The Virginian Pilot newspaper today ran an editorial raising questions about Virginia's lab review process.  The editorial voiced particular concern about the secrecy surrounding the process and the fact that the procedures do not currently provide for an independent consultant on the question of whether a case should be re-opened.  To read the editorial, click here. 

Governor Schwarzenegger last week vetoed SB 511, a bill that would have required videotaped documentary of interrogations of suspects of violent crimes.  In his open letter to the California State Senate, the Governor justified his veto by reasoning that “Police interrogations are dynamic processes that require investigators to use acumen, skill and expertise to determine which methods of interrogation are best for the situation.  This bill would place unnecessary restrictions on police investigators.” It is unfortunate that Governor Schwarzenegger fails to elaborate with specific examples of how, exactly, videotaped interrogations would impede police investigators.  In fact, just the opposite appears…

This week, MAIP Executive Director Shawn Armbrust attended a hearing in the case of Michael Hash, a Culpepper, Virginia man who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a 1996 murder. Since the conviction, there have arisen serious reasons to doubt Mr. Hash’s guilt. MAIP has been supporting Mr. Hash and helping to fund the re-investigation of his case.

On October 17, 2007, MAIP’s Executive Director made a presentation to Virginia’s Forensic Science Board, asking the Board to endorse a change to Virginia’s post-conviction DNA testing statute that would allow prisoners to obtain types of DNA testing not performed by the state lab.

While taking a walk in Philadelphia in May 1985, Vincent Motto, then 22 years old, was identified and arrested on charges for raping a woman five months earlier.  It would be ten and a half years later until DNA evidence would make him a free man again.  On his experience of being the victim of false imprisonment for over a decade, Motto describes, “You’re dead but you’re still alive.” Motto however is not eligible for reparation for the time he spent in prison because Pennsylvania is one of 28 states without a law requiring compensation for exonerated individuals.  In our…

When Senator Larry Craig stepped into that bathroom stall on June 11th, he did not expect to emerge an unlikely poster child for false confessions.  Senator Craig has since attempted to withdraw his guilty plea, alleging that he was in a “state of intense anxiety” at the time of the confession.  Craig’s attorney, Billy Martin, stated that Craig was not "thinking clearly, and he waived his constitutional rights, and we're asking that to be reversed”.  Martin elaborated that Craig had been suffering severe "pressure" and "stress" from a recent interview with the Idaho Statesman newspaper over allegations that he was…

The New York Times today featured a first-page article on the ways in which DNA exonerations are causing states to re-think their laws on access to DNA evidence, crime lab oversight, and the way that eyewitness identification procedures are conducted. The article highlights recent changes in Maryland law that were supported by the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project. Meanwhile, the Washington Post featured an editorial on the problem of false confessions.