James Bain Exonerated After 35 Years of Wrongful Incarceration

This morning Christmas came early for James (Jamie) Bain when a judge in Polk County vacated his conviction and dropped all charges against him. Jamie had been in prison for 35 years for a crime that DNA testing proved he didn't commit. He was only 19 years old when he went into prison and today he walks out a 54-year-old man.

Jamie submitted handwritten motions four times seeking DNA testing, but he was denied each time. He was denied the fifth time, too, but an appeals court overturned that denial. The Innocence Project of Florida (IPF) stepped in to assist Mr. Bain, and he was finally able to get the DNA testing he'd wanted for so many years, and which ultimately proved his innocence.

Jamie Bain is looking forward to seeing his mother in Tampa, and spending the holidays as a free man with his family. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Watch CNN video of the press conference immediately following Jamie's release.

Dillon won't be paid for time spent in prison

That is the title of this article from Florida Today that was just published. The gist of the article is this: because Flrodia's Victims of Wrongful Incarceration statute, passed last year, has a "clean hands" provision, barring anyone with prior felonies from being awarded compensation, William Dillon will not be paid by the state for his 27 years of wrongful incarceration. If it sounds obviously unjust to you, that's because it is.

What the state is in essence saying is that Dillon is not entitled to, or does not deserve, the money because of his prior felony conviction, which was a DUI and possession of a controlled substance in 1979. Dillon plead to that crime, did his time and paid the fine. He ought to stand redeemed in the eyes of the state vis-à-vis that crime.

"It's a shame that a nonviolent drug conviction from when Mr. Dillon was 19 years old would bar him from being compensated under the new Victims of Wrongful Incarceration statute," attorney Melissa Montle of the Innocence Project of Florida said. "He now has to file a claims bill during a recession in order to be rightfully compensated for the 27 years he spent in prison for a crime he did not commit."

Several of the comments on the article make good points, albeit blunt and somewhat inelegant. Most are rightfully angry at the state for what is clearly an injustice. Most say things like, "The state made a mistake, time to pay up." That's a sentiment I can get behind 100%, mostly because it's absolutely correct. I like this one from Augnoz especially, because it sounds like something I would exclaim when not speaking in an official capacity for this organization: "Dillon got the shaft, correct this travesty."

But one comment is so dangerously false that it merits my correction. earthwateruser says, among other things, that "A compensation bill for wrongful imprisonment for 27 years shouldn't be a difficult thing to accomplish [this legislative session]," and points to the number of compensation bills that get passed each year. This is simply not true. Out of Florida's 10 DNA exonerees, only two have been compensated. Under this new bill, the Victims of Wrongful Incarceration statute, it is not clear that a single person has been awarded compensation. It is not easy. It is not common.

GenPop also chimes in and Courtney makes a good point when she asks, "Is [this] not then a continuation of the punishment for a minor drug offense 30 years after the fact?" It could easily be seen as a punishment in the philosophical sense, since it is an adverse treatment or harm – treatment that would not otherwise be acceptable – in light of some transgression. You might also think that, by letting his wrongful incarceration go unremedied, the state is refusing to admit wrongdoing, and letting it stand as an acceptable act of punishment against his previous offense.

The value of finality

One of the systemic problems contributing to the problem of wrongful incarceration – besides wrongful convictions in the first place – is a fierce reluctance by the system and its constituents to overturn previous convictions. This is what we casually refer to as the value of finality. Courts are afraid of getting 'bogged down' with every claim of innocence or procedural error, so much so that they create daunting procedural hurdles to having an appeal heard. Add to that the resistance from prosecutors and DAs who are afraid of losing face when it is revealed that they had convicted the wrong person. A picture of the difficulty facing innocent imprisoned now beings to take shape.

Two articles came out just now, in the New York Times and USA Today that are related to this attitude that stands in the way of justice post-conviction. The New York Times' A1 story discusses prosecutors' reluctance to grant DNA testing:

A recent analysis of 225 DNA exonerations by Brandon L. Garrett, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, found that prosecutors opposed DNA testing in almost one out of five cases. In many of the others, they initially opposed testing but ultimately agreed to it. In 98 of those 225 cases, the DNA test identified the real culprit.

I find this particularly insulting:

In Illinois, prosecutors have opposed a DNA test for Johnnie Lee Savory, convicted of committing a double murder when he was 14, on the grounds that a jury was convinced of his guilt without DNA and that the 175 convicts already exonerated by DNA were “statistically insignificant.” (emphasis mine)

Says the New York Times, "Defense lawyers also say the arguments ignore the proven power of DNA to refute almost every other type of evidence." I'm not sure what the "almost" refers to, unless it is, say, an autographed and notarized picture of the defendant committing the crime.

Also today, USA Today ran a story on A3 about Troy Davis. Davis has been on death row for 18 years, though the case against him has since collapsed. Simply put, the State is unwilling to grant Davis a new trial just because he has already been convicted once.

