- January 26, 2009 • 9:49 pm PST
- + responses
"When justice is blind to innocence…a modification by the people is required.
It is you, the people, who must speak out with a powerful voice to help expedite justice."
~~ Stanley Tookie Williams ~~
Innocence Project gives convictions review
BY ADAM WALLWORTH
Posted on Monday, January 26, 2009
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/250620/
Law school students at Innocence Project Arkansas are scouring 61 cases, looking for anyone they believe should be freed.
Started about five years ago, the legal clinic at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville School of Law examines murder, rape and aggravated robbery cases that might have questionable convictions. The clinic researches cases and tries to see if DNA evidence could be used to prove the convict did not commit the crime.
The goal is not to get anyone out of prison by pursuing obscure legal arguments, said Denny Hyslip, Washington County public defender and adjunct professor at the law school.
"We get them off because they're factually innocent," he said.
Modeled after the New Yorkbased Innocence Project, the clinic allows law school students in their final year to meet weekly with professors to discuss cases and research the trials.
Students handle about five cases at a time, doing all the work for their clients who are in prison and have exhausted their appeals. Students review case files searching for details that could prove a convict did not commit the crime - beyond a defendant claiming innocence. If there's no evidence, they close the case and move on to the next one.
Hyslip said he started the clinic after meeting Barry C. Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project. Founded in 1992, the national project has helped exonerate more than 215 people, 16 of whom were at one time sentenced to death, according to its Web site.
The Arkansas project has filed motions in two cases involving a rape suspect in east Arkansas, but it has yet to prove the innocence of anyone.
"It takes about 12 years for an exoneration," Hyslip said.
Hyslip said the project started out sending surveys to all prisoners serving life sentences. While many inmates don't both- er answering the survey, Hyslip said, many wouldn't qualify for help. Cases won't be taken if it is clear a person is guilty, he said, or when the prisoner says, "'I did it, but not in that county.'"
Many of the 61 cases being reviewed were left from the previous semester and could be closed any week, Hyslip said. It's also possible that any of those cases could lead to an exoneration.
"Let's remember these are real people and they are living in the Department of Correction," Hyslip told his new group of students at their first meeting earlier this month.
"We are it. If we don't get them out they don't get out," he said.
INVESTING TIME, MONEY
Third-year law students who meet certain requirements can act as legal counsel, according to Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 15. It allows students who qualify to represent clients under the supervision of licensed attorneys.
Inside the Innocence Project office, five desks sit in a U-shape with four computers, a printer and a shredder scattered around the former dean's office in Waterman Hall.
On one wall hangs an American Bar Association poster with the slogan, "Freedom, justice, liberty - without lawyers they're just words."
Hyslip started the program with private attorney Michael Hodson, who recently embarked on a year-long trek around the world. The two men have invested their time and money into building the project, which they established as a 501(c)3 notfor-profit organization. The law school supports the project by supplying the office and essentials, while additional funding comes from private donations.
The course uses Scheck's book Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution, and Other Dispatches From the Wrongly Convicted as its syllabus, Hyslip said. The book uses successful cases to detail various ways people are wrongly convicted of a crime, the primary factor being false identification by an eyewitness.
Taking Hodson's place is Cristi Beaumont, a deputy public defender in Washington County. Like Hyslip, Beaumont is a former prosecuting attorney.
"My goal has always been to see that justice is done, but there are way too many innocent people sitting in prison," Beaumont said.
Also lending a hand is associate professor D'lorah Hughes, the director of the Criminal Clinics at the law school and a former deputy public defender in Orange County, Calif.
Each week students gather in a small conference room to discuss cases and hand in memorandums tracking their progress.
Those memos make it possible for work to continue on the cases every semester as new students join the clinic. Students are required to keep a minimum of two office hours a week to participate in the project, but it can be much more involved.
The students review the cases, trying to find factual innocence, Beaumont said. The interview process isn't easy, she said, as victims are convinced the person is guilty, the prisoner's family has been dealing with numerous attorneys and the prisoners are frustrated.
"Don't expect anybody to be nice to you," she said. "A lot of them have been in 10 years and are pretty pissed off."
Hyslip said he always tells students to contact the client's previous attorney to get his opinion. Sometimes the attorney will say it was a very close trial, he said; other times, "it was a slam dunk - what are you even in this for?"
Co-defendants and law enforcement officers are also contacted, as are victims on rare occasions.
THE VICTIMS' SIDE
Victims' rights should always be considered in such cases, said Susan Smith Howley, director of public policy and victim services for the National Center for Victims of Crime, based in Washington, D.C.
