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8 Ways People With Disabilities Can Be Vulnerable to Wrongful Conviction

For Disability Pride Month, we're taking a look at how people with disabilities can face unique challenges that hinder their ability to effectively participate in the criminal legal system.

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We work to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions, and create fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for everyone.

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Get started here.

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What is the best way to help the problem of wrongful convictions, either at the state or national level?

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See standards from National Council of Teachers of English, Common Core, American Association of School Librarians, and International Society for Technology in Education.

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Follow the directions on the attached document.

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Read the basic instructions for the project.

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5. Wrongful Convictions Project Timeline

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5. Wrongful Convictions Project Timeline

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Follow calendar carefully; don't fall behind!

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Use to stay on track with all project assignments.

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Resource for teachers

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a simplified version of the entire rubric

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9. Wrongful Convictions Project Complete Rubric

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9. Wrongful Convictions Project Complete Rubric

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This is the complete rubric I will use to grade final projects.

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Use this for your group work.

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Link to Schoology and login to our course to find Wrongful Convictions project folder with links, handouts, and discussions.

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Schoology Learning K-12 learning management system makes it easy to implement hybrid learning and integrate your favorite teaching and learning tools.

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Follow The Innocence Project on Twitter.

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Tweets by innocence

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Video explanation

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This video reviews the parts of a business letter as well as tips for writing a good business letter

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Research on wrongful convictions

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The Most Common Causes of Wrongful Death Penalty Convictions: Official Misconduct and Perjury or False Accusation

Many factors contribute to wrongful convictions, and it is no different in capital cases. But the most recent data from the National Registry of Exonerations points to two factors as the most overwhelmingly prevalent causes of wrongful convictions in death penalty cases: official misconduct and perjury or false accusation. As of May 31, 2017, the Registry reports that official misconduct was a contributing factor in 571 of 836 homicide exonerations 68.3%, very often in combination with perjury or false accusation, which also was a contributing factor in 68.3% of homicide exonerations. According to the Registry, mistaken witness identification was present in nearly a quarter of homicide exonerations (203, 24.3%), as was false or misleading forensic evidence (194, 23.2%), and false or fabricated confessions were present in more than a fifth of the exonerations (182, 21.8%). The Registry lists inadequate legal representation at trial as a contributing factor in more than a quarter (218, 26.1%) of these wrongful homicide convictions.

Two reports released on March 7, 2017 by the National Registry of Exonerations, Exonerations in 2016 and Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States, provide continuing evidence of the role of official misconduct in wrongful capital prosecutions, and suggest a link between race of defendant and official misconduct. The Registry's annual report on exonerations revealed a record 166 exonerations in 2016-and a record number of exonerations involving police or prosecutorial misconduct. 54 of the 2016 exonerations-nearly a third-involved wrongful homicide convictions. At least 13 of these cases involved the wrongful use of the death penalty-meaning that the death penalty played a role in nearly a quarter of the 54 homicide exonerations in 2016. Every one of these wrongful convictions involved either official misconduct or perjured testimony/false accusation, and eleven (84.6%) of them involved both. The National Registry's race report documents that the "rate of official misconduct is considerably higher among murder exonerations with black defendants than those with white defendants, 76% compared to 63%. The rate of misconduct is higher overall in capital cases, and the difference by race is greater: 87% of black exonerees who were sentenced to death were victims of official misconduct, compared to 67% of white death-row exonerees."

The Death Penalty Information Center has examined our exoneration database and cross-referenced it with the National Registry of Exonerations information on death-row exonerations in the last decade (between 2007 and April 2017) to determine the most common factors that contributed to the wrongful convictions and death sentences for the most recent exonerees. The data for the 34 cases in the NRE database[1] shows that the wrongful capital prosecutions involved more than mere errors. Every one of these cases involved some combination of official misconduct, perjury or false accusation, or false or misleading forensic evidence; and more than three-quarters (26 cases, 76.5%) involved at least two of these factors. Fewer than one-tenth of the cases (3, 8.8%) involved a single wrongful cause. 91.2% (31 cases) had multiple contributing factors and nearly half (16 cases, 47.1%) had three or more contributing causes.
By category, the leading contributing causes of wrongful conviction in the death-row exonerations between 2007 and April 2017 were:

Official misconduct (28 cases, 82.4%)

Perjury or false accusation (26 cases, 76.5%)

False or misleading forensic evidence (11 cases, 32.4%)

Inadequate legal defense (8 cases, 23.5%)

False or fabricated confession (6 cases, 17.6%)

Mistaken eyewitness identification (4 cases, 11.8%)

DPIC Exoneration Database with National Registry of Exonerations Causes (Where Available)
* Non-unanimous jury recommendation
** Judicial override
-z Appellate acquittal, not in NRE
Official Misconduct: Wrongful Capital Prosecutions and 2016 Exoneration Data
As discussed above, the 2016 data from the National Registry for Exonerations included evidence that the death penalty played a role in nearly a quarter of the 54 homicide exonerations that took place in 2016.

