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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 12:29 am
Time: 12:29 am
Results for criminal prosecution (u.s.)
1 results foundAuthor: Center for Prosecutor Integrity Title: Conviction Integrity Units: Vanguard of Criminal Justice Reform Summary: January 4, 1989 marked a watershed moment in the history of the American criminal justice system. On that day, Virginia governor Gerald L. Baliles issued a pardon for David Vasquez. Vasquez was released from prison that evening. Vasquez had been charged with the 1984 rape and murder of Carolyn Hamm, a 32-year-old lawyer. Vasquez's blood did not match the semen found on the victim's body and his shoes did not conform to the footprints found at the crime scene. Nonetheless, his disjointed confession sufficed to convince the jury to convict and sentence him to 35 years behind bars. But three years later another rape-murder occurred in the same suburban-Washington, D.C. community with details that were eerily similar to the Hamm case. Police began to wonder if a rash of previous rapes all shared a common perpetrator. Investigators tapped the newly developed, still controversial forensic technique of DNA analysis. The tests soon linked Timothy Spencer, not David Vasquez, to the series of rapes. Spencer was eventually convicted and sentenced in 1988. Six months after the release of David Vasquez, another man - Gary Dotson of Illinois - was exonerated of a crime that he did not commit. The following year, Edward Green became the beneficiary of a third DNA exoneration. More exonerations followed, compelling prosecutors, lawmakers, and the American public to question long-held beliefs about the infallibility of the criminal justice system. The Innocence Movement was born. As Innocence Projects were established across the country, the pace of exonerations accelerated. It soon became possible to identify patterns and pinpoint causes of the wrongful convictions. The National Registry of Exonerations reported that 47% of wrongful convictions could be attributed to misconduct by prosecutors and other officials. Calls for reform could no longer be ignored. One of the most promising corrections has been the establishment of post-conviction review programs, commonly referred to as Conviction Integrity Units (CIUs). Conviction Integrity Units are entities located within District Attorneys' offices that are designed to investigate claims of wrongful convictions. Many of these units have also developed policies designed to reduce future false convictions. This White Paper spotlights Conviction Integrity Units, providing an overview of their administrative and screening procedures, a compilation of their accomplishments, and a discussion on how they have sought to achieve the proper degree of administrative independence. Details: Rockville, MD: Center for Prosecutor Integrity, 2014. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: White Paper: Accessed January 21, 2015 at: http://www.prosecutorintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Conviction-Integrity-Units.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://www.prosecutorintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Conviction-Integrity-Units.pdf Shelf Number: 134425 Keywords: Criminal Justice ReformCriminal Prosecution (U.S.)Post-Conviction ReviewProsecutorsWrongful Convictions |