Davis' attorneys and advocates for the wrongfully convicted say his case, set for another U.S. Supreme Court appeal this week, represents one of possibly dozens in which courts are reluctant to consider evidence discovered after conviction that might exonerate inmates on death row.

Davis' stay of execution ran out on Saturday. You can visit Amnesty International's page on Davis here.

Northwestern Center frees innocent man convicted at 13

Thaddeus Jimenez was arrested for a street gang murder in Chicago when he was 13. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison, but served only 16 before he was exonerated yesterday by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern.

Read more:

• ABA Journal: Arrested at 13, Freed 16 Years Later After Witnesses Recant
• Innocence Project in New York's news update
• Video of Thaddeus's release on YouTube

The ABA Journal article mentions witness recantations as a reason prosecutors took a second look into his case. How come that can't happen for Troy Davis, the evidence in whose case is even more egregious?

Palm Beach Post coverage of Dillon speaking event

The Palm Beach Post has an article today on Bill Dillon's speaking engagement at the Rotary Club in Wellington, Florida that took place Friday.

American Heritage School to “Bowl for the Innocent”

American Heritage School to “Bowl for the Innocent”
Innocence Project of Florida Plans to Attend Event

On Friday, April 24, American Heritage School will host “Bowl for the Innocent,” an event planned to raise funds for innocent people who have been released from Florida prisons. The Executive Director of the Innocence Project of Florida, Seth Miller, Esq., plans to attend. This is the second year in a row the school has helped victims of wrongful incarceration.

“This event is just one way we try to reach out to the community and spread awareness about wrongful convictions,” said Miller. “The fact that this was organized by a couple of students is really remarkable, and we’re impressed by their passion for this cause.”

Students will “Bowl for the Innocent” at AMF Davie Lanes in Davie, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale. Plans include an afternoon of bowling and refreshments, including pizza, soda and cake.

“This issue is something that matters to everyone,” added Miller. “The more people hear about innocent people in prison, the closer we get to reforming the system to prevent wrongful convictions. This event – even though it’s light-hearted and fun – is an important contribution to the cause.”

The Innocence Project of Florida (IPF) is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to finding and freeing innocent people in Florida prisons.

Click here to download the press release.

# # #

Where?

AMF Davie Lanes
8200 W State Road 84
Davie, FL

When?

Friday, April 24th, 2009

2:30-3:00 PM Students arrive at bowling alley, check-in
3:00-4:30 PM Bowling games
4:30-5:15 PM Announcements, Pictures, Pizza, Soda, and Cake
5:30 PM Bus departs

Two more criminal justice documentaries

In response to my previous post about two documentaries about the prison system in America and in Argentina, my colleague Matt Kelley from Change.org's Criminal Justice blog pointed me to two more recent documentaries.

One is Witch Hunt, which has been popping up quite a bit in my Google Reader lately. The documentary tells the stories of regular people who were wrongfully accused, convicted, and sentenced to prison for horrific sexual crimes that they never committed:

Executive Producer Sean Penn presents "Witch Hunt," the story of John Stoll and dozens of other men and women who found themselves ensnared in a spiral of fear, ignorance and hysteria. These working-class moms and dads were rounded up with little or no evidence, charged and convicted of almost unimaginable crimes. Years later, they would find freedom again, but their lives would be changed forever.

Witch Hunt will air on MSNBC this Sunday, April 12, at 10 PM.

The second documentary is Dhamma Brothers. Dhamma Brothers follows the inmates of Donaldson Correctional Institution near Birmingham, Alabama. Donaldson became the first prison in the nation to conduct an extended Vipassana retreat, which entailed physically and emotionally demanding Buddhist meditation for ten days. It bears some striking similarities to Unit 25 (Unidad 25), which I blogged about before, about a prisoner who trades the "customary horrors" of prison for embracing Christianity while on the inside. It's fascinating to see these stories told about a spiritual awakening that takes place inside prison, and the profound effects it can have on inmates.

At least, these stories are a variation on the trite tale of the convict who "finds Jesus" or converts to Islam inside prison: spirituality in the big house is nothing new, except for when it's told in a whole new way in these films.

Ecuador Seeks Return of Florida Death Row Inmate

The Death Penalty Information Center relates this interesting article from the AP:

Ecuador is demanding the return of one of their citizens from Florida’s death row because they maintain he was taken from Ecuador illegally. The inmate, Nelson Serrano Saenz, is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Ecuador. Ecuador says he should have never been taken from their country by Florida officials, calling the arrest a “kidnapping” and accusing the U.S. government of physical maltreatment of Serrano as well. Ecuador does not have the death penalty and will not extradite fugitives who face the punishment in other countries. ''The issue is not his guilt or innocence,'' said Deputy Ecuadorean Interior Minister Franco Sanchez. ''This is called a kidnapping, not an arrest.'' U.S. authorities maintain that they did nothing improper and that Serrano’s dual citizenship status allowed them to bring him back. The Organization of American States, to which both countries belong, has since recommended the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica, after first finding that Ecuador had illegally detained and deported Serrano.