Howley said there isn't a universal reaction from victims, as all circumstances are different. For many, it is painful to relive something they thought was behind them, she said.
"Maybe somebody in their current circle never knew they were a victim. Now they're in the media," Howley said.
Some cases may pose safety issues, Howley said, either because the person who committed the crime is still at large or the person being freed retaliates. Rape cases present another challenge, she said, because if DNA exonerates one person and identifies the guilty party, it may be too late to prosecute him.
Prosecutors can file charges up to 15 years after a rape, if the prosecution is based on DNA evidence. A bill before the state legislature would eliminate the limitation for rape, kidnapping or first-degree sexual assault.
"In some cases the victim may feel guilty. It may now be clear that the person convicted didn't do it, now they feel responsible," Howley said. "The victim certainly isn't interested in the wrong person being convicted."
States should expand their victims assistance funding to pay for help when convictions are reversed, Howley said. She said victims should have access to professionals and their safety should be assessed when a conviction is overturned.
"The interest and concerns of victims should always be considered by the justice system," she said.
THE CASE
Arkansas' Innocence Project has gotten involved in only one case, that of Bennie Guy, who has been in prison since 1994. He pleaded guilty to a rape charge from Crittenden County and an attempted rape charge from St. Francis County. He was sentenced to 40 years in the Crittenden County case and 30 years in the St. Francis County case.
Six years was added to his sentence when Guy was convicted of attempting to escape from the Wrightsville Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction.
The conviction in St. Francis County has been set aside because of DNA evidence that was collected at the time of the crime, Hyslip said. It isn't clear why the evidence wasn't used at the time, or why Guy pleaded guilty.
Hyslip said the conviction in Crittenden County is expected to be reviewed, but it is not clear when that will happen. The project is assisting on the case, but most of the work is being done by Guy's attorneys, Hyslip said.
Charles Barnes' is another case that may be close to the point that motions can be filed asking for DNA testing.
Barnes was sentenced to death in 2000 for the murders of two elderly women in Sharp County. His sentence was reduced to two life terms in 2004 in exchange for his dropping claims of ineffective counsel and prosecutorial misconduct.
Testimony given by Melanie Roberts, Barnes' girlfriend at the time, helped prosecutors get a conviction. Roberts was sentenced to two 40-year sentences in connection with the case.
Roberts, however, has since recanted which, Hyslip said, is why Barnes could be exonerated.
Attorneys won't talk about specifics of the cases they're working on, but Beaumont said it would take much more than a prisoner's word to overturn a conviction.
Beaumont said it would take proof of an alibi. The evidence must support his claim "beyond a reasonable doubt."
"It's got to be pretty darn convincing," she said.
GOOD RELATIONSHIP
Hyslip said his project has a good working relationship with prosecutors around the state. However, the relationship hasn't quite reached the same level that exists in Dallas County, Texas.
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins established the Conviction Integrity Unit in July 2007 to oversee the postconviction review of more than 400 cases with DNA evidence. The unit operates in conjunction with the Innocence Project of Texas.
The unit is reviewing the cases involving convicts who were denied DNA tests at the time of trial, said Mike Ware, Special Fields Bureau Chief for the Dallas County district attorney's office.
The cases date back to the 1970s and often the requests were denied by the sitting district attorney, he said.
"They should have at least gotten a test," he said.
The requests are made possible by a state law that went into effect in 2001, Ware said.
By collaborating with the Texas Innocence Project, prosecutors said they hope to provide a layer of transparency to the internal audit, Ware said. If the district attorney's office disagrees with the findings, he said, the Innocence Project ensures the case was properly vetted.
"Sexual assault is still the most common case where DNA can play a significant role," he said. "But the technology now is so sensitive if someone grips an object, say a murder weapon left at the scene, they will leave epithelial cells that contain DNA."
So far, DNA has led to exoneration in 19 cases, Ware said, but it also has confirmed convictions. There are also cases where the prisoner being reviewed was only one of several involved, he said, so even if the DNA doesn't match, that doesn't mean he wasn't involved.
There are many reasons why a conviction can be overturned, Ware said. Just because a person is exonerated, doesn't mean a prosecutor did anything unethical, he said.
"I was a defense lawyer for 23 years before being asked to take this position, so I've never been in that situation," Ware said. "I would think prosecutors are professional - 99.99 percent are ethical and the last thing they want is to have put an innocent person in prison and have them stay there."
