tagged w/ Wrongful Conviction
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Nothing like this day in history to make you appreciate the present, no matter how nuts it is.Nothing like this day in history to make you appreciate the present, no matter how... more
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If you're convicted of a crime you didn't commit, good luck getting compensation for your time behind bars.
Take the case of Eric Caine. Last week, I wrote about Caine, a Chicago man tortured by police under the command of Lt. Jon Burge, wrongfully convicted of a double murder, and finally freed last March after 25 years of prison hell -- only to be legally screwed once again.
The latest travesty: a Cook County judge on October 12th rejected Caine's request for the certificate of innocence necessary to ensure compensation for his unjust imprisonment, a tidy sum of $199,000 that would have helped the penniless Caine start a new life.
Judge Michael McHale's interpretation of the state law governing such certificates was worthy of the Queen of Hearts in Alice's Wonderland. "Petitioner [Caine] must prove his innocence independent of the fact that the State currently has no evidence against him for the crimes for which he was originally tried," McHale opined. Caine's lawyers may ask the judge to stop reading Lewis Carroll and reconsider his decision, or file an appeal.
Unfortunately, Caine is not alone. Meet Nathson Fields.
Fields and another man were charged with a 1984 double homicide on Chicago's South Side. The trial judge, Thomas J. Maloney, didn't care whether Fields and his co-defendant were innocent. But the judge was perfectly willing to find them not guilty -- in exchange for a $10,000 bribe from the co-defendant's lawyer. The lawyer delivered the cash, and things were looking up.
Trouble was, Maloney discovered he was under investigation by the FBI and prudently returned the money. To further cover his tracks, Maloney found Fields & Co. guilty -- and sentenced them to death.
It turned out poorly for everyone. As the two men languished on Death Row, Maloney was convicted of conspiracy to commit extortion and obstruction of justice for fixing cases, and the lawyer was convicted of bribery.
The principals remained locked up until Fields won a new trial. He eventually was released on bond, breathing free air for the first time in 18 years. In 2009, a judge finally acquitted Fields in a bench trial. This time the verdict was legit.
Seeking restitution, Fields requested a certificate of innocence to qualify for the six figures he was owed under state law. The not guilty verdict convinced a Cook Co. judge to approve the certificate, and last year Fields got his check from the state.
But unhappy prosecutors appealed, and on September 30th a three-judge panel ruled that finding reasonable doubt at Field's re-trial wasn't good enough for him to collect. Now Fields will have to prove his true innocence -- or he could be forced to return the money.
Under the circumstances, what are wrongfully convicted prisoners like Eric Caine and Nathson Fields supposed to do? Confined most of their lives for crimes they did not commit, should they be saddled with law enforcement's job -- to track down the actual killers? From eight-by-twelve prison cells?
As for DNA, the magic bullet in undisputed exonerations, expecting to find it at most crime scenes is a television myth. (Sorry, CSI fans.) New alibi evidence is unlikely to emerge decades later. Recanting witnesses? Cook Co. prosecutors are threatening them with perjury for changing their stories.
Judges like Michael McHale in Caine's case, and the appellate justices in Fields' case, say they are simply following the letter of the law that compensates exonerated prisoners. Prove your innocence (or starve).
To some extent, they are right. Illinois lawmakers must amend the statute by guaranteeing funds to prisoners who are found not guilty, or whose convictions are vacated, or whose indictments are dropped. It would be inexcusable not to enact these simple remedies.
On the other hand, judges shouldn't be so quick to pass the buck. The current law recognizes that "... the court, in exercising its discretion... shall, in the interest of justice, give due consideration to difficulties of proof caused by the passage of time, the death or unavailability of witnesses, the destruction of evidence or other factors not caused by such persons or those acting on their behalf." So judges, many of whom were prosecutors (including McHale), are selectively interpreting the law.
The result is that only a handful of certificates of innocence have been approved in Cook Co., while many who should qualify are deterred from filing because of the way our state's law has been written and applied.