Ecuador has not received an official response from the U.S. State Department to their letter and announced they plan to present the letter to the Florida Supreme Court, where Serrano's appeal will likely be heard later this year. The Ecuadorean government also has hired a Miami-based immigration attorney to replace Serrano's court-appointed lawyer.

Timothy Cole Exonerated in Texas

When Governor Bill Richardson abolished the death penalty in New Mexico, he called it the most difficult decision of his political career.

Now, Judge Charlie Baird in Texas has handed down a decision he has called "the most important of my judicial career." Timothy Cole was convicted in 1985 for the rape of Michelle Mallin and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Cole died in prison in 1999 for a crime that DNA evidence has since proven he didn't commit, and yesterday he was officially posthumously exonerated in Texas. Judge Baird's decision is available here.

Judge Baird said, unequivocally, "the evidence is crystal clear that Timothy Cole died in prison an innocent man, and I find to a 100 percent moral, legal, and factual certainty that he did not commit the crime of which he was convicted." Judge Baird also went on to fault police misconduct, including the deliberate misrepresentation and suppression of evidence for Cole's innocence during the investigation.

Perhaps most tragic is that, since 1995, four years before Cole died in prison from complications from asthma, Jerry Johnson had been admitting his guilt for the rape of Michelle Mallin. From Judge Baird's decision:

Worse, however, was the attitude of the courts to [the actual rapist Jerry] Johnson’s claim of guilt. As early as 1995- four years before Tim Cole died- Johnson tried to clear Tim Cole and admit to the rape of Michelle Mallin. His letters were ignored, set aside, and thrown away until one was received by the family of Tim Cole and the Innocence Project of Texas.

You can read more about Timothy Cole's exoneration at Grits for Breakfast, Lubbock Online, or the Houston Chronicle.

We're glad that this sad story is coming to an end – that the family of Timothy Cole is receiving some sort of justice in the clearing of their son's name. We hope the criminal justice system can look to Timothy's case and ask itself, "What can be done to make sure this never happens again?"

Visit IPF's Website by clicking here; sign up to volunteer by clicking here; contribute to our work by clicking here.

DNA clears men in Virginia and Washington

Two reminders today about why the arrival of reliable DNA testing is quite possibly the most important advent in the history of criminal justice. The Richmond Times-Dispatch out of Virginia is reporting that a man found guilty of a rape in 1984 was wrongfully convicted and incarcerated. DNA testing showed the true perpetrator to be one of the area's most notorious rapists, Leon Davis. Thomas Haynesworth was the man wrongfully convicted.

Reached last week by telephone at the Greensville Correctional Center, Haynesworth said of Davis, "I knew all along he was the man. I told my lawyer. I told [police]. He lived right down the street from me."

"I told them: 'This man fit the description.' But nobody ever listened to me," he complained. "Everybody said we looked alike. Only difference between me and him, he is taller and weighed more," said Haynesworth.

And cheers to the Virginia Department of Forensic Science:

The recent DNA testing was performed as part of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science's post-conviction project aimed at clearing people who may have been wrongly convicted from 1973 through 1988, before forensic DNA testing was widely available.

Similar programs should be in place in every jurisdiction throughout the country, as citizens anywhere can be victims of wrongful incarceration.

Secondly, in Washington state, a man who was arrested and held for 17 days for the rape of an 11-year-old girl in 2007 has filed a federal lawsuit against the local police department alleging wrongful imprisonment. David Lynch was released from prison, his charges dropped, after DNA tests from the rape excluded him as a possible rapist.

There are always celebrations fanfare when a person is released after serving X years behind bars for a crime they didn't commit. Sometimes we might forget that the real reason we work hard to shed light on these abuses and reform the system is to prevent wrongful convictions from happening in the first place. Though spending 17 days wrongfully in jail is certainly a harrowing experience, it is far and away a better thing than spending 27 years behind bars for a crime you didn't commit.

Update: David Lynch's story is similar to two others that were reported in Florida very recently. The first, out of Tampa, is of Kenneth Robinson, who was arrested for a burglary he did not commit and released after DNA testing proved as much. The second is of Wade Jackson in Brevard county, Florida, who was released after spending 17 months in prison as a suspect for a murder he did not commit.

Visit IPF's Website here; sign up to volunteer here; contribute to our work here.

American Violet

Grits for Breakfasts posts a press release about the feature film American Violet, on the IMDB here.

