Seven Drug Cases Dismissed in Wake of Amherst Lab Scandal

For the second time in 3 months, forensic science in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has made national headlines. Yesterday, Judge Richard A. Carey released a scathing ruling, condemning two former Massachusetts state prosecutors for committing "fraud upon the court" in an attempt to cover up the misconduct of disgraced lab chemist Sonja Farak in the Amherst Drug Lab scandal. 

Judge Carey found that the two former prosecutors willfully concealed documents and attempted to make a series of “calculated misrepresentations” to the court in several cases in which Farak had been involved. She was arrested in 2013, after it came to light that she had been getting high off of drug samples she was meant to be testing (for criminal cases for a number of years. After admitting to cooking crack-cocaine in the lab, Farak was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

"It has been startling to see unveiled the amount of damage done by a single lab analyst, Sonja Farak, who placed her own selfish wants and needs before her duties as a public servant in a critically important role," Judge Carey wrote.

"Similarly, but in many ways more damning, the conduct of two assistant attorneys general, (Anne) Kaczmarek and (Kris) Foster, compounded and aggravated the damage caused by Farak," he wrote.

Carey dismissed seven cases which Farak had handled, but attorneys warn that this could be just the tip of the iceberg: there are potentially thousands more that could feel the impact of the scandal, perhaps even rivaling the April fall-out (and dismissal of over 20,000 convictions) brought about by the disgraced state lab chemist, Annie Dookhan. In the final year of its existence, the Amherst lab revealed that 302 out of the 5517 samples that had been submitted for testing contained no controlled substances.  As with the Dookhan scandal, it's impossible for anyone to know just how many innocent men and women have been affected by the misconduct of the lab chemist, and the ensuing misconduct by the lawyers in the Attorney General's office. 

Judge Cary wrote, "Hopefully, this decision marks the beginning of the end of this sad chapter of Massachusetts legal history." But without significant reforms to the system, there is no reason to believe this is the end. 

Flawed forensic science is a leading cause of wrongful convictions, contributing to nearly half – 46% – of DNA exoneration cases. Ensuring that only the most reliable forensic science makes its way into Massachusetts courtrooms is a vital tool in the fight against wrongful convictions. 

Given the recent decision by Attorney General Sessions to disband the national forensic science commission, Massachusetts must step up on a state level. Sign here to let your legislators know that you support the fight against wrongful convictions and increased forensic science oversight in Massachusetts, by supporting the creation of a forensic science commission in the Commonwealth (Senate Bill No. 1285). 

What Father's Day Means to Me

By Dennis Maher, NEIP board member and exoneree 

Dennis Maher with his family

When I was doing life in prison, I used to dream about being a father. Thanks to the New England Innocence Project, that dream came true. 

When my son Joshua was born, I cried - of course - as many new fathers do. I remember telling my father that he was going to have a grandson, and he told me “now, you’re a man.”  When my daughter was born, I named her Aliza Karin Lucy. She was named after both the lawyers who got me out of prison, and my mother. 

As my kids grew older, I was able to do so many fun things with them — take them to the lake to go fishing, or playing outside in the sprinkler. When they started school, I got to see how smart they were — when I was helping them with their math homework it was already hard for me to understand (it’s not the way I learned as a kid!) 

When I come home from a hard day, they say ‘hi Daddy’ and give me a big hug and we talk about our days. When it’s time for them to go to bed, we always give each other a hug and a kiss — even if we had been arguing. They make my life so full. 

I wouldn’t have any of this if it weren’t for the New England Innocence Project and the work that they do. This world is a part of my kids’ lives, too — they come to conferences and have met lots of other exonerees. It brings out so much pride in me to say that after all I’ve been through I am able to say that I’m a father with a loving wife and two beautiful children. 

Alfred Swinton is the 86th Exoneree from New England

Yesterday, Innocence Project client Alfred Swinton was walked out of court in Hartford, Connecticut after 19 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. Swinton is the 86th person to be exonerated in New England. Those 86 people served, cumulatively, nearly 1,000 years in prison for crimes they did not commit.

The murder that Swinton was convicted of took place in 1991, though the case went cold until 1998. The only "evidence" linking Swinton to the crime was the testimony of the victim’s sister, and the testimony of Dr. Karazulas, then the Chief Forensic Odontologist of Connecticut. Dr. Karazulas testified against Swinton at trial, and Swinton was convicted of the murder based primarily on bite-mark evidence, a now thoroughly discredited forensic practice. 

Due to the advancements in the scientific consensus surrounding bite-mark analysis, Dr. Karazulas recently filed an affidavit in which he acknowledged the scientific community’s repudiation of bite mark analysis, and stated that he no longer believed Swinton to be the perpetrator. 

Swinton was originally represented by the Connecticut Innocence Project, who were able to conduct DNA testing in 2014 and 2015; swabs of the bite mark indicated the presence of male DNA which excluded Swinton. The case was taken over by the Innocence Project due to a conflict, and further DNA testing of fingernail scrapings taken from the victim also excluded Swinton as the perpetrator. According to the Innocence Project, Swinton is the 29th person to have their conviction vacated or indictment dismissed based, at least in part, on bite mark evidence, in the last 17 years. 

Photo courtesy of the Innocence Project

Welcome home, Mr. Swinton!

In addition to Vanessa Potkin and Chris Fabricant of the Innocence Project, Swinton is represented by Innocence Project Attorney Adnan Sultan; Maura Barry Grinalds, Ed Tulin and Thania Charmani of Skadden Arps; and Ken Rosenthal of Green & Sklarz.

The Human Toll of Annie Dookhan's Misconduct

On April 18, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts moved to dismiss 21,387 drug convictions which were tainted by the misconduct of state drug lab chemist Annie Dookhan. This was shortly after Attorney General Jeff Session’s  recent decision not to renew the national Forensic Science Commission. These two events are deeply troubling. 

In the coming weeks, we will be highlighting the human stories behind the avalanche of dismissed convictions which were tainted by Dookhan’s misconduct.

Jose Aguasvivas is one of over 21,000 individuals whose cases were affected by the Dookhan’s misconduct and the Hinton Lab’s failure to respond appropriately to complaints about it. It’s an astonishingly high number, and it’s more than just a statistic: each of those men and women had their lives affected in a very meaningful way by Dookhan’s negligence.

Jose was living in New York City, and he traveled to and from his native Dominican Republic fairly often. In 2009, while attempting to catch a connecting flight back to New York in Puerto Rico, he was stopped by customs officials. He was confused — he had been a permanent legal resident of the United States since 1997, and had just renewed his green card; he made this same trip at least once a year without a problem. The officials in Puerto Rico didn’t seem to have an explanation, so they told him to visit Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) once he was back in New York. 