Nationally, the situation is worse. Only 27 states compensate innocent prisoners, and many of these states have laws with more hurdles than Illinois'.
What can you do? Plenty. Judges are elected in Illinois. If you don't believe they are acting "in the interest of justice," remember them when you go to the polls. State legislators are also elected. Support those who vote for legislation that is just. For a litmus test, tell your elected representatives about the plight of Eric Caine and Nathson Fields. More broadly, demand passage of the model legislation proposed by The Innocence Project.
Meanwhile, scream about a system that pays torturer Jon Burge his monthly $3,000 police pension while he is in prison, but robs the innocent of the restitution they deserve.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-protess/illinois-wrongful-conviction-restitution_b_1014368.html?ir=CrimeIf you're convicted of a crime you didn't commit, good luck getting... more
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Watkins, the first black district attorney in Texas history, has also pointed to what he calls "a convict-at-all-costs mentality" that he says permeated his office before he arrived in 2007. No, really??? in Texas??? How can that be!!
I wonder what her accuser is going to say after all this time?? I'm sorry? oops? She should be sent to jail to experience what this man has!!
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DALLAS – A Texas man declared innocent Tuesday after 30 years in prison could have cut short his prison stint twice and made parole — if only he would admit he was a sex offender.
But Cornelius Dupree Jr. refused to do so, doggedly maintaining his innocence in a 1979 rape and robbery, in the process serving more time for a crime he didn't commit than any other Texas inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.
"Whatever your truth is, you have to stick with it," Dupree, 51, said Tuesday, minutes after a Dallas judge overturned his conviction.
Nationally, only two others exonerated by DNA evidence spent more time in prison, according to the Innocence Project, a New York legal center that specializes in wrongful conviction cases and represented Dupree. James Bain was wrongly imprisoned for 35 years in Florida, and Lawrence McKinney spent more than 31 years in a Tennessee prison.
Dupree was sentenced to 75 years in prison in 1980 for the rape and robbery of a 26-year-old Dallas woman a year earlier. He was released in July on mandatory supervision, and lived under house arrest until October. About a week after his release, DNA test results came back proving his innocence in the sexual assault.
Click image to see photos of Cornelius Dupree Jr.
A day after his release, Dupree married his fiancee, Selma. The couple met two decades ago while he was in prison.
His exoneration hearing was delayed until Tuesday while authorities retested the DNA and made sure it was a match to the victim. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins supported Dupree's innocence claim.
Looking fit and trim in a dark suit, Dupree stood through most of the short hearing, until state district Judge Don Adams told him, "You're free to go." One of Dupree's lawyers, Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck, called it "a glorious day."
"It's a joy to be free again," Dupree said.
This latest wait was nothing for Dupree, who was up for parole as recently as 2004. He was set to be released and thought he was going home, until he learned he first would have to attend a sex offender treatment program.
Those in the program had to go through what is known as the "four R's." They are recognition, remorse, restitution and resolution, said Jim Shoemaker, who served two years with Dupree in the Boyd Unit south of Dallas.
"He couldn't get past the first part," said Shoemaker, who drove up from Houston to attend Dupree's hearing.
Shoemaker said he spent years talking to Dupree in the prison recreation yard, and always believed his innocence.
"I got a lot of flak from the guys on the block," Shoemaker said. "But I always believed him. He has a quiet, peaceful demeanor."
Under Texas compensation laws for the wrongly imprisoned, Dupree is eligible for $80,000 for each year he was behind bars, plus a lifetime annuity. He could receive $2.4 million in a lump sum that is not subject to federal income tax.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110104/ap_on_re_us/us_dna_exoneration_texasWatkins, the first black district attorney in Texas history, has also pointed to what... more
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KSirys
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1 year ago
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Watkins, the first black district attorney in Texas history, has also pointed to what he calls "a convict-at-all-costs mentality" that he says permeated his office before he arrived in 2007. No, really??? in Texas??? How can that be!!
