Posted inBad Science
Crime Lab Creates Chaos
Chemist Annie Dookhan is accused of tampering with with drug and blood samples to make them weigh more or test positive. Details are still emerging about the mishandled evidence in as…
Posted inSystemic Problems
Who’s Buying Our Courts?
In the 39 states where judicial elections are held, judges running for re-election have spent 4 times the amount of television ads than was spent just two years ago. Hundreds…
Posted inSystemic Problems
Prosecutors Not Held Accountable (2)
On May 6th, 20120 Barry Scheck of The Innocence Project wrote a letter to the American Statesman, an Austin Texas newspaper regarding prosecutorial misconduct. Groups affiliated with Innocence Projects…
Posted inMisidentification
New Jersey Warns Juries in Eyewitness Identification (2)
Beginning September 4, 2012 a new law in the state of New Jersey will warn juries that human memory is not foolproof and eyewitness testimony must be carefully scrutinized. The new…
Posted inSystemic Problems
Are Private Prisons Cost Effective?
Three convicted murderers escaped from a private medium-security prison in Kingman, Arizona. As a cost saving measure Arizona has given up control of most of its prisons to private companies.…
Posted inSystemic Problems
Private Prisons Are Big Businesses
A private company, Corrections Corporation of America, sent letters to 48 states offering to buy each state's prisons. This supposedly would save the states money in these depressed times. The…
Posted inSystemic Problems
Control of Prisons Going to Private Companies (2)
A proposed contract in Virginia between the state and the nation's second-largest private prison operator, GEO Group and a company managing mental health institutes, Liberty Healthcare Corp., would give these private…
Posted inSystemic Problems
Charge Stacking: Gambling with People’s Lives
There is a relatively new phrase in our legal system that is still heard all too rarely, but it should be a prime fear of all defendants who enter to the mercy of the courts. The phrase is “charge stacking”. These simple words are creating catastrophic effects in our court rooms. It is this phrase, or this practice of stacking which has enabled a 20 year old first time offender to receive 1,941 months (162 years) in prison without the possibility of parole, reported by Reuters – Tue, Jul 3, 2012.
Posted inBad Science
Justice Department to Review Use of Forensic Evidence in Thousands of Cases (2)
The U.S. Justice Department has decided to review the use of forensics in thousands of cases because of flawed work that has been done by FBI laboratories since 1985. Although…
Posted inSystemic Problems
The Veritas Initiative Report on Prosecutorial Misconduct
The Veritas Initiative, a project of the Northern California Innocence Project, has performed the most extensive research on prosecutorial misconduct. Their research of over 4,000 public prosecutors in California, from…