ICE officials told him that he had been detained because of a 2005 Massachusetts drug conviction, for which he had served two years of probation. They arrested him, and he was sent to an immigration detention center in Alabama. After months of pinging between different immigration holding cells, Jose was given a choice: stay in detention, or be deported back to the Dominican Republic. After months of imprisonment (“he was so, so skinny,” his wife Honelia told me), Jose and Honelia made the tough decision for Jose to go back to the Dominican Republic. He would spend the next 6 years there, with Honelia making the trip to visit him 2 or 3 times a year — a financial burden that was not easy to shoulder. 

What Jose and Honelia didn’t know was that his 2005 conviction was the result of state drug lab chemist Annie Dookhan’s “dry-labbing,” or visually examing the substances instead of testing them. Jose’s lawyer advised him to plead guilty, despite the circumstances of his case, and Jose took his advice.  

Jose is, paradoxically, one of the lucky ones - he was alerted to the fact that his case had been handled by Dookhan, and he and Honelia are now reunited in New York, thanks to the diligent work of his attorneys from the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Boston. 

“Jose wants the word to go out,” Honelia told me. “He doesn’t want anyone to go through what he did - he thanks God that he’s been helped by so many people, but wants everyone to know that this is really happening out there. Don’t stay quiet.” 

The Dookhan scandal was caused not just - perhaps not even primarily - by Dookhan’s misconduct, but by the Lab’s failure to take appropriate action. People like Jose and his family suffered horribly as a result. Yet even in the face of this tragedy, meaningful oversight of forensic science has not increased.  It is far past time for a significant reform to the operation of forensic science in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

A Step Closer to Justice for Victor Rosario!

Today, in a landmark decision, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed Victor Rosario’s right to a new trial. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan will now have to decide whether or not to re-try Rosario.    

Rosario was convicted in 1982 of setting a deadly house fire in Lowell, Massachusetts. Throughout his 32 years of incarceration, Rosario steadfastly maintained he was innocent of setting the fire, which killed eight people, five of them children. Rosario’s only connection to the fire was that of an eyewitness: he walked past the blaze on his way home, even attempting to break a window in the hopes of helping to free the people trapped inside. Two days later, he was the prime suspect.

After years of work by his lead attorneys Andrea Petersen and Lisa Kavanaugh, director of theCommittee for Public Counsel Services Innocence Program (CPCS) Judge Kathe Tuttman of the Superior Court ordered a new trial for Victor Rosario in July of 2014. In November of 2016 the Commonwealth appealed Judge Tuttman’s decison to the Supreme Judicial Court arguing that, despite the significant flaws in the evidence, his conviction should be reinstated.

Years after his conviction, the New England Center for Investigative Reporting began an investigation into the original findings, finally bringing to light the egregious flaws in the assumptions and conclusions that convicted Rosario of arson.

It was a cascade of these flaws that led to Rosario’s conviction. At the time of his multi-hour interrogation, the native Puerto Rican wasn’t fluent in English, and he was in the throes of alcohol withdrawal, suffering from serious delirium tremens as the interrogation progressed. Rosario eventually signed a confession written in a language he didn’t understand, stating that three Molotov cocktails had been thrown into the house.

No accelerant was found at the scene even though the prosecution’s theory was that the fire resulted from 3 Molotov’s cocktail. John Lentini, a prominent fire scientist who testified on Rosario’s behalf, told the Boston Globe that if Molotov cocktails were used, there would be physical evidence of them. “It’s hard to break a beer bottle; the neck almost never breaks because it’s small and compact, and the bottom is usually in one piece,’’ said Lentini. “If they were there, they would’ve found them.’’ Although the Commonwealth contended that the fire had multiple points of origin which would have implied arson, experts at the hearing found it more likely that the points relied upon by the Commonwealth indicated the flow of oxygen in the building. 

It is impossible to now determine the actual cause of the blaze because the Commonwealth failed to preserve the evidence collected at the scene. Arson experts who reexamined the case noted that the evidence cited is consistent with an accidental fire, positing that an unattended space heater could have caused the fire.

At trial, Rosario’s court-appointed attorney offered a grossly inadequate defense. The attorney made little effort to refute the evidence provided, nor did he call any expert witnesses to challenge the claims of the investigation. Perhaps most damning was the fact that the lawyer was facing vehicular homicide charges of his own at the time of the trial, a situation he admitted was a “distraction.”

Rosario’s case is the latest of several arson convictions overturned in recent years amid serious doubts about the initial investigations. Evidence once considered a definitive sign of arson has more recently been shown to also occur in accidental fires; at the time of Rosario’s arrest investigators routinely relied on flawed “science”. It is unknown how many others have been convicted because of these errors.

“Victor’s case clearly demonstrates why the Commonwealth would benefit from a Forensic Science Commission,” said Denise McWilliams, Executive Director of the New England Innocence Project. “We should be working to ensure that only the most reliable science makes its way into courtrooms in Massachusetts, so that tragedies like Victor’s can be avoided.”

Dookhan Scandal Highlights America's Guilty Plea Problem

By Hannah Riley

There have been 51 official exonerations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and many more convictions have been overturned and new trials set. Today, the number of overturned convictions is expected to grow – by upwards of 22,000.

Annie Dookhan was a lab chemist at the state crime lab in Hinton, Massachusetts. In 2012, she admitted to falsifying the results of drug tests over the course of her nine year tenure at the lab, resulting in tens of thousands of compromised convictions. In more than one way, the Dookhan scandal shines a light on our imperfect system. Some will attempt to minimize the damage done by a  rogue chemist by brushing her off as an anomaly; one bad actor in an otherwise functional system. What the case highlights — along with the need for improved forensic oversight in the Commonwealth — is how reliant our system is on guilty pleas.

For most of us, the concept of pleading guilty to a crime you didn’t commit seems impossible to comprehend. We assume that the innocent nearly always have a chance to argue their case before a jury of their peers; a chance to exercise their constitutional right to trial. The reality is that our system is nearly entirely dependent on plea deals, making trials a rarity. This inevitably results in some number of innocent people pleading guilty to crimes they didn't commit: a phenomenon which leaves the real perpetrators free to commit more crimes, and serves to create a mere illusion of justice in the United States.

Despite what’s depicted in high-profile trials and the majority of daytime TV, the odds of a criminal case actually going to trial are remarkably low. Roughly 97% of federal convictions and 94% of state convictions are the results of guilty pleas.

