Wednesday, December 19, 2007

State is at a crossroads for improving criminal justice

December 19, 2007

By Stephen Saloom, Ruthland Harald

In the next few days, leading experts from across Vermont will release recommendations on how to improve the state's criminal justice system by preventing wrongful convictions.

The proposals developed by these experts have the potential to make the state's system of justice stronger and more accurate. If they take this opportunity to strengthen public safety and protect innocent people from wrongful convictions — instead of protecting the status quo — they will have fulfilled their mission as outlined by the state Legislature.

The experts' work stems from a groundbreaking package of reforms the state Legislature passed earlier this year. I testified in support of these bills, along with a Massachusetts man who was wrongfully convicted of three rapes and served 19 years in prison before DNA proved his innocence.

To prevent such miscarriages of justice — and to advance public safety by making sure true perpetrators of crimes are apprehended — the legislation created expert task forces to determine how to prevent eyewitness misidentification and false confessions, two of the leading causes of wrongful convictions. It also created a task force to determine how to best preserve biological evidence (which can later be subjected to DNA testing) and passed a new law providing convicted people with access to DNA testing when it could demonstrate their innocence.

Together, these bills begin to put Vermont in line with other states that are taking critical, concrete steps that are proven to address and prevent wrongful convictions. But the legislation was just the first step; the next critical phase for improving the state's criminal justice system will come with task force recommendations.

The stakes are high, as illustrated by the 209 post-conviction DNA exonerations nationwide. Each of these cases represents a personal tragedy but, as importantly, each provides an opportunity to understand what in the criminal investigation process causes police, prosecutors and juries to believe that an innocent person is guilty of a crime he did not commit. By reviewing these cases, the Innocence Project has learned what causes wrongful convictions. Eyewitness misidentification was a factor in 75 percent of those cases; false confessions or admissions contributed to 25 percent of them.

Many cities and states have already implemented simple reforms that are proven to decrease wrongful convictions, and the task forces developing recommendations for Vermont can learn from other states' experiences.

The Eyewitness Identification and Recording of Interrogations task force has reviewed information from jurisdictions nationwide that are already using eyewitness identification procedures that minimize incorrect identifications. They've learned about the 500 jurisdictions across the country that record interrogations to prevent false confessions or admissions. The task force has also seen volumes of strong scientific research showing that these reforms are effective. Perhaps most importantly, the task force members have learned that cities and states that have adopted these simple, straight-forward reforms are extremely pleased with how they are working.

Meanwhile, the Preservation of Evidence task force is learning how innocent people can be exonerated — and "cold" cases can be solved — through common-sense changes in procedures. Federal legislation championed by U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy in recent years has led other states to preserve biological evidence and provide statutory access to post-conviction DNA testing. Under this federal legislation, Vermont will qualify for federal grant funds — if the task forces develop strong recommendations.

There is solid support for improving Vermont's criminal justice system. The legislation that passed earlier this year was spearheaded by the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, and Jane Woodruff of the Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs is leading both of the task forces looking closely at how to best address these issues.

Since the task forces were formed, five more innocent people have been exonerated through DNA evidence. The state Legislature and the task forces are positioned to prevent such injustice in Vermont. The opportunity to enhance the state's criminal justice system is in their hands. In the next few days, we'll find out what they choose to do with it.

Stephen Saloom is the policy director at the Innocence Project, a national litigation and public policy organization that uses DNA to exonerate wrongfully convicted people and pursues criminal justice reforms to prevent future injustice.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have enjoyed reading this posting
and invite all your readers to also view with any Google or Yahoo WWW search ( Manny Gonzales the kid that everyone forgot in the Ca prison system)for a judicial horror that is reflective of exactly how thousands of other mostly uneducated poor prison inmates are being enslaved in our national prisons from coast to coast.President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has been asked on this WWW site with a formal written request to finance the federal appeal attorney fees for this kid Manny Gonzalez to have a realistic chance of winning his retrial.
Hundreds of comments from other Americans concerning this injustice that the US Congress has neglected in correcting are very enlightening and also very informative.

Anonymous said...