The NRE exoneration data reveals at least 13 exonerations that involved the wrongful use of the death penalty. In at least six of the wrongful homicide convictions, prosecutors had sought the death penalty at trial. In another, an innocent defendant pled guilty to avoid the death penalty. And at least six additional exonerations were the product of witnesses having falsely implicated innocent defendants after police had threatened the witness or a loved one with the death penalty unless the witness cooperated with the investigation.

There were at least six wrongful capital prosecutions in which prosecutors sought death, but juries imposed life:

Eddie Bolden, IL: Contributing Factors-Mistaken Witness ID, Official Misconduct, Inadequate Legal Defense;

Keith Harward, VA: Contributing Factors-Mistaken Witness ID, False or Misleading Forensic Evidence, Perjury or False Accusation, Official Misconduct;

Mark Maxon, IL: Contributing Factors-False Confession, Perjury or False Accusation, Official Misconduct;

Charles Palmer, IL: Contributing Factors-False or Misleading Forensic Evidence, Perjury or False Accusation;

Kevin Siehl, PA: Contributing Factors-False or Misleading Forensic Evidence, Perjury or False Accusation, Official Misconduct, Inadequate Legal Defense;

Anthony Wright, PA: Contributing Factors-False Confession, Perjury or False Accusation, Official Misconduct.

There was at least one case in which the wrongful threat of the death penalty caused an innocent defendant to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty:

Paul Gatling, NY: Contributing Factors-Mistaken Witness ID, Official Misconduct.

There were at least three other cases, involving six people exonerated in 2016, in which the wrongful conviction was procured by threatening witnesses that they or their loved ones would face the death penalty unless the witness cooperated:

Carl Dukes and Lavell Jones, NY: Contributing Factors-False Confession, Perjury or False Accusation, Official Misconduct;

Johnny Small, NC: Contributing Factors-Perjury or False Accusation, Official Misconduct;

The "Norfolk 4" (3 of whom-Joseph Dick, Derek Tice, and Danial Williams-were exonerated in 2016), VA: Contributing Factors-False Confession, Perjury or False Accusation, Official Misconduct.

Every one of these wrongful convictions involved either official misconduct or perjured testimony/false accusation, and eleven (84.6%) of them involved both.
Race and Official Misconduct in Homicide Cases
The National Registry of Exonerations report on Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States reveals that 87% of black death-row exonerees had been victims of official misconduct, as compared to 67% of white death-row exonerees. Official misconduct is among the most difficult and time-consuming of evidence to unearth, and so it is not surprising that the most recent exonerations-many of which have taken two decades or more-provide ever starker evidence of race effects. The NRE data shows that 20 of the last 21 wrongly condemned African Americans (95%) to have been exonerated were victims of official misconduct, as compared to 8 of the last twelve white death-row exonerees (67%).

The National Registry reports that these racial disparities are "for the most part" the product of police misconduct. The Registry reports "a modest difference" in prosecutorial misconduct rates by prosecutors in death-row exonerations, with prosecutorial misconduct present in 59% of death-row exonerations of African Americans, as compared to 53% of death-row exonerations of whites. However, it reported "a large difference in the rate of misconduct by police": 59% for black death-sentenced exonerees compared to 44% for whites. The Registry reports that "[t]he high rate of misconduct by police in murder cases with black defendants is reflected in the nature of the misconduct that occurs. Concealing exculpatory evidence, the most common type, is primarily a form of prosecutorial misconduct; there is relatively little difference in its frequency by race.... On the other hand, witness tampering is committed almost exclusively by police officers" and occurs nearly twice as frequently with black murder defendants.
Comparing Contributing Factors in Homicide Exonerations to Those in Other Types of Crime
Data from the National Registry shows that official misconduct and false confessions are far more prevalent in homicide exonerations than in exonerations for other types of crimes, and that, apart from child sexual abuse, homicide exonerations involve perjury or false accusation much more frequently than do exonerations in other types of cases. Mistaken eyewitness identifications and false or misleading forensic evidence are present to the same degree in homicide cases as is most other types of cases. The exception is exonerations in sexual assault cases, which have significantly higher rates of both mistaken identifications and false or misleading forensic evidence.
Footnotes
[1] The National Registry does not include in its exoneration database the three appellate acquittals of Florida death-row prisoners that occurred during this period. For inclusion in its exoneration database, NRE requires the subsequent discovery of evidence of innocence, which does not occur when a death-row prisoner's conviction is overturned and a retrial barred because the evidence was insufficient to convict in the first instance. The appellate acquittal itself is sufficient for inclusion on DPIC's exoneration list.

