Carlos DeLuna

Los Tocayos Carlos, a book-length monograph and comprehensive website published by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, helps answer these haunting questions. Based on one of the most thorough investigations of a criminal case in U.S. history, the groundbreaking article by Columbia Law School Professor James Liebman and a team of students uncovers evidence that Carlos DeLuna, a poor Hispanic man with childlike intelligence who was executed in Texas in 1989, was innocent.

All the evidence is available here: http://www3.law.columbia.edu/hrlr/ltc/ for readers to explore, and decide for themselves: crime-scene photos, law enforcement and court records, newspaper and TV coverage, police audiotape of the manhunt ending in DeLuna’s arrest, videotaped interviews, interactive map and much more.

Click here to read more: http://www3.law.columbia.edu/hrlr/ltc/

Tune in to your local PBS station at 9:00 PM CST on Thursday, May 3rd, to watch the Mississippi Public Broadcasting premiere of the film, “Mississippi Innocence.”

In the early nineteen-nineties in rural Noxubee County, Mississippi, two young girls were – in separate crimes occurring approximately a year and a half apart – abducted from their homes, sexually assaulted, manually strangled and dumped into nearby pools of water.  In each case law enforcement arrested a perpetrator almost immediately, and the prosecution announced that it would seek the death penalty in each case.  As a result, Kennedy Brewer was convicted and sentenced to die by lethal injection; Levon Brooks was convicted and sentenced to a term of life without the possibility of parole.  Combined, the two men would spend over thirty years in prison.

Both men are innocent.

Mississippi Innocence documents the story behind their wrongful convictions, the path that led to their exonerations in the spring of 2008, and their lives upon their return to the free world.  The film uses interviews with the key players involved in both the conviction and exonerations, as well as lengthy interviews and footage of Brooks and Brewer and their families, to tell fully and for the first time the depth of their – our – tragedy.  The film channels the organic power of these two innocence narratives so that viewers will experience a range of emotions – some that will challenge assumptions and force re-thinking long-held conceptions about the criminal justice system; others that will strengthen faith in the ability of individuals to survive and endure; while still others will generate shock and outrage.  In the end, the film will raise awareness, provide an opportunity for intelligent dialogue, and, in the end, offer a way forward.

Read more about the film here: www.mississippiinnocencefilm.org

FRONTLINE Presents
“THE REAL CSI”
Tuesday, April 17, 2012, at 10 P.M. ET on PBS

www.pbs.org/frontline/real-csi

Evidence collected at crime scenes—everything from fingerprints to bite marks—is routinely called upon in the courtroom to prosecute the most difficult crimes and put the guilty behind bars. And though glamorized on commercial television, in the real world, it’s not so cut-and-dried. A joint investigation by FRONTLINE, ProPublica and the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley examines the reliability of the science behind forensics in “The Real CSI,” airing Tuesday, April 17, 2012, at 10 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings).

FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman finds serious flaws in some of the best known tools of forensic science and wide inconsistencies in how forensic evidence is presented in the courtroom. From the sensational murder trial of Casey Anthony to the credentialing of forensic experts, Bergman documents how a field with few uniform standards and unproven science can undermine the search for justice.

The investigation follows a landmark study by the National Academy of Sciences that called into question the tenets of forensic science. For the first time, Harry T. Edwards, a senior federal appellate court judge and co-chairman of the report, sits for an interview to discuss what the report means. He tells FRONTLINE that these television dramas often exaggerate or misrepresent the reliability of forensic evidence, including one of the most called-upon of the forensic techniques, fingerprint identification.

“If what some people are saying, it works because we’ve gotten convictions, … that’s not proof that the discipline is undergirded by serious science,” Edwards tells FRONTLINE. “It’s been inaccurate and wrong for many years. It doesn’t become better because it’s many years. It’s just many years of doing it incorrectly. … And the stakes are too high. When you’re talking about prosecution, incarceration, the stakes are too high.”