The trials that we tend to hear about are the results of an agonizing decision for the defendant. There are powerful incentives for people to plead guilty, even if they are, in fact, innocent. When faced with charges, told there is enough evidence to convict, and warned of all the potential consequences — including loss of legal status for immigrants, housing, family, and freedom — the pressure is often too much for people to choose a trial. This is true even when the evidence the prosecution is relying on is tainted, as it was in Dookhan’s cases. One defendant pled guilty to cocaine possession before the drugs were even tested. Two months after they were sent to prison, Dookhan performed the actual test. The results of the analysis? Negative for controlled substances.

A plea deal offered by a prosecutor is often far more appealing than the prospect of pre-trial detention of indeterminate length, followed by a trial that has the potential to send you away for a long time (and/or bankrupt you).

In New England, there have been 4 documented exonerations of innocent people who initially pled guilty, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. If that sounds like a low number, it’s because it is. Those cases represent the tip of the iceberg, and they are the lucky ones: the phenomenon is much worse at the less serious end of the sentencing spectrum, in misdemeanor courts where almost every defendant pleads guilty.

In 2015, after a Supreme Judicial Court decision surrounding the Dookhan cases, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s spokesperson told the Globe: “The sliver of cases that will be affected by this decision is a sliver of the already small number of cases that went to trial.” He went on to tell a Slate reporter that by his estimation, less than 5% of the over 8,000 convictions tainted by Dookhan in Suffolk County went to trial. This is telling. The prosecution often claims that most cases end with a guilty plea because the defendant is guilty.  In fact, guilty pleas are frequently entered because the evidence against the defendant may simply seem strong. 

The fact that the vast majority of Suffolk’s Dookhan cases were resolved in a deal between the prosecutor and the defense attorneys is part of a broader phenomenon that is generally mysterious to the public. The promise of reduced charges in exchange for a plea is presented to both the guilty and the innocent, setting the goal to the illusion of justice, instead of the actual attainment of it. The lack of available resources in the system incentivizes a culture of innocent people pleading out. In order to fully address wrongful convictions, we need to work towards changing this culture.

The Dookhan case is embarrassing for the Commonwealth for more than one reason — but it should serve as a valuable reminder that our system isn’t functioning the way that the Constitution envisioned: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial.”

Judge Allows New England Innocence Project Client Fred Weichel’s Request for a New Trial

CONTACT: Hannah Riley; 347-963-7244; hriley@newenglandinnocence.org

(BOSTON): In 1981, 30 year old Fred Weichel was convicted by a jury and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Robert LaMonica, 25, in Braintree in 1980. Weichel is now 66; he has spent the past 36 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Superior Court Judge Raymond P. Veary has today allowed a new trial for Weichel, citing the critical importance of never before disclosed evidence pointing to an alternate perpetrator. Weichel is represented by Michael D. Ricciuti of K&L Gates and the New England Innocence Project.

BACKGROUND:  Robert LaMonica, 25, was fatally shot outside of his Braintree apartment shortly after midnight on May 31st, 1980. A teenage witness claimed to have seen the shooter – a man – jump into a waiting car and drive away from the scene of the murder. Despite having just drunk a 6-pack of beer, 180 feet away from the shooting, in darkness, the witness helped police create a composite sketch and later, while driving around South Boston with police and LaMonica’s 2 brothers, identified Fred Weichel on the street as the perpetrator.  From the beginning, Weichel has maintained his innocence, arguing, with alibi witnesses to back him up, that he was in a bar in Boston at the time of the murder.

A key issue at the hearing was the so-called Leahy Report, which was compiled on June 9, 1980, and signed by then Braintree Police Detective James F. Leahy. The report indicated that multiple correctional officers had informed Leahy that the composite sketch of the alleged perpetrator resembled not Weichel but Rocco Balliro, a man who had pled guilty to murdering his girlfriend and her 2 year old son and was serving out his life sentence at MCI Bridgewater. Balliro had been released from Bridgewater on a furlough the day before LaMonica’s murder. The report was not known to the defense until Weichel’s attorneys requested his entire file from Braintree Police in 2010. Balliro died in prison in 2012. Further complicating matters, in 1982, Fred Weichel’s mother, Gloria, received a letter from Tommy Barrett, an acquaintance from South Boston. In the letter, he confessed to having committed the murder of LaMonica. When asked about the letter during hearings for a new trial for Weichel several years ago, Barrett invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

“Fred has been fighting for justice for 36 years. It goes without saying that we are all completely thrilled with the Court's decision," said New England Innocence Project Executive Director Denise McWilliams. "Mike Ricciuti and his colleagues from K&L Gates did a tremendous job, and the New England Innocence Project is proud to have been a part of this team. However, it remains deeply troubling that Fred has spent 36 years of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit. Simply put, we need to do better."

Had these alternate perpetrator theories been known at the time of trial, the already shaky eyewitness identification would likely have undergone greater scrutiny. Eyewitness misidentification is a contributing factor in more than 71% of nation’s DNA exonerations. Geoffrey Loftus, a psychology professor at the University of Washington who studies perception and memory, testified on Weichel’s behalf that even if the teenage eyewitness had 20-20 vision he would have seen a “blurred image” of the suspect, not the detailed account he provided to police. The witness asserted that he could tell the shooter had curly sideburns, bushy eyebrows, and a slightly crooked nose.

“The science indicates that faces are unrecognizable at even 134 feet away,” says New England Innocence Project Staff Attorney Radha Natarajan. "An eyewitness who had been drinking and was standing 180 feet away, in the dark, would not be a reliable witness in court today, especially since there is no other evidence implicating Fred as the perpetrator.”

“Had Weichel’s original defense team had access to the Leahy Report, they could have used it to cast doubt on the prosecution's case, which was otherwise totally dependent on the testimony from an inebriated witness who claimed to have seen Weichel running away,” said New England Innocence Project Executive Director Denise McWilliams. "We’re thrilled with the decision today. Fred is innocent and he deserves his day in court.” 

Nat Cosenza Reflects on his First Innocence Network Conference after 16 Years of Wrongful Imprisonment

In August of 2000, at 4 in the morning, a Worcester woman awoke in her dark bedroom to find an unknown man sitting at the foot of her bed. The man proceeded to beat the woman repeatedly on the head with a hard object; in response, she covered her head with her arms to protect herself. After she began to fight back, the attacker fled her apartment. The whole encounter lasted only seconds in a room suspended in darkness - and was marked by the victim's shock, stress, and fear. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these conditions led to the victim's misidentification of Natale "Nat" Cosenza as the perpetrator. Nat was wrongfully imprisoned for 16 years.

