Forum for wrongfully convicted held at UWT

When we think of today's U.S. Justice System we think of phrases such as "innocent until proven guilty," and "guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." We have faith that only the guilty shall be punished.  But this is not always the case. Many people have, are, and unfortunately will be sentenced for crimes they did not commit. It is not the intention of our justice system, or the people who serve in it, to sentence the innocent, but mistakes are made and evidence can be overlooked.

In the United States at least 825 people have been exonerated since 1989; to be exonerated means you have been freed of blame or accusation. There are a number of ways in which a person can be exonerated; however it is a lengthy process and the average length of time served by exonerees is 13 years. Nationwide, programs are in place to help the innocent who have run out of options and are serving time for crimes they did not commit.

One of which is the Innocence Project Northwest (IPNW), a clinic run by University of Washington School of Law. Professor Jacqueline McMurtie co-founded the clinic in 1997 and since then the IPNW has helped to overturn the convictions of 13 wrongfully convicted inmates.  The most recent success cases of IPNW are Alan Northrop, Larry Davis and Ted Bradford; all of which were exonerated in 2010 by DNA evidence.

In a recent forum held at UWT, Professor McMurtie along with Philip Sorensen from the Pierce County Prosecutor's Office, Lara Zarowsky from IPNW, and Assistant Professor Stephen Ross of UWT spoke on the contributors to wrongful convictions and why they occur. The four major contributors are:  eyewitness misidentification, invalidated/improper forensics, false confession, and informants/snitches.

The reliability of an eyewitness is questionable at best. During a composite sketch, the witness is shown the image repeatedly which can distort their actual memory leading to false identification. The same goes for a photo and live line up. If the same person is present in two lineups the witness is more likely to choose them since they know that person is familiar but unsure why, they automatically assume this is the person from the incident.  This was the case for Alan Northrop. 

Needless to say forensics have developed greatly over time and what we are capable of today we were not a few decades ago.  As for false confessions, many people are pressured into confession just to escape interrogation.  In the case of Ted Bradford, he was told there was DNA evidence and he decided to confess knowing the DNA would prove his innocence, yet testing on the DNA did not occur.

Both Alan and Ted were present at the event and spoke. Being wrongfully convicted, life paused for them while they were in prison, while for everyone else it went on. For Alan, he missed his children growing up; he went in when they were toddlers and came out when they were adults. To everyone they knew they are now like strangers and their lives are no longer the same as before they were incarcerated.

For more information on The Innocence Project Northwest go to: www.law.washington.edu/Clinics/IPNW/