-Caveat Lector-
http://www.msnbc.com/news/759910.asp?pne=11947&0ct=-300
Eleven hundred years in prison
For 110 inmates freed by DNA tests, freedom remains elusive
By Sharon Cohen and Deborah Hastings
ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 2 — Their time in prison surpassed 1,100 years, and all were
wrongly convicted. Then they returned to lives that had passed them
by. An Associated Press examination of what happened to 110
inmates after their convictions were overturned by DNA tests found
that, for many of the men, vindication brought neither happy ending
nor happy beginning.
“IT DESTROYED MY FAMILY,” says Vincent Moto, unjustly
convicted of rape and imprisoned for 10½ years in Pennsylvania.
Moto, a 39-year-old father of four, survives on odd jobs, welfare
and food stamps.
“I have to live with these scars all my life,” he says.
Richard Danziger is even less fortunate.
Wrongly convicted of rape and sentenced to life, he suffered
permanent brain damage when his head was bashed in by another
inmate. Danziger was released in 2001 after he served 11 years in
Texas.
Now, at age 31, he lives with his sister, Barbara Oakley.
“He basically gets up, watches TV, goes to the park, and that’s
the extent of his day,” she says.
In reviewing the cases of the 110, all men, The AP found:
About half had no previous adult convictions, according to legal
records and the inmates’ attorneys. While some were picked up for
questioning because they were known to police, many had never
been in trouble before.
Eleven of the men served time on death row; two came within days
of execution.
Slightly more than a third have received compensation, mainly
through state claims. Some have received settlements from civil
lawsuits or special legislative bills. For others, claims or suits are
pending; and some had lawsuits thrown out or haven’t decided
whether to seek money.
The men averaged 10½ years behind bars. The shortest wrongful
incarceration was one year; the longest, 22 years. Altogether, the
110 men spent 1,149 years in prison.
Their imprisonment came during critical wage-earning years when
careers and families are built. The average age entering prison was
28. Leaving, it was 38.
Their convictions follow certain patterns. Nearly two-thirds were
convicted with mistaken testimony from victims and eyewitnesses.
About 14 percent were imprisoned after mistakes or alleged
misconduct by forensics experts. Nine were mentally retarded or
borderline retarded and confessed, they said, after being tricked or
coerced by authorities.
Finally freed — by determined lawyers or their own
perseverance — the men were dumped back into society as
abruptly as they were plucked out. Often, they were not entitled to
the help, such as parole officers, given to those rightfully convicted.
“The people who come out of this are often very, very severely
damaged human beings who often don’t ever fully recover,” says
Rob Warden, executive director of Northwestern University School
of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions.
“Lightning strikes, they come out,” he says, “and they’re in bad,
bad shape.”
ALL WALKS OF LIFE
They represent many walks of life — a homeless panhandler, a
therapist, a junkie, a mushroom picker, a handyman, a crab
fisherman — but almost all were working-class or poor.
Of the cases reviewed by the AP, about two-thirds involved
black or Hispanic inmates, roughly reflecting state prison
populations’ racial makeup.
“All of these people have a certain vulnerability. It may be race,
class, mental health issues or personality problems,” says Peter
Neufeld, who co-founded The Innocence Project with attorney Barry
Scheck at the Cardozo School of Law in New York.
About 60 percent of the men were helped by the 10-year-old
legal assistance program. The project’s first DNA releases came in
1989.
“They sort of get caught in this Kafkaesque vortex,” Neufeld
adds, “and the rest is history.”
David Vasquez of Virginia, for example.
The 55-year-old man was mistakenly identified by a witness
who said he was lurking outside the home of a woman later found
raped and murdered.
Vasquez, who is borderline retarded, confessed. Four years
after his conviction, DNA testing identified the real killer, a serial
rapist.
“They destroyed his life and mine,” says Vasquez’s mother,
Imelda Shapiro, beginning to weep. “We can’t afford to go out, and
I’m afraid to go out.”
TIP OF THE ICEBERG
A team of AP reporters identified 110 cases through late May in
which convictions were overturned because of DNA testing. Several
other cases were pending.
Most of the 110 men had been convicted of rape; 24 were
found guilty of rape and murder, six of murder only.
Legal experts differ on who these men represent.
Neufeld says they’re the tip of the iceberg.
But John Wilson, who heads a state crime lab in Missouri and
has testified as a DNA expert in criminal trials, doubts Neufeld’s
point. He also says widely available DNA testing has made wrongful
convictions less likely in recent years.
“The fact is, the majority of the time, the cops are right. It is the
right guy,” Wilson says.
Some of the men whose cases the AP looked into had criminal
records. At least seven had previous convictions for sex crimes.
Since being released, 11 have been convicted of new offenses; nine
of them were sentenced to prison.
Though genetic testing helped Albert Wesley Brown win release
from an Oklahoma prison last year, he now admits he murdered a
67-year-old man.
Trial testimony claimed Brown’s hair matched samples taken
from the victim. But DNA tests later showed they didn’t. As
prosecutors prepared to retry him this spring, he pleaded guilty in
exchange for a sentence of time served, which was 18 years.
(
*Retry him after DNA proved him innocent? Faced with a DA like
that I probably would have done the same, rather than face
potentially rigged evidence and the probability of going back to
prison. kl)
SUCCESS STORIES, FAILURE STORIES
Exonerations have kept pace with the availability of genetic testing.
The Innocence Project reported 23 men were cleared last year by
DNA, compared with six in 1992.
Other men have been successful.
Mark Bravo graduated from a California law school and plans to
start a foundation for people like him. Anthony Robinson just
finished his first year as a law student in Texas. Timothy Durham
helps run his family’s Oklahoma electronics business.
Four men have died: two from cancer, one from a heroin
overdose, and one in a freak accident: Kenneth Waters fell from a
15-foot wall and fatally fractured his skull while walking to his
brother’s Massachusetts home.
Exonerations have kept pace with the availability of genetic
testing. The Innocence Project reported 23 men were cleared last
year by DNA, compared with six in 1992.
The increase has prompted legislation allowing inmates access
to DNA testing. Twenty-five states now have such laws, most
passed in the last three years, says Nina Morrison, the project’s
executive director.
Meanwhile, the number of inmates asking for genetic analysis
grows. The Innocence Project says it has 4,000 requests.
The biggest problem, Neufeld says, is racing against time.
In three-quarters of the Innocence Project’s cases, physical
evidence such as hair or blood has been lost, misplaced or
destroyed. During a criminal trial, the disappearance of evidence
can mean acquittal. After conviction, it can mean losing all chances
to prove one’s innocence.
COTTON SWAB OF FREEDOM
When lawyers for Marvin Anderson wanted DNA analysis in
1993, they were told the evidence against him had been destroyed.
But a swab containing genetic material was later found, taped to the
inside of a lab technician’s notebook.
It proved Anderson was not guilty — though not everyone was
convinced.
“Some people look at me like I’m guilty,” he says. “It’s hard
finding a job. No one hires a person convicted of rape.”
Five years after his exoneration, Anderson is a trucker, scraping
by on between $200 and $400 a week.
Some of the freed men say they cannot work because of post-
traumatic stress syndrome, depression or physical handicaps. Of 29
who are working and told the AP their income, the average weekly
earnings were $438.
Steven Toney, a shuttle bus driver in Missouri, earns slightly
more than minimum wage. He has tried for better-paying jobs, but
says no one will hire him.
“How many are going to come out and say, ’I’m not hiring you
because you were incarcerated’?” he asks. “But I don’t get the call.”
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