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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>The following two news stories should be mandatory reading
regarding some problems in our criminal justice system relating especially
to eyewitness identifications. The first article is from today's
Washington Post and discusses a nationwide trend toward improving the criminal
justice system based on the lessons from the DNA exonerations --
on how those particular prosecutions made the mistake of convicting
innocent people. The article examines the need to make
legislative changes in several areas, including both the method of conducting
photographic and in-person line-ups, as well as the taping of all police
interrogations. The second article is a very compelling and powerful
column by a rape victim, Jennifer Thompson (Cannino), who identified and
helped convict the wrong man, twice. She is mentioned in the Post's more
analytical, drier article, but her riveting personal story is the second
link. Both articles are reprinted below the links.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/02/AR2007050202304.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/02/AR2007050202304.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><A
href="http://www.truthinjustice.org/positive_id.htm">http://www.truthinjustice.org/positive_id.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>If Senator Schroeder and Representatives Trail and Ringo
would begin to think about how to take some of these "lessons from the wrongly
convicted" and consider implementing some legislative
changes for criminal investigation procedures in Idaho, I think our
criminal justice system would be improved.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Bruce Livingston</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT size=5>Exonerations Change How Justice System Builds a
Prosecution<BR></FONT></STRONG>DNA Tests Have Cleared 200 Convicts<BR>
<P><FONT size=-1>By Darryl Fears<BR>Washington Post Staff Writer<BR>Thursday,
May 3, 2007; A03<BR></FONT>
<P>
<P>Jerry Miller is the newest poster child of the wrongfully convicted, the
200th to be exonerated by DNA evidence -- after he spent 25 years behind bars in
<A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=Illinois"
target="">Illinois</A> for a rape he did not commit.</P>
<P>But Miller, a black man, hardly stands out in the crowd of the exonerated. Of
the 200 people whose convictions have been overturned as a result of DNA
evidence since 1989, 60 percent have been black or Latino, according to the
Innocence Project, a liberal organization that works to free the wrongfully
convicted. Of those exonerated after a rape conviction, 85 percent were black
men accused of assaulting a white woman.</P>
<P>In contrast, black men are accused in 33.6 percent of rapes or sexual
assaults of white women, according to a 2005 <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=DOJ+Bureau+of+Justice+Statistics"
target="">Bureau of Justice Statistics</A> study of victims.</P>
<P>"What it says to me is that, ultimately, if you are a black man charged with
sexually assaulting a white woman, the likelihood that you will be convicted,
even if you are stone-cold innocent, is much, much higher," said Peter J.
Neufeld, a co-director of the Innocence Project who asserted that the 200
exonerations "are the tip of the iceberg."</P>
<P>The overturning of convictions based on DNA evidence is prompting changes in
criminal procedures that reach beyond race. States and cities are starting to
enact or consider laws to change decades-old police methods such as eyewitness
identifications and police interrogations that lead to confessions.</P>
<P>"The exonerations have been an extremely important force in getting the legal
system to recognize there's a problem," said Gary L. Wells, an <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=Iowa+State+University"
target="">Iowa State University</A> psychology professor whose research led to
new practices in eyewitness identification. "I've been working at this for 30
years, and before DNA they pretty much ignored the studies."</P>
<P>In <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=New+Jersey"
target="">New Jersey</A>, where four convictions were overturned by DNA
evidence, the state attorney general issued a directive requiring law
enforcement agencies to electronically record police interrogations for all
violent crimes to guard against false confessions, said Paul H. Heinzel, a
deputy attorney general for the state.</P>
<P>At least 500 smaller police jurisdictions have begun to tape confessions, and
20 states -- including <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=Maryland"
target="">Maryland</A>, <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=Virginia"
target="">Virginia</A>, <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=California"
target="">California</A>, <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=Florida"
target="">Florida</A> and <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=Tennessee"
target="">Tennessee</A> -- are considering it.</P>
<P>"Police and prosecutors I've talked to thought it was a good thing," said
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), a former county prosecutor whose state started
taping 11 years ago, after a ruling from its supreme court. "It builds police
credibility. People talked about it being too expensive. But I would put buying
a cheap tape over paying some of these multimillion-dollar wrongful-conviction
judgments any day."</P>
<P>New Jersey also led the way in discarding the old police lineup, in which
victims and witnesses identified suspects first from an array of photographs and
later from an in-person lineup as detectives intent on solving the case stood
by, sometimes offering encouragement. The state now presents individuals -- in
person or in photos -- one after the other so witnesses cannot compare one
member of a lineup to another, making relative judgments "about which individual
most looks like the perpetrator," according to guidelines set by the New Jersey
attorney general.</P>
<P>Bad eyewitness identifications contributed to 75 percent of wrongful
convictions in cases that were overturned by DNA evidence, according to the
Innocence Project. <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=Georgia"
target="">Georgia</A>, <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=West+Virginia"
target="">West Virginia</A>, <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=Connecticut"
target="">Connecticut</A>, <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=New+Mexico"
target="">New Mexico</A> and <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=Texas"
target="">Texas</A>, where 25 convictions were overturned by DNA evidence, are
now considering legislation that would similarly change eyewitness
identifications.</P>
<P><A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=Miami"
target="">Miami</A> is considering an overhaul of its procedures, said John F.
