"CAULLEY'S CASE IS ONE OF 30 THAT THE DISPATCH HAS IDENTIFIED AS PRIME CANDIDATES FOR BIOLOGICAL TESTING UNDER A LAW PASSED IN 2003 AND REVISED IN 2006. AN ACCREDITED LAB, WHICH DOES WORK FOR THE STATE CRIME LAB, HAS AGREED TO CONDUCT THE TESTS FREE AS A PUBLIC SERVICE. GOV. TED STRICKLAND CALLED IT A "TERRIFIC" OPPORTUNITY TO BEGIN RESTORING CREDIBILITY TO A FLAWED SYSTEM. HE IS URGING PROSECUTORS AND JUDGES TO SUPPORT THE INITIATIVE. "I CAN SEE NO JUSTIFICATION FOR ANY INTERFERENCE IN THE TESTING IN THOSE CASES," STRICKLAND SAID. "IT'S NOT GOING TO COST THE COUNTY. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE JUSTIFICATION FOR TRYING TO BLOCK THAT KIND OF TESTING WOULD BE.""
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH;
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BACKGROUND: PART ONE: According to the Innocence Project, "Ohio lawmakers last week (March 16, 2010) passed a package of sweeping criminal justice reforms aimed at preventing injustice by addressing the leading causes of wrongful convictions. The bill, which Gov. Ted Strickland is expected to sign within days, was called by one lawmaker “one of the most important pieces of criminal justice legislation in this state in a century."Each time DNA testing helps to free an innocent person from prison, we can study how our criminal justice system failed — and address the problem so it doesn’t happen again. Ohio is now a model in targeting reforms to help free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions and apprehend the true perpetrators of crime. The bill includes improvements to lineup procedures, a method for parolees to apply for DNA testing, incentives for police departments to record interrogations and a requirement that evidence in serious crimes be preserved. The Innocence Project worked closely with the Ohio Innocence Project for the last two years to pass these critical reforms. While these reforms are badly needed from coast to coast, the urgency for systemic change became clear in Ohio after the Columbus Dispatch published the groundbreaking series "Test of Convictions," documenting flaws in the state’s system and helping to bring about two exonerations so far. The series’ two reporters, Mike Wagner and Geoff Dutton, will receive the Innocence Network’s first-annual Journalism Award next month. (April, 2010)
BACKGROUND: PART TWO: THE FIVE PART COLUMBUS DISPATCH SERIES THAT PROMPTED DRAMATIC CRIMINAL LAW REFORM IN OHIO:
* PART ONE: Evidence is often lost or destroyed.
* PART TWO: Ohio rejects tests for parolees and the dead.
* PART THREE:Victims relive horror when inmates get testing.
* PART FOUR; Innocent man must register as sex offender.
* PART FIVE: DNA promising in questionable cases.
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BACKGROUND PART THREE; THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH'S MODUS-OPERANDI: The Dispatch built case files on 313 inmates from 51 counties who applied for DNA tests. The newspaper reviewed every case with the Ohio Innocence Project, a University of Cincinnati-based legal clinic that represented many of the inmates. The reporters interviewed three dozen inmates and former inmates, as well as prosecutors, crime victims and others with a stake in the system.
BACKGROUND PART FOUR: THE REPORTERS; Geoff Dutton is a projects reporter who joined The Dispatch in 2002. He has reported on unsafe conditions in youth prisons, home foreclosures and predatory lending, and the consequences of sentencing juvenile criminals to adult prisons. Dutton worked previously for newspapers in Florida and Ohio. Mike Wagner has been a projects reporter at The Dispatch since 2006. He has profiled former OSU quarterback Art Schlichter, examined the lack of black coaches in high schools and detailed fan behavior at Big Ten football games. Previously, he worked as an investigative reporter for the Dayton Daily News.