On April 17, Samuel Goldwyn Films will release AMERICAN VIOLET, a new film based on true events that occurred in a small Texas town. The film examines how drug laws and enforcement practices target African-Americans, and, how the justice system uses threats and intimidation to steer them towards guilty pleas, regardless of their innocence or the evidence against them. As the film points out, more than 95% of criminal convictions in this country are the result of plea-bargains, not jury trials. While the film is based on a specific case, the story it represents is hardly unique or isolated, and, the film’s release presents an exceptional opportunity to explore how the drug war has become the new Jim Crow.

AMERICAN VIOLET is inspired by the real life story of Regina Kelly, an African-American, single mother of four girls who was arrested in 2000 in a military-style drug raid. The raid resulted in the arrest of nearly 15% of the town’s young black male population for felony cocaine distribution. Kelly was innocent. Her name, along with the names of many others arrested (nearly all African-American), were given to police by a single, highly unreliable informant with personal reasons to antagonize her. Despite Kelly’s innocence, she was urged to plead guilty by her family and even her public defender so that she could return to her children and receive a minimal sentence. A felony conviction, however, would have resulted in the loss of her right to vote and the public assistance programs on which her family depended, not to mention the tainting of her personal reputation and her ability to obtain employment. She chose to maintain her plea of not guilty. The ACLU Drug Law Reform Project came on board to represent her.

In AMERICAN VIOLET, Kelly’s on-screen character is named Dee Roberts (played by newcomer Nicole Beharie) and the ACLU lawyer in the film is played by Tim Blake Nelson. Alfre Woodard, Charles Dutton, Will Patton, Michael O’Keefe and Xzibit also star. The town of Melody and certain other characters and events are fictitious.

Eventually, the charges against Kelly were dropped (as were the charges against most of the others arrested in the same drug raid due to the same informant’s lack of credibility). Yet, she was separated from her children while she was incarcerated, shamed in her small community by being labeled a drug dealer, fired from her job, and had difficulty obtaining employment thereafter; in short, her life was torn apart due to her arrest and her time in jail. Graham Boyd, Director of the ACLU Drug Reform Project represented her in a lawsuit against the county and the District Attorney (among other parties), for damages, which resulted in a settlement.

More importantly, the case resulted in a change in Texas law, whereby now, cases cannot be prosecuted based solely on the claims of a single informant.

In other news, there is still time to call (505-476-2225) or email New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. He has until tomorrow to sign the bill. Matt Kelley at Change.org provides a sample email:

Dear Gov. Richardson,

I'm writing to urge you to do the right thing and sign HB285, repealing the death penalty in New Mexico. You are at a crucial point in history today, in which the practice of capital punishment is in decline in the United States - one of the last democracies on earth to apply this cruel and unusual punishment. You have an opportunity to become a national leader on this issue by signing the bill and taking a stand in support of human life. I hope you will be remembered as the man who ended this inhuman practice in New Mexico.

I was one of the 6,000 who left a phone message yesterday. I encourage all of our readers to take the time to send an email, or the 30 seconds to make a call and do your part to help abolish the death penalty in New Mexico.

From a friend of Tompkins

Michael Lambrix has been on death row in Florida for 26 years. Today one of his journals is posted on the Death Row Journals blog here. He expresses sadness and disbelief over Wayne Tompkins' execution on February 11 of this year. Having known Tompkins personally, and referring to him by his Native American name "Grey Cloud," Lambrix explains that Tompkins' conviction was based entirely on circumstantial evidence, and he explains his more general misgivings over death sentences that are obtained all the time with such scant evidence. This was a particularly well-written section:

But nobody can deny that our judicial system is far less then perfect. In recent years at least 25 prisoners on Florida’s death row alone have been found to have been wrongfully convicted and then judicially exonerated and released from prison. Recently the ‘Innocence Project” has announced that just in the last decade they have proven the innocence of at least 200 men through DNA evidence. This undeniable virtual epidemic of injustice should compel any person of moral conscience to question the validity of any conviction based upon wholly circumstantial evidence. The fact is that as a civilized society we owe it to ourselves to insist that if we are going to put a person to death, there can not be any question of guilt. To allow any execution of a person whose guilt [is] in question will inevidently [sic] result in the execution of an innocent person.

The Maryland Senate took hesitant steps recently to assure that death sentences could only be handed down in cases where there was biological evidence, a taped confession, or a taped crime. That is a meaningful step, but it does not go far enough.

Eyewitness identification in the news

Sam Sommers is a psychologist at Tufts University in Massachusetts. Today on his blog on Psychology Today, he relates an anecdote about eyewitness IDs, told through an encounter with one of his students:

Not long ago, I had a meeting with an undergraduate from a large lecture course. It was the first time I had spoken with her outside of class, and she asked me what type of research I conduct. When I told her, she responded by saying that my work reminded her of a presentation she sat through during freshman orientation–a presentation concerning psychological perspectives on diversity conducted by two faculty members. From that point forward, our conversation took a surprising turn:

Me: "Right, I was one of those presenters."
Student: "No, there was a Black professor and a White professor, but the White guy was someone else."
Me: "Actually, that was me. Professor Maddox and I conduct diversity workshops, including that one at freshman orientation."
Student: "It was Professor Maddox, but the White professor was another guy."

