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in the News |
| "It just opens up so many things that you need to think about," says retired Judge Nicholas Persin about efforts to test DNA evidence in the Roger Coleman case. Coleman was executed in 1992, but the case remains Alive in Grundy, VA |
| The Illinois Supreme Court's Committee on Capital Cases released its final report this week highlighting measures that should be taken to improve cases involving the death penalty. Illinois Death Penalty Committee Issues Final Report |
| Greensboro, NC lawyer David Smith wanted his client, Russell Tucker, to be executed. Sabotaged Appeal |
| Equal Justice USA has issued a report on the death penalty in the US, finding at least 16 men executed since the reinstitution of the death penalty were Probably Innocent |
| It was New Orleans Assistant District Attorney Lionel Lon Burns' third try to convict police officer George Lee, III of rape. Two earlier trials ended in mistrial and then a hung jury. So Burns planted evidence -- and got caught. DA Jailed for Evidence Tampering |
| In 1992 the Commonwealth of Virginia executed Roger Coleman on the strength of visual hair comparison and matching (now recognized as worthless) and simple blood typing. No appellate court ever reviewed Coleman's conviction because his public defender filed the notice of appeal one day late. Centurion Ministries and the Boston Globe are seeking DNA tests that would definitively prove Coleman's guilt or establish his innocence. The Virginia Attorney General objects, saying that twenty years after the crime, The Public Has No Right to Know. |
Once only 9 days from execution, Earl is pardoned but will remain imprisoned. |
| "When I planted
a case on someone, did I feel bad?" Officer Rafael Perez asked. "Not
once. I felt good."
RAMPART When Officer Rafael Perez was arrested, it led to the biggest scandal in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department. Perez did what Rodney King could not do: bring the LA force under federal supervision. |
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| For years its supporters have claimed the death penalty is a deterrent to crime. A new survey by The New York Times shows that states without capital punishment actually have lower homicide rates. The Death Penalty is No Deterrent |
| Attorney Seth Tucker put everything on the line during his client Derek Barnabei's Final Hours. |
| 41 current and former LAPD officers claim a code of silence is enforced by retaliation against those who report misconduct. They have filed a Whistleblowers' Suit. |
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| How sloppy police
work, a hands-off justice system and an asleep-at-the-wheel prison turned
one man named Sanders into another.
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| Nearly four years after his execution, Ellis Wayne Felker is becoming part of the debate over DNA evidence and capital punishment. DNA Testing Ordered in Case of Man Already Executed |
| In December 1999, murder and arson charges against Paul Camiolo were dropped (after he spent 10 months in jail and posted $100,000 bond). The "accelerant" that Bucks County, PA prosecutors claimed was used to commit the crime turned out to be residue from floor varnish. The tables have turned as Paul Camiolo files suit in Federal Court |
| The family of John Maloney says the wrong person is in prison, and now they believe they have the evidence and experts to prove it. Family Campaigns to Free John Maloney |
| By a strong 7-2 majority, the Supreme Court on June 26 upheld the Miranda warning given by police to criminal suspects, enshrining it as part of the national culture protected by the Constitution. Dickerson v. United States |
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| Columbia University Law Professor James
Liebman's study of the death penalty in the U.S. reveals that the problems
are not limited to one state, or one case. They are epidemic throughout
the system: 68% Error Rate
in Death Penalty Cases
Click the title to read the study in full: A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995 |
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Failure To Read Miranda Rights Leads To Reversal of Officer's Sex Conviction Heaven help the police officer who is targeted by the system. Take Linden, NJ police officer James Sosinski. When a juvenile girl claimed that Sosinski had had sexual contact with her, authorities lacked any hard evidence. So prosecutors instructed police not to advise Sosinski of his Miranda rights, and even after Sosinski asked for a lawyer, continued to question him. The New Jersey Appellate Court found that "[i]t was a deliberate and outrageous attempt on the part of the assistant prosecutors to ensnare defendant by depriving him of his fundamental rights." |
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