The Justice Project
Post-conviction DNA testing can not only free innocent people who have been wrongly convicted, it can also shine a light on the serious errors in our criminal justice system. Two recent exonerations in New York -- made possible by post-conviction DNA testing -- illustrate the real problem of false confessions and mistaken eyewitness identifications.
Jeffrey Mark Deskovic was released from a New York prison on September 20, 2006 after spending 16 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. Mr. Deskovic was wrongly convicted of raping, beating, and strangling a classmate in 1990 when he was only 16 years old. Mr. Deskovic was initially considered a suspect because of his interest in the details of the crime and his eagerness to help with the police investigation. After seven and a half hours of police questioning without food, his parents or a lawyer, Mr. Deskovic falsely confessed to the crime, telling interrogators what he thought they wanted to hear. Even though evidence presented at trial showed that DNA found at the crime scene was not Mr. Deskovic's, the jury convicted him based on the false confession. He then served 16 years in prison before being exonerated when the DNA evidence that excluded him as the perpetrator was linked to convicted murderer Steven Cunningham. In a jailhouse confession on October 5, 2006, Mr. Cunningham admitted to the killing.
Mr. Deskovic's case highlights the not so rare incidences of intelligent, mentally sound, innocent persons confessing to crimes they didn't commit. Powerful factors, such as law enforcement's use of coercion tactics, ignorance of the law, and mental and physical exhaustion can lead to false confessions. Electronic recording of custodial interrogations makes it much more likely that unreliable statements obtained through abuse or coercion will not be used to obtain a wrongful conviction.
In another New York case, Scott Fappiano was wrongly convicted of raping a policeman's wife in her home and sentenced to 20-50 years in prison in 1985. The victim picked him out of a mug shot book and later a lineup despite the fact that he was five inches shorter than the attacker she described. Furthermore, blood-typing tests used at the time on the cigarettes and stained clothing at the crime scene ruled out Mr. Fappiano as a suspect. The Innocence Project began investigating Mr. Fappiano's case nearly three years ago but met with difficulty when the evidence from the case could not be found in the New York Police Department's storage facility. Fortunately, an independent testing lab in Connecticut found two vials of DNA from the crime scene while doing routine inventory. This evidence excluded Mr. Fappiano as the perpetrator, and he was released from prison on October 6, 2006 after spending 21 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.
Numerous DNA exonerations have shown the fallibility of eyewitness identifications and testimony. Mr. Fappiano's case serves as yet another example of why changes are needed in many eyewitness identification procedures. A number of reforms can improve the accuracy of eyewitness identifications, including the use of double-blind sequential lineups and the careful documentation of witness certainty at the time the identification is made.
Post-conviction DNA testing can not only free innocent people who have been wrongly convicted, it can also shine a light on the serious errors in our criminal justice system. Two recent exonerations in New York -- made possible by post-conviction DNA testing -- illustrate the real problem of false confessions and mistaken eyewitness identifications.
Jeffrey Mark Deskovic was released from a New York prison on September 20, 2006 after spending 16 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. Mr. Deskovic was wrongly convicted of raping, beating, and strangling a classmate in 1990 when he was only 16 years old. Mr. Deskovic was initially considered a suspect because of his interest in the details of the crime and his eagerness to help with the police investigation. After seven and a half hours of police questioning without food, his parents or a lawyer, Mr. Deskovic falsely confessed to the crime, telling interrogators what he thought they wanted to hear. Even though evidence presented at trial showed that DNA found at the crime scene was not Mr. Deskovic's, the jury convicted him based on the false confession. He then served 16 years in prison before being exonerated when the DNA evidence that excluded him as the perpetrator was linked to convicted murderer Steven Cunningham. In a jailhouse confession on October 5, 2006, Mr. Cunningham admitted to the killing.
Mr. Deskovic's case highlights the not so rare incidences of intelligent, mentally sound, innocent persons confessing to crimes they didn't commit. Powerful factors, such as law enforcement's use of coercion tactics, ignorance of the law, and mental and physical exhaustion can lead to false confessions. Electronic recording of custodial interrogations makes it much more likely that unreliable statements obtained through abuse or coercion will not be used to obtain a wrongful conviction.
In another New York case, Scott Fappiano was wrongly convicted of raping a policeman's wife in her home and sentenced to 20-50 years in prison in 1985. The victim picked him out of a mug shot book and later a lineup despite the fact that he was five inches shorter than the attacker she described. Furthermore, blood-typing tests used at the time on the cigarettes and stained clothing at the crime scene ruled out Mr. Fappiano as a suspect. The Innocence Project began investigating Mr. Fappiano's case nearly three years ago but met with difficulty when the evidence from the case could not be found in the New York Police Department's storage facility. Fortunately, an independent testing lab in Connecticut found two vials of DNA from the crime scene while doing routine inventory. This evidence excluded Mr. Fappiano as the perpetrator, and he was released from prison on October 6, 2006 after spending 21 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.
Numerous DNA exonerations have shown the fallibility of eyewitness identifications and testimony. Mr. Fappiano's case serves as yet another example of why changes are needed in many eyewitness identification procedures. A number of reforms can improve the accuracy of eyewitness identifications, including the use of double-blind sequential lineups and the careful documentation of witness certainty at the time the identification is made.
technorati tags: Death+Penalty, Capital+Punishment, DNA, New+York, Jeffrey+Mark+Deskovic, Scott+Fappiano
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