Deciding which sessions to attend at the conference was difficult.  There were two concurrent on the first day; an early session with 9 separate meetings and an afternoon session with 10 choices.  Some meetings were restricted to specific groups, such as exonerees; otherwise, there were many I would have enjoyed attending if I could be in more than one place at a time.  Being so new, not yet a law student, let alone an attorney, I tried to choose presentations that might provide insights into topics I could explore further while attending law school or provide ideas for local level advocacy.

Sunrise Yoga

The conference kicked off Friday morning bright and early with a sunrise yoga session led by Lynn Brandli from the Little Yoga Co-op in Grant Park.  Her teaching method and peaceful demeanor created a warm, inviting atmosphere where a room full of strangers gathered together to begin the day.  It was a packed event, with literally every available space in the room being utilized.

Innocence Scholarship Forum

The first session I attended, after the opening, was a discussion on emerging topics.  Two presenters, Dr. Sara Appleby and Mr. Robert Norris  provided discussions on research they are currently conducting.  Dr. Appleby, an assistant professor at Mercer University, is researching the Effective Assistance of Counsel in False Confession Cases.  There is a lack of research in this area and it is extremely difficult to convince prosecutors to participate.  However, in these cases, it is believed it is the Defense Attorney that is the key between a false confession and conviction.

False confession cases are difficult because the defense attorney knows individual jury members likely do not understand police interrogation techniques or the dynamics of false confessions.  Results are showing that in defending these cases, defense attorneys tend to rely on a strategy that focuses on evidence of innocence and fails to address the false confession.  However, research on jury decisions has indicated juries tend to give confessions greater weight than evidence in reaching a conclusion.

One key finding from research on interrogations is an interrogation should never last more than four hours, any longer and the results of the interrogation become less reliable as the person being interrogated becomes unable to cope and more willing to do whatever it takes to end the interrogation.  The future goal of this study would be to create best practices for representing defendants who have made false confessions.

Mr. Robert Norris, assistant professor in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Society at George Mason University, discussed his research into Documenting Crimes of True Perpetrators in cases of Wrongful Conviction.  He stated a double imperative for this research – justice and public safety.  The goal is to attempt to quantify how wrongful convictions contribute to violent crime through the concept of “wrongful liberty.”  The study looked at the 339,000 violent crimes committed in 2014.  The findings imply wrongful convictions may have resulted in an additional 3,000 to 10,000 violent crimes, with an error margin of 1-3 percent, .  Additionally, in looking at the few cases where more information was available, it was found that when someone is wrongfully convicted, the true perpetrator may go on to commit upwards of 31 additional crimes.

Identifying the true perpetrator for the purposes of study can be difficult.  Difficulties include cases with no DNA evidence, difficulty in obtaining official records (can be financially prohibitive).  Another challenge is the difficulty in quantifying an economic impact related to the types and number of crimes these perpetrators may go on to commit.  Also, the staggering level of “institutional protectionism” creates a lack of incentive for governments to get back in the game to identify and bring the true perpetrator to justice (requires admitting mistakes).

Ms. Vanessa Meterko, Research Analyst at the Innocence Project, wrapped up this session with a discussion of topics being considered for further research.  Ideas included the lack of social security benefits for exonerees as they were not members of the workforce while wrongfully incarcerated, holding wrongdoers in the criminal justice system accountable (disbarment?), working to identify true perpetrators and not just focusing on exonerating wrongfully convicted, and determining if there should be greater focus on the identification process.  She directed us to innocenceresearch.org for staying current on results of current research, past research, and additional information related to this area of study.

“When someone buries you, they don’t realize you are actually a seed.”  

Central Park 5 Panel Discussion

One of the highlights of this year’s conference was the panel discussion with the recently exonerated Central Park Five.  This was prior to the Netflix drama, “When They See Us,” being released.  I had not followed this case and only recently heard some of the media reports surrounding the injustice of the manner in which these boys (at the time, their ages ranged from 14-16) were pushed into false confessions and used to convict each other of crimes they did not commit.

Of the five, only two knew each other at the time of their arrests, yet they were supposed to have committed a brutal rape as a group; none of them being the actual rapist, just some kind of assistants to that person, who the police never identified.  Some of the men expressed the difficulty in finding words to describe what it’s like to realize some people are unable to accept or believe that a person could be wrongfully convicted of a crime.  Another difficulty is, even after exoneration, there are still many people in the community who believe they must have had something to do with the crime.

Presenting Innocence Issues to Youth

The last session I attended, on the first day of the conference, was a discussion of the outreach the Georgia Innocence Project (GIP) conducted with area high schools on the most recent Wrongful Conviction Day (October 2).  In September 2018, the GIP decided they would put together a presentation for Wrongful Conviction Day and reach out to area schools to solicit interest.  The interest was enormous which required GIP to quickly create a program, gather volunteers and exonerees willing to present, conduct training, and logistically handle the assignment of those involved to the various schools wanting to participate.  Although the effort took all they had, the outreach was extremely successful and will continue in the future.  Through this experience, GIP created templates for outreach efforts and tools that can be used to educate students about their rights, Miranda warnings, and interrogation rules.

GIP used a straightforward process of looking at the background of the information they felt most appropriate to present, then finding schools and volunteers, creating materials, and finally measuring the outcomes of the presentations.  They found in talking with high schoolers about this subject, it was best to approach students openly, honestly and by treating them as young adults.

They also worked with some schools to integrate this presentation into a lesson by having the students complete a vocabulary assignment, research articles, and watch a video on you-tube then complete an essay prior to the presentations.  This information fits well into history, social studies, science, and civics courses.

Other projects also work with local schools.  The Northern California Innocence Project goes through a current case to provide real examples of contributors to wrongful convictions so the students can see actual materials.  The GIP provided the students with handouts on the issues being discussed and had exonerees talk about their real life experiences.  Other ideas are to watch a short video and discuss the issues or work through some exercises showing how easy it is to make mistakes in identification and recall.

Reception and Dinner

Friday ended with a reception and dinner at the Georgia Aquarium Oceans Ballroom.  The venue was beautiful, we were seated in the middle of a large room surrounded by aquariums with awesome sea life swimming around us.  While enjoying a delicious dinner, the names of all those exonerated since the last conference were called out.  The Innocence Network allows new exonerees to attend the first conference after exoneration for free.  Each came up to the stage to be recognized.  After this, all the other exonerees in attendance joined them.  I’m sad to say, it was standing room only on the stage, requiring many people to stand on the sides and along the front of the stage.

The moment was awe inspiring as the people standing in front of us had endured what most of us can hardly even begin to imagine.  They made up a new family no one would choose to belong to, but they also made up a group of people who demonstrated what unending hope looks like and what fighting for truth and justice looks like.  It would be easy to say this group, spilling over the stage, was large but it wasn’t even truly representative because they did not suffer this injustice alone.  Each one of these people was a son or daughter, some were brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, moms and dads….you get the idea.  In looking at that stage it struck me, this was the smallest measure of the impact of the time they served because they did not serve it alone.  We must also consider the impact on the original victim and their families.  Not to mention the horror that these hundreds of people stood in for hundreds of true perpetrators who were allowed to remain free and commit additional crime.