That's all well and good, but imagine if a conviction had hung in the balance in this case, and that an eyewitness' memory was the only evidence against a suspect that the state could muster. Sommers quickly makes the same realization about the consequences of relying on eyewitness testimony.

Indeed, in the legal domain there are few types of evidence that a jury finds more persuasive than the eyewitness who can take the stand and point directly at the defendant while stating, "absolutely, that's the man I saw." But I just returned from the annual convention of the American Psychology-Law Society, where research presentation after research presentation demonstrated how surprisingly inaccurate and malleable eyewitness evidence can be. And the consequences for crime suspects as well as victims are far greater than the marginal ego blow suffered by the unrecognized professor who learns that he apparently nothing more than an average-looking, generic White guy.

The Innocence Project claims that in over 75% cases of wrongful conviction, mistaken eyewitness testimony is involved. In several of our cases, it was the only evidence against a suspect.

The issue has found its way back into the mainstream with the release of the book Picking Cotton, written by Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton. Thompson, a rape victim, picked Cotton out of a lineup and testified against him at trial, leading to 11 years of wrongful incarceration. Since Cotton's exoneration, the two have reconciled and bonded. 60 Minutes also covered the release of the book in a piece recently, including interviews with Thompson and Cotton.

Of interest, KCBD TV station in Lubbock, Texas just performed an experiment of their own in which they staged a purse-snatching and then had students try to pick the perpetrator out of a lineup. Only 8% of them were successful. Again, imagine that only a handful of students – or one witness – had been present, and then the burden rested on him to pick the perpetrator out of a lineup...

The Innocence Project in New York suggests these policy reforms to undercut the problem of unreliable eyewitness identifications:

• Blind administration: Research and experience have shown that the risk of misidentification is sharply reduced if the police officer administering a photo or live lineup is not aware of who the suspect is.
  
• Lineup composition: "Fillers” (the non-suspects included in a lineup) should resemble the eyewitness' description of the perpetrator. The suspect should not stand out (for example, he should not be the only member of his race in the lineup, or the only one with facial hair). Eyewitnesses should not view multiple lineups with the same suspect.
  
• Instructions: The person viewing a lineup should be told that the perpetrator may not be in the lineup and that the investigation will continue regardless of the lineup result. They should also be told not to look to the administrator for guidance.
  
• Confidence statements: Immediately following the lineup procedure, the eyewitness should provide a statement, in his own words, articulating his the level of confidence in the identification.
  
• Recording: Identification procedures should be videotaped whenever possible – this protects innocent suspects from any misconduct by the lineup administrator, and it helps the prosecution by showing a jury that the procedure was legitimate.

You can read our page on eyewitness identification here.

Bill Dillon speaks publicly in Melbourne, Florida

On Saturday night, William Dillon spoke to a crowd at the Space Coast Progressive Alliance's "Audacity of Hope" event at the Florida Institution of Technology. Florida Today covered the event.

"Many years, I waited for something to happen," he said. "I wrote anyone I could; anybody that I thought would listen, and I got no replies. Nobody was listening."

He cited the manipulation of witnesses, the lack of DNA testing at the time and unreliable sources for his conviction and credited the Innocence Project of Florida for his freedom.

You can read about William Dillon's case on our website here.


The Innocence Project of Florida's Assistant Director, Toni Shrewsbury (right) was in attendance.

Update: Some coverage in the blog of John Simpson, an attendant at the Progressive Celebration event:

[Bill Dillon is] tall, maybe six-two, and speaks clearly and plainly in a laconic voice of his experiences behind bars and in the courtroom, of his life in general. His speech is marked by candor, not rancor. He does not appear to be bitter. He’s adapted readily to the use of cell phones, devices which didn’t exist (except in crazy inventors’ feverish imaginations) when he went in. At a restaurant or among a crowd of people, he’s always looking around, alert, amazed. That he can find his way around Brevard County, where he still lives, is another source of constant surprise: whole neighborhoods have sprung up in his absence; new shopping malls exist where, a quarter-century ago, the wind blew across empty fields and marshes.

What he’s been through (and how well he went through it) boggles the mind. That he’s nowhere near the first — and certainly not the last — to have gone through it feels, well, impossible.

Visit IPF's Website here; sign up to volunteer here; contribute to our work here.