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DALLAS – A Texas man declared innocent Tuesday after 30 years in prison could have cut short his prison stint twice and made parole — if only he would admit he was a sex offender.
But Cornelius Dupree Jr. refused to do so, doggedly maintaining his innocence in a 1979 rape and robbery, in the process serving more time for a crime he didn't commit than any other Texas inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.
"Whatever your truth is, you have to stick with it," Dupree, 51, said Tuesday, minutes after a Dallas judge overturned his conviction.
Nationally, only two others exonerated by DNA evidence spent more time in prison, according to the Innocence Project, a New York legal center that specializes in wrongful conviction cases and represented Dupree. James Bain was wrongly imprisoned for 35 years in Florida, and Lawrence McKinney spent more than 31 years in a Tennessee prison.
Dupree was sentenced to 75 years in prison in 1980 for the rape and robbery of a 26-year-old Dallas woman a year earlier. He was released in July on mandatory supervision, and lived under house arrest until October. About a week after his release, DNA test results came back proving his innocence in the sexual assault.
Click image to see photos of Cornelius Dupree Jr.
A day after his release, Dupree married his fiancee, Selma. The couple met two decades ago while he was in prison.
His exoneration hearing was delayed until Tuesday while authorities retested the DNA and made sure it was a match to the victim. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins supported Dupree's innocence claim.
Looking fit and trim in a dark suit, Dupree stood through most of the short hearing, until state district Judge Don Adams told him, "You're free to go." One of Dupree's lawyers, Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck, called it "a glorious day."
"It's a joy to be free again," Dupree said.
This latest wait was nothing for Dupree, who was up for parole as recently as 2004. He was set to be released and thought he was going home, until he learned he first would have to attend a sex offender treatment program.
Those in the program had to go through what is known as the "four R's." They are recognition, remorse, restitution and resolution, said Jim Shoemaker, who served two years with Dupree in the Boyd Unit south of Dallas.
"He couldn't get past the first part," said Shoemaker, who drove up from Houston to attend Dupree's hearing.
Shoemaker said he spent years talking to Dupree in the prison recreation yard, and always believed his innocence.
"I got a lot of flak from the guys on the block," Shoemaker said. "But I always believed him. He has a quiet, peaceful demeanor."
Under Texas compensation laws for the wrongly imprisoned, Dupree is eligible for $80,000 for each year he was behind bars, plus a lifetime annuity. He could receive $2.4 million in a lump sum that is not subject to federal income tax.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110104/ap_on_re_us/us_dna_exoneration_texasWatkins, the first black district attorney in Texas history, has also pointed to what... more
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KSirys
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1 year ago
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Each morning for 5,546 days, Jabbar Collins knew exactly what he'd wear when he awoke: a dark-green shirt with matching dark-green pants.
For most of those 15 years, Mr. Collins, who maintained his innocence, knew the only way his wardrobe would change was if he did something that's indescribably rare. He'd have to lawyer himself out of jail.
There was no crusading journalist, no nonprofit group taking up his cause, just Inmate 95A2646, a high-school dropout from Brooklyn, alone in a computerless prison law library.Mr. Collins pried documents from wary prosecutors, tracked down reluctant witnesses and persuaded them, at least once through trickery, to reveal what allegedly went on before and at the trial where he was convicted of the high-profile 1994 murder of Rabbi Abraham Pollack.
On March 13, 1995, as Mr. Collins was led by officers through a side door of a Brooklyn courtroom to a holding cell, his mother let loose a wailing sound that he'd "never heard before or since." Her son had just been convicted of murder.He was 22, a father of three and facing at least 34 2/3 years behind bars. Three witnesses had implicated him in the midday shooting of Mr. Pollack as the rabbi collected rent in a building at 126 Graham Avenue in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Mr. Collins said he was home getting a haircut at the time.
His father died when he was 12 and his mother worked two jobs while also studying nursing. Under-supervised, he skipped school often, smoked a lot of pot and fathered the first of his children when he was 15.
