Innocence Project

National Registry of Exonerations: 885 Wrongful Convictions Since 1989

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Ronald Reno, right, and his girlfriend Debbie Brown hug Kathleen “Cookie” Ridolfi, executive director of the Northern California Innocence Project, after a press conference about the exoneration of Reno, wrongly convicted of a crime which resulted in his “third strike.” (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS / Nhat V. Meyer)

Check out the article by Tracey Kaplan for the Mercury News. The piece highlights the findings of the new “National Registry of Exonerations”, which is tracking the number of exonerations across the country. The report, which is attached in the article link, allows viewers to examine exonerations by state and county numbers. A striking finding is the differences among a common geographic regions, such as the Bay Area. In Santa Clara County, there has been 10 exonerations, yet zero in neighboring Alameda County. Continue reading →

New York Times: Rules Are Changed on Witness IDs

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In landmark decision that will likely impact courts across the country, the New York Times reports on a New Jersey Supreme Court decision regarding eyewitness identifications. Post Submission by Aram James.

The New Jersey Supreme Court, acknowledging a “troubling lack of reliability in eyewitness identifications,” issued sweeping new rules on Wednesday making it easier for defendants to challenge such evidence in criminal cases.

The court said that whenever a defendant presents evidence that a witness’s identification of a suspect was influenced, by the police, for instance, a judge must hold a hearing to consider a broad range of issues. These could include police behavior, but also factors like lighting, the time that had elapsed since the crime or whether the victim felt stress at the time of the identification. Continue reading →