How come the American public has never heard of this oversight of legal protection by the US Congress concerning US poor prison inmates?Our US media reported on Burma,
Venezuela,Iran and others who attempt to violate rights of their citizens,but have never to my knowledge have ever uttered a word about our own injustices concerning this issue of prolonged prison incarceration. I read on the WWW that this person named Manny Gonzales went to prison when he was 17 years old and now is being forced to write his own federal appeal from prison without any legal skills? Who could ever expect that this is called justice? The US Congress is now faced with
foreign outside world leaders possibly getting involved financing US prison inmates in our
judicial system and our country will have no excuses to really explain this injustice!

Anonymous said...

I read a great story on the WWW that the LA times just recently published in their Sunday Editorial section.The OP-ED piece was written by Joe Domanick and titled prisoners of panic.This man I think hit the nail on the head with this informative insight on the CA and US prison systems.This kid Manny Gonzales that the previous comments talked about seems to have gotten caught into some exact kind of political posturing situation that Joe domanick talks about.If this Gonzales kid does receive fibnancial assistance from President Hugo chavez on his federal appeal retrial review case,
then I'm sure the California political leaders will be forced to come to grips with equal judicial representation for their
poor prison inmates concerning their federal appeals.

Anonymous said...

The prison experts are reporting that there are 100,000 innocent American currently being falsely incarcerated in US prisons nationwide.By the Congress denying
these innocent citizens proper legfal representation for their opportunities at receiving retrials
on their criminal legal cases,they have effectively shut the door for them to exonerate themselves.This facade of an appeal procedured where wealthy Americans with their own private lawyers being capable of gaining new retrials and poor and mostly uneducated prison inmates being denied in mass nationwide with their own attempted representation of their federal appeals needs media exposure.The Federal Appeal Judicial process was never created to only accomadate wealthy citizens
and this injustice should be corrected if our government wants to continue calling our form of democracy equal for all.

Anonymous said...

No American ever thought our judicial system could be a perfect one,but to allow 100,000
innocent Americans to remain in our US prisons for decades without even offering them federal appeal legal counsel for their possible retrial criminal cases,is
not in my opinion how the American public views our Democracy.If this federal appeal judicial procedure was created for all Americans to benefit from,then our US Congress
should afford all poor prison inmates equal protection under the law with their opportunities to be granted new trials with proper legal representation.Besides the federal appeal judicial process is financed by all the American taxpayers!

Anonymous said...

First The Black Americans,and now also the Hispanic Americans!


The most devious and deceptive means to keep certain groups of Americans falsely imprisoned,is to simply deny them Fedeal Appeal Legal Counsel! Black Americans have been dealing with this 100+ year old injustice ever since Southern Sates falsely imprisoned
thousands of them in Americas dark past. Poor American prison inmates with little educational skills being forced to submit their own federal appeal legal cases,has turned out to become the longest continued injustice in the American Judicial System!
Quietly falsely incarcerating 100,000 innocent American prison inmates nationwide could only be accomplished with either the neglect or cooperation of the National US Media!

Anonymous said...

WHEN THE INNOCENT ARE ABANDONED BY THE GUILTY !

What kind of Judea Christian values are we demonstrating to the rest of the world when our national prisons have a reported 100,000 innocent and falsely imprisoned inmates that can not find one American political leader or National Media source willing to take the high road on fighting for justice and equality within our federal appeal judicial process ? Great societies that do not protect even their innocent, become the guilty !

Anonymous said...

This American judicial policy of denying our poorer American citizens federal appeal lawyers stinks of injustice as far as I'm concerned!
It amounts to modern day enslavement for the reported 100,000 innocent prison inmates who may just not happen to have an extra $50,000 laying around to defend themselves! What happened to Americas leaders and national media with this decades old unjust form of keeping the poor folks down?

Anonymous said...

How could such a great country like ours become so callous towards the mass of innocent prison inmates who are being falsely incarcerated in our US prisons nationwide? It's not as if we do not hear about these new situations every week where another innocent inmate is being released after 25 years in our prison system?

Anonymous said...

When the legally unprotected innocent poor Americans are continuing to be falsely imprisoned,and our wise Congressional Leaders Of The Free World do not seem even remotely interested in lifting a finger to abate this injustice,then it might just be the proper time for the Pope to visit the UNITED NATIONS and speak about this horror, so the rest of the world can be made aware that human enslavement can happen even here, in the richest nation in the world!