Timoney, chief of police. The city now videotapes all confessions. DNA evidence
is tested in every rape case. The city has collected more DNA evidence than its
labs can test. Timoney said he is in discussions with the district attorney over
whether to implement a sequential process for eyewitness identification.</P>
<P>Joshua Marquis, district attorney for Clatsop County, <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=Oregon"
target="">Ore.</A>, and vice president of the National District Attorneys
Association, warned against the new eyewitness procedures. He called the process
an unproven fad that could unwittingly set perpetrators free.</P>
<P>"It's way far from being established that this is the magic bullet," he said,
adding that prosecutors want "eyewitness identification that is valid."</P>
<P>Miller was a young Army veteran and line cook when he was identified as a
rapist and arrested in September 1981. Police said his face resembled the
composite sketch created from the memory of the victim, who was attacked in a
parking garage and stuffed in the trunk of her car by an assailant.</P>
<P>Miller protested, saying he was at home watching Sugar Ray Leonard box Tommy
Hearns in their famous bout. He offered a witness to corroborate his alibi: his
father, who watched with him. "I can remember all of that like it was
yesterday," Miller said. "I thought somebody set me up."</P>
<P>Miller was convicted after witnesses identified him during his trial. Police
stored the evidence, including a slip with semen that led to Miller's
exoneration. At a news conference last week, the Illinois state attorney general
apologized.</P>
<P>It was not the first apology after a wrongful conviction. Jennifer Thompson
Cannino apologized to Ronald Cotton, whom she misidentified in 1984 after she
was raped in <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html?tid=informline&subject=Greensboro"
target="">Greensboro</A>, N.C. Cotton served nearly 10 years before he was
exonerated by a DNA test in 1995.</P>
<P>Cannino, who is white, toured the country with Cotton, who is black, to speak
out against eyewitness identifications and composite sketches. She said police
helped influence her to choose the wrong man.</P>
<P>"When you sit down and look at the choices in front of you, the hundred
noses, the hundred eyebrows, you try to get the best eyes, eyelashes, the best
lips," she said. "When the composite was finished and I was asked, 'Does it look
like the man who attacked you?' I said, 'Yes, it looks like the man.' "</P>
<P>Guided by the composite, Cannino said she picked Cotton out of photographs.
"I did get verbal and nonverbal encouragement: 'Good job. Way to go,' " she
said. "In the lineup, I looked for somebody who looked like the photograph. And
Ronald Cotton was doomed."</P>
<P>In a second trial three years later, she continued to insist that Cotton
raped her, even when the true rapist came forward. DNA testing confirmed the
second man's guilt.</P>
<P>"Thank God the investigator in my case felt that he needed to hold on to
evidence," she said. "Had it not been for that, Ron Cotton would still be in
prison today."</P>
<P> </P>
<CENTER><FONT size=+2> 'I Was Certain, but I Was Wrong'</FONT></CENTER>
<P>New York Times OP-ED Sunday, June 18, 2000
<P>By JENNIFER THOMPSON
<P> In 1984 I was a 22-year-old college student with a grade
point average of 4.0, and I really wanted to do something with my life. One
night someone broke into my apartment, put a knife to my throat and raped
me.
<P> During my ordeal, some of my determination took an urgent
new direction. I studied every single detail on the rapist's face. I
looked at his hairline; I looked for scars, for tattoos, for anything that would
help me identify him. When and if I survived the attack, I was going to make
sure that he was put in prison and he was going to rot.