He was released in October of 2016, and, while he awaits a new trial in Worcester Superior Court, has been making the most of his newfound freedom. He, along with his daughter Alicia, was one of five Massachusetts men who accompanied us to the 2017 Innocence Network Conference in San Diego. Ronjon Cameron spent 14 years in prison and was exonerated in 2015; Victor Rosario spent 32 years in prison and was freed in 2014; Angel Echavarria spent 21 years in prison and was exonerated in 2015, and Sean Ellis spent 22 years in prison and was freed in 2015. Since this was Nat’s first conference – and his first time meeting so many other wrongfully convicted men and women – we asked him to reflect on what the conference meant to him.

“Even after everything I’ve gone through, it was still such an eye-opening experience,” Nat told us. “Hearing all of these stories, and talking to these men and women — especially the ones who were on death-row — was just amazing.” What surprised Nat the most was the sheer number of people involved in the innocence movement.

“Honestly, the number of people involved — advocates, family members, lawyers — was kind of shocking to me. I just didn’t know that there were that many people who cared about us.”

Nat with exoneree Amanda Knox.

Nat also took part in The Moth workshop, which offers the wrongfully convicted (and their advocates) a chance to craft and hone a 5-minute story which they then present to the conference attendees (who numbered nearly 1,000.)  Nat presented his story, as did Ronjon and Sean.

“When I did The Moth, it was the first time that I’ve really spoken about what I’ve been through,” Nat said. “It was gratifying, and also kind of a relief to talk about. I’ve had so many emotions locked inside, and it was really good for me to get some of them out there.”

Despite the conference being just a whirlwind 2 days, Nat met people with whom he formed a strong and lasting bond: “I became very close with three individuals, students from Texas and Canada. It was amazing how close we became in such a short time. That’s really, really rare for me.” 

Returning to the outside world after being released from years of incarceration isn't an easy process, to say the very least. Having the opportunity to be welcomed into a community of individuals who can understand what you've endured in a way that the rest of us simply can't is incredibly important, and we're so grateful to the donors who enabled us to bring all five of these incredible Massachusetts men to the conference. 

Scrutinizing America's Guilty Plea Problem

When Johnny Vargas was pulled over for an incomplete stop in Massachusetts, police noticed a strange package on the passenger seat. Upon opening it, they found a brick of cocaine. Vargas vehemently insisted that he had never seen the package before, but when faced with a possible 15 years in prison for cocaine trafficking, he pled guilty, and in exchange received a sentence of just 7 years. He was exonerated after it came to light that the drugs had in fact been planted in his car.

For most of us, the concept of pleading guilty to a crime you didn’t commit seems impossible to comprehend. We assume that the innocent always have a chance to argue their case before a jury of their peers, when in fact our system is predicated on plea deals, making trials a relative rarity. Roughly ninety-seven percent of federal convictions and ninety-four percent of state convictions are the results of guilty pleas.

The Innocence Network, in collaboration with the Innocence Project, are launching the Guilty Plea Problem campaign today in an attempt to address the phenomenon of innocent people being forced to plead guilty. In New England, there have been 4 documented cases of innocent people pleading guilty. The phenomenon is almost certainly worst at the less serious end of the sentencing spectrum, in misdemeanor courts where almost every defendant pleads guilty.

"There are powerful incentives for people to plead guilty, even if they are, in fact, innocent," says NEIP Senior Staff Attorney Radha Natarajan. "When faced with charges, told there is enough evidence to convict, and warned of all the potential consequences -- including immigration, housing, family, and freedom -- the pressure is often too much for people to choose a trial.  This is true even when the evidence the prosecution is relying on is tainted, such as in the over 20,000 cases touched by notorious Massachusetts chemist, Annie Dookhan."

The New England exonerees who had taken guilty pleas (detailed below) are, sadly, the lucky minority.

Cheryl Adams was working as a cashier at a Cumberland Farms in Massachusetts when a loss-prevention worker accused her of stealing from the register. Confused, Adams denied all of the charges — until her interrogator, knowing that Adams was embroiled in a contentious divorce, warned her that she could lose custody of her son if she refused to sign a confession. After hours of interrogation, she eventually signed a confession stating that she had stolen over $10,000.

In 1990, a Boston man stopped a young girl at knifepoint, dragged her behind a dumpster, and fondled her. Minutes after the crime, police stopped Guy Randolph, a diagnosed schizophrenic, and asked the victim if Randolph was her attacker. She initially denied that he was, but later in the day identified him. She testified in court that Randolph was her attacker (despite much contradictory evidence) and Randolph’s lawyer convinced him to plead no-contest.

Bobby Johnson, a then-16 year old with limited intellectual capacity, was arrested for involvement in a fatal shooting in New Haven, Connecticut. The detective interrogating Johnson falsely informed him that they had found physical evidence linking Johnson to the murder, and, after hours of interrogation without either parent present, Johnson finally broke down and falsely confessed to his involvement in the murder.

People take plea deals for a variety of reasons, and plenty of those who plead guilty are, in fact, guilty. The problem is that the promise of reduced charges in exchange for a plea is presented to both the guilty and the innocent, setting the goal to the illusion of justice, instead of the actual realization of it.

 “The lack of available resources in the system incentivizes a culture of innocent people pleading out. In order to address wrongful convictions we need to work towards changing this culture, which would undoubtedly require increasing resources or decreasing arrests," says New England Innocence Project Executive Director Denise McWilliams.

Join us in working to end innocent people being forced to plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit — a phenomenon which leaves the real perpetrators free to commit more crimes, and serves to enforce a mere illusion of justice in the United States.

Midweek News Roundup

Midweek Roundup

Landmark Victory for Open Government

In a landmark victory for open government, a court in Ohio ruled that police investigation records must become public documents after a suspect’s criminal trial concludes. The ruling meant that the records being sought by the Ohio Innocence Project from Columbus Police dating back to 2013 must be handed over to them. Ohio Innocence Project Director Mark Godsey called it a “huge win for justice.” So far, OIP has helped to free 23 wrongfully convicted prisoners.

John Grisham’s Advice to Incoming Attorney General Sessions

Celebrated author John Grisham has been a longtime supporter of the innocence movement. In a recent interview with the Marshall Project, he offered these words of advice for incoming AG Sessions: “I would never advise Mr. Sessions on how to handle his job, but I hope he understands that there are thousands of innocent people in prison serving long sentences for crimes committed by others; that their convictions could have been avoided and the real perpetrators brought to justice; that many segments of our criminal justice system are broken and must be fixed; that untold millions of dollars could be saved by criminal justice reforms, not to mention the avoidance of human suffering…”

Another Wrongful Conviction in Lake County, Illinois

25 years ago, William Carini was wrongfully convicted of rape. His conviction was cleared by Lake County State's Attorney Michael Nerheim, who announced in December that, after a lengthy review of the case, his office would dismiss William’s conviction after forensic testing done last fall revealed none of the physical evidence collected in the rape case matched William. He will be the 7th person cleared of rape or murder in Lake County in the past six years.