Anonymous said...

If our elected Leaders Of The Free World are not caring enough or bright enough to be capable of designing a new Federal Appeal Judicial process for the masses of middle class and working poor Americans to be able to properly utilize for fair and just opportunities of receiving retrials granted them from our US Federal Court appeal Judges,then our advanced society has not learned very well from the situation the German population faced prior WW2.
Falsely imprisoning 100,000 innocent fellow American citizens without even a peep from the American people or the National Media might be just the start down that very slippery slope!

Anonymous said...

The prison experts have reported that there are 100,000 innocent Americans currently being falsely imprisoned along with the 2,300,000 total US prison population nationwide. Since our US Congress has never afforded poor prison inmates federal appeal legal counsel for their federal retrials,they have effectively closed the doors on these tens of thousands of innocent citizens ever being capable of possibly exonerating themselves and regain their freedom through being granted new retrials. This same exact unjust situation was happening in our Southern States when poor and mostly uneducated black Americans were being falsely imprisoned for endless decades without the needed educational skills to properly submit their own written federal retrial appeals. This unjust judicial process of making our poor and innocent prison inmates formulate and write their own federal appeal legal cases for possible retrials on their state criminal cases,is still in effect today even though everyone in our US judicial system knows that without proper legal representation, these tens of thousands of innocent prison inmates will be denied their rightful opportunities of ever being granted new trials from our federal appeal judges .

Anonymous said...

What we have here in this Manny Gonzales criminal case is a jury, judge and DA taking care of their communities safety from gangs in a typical vigilante hang him high process. The presiding judge tells both attorneys (defense and prosecution ) prior the trial that this specific case is not gang related and advises the DA to instruct their witnesses not to mention or insinuate gang association information to the jury. At this point in this trial the presiding judge is aware of and protective of the defendants rights to a fair trial, knowing darn well that if a LA jury is lead to believe ( rightly or wrongly ) a defendant is affiliated with a gang that a fair trial is almost impossible.
What happens when this DA decides to use gang association (over the judges denials ) on this jury is really quite devious. LA judges are allowing these type of unjust trials to continue knowing these defendants can appeal for a new trial from prison after they lose their jury trials. Local DA's know this local judicial system will not dismiss a jury due to DA's using gang associations with defendants, and they have a free hand to play their jury to the max. This play acting between the presiding judge pretending to protect the defendants right to a fair trial and the devious DA who wants to protect our society by taking justice into their own hands, is a little what Manny Gonzales and his public defender had to deal with. Any judge that allows a rogue DA to disobey their specific orders on misleading their jury into believing the defendant is either a gang member or the specific crime is gang related should have the common sense and decency to dismiss the jury and call for a new trial. This kid Manny Gonzales
tried as an adult needed this judge not just to set the guidelines in the start of the trial with this rogue DA,but also to continue to protect the defendant with his right to a fair trial throughout the entire trial. When this presiding judge allowed this trial to continue the jury believed both the DA and the judge that Manny Gonzales was a gang member and this specific shooting incident was not related to his affiliation with gang activity. Every night during this two week trial this jury went home and had the opportunity to watch gang violence reported on their nightly news. How could anyone think Manny Gonzales with his public defender could defeat a presiding judge, rogue DA,and a inflamed jury with possible nightly exposure to gang TV violence?
If anyone deserves a call for
GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME A NEW TRIAL Manny Gonzales Does !

Anonymous said...

WHEN THE US CONGRESS DENIED THE MASSES OF AMERICANS THEIR POSSIBLE FREEDOMS !

