The clinic will feature speeches from two local men who were wrongfully convicted and then later released, Aaron Michael Howard and Leslie Vass. We will then be breaking into intake sessions where those interested in our help can tell us about their case or their loved ones and MAIP can begin the process of evaluating their case.

What: Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project's first ever legal clinic

When: Thursday November 12, 2009 at 6:30 PM

Where: Matthews Memorial Baptist Church 2616 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd SE

Who: Anyone who wants to know more about MAIP or wants help with the case of someone they know. MAIP exonerees, Board members, staff members and law student volunteers will also be attending.

What to bring: Knowledge of the case to the best of your ability. If you have any legal docs we would be more than happy to take them.

Click here to see the information flier for MAIP's first Innocence Clinic

Nine different teams of investigators worked on McKinney’s case from 2003 to 2006.  At the end of their investigation, the students concluded that the then-18-year-old resident of the Harvey area of Chicago could not have been involved in the 1978 murder of security guard Donald Lundahl. Among their findings was a confession from a man who was present when his cousin shot and killed Lundahl, confirming that McKinney was not there.  In addition, the students were able to prove McKinney’s alibi and disprove the statements of two eyewitnesses who now claim they only identified McKinney after being beaten by police officers and could not have been present to see the crime occur.

David Protess, the Director of the Medill Innocence Project, directed the McKinney case to attorneys at the Center for Wrongful Convictions.  Protess’ students have conducted investigations that have led to eleven exonerations and both MAIP Executive Director Shawn Armbrust and Program Assistant Daniel Satin previously worked for the Medill Innocence Project (though not on the McKinney case.)

In November, the Center for Wrongful Conviction attorneys filed a request for a new trial based on the evidence the students had uncovered.  In June, the prosecutors subpoenaed students’ investigative memos, internal e-mails and notes from witness interviews, along with their grades and class syllabi.  

Barry Scheck, Co-director of the Innocence Project, said he has never seen prosecutors demand student grades from any of the other members in the nearly two decade history of the Innocence Network

“Every time the government starts attacking the messenger as opposed to the message, it can have a chilling effect,” Scheck said.

Attorneys from Northwestern say that the subpoena breaks federal laws regarding privacy for students and for journalists.

"I don't think it's any of the state's business to know the state of mind of my students," Protess said. "Prosecutors should be more concerned with the wrongful conviction of Anthony McKinney than with my students' grades."

While Protess and the attorneys involved continue to fight for McKinney’s freedom and the right of the students to maintain their privacy, MAIP hopes the prosecutors will focus on the overwhelming evidence of McKinney’s innocence instead of trying to question the intentions of the students involved.           

Click here to read more about the McKinney case.

Click here to read coverage of the Medill Innocence Project’s fight to maintain its privacy in the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times.

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James Lee Woodard was originally released from prison in April 2008 after a DNA-retesting program run by the new Dallas District Attorney cleared him of the 1980 murder of  Beverly Ann Jones. He had spent 27 years behind bars for a crime he consistently denied doing. DNA testing was unavailable at the time of the crime. On Wednesday, the Governor officially cleared his name.

"James Lee Woodard was wrongfully convicted for a crime he did not commit," Perry said. "My action today cannot give back the time he spent in prison, but it does end this miscarriage of justice."

Woodard's DNA was tested in large part thanks to Craig Watkins, who was inaugurated as Dallas' first African-American District Attorney in 2007. Watkins set up the nation's first DA-run Conviction Integrity Unit, and dedicated much of his staff's resources to reexamining convictions won by notorious former DA Henry Wade. The CIU has reviewed DNA of hundreds of people convicted in Dallas who think DNA testing can clear their name.

Woodard was convicted based on the testimony of two witnesses who said they saw him with Jones the night of her murder. One of the witnesses was Jones' stepfather who later recanted his testimony. A neighbor also testified seeing them together that night, though from a distance while it was dark out.

Watkins and IPOT later discovered that Jones was with three other men at various points in the night. Wade and other Dallas Prosecutors allegedly knew about this but did not disclose it to Woodard's attorneys or the judge. Two of those three men have sexual assault convictions on their records.

