]

6. True, Ma'am: It Would Require Changes In Law, Which Means Votes In Legislatures

[EFerrari]

12. D.A.s are elected locally and police chiefs are usually appointed by mayors, I think.

I was thinking of San Francisco, for example. It would require a grassroots effort to either turn the DA out or challenge a mayor who wouldn't cooperate on the police side. But it could be done if one or two pigheaded people set their minds to it and could organize a few more pigheaded people to work and recruit a bunch more pigheaded people. It wouldn't be easy, though. But that's what it would take.

[The Magistrate]

13. Out Of Office, Ma'am, Is Not Twenty Years In Stir

Voting them out is certainly worth doing, mind, but the sorts of malfeasance often seen in cases like these ought to be a high grade felony.

[EFerrari]

14. Yes. One night here I was trying to look up a young man who was in prison

and said to be there unjustly. After searching a bit, I ran across another young man with the same name and some other horrible story. I had to stop for a while.

Our system of justice needs to be sandblasted, Your Honor. Whatever brief respite there might have been in the 70s disappeared with the Raygun War on Americans via prohibition. And austerity will only make it worse when the cutbacks really hit police forces.

[toddwv]

2. Without even looking I'm going to guess that over 90% of them

were of the non-caucasian persuasion...

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. over 50% n/t

[ashling]

9. Here

The researchers have details for 873 cases among those in the database, through which they found that most exonerations involved men, half of whom were black, and half of which were murder cases.

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. "most exhonerations involved men" = 90% n/t

[surrealAmerican]

7. I expect this is only the tip of the iceberg.

There are probably far more people wrongfully convicted of more minor crimes, but they are never investigated.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

8. Like the Bakersfield satanic child sex ring for example

http://www.religioustolerance.org/ra_baker.htm

The McCuan and Kniffen Families

This was the first large Multi-Victim Multi-Offender (MVMO) child abuse case in North America. It was centered in Bakersfield and Kern County, CA. Two couples, Alvin & Debbie McCuan and Scott & Brenda Kniffen, were tried in 1983, found guilty, and given centuries-long jail sentences.

The McCuan/Kniffen convictions were overturned on appeal. The two couples were released from jail in 1996-AUG, after having spent 14 years in prison, isolated from each other.

-snip-

The girls, Becky and Dawn were repeatedly questioned. They confirmed what their step-grandmother had said. Over many months, their disclosures became increasingly bizarre. They said that they had been hung from ceiling hooks, beaten with belts, rented to strangers in motels and been forced to act in "kiddy-porn" movies. They claimed that they were abused by a sex ring which involved their grandparents, their parents, their father's brothers, friends of their parents (Scott & Brenda Kniffen), the social worker who did the inspection, a co-worker of their father, and two unnamed welfare workers.

-snip-

In their six month investigation, police officers ignored many factors:

*Rope burns that would have been present if the abuse had happened were absent.

*Markings on the railing where the children said they were tied were absent.

*There were plant hooks in the ceiling, but they could not have supported a child's weight.

*There were no ceiling hooks in the rooms where the children said there were.

*There were no patches in the ceiling which would have been left behind if ceiling hooks had been removed.

*Both Becky and Dawn told their parents' defense attorney that they had only accused one of their uncles because their step-grandmother told them to.

*No pornographic movies, "snuff films" or movie cameras were ever found.

*There was no evidence of physical trauma to either child, except for that attributed to the grandfather's alleged assault on Becky.

*The Kniffen parents voluntarily submitted to polygraph tests which indicated that they were both innocent. These tests are generally regarded as being accurate between 70 and 90% of the time. The probability of both parents actually being guilty and both fooling the polygraph test is about 1 to 9%.

*Allegations of Satanic ritual murders came up during group therapy. Becky and Dawn led the police to the spot where they believed that the sacrificed infants were buried. Neither bodies nor disturbed earth (filled-in pits) were ever found. (Disturbed earth can be detected centuries after pits are filled in).

-snip-

[spanone]

10. 'Over one hundred of the wrongful convictions had received the death penalty'

state sponsored murder....

[UnrepentantLiberal]

11. Just watched Conviction with Hilary Swank.

It's based on a true story. What a nightmare. 18 years in prison for doing nothing.


From Waitress to Brother’s Savior, Then Hollywood Hero


Betty Anne Waters inspired “Conviction,” a film opening on Friday and starring Hilary Swank.

By Robin Pokogrebin
The New York Times
October 12, 2010

BRISTOL, R.I. — Betty Anne Waters still greets her lunch customers here as they tuck into pints of Guinness and Reuben sandwiches at Aidan’s, a pub hard by the harbor in this small, boat-building town.

Ms. Waters had only a job as a waitress, her high school equivalency, two kids and a stack of bills when she set out to rescue her brother Kenneth Waters, who served 18 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. Now she has a college degree, a law degree and the stunning achievement of having succeeded, after nearly two decades, in overturning her brother’s conviction.

But after he was released in 2001 —and the flurry of news attention faded — Ms. Waters, 56, returned to Aidan’s, to the simple life of tending to her family and the pub where she is now general manager. No law firm. No fat salary. No fame.

“As I got to know her, I understood it,” said Barry Scheck, a lawyer who assisted her on the case. “She did not become a lawyer to be a lawyer. She became a lawyer to get her brother out of jail.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/13/movies/13waitress.html