[2] Although no one who was sentenced to death was fully exonerated in 2016, the 2016 data from the National Registry for Exonerations included evidence of at least 13 cases that involved the wrongful use of the death penalty, either through wrongful capital prosecutions in which (1) defendants were convicted but avoided the death penalty at sentencing, (2) defendants gave false confessions to avoid facing the death penalty at trial, or (3) witnesses presented false testimony after being threatened that they or a loved one would face the death penalty if they did not cooperate with law enforcement.

-Robert Dunham, Executive Director (May 31, 2017)

Earlier Studies

Note: Nearly half of the cases included more than one reason for a wrongful conviction. Therefore the total of the cases in the chart equals more than 86.

In 2001, the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern Law School analyzed the cases of 86 death-row exonerees. They found a number of reasons why innocent people are wrongly convicted in capital cases. The reasons included:

eyewitness error - from confusion or faulty memory.
government misconduct - by both the police and the prosecution
junk science - mishandled evidence or use of unqualified "experts"
snitch testimony - often given in exchange for a reduction in sentence
false confessions - resulting from mental illness or retardation, as well as from police torture
other - hearsay, questionable circumstantial evidence, etc.

The Center for Wrongful Convictions report found that, among these earlier cases, eyewitness error was the most common factor in death-row exonerations.
Government Misconduct:
Convicting the Innocent: Aberration or Systemic Problem? by Rodney Uphoff, University of Missouri School of Law
" Exonerations in the United States, 1989 through 2003," by Samuel Gross, et al., Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 95, No. 2, 2005
Snitch Testimony:
Government Misconduct by the Innocence Project
Police Misconduct by the Center on Wrongful Convictions
Other:
The Snitch System by the Center on Wrongful Convictions
Incentivized Informants by the Innocence Project
Eyewitness Error:
Inadequate Defense by the Innocence Project
Junk Science:
Eyewitness Misidentification by the Innocence Project
Erroneous Eyewitness I.D. by the Center on Wrongful Convictions
False Confessions:
Forensic Science Misconduct by the Innocence Project
Unreliable and Limited Science by the Innocence Project
Informants/Snitches by the Innocence Project

False Confessions or Admissions by the Innocence Project
False Confessions by the Center on Wrongful Convictions

For National Registry of Exoneration information on the causes of conviction in cases involving exonerated former death-row prisoners, click here.

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DPIC Analysis: Causes of Wrongful Convictions

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Many factors contribute to wrongful convictions, and it is no different in capital cases. But the most recent data from the National Registry of Exonerations points to two factors as the most overwhelmingly prevalent causes of wrongful convictions in death penalty cases: official misconduct and perjury or false accusation.

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Use this resources to look up legal words you cannot define.

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ALM's Law.com online Real Life Dictionary of the Law. The easiest-to-read, most user-friendly guide to legal terms. Use it free!

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An extensive list of organizations that help combat wrongful convictions, with contact information.

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Cases Accepted Nationwide - associated with many regional projects. involve DNA evidence of innocence)

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Site for research

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The National Registry of Exonerations - Exoneration Registry

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Site for research

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KIP Home - Department of Public Advocacy

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Site for research

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Causes of Wrongful Convictions

The Michigan Innocence Clinic was the first clinic of its kind to work on non-DNA exonerations. Our work has revealed particular circumstances far too often seen in cases of wrongful conviction. These cases show us how the criminal justice system is in need of much repair and how the Michigan Innocence Clinic can combat troubling trends of the system. In each case we have worked on, we have uncovered overlapping causes of wrongful convictions.

Following are common causes¹ of wrongful convictions; these are not the only causes, however:

Eyewitness Misidentification Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide. Research shows that the human mind is not like a tape recorder; we neither record events exactly as we see them, nor recall them like a tape that has been rewound. Instead, witness memory is like any other evidence at a crime scene; it must be preserved carefully and retrieved methodically, or it can be contaminated.

Junk Science Many forensic testing methods have been applied with little or no scientific validation and with inadequate assessments of their significance or reliability. As a result, forensic analysts sometimes testify in cases without a proper scientific basis for their findings. And in some cases, forensic analysts have engaged in misconduct.

False Confessions In many cases, innocent defendants make incriminating statements, deliver outright confessions, or plead guilty. Regardless of the age, capacity, or state of the confessor, what they often have in common is a decision-at some point during the interrogation process-that confessing will be more beneficial to them than continuing to maintain their innocence.

Government Misconduct In some cases, government officials take steps to ensure that a defendant is convicted despite weak evidence or even clear proof of innocence.

Snitches Often, statements from people with incentives to testify-particularly incentives that are not disclosed to the jury-are the central evidence in convicting an innocent person. People have been wrongfully convicted in cases in which snitches are paid to testify or receive favors in return for their testimony.

