200 TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED AN INNOCENCE PROJECT REPORT ON THE FIRST 200 DNA EXONERATIONS IN THE U.S. BENJAMIN N. CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW, YESHIVA UNIVERSITY INTRODUCTION The people you will meet in this booklet did not simply endure injustice that nobody else can begin to imagine; they prevailed. Each and every one of them was proven innocent — simply, elegantly and definitively — through DNA testing. We are privileged to know most of the 200 people whose stories follow. Without warning or cause, all of them were swept off the streets one day, forcibly separated from their families and friends, and wrongfully imprisoned for years or, often, decades. Some narrowly escaped execution. Even in their first days of freedom, the euphoria that many exonerated people feel is tempered by a profoundly personal understanding of the larger problem and an unwavering resolve to help fix a broken system. They don’t want anyone else to be robbed of life and liberty as they were. When we founded the Innocence Project in 1992, we wanted to walk as many innocent people out of prison as possible — and to turn the horror each one experienced into a “learning moment” that could help repair the systemic failings in our criminal justice system. The demand for our services has grown tremendously, as has the network of organizations working tirelessly to free the innocent and reform the system. Today, there are more than 35 organizations in the Innocence Network, and many of them helped exonerate the individuals in this booklet. Together, we are in a race against time — a race to test evidence before it is destroyed, and to prove the truth before one of our innocent clients spends one more birthday behind bars. And we are in a race against time to reform the criminal justice system before more innocent people are wrongfully convicted. The most common question we are asked is, “How many innocent people are in prison?” Nobody truly knows the answer — but the question itself is haunting, since it reflects the common knowledge that there are undoubtedly more. Because just a small fraction of cases involve evidence that could be tested for DNA — and even when such evidence exists, it is often lost or destroyed — we know that these first 200 DNA exonerations are the tip of the iceberg. Each wrongful conviction that has been overturned through DNA evidence could have been prevented if eyewitness procedures had been better, if interrogations had been recorded, if crime labs had been subjected to greater oversight, if the system had been more skeptical of jailhouse informants, or if other reforms had been in place. Since the first person in the U.S. was exonerated through DNA, states, counties and individual law enforcement agencies have enacted these reforms. Our mandate — society’s duty to these 200 people and the ones who will follow them — is to free more innocent people while fixing the system to prevent wrongful convictions. We owe these people, and ourselves, no less. Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld www.innocenceproject.org | 1 200GARY DOTSON • 1989 DAVID VASQUEZ • 1989 EDWARD GREEN • 1990 CHARLES DABBS • 1991 BRUCE NELSON • 1991 YEARS YEARS YEAR YEARS YEARS 10 ILLINOIS 4 VIRGINIA 1 DISTRICT OF 7 NEW YORK 9 PENNSYLVANIA COLUMBIA Based on eyewitness David Vasquez, who Edward Green was Charles Dabbs is the In 1982, Bruce Nelson 2misidentification,0 Gary has substantial0 apprehended in 1987 distant cousin of a was implicated in a Dotson was convicted cognitive limitations, at a location where woman who was raped rape and murder based of rape and aggravated pled guilty to murder. both a rape and an in 1982. She identified on the confession of TOO MANY WRONGkidnappingFULLY in May COHisNVI “dreamCTED statement,” attempted rape had Dabbs as one of her Terrence Moore, who 1979. The victim along with his lack of occurred. The victims of assailants, saying that was also charged eventually recanted TanO alibi,O convinced MAN a Yboth WR crimesONG identified FULLYthe man who rapedCO herNVIwithCTED the crime. When her testimony, saying jury of his guilt, and Green, and he was wore clothing similar police questioned she had fabricated the he was convicted in convicted. Prior to his to his. DNA testing Nelson (with Moore TOrape.O Still,MAN Dotson Y WR1985. ONGHe served FULLYfour sentencing, CO his NVIlawyers CTEDexonerated Dabbs also present in the served four more years years before DNA secured DNA testing seven years after his room), Nelson asked behind bars before he testing exonerated him. of the evidence and conviction. Moore what he had was fully exonerated Green was excluded previously told police — through DNA testing. as the perpetrator. and that question was used as a confession in Nelson’s trial. In 1990, the prosecution agreed to subject several pieces of evidence to DNA testing, which proved 200Nelson’s innocence. THE FIRST * 200 Of the first 200 people exonerated through DNA: Each individual exonerated through DNA is unique. Their convictions They served an average of were different, and their experiences after exoneration vary. Collectively, 1 they illustrate the criminal justice’s failings and the need for reform. *Percentage is based on a subset of the 200 exoneration cases, where information was available to make a determination. 