PROSECUTOR:Michael Vecchione denied any witnesses were rewarded or pressured.
JUDGES:Robert Holdman rejected appeal at state level.
Dora Irizarry heard federal appeal where conviction was overturned.
WITNESSES:
Adrian Diaz testified at trial he saw Collins with a gun. When Collins much later called him, posing as a D.A. investigator, Diaz talked about his route to becoming a witness.
Edwin Oliva testified at trial that Collins had said he planned to rob the rabbi. When Collins wrote to Oliva years later, Oliva wrote back describing what lay behind his testimony.
Angel Santos testified at trial he had called 911 and said he saw Collins run past. His voice didn't seem to Collins to match any voices on the 911 tape.
LAWYER:Joel Rudin helped Collins after his own 10-year legal effort.
His first request for trial records under New York's Freedom of Information Law, in July 1995, was denied. He would go on to file six more requests, five more appeals and a lawsuit before a judge gave him some of the records over two years later.
Over time, Mr. Collins would file a dizzying number of records requests. If they were denied, he appealed. If he lost, he'd add his requests to those he prepared for other inmates.
He picked away at his case for eight years, but by the fall of 2003 he had hit a wall. That's when he carried out a ruse to trick Adrian Diaz, who had testified to seeing Mr. Collins tuck a gun in his waistband after the murder, into talking to him.
Mr. Diaz said that he agreed to testify against Mr. Collins, he said, only after prosecutors promised they would make sure his probation wasn't revoked.
That account, which Mr. Diaz later attested to in a signed affidavit, wasn't provided by prosecutors to Mr. Collins's defense counsel, who could have used it to undermine the witness by showing he was given an incentive to testify.
Mr. Oliva wrote that he had been arrested a few weeks after the Pollack murder for a robbery he pulled in the building. He said the police asked about the rabbi's killing and he told them all he knew was that Mr. Collins had been arrested.
Detectives threatened to charge Mr. Oliva as an accessory, he wrote, and then made up a statement implicating Mr. Collins. Mr. Oliva wrote that he was so strung out and sleepy from a month-long run of "smoking & sniffin' dope" that he signed the statement, adding he "didn't even know what...I was signing."
At the trial, lead prosecutor Michael Vecchione stated that no key witnesses had received anything for testifying. "Oliva's motive is simple," the prosecutor said. "Just like all the rest of the witnesses, he saw something, he heard something, someone asked him about it, and he is telling what he saw and he is telling what he heard. Nothing else." Mr. Vecchione declined requests for comment.
Mr. Collins contacted Joel Rudin, a civil-rights attorney known for winning what was then the largest wrongful-conviction settlement in New York, $5 million.
"I was amazed" at Mr. Collins's file, Mr. Rudin says. "I've never seen anything like this".
As the lawyer began reworking the appeal, Mr. Collins gathered another piece of his mosaic. He obtained a tape of calls to 911 after the killing.
A witness had testified he called 911 and told of seeing Mr. Collins run past. But when Mr. Collins listened to the tape of 911 calls, none of the voices sounded like what he recalled this witness sounding like at the trial.
Mr. Collins obtained a tape of a prosecution interview with this witness, Angel Santos. He hired a voice expert to compare the interview tape with the tape of people calling 911. No matches.
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Mr. Vecchione, the prosecutor, swore that claims authorities had either coerced witnesses or failed to turn over potentially exculpatory information "are, without exception, untrue."
Then the roof crashed down. Learning of Mr. Collins's impersonation of an investigator, state Justice Robert Holdman dismissed the appeal, declaring it to be "wholly without merit, conclusory, incredible, unsubstantiated, and, in significant part, to be predicated on a foundation of fraud." For good measure, he barred Mr. Collins from filing future requests for information.
In what amounted to their last shot, they filed a motion in federal court in Brooklyn seeking to overturn the conviction based on prosecutors' "knowing presentation, at trial, of false or misleading testimony" and withholding of evidence that might have been used to discredit the main witnesses.