Bad Lawyering The failure of overworked lawyers to investigate, call witnesses, or prepare for trial has led to the conviction of innocent people.

These factors are not the only causes of wrongful convictions. Each case is unique and many include a combination of issues.

¹Some content reproduced from The Innocence Project website.

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Causes of Wrongful Convictions The Michigan Innocence Clinic was the first clinic of its kind to work on non-DNA exonerations. Our work has revealed particular circumstances far too often seen in cases of wrongful conviction. These cases show us how the criminal justice system is in need of much repair and how the Michigan Innocence Clinic can combat troubling trends of the system.

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Site for research

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Center on Wrongful Convictions: Bluhm Legal Clinic, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

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The cause of criminal justice lost one of our greatest and most compassionate warriors. Jane was an incredible lawyer, a tenacious advocate for her clients, a revered mentor of law students and young lawyers, and an exceptionally loving and caring person. All who knew her will miss her beyond measure.

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Components and sample letter

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This resource covers the parts of the basic business letter and provides three sample business letters.

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Complete for peers

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60 Minutes video

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60 Minutes video, continued

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For Day 1 discussion

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The Hurricane (8/10) Movie CLIP - Take It to the Federal Court! (1999) HD

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The Hurricane movie clips: http://j.mp/15vNM9N BUY THE MOVIE: http://amzn.to/trwOw0 Don't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/1u2y6pr CLIP DESCRIPTION: Rubin (Denzel Washington) demands that his lawyers take his case to federal court, no matter what the consequences. FILM DESCRIPTION: In 1966, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter was a top-ranked middleweight boxer whom many fight fans expected to become world champion.

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For Day 1 discussion

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The Hurricane (9/10) Movie CLIP - Rubin's Final Plea (1999) HD

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The Hurricane movie clips: http://j.mp/15vNM9N BUY THE MOVIE: http://amzn.to/trwOw0 Don't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/1u2y6pr CLIP DESCRIPTION: Rubin (Denzel Washington) pleas with the Federal Judge (Rod Steiger) to stay true to justice and consider the evidence he's brought before the court.

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Print and video resources

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During the pasttwo decades, the Innocence Project and other advocates have been utilizing rapid advances in the scientific testing of genetic materials.

DNA testing of evidence in criminal cases has resulted in freedom for hundreds of prisoners across the United States who were wrongfully convicted.

Many of these prisoners spent years behind bars -- some even faced the death penalty -- for crimes they didn't commit.

Here are a few of the numbers behind these exonerations:

--Number of prisoners sentenced to death before DNA proved their innocence: 18

--Number of prisoners charged with capital crimes but not sentenced to death: 16

--Longest sentence served by a DNA exoneree: 35 years

--Average length of sentence served by DNA exonerees: 13.6 years

--Approximate total years served by all DNA exonerees: 4,156

--Average age of exonerees at the time of their wrongful convictions: 27

--Percentage of prisoners exonerated by DNA testing who are people of color: 70%

--Percentage of DNA exoneration cases where the actual perpetrator has been identified by DNA testing: Almost 50%

--Number of DNA exonerees who pleaded guilty to crimes they didn't commit: 29

--Number of DNA exonerations that involved the Innocence Project: 171

--Year of the first Innocence Project DNA exoneration: 1989

Note: Other exonerations were helped by Innocence Network organizations, private attorneys and by pro se defendants, according to the Innocence Project.

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exonerated: an innocence project fact sheet - cnn.com

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Exonerated: An Innocence Project fact sheet - CNN.com

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During the pasttwo decades, the Innocence Project and other advocates have been utilizing rapid advances in the scientific testing of genetic materials. DNA testing of evidence in criminal cases has resulted in freedom for hundreds of prisoners across the United States who were wrongfully convicted.

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Free at Last: Five Headline-Making Exonerations

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Free at Last: Five Headline-Making Exonerations

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Print and video resources

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The exact number of exonerated American prisoners is unknown. But data gathered by university law schools indicates it's more than 2,000. Fascinating details surrounding some of these exonerations set them apart from the rest. Here are five recent exonerations that made headlines.

The subject of a CNN film, Michael Morton wasn't home when his wife, Christine, was beaten to death in front of their 3-year-old son at their Austin, Texas-area home in 1986. But a prosecutor said the evidence suggested otherwise. The problem was, the jury was prevented from hearing all the evidence in the case.

Wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, a team of loyal supporters and DNA evidence helped Morton win his freedom in 2011. Last month, Morton's former prosecutor pleaded no contest to a court order to show cause regarding evidence that was not used in the trial.

2. Brian Banks and the incredible twist

At age 17, fearing a potentially long sentence, college football hopeful Brian Banks followed the advice of his attorney and pleaded no contest to assaulting a Long Beach, California, high school classmate in 2002.

