Word: dna
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...Louise Woodward. But the Innocence Project dates back to an earlier time, when Scheck and Neufeld were overworked and underpaid Legal Aid lawyers in the South Bronx. Like most defense lawyers, they believed the system made mistakes. And earlier than most, they realized that the hot new technology of DNA testing could revolutionize criminal defense by providing scientific proof that their clients were not guilty. After doing DNA testing in a few early cases and organizing a conference, Scheck and Neufeld soon found themselves leaders in the field...
When those letters do get opened, students and staff screen the cases using the Innocence Project's criteria: When the inmate was tried, was identity the key issue? (If he admitted he pulled the trigger but claimed it was self-defense, there's not a lot a DNA test can do to help.) Was biological evidence taken at some point? In rape cases semen is generally recovered, and in murder cases there is often hair or skin evidence. But some samples come from less obvious sources: in the World Trade Center bombing case, DNA was recovered from saliva...
After taking a case, the first hurdle the Innocence Project faces is getting access to biological evidence. New York and Illinois have laws mandating post-conviction DNA testing. But everywhere else, it's up to the prosecutor--the same office that is being accused of sending an innocent person to jail. If the prosecutors cannot be persuaded or cajoled into turning over the evidence, the Innocence Project will go to court to demand...
About 60% of the samples the Innocence Project sends out for testing come back in their clients' favor. At that point, many prosecutors quickly concede and free the inmate. Earlier this year, the Innocence Project produced DNA showing that Calvin Johnson Jr. was innocent of a Clayton County, Ga., rape he had been convicted of in 1983. In June, the same district attorney who originally sent Johnson away persuaded a judge to free...
...prosecutors don't always give up that easily. The Buffalo D.A.'s office refused to release Vincent Jenkins even after DNA tests showed that semen recovered from the victim came from two men, neither of them Jenkins. Prosecutors insisted that the victim could have been raped by several men, including Jenkins, but that he didn't ejaculate. The prosecutors later abandoned that unlikely scenario and did not oppose his release...