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Wrongful Conviction: Rethinking American Criminal Justice

An Attorney General’s Awakening

to Wrongful Criminal Conviction

Monday, July 22

Morning Session

Committed

to DNA:

As Ohio AG (2003-2007):

• Gained authority to capture DNA

• 210,000 Ohio DNA profiles

• Solved cold cases

• Stephanie Hummer – March 6, 1994

Jonathan Gravely, Sept. 2007

• Marla Jean Hires, Oct. 29, 1972,

Orange County, California

• Also: An unexpected awakening

Mark Godsey, Director

Ohio Innocence Project

• Ohio Case: Clarence Elkins

• Crime and arrest, June 7, 1998

• Barberton Police and local law enforcement

• Trial – May 20, 1999

Clarence Elkins

• Eligible for parole, 2054, 91.

• DNA excluded Elkins 1999.

• Eyewitness testimony

• Melinda Elkins – 2 missions

• April 28, 2002, Earl Mann in news

Clarence Elkins

• Mid-2005, Cigarette butt; prosecutor defensive

• Dec. 9, 2005: New DNA testing; Mann (one in 19 million)

• Press conference of Dec. 15, 2005

Earl Mann

"He’s out of there! He’s out of there!” Clarence Elkins walking out of Mansfield Correctional Institution on Dec. 15, 2005. Clarence had served seven and a half years before DNA proved his innocence. Associated Press Photo

Celebrating five years of freedom. L to R: Mark Godsey, Jim Petro, Clarence Elkins

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Troubling

Questions:

• How many?

• Why does the system get it wrong?

• Just unavoidable human error?

• Can we do better?

• How can we help fix this?

• “Actual Innocence”

• DNA utilized in U.S. since 1989

• Innocence Project founded in 1992 • 310 exonerated by DNA to date

• 18 from death row • Ave. served — 13 years • True suspects/perpetrators identified >40% • National Registry of Exonerations: 1,174 • Ohio SB 77

Biggest issue: Why?

Dean Gillispie

• Fingered by workplace rival; detectives eliminated as suspect

• Then, Identified 2 years after crimes by 3 rape victims

• Seriously flawed photo lineup

• Convicted, served 20 years

• Became first client of Ohio

Innocence Project – No DNA

Mark Godsey, Dean Gillispie,

Jim Petro (L to R)

• Appeals / post-conviction actions

• Brady material

• New evidence – difficult standard

— Actually new

—“Strong probability” that it

would “change the result”

— Discovered since trial;

not discoverable before trial

— Must be “material,” not just

cumulative, contradictory

• Alternative suspect

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Alternative Suspect Photo 1990

Police Sketch of Perpetrator

Dean Gillispie

• Conviction vacated by federal magistrate

• Released from prison in Dec. 2011

• Motion for new trial granted by state appeals court

• Question of required evidence

at retrial

• Required two and a half years to

research, write, and publish

• Published by Kaplan Publishing,

New York, January 2011

• In its fifth printing

• Received the 2011 Constitutional

Commentary Award from the

Constitution Project, Washington DC

• Received the 2012 Justice for All Media

Award from the Northern California

Innocence Project

It will change

the way you view

criminal justice.

Writing a book—

Literal Awakening.

The Challenges.

• target lay readers as well as justice

professionals;

• combine narrative with research and

policy recommendations;

•create a compelling read,

and find a publisher.

• Jim Petro’s memoir

• Details 3 Ohio wrongful convictions

• Illustrates 6 recurring contributors

• Dispels 8 myths that convict the

innocent

• Written for the general audience

• Used in college and law courses

• Chinese, Peking Univ. Press

• It’s hopeful: We CAN do better.

"...my husband and I are teachers...

Your book is one of a handful I've read

in life that I view as a 'must read'

for all conscientious citizens." -Bridget R. (unsolicited reader)

Wrongful conviction is an emerging international human rights issue.

“...a riveting account of how the American system of criminal justice broke down to the point where it allows the conviction

of the innocent, and how it can be fixed."

—Jeffrey Rosen, legal affairs editor of The New Republic, professor of law, George Washington University

American Criminal Justice

By the Numbers

• What percentage of crimes have DNA evidence?

• In cases in which the real perpetrator was also identified, what percentage of these had been convicted of other crimes?

• What percentage of death row inmates serving (for at least 15 years) from 1973 to 2004 were then exonerated?

• IF the proven rate of wrongful death row convictions were applied to all crimes, how many persons would have been wrongfully imprisoned (for at least one year) from 1977 to 2004?

• Percent of exoneration cases in which innocent persons made a false confession, incriminating statement, or plead guilty.

• Percent of sexual assault wrongful convictions in which a mistaken eyewitness identification contributed.

• Of those exoneration cases in which misidentification played a role, in what percent did more than one witness finger the same innocent person?

• Percent of time that witnesses select from a police lineup the non-suspect police “filler.”

• Percent of prime suspects (usually identified by the victim in stranger-to-stranger crimes) that consistently have been ruled out by labs by DNA.

• How many people are in America’s jails and prisons?

• If 1 percent of today’s prisoners are innocent, how many innocent people are in prison?

• Total spending by U.S. states for

corrections in 2010?

• How many Americans are in prison or jail, or on parole or probation?

Eight Myths that Convict the Innocent, Part 1:

Eyewitness Identification and False Confession

Monday, July 22

Afternoon Session