To contact this reporter:
awallworth@arkansasonline.com
It is you, the people, who must speak out with a powerful voice to help expedite justice."
~~ Stanley Tookie Williams ~~
Innocence Project gives convictions review
BY ADAM WALLWORTH
Posted on Monday, January 26, 2009
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/250620/
Law school students at Innocence Project Arkansas are scouring 61 cases, looking for anyone they believe should be freed.
Started about five years ago, the legal clinic at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville School of Law examines murder, rape and aggravated robbery cases that might have questionable convictions. The clinic researches cases and tries to see if DNA evidence could be used to prove the convict did not commit the crime.
The goal is not to get anyone out of prison by pursuing obscure legal arguments, said Denny Hyslip, Washington County public defender and adjunct professor at the law school.
"We get them off because they're factually innocent," he said.
Modeled after the New Yorkbased Innocence Project, the clinic allows law school students in their final year to meet weekly with professors to discuss cases and research the trials.
Students handle about five cases at a time, doing all the work for their clients who are in prison and have exhausted their appeals. Students review case files searching for details that could prove a convict did not commit the crime - beyond a defendant claiming innocence. If there's no evidence, they close the case and move on to the next one.
Hyslip said he started the clinic after meeting Barry C. Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project. Founded in 1992, the national project has helped exonerate more than 215 people, 16 of whom were at one time sentenced to death, according to its Web site.
The Arkansas project has filed motions in two cases involving a rape suspect in east Arkansas, but it has yet to prove the innocence of anyone.
"It takes about 12 years for an exoneration," Hyslip said.
Hyslip said the project started out sending surveys to all prisoners serving life sentences. While many inmates don't both- er answering the survey, Hyslip said, many wouldn't qualify for help. Cases won't be taken if it is clear a person is guilty, he said, or when the prisoner says, "'I did it, but not in that county.'"
Many of the 61 cases being reviewed were left from the previous semester and could be closed any week, Hyslip said. It's also possible that any of those cases could lead to an exoneration.
"Let's remember these are real people and they are living in the Department of Correction," Hyslip told his new group of students at their first meeting earlier this month.
"We are it. If we don't get them out they don't get out," he said.
INVESTING TIME, MONEY
Third-year law students who meet certain requirements can act as legal counsel, according to Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 15. It allows students who qualify to represent clients under the supervision of licensed attorneys.
Inside the Innocence Project office, five desks sit in a U-shape with four computers, a printer and a shredder scattered around the former dean's office in Waterman Hall.
On one wall hangs an American Bar Association poster with the slogan, "Freedom, justice, liberty - without lawyers they're just words."
Hyslip started the program with private attorney Michael Hodson, who recently embarked on a year-long trek around the world. The two men have invested their time and money into building the project, which they established as a 501(c)3 notfor-profit organization. The law school supports the project by supplying the office and essentials, while additional funding comes from private donations.
The course uses Scheck's book Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution, and Other Dispatches From the Wrongly Convicted as its syllabus, Hyslip said. The book uses successful cases to detail various ways people are wrongly convicted of a crime, the primary factor being false identification by an eyewitness.
Taking Hodson's place is Cristi Beaumont, a deputy public defender in Washington County. Like Hyslip, Beaumont is a former prosecuting attorney.
"My goal has always been to see that justice is done, but there are way too many innocent people sitting in prison," Beaumont said.
Also lending a hand is associate professor D'lorah Hughes, the director of the Criminal Clinics at the law school and a former deputy public defender in Orange County, Calif.
Each week students gather in a small conference room to discuss cases and hand in memorandums tracking their progress.
Those memos make it possible for work to continue on the cases every semester as new students join the clinic. Students are required to keep a minimum of two office hours a week to participate in the project, but it can be much more involved.
The students review the cases, trying to find factual innocence, Beaumont said. The interview process isn't easy, she said, as victims are convinced the person is guilty, the prisoner's family has been dealing with numerous attorneys and the prisoners are frustrated.
"Don't expect anybody to be nice to you," she said. "A lot of them have been in 10 years and are pretty pissed off."
Hyslip said he always tells students to contact the client's previous attorney to get his opinion. Sometimes the attorney will say it was a very close trial, he said; other times, "it was a slam dunk - what are you even in this for?"
Co-defendants and law enforcement officers are also contacted, as are victims on rare occasions.
THE VICTIMS' SIDE
Victims' rights should always be considered in such cases, said Susan Smith Howley, director of public policy and victim services for the National Center for Victims of Crime, based in Washington, D.C.
