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Contacts:
Paul
Cates
Innocence Project
Communications Director
pcates@innocenceproject.org
212-364-5346; cell 917-566-1294
Lise Bang-Jensen
New York State Bar Association
Director of Media Services
lbang-jensen@nysba.org
518-487-5530; cell 518-312-8239
May 30, 2012
Stop Wrongful Convictions Now:
Innocence Project and New York State Bar Association Call to Action
Videotaped confessions, eyewitness identification
reform would help protect the innocent
According to new data, no NY police departments
report using best practices for id procedures
The New York State Bar Association and the Innocence Project today
urged state lawmakers to pass reform legislation that could
significantly reduce the likelihood of innocent New Yorkers going to
prison for crimes they did not commit.
The two bills would require police agencies to videotape all
custodial interrogations and to adopt a more objective way of conducting
police lineups for eyewitnesses.
At a press conference in Albany, Bar Association President
Vincent E. Doyle III and Innocence Project Co-Director
Barry Scheck were joined by: five men who collectively
spent more than 90 years in prison for crimes they did not commit; a
Texas rape victim who mistakenly identified the wrong suspect; one of
the three Duke University lacrosse players falsely accused of rape in
2006; and a North Carolina police captain whose department has
successfully adopted interrogation and eyewitness reforms.
The Innocence Project today also released the results of its Freedom
of Information Law (FOIL) requests of more than 500 New York police
agencies seeking information about their eyewitness identification
policies.
“New York has the third largest number of wrongful convictions
in the country. When state legislators in March voted to expand the
state’s DNA database, they hailed the move as wrongful conviction
reform,” Scheck said. “But if they are really concerned
about protecting the innocent, they will pass legislation this session
to prevent misidentifications and false confessions, two of the leading
causes of wrongful convictions. These reforms help protect all New
Yorkers, from crime victims to innocent suspects, to the public at large
because they enhance the ability of police to find the real
perpetrators.”
“Our criminal justice system is supposed to protect us all,
while respecting individual rights,” said Doyle of Buffalo
(Connors & Vilardo). “Wrongful convictions pervert the system
– they rob innocent people of their liberty, while allowing guilty
people to go free to commit additional crimes. We urge legislators to
address this travesty of justice before leaving Albany next
month.”
Seymour W. James, Jr. of New York City (The Legal
Aid Society of New York), who assumes the presidency of the Bar
Association on June 1, also attended the press conference.
The Innocence Project and State Bar are asking lawmakers to focus on
two critical measures to address wrongful convictions.
• To prevent false confessions, they are calling for
legislation requiring police to videotape interrogations in full so that
there is a complete record of the interrogation that can be shown in
court.
• To prevent eyewitness misidentifications, they are
seeking approval of a bill mandating that police identification
procedures be conducted in a double-blind fashion, meaning that the
officer who conducts the lineup does not know the identity of the
suspect. This will ensure that the eyewitness is not influenced by clues
delivered either directly or indirectly by police. These reforms were
endorsed by the Bar Association’s Task Force on Wrongful
Convictions, which issued a report in April 2009. (www.nysba.org/wcreport)
Underscoring the need for improved identification procedures, the
Innocence Project released the results of a survey on whether police
agencies around the state had formal identification procedure policies.
The group last year sent FOIL requests to 505 police agencies. Of the
349 agencies that responded, 112 provided formal written policies. Of
those 112, none entirely embraced the reform package endorsed by the New
York State Bar Association and the Innocence Project, and only two
provided written policies that directed the use of a blind
administrator, the most important reform.
Also during the press conference, five New York men who were
eventually exonerated after serving lengthy prison sentences presented a
joint letter urging lawmakers to enact the reforms. Steven
Barnes, wrongly convicted in Utica, NY; Fernando
Bermudez, wrongly convicted in New York, NY; Jeff
Deskovic, wrongly convicted in Westchester, NY; Alan
Newton, wrongly convicted in Bronx, NY; and Frank
Sterling, wrongly convicted in Rochester, NY; spent a
collective 92 ½ years in prison for crimes they did not commit.
Deskovic’s newly formed foundation, The Jeffrey Deskovic
Foundation for Justice, also supports the reforms: “The Jeffrey
Deskovic Foundation for Justice views legislation mandating
identification reform and videotaping interrogations as essential tools
to assist law enforcement in apprehending the right person, as opposed
to sending innocent people to prison while the actual offender remains
free and able to strike again."
Sylvia Barnes, Steven’s mother, spoke about
how wrongful convictions affect family members.
Reade Seligmann, who along with two lacrosse
teammates at Duke University was falsely accused of rape in 2006,
detailed his year-long ordeal to prove his innocence.
Michele Mallin, a rape victim from Texas, spoke
about the pain she suffered after learning that she had repeatedly
misidentified her attacker. Tim Cole served 14 years of a 25-year
sentence before dying in prison. He was exonerated posthumously after
Mallin’s real attacker confessed.
Capt. Michael Smathers of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
(N.C.) Police Department explained how his department responded to the
adoption of new procedures guiding eyewitness and confession evidence:
“Changes in practices always produce some stress and concern over
the real-life impacts that might present themselves after a decision is
made on such an important issue. The reality has been that these
procedures have done nothing to hinder us in the clearance of our cases.
In fact, the robbery unit’s clearance rate is well above the
national average. Our cases are strong and are harder to impugn with
these procedures in place. It is also important to note that I believe
these changes have increased the public’s confidence in our work,
which is vital to our relationship with the community we
serve.”
Jonathan Gradess, executive director of the New York
State Defenders Association, also spoke about the need for prosecutors
to share evidence that might be favorable to the accused prior to a
trial.
Assembly Codes Committee Chair Joseph Lentol
(D-Brooklyn) and Sen. Ruth Hassel-Thompson (D-Bronx)
spoke about wrongful conviction bills they introduced in the Legislature
that would reduce the possibility that innocent persons are convicted of
crimes they did not commit.
The Innocence Project, a non-profit public policy and litigation
organization affiliated with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at
Yeshiva University, is dedicated to exonerating the wrongfully convicted
through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent
future injustice.
The 77,000-member New York State Bar Association is the largest
voluntary state bar association in the United States. It was founded in
1876.
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