Other newly discovered information suggested Mr. Oliva had briefly recanted his statement implicating Mr. Collins. A prosecutor preparing to fight Mr. Collins's appeal learned this from a retired detective, who said that Mr. Oliva recanted, then changed his mind again and stuck to his statement after the detective and several prosecutors spoke with him at the Brooklyn D.A.'s office.
Four days before a scheduled hearing in Judge Irizarry's federal court, the D.A.'s office offered to reduce the charge against Mr. Collins to manslaughter, allowing his immediate release.Mr. Collins rejected the offer.Later the same day, prosecutors informed the court that they wouldn't fight Mr. Collins's effort to overturn his conviction, but said they planned to retry him.Mr. Rudin, desperate to keep the case in federal court, persuaded Judge Irizarry to hold a rare hearing on whether the D.A. should be barred from retrying Mr. Collins because its misconduct had been so pervasive.The hearing's first witness was Mr. Santos, the man who had testified about making a 911 call after the murder, but whose voice didn't seem to match any of the voices on the 911 tape.Mr. Santos told the hearing that in the period when the murder occurred, he was using drugs "every day. Twenty-four hours.
Brooklyn D.A. Charles Hynes stood firm. "Michael Vecchione is not guilty of any misconduct," Mr. Hynes said at the time. He, Mr. Vecchione—who is now chief of the rackets division—and a spokesman for the D.A.'s office all declined to comment, citing likely litigation by Mr. Collins.
Mr. Collins walked out of prison on June 9, to an emotional welcome from his family. He has had many Rip Van Winkle moments. Swipe cards have replaced tokens on the subway; coffee shops called Starbucks are everywhere; there are these devices called iPhones.Each morning for 5,546 days, Jabbar Collins knew exactly what he'd wear when he... more
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Freedom never tasted so good.
"Thumbs up," Frank Sterling said as he downed a Rohrbach Brewing Co. beer Wednesday night in his first meal outside a cell or jailhouse dorm since 1991.
Surrounded by friends, supporters, attorneys and private investigators — many who worked pro bono for years to prove Sterling's innocence in the 1988 Hilton murder of Viola Manville — Sterling savored his dinner at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que on Court Street.
Hours earlier, after a judge had ruled that Sterling should be freed, Sterling described his freedom as "heaven."
"It didn't change who I was," Sterling, now 46, said about the nearly 19 years he spent behind bars. "I'm an innocent man."
But prison and the years clearly took a toll. There is a slight quake in Sterling's body when he speaks, and, he said, he now suffers seizures. "It causes stress," he said of his wrongful imprisonment. "I never had seizures before now. I've got them now from the stress."
Sterling's meal as a free man capped a whirlwind day in which, emotionally drained, he was brought from prison to court in leg irons and handcuffs for state Supreme Court Justice Thomas Van Strydonck to release him. At the afternoon hearing before Van Strydonck, lawyers for Sterling detailed why they are now sure Mark Christie, imprisoned for the 1994 murder of 4-year-old Kali Ann Poulton, killed Manville.
"Our justice system's goal is to assure that only the guilty are convicted," Van Strydonck said in court. "This case and others demonstrate that ours remains an imperfect system."
Local lawyer Donald Thompson has worked since the mid-1990s to prove Sterling's innocence, and the Innocence Project joined him in the push in 2004. Three years ago, the District Attorney's Office consented to DNA testing that provided a match with Christie.
The Innocence Project, an affiliate of the New York City-based Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, uses genetic testing to free the wrongly convicted.
According to officials with the Innocence Project, DNA testing conducted last year on clothing Manville was wearing when she was murdered showed a match with Christie. While the match was not definitive — male relatives of Christie's might have the same genetic trademarks, for instance — an Innocence Project lawyer and private investigator from Kroll Associates used the evidence to confront Christie in a prison interview last year.
