The National Academy of Sciences published a breakthrough report Thursday evaluating scientific research on memory and eyewitness identification. As eyewitness misidentification is one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions in the United States, the report recommends best practices to…
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 29, 2014 – California Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1058 into law late Friday, making it the second of two bills sponsored by the Northern California Innocence Project at Santa Clara University to be signed…
Governor Brown recently approved compensation to Northern California Innocence Project clients Franky Carrillo Jr. and Johnny Williams for their decades of wrongful imprisonment. This came after approval by the Legislature and the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board’s recommendation…
The National Institute of Justice released a report today which explores the feasibility of using a learning-from-error model in criminal justice. The report, Mending Justice: Sentinel Events Reviews, draws on lessons from the medical and aviation fields and offers perspectives on using…
California Assembly Bill 885, which authorizes courts to inform a jury when a prosecutor has intentionally concealed evidence of innocence, recently passed off the Assembly floor and is headed to Governor Brown’s desk to be signed. AB 885, authored by…
California Senate Bill 1058, which would help exonerate innocent men and women who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes, is headed to Governor Jerry Brown’s desk. Authored by Senator Mark Leno, the legislation would allow a judge to overturn a wrongful…
This month, the Department of Justice ordered the continuation of a massive reinvestigation of thousands of criminal cases from the 1980s and 1990s that most likely include flawed forensic testimony from an FBI unit. The FBI post-conviction review started in…
Michael Morton, who spent 25 years behind bars in Texas for the wrongful murder conviction of his wife, will release his memoir, “Getting Life: An Innocence Man’s 25-Year Journey From Prison to Peace” on Tuesday. In 1986, Morton’s wife Christine…
In recent years, numerous prosecutors across the nation have created conviction integrity units to address claims of wrongful conviction. Over the last several years, these units have reviewed various cases and dismissed dozens of convictions to date. For example, Brooklyn’s…
The Center for Prosecutor Integrity (CPI) released a proposed bill today that would require federal prosecutors to employ an open-file policy which would provide defense attorneys full access to all evidence pertinent to the case. Today under the Brady requirement,…