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am struck by the sheer contrast between Texas and Ohio when it comes to the criminal justice system. The State of Texas does its best to hide any information which could show that it could have convicted, or even executed an innocent man - as is so evident in the Cameron Todd Willingham and Hank Skinner cases. The State of Ohio is aggressively seeking to free the innocent and prevent wrongful convictions through legislation. This revolution in Ohio didn't just happen. It is the result of a magnificent investigation conducted by the Columbus Dispatch which began on January 27, 2008. This Blog applauds the Dispatch for pouring in the hefty resources required for such a massive undertaking, the Innocence Project and the Ohio Innocence Project, for its unique cooperation with the newspaper, and the writers, photographers and editorial staff who did such a phenomenal job. Reporters Geoff Dutton and Mike Wagner richly deserve the Innocence Network’s first-annual Journalism Award which is to be presented next month. (April, 2010);
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"For 12 hours, they showed him photos from the bloody crime scene, screamed in his ears, threatened him with the death penalty, told him he failed a lie-detector test and even followed him into the bathroom, until Robert Caulley finally gave them what they wanted," the story begins, under the heading, "Pursuit of justice: Private lab offers free DNA tests in 30 cases."
"Told by detectives that if he confessed he could return home to his wife and young son to sort things out, Caulley buckled," it continues.
"On that day in December 1996, he told investigators that he had beaten his parents to death with a baseball bat nearly three years earlier in their Grove City home.
Convicted on little more than what he says was a false confession, Caulley wants a DNA test. Detectives originally had said Caulley's parents were killed when they interrupted a burglary.
"I loved my parents; I didn't kill them," said Caulley, 43, an Ohio State graduate who worked as an aeronautical engineer. He has served 10 years of his life sentence. "I just want the chance to prove my innocence."
Caulley's case is one of 30 that The Dispatch has identified as prime candidates for biological testing under a law passed in 2003 and revised in 2006. An accredited lab, which does work for the state crime lab, has agreed to conduct the tests free as a public service.
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Gov. Ted Strickland called it a "terrific" opportunity to begin restoring credibility to a flawed system. He is urging prosecutors and judges to support the initiative.
"I can see no justification for any interference in the testing in those cases," Strickland said. "It's not going to cost the county. I don't know what the justification for trying to block that kind of testing would be."
The Dispatch, as part of a yearlong investigation, gathered public records and built files on the 313 cases in which Ohio prisoners applied for a DNA test under an old law, which stymied nearly everyone. Advocates hope that modest changes to the law in 2006 have created new opportunities for them.
Through consultation with the Ohio Innocence Project, a legal clinic based at the University of Cincinnati, The Dispatch identified prospects for testing.
The newspaper weighed several factors, including criminal histories, the evidence used to convict inmates and whether evidence remains available for testing. In several cases, judges had ordered tests but they hadn't been done more than two years later.
Many inmates who say they're innocent couldn't be included because evidence has been lost or destroyed.
In conjunction with The Dispatch investigation, lawyers representing the 30 inmates plan to seek approval from judges in 13 counties for DNA tests beginning today. The inmates are being represented individually either by the Ohio Innocence Project or the Ohio public defender. These cases will be among the first to be filed under the new law.
Prosecutors in Lucas and Marion counties already have agreed to tests in two cases after being questioned about the cases by Dispatch reporters. Other prosecutors said they would consider the requests after they are filed in court.
DNA tests could answer troubling questions looming over the convictions -- often with absolute finality.
The newspaper asked the Ohio Innocence Project for legal assistance in reviewing case files. Dispatch Editor Benjamin J. Marrison said the initiative is a test of Ohio's flawed system more than of any one conviction.
"There's no reason to not pursue the truth," Marrison said. "What motivated us was examining the system to find out if it's flawed and, where it is flawed, having the legislature and the governor craft fixes. The findings of this investigation should alarm every Ohioan, because the lack of evidence protocol means any one of us could be wrongly convicted."
The Ohio Innocence Project, a team of law students led by two professors, said the Dispatch investigation accelerated their review of innocence claims. Typically, the group has about five active cases, which can drag on for years and sometimes extend beyond DNA issues.
"Now that we've got the new (law) in place, we need to have a whole new round of examination on these cases and, of course, need to have a more open mind," said Mark Godsey, director of the Ohio Innocence Project.