Howley said there isn't a universal reaction from victims, as all circumstances are different. For many, it is painful to relive something they thought was behind them, she said.
"Maybe somebody in their current circle never knew they were a victim. Now they're in the media," Howley said.
Some cases may pose safety issues, Howley said, either because the person who committed the crime is still at large or the person being freed retaliates. Rape cases present another challenge, she said, because if DNA exonerates one person and identifies the guilty party, it may be too late to prosecute him.
Prosecutors can file charges up to 15 years after a rape, if the prosecution is based on DNA evidence. A bill before the state legislature would eliminate the limitation for rape, kidnapping or first-degree sexual assault.
"In some cases the victim may feel guilty. It may now be clear that the person convicted didn't do it, now they feel responsible," Howley said. "The victim certainly isn't interested in the wrong person being convicted."
States should expand their victims assistance funding to pay for help when convictions are reversed, Howley said. She said victims should have access to professionals and their safety should be assessed when a conviction is overturned.
"The interest and concerns of victims should always be considered by the justice system," she said.
THE CASE
Arkansas' Innocence Project has gotten involved in only one case, that of Bennie Guy, who has been in prison since 1994. He pleaded guilty to a rape charge from Crittenden County and an attempted rape charge from St. Francis County. He was sentenced to 40 years in the Crittenden County case and 30 years in the St. Francis County case.
Six years was added to his sentence when Guy was convicted of attempting to escape from the Wrightsville Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction.
The conviction in St. Francis County has been set aside because of DNA evidence that was collected at the time of the crime, Hyslip said. It isn't clear why the evidence wasn't used at the time, or why Guy pleaded guilty.
Hyslip said the conviction in Crittenden County is expected to be reviewed, but it is not clear when that will happen. The project is assisting on the case, but most of the work is being done by Guy's attorneys, Hyslip said.
Charles Barnes' is another case that may be close to the point that motions can be filed asking for DNA testing.
Barnes was sentenced to death in 2000 for the murders of two elderly women in Sharp County. His sentence was reduced to two life terms in 2004 in exchange for his dropping claims of ineffective counsel and prosecutorial misconduct.
Testimony given by Melanie Roberts, Barnes' girlfriend at the time, helped prosecutors get a conviction. Roberts was sentenced to two 40-year sentences in connection with the case.
Roberts, however, has since recanted which, Hyslip said, is why Barnes could be exonerated.
Attorneys won't talk about specifics of the cases they're working on, but Beaumont said it would take much more than a prisoner's word to overturn a conviction.
Beaumont said it would take proof of an alibi. The evidence must support his claim "beyond a reasonable doubt."
"It's got to be pretty darn convincing," she said.
GOOD RELATIONSHIP
Hyslip said his project has a good working relationship with prosecutors around the state. However, the relationship hasn't quite reached the same level that exists in Dallas County, Texas.
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins established the Conviction Integrity Unit in July 2007 to oversee the postconviction review of more than 400 cases with DNA evidence. The unit operates in conjunction with the Innocence Project of Texas.
The unit is reviewing the cases involving convicts who were denied DNA tests at the time of trial, said Mike Ware, Special Fields Bureau Chief for the Dallas County district attorney's office.
The cases date back to the 1970s and often the requests were denied by the sitting district attorney, he said.
"They should have at least gotten a test," he said.
The requests are made possible by a state law that went into effect in 2001, Ware said.
By collaborating with the Texas Innocence Project, prosecutors said they hope to provide a layer of transparency to the internal audit, Ware said. If the district attorney's office disagrees with the findings, he said, the Innocence Project ensures the case was properly vetted.
"Sexual assault is still the most common case where DNA can play a significant role," he said. "But the technology now is so sensitive if someone grips an object, say a murder weapon left at the scene, they will leave epithelial cells that contain DNA."
So far, DNA has led to exoneration in 19 cases, Ware said, but it also has confirmed convictions. There are also cases where the prisoner being reviewed was only one of several involved, he said, so even if the DNA doesn't match, that doesn't mean he wasn't involved.
There are many reasons why a conviction can be overturned, Ware said. Just because a person is exonerated, doesn't mean a prosecutor did anything unethical, he said.
"I was a defense lawyer for 23 years before being asked to take this position, so I've never been in that situation," Ware said. "I would think prosecutors are professional - 99.99 percent are ethical and the last thing they want is to have put an innocent person in prison and have them stay there."
To contact this reporter:
awallworth@arkansasonline.com
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