Christie did not confess at the first meeting, but he made statements that prompted the Innocence Project staff to return with an interrogation expert from John G. Reid & Associates Inc., which trains police in interview and interrogation techniques. Christie confessed, revealing details that only the killer would know, Innocence Project officials say.
The District Attorney's Office and the Monroe County Sheriff's Office have since interviewed Christie, and he confessed to them also and revealed evidence that Manville's killer would have known, District Attorney Michael Green said Wednesday.
Innocence Project officials contend that investigators became too fixated on Sterling and ignored other possibilities.
"There's no question in this case the police officers had tunnel vision," said Innocence Project co-founder Peter Neufeld.
Green said the police work in the Manville homicide was solid. "I'm very uncomfortable going back and second-guessing what people did 19 years ago," he said.
Sterling's innocence and Christie's apparent admission to Manville's slaying link two of the most high-profile suburban homicides in the region in the past 30 years. The murder of Manville, a sprightly woman known for her vigorous daily walks along the same path where she was slain, sent tremors through Hilton. Similarly, the 1994 murder of Kali, who disappeared from her Pittsford townhouse complex, shocked the community and triggered a nationwide search for the cherubic blonde-haired youngster.
Sterling confessed in 1991 to Manville's murder. That statement, partly videotaped, was compelling enough to sway investigators, prosecutors, a jury, and multiple local and appellate judges who for years believed in the propriety of Sterling's conviction even when evidence arose that Christie may have been the real killer. But the videotaped portion of Sterling's 1991 statement represents a fragment of his total interrogation, and his supporters have long maintained that Sterling, frazzled and worn down, began telling investigators what they wanted to hear.
Manville's killer shot her twice with a pellet gun, beat her violently about her face and body, removed her pants and left her body in bushes near the Hilton trail.
Investigators questioned Sterling on July 11, 1991, after he'd finished a 36-hour shift as a truck driver. After he was questioned for nearly a dozen hours and showed a deceptive reading on a polygraph exam, Sterling told investigators that he had confronted Manville on the path and killed her because he believed she had falsely accused his brother of a crime.
A jury convicted him in September 1992 during a trial in which his attorney maintained that the confession was false and the result of an exhausted man in an almost trance-like state making false claims.
Within weeks of Sterling's conviction, and before his sentencing, teenagers came forward to tell authorities that Christie had said he in fact killed Manville. He told some of them that he had shot her with a pellet gun and beaten her viciously.
Authorities interviewed Christie, who said he'd lied in a weird attempt to make friends. The District Attorney's Office contended that Christie had nothing to do with Manville's murder, a judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence against Christie to revisit Sterling's conviction, and Sterling was sentenced to 25 years to life.
That, of course, left Christie free. In May 1994, he killed Kali.
Kali Ann Poulton vanished from the Gleason Estates townhouse complex early in the evening of May 23, 1994. Two years later, Christie admitted to his wife his involvement in Kali's killing. She called authorities, who questioned Christie and secured a confession. He took investigators to Kali's submerged body, which was in a cooling water tank at a Rochester business where he worked in 1994.
Manville's son, Robert, said Wednesday that the family never seems able to escape from news about his mother's murder. He said he still can't understand how Sterling gave a confession with information that prompted his conviction.
"I feel sorry for Sterling if he suffered for all that time," Manville said.
Asked whether there may be a final answer as to who killed his mother, Robert Manville, 68, answered: "It kind of looks that way. Or it's going to outlive me."
GCRAIG@DemocratandChronicle.com
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20100429/NEWS09/304290015Freedom never tasted so good.
"Thumbs up," Frank Sterling said as he... more
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Wrongly convicted, 16 years in prison, loses his wife, daughter was 9 now 27 and with a child herself and on his release from prison he got $45 but at least he is free.