Wrongfully incarcerated, recently exonerated Brevard resident William Dillon to address public for the first time this Saturday

Brevard resident William Dillon, who served over 27 years for a crime he did not commit, will make his first address to the public since his exoneration in November 2008, joining the Innocence Project of Florida (IPF) on stage at the Gleason Center, Florida Tech campus, 6:00pm, Saturday, March 7, 2009 at the 5th Annual Progressive Celebration hosted by the Space Coast Progressive Alliance and co-sponsored by WFIT 89.5FM.

Dillon will join IPF Assistant Director Toni Shrewsbury during an award ceremony recognizing the work that IPF has done since their inception in 2003, resulting in the release of ten wrongfully incarcerated Floridians who, through DNA testing, were proven factually innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. In addition to obtaining the freedom of these individuals, IPF's work has resulted in widespread recognition of the need to reform the state criminal justice system, where fundamental problems have been identified in the areas of eyewitness identification, false confessions, evidence preservation, crime lab oversight, access to DNA testing, and exoneree compensation. IPF has received over 2000 inquiries/requests for assistance in proving the innocence of individuals currently incarcerated.

Dillon's 27 years in jail represent the longest time served by any of the 232 individuals exonerated nationwide as a result of DNA test results. Dillon was exonerated when his innocence of a 1981 murder was proved by DNA evidence that came as a result of a 2007 motion filed by IPF and attorney Mike Pirolo. Dillon was subsequently released November 18, 2008.

The state's case against Dillon was based largely on the testimony of an admitted perjurer who had a sexual liaison with the case's lead investigator during the investigation, a fraudulent dog scent expert, a partially blind eyewitness and an individual whose own charges in a rape case were dropped in exchange for his testimony, which included numerous details at odds with known facts in the case.

Both Dillon and Shrewsbury will be joining Progressive Celebration attendees at a pre-event reception greeting Bob Edgar, President and CEO of Common Cause, a 400,000 member nonprofit, nonpartisan citizen lobby for reforms that make government at all levels more open, honest, and accountable, and re-engages citizens with civic responsibility. Edgar will then keynote the celebration with a talk addressing the challenges facing the Obama administration in meeting its promises for education, health care and energy policy. Edgar will specifically address key reforms that have taken hold in other states and how such reforms can be pursued in Florida. Celebration attendees will have the opportunity to question Edgar about Fair Districting, public campaign financing, and other fundamental reforms directed toward government accountability and the campaign/election process. Edgar's talk will follow a live music performance by Evan Greer, RiotFolk musician, performing original songs of citizen empowerment, sustainability and social justice. Concerned citizens of all ages are invited and urged to attend.

Doors open at 6pm to the event, which benefits both WFIT 89.5FM, a public radio station serving South Brevard and Indian River County, and the Space Coast Progressive Alliance, a local grassroots citizen lobby for progressive public policies.

Tickets are available from WFIT 89.5FM (321-674-8950 or www.wfit.org).

# # #

Event Info
5th Annual Progressive Celebration
an evening of inspiration and information
hosted by Space Coast Progressive Alliance
co-sponsored by WFIT 89.5 FM

Saturday, March 7, 2009 on campus, Florida Institute of Technology, 150 W University Blvd, Melbourne FL 32901

5-6:30pm - Pre-event Party, Meet & Greet Reception in Hartley Room, Student Union Building. Limited attendance, tickets required.
6:00pm - Doors open at Gleason Performing Arts Center for Progressive Celebration
6:15pm - Live Music with Evan Greer, RiotFolk Music Collective
7:00pm - Welcome and Award Presentation to Innocence Project of Florida, followed by keynote speech by Bob Edgar, President & CEO of Common Cause
Presentation title: "The Audacity of Hope vs. Pay-to-Play Politics: Obama's Challenge
8:45pm - Edgar book signing, progressive information tabling, music resumes

Tickets available from WFIT (online at wfit.org or call 321-674-8950)
$20 advance / $25 at the door, if available
$10 students
$60 tickets

MEDIA welcome with press credentials/identity.

MORE EVENT INFO HERE

CONTACTS
ALL AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW

Innocence Project of Florida Assistant Director Toni Shrewsbury: 850-561-6767 or tshrewsbury@floridainnocence.org

Common Cause: Mary Boyle, VP Communications, via Mike Surrusco 202-736-5788 or msurrusco@commoncause.org, or John Briscoe, VP Development, 202-841-4507 or jbriscoe@commoncause.org

Common Cause Florida: Alex Chavez, 941-706-1877 or 941-737-1447, achavez@commoncause.org

Evan Greer, RiotFolk Musician: respectyourmama@gmail.com or evangreer@gmail.com or 978-852-6457

Local event co-chair: Cammie Donaldson, 321-917-1960 or cammiedonaldson@earthlink.net
Local event co-chair & pre-event reception chair: Susan Martin, 321-773-1276 or zulu2@cfl.rr.

# # #

Space Coast Progressive Alliance (SCPA) is a Florida nonprofit corporation supported by membership dues, donations, and event ticket sales. Nonpartisan by strongly progressive and politically active, SCPA encourages citizen engagement in the political process and seeks to advance progressive public policy at the local, state and national level. Click here to visit their website.