Banks maintained his innocence throughout nearly six years of imprisonment, subsequent probation and registration as a sex offender.

But in 2011, the case took an incredible twist when the alleged victim sent Banks a Facebook friend request.

According to the California Innocence Project, the woman later admitted that Banks had not kidnapped or raped her during a consensual encounter at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, where Banks was a middle linebacker with a scholarship offer from the University of Southern California.

3. Douglas Prade and the bite marks

In 1997, former Akron, Ohio, police captain Douglas Prade was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife, Margo Prade, a popular doctor. Her gunshot-riddled body was found in her vehicle in her office parking lot.

No murder weapon was found and prosecutors produced no witnesses to the killing. The main evidence against Prade was a bite mark on the victim's arm and lab coat that a prosecution expert matched to Prade's teeth.

DNA tests conducted at the time were inconclusive.

With help from the University of Cincinnati's Innocence Project, Prade appealed the conviction. In 2010, Prade won an Ohio Supreme Court ruling that allowed retesting of DNA evidence using newer methods. When the results came back, none of the DNA evidence could be matched to Prade.

4. Clarence Harrison and the wristwatch

If police had never heard about a wristwatch that Clarence Harrison had for sale, perhaps he never would have been wrongly convicted of rape. He never would have lost 17 years serving time in a Georgia prison.

In 1986 a woman was raped and her wristwatch was stolen, according to the Innocence Project. Neighbors told police that Harrison lived near the victim and that he had a wristwatch for sale. Police searched Harrison's home and didn't find the watch. But the victim identified Harrison in a photo lineup as her attacker. Blood tests pointed to Harrison as the possible attacker. But the testing was incorrect, the Innocence Project later said.

It wasn't until 2004 that DNA testing proved Harrison could not have committed the crime. Harrison was freed.

5. James Bain, longest serving exoneree

Of the hundreds of U.S. prisoners exonerated by DNA tests, none has served more time behind bars than James Bain, according to the Innocence Project. Now free, Bain will never regain the 35 years he spent in Florida's prison system.

In 1974, a 9-year-old boy was taken from his bedroom and raped on a baseball field in Lake Wales, Florida. The boy later told police his attacker had bushy sideburns and a mustache. After being shown five photos of potential suspects, the victim picked out a photo of Bain, according to a police report.

Bain was 19 when he was convicted on charges of kidnapping, burglary and strong-arm rape. He received a life sentence.

In 2001, Florida passed a statute allowing cases to be reopened for DNA testing. Four times Bain submitted handwritten motions seeking such testing. Each time he was denied. After an appeals court ruled he was entitled to a hearing, Bain's fifth motion was successful. Finally, after DNA testing proved negative, Bain was set free in 2009.

He was 54 years old.

"I'm not angry," Bain told reporters.

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five headline-making exonerations of wrongly convicted prisoners - cnn.com

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Five headline-making exonerations of wrongly convicted prisoners - CNN.com

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The exact number of exonerated American prisoners is unknown. But data gathered by university law schools indicates it's more than 2,000. Fascinating details surrounding some of these exonerations set them apart from the rest. Here are five recent exonerations that made headlines.

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Print and video resources

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The rate of criminal exonerations in America is at a record high.

But experts say that, in many instances, these cases are getting harder and harder to litigate because so many of them now stem from cases that lack concrete DNA evidence.

According to the nation's largest database on wrongful convictions, while DNA evidence accounted for nearly 40 percent of all exonerations a decade ago, much has changed. In 2015, DNA evidence played a role in less than one-fifth of cases where sentences were overturned.

As a result, the focus of many defense attorneys and advocacy groups has shifted in recent years from DNA analysis to debunking decades-old investigative tactics, such as bite mark analysis and forced confessions.

Professor Richard Leo at the University of San Francisco School of Law said this decline in the prevalence of DNA-based exonerations comes as no surprise.

"Now, if there is biological evidence to be tested, it's used in the pretrial stage," he said.

The focus on overturning old-school forensics is part of what Justin Brooks, director of the California Innocence Project, calls the "second wave" in the fight to overturn wrongful convictions.

"First was the slam-dunk DNA cases; those opened the door to all this other stuff," Brooks said. "Courts are now open to the conversation and are more willing to grant cases. That just wasn't true 20 years ago."

First was the slam-dunk DNA cases; those opened the door to all this other stuff. Courts are now open to the conversation and are more willing to grant cases. That just wasn't true 20 years ago.

Justin Brooks, director of the California Innocence Project

Brooks said that while this massive shift toward non-DNA exonerations has provided his advocacy group and others like it new opportunities to prove clients' innocence, a lack of "slam-dunk" DNA evidence makes overcoming the burden of proof a very difficult task.

