wrongful convictions

The ABA Journal's Mark Hansen has a cover story about how two decades of research into the cause of fires has shown that many criminal defendants have been wrongfully convicted of arson-related crimes because of faulty evidence admitted against them. Arson expert John Lentini estimates that there may be a few hundred innocent people in prison for arson.

Arson cases are "particularly difficult to undo," Hansen reports. "Arson cases are not like typical murder or rape cases, where DNA evidence may still exist that not only can establish one’s innocence but also implicate another. In arson cases, evidence is usually consumed in the fire. And a fire investigator can rarely rule out arson as the cause of a blaze, which is often a requirement for overturning a conviction.

Justin McShane, a Pennsylvania lawyer who has won one man's freedom from allegedly killing his mentally ill daughter in a fire, said Pennsylvania and other states should follow the lead of Texas and California in allowing defendants to get new trials if the underlying forensic science used to convict them is shown to be flawed.

The New York Times' Andrew Jacobs had an unsettling feature on the Chinese criminal justice system, writing that many convictions in China depend on confessions that are obtained through coercion. Even though President Xi Jinping has made legal reform part of his effort to boost support for the Communist Party and China's highest court have ruled against using evidence obtained through abuse, "Chinese lawyers and human rights advocates say these measures have had limited impact on a police system that for decades has made obtaining a confession the centerpiece of its efforts."

Human Rights Watch found that judges excluded evidence in just 23 cases of 432 in which defendants said they have been abused.

In the 14 years since Oregon enacted a law to allow defendants to get DNA testing to show they might be innocent, only two have gotten judges to approve such testing. As a result, legislators in Oregon have introduced a bill to reform the state's DNA testing law for defendants, Oregon Public Broadcasting's Amelia Templeton reports.

Under current law, defendants have to show that DNA testing on specific pieces of evidence would conclusively prove their innocence. The new bill would relax the standard, requiring defendants to "present a theory of defense supported by DNA evidence, and prove that a favorable DNA result would lead to finding that person would not have been convicted if the testing had been done before their trial," Templeton reports.

According to an investigation by The Guardian, Richard Zuley, a detective on Chicago’s north side from 1977 to 2007 and who interrogated terrorism detainees at Guantanamo Bay, imported the type of harsh tactics used at America's holding center for terrorism suspects into his work as a police officer. The newspaper's Spencer Ackerman reports that Zuley allegedly "repeatedly engaged in methods of interrogation resulting in at least one wrongful conviction and subsequent cases more recently thrown into doubt following allegations of abuse." The Guardian alleges that Gitmo detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi and domestic defendants "confessed untruthfully to try and stop the treatment by Zuley."

Last year, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that a death row inmate couldn't get DNA testing on evidence in his case because he didn't prove that it contained biological material. According to the Associated Press, now a Texas lawmaker has proposed a reform to the crime-scene DNA testing law that he authored to allow any convicted person to request testing on "evidence that is reasonably likely to contain biological material," not just of evidence that "'containing biological material.'"

The Tulsa World's Ziva Branstetter reports that few Oklahomans receive compensation after their convictions are overturned because of evidence they are innocent: "Like most other states, Oklahoma’s wrongful conviction law requires a legal finding of 'actual innocence' after convictions are overturned. In practice, the process often requires exonerated people to prove their innocence again in court." Branstetter found in her review that just six out of 28 Oklahomans listed on the National Exoneration Registry collected any money for their years spent in prison.

The Tulsa World has conducted a two-part investigation into the case built against Michelle Murphy, who was released from jail after her murder conviction was dismissed Friday. The World found that the blood and DNA found at the scene of her baby's death was not Murphy's.

She also allegedly made an incriminating statement that "'I could've been so angry I needed to take it out on somebody and ended up hurting my son.'" Murphy said during her trial that she only made the statement because a police officer told her she could see her other child if she confessed.

According to the World, The key prosecution witness, a 14-year-old who had made sexual advances against Murphy--then a young teenage mom- reacted aggressively when facing rejection. The witness killed himself accidently by autoerotic asphyxiation. His statement incriminating Murphy was admitted, but evidence about his violent behavior was not admitted.

California Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill that would have allowed judges to inform juries when a prosecutor has intentionally withheld evidence, according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, sponsor of the bill, said in a statement "we need this bill to stop the few prosecutors whose zeal for convictions lead them to cut corners on justice. We can’t wait decades to free the innocent while the true perpetrators run free.” Brown said he was vetoing the bill because it would intrude upon the judiciary's role in instructing juries.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted last week not to recommend a posthumous pardon for Cameron Todd Willingham, who was put to death after being convicted of killing his daughters in a housefire, the Texas Tribune reports. The Innocence Project argued new evidence showed the prosecutor who convicted Willingham might have made a deal with a jailhouse informant who testified against Willingham, even though the informant testified he received nothing in exchange for his testimony, the Tribune also reports.

Todd Willingham was executed a decade ago after he was convicted of setting a house fire that killed his three daughters, the Texas Tribune reports. Lawyers from the Innocence Project have already cited faulty science regarding the cause of the fire being arson. Now they say a note shows that the presiding prosecutor made a deal with a jailhouse informant even though the informant testified he received nothing in exchange for his testimony, The Tribune further reports.