Those cleared by DNA tests struggle to be free

Media coverage of exonerations is usually pretty good. There are newspaper articles, television clips, interviews and most often an editorial or two about the horrors of wrongful incarceration. But what happens after the cameras stop rolling and the reporters move on to new stories?

As the following USA TODAY story by Kevin Johnson points out, for many exonerees, the nightmare of their wrongful incarceration doesn't end when they walk out of prison.

ST. LOUIS — Johnny Briscoe thought his nightmare was over in the summer of 2006 when, after 23 years of proclaiming his innocence, he finally walked out of a Missouri prison.

DNA evidence lifted from a cigarette butt should have stripped away any doubt that another man — not Briscoe — had raped and robbed a woman in her suburban St. Louis apartment on Oct. 21, 1982. Yet Briscoe's exoneration, featured by national news organizations, did not fully free him from the persistent doubts of acquaintances and family members about his innocence, or from the emotional scars seared by more than two decades in prison.

That's one of the problems. There will always be people who wonder, or worse who insist, despite DNA evidence to the contrary, that the exonerated person was guilty. Thankfully, these misguided individuals are few, but their affect on an innocent person who has spent decades in prison can be devastating.

Nearly 90% of the 227 people cleared by DNA evidence since 1989 were convicted of some of the most heinous sex crimes, according to the Innocence Project, which helps inmates prove their innocence through DNA testing. DNA — present in blood, semen and body cells — can be particularly useful in solving sex crimes and often is the most definitive way of determining innocence.

Yet not even DNA washes away the lasting stigma that shadows once-convicted sex offenders who are cleared by genetic testing, and the criminal justice system that wrongly jailed them offers little help. Briscoe's plight is part of a silent struggle for a rising number of exonerees. After high-profile releases from prison, they often fend for themselves.

Add to the stigma a financial wall that most exonerees encounter as soon as they are released.

Most states did not account for the exonerated when officials started re-entry programs for the hundreds of thousands of offenders released in the U.S. each year. Most are ineligible for basic benefits, such as counseling and job training, that states give guilty offenders when they re-enter society.

So exonerees have no money (almost all are indigent by the time they’re released) and no job. They have no place to live, no driver’s license, and sadly, by the time they get out, some have no family or friends. From an exoneree's talk in 2003:

Financially I was broke. No family. Occupationally I was 44 years old. Nobody was going to hire me. Nothing was available when I walked out of prison. Absolutely nothing.

The transition is never easy. And for those without an intact supportive family, it can be lonely as well as stressful.

At least in Florida we are fortunate to have a full-time social worker on staff to help our exonerees with their transition. (The paperwork alone can be daunting.) Our social worker coordinates an array of transitional services to meet their immediate and long-term needs including medical, psychological, and social support; occupational training and assistance; housing assistance; family support; and education.

And although we do have a compensation law on the books in Florida, it can still take one to two years to receive payment, if the individual even qualifies. (Florida's law prohibits compensation for any exoneree who has a previous felony conviction, or a conviction incurred while wrongfully incarcerated.) Most of Florida's exonerees would not be eligible under the bill as it now stands. Their only recourse has been, and continues to be, seeking compensation through a personal claims bill, a long and arduous process whose outcome is entirely dependent on the whim (and political makeup) of that particular legislative session.

So, in 2007 we established the Exoneree Emergency Fund to provide financial assistance for basic necessities during their transition. The fund, which is entirely dependent on contributions from the public, helps our clients buy groceries and gas, pay bills, purchase clothes for work, and secure job training. Each individual's needs vary, as does the length of time they require assistance, but we are thankful that, so far, we've received enough contributions to enable the Fund to continue.

Read the complete article.

Visit IPF's Website here; sign up to volunteer here; contribute to our work here. (If you want your donation to go directly to the Exoneree Emergency Fund, please include a note with that request.)

Judge Overturns Jimmy Ates’ Conviction: Use of Junk Science Leads to Release

Press Release
December 17, 2008

Today, pursuant to an agreement between the State and defense, First Judicial Circuit Judge William Stone vacated the conviction of Jimmy Ates. Mr. Ates will walk out of the Okaloosa County Jail later today after serving ten years in prison for the 1991 murder of his wife, Norma Jean Ates, in Baker, Florida. He is the first person in the nation to have a conviction overturned based on the FBI’s disavowal of Comparative Bullet Lead Analysis (CBLA).

“We’re thrilled that the State is finally recognizing the mistake that it made and taking this first step towards justice for Jimmy Ates,” said Bobbi Madonna, Staff Attorney for the Innocence Project of Florida (IPF).