When the wealthiest country in the world continues to allow the enslavement of the tens of thousands of their own innocent Middle Class and Working Poor to decades of false imprisonment,it's time to ask for International help
Currently there are reported to be 100,000 falsely imprisoned Americans living along with the estimated 2,000,000 US prison population nationwide.America now has the very unique distinction of not only being rated the #1 in the World for having the largest prison population,but America also has the distinct rating of having the largest wrongfully imprisoned prison population in the World as well.Our US Congress affords themselves all the perks and salary most Americans could only dream about,but ask anyone of these Leaders Of The Free World to protect our Middle Class or Working Poor Americans from continuing to be falsely imprisoned endless decades due to the lack of federal appeal legal counsel being afforded them, and you just might be thought of as being crazy? The masses of the American people could never come close to ever being able to burden these federal appeal legal costs for themselves or for a family member,and should not need a lobbying group for this basic right of legal protection to be afforded them! Our Poster Child of this exact neglect by our US Congress is this young man named Manny Gonzales.Anyone interested in reading first hand how our US Congress is willing to allow our judicial system to continue keeping this now 21 year old young man imprisoned for 27 mandatory years for frightening someone with a hand gun(not even injuring the so called victim,) without affording him federal appeal legal counsel to properly be able to defend himself in our Federal courts of Appeal? Manny Gonzales The kid that everyone forgot in the CA prison system can be entered into any WWW search engine for the judicial ride of ones life! Tens of thousands of other Americans being imprisoned in the US are facing this same lack of legal counsel everyday,and with this lack of legal counsel being denied their right to new retrials,which in turn forces thousands to remain endless decades in our prison systems of the wealthiest country in the world!
Just like the German population prior WW2,the American people and our National Media have not felt any concern or interest to speak out about about our country having so many of our fellow Middle Class and Working Poor citizens being falsely imprisoned and not even being afforded the proper Federal Appeal legal counsel to assist in their attempt at exonerating themselves! This situation with the lack of federal appeal legal counsel has gotten so serious,and because it's affecting so many innocent citizens in America, that President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has even been asked to finance the federal appeal legal fees for the Manny Gonzales federal court legal appeal taking place at the Central CA Federal District Court in Riverside California.

Anonymous said...

GED LAWYERS NEVER LEAVE US PRISONS!


WHEN GOD'S FACE BECAME RED!!

It appears that the US Supreme Court way back in 1984 knew the injustice of our federal appeal retrial review process really only being available for affluent Americans to get benefit from.

The masses of poor and mostly uneducated prison inmates who are being forced to write their own federal appeal legal cases, are being denied new trials by the federal courts in mass all across this country everyday.

Some believe this injustice stems way back in our history to pre Civil War era when the US Southern States were railroading blacks into prolonged prison sentences and knowing all along that the Federal Courts would never grant these poor black prison inmates new trials because they never could properly write their own federal appeal legal cases.

The real horror here is that this form of injustice is even in 2008 assisting in the prolonged false incarceration of over 100,000 innocent mostly uneducated American prison inmates nation-wide.

We all know the federal appeal retrial process was designed for all Americans as a fail safe device that every American should be entitled to utilize, but it is quite obvious that our government has allowed this appeal process to slip into a completely new facade in which it has become an exclusive opportunity for only rich Americans to be able to properly benefit from.

LAWYERSFORPOORAMERICANS@YAHOO.COM

Anonymous said...

GREAT SOCIETIES THAT DO NOT PROTECT EVEN THEIR INNOCENT, BECOME THE GUILTY !


THIS FAMOUS AMERICAN WILL ROGERS QUOTE FITS OUR US CONGRESSIONAL MENTALITY PERFECTLY CONCERNING FEDERAL APPEALS IN AMERICA ONLY BEING AVAILABLE TO BE PROPERLY UTILIZED BY AFFLUENT AMERICANS EXCLUDING OUR US MIDDLE CLASS AND WORKING POOR FROM EVER HAVING ANY OPPORTUNITY OF EXONERATING THEMSELVES FROM US PRISONS.

*** " EVERYTHING IS FUNNY AS LONG AS IT IS HAPPENING TO SOMEBODY ELSE!"



WHEN THE US INNOCENT ARE ABANDONED BY THE GUILTY !


AS MANNY GONZALES AND THE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF OTHER POORER AMERICAN CITIZENS WHO HAVE BEEN SHUT OUT OF OUR FEDERAL APPEAL JUDICIAL PROCESS WAIT SILENTLY IN PRISONS NATIONWIDE FOR THE US CONGRESS TO ENACT FUTURE LEGISLATION TO DELEGATE THE PROPER FINANCES NEEDED TO CORRECT THIS INJUSTICE FROM CONTINUING.