After several embarrassing cases like this one, North Carolina setup a commission that looks into cases to find people who may have be wrongly convicted. Hot damn, an excellent idea, all states and the federal government should IMMEDIATELY create such agencies in hopes that no one has to go 1 day ... let alone 16 years ... incarcerated for something they didn't do.Wrongly convicted, 16 years in prison, loses his wife, daughter was 9 now 27 and with... more
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Raven6
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Prosecutors indicting DNA samples to overturn wrongful convictions.
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A man convicted of a murder now linked to suspected serial killer Walter E. Ellis plans a news conference Thursday to announce a civil rights lawsuit against the Milwaukee Police Department.
Chaunte Ott spent 13 years in prison for the 1995 murder of Jessica Payne, a 16-year-old runaway from South Milwaukee, before his release earlier this year when investigators linked DNA from the case to Ellis. Police said they believe Ellis had sex with Payne but that someone else killed her.
Ott, 35, of Milwaukee, is now represented by Loevy & Loevy, a Chicago law firm that specializes in civil rights cases over matters such as wrongful convictions and police brutality. The firm plans a 1 p.m. news conference at the federal courthouse in Milwaukee.
According to a release from the law firm, the suit will claim that police coerced witnesses to testify falsely against Ott, and withheld information from real witnesses who had seen Payne shortly before her death.
Milwaukee police did not have an immediate response to the claims.
*** Info on the release ***
A Milwaukee man serving a life term in the murder of a South Milwaukee runaway was released from prison Thursday after tests showed DNA found on the victim matched unknown DNA discovered on two other slaying victims in Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee County district attorney's office decided not to petition the state Supreme Court to review the case, paving the way for the release of Chaunte D. Ott, 35, from the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage.
Dressed in prison-issued light gray sweat pants, T-shirt and work boots, Ott embraced his family outside the prison Thursday afternoon.
"It's a dream come true. It's a beautiful thing," said a smiling Ott after he donned a Brewers sweat shirt while surrounded by his mother, sister, nieces and nephews.A man convicted of a murder now linked to suspected serial killer Walter E. Ellis... more
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KSirys
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This documents police abusing their power, killing people with tasers, and over stepping their authority. Rare footage and other scenes make for a riveting but gut wrenching account of the tyranny that is looming over American life. If you think you are free than you need to watch Brutal RealityThis documents police abusing their power, killing people with tasers, and over... more
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KSirys
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On Tuesday, July 07, 2009, 43-year-old Ronald Kitchen, who confessed under extreme physical duress to a taking part in five murders 21 years ago, was exonerated and freed from prison. The confession was extracted by Detective Michael Kill, who worked under Commander Jon Burge. Kitchen spent thirteen of his 21 years behind bars on death row.
Of 224 men and women sentenced to death under the current Illinois death penalty law, which was enacted in 1977, 20 have now been exonerated and released—an error rate of nearly 9 percent.On Tuesday, July 07, 2009, 43-year-old Ronald Kitchen, who confessed under extreme... more
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Thaddeus Jimenez ("TJ") was exonerated on May 1, 2009 through the work of the Center on Wrongful Convictions. TJ is the youngest person at the time of his arrest ever to be exonerated in Illinois and likely in all of the United States. In 1993, he was 13 years old and sentenced to 50 years as an adult for a crime he did not commit.
This short video features interviews with TJ's lawyers, as well as footage of him leaving prison and seeing his mother for the first time as a free manThaddeus Jimenez ("TJ") was exonerated on May 1, 2009 through the work of... more
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Movie description>>"Based on true events during the 2000 election, AMERICAN VIOLET tells the astonishing story of Dee Roberts (critically hailed newcomer Nicole Beharie), a 24 year-old African American single mother of four young girls living in a small Texas town who is barely able to make ends meet.
While police drag Dee from work in handcuffs, dumping her in the squalor of the women’s county prison, the powerful local district attorney (Academy Award® nominee Michael O’Keefe) leads an extensive drug bust, sweeping her housing project with military precision. Dee soon discovers she has been charged as a drug dealer.
