New York City’s council has passed legislation that would effectively end qualified immunity for police officers in cases of excessive force and unreasonable searches, making it easier for people to sue individual officers. So-called “qualified immunity” policies shield on-duty officers from being held personally accountable in civil rights lawsuits if their conduct does not violate […]
Isiah Andrews is probably the only 82 year old in Ohio who is happy to be outside and does not care that there is a pandemic going on. That’s because, thanks to the work of the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) at the University of Cincinnati, he was just freed after spending 45 years in jail […]
Gov. Ralph Northam chose this Easter weekend to sign into laws sweeping progressive reforms including (1) making Virginia the first state in the South to enact comprehensive protections for the LGBTQ community against discrimination in housing, employment, public spaces, and credit applications; (2) repealing “medically-unnecessary restrictions on women’s healthcare,” including ultrasound requirements and 24-hour waiting periods […]
Stephanie Clifford of the New York Times last Tuesday wrote a piece on a growing trend among prosecutors facing motions to vacate wrongful convictions: They will consent to the motion if the defendant agrees to waive his right to seek money damages for his wrongful conviction. The story focuses on the Philadelphia case of Jimmy […]
In a case showing just how much the criminal justice system favors form and finality over substance, a Missouri judge has denied a request by the St Louis District Attorney’s Office to overturn the conviction of Lamar Johnson, who is serving his 24th year of incarceration. Particularly shocking is that the St Louis DA Kim […]
Keith Bush spent 33 years in prison for the attempted rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl on Long Island. He was exonerated at an emotional court hearing in Suffolk County Wednesday. For those interested in working in the field of wrongful convictions or those who just have a general interest in these types of cases, […]
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a rural Nebraska county’s appeal of a $28 million court judgment rendered in 2016 compensating six people wrongfully convicted of a 1985 rape and slaying. Gage County had filed a writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to look at the verdict after a Federal appeals court upheld the […]
I am opposed to the death penalty. While my opposition principally comes from my work in wrongful conviction cases, my opposition is to the death penalty in all cases – even where the evidence of guilt is overwhelming or where the details of the crime are horrific and gruesome. I just feel it is a […]
Not a month goes by that I don’t receive a phone call from some family member, friend, or friend of a family member, or family member of a friend, asking “What’s the best way to get out of jury service?” With about the same or similar frequency I get asked “I see that you are […]