"The biggest challenge is ... you can show that the evidence is faulty, but it doesn't necessarily knock the case out completely," he said. "We don't know definitively that the person is innocent."

Indeed, according to a 2009 report released by the National Academy of Sciences, researchers have found that DNA is the only type of evidence that can consistently and confidently connect specific individuals to crimes or prove innocence. More generally, they found that laboratory-based methods like DNA and fingerprint analysis are more reliable than on-scene techniques such as fire analysis.

EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM

Despite this, Brooks said his organization and other innocence projects across the country take rigorous steps to prove that their clients involved in non-DNA cases are truly not guilty.

Of the 1,500 convictions the California Innocence Project is asked to consider each year, Brooks said he and his colleagues take on only about 50, and are successful in overturning just one or two.

"We only take the cases where we're 100 percent sure that they're innocent and we're 100 percent sure that we can prove it," he said.

Leo said that while some of the non-DNA exonerees could be guilty, he largely agrees with Brooks' assessment that the justice system is not opening the door to a huge influx of genuine criminals being released from prison.

According to Leo, the far greater issue at hand is that the convictions that have been overturned in the past few decades are only the beginning.

"People who are exonerated are the tip of a much larger iceberg," he said.

Large jurisdictions often have a single forensics lab, which are not always accredited. And there's the "CSI effect," in which jurors sometimes expect more certainty from forensics than can be achieved and place more confidence in the testimony of experts than they should.

Due to problems like these, a couple of forensic scientists acting in bad faith can put thousands of people in prison.

Walter Rowe, a professor of forensic sciences at George Washington University, called the late Fred Zain, a forensic technician who provided evidence against hundreds of people in West Virginia and then Bexar County, Texas, the "worst perjuror in the history of Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence," before correcting himself and saying Annie Dookhan, a Massachusetts chemist who falsified evidence in tens of thousands of cases, overtook him.

Zain died in 2002; Dookhan was released from prison this spring after serving time on charges related to tampering with evidence.

DNA analysis can also point to the wrong person, if the sample is contaminated by the analysts or if third-party DNA is present for innocent reasons, said Rowe.

EDITORS: END OPTIONAL TRIM

DNA remains the gold standard of forensic techniques. However, here are a just a few of the most flawed tactics and types of evidence that have contributed to the latest spike in exonerations as science has proved these techniques far from reliable.

Bite Marks

The evidence: Until about two decades ago, bite mark evidence was regularly used in courtrooms across the country and thought to be near infallible.

The problem: Forensic scientists have since discovered bite marks to be far less reliable in linking specific individuals to crimes. Brooks said this is because bite marks can be mistaken for other injuries, they deform over time, and their analysis is extremely subjective to the person who examines them. It is still used today, but its reliability is much more disputed.

"There's a real problem here," said Rowe. "Someone really needs to direct the research to test it."

EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM

A case: Brooks noted the conviction of William Richards of San Bernardino, Calif., exonerated in June with help from Brooks and the innocence project. Richards, now 66, was handed a sentence of 25 years to life in 1997 in his wife's slaying, after a so-called bite mark expert testified that the teeth marks found on the woman's body could have come from 1-2 percent of the American public, Richards included. The expert has since completely reversed his position and now says that Richards could not possibly have left the bite mark.

EDITORS: END OPTIONAL TRIM

Fire Analysis

The evidence: Until fairly recently, Brooks said fire investigators based their beliefs on whether or not a fire was started intentionally on intuition and personal experience rather than scientific evidence.

The problem: Often times, these "fire experts," which Brooks said in many cases were simply glorified firefighters, erroneously believed that signs like the occurrence of multiple points of ignition directly pointed to arson.

"They are probably the most poorly trained of all the people who investigate criminal activity," said Rowe. "Most of what they do is basically folklore or guesswork, especially point-of-origin investigation." This means people might have spent decades in prison in cases that involved no crime at all because a natural fire was mistaken for arson.

Richard Meier, director of the National Association of Fire Investigators and a fire investigator in Sarasota, Florida, said there were no standards or certifications at all until the 1980s, and even today many fire investigators do not follow those standards. As an example, he said, "fire patterns" that some believe indicate the use of accelerants often mean nothing at all or might even be evidence against arson.

EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM

A case: Brooks said this tactic was used to convict JoAnn Parks of killing her three children by setting her Los Angeles home ablaze over 25 years ago. An arson review panel took a second look at Parks' case in 2011 and found that the fire in her home likely "jumped" from its original spot of ignition to her children's bedroom and none of the evidence used to convict her would hold up in court today. The California Innocence Project is currently working to free her.

EDITORS: END OPTIONAL TRIM

Forced Confessions

The evidence: It wasn't long ago that a confession was considered the absolute gold standard for criminal prosecutions. Few judges or jurors could possibly fathom why a person would confess to a crime he or she didn't commit.