Jimmy Ates is just one of roughly 1500 individuals nationwide whose cases were tainted by CBLA, which the FBI now concedes is a junk science. An FBI review of about 115 of those cases has found that CBLA testimony compromised the integrity of at least 80 trials—16 in Florida alone.

CBLA is a procedure by which scientists claim to be able to link bullets to a particular batch or box on the basis of their chemical composition. In Ates’ trial, FBI Analyst Kathleen Lundy testified that the bullets retrieved from the victim’s body matched the bullets found in the Ates’ family utility room, and therefore they came from the same batch. This testimony had no scientific basis. “Lundy was a fraud peddling a junk science and without that testimony, Jimmy Ates would never have been convicted,” said David Menschel, Legal Director of IPF. Lundy testified about CBLA in at least six other Florida cases.

The State’s case against Jimmy Ates has been suspect from the beginning. Initially, Okaloosa County State Attorney, Curtis Golden, refused to prosecute because the case lacked sufficient evidence. In a highly unusual move, Gov. Lawton Chiles assigned the high-profile case to Duval County State Attorney Harry Shorstein, who also refused to prosecute. Six years after the murder, armed with the FBI’s new CBLA analysis, a third State Attorney prosecuted Jimmy Ates.

Based on the new evidence that has emerged since trial, William Cervone, the special prosecutor assigned to the case, conceded that Ates’ conviction cannot stand. “Bill Cervone deserves praise for righting this wrong, and we hope and expect that other Florida prosecutors will follow his example in other CBLA cases,” said Seth Miller, Executive Director of IPF.

Brevard County Drops Charges Against William Dillon

For Immediate Release

Today the Brevard County State Attorney’s Office dropped all charges against William Dillon for the 1981 murder of James Dvorak in Canova Beach, Florida. Mr. Dillon served 27 years for a crime he did not commit, equaling the longest time served by any of the 225 DNA exonerees nationwide. Mr. Dillon joins Juan Ramos and Wilton Dedge as the third man exonerated in Brevard County in recent years.

“At least it didn’t take them three years to do the right thing in this case, like it did in the case of Wilton Dedge,” said Seth Miller, Executive Director of the Innocence Project of Florida (IPF). “Now that this charade is over, maybe they can focus on finding the real killer.”

Mr. Dillon, who has always maintained his innocence, was convicted on the basis of unreliable and false evidence including: subsequently recanted testimony of a star witness who was threatened by and having sex with the State's lead investigator; fraudulent scientific testimony of dog handler John Preston; testimony of a jailhouse snitch whose pending rape charge was dismissed after fingering Dillon; and a mistaken eyewitness identification by a man legally blind in one eye.

“Now that they’ve dropped the charges against Bill, they can start filing charges against the real criminals in this case,” said David Menschel, Legal Director of IPF. “There’s an open secret in Brevard County that there was a criminal conspiracy between the Sheriff’s Office and a fraudulent dog handler in order to manufacture convictions against suspects regardless of the evidence. That’s a crime, somebody needs to investigate it, and people need to go to prison.”

IPF called for the Governor to investigate the conduct of Brevard County State Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Office last month when Mr. Dillon’s conviction was vacated. Miller reiterated that call today: “It’s hard to have confidence in any of the convictions in this county given how widespread the corruption is. We again urge Governor Crist to not only investigate this corruption, but to review every case where John Preston testified. There are other wrongful convictions out there that need to be uncovered.”

“We’re thrilled that this cloud has been lifted from Bill and his family, just in time for the holidays,” added Melissa Montle, Staff Attorney with IPF.

The Innocence Project of Florida (IPF) is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to finding and freeing innocent people in Florida prisons.

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Footage from Bill Dillon's Release

Just uploaded to YouTube, some footage from Bill Dillon's release, including the press availability and Dillon at home with his family for the first time in 28 years.

Visit IPF's Website here; sign up to volunteer here; contribute to our work here.

Waiting for the State to do the Right Thing

Associated Press, Published January 21, 2008, TALLAHASSEE - Alan Crotzer is working at a landscaping company, hoping one day to be compensated for the 24 years he spent in prison for a rape he didn't commit.

Florida lawmakers have for a couple of years failed to pass a bill to pay him - and he's again asking the Legislature for $1.25-million for the two decades of freedom he gave up.

It's too bad for Crotzer that he doesn't live somewhere else. Several states have automatic compensation for people who have been wrongfully imprisoned and then released - something that's happening more and more because of increasing use of DNA to prove innocence.

But Florida remains one of 28 states that don't guarantee compensation for those who spent precious years behind bars for something they didn't do. Nine men have been freed by DNA in Florida in recent years, but only one has received money.

Crotzer, 47, is seeking money for himself - but he'd rather the state make money available for anyone in his situation. He said most men released after years behind bars - especially those who were, like him, young when imprisoned - have a hard time starting over without help. They're usually broke, and most have no job prospects. All they really know is prison life.

Continue reading.