"THE TRUTH IS, WHERE "INNOCENCE COMMISSIONS" HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED THEY HAVEN'T BEEN A TERRIBLY EFFECTIVE VEHICLE FOR GETTING INNOCENT PEOPLE OUT OF PRISON. MOST OF THAT WORK HAS BEEN DONE BY THE NATIONAL INNOCENCE PROJECT AND VARIOUS SPIN-OFFS AT LAW SCHOOLS AROUND THE COUNTRY. SO IF TEXAS CHOOSES TO USE THAT VEHICLE FOR THE TASK, GREAT. IT'S WHAT SEEMS TO WORK BEST. BUT THE PALTRY SUMS PRESENTLY APPROPRIATED ARE INSUFFICIENT - $200K PER YEAR FOR EACH OF THE STATE'S FOUR INNOCENCE CLINICS, DISTRIBUTED THROUGH THE TASK FORCE ON INDIGENT DEFENSE. MUCH MORE THAN THAT WOULD BE NEEDED, FOR EXAMPLE, TO VET ALL OF DEPUTY PIKETT'S OLD DOG-SCENT LINEUPS OR COMPREHENSIVELY EVALUATE POSSIBLE INNOCENCE CLAIMS AMONG RECENTLY DISCOVERED DNA SAMPLES IN SAN ANTONIO, MUCH LESS TO GET STARTED ON QUESTIONABLE ARSON CASES. ON THAT SCORE, I'VE BEEN DISAPPOINTED THE GOVERNOR'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE DIVISION HASN'T STEPPED UP TO THE PLATE - THAT'S THE MOST OBVIOUS SOURCE OF ADDITIONAL FUNDS FOR LAW-SCHOOL BASED INNOCENCE CLINICS, BUT INSTEAD THEY'RE FUNDING PET PROJECTS ON THE BORDER THAT OFTEN DON'T APPEAR TO BE DELIVERING MUCH BANG FOR THE BUCK."
GRITS FOR BREAKFAST;
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BACKGROUND: Timothy Cole, whose cause has been championed by state lawmakers and others, was found guilty in the 1985 rape of a Texas Tech student and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. His conviction was based in part on the victim's identification of him as her attacker and what a judge later called faulty police work and a questionable suspect lineup. The victim later fought to help clear Cole's name. Cole died in prison in 1999, at age 39, after an asthma attack caused him to go into cardiac arrest. Following repeated confessions by another man, Cole was cleared by DNA evidence in 2008, and a state judge exonerated him in 2009. His family pursued a pardon, but Perry had said he did not have the authority to grant one posthumously. That changed after Perry announced that he had received legal advice to the contrary.
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"Dave Montgomery from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that: An advisory panel bearing the name of a wrongfully convicted inmate from Fort Worth is apparently leaning against recommending the creation of a state innocence commission amid concerns that it would create a new bureaucracy and duplicate work already being performed in Texas law schools," the Grits For Breakfast 23 April, 2010 post begins, under the heading, "Advisory panel leaning against innocence commission."
"The concept of an innocence commission to investigate whether convictions are wrongful was among several recommendations discussed Thursday by the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel," the post continues.
"Cole, who died in prison after being convicted for a sexual assault that he didn't commit, was recently given a posthumous pardon by Gov. Rick Perry.
The panel deferred votes until its next meeting, but members generally expressed reservations about creating an innocence commission. Some members called for bolstering similar work now under way in four Texas law schools.
The University of Texas at Austin, Texas Tech, the University of Houston and Texas Southern University have projects or clinics that examine questionable convictions. Similar projects are in operation across the country.
The commission's stance generally tracks that of Perry, who believes a commission "would create an added layer of government," said Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle. Perry's deputy general counsel, Mary Anne Wiley, is a member of the panel.
"The governor's focus is working to ensure wrongful convictions don't happen in the first place," Castle said, "like supporting the law school innocence project, creating expert attorneys who specialize in post conviction death penalty cases and encouraging the creation of more public defender offices across the state to ensure competent counsel by attorneys who specialize in death penalty cases."
Tim Cole's half-brother Cory Session was there to support an innocence commission, but apparently that's not the direction the advisory panel will go. I wasn't there to hear the conversation, but speaking only for myself I don't actually find the Governor's stance particularly objectionable, with one stipulation: Texas innocence clinics are underfunded for the task before them, and if an Innocence Commission won't be created there need to be more funds applied to the law school clinics.
The truth is, where "innocence commissions" have been established they haven't been a terribly effective vehicle for getting innocent people out of prison. Most of that work has been done by the national Innocence Project and various spin-offs at law schools around the country. So if Texas chooses to use that vehicle for the task, great. It's what seems to work best. But the paltry sums presently appropriated are insufficient - $200K per year for each of the state's four innocence clinics, distributed through the Task Force on Indigent Defense.
Much more than that would be needed, for example, to vet all of Deputy Pikett's old dog-scent lineups or comprehensively evaluate possible innocence claims among recently discovered DNA samples in San Antonio, much less to get started on questionable arson cases. On that score, I've been disappointed the Governor's Criminal Justice Division hasn't stepped up to the plate - that's the most obvious source of additional funds for law-school based innocence clinics, but instead they're funding pet projects on the border that often don't appear to be delivering much bang for the buck.
One does notice that none of the post-conviction remedies Ms. Castle describes would "ensure wrongful convictions don't happen in the first place." For that the state needs to enact policy reforms on the front end, such as requiring valid lineup practices, recording interrogations, and ensuring that invalid forensics aren't used at trial. Governor Perry has never championed such reforms, but neither for the most part has he opposed them, with the notable exception of his intervention into the Forensic Science Commission's investigation into arson science.
One of the arguments for an innocence commission is that it creates an institutional player to focus on those questions, but that's not the only way that particular cat can be skinned: The Legislature could just enact such reforms if top state leadership support them. Last session, they had other priorities."
The post can be found at:
http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/04/advisory-panel-leaning-against.html
Harold Levy;