In April 2008, a few months after submitting his DNA for testing, Woodard was visited in prison by his attorneys from the Innocence Proejct of Texas, who told him that his DNA excluded him as the rapist. The next day, thanks to the DNA exclusion combined with the newly found evidence, Judge Mark Stoltz agreed to let Woodard walk out of the courthouse a free man.

Mr. Woodard was represented by IPOT Chief Counsel Jeff Blackburn and Jason Partney on his pardon application, which was unanimously supported by The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. The pardon makes Woodard eligible to receive state compensation for his wrongful conviction. Because he was incarcerated for longer than anyone ever exonerated by DNA evidence, many experts expect Woodard to receive a record $4 million or more in compensation.

Woodard is one of 20 Dallas County men who have had their convictions overturned under the CIU program. The Dallas District Attorney's Office and the Innocence Project of Texas are still working on over 200 old cases of people who hope their DNA will prove their wrongful conviction and clear their names.

Click here to watch a 60 Minutes report about Woodard's case and the CIU that aired the week Woodard was originally released from prison.

Our causes page features multimedia about our work and about exonerees from around the country. It also will have up to date news about MAIP events and legal developments.

Continue your support for MAIP by joining our cause .

U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams vacated Tice's conviction for the 1997 rape and murder of Michelle Moore-Bosko, on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. In doing so, Judge Williams granted the habeas corpus petition filed by Tice's attorneys, including MAIP Board Member Des Hogan.

Tice was released from prison in August along with Danial Williams and Joseph Dick after VA Gov. Timothy Kaine granted the men a conditional pardon . While the pardon released the men from prison, it did not establish their innocence for the crimes.

The men confessed to the crimes during high-pressure interrogations. In the brief, Tice's attorneys argued that his trial attorney should have tried to keep jurors from hearing his confession on the grounds that police continued to question him after he had invoked his right to remain silent. The federal judge agreed with that statement.

"Had counsel pursued such a motion, there is a reasonable probability that Tice would not have been convicted," Williams wrote. 

A fifth man, Omar Ballard, has confessed to the crimes and is currently incarcerated for killing Moore-Bosko.  All of the DNA and forensic evidence from the crime scene match him, his confession is the only one that accurately describes the crime scene and he has continually said that he acted alone in the crime.

Tice told the Associated Press that he was "flabbergasted" by the news and that "hopefully this is one more step to get my life back, and get back to where I was before all this happened." He added that he will continue to fight to help Dick, Williams and Eric Wilson, completely clear their names of the crime.

To read the Judge's ruling that exonerated Derek Tice, click here.

In a report to the Texas Forensic Science Commission released last week, the International Association of Fire Saftety Science ruled out the possibility of arson as the cause of the fire that killed 2-year-old Amber and 1-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron on Dec. 23, 1991, in their Corsicana home. A number of other experts have concluded that no arson took place; some of this evidence had come up in the months before Willingham was executed.

The Texas Forensic Science Commission requested the analysis by the London-based organization after Innocence Project submitted claims of questionable evidence in 2006. The report, filed by the London-based organization, placed the blame for Willingham's wrongful conviction on a faulty investigation by Texas officials, namely State Fire Marshall's Office.

IAFSS Chairman Craig Beyler says the opinions of Deputy State Fire Marshall Manuel Vasquez were "nothing more than a collection of personal beliefs that have nothing to do with science-based fire investigation."

The report says the Vasquez and other investigators refused to take into account the witness statements that contradicted the charge and never investigated alternative causes of the fire. 

The New Yorker has released an indepth article of the case and the report. Click here to read the article.

The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project is working with the Virginia Crime Commission to present a series of brown bag trainings for attorneys interested in participating in this program. Click here for more information including times and locations. Contact John Hardenbergh at jhardenbergh@exonerate.org to RSVP for a training session.

Rhonda Flemming, signed an affidavit last month claiming that it was not Donald that robbed her at gunpoint in her home on February 27, 1992. She also said that she told Lake County IN prosecutor Phillip Benson that she could not testify under oath against Donald.That statement is corroborated by Benson's own notes, recovered last month. Those statements were never turned over to Donald's trial attorney, making it a possible Brady violation.