An Illinois Editorial Argues for Better Treatment of Exonerees

Due to a budget impasse in the capital of Springfield, Illinois exonerees haven't been able to receive any of their compensation funds. There hasn’t been a state budget for nearly 18 months, and during that time attorneys say that roughly 14 people have been exonerated. 

This Year, More Than Ever, The Wrongfully Convicted Need Your Help

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At The New England Innocence Project, we know that a conviction doesn’t necessarily mean that a person is guilty. The number of innocent men and women released from prison climbs steadily each year, proving that the system does, in fact, make mistakes. But this year, despite the enormous progress that has been made, we’re fearful that the incoming administration’s views on innocence issues will drag us back decades, to a time when the notion of thousands of innocent Americans languishing behind bars was thought to be an absurdity, not a reality.

In October, President-elect Trump doubled down on his long-held belief that the Central Park Five were guilty of a horrendous 1989 rape, despite the fact that their convictions were vacated when the actual perpetrator gave a confession that was corroborated by DNA evidence. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, calls this “law and order” and thinks that it shows strength.  We think it shows an alarming disregard for the lessons of the innocence movement and a callous indifference to the experience of the nearly two thousand wrongly convicted persons and their loved ones.

More than 14 million people live in New England. On any given day, roughly 32,000 of them are in prison. Some of them are innocent. The New England Innocence Project is the only independent organization working to exonerate them. We have our work cut out for us.

It’s not easy to prove someone’s innocence, and it takes a long time – justice is a marathon, not a sprint. Victor Rosario knows that. During the 32 years he spent in prison for an arson murder he did not commit, Victor became a runner – if you’re wondering how many laps around a prison yard it takes to complete a 26.2 mile marathon, Victor can tell you. He ran around the yard 76 times.

Victor was released from prison 2 years ago when the Court granted his Motion for a New Trial, but his freedom remains tentative; in November, the Commonwealth urged the Supreme Judicial Court to reinstate his conviction. Victor was at the Court to hear that argument, 2 days after he ran the New York City Marathon in 4 hours, 35 minutes, and 36 seconds (pictured above post-marathon).  Victor lives with the knowledge that he may be returned to prison for a crime he did not commit. But he’s not dwelling on that – he told the Boston Globe that he is “enjoying every second” of his freedom.

Victor’s not giving up, and neither are we. But this year, more than ever, we need your help.

Annually, we receive more than 600 applications from throughout New England. Each application is thoroughly vetted, and less than 3% are accepted for further action. By the time the case is ready to go to court, the scientific, technical and investigative costs will exceed $60,000. This work is critically important on a micro level – innocent people should never be in prison – and on a macro level: wrongful convictions undermine the legitimacy and trust placed in the criminal justice system as a whole.       

Vindicating innocence is incredibly important work, but it’s expensive. I ask that you support our work as generously as you can. You can donate here.

Many of our clients wait more than a decade for the chance to prove their innocence. With your help, some of them will get that chance this year. 

Thank you for your continued commitment to justice,

Sincerely,

Denise McWilliams

Executive Director

For Victor Rosario, Justice is a Marathon, not a Sprint

By Denise McWilliams

Victor Rosario challenged himself yesterday.  He ran the New York City Marathon.  His friends worried that he hadn’t trained enough. “The problem is he never says no to anyone,” they said. “I’ve never seen anyone like him.”  Turns out they needn’t have worried: he finished in 4:35:36.  Not a bad time for a 58 year old man who didn’t do enough training.

Victor is used to challenges.  Arguably his greatest was his wrongful conviction of homicide by arson in 1983.   The evidence against him?   Flawed fire science that mischaracterized the vestiges of an intense fire as evidence of arson.  A false confession extracted while Victor was undergoing delirium tremens due to alcohol withdrawal.  And, finally, an eyewitness identification that correctly identified him as being at the scene, but was then used to support a series of erroneous conclusions that supported the prosecutor’s theory.

The remains of the Lowell, Massachusetts home, destroyed by fire. (Property of the Lowell Sun)

Victor spent 32 years in prison, steadfastly maintaining his innocence and fighting for his freedom until, in July 2014, Judge Kathe Tuttman overturned the convictions and granted Victor a new trial. He was released on bail, no longer imprisoned but left in the uncomfortable position of waiting to see what further action the Commonwealth was going to take. The Commonwealth appealed Judge Tuttman’s decision and the Supreme Judicial Court will hear that appeal tomorrow, November 8, 2016.  In the meantime, however, Victor hasn’t been waiting on the courts to act.

Victor had been ordained as a minister while in prison, and once released on bail he began active ministry, preaching at local churches.  He and Beverly, his wife of 22 years, founded an organization to help people in prison maintain contact with their families and to support re-entry upon their release. As demonstrated by his successful completion of the marathon yesterday, Victor is also a runner.  He became one while in prison, routinely running 76 laps around the prison yard. Once, to celebrate his birthday, he ran the length of a marathon around the yard. Victor is the inspiration for and active member of the Running for Innocence team, a group of runners who ask their communities to sponsor them in races and use the funds generated to pay for the scientific and technical expenses of innocence cases. 

So: Victor has met many challenges, and has done so with courage and grace.  But tomorrow’s challenge is different. This time, Victor is issuing the challenge to the Massachusetts criminal justice system.  The challenge, simply put, is this: can Massachusetts find a way to acknowledge the error of this man’s conviction and finally put the record to right? Or, will the criminal justice system’s historic refusal to set aside wrongful convictions hold sway over justice yet again? NEIP, along with the Boston College Innocence Program and the Innocence Project, recently filed an amicus brief on Victor’s behalf.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Victor Rosario.

In the last several years, Massachusetts courts (particularly the Supreme Judicial Court) have shown a willingness to rely upon science to rectify earlier wrongs. NEIP hopes that the trend will be sustained tomorrow, and that the arc will continue to bend towards justice.

Victor Rosario and Running For Innocnece

Last Saturday Victor Rosario, along with Team Innocence, ran the 2016 New York City Marathon. We did a short profile on Victor and his love of long distance running. Check it out below:

Victor finished in 4:35:36!