<P> When I went to the police department later that day, I
worked on a composite sketch to the very best of my ability. I looked through
hundreds of noses and eyes and eyebrows and hairlines and nostrils and lips.
Several days later, looking at a series of police photos, I identified my
attacker. I knew this was the man. I was completely confident. I was sure.
<P> I picked the same man in a lineup. Again, I was sure. I
knew it. I had picked the right guy, and he was going to go to jail. If there
was the possibility of a death sentence, I wanted him to die. I wanted to flip
the switch.
<P> When the case went to trial in 1986, I stood up on the
stand, put my hand on the Bible and swore to tell the truth. Based on my
testimony, Ronald Junior Cotton was sentenced to prison for life. It was the
happiest day of my life because I could begin to put it all behind me.
<P> In 1987, the case was retried because an appellate court
had overturned Ronald Cotton's conviction. During a pretrial hearing, I learned
that another man had supposedly claimed to be my attacker and was bragging about
it in the same prison wing where Ronald Cotton was being held. This man, Bobby
Poole, was brought into court, and I was asked, "Ms. Thompson, have you ever
seen this man?" I answered: "I have never seen him in my life. I have no idea
who he is."
<P> Ronald Cotton was sentenced again to two life sentences.
Ronald Cotton was never going to see light; he was never going to get out; he
was never going to hurt another woman; he was never going to rape another
woman.
<P> In 1995, 11 years after I had first identified Ronald
Cotton, I was asked to provide a blood sample so that DNA tests could be run on
evidence from the rape. I agreed because I knew that Ronald Cotton had raped me
and DNA was only going to confirm that. The test would allow me to move on
once and for all.
<P> I will never forget the day I learned about the DNA
results. I was standing in my kitchen when the detective and the district
attorney visited. They were good and decent people who were trying to do their
jobs -- as I had done mine, as anyone would try to do the right thing. They told
me: "Ronald Cotton didn't rape you. It was Bobby Poole."
<P> The man I was so sure I had never seen in my life was the
man who was inches from my throat, who raped me, who hurt me, who took my spirit
away, who robbed me of my soul. And the man I had identified so emphatically on
so many occasions was absolutely innocent.
<P> Ronald Cotton was released from prison after serving 11
years. Bobby Poole pleaded guilty to raping me.
<P> Ronald Cotton and I are the same age, so I knew what he
had missed during those 11 years. My life had gone on. I had gotten married. I
had graduated from college. I worked. I was a parent. Ronald Cotton hadn't
gotten to do any of that.
<P> Mr. Cotton and I have now crossed the boundaries of both
the terrible way we came together and our racial difference (he is black and I
am white) and have become friends. Although he is now moving on with his own
life, I live with constant anguish that my profound mistake cost him so dearly.
I cannot begin to imagine what would have happened had my mistaken
identification occurred in a capital case.
<P> Today there is a man in Texas named Gary Graham who is
about to be executed because one witness is confident that Mr. Graham is the
killer she saw from 30 to 40 feet away. This woman saw the murderer for only a
fraction of the time that I saw the man who raped me. Several other witnesses
contradict her, but the jury that convicted Mr. Graham never heard any of the
conflicting testimony.
<P> If anything good can come out of what Ronald Cotton
suffered because of my limitations as a human being, let it be an awareness of
the fact that eyewitnesses can and do make mistakes. I have now had occasion to
study this subject a bit, and I have come to realize that eyewitness error has
been recognized as the leading cause of wrongful convictions. One witness is not
enough, especially when her story is contradicted by other good people.
<P> Last week, I traveled to Houston to beg Gov. George W.
Bush and his parole board not to execute Gary Graham based on this kind of
evidence. I have never before spoken out on behalf of any inmate. I stood with a
group of 11 men and women who had been convicted based on mistaken eyewitness
testimony, only to be exonerated later by DNA or other evidence.
<P> With them, I urged the Texas officials to grant Gary
Graham a new trial, so that the eyewitnesses who are so sure that he is innocent
can at long last be heard.
<P> I know that there is an eyewitness who is absolutely
positive she saw Gary Graham commit murder. But she cannot possibly be any more
positive than I was about Ronald Cotton. What if she is dead wrong?
<P>Jennifer Thompson is a homemaker in North Carolina and does volunteer work
with abused children. <BR></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>