2 | Innocence Project TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED GLEN WOODALL • 1992 STEVEN LINSCOTT • 1992 JOE JONES • 1992 LEONARD CALLACE •1992 KERRY KOTLER • 1992 .5 YEARS YEARS .5 YEARS .5 YEARS .5 YEARS 4 WEST VIRGINIA 3 ILLINOIS6 KANSAS 5 NEW YORK10 NEW YORK Glen Woodall was In 1982, Steven Outside a nightclub that Leonard Callace was In 1978 and again in sentenced to two life Linscott was convicted Joe Jones frequented, charged with sexually 1981, a man in a ski sentences plus 203 to of murdering his a woman was kidnapped assaulting a young mask raped and robbed 335 years for two neighbor. Linscott told and raped in 1985. woman in the parking a woman at knifepoint 20rapes. Since neither 0police that he had Based on eyewitness lot of a shopping in her home. She 20victim clearly0 saw the dreamt about the crime, misidentification and center. Based on identified Kerry Kotler perpetrator, their and his description of the fact that Jones misidentification by as her assailant, though identifications of him the dream mirrored the owned a pair of jeans the victim, his her initial description were shaky at best — crime in several ways. that resembled those resemblance to a of the man did not they identified him In 1992, after three worn by the perpetrator, composite sketch of resemble Kotler. He after being hypnotized, years in prison and he was convicted. the perpetrator and a had spent over a and their identification seven years on bond, DNA testing ultimately serology test that decade in prison when was based in part DNA testing excluded proved Jones’s suggested he could be DNA testing led to his on smell. Fred Zain, Linscott as the innocence, and he the perpetrator, the exoneration. He was a fraudulent lab perpetrator. was exonerated jury convicted Callace later convicted of technician, provided in 1992. in one hour. In 1991, different charges on the TOO MANY WRevidence thatONG helped FULLY CONVICTEDCallace’s request for basis of DNA evidence. convict Woodall. Early DNA testing was TOO MANDNAY tests WR suggested ONGFULLY COgrantedNVI and showed CTED Woodall’s innocence that he did not commit and his conviction the rape. was vacated; further testing yielded the same results and he was exonerated. 12 years in prison — and a combined total of 2,475 years in prison. 200 www.innocenceproject.org | 3 TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED WALTER SNYDER • 1993 KIRK BLOODSWORTH DWAYNE SCRUGGS • 1993 MARK DIAZ BRAVO • 1994 DALE BRISON • 1994 21993 00 .5 YEARS YEARS .5 YEARS YEARS .5 YEARS 6 VIRGINIA 8 MARYLAND 7 INDIANA 3 CALIFORNIA 3 PENNSYLVANIA Walter Snyder’s Kirk Bloodsworth was Dwayne Scruggs was Mark Diaz Bravo was Dale Brison was 2across-the-street0arrested0 for the rape convicted in 1986 a nurse at a Los Angeles arrested for rape and neighbor identified him and murder of a of rape and robbery hospital where a kidnapping in 1990 as the man who raped nine-year-old girl after and sentenced to 40 patient was raped in after the victim and robbed her in an anonymousT OcallerO MANyears inY prison WR basedONG1990.FULLY She implicated COidentifiedNVICTED him near her 1985. His mother was claimed to have seen on the victim’s Bravo, and although he apartment building. the only person who him with the victim. misidentification of had a strong alibi, he Brison’s request for could corroborate his Bloodsworth became him. The perpetrator was arrested. Serological DNA testing was alibi. Snyder served the first person who had tried to hide his testing revealed that denied at the time of TOsixO and MAN a half yearsY WRservedONG time on deathFULLYface during CO the NVIattack, CTEDthe perpetrator had a the trial. But several of a 45-year sentence row before being but the victim blood type shared by years later, the before he was proven exonerated by identified him in part only 3% of the Pennsylvania Supreme innocent through post-conviction DNA based on the shoes population —and Court ruled that the DNA testing. testing. Today, he is a he was wearing. In Bravo could not be evidence must be tested Program Officer for 1993, DNA testing excluded. Bravo’s if it was available. The Justice Project’s vindicated Scruggs. attorney said the The results proved that Campaign for Criminal prosecution refused Brison could not have Justice Reform and to allow DNA testing been the perpetrator. TOO MANY WRONGThe Justice ProjectFULLY CObeforNVIe the trial.