Striking for Justice

By Hannah Riley 

On September 9th – which marked the 45th anniversary of the infamous Attica Prison uprising—prisoners across the country launched a new kind of protest: by the tens of thousands, they refused to show up for work. Since then, the strike has spread to at least 24 different states. Though there is not one unified list of demands, from state to state prisoners are calling for fair pay for their labor, humane living conditions, and increased access to educational programs. 

The strike began in Alabama, a state whose prisons consistently rank among the most overcrowded and understaffed in the nation, according to a recent lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Essentially powerless and voiceless behind bars, perhaps the only leverage possessed by inmates is the cheap (and sometimes free) labor they provide. According to Bureau of Justice statistics, roughly 600,000 inmates have daily jobs which help prisons to function smoothly (food preparation, custodial work, landscaping, library work, etc.) while an additional 60,000 inmates generated $472 million in sales last year through their participation in the Federal Prison’s Unicor program, where they manufacture items ranging from eyeglasses to furniture. 

New England Innocence Project Board Member Dennis Maher knows more than he’d like to about prison labor. During the 19 years he spent wrongfully imprisoned, Dennis had a number of jobs. “My first job in the prison was making eyeglasses – I put in for it, and because I was a lifer, I got it,” he told me. “They prefer someone with a long sentence. I made 50 cents an hour, working about 6 hours a day, 5 days a week.” $15 a week, for 30 hours of labor. Working nearly full time for an entire year would net him only $720. 

It’s perfectly legal for prisoners to be forced to work for no pay: the United States Constitution’s 13th Amendment still permits involuntary servitude, provided that it’s used as punishment for a crime. Mandatory work programs in federal prisons can pay up to a maximum of $1.15 per hour; state prisons average roughly 20 cents an hour. In Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, prisoners are not paid at all. 

To the extent that he was able, Dennis worked his way up the ladder, finally landing a job cooking for the prison staff. “When I finally ended up in a leadership position, working in the staff kitchen, my pay went up to $2 an hour. Then the DOC took over and it was reduced to $8 per day, then to just $5 a day. The DOC paid you what they paid you – doesn’t matter if you’re guilty or innocent. They don’t care what the inmates think. The prison system is a warehouse. Period.” 

The most conservative estimate is that 2.5% of the prison population is wrongfully convicted – which means that up to 16,500 of the 660,000 inmates providing cheap or free labor are innocent of the crimes for which they are serving time. 

Read more about the strike here. Learn more about Dennis’ story here. 

Midweek News Roundup

A Former Detective Speaks Out About False Confessions

For the vast majority of us who have never experienced a police interrogation, it’s difficult to imagine confessing to a crime you didn’t commit.

However, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, 12% of the 1,900 wrongful convictions in their database were caused, at least in part, by a false confession. Jim Trainum, a former Washington D.C. homicide detective, authored “How the Police Generate False Confessions” after recognizing that he unintentionally elicited a false confession from a suspect. Among other things, Trainum's new book discusses how false confessions start in the interrogation room and continue, unchecked and unchanged, to the courtroom. 

Read the full story here. 

Adnan Syed, Subject of 'Serial,' Asks to be Released on Bail

Adnan Syed, who has been incarcerated for seventeen years for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, has asked a judge to release him on bail. Syed’s case was explored extensively in the first season of the wildly popular podcast, Serial (which became the most downloaded podcast of all time). Syed is currently waiting to go to trial — again. This summer, a judge agreed that Syed's defense attorney had mishandled his case during his initial murder trial in 2000, and granted a new trial.

Read the full story here. 

In a New Twist in the Rosenberg Spy Drama, Sons Seek Mother's Exoneration

In 1953, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed on charges of being Soviet spies. Now, their sons are asking President Obama to fully exonerate their mother after decades of work towards proving her innocence, citing recently disclosed 'proof' that she was framed. Attention surrounding Ethel’s case heightened when a segment aired on 60 Minutes all but proving that she was not, in fact, a spy. So far, 13,000 people have signed a petition calling for her exoneration.

Read the full story here. 

$6 Million Settlement for Wrongfully Convicted North Carolina Man

The Greensboro, North Carolina City Council voted to settle Lamonte Armstrong’s civil lawsuit against the city for $6.42 million. Thanks to evidence contrived by Greensboro Police, Lamonte was wrongfully convicted of murder and spent 17 years in prison. The City Council worked to protect taxpayers, to the extent possible, from financial liability, and to offer fair compensation for wrongs done to Lamonte in the city’s name.

Read more here. 

Federal Judge Exonerates Two (More) of the Norfolk Four

On Monday, a federal judge vacated the convictions of Danial Williams and Joseph Dick, two of the four Navy sailors known as the Norfolk Four, who were wrongfully convicted of a 1997 rape and murder. The two other members of the Norfolk Four are Derek Tice and Eric Wilson. Tice had his conviction overturned in 2009, but Wilson, who was convicted only of the rape, has been unable to persuade courts to do the same, since he has already completed his sentence.

Read more here. 

Victor Rosario Keeps Fighting

Our client Victor Rosario was featured in the Boston Globe last week, speaking about his continued fight for full exoneration. Victor spent 32 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of intentionally setting a 1982 house fire in Lowell, Massachusetts. Two years after a judge freed Victor, now 59, he's leading a new life as a pastor and a dedicated long-distance runner. Victor’s fight for freedom is not over yet-- on November 8th, just two days after he runs the New York Marathon, he'll be back in court.

Read the Globe story here. 

Midweek News Roundup

This is the first of our new, bi-weekly news roundup where we will highlight stories currently in the media relating to wrongful convictions and criminal justice reform, particularly in the New England area. We hope you read and share these stories- and feel free to comment and keep the conversation going!
 

Progress on Criminal Justice Reform in MA
Top state officials from all three branches of government convened in Governor Charlie Baker’s office yesterday to hear the latest research by an outside non-profit that could help reduce incarceration and recidivism rates in Massachusetts. This Justice Center review is on track to produce recommendations by January, which could put criminal justice reforms at the forefront of the Beacon Hill agenda for the next legislative session. The research will be further discussed at a public meeting on Thursday.