WE ASK EVERY CARING AND LOVING HUMAN BEING INTERESTED IN HELPING THIS VOLUNTEER WWW BLOG GROUP ( LAWYERS FOR POOR AMERICANS) IN POSTING AND REPOSTING PAST AND FUTURE WRITINGS TO VARIOUS WEB SITES AROUND THE WORLD THAT YOU THINK MIGHT MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN AFFECTING THIS NEEDED CHANGE IN OUR US JUDICIAL SYSTEM.


Sophocles had a very interesting view about justice."How Dreadful It Is when the Right Judge Judges Wrong ! "


A MUST READ ABOUT AMERICAN INJUSTICE :
Google or Yahoo:
MANNY GONZALES THE KID THAT EVERYONE FORGOT IN THE CA PRISON SYSTEM.*** ONE PRIME EXAMPLE OF JUSTICE GONE ASTRAY IN AMERICA !

*** FOR OUR COUNTRY TO BE SO BLESSED WITH FINANCIAL WEALTH NOT TO WANT TO INVEST PROPER MONIES INTO OUR JUDICIAL SYSTEM ,SAYS ALOT ABOUT WHO WE REALLY ARE AS AMERICANS.

SINCE THERE ARE MASSES OF DEATH ROW INMATES NATIONWIDE WITHOUT APPEAL LAWYERS TO OUR FEDERAL COURTS,IT'S TIME THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY BECOMES INFORMED AND HOPEFULY INVOLVED TO INVESTIGATE AND HELP FORCE THE PROPER CHANGE BRINGING AMERICA OUT OF THE DARK AGES OF ONLY CATERING REAL JUSTICE TO OUR WEALTHY CITIZENS !

lawyersforpooramericans@yahoo.com (424-247-2013)

Anonymous said...

INNOCENT AMERICANS ARE DENIED REAL HC RIGHTS WITH THEIR FEDERAL APPEALS !

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE $LOWLY FINDING OUT HOW EA$Y IT I$ FOR MIDDLE CLA$$ AND WORKING POOR AMERICAN$ TO FALL VICTIM TO OUR U$ MONETARY JUDICIAL $Y$TEM.


****WHEN THE US INNOCENT WERE ABANDONED BY THE GUILTY ****

The prison experts have reported that there are 100,000 innocent Americans currently being falsely imprisoned along with the 2,300,000 total US prison population nationwide.

Since our US Congress has never afforded poor prison inmates federal appeal legal counsel for their federal retrials,they have effectively closed the doors on these tens of thousands of innocent citizens ever being capable of possibly exonerating themselves to regain their freedom through being granted new retrials.

This same exact unjust situation was happening in our Southern States when poor and mostly uneducated Black Americans were being falsely imprisoned for endless decades without the needed educational skills to properly submit their own written federal trial appeals.

This unjust judicial process of making our poor and innocent prison inmates formulate and write their own federal appeal legal cases for possible retrials on their state criminal cases,is still in effect today even though everyone in our US judicial system knows that without proper legal representation, these tens of thousands of innocent prison inmates will be denied their rightful opportunities of ever being granted new trials from our federal appeal judges!!

Sadly, the true US *legal* Federal Appeal situation that occurs when any of our uneducated American prison inmates are forced to attempt to submit their own written Federal Appeals (from our prisons nationwide) without the assistance of proper legal counsel, is that they all are in reality being denied their legitimate rights for Habeas Corpus and will win any future Supreme Court Case concerning this injustice!

For our judicial system and our US Congressional Leaders Of The Free World to continue to pretend that this is a real and fair opportunity for our American Middle Class and Working Poor Citizens, only delays the very needed future change of Federal Financing of all these Federal appeals becoming a normal formula of Our American judicial system.

It was not so very long ago that Public Defenders became a Reality in this country.Prior that legal reality taking place, their were also some who thought giving anyone charged with a crime a free lawyer was a waste of taxpayers $$.

This facade of our Federal Appeal proce$$ is not worthy of the Greatest Country In The World!

***GREAT SOCIETIES THAT DO NOT PROTECT EVEN THEIR INNOCENT,BECOME THE GUILTY!

lawyersforpooramericans@yahoo.com