Saturday, September 17, 2011

PROBLEMS WITH EYEWITNESS ID AND FORENSIC EVIDENCE GATHERING

From examiner.com (September 16, 2011):

[On] Thursday, The Constitution Project, along with Georgetown University Law Center and Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, celebrated Constitution Day with a lively and insightful expert panel. The panel was moderated by George Washington University law professor and legal affairs editor of The New Republic Jeffrey Rosen.

Former Attorney General of Ohio and current Chancellor of the University System of Ohio Jim Petro, University of Virginia Brandon L. Garrett, and vice-chair of The Ohio State University Hospital Board and twenty year principal of a graphic design firm Nancy Petro discussed the flaws in the present criminal justice system that can often result in wrongful convictions.

Garrett is the author of Convicting the Innocent. Garrett has studied 250 cases where wrongful convictions were overturned with DNA evidence. In 76 percent of those cases, the exonerated had been incriminated by eyewitnesses in lineups or photo arrays.

"The problem with the system might easily be areas of eyewitness IDs and evidence gathering - especially with forensics," said Professor Garrett.

The Petros' book, False Justice: Eight Myths that Convict the Innocent, explore the kinks in the justice system which accounts for far too many people being incarcerated and some executed for crimes they did not commit.

Vice-Chair Nancy Pero exclaimed, "I'd like to see an academy set up to certify people who deal with forensics."

"We just presented a discussion by some very knowledgeable and bright people," said Virginia Sloan, President of The Constitution Project. "We need to take this show on the road because there are issues that every American needs to know about. They need to know how the criminal justice system is working, or in fact, how it’s not working."

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