In 2007, the Innocence Project published a report entitled Lessons Not Learned: New York Leads in the Number of Wrongful Convictions but Lags in Policy Reforms That Can Prevent Them.  See: www.innocenceproject.org/Content/947.php
 
The report summarizes 23 cases  – 7 involving murder convictions – in which innocent New Yorkers were sent to prison for crimes that they did not commit. Since 2000, according to the report, the number of people exonerated of murder by DNA evidence in New York topped the number exonerated in any other state.
 
In the wrongful convictions department, more than Texas is not a good thing.
 
Since then - if we include exonerations that do not involve DNA evidence - the number has risen: We now count 20 people who have been released from New York prisons in the past decade after being convicted and incarcerated for murders they did not commit. Among the non-DNA exonerees are Alex Garcia, who was living in the Dominican Republic at the time of the Bronx murder for which he served 19 years; and Lynn DeJack of Erie County, who was released from prison after forensic pathologists determined that she did not murder her daughter, who in fact died of a drug overdose. Not only did prosecutors convict the wrong person – there was no crime to begin with!
 
One of the most disturbing cases involves my good friend Jeffrey Deskovic, who was 16 years old when police interrogators duped and scared him into confessing to a rape and murder that he had nothing to do with. Prior to his trial, the FBI crime lab reported that DNA and an unknown strand of hair removed from the victim did not match Deskovic. An honest prosecutor would have re-opened the investigation then and there. But the Westchester DA’s office, unwilling to admit its mistake, pressed ahead and persuaded a jury to convict Deskovic, who spent the next 16 years of his life in prison branded as a sex offender. The real murderer confessed after being identified by DNA in 2006.
 
If you want to hear Jeffrey tell his story, come to Meeting Room B of the Legislative Office Building in Albany on Saturday, February 13 from 3 – 4:30 pm. The workshop is in connection with the Black & Puerto Rican Caucus’ annual weekend conference and is sponsored by Assembly member Crystal Peoples. NYADP Board member L. Nathan Hare of Buffalo is the prime organizer of the event.
 
Making mistakes is never a good thing - but something worse is failing to learn from them. Since the Innocence Project published its report, our Legislature has passed none of the Innocence Project’s recommended reforms aimed at minimizing wrongful convictions in our state.
 
Joining Jeffrey on the workshop panel will be Senator Eric Schneiderman, head of the Senate codes committee, who has introduced legislation to address the problem; New York’s latest murder exoneree, Fernando Bermudez, who was exonerated and released last November; and NYADP’s own Marie Verzulli, sister of a murder victim, who will share her perspective on how wrongful convictions impact homicide survivors.
 
Wrongful convictions harm many innocent people. They also tarnish our justice system. Mistakes will happen – but we can do much better than this!