The problem: A record number of exonerations recorded by the National Registry of exonerations last year resulted from false confessions. In 2015, 13 out of 22 victims of false convictions in homicide cases were both under 18 and mentally handicapped to some degree. But it was a case that occurred over 40 years ago that set a major precedent for overturning these kinds of convictions.

EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM

A case: In the fall of 1973, 18-year-old Peter Reilly was accused of brutally murdering his mother in their rural Connecticut home. After an intense police interrogation that lasted about 10 hours, he was led to confess to the crime. "I was so exhausted, I basically started saying the things they wanted me to say," Reilly said in a recent interview with McClatchy. Official misconduct also played a large role in Reilly's conviction. The teen spent four and a half months in jail before it was revealed that the lead prosecutor and detectives who had worked to convict him had concealed vital evidence that proved his innocence.

Related issues: Data from the National Registry of exonerations show that more than half of all the exonerations it recorded in 2015 involved perjury, official misconduct or a combination of the two. Mistaken eyewitness identification was one of the leading factors behind the increasing rate of exonerations until about five years ago, when its use flatlined in much the same way as DNA's did.

EDITORS: END OPTIONAL TRIM

Megan Henney and Eleanor Mueller contributed to this article.

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Exonerations in America are at a record high, but not because of DNA

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In the late 1980s, the use of DNA evidence in criminal investigations set the stage for a wave of exonerations in the United States. Armed with this new tool, attorneys and advocacy groups from across the country were able to overturn hundreds of convictions.

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The problem is, she didn't do it. In March, a judge ruled the Arizona woman innocent and dismissed all the charges against her.

Milke's case is one of a record 149 known exonerations in the United States and its territories in 2015, according to a Wednesday report from the National Registry of Exonerations at the University of Michigan Law School. On average, the exonerated defendants had served more than 14 years in prison.

Exonerations are now common, the report says.

"Not long ago, any exoneration we heard about was major news. Now it's a familiar story," it says. "We average nearly three exonerations a week, and most get little attention."

Homicides and drug cases made up more than two-thirds of the total.

The reasons for the exonerations are varied. Many involved official misconduct or cases in which defendants pleaded guilty, and some involved false confessions. But half were cases in which no crime occurred, according to the report.

Although a record number, the cases are a mere fraction of the millions of arrests made each year in the United States.

FBI crime statistics show an average of 12 million arrests per year from 2010 to 2014. The number of arrests is on a downward trend, as is violent crime over the five-year period.

The report attributes the growing number of exonerations to the growing use of conviction integrity units, which work to "prevent, identify and correct false convictions."

Still, the report calls the exonerated cases a "drop in the bucket." The registry has accounted for all known exonerations since 1989.

"By any reasonable accounting, there are tens of thousands of false convictions each year across the country, and many more that have accumulated over the decades," the report says.

"We've made a start, but that's all."

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report: exonerated cases in u.s. set record - cnn.com

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Report: Exonerated cases in U.S. set record

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The problem is, she didn't do it. In March, a judge ruled the Arizona woman innocent and dismissed all the charges against her. Milke's case is one of a record 149 known exonerations in the United States and its territories in 2015, according to a Wednesday report from the National Registry of Exonerations at the University of Michigan Law School.

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Murder Cases Often Go Cold After Exonerations

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Murder Cases Often Go Cold After Exonerations

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DNA technology has exposed nearly 150 murder cases involving faulty or wrongful convictions nationwide - including several in Wisconsin - but in a high percentage of crimes involving exonerations, the real killer evades justice.

A data analysis by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin found that about seven in 10 murder cases involving a DNA-related exoneration are unsolved, despite the availability of forensic evidence from crime scenes that likely belongs to the killer or killers.

Related: Sisters' murders unsolved years after killer's DNA freed woman

Of the approximately 145 murder prosecutions that involved a DNA exoneration, charges were subsequently filed against an alternative suspect in only about 40 cases. In at least 15 cases, DNA connected the murder to someone who had committed suicide to avoid being arrested, or died another way, the analysis revealed.

Ray Krone, left, and his attorney Alan Simpson talk with the media after a judge dismissed charges of murder against Krone, Monday, April 29, 2002, at Superior Court in Mesa, Ariz. Krone spent 10 years in prison for the murder of Kim Ancona until DNA tests proved his innocence. Krone will return to his home on Pennsylvania on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Heidi Huber) (Photo: HEIDI HUBER, AP)

If police don't find an immediate match in criminal DNA databases in the wake of exonerations, there's a tendency to put those cases on the back burner, said experts in wrongful convictions..

"There are cases that law enforcement do take the initiative to follow up on the new leads, but in many, many, cases they still don't want to admit that they made a mistake," said Jim Trainum, a retired Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police homicide detective.