"Each of these cases represents systematic flaws that suggest our justice system is not working the way we all would like," said Jenny Carroll, academic director. "I think the publicity The Dispatch can bring to those issues will bring about more systematic reforms than I can bring about as an individual lawyer."
DNA Diagnostics Center, a private lab that does work for law-enforcement agencies and defense lawyers, has agreed to test the 30 cases free of charge.
A single DNA test costs about $1,500. Many cases likely would involve numerous tests, including advanced procedures that can cost up to $5,000 each.
"We should make this technology available to those people who may not be able to afford it," said Dr. Richard Lee, owner of DNA Diagnostics in Fairfield, near Cincinnati. "A lot of those people sitting in jail right now may be innocent. And it's all about getting to the truth. We should be able to use this to do something for society."
State officials note that guilty inmates who apply for a DNA test risk prolonging their prison stay.
"If an inmate has previously said he is innocent, and we have a DNA test verifying his guilt, the parole board does take that into consideration," Ohio Parole Board spokeswoman Andrea Carson said.
Strickland, a former prison psychologist, said problems uncovered by The Dispatch demand attention. The governor said he would support changes to reduce the chances of wrongful convictions, and make it easier to identify and correct them when they happen, including:
• Preserving and cataloguing evidence. There are 22 states that require evidence to be saved, typically until the convict is out of prison.
• Eliminating time limits to apply for a test. In Ohio, convicts must have at least one year left on their prison sentence to qualify.
• Outlawing traditional police lineups in favor of photo lineups administered by a person who doesn't know who the suspect is, to avoid any chance of steering witnesses. The most common error in wrongful convictions, DNA exonerations nationally show, has been witnesses misidentifying the attacker.
• Requiring police to record interrogations. Police in Minnesota resisted this requirement more than 13 years ago, only to later conclude that it usually works to their advantage. "It's the best tool shoved down our throats," St. Paul police commander Neil Nelson said in 2006.
• Forming an innocence commission, a diverse panel of experts to review inmate DNA applications and make recommendations to local judges, who decide the cases.
Given The Dispatch's findings, Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer said he was generally supportive of a statewide evidence-preservation law, as well as forming an innocence commission.
"It's an interesting story and one that needs to be told," Moyer said. "We need to respond, obviously, with changes."
Caulley's case shows the potential value of such precautions.
Police recorded only the very end of his half-day interrogation, leaving many questions.
Caulley said he believed that his "off-the-record" confession -- which was secretly taped -- was his only chance to meet with his wife and 5-year-old son and talk with a lawyer. At one point during the questioning, when Caulley kept insisting on a lawyer, the detectives put him on the phone with one -- an assistant county prosecutor, who urged him to cooperate.
Caulley's lawyers argued to keep his confession from being used as evidence at his trial, saying that it was coerced, but the trial judge allowed it. The appeals court agreed that there was nothing improper about the interrogation, ruling that "ploys to mislead a suspect" are common and Caulley could have walked out at any time.
Eight years into Caulley's prison sentence, a different judge granted DNA testing on a hair found in his dead mother's hand. But the vial in the evidence room inexplicably turned up empty. Tests on other evidence in August were inconclusive.
Now, Caulley wants the remaining pieces of evidence tested, including another suspect's sweat shirt with a red spot, possibly blood. But he's afraid he missed his chance when the hair was lost.
"There is no hope now," he said, wiping away tears.
Walter Smith knows that feeling. He began fighting for a DNA test shortly after his conviction for raping two Columbus women, in the earliest days of forensic DNA analysis.
"They denied me nine times," he said.
Tests cleared him in 1996 -- 10 years into a 78- to 190-year prison sentence. Smith prevailed in the days before Ohio created an inmate DNA testing program.
Smith, who is now a motivational speaker, had hoped the program would give inmates a better shot at proving innocence. In fact, there were more DNA exonerations in Ohio before the 2003 law.
Clearly, he said, the law needs to allow more DNA tests.
"There's a major flaw in our system. If they don't think it's to their advantage to get a prosecution and conviction," he said, "they're not going to spend the money.""
This story can be found at:
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/01/31/dna5.html
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