Donald's next hearing is scheduled in October. Flemming's recantation will be a part of the newly discovered evidence gathered by the Medill Innocence Project and presented to a judge by Donald's attorney.

The Northwest Indiana Times recently published this detailed series on the Donald case, which includes video interviews including both Donald and Flemming.   http://nwitimes.com/app/multimedia/special/freedomfighter/

After spending more than 11 harsh years in prison for a crime they did not commit, Joseph J. Dick, Jr., Derek E. Tice, and Danial J. Williams, became free men Thursday.  Governor Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia granted conditional pardons to the Navy veterans but fell short of granting absolute pardons based on innocence. A fourth innocent sailor, Eric C. Wilson, was released in 2005 after serving 8 ½ years in prison. His clemency request was denied today by Governor Kaine.

“While we are pleased that Governor Kaine has finally taken the necessary action to correct this grave miscarriage of justice, we are very disappointed that he failed to recognize that the Norfolk Four are completely innocent of this crime,” said Shawn Armbrust, Executive Director of Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project (MAIP), a non-profit organization dedicated to correcting and preventing wrongful convictions in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. Two MAIP Board Members, Donald Salzman of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and Desmond Hogan of Hogan & Hartson, provided pro bono representation to Williams and Tice, respectively.  Dick was represented by George Kendall of Holland & Knight.

“Governor Kaine gave the Norfolk Four their lives back,” said Ms. Armbrust, “but we are saddened for them that these terrible crimes will continue to hang over their heads.”

The four Navy men were wrongfully convicted based on false confessions extracted after they were subjected to high-pressure interrogation tactics, including threats of the death penalty and questionable use of lie detector tests.  The details in the men’s confessions did not match the crime scene, the other confessions, or the confession of the real killer.  False confessions have played a role in approximately 25 percent of all 241 cases nationwide in which convicted defendants have been conclusively exonerated by DNA.

“In this case, as with most false confession cases, the devil is in the details,” said Ms. Armbrust.  “And these details help prove that the Norfolk Four knew absolutely nothing about this crime.”

Because false confessions are such a common cause of wrongful convictions, MAIP advocates for reforms that can reduce the risk of such confessions.  These reforms include legislation mandating the electronic recording of interrogations in their entirety and training for police officers on proper interrogation tactics.

Citing the Norfolk Four case in part, in 2006, the Norfolk Police Department independently adopted the practice of videotaping custodial interrogations.  Five hundred other jurisdictions nationwide have done the same.  Sixteen states currently require the electronic recording of interrogations in some cases.

“This case – and the frequency of false confessions in criminal cases – shows that common sense reforms like the videotaping of interrogations are needed to protect the innocent and our communities,” said Ms. Armbrust. 

All of the DNA and forensic evidence in the Norfolk Four case pointed to one man, Omar Ballard, and only his confession matched the physical evidence. Ballard is now serving a life sentence for the crime.

"While we are glad that Joe, Derek and Danial will finally be coming home to their families," Hogan said. "We are gravely disappointed that Governor Kaine has disregarded the overwhelming of innocence, which proves only one man was responsible for this tragic crime."

With Tice, Dick and Williams on their way home, their family are taken immediate steps to help them reintegrate into their communities. The men will soon meet with social workers and job counselors to help them make the adjustment. 

"Though we are overjoyed to finally have our sons back, we are saddened that Governor Kaine failed to recognize their actual innocence," said Larry Tice. "Our sons lost more than a decade of their lives. We must make sure that a tragedy like this one never strikes another family. We are looking forward to spending time with our sons and will continue to work to prove their innocence so this tragic mistake can finally be corrected."

Armbrust hopes this case has demonstrated the need for legislation that changes the way evidence is collected.

 “Now is the time to take stock of the policies and procedures that contribute to wrongful convictions and enact reforms to ensure that only reliable evidence makes it into the courtroom,” said Ms. Armbrust. “We must work to ensure that no other innocent people suffer as the Norfolk Four did.”