Jensie Anderson, legal director at the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center, said it's crucial for murder victims and their families that police don't walk away from wrongful conviction cases.

"It serves society and the public interest in making sure our streets are safe," she said.

It's been 13 years since Anderson's organization won a DNA exoneration for Bruce Dallas Goodman. He was unjustly imprisoned for 20 years for the 1984 rape and murder of Sherry Ann Williams. Her body turned up near Interstate 15, about 200 miles south of Salt Lake City.

In 2004, DNA testing on the rape kit taken from the victim excluded Goodman's DNA. The samples came from two unknown perpetrators, Anderson said. Goodman was set free, but didn't live long enough to see his name cleared. In November 2014, a decade after his murder conviction was overturned, he suffered a massive heart attack and died a week later. In 2015, Utah issued a belated formal certificate of innocence and agreed to pay his relatives $100,000 as reparation for his mistaken conviction.

RELATED: Double-murder case languishes despite DNA

Bruce Dallas Goodman lost 20 years to a wrongful conviction in the 1984 murder of Sherry Ann Williams, whose body was found in Beaver, Utah. Goodman died in 2014 after suffering a heart attack. (Photo: Rocky Mountain Innocence Center)

The Beaver County Sheriff's Department in rural Utah has yet to arrest the true killers. Two siblings of Sherry Ann Williams told USA TODAY NETWORK that they don't have much faith that Utah's justice system will apprehend her attacker.

"I think it would be fantastic if they could find the actual person," said Williams' brother, Art Fales. "(But) this crime happened 33 years ago. That's a long time, but I promise, whoever was there, there's no way anybody will ever forget what happened that night. There's no way."

A similar theme has developed in Wisconsin surrounding the murders of Ann Cadigan, 90, and her sister Cecilia Cadigan, 85. Their bodies were found Nov. 16, 1991 in their secluded farmhouse about 20 miles east of Green Bay.

Nov. 16, 1991. 90-year-old Ann Cadigan and her 85-year-old sister Cecilia Cadigan were murdered in their rural Kewaunee County home. (Photo: Beth LaBatte, Trial Exhibit)

In May 2005, newly discovered DNA evidence proved that Beth LaBatte, the Green Bay woman tried and convicted for the slayings, was innocent, and she was released from prison. Despite having several clues that contain the unknown male killer's DNA, the Kewaunee County Sheriff's Department investigation is inactive.

"I took office in 2007, so since my time as sheriff the files have been pretty much secured (and) we have had very little movement," Sheriff Matt Joski said earlier this month. "At this point, we rely on technology. ... Back when the offense occurred, nobody heard of DNA. Of course, that became a huge part of the puzzle."

But waiting for a DNA hit in the FBI's criminal offender database hasn't yielded a suspect. Trainum, the retired homicide detective, said the best approach is an aggressive one.

"You need to go back and talk to these people who were original suspects and try to get their DNA," he said. "In a large number of murder cases, the suspect's name is someone who was already in the case file but a link was never made. That's why it pays to go back."

The National Registry of Exonerations' database identifies seven Wisconsin murder convictions that were overturned through DNA evidence.

However, media accounts indicate that only two have led to charges against an alternative suspect.

In 2012, Moses Price Jr., was charged with the 1984 slaying of Ione Cychosz, a 63-year-old woman found near a vacant lot behind her Milwaukee residence after Price's DNA was found on the victim's clothes, according to the Innocence Project. Another Milwaukee man spent 23 years wrongfully imprisoned for the crime, until proving his innocence in 2009.

Walter E. Ellis, a serial killer who terrorized Milwaukee's north side, was linked to the 1998 slaying of Maryetta Griffin. DNA testing also connected Ellis to another wrongful conviction murder case: the 1995 death of 16-year-old Jessica Payne. However, Ellis was never prosecuted for that crime and, in 2013, died in prison.

Wisconsin's other DNA exoneration murder cases include:

The 1980 strangulation of University of Wisconsin-Madison student Charise Kamps, 19, in a downtown Madison apartment. The perpetrator of that crime is believed by authorities to have died in 2005.

The 2000 homicide of Kathleen Thompson, 38, in Eau Claire.

The 2010 shooting of 29-year-old Bryan Drake in a parking lot near a Milwaukee bar.

Trainum isn't surprised that there's an abundance of open and unsolved murder cases involving DNA evidence in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

"On one hand, there is a reluctance to admit a mistake," he said. "Even if there are times when the DNA proves that somebody else committed the crime, some prosecutors fight tooth and nail. There's an attitude that once the jury verdict comes back, that's it.

"They want it to be final."
John Ferak of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin: 920-993-7115 or jferak@gannett.com; on Twitter @johnferak
Read or Share this story: http://post.cr/2rujnU6

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Murder cases often go cold after exonerations

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