Even though Dee has no prior drug record and no drugs were found on her in the raid, she is offered a hellish choice: plead guilty and go home as a convicted felon or remain in prison, jeopardizing her custody and risking a long prison sentence.
She chooses to fight the district attorney and the unyielding criminal justice system, risking everything in a battle that forever changes her life and the Texas justice system. AMERICAN VIOLET also stars Academy Award® nominee Alfre Woodard, Emmy Award® winner Charles S. Dutton, Tim Blake Nelson, Will Patton and Xzibit.
NOTE: American Violet was initially inspired by an NPR story by Wade Goodwyn.
That was six years ago. Much of the film was informed by thousands of pages of information provided on a range of stories by the ACLU among others. A variety of media reports and legal documents, including sworn testimony, depositions and affidavits, all of which can be found on the public record also helped us find authentic patterns and voices for our storytelling. Finally, taped interviews with community members who had experienced circumstances similar to those outlined in our work proved useful.
However, American Violet is not a documentary. It is a narrative feature film that is, as it says, based on true events. Some scenes and characters have been fictionalized for dramatic effect and have no relationship to the historical record. Names have been changed to protect the innocent and also to protect this film."Movie description>>"Based on true events during the 2000 election, AMERICAN... more
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Since 1998, the Center on Wrongful Convictions has been dedicated to identifying and rectifying wrongful convictions and other serious miscarriages of justice.
Narrated by the Center's co-founder and executive director, Rob Warden, this short video highlights the Center's past accomplishments and points to the future of reform.
See if you can spot in the video President-elect Obama and friend of the Center Barack Obama.
Footage from Laurie Feldman's documentary The Innocent, and Rob Hess and News@Northwestern.
Photo credits: Loren Santow and Jennifer Linzer.Since 1998, the Center on Wrongful Convictions has been dedicated to identifying and... more
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savory
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Since Johnnie Lee Savory was released from prison, he has been organizing with other unjustly convicted people, including many of the survivors of former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge's regime of torture.
For decades these survivors have cried out for justice, and finally, on October 21, 2008, their calls were heard when U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald arrested Burge for his crimes.
In this video, some of the survivors talk about what happened to them and their continuing fight for justice.
Since Johnnie Lee Savory was released from prison, he has been organizing with other... more
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In 1977, when Johnnie Lee Savory was 14, he was falsely accused and unjustly convicted for killing his best friend and his best friend's sister in their hometown of Peoria, Illinois. With the help of the Center on Wrongful Convictions and the support of groups like the Innocent Project, he was recently paroled and released in late 2006, after spending 30 years in prison.
In this video, Johnnie describes how the results of his first trial were thrown out, but he was convicted a second time when the prosecution manufactured a case against him.In 1977, when Johnnie Lee Savory was 14, he was falsely accused and unjustly convicted... more
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Johnnie Lee Savory spent 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. In this clip, Johnnie talks about how he finds the strength to fight back.Johnnie Lee Savory spent 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. In this... more
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Johnnie Lee Savory describes how he was unjustly convicted at 14 and sentenced to 50-100 years. To find out more about Johnnie Lee Savory, go to his blog at http://justiceforsavory.windycitizen.comJohnnie Lee Savory describes how he was unjustly convicted at 14 and sentenced to... more
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When Johnnie Lee Savory was 14, he was falsely accused and unjustly convicted of a double homicide in his hometown of Peoria, Illinois. With the help of Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions, he was recently granted clemency and released after 30 years in prison.
Though a free man today, society still considers Savory an ex-felon, which is why he is asking Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to order DNA testing of the evidence that was used to convict him, which Peoria State's Attorney refuses to do.
In this video, Johnnie Lee Savory describes how he was tortured into making a false, unsigned confession. This confession was later used to sentence him to 50-100 years in prison. To learn more about Johnnie's story, and how you can join his fight, go to his blog: http://justiceforsavory.windycitizen.com/When Johnnie Lee Savory was 14, he was falsely accused and unjustly convicted of a... more
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