The South Coast Today has the story here:
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/news/20161018/baker-legislative-leaders-huddle-on-criminal-justice-reform

Mourning the loss of Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson
Kenneth P. Thompson, Brooklyn’s first black district attorney, died of cancer on Sunday, October 9th, at the age of 50. His death is a tremendous loss not only to his family and friends, but to the broader causes of prosecutorial and criminal justice reform nationwide. Thompson devoted his life to public service, balancing his respect for the criminal justice system with his desire to fix it from the inside out. Since taking office in 2014, Thompson had put into place a myriad of reforms, including creating a Conviction Integrity Unit to look into past convictions, leading to reversed convictions for 21 people who collectively had spent hundreds of years in prison. It is a loss to us all that his remarkable life and work were cut short.
Ken Thompson’s passing has been covered extensively, here are a few articles:

NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/opinion/the-death-of-a-visionary-prosecutor.html
Innocence Project:
 http://www.innocenceproject.org/mourning-ken-thompson-death/
Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/new-york-prosecutor-was-trailblazer-on-reviewing-convictions/2016/10/10/6e62dcc6-8f4b-11e6-bc00-1a9756d4111b_story.html

Trump and the Central Park Five
In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers were accused of assaulting and raping a white woman in Central Park: they became known as the Central Park Five. Young and under duress, they falsely confessed, leading to wrongful convictions and prison time for all of them. In 2002, DNA evidence and the confession of the true criminal led to their exoneration, and the city of New York has subsequently given them monetary compensation for their false imprisonment- so why can’t Donald Trump let it go? In 1989, Trump spent nearly $100,000 placing full page ads in the four New York City daily papers calling for the return of the death penalty (in clear reference to this case), and to this day maintains that the Central Park Five are guilty of a crime they have been exonerated of.

The New York Times has the story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/18/opinion/why-trump-doubled-down-on-the-central-park-five.html

And here, Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Five, discusses how Trump’s assertions have affected his life:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/10/12/im-one-of-the-central-park-five-donald-trump-wont-leave-me-alone/?utm_term=.adc30eb0c601

Recommended Reading
"An Ex-Cop's Remorse:" An investigator who probes wrongful convictions now doubts a case of his own"
By Stephanie Clifford

A thoughtful and substantive look at the many causes that can lead to wrongful convictions in our criminal justice system, examined through the lens of one particular case in which an investigator, who has spent his life fighting for the wrongfully convicted, comes face to face with his own involvement in a case that sent an innocent man to prison.

Read it here:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/24/an-ex-cops-remorse

Joan Baez Brings Awareness to Innocence Movement in Boston

Last Saturday night, we at NEIP were thrilled to be present at Joan Baez’s concert at the Wang Theater.  Joan has teamed with the Innocence Project to use her fall tour as a platform to raise awareness of the costs and causes of wrongful conviction. Joan has made issues of social justice a focal point of her expansive and outstanding career, and we are grateful to have her as a supporter of the innocence movement.

During the concert, Joan set time aside to speak about the Innocence Project: “I’ve teamed up with the Innocence Project. They are lawyers who work pro bono to exonerate prisoners who were never guilty in the first place. It’s very successful, you can read about it, you can join up.’”

She went on to highlight some of the issues of criminal justice reform that often come up in cases of wrongful conviction, and that she is passionate about: “it’s about racial profiling, racial inequality, mass arrests, torture... prison in general.”

She followed this up by singing her song “Billy Rose” as a tribute to these issues.

At this event, NEIP highlighted the case of Alfred Trenkler, who has been in prison for 25 years for a crime he did not commit. We were thrilled to collect over 100 signatures on our petition to get his case re-opened. You can sign the online version of the petition here:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/new-trial-for-alfred-trenkler

It was a pleasure to talk to concert attendees, many of whom, like Joan, are passionate about issues of criminal justice reform. We were moved and inspired by them, and greatly appreciate the interest they expressed in our cause and this case.

Joan Baez will be performing tomorrow night in Westbury, NY, and her tour continues through November!

Alfred Trenkler- An Innocent Man

Alfred Trenkler has been incarcerated in federal prison for nearly twenty-five years for a crime he did not commit.

25 years ago, police in Roslindale, MA received a phone call from a Thomas Shay Sr., who told them that a suspicious device had dislodged from the underbelly of his car. Officers Jeremiah Hurley and Francis Foley showed up to the scene, where they found a dynamite bomb encased in a black box. In the process of attempting to dismantle the device, it detonated. Officer Hurley was tragically killed, and Officer Foley severely injured.

Thomas Shay’s son, Thomas Shay Jr., was focused on by police early in the investigation, due to a number of incoherent statements he made, implying that the bomb had in fact been meant for him. Despite Shay Jr.’s documented history of mental illness, the police moved forward with the lead, and from an address book belonging to Shay Jr., they found Alfred Trenkler. Baselessly, the prosecution alleged that Trenkler and Shay Jr. had been involved in a relationship, and that Trenkler had built the bomb at the behest of Shay Jr., who wanted to kill his father in order to cash in on an insurance policy.  Police interest in Trenkler intensified when it came to light that he was an electrical engineer. Years prior, he had been involved in the prankish creation of an explosive device for a friend, which was then attached to the bottom of a car and detonated, creating a very loud explosion but no property damage or injuries. Trenkler was not convicted of any crime relating to this incident, though it undoubtedly served as the catalyst for the prosecution’s interest in and case against him.

At trial, the evidence against Trenkler was entirely circumstantial. A jailhouse snitch, David Lindholm, testified that Trenkler had confessed his guilt in assembling the bomb to him while they were incarcerated together. In exchange for his testimony against Trenkler, Lindholm received a substantial reduction in his sentence – though at trial he vehemently denied the existence of any such agreement. Lindholm has since gone on to make a career as a government witness. Shay Jr.’s implication of Trenkler also went forward at trial, despite the fact that Shay Jr. had been diagnosed with pseudologica fantasica, a mental illness which results in pathological lying and delusions. Trenkler was convicted of murder in 1993 and sentenced to life in prison.

Since trial, the evidence originally supporting Trenkler's conviction has been roundly discredited, piece by piece. Five jurors have come forward to publically state their belief in Trenkler’s innocence. Virtually all of the circumstantial trial evidence has been undermined by new and more reliable information.  After inculpating Trenkler, Shay Jr. recanted his statements and claimed to have been threatened by government attorneys. Fingerprint evidence, not disclosed at trial, also exculpated Trenkler.

Additionally, in their myopic focus on Trenkler and Shay Jr,. the government ignored some highly coincidental evidence involving Thomas Shay Sr. At the time of the incident, Shay Sr. was something of a professional plaintiff, having filed over 10 lawsuits, including several personal injury suits, four automobile accidents, one suit against Burger King after his young daughter cut her finger in a restaurant, a suit against Mickey Mouse after he claimed injury on a ride at Disneyland, and a plethora of others. He was at the time embroiled in a $400,000 suit against his former landlords, who owned the space in which his auto-body shop had previously been located. Shay Sr.’s suit against his landlords alleged that they threw a stick of dynamite into a barrel at his auto-body shop in an attempt to intimidate him, and subsequently dumped metal scraps in his driveway. In the suit, he was claiming that the dynamite incident caused him grievous physical injury and mental paranoia, which together prevented him from continuing to work. At the time that Shay Sr. purportedly discovered the device which killed Officer Hurley, the insurance company from whom he was hoping to receive money was unconvinced of the fact that Shay Sr.’s previous landlords were in fact making threats against his life, as he had been claiming.

Trenkler’s conviction and subsequent attempts at post-conviction relief perfectly illustrates the “piecemeal problem” in our criminal justice system – the failure of courts to recognize post-conviction innocence claims when evidence of innocence emerges piece by piece, rather than all at once. While all of the new evidence has come to light bit by bit, strict post-conviction statute of limitations periods have demanded immediate filings. Additionally, since his conviction in 1993, Trenkler has been largely unrepresented by counsel and has pursued post-conviction relief on his own behalf. The courts have effectively reviewed each new claim in isolation – meaning no court has had the benefit of assessing all the new evidence in the aggregate. This means that there has been no opportunity to view the evidentiary landscape as a whole, and recognize that virtually every piece of evidence originally supporting Trenkler's conviction is no longer viable. In short, the courts have failed to see the forest for the trees. Trenkler sits in federal prison despite the absence of any credible evidence that he actually committed the crime.

On October 8th, Joan Baez, who has partnered with the Innocence Network, will be highlighting Trenkler's case at her show at the Wang Theater in Boston.

We are asking United States Attorney for Massachusetts Carmen Ortiz that Trenkler’s case be reopened in light of the numerous items of post-conviction innocence which have emerged. Will you add your name to our petition? 

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/new-trial-for-alfred-trenkler

#WrongfulConvictionDay - Ronjon Cameron

On September 15, 1999, Ronjon Cameron was arrested and charged with two counts of rape. A rape he did not commit. A rape that did not happen.

Ronjon spent more than a decade of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit. Now, roughly a year after his release, Ronjon is committed to helping further the innocence movement and reform the criminal justice system.

The New England Innocence Project is sharing Ronjon’s story today in honor of Wrongful Conviction Day, to raise awareness of the causes and remedies of wrongful conviction and to recognize the tremendous personal, social, and emotional costs of wrongful conviction for innocent people and their families.

"Night Out with NEIP"- an inspiring evening!

September 30th, 2016

Guests listen to speakers at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center

 “Night Out with NEIP” was a great success! The evening, held last Friday night at the beautiful Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, was a wonderful celebration of NEIP’s work on behalf of wrongfully convicted prisoners. The reception was held in the large ballroom where guests, staff and recent exonerees and their families mingled and spoke about what NEIP and its work means to them. Guests enjoyed delicious hors d’oeuvres from Above and Beyond catering, and wine donated by Truro Vineyards of Cape Cod. In the Center’s art gallery, we held a successful silent auction with items donated from local artists, restaurants and professional Boston sports teams (see complete list below). Live music was provided by Kurt Reynolds on the harp, and later on in the evening guests enjoyed vocals by Emma Zack, accompanied by Joe Reid on the piano.

 The program began with a welcome address from board member Stephanie Hartung, Professor of Law at Suffolk University, who acknowledged the exonerees and their families present at the event, which included: Ronjon Cameron, Dennis Maher, George Perrot, Victor Rosario, the family of Raymond Tempest and Crystal Squire, niece of Barnard Barron. Next, NEIP board chair David Siegel highlighted NEIP’s accomplishments of 2016, and discussed some promising legal developments of the past year; particularly, the fourth consecutive unanimous decision by the SJC interpreting MA post conviction access and testing statues in an expansive way, which facilitates more access for persons who claim to be wrongfully convicted.

 Sharon Beckman, board member and Professor at Boston College Law School, presented the Joe Savage award to Lisa Kavanaugh, the CPCS Innocence program director. The award is named for Joe Savage, a highly respected criminal defense attorney and founder of NEIP. Beckman described Lisa as a brilliant lawyer, a visionary, and a genius collaborator, and noted that over the past five years, under Lisa’s leadership, the CPCS Innocence Unit has had a role in bringing about the release, new trial, or exoneration of nine men, who together spent a total of over 161 years in prison for crimes that they did not commit.

 Lisa Kavanaugh discussed her journey as a public defender, and how NEIP and the innocence movement are changing the conversation around wrongful convictions. She thanked the exonerees present, some of whom are her clients, for teaching her that “the lesson that I have to keep learning, again and again, is that I can’t stop fighting for the impossible.” She also discussed attorney Bryan Stevenson’s idea of brokenness, and the challenges and opportunities of living in a broken world: “If we have any hope of making a difference in fighting wrongful convictions, we have to recognize that not only are we all broken- not just our clients or the system, but every single one of us; but we also have to manage to find some strength in those places of brokenness, and then we have to have the daring to advocate for the impossible.”

 Next, Dennis Maher presented his namesake award to Ronjon Cameron. Dennis served over 19 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and since his release has had a tremendous impact on Massachusetts law and the innocence movement by sharing his story and working to help exonerees in a multitude of capacities. Dennis noted that same spirit of giving back in Ronjon: “I had nothing when I was in prison,” Dennis said, “when I got out, I decided to leave everything behind, and chose to embrace life- Ronjon has made that same choice.”

Ronjon spoke about the struggles he faces to clear his name (he has still not been officially exonerated) and receive compensation, the challenges his family faced during his incarceration, and his gratitude to NEIP for taking on cases of innocence. He also noted the strange irony that on the very same day that Dennis finally walked out of prison, he himself was taken to prison- a poignant reminder that for every wrongfully convicted person who is freed, there remain many more caught in the snares of the criminal justice system. Ronjon finished with an important message to those in the field: “You attorneys, well-seasoned attorneys, please, you know what’s going on. You new attorneys- change it.”

 We at NEIP hugely enjoyed connecting with our guests, honoring our exonerees, and hearing the words of our inspiring speakers. We are truly grateful to all of those who joined us last Friday night, and to all of our staff, board members, and volunteers who helped make the evening possible. We hope you will join us again next year, and in the meantime, keep supporting NEIP and join us at future events!

We would like to particularly thank the following organizations and individuals for their generous silent auction donations:

• The Boston Red Sox
• Eliana Dunlap and Esh Circus Arts
• The Fireplace Restaurant
• J.P. Licks
• The Paint Bar
• Anna Meyer & Dancers/ Beheard.World
• New Repertory Theatre
• Cape Air
• Whole Foods
• Blackfish
• Dave Roberts
• Truro Vineyards
• The New England Patriots
• Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse
• Hilary Price (Rhymes with Orange)
• Omni Parker House
• The Celtics
• Thomas Dunlap
• Dennis Maher