In this hour, FRONTLINE examines one of the most high-profile terrorist investigations since 9/11: the case of Brandon Mayfield, an attorney who was wrongfully identified and arrested as a suspect in the Madrid commuter train bombings after the FBI erroneously matched his fingerprint to a partial print found at the scene. The case exposed the weaknesses of fingerprint identification, causing the FBI to change the way its examiners testify about the reliability of forensic  fingerprinting. Bergman interviews the fingerprint expert selected by Mayfield’s defense, the independent examiner Ken Moses, who concluded it was a positive match for Mayfield, but later admits that he and the three other examiners who looked at the prints were wrong. The Mayfield case highlights the weak link in fingerprint analysis—the examiner, whose work is not done by a computer, as seen on TV, and can be influenced by unconscious bias.

The reporting reveals that bite-mark identification is another one of several seriously flawed forensic tools used in criminal investigations. “What we’re talking about with forensic science is systemic failure,” Innocence Project co-founder Peter Neufeld tells Bergman. “We’re talking about using techniques, using equipment that’s never been validated scientifically.”

In the small town of Brooksville, Miss., FRONTLINE explores the errors that led to the convictions of two innocent men, whose convictions in part were based on faulty bite-mark testimony. “There have been a number of people who were convicted based on bite-mark testimony, who were sent to death row or sent to prison for life,” says Neufeld. “And in each of those cases, a whole group of forensic odontologists, or dentists, said they were absolutely certain that this was the guy, … and they were absolutely wrong.”

Nowhere in recent history has forensic evidence been more prominent than in the trial of Casey Anthony, who was acquitted of the first-degree murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee Anthony. Based on a smell from the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car and using an expert in “the odor of the dead,” the prosecution set out to convince the jury that the stench was that of a decaying body. In total, 37 expert witnesses from more than a dozen areas of forensics testified, with the defense challenging with forensic experts of their own. “This case utilized every single type of forensic science. … They threw a bunch of stuff against the wall, and they were hoping something would stick, and none of it did,” says defense lawyer Jose Baez.

FRONTLINE also examines what it takes to become credentialed in forensics by the American College of Forensics Examiners International (ACFEI). “It was like an open-book exam basically, and I passed,” says Leah Bartos, a journalism graduate student at UC Berkeley, who demonstrates that for $660 and a few hours taking an open-book exam online, she became certified as a forensic consultant by ACFEI. Bergman’s interview with former CEO John Bridges indicates that 99 percent of those who apply online will become certified by the organization. “There can be no meaningful exam that has a 99 percent pass rate,” admits forensic guru and ACFEI spokesman Cyril Wecht, whose signature appears on ACFEI certificates.

“The Real CSI” is a FRONTLINE production in collaboration with ProPublica and the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley. The Real CSI is part of an ongoing look at forensic science that has engaged FRONTLINE and its partners over the last two years. The producers and writers are Andrés Cediel and Lowell Bergman. The correspondent is Lowell Bergman. The reporter for ProPublica is Leah Bartos. The series senior producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is David Fanning.

FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and by Reva and David Logan. Additional funding is provided by the Park Foundation and by the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers by the Media Access Group at WGBH. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of the WGBH Educational Foundation.

ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. In 2010, it was the first online news organization to win a Pulitzer Prize. In 2011, ProPublica won the first Pulitzer awarded to a body of work that did not appear in print. ProPublica is supported primarily by philanthropy and provides the articles it produces, free of charge, both through its own website and to leading news organizations selected with an eye toward maximizing the impact of each article. For more general information, please visit www.ProPublica.org.

On Wednesday, March 21, 2012, at 5:30 p.m., the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) will host A Long Road to Innocence: A Screening and Dialogue Around Mississippi Innocence. Last month, a Mississippi district attorney secured a conviction for murders that were committed more than 20 years earlier. Many would suggest that justice, like an old adage offers, is better late than never. However, in this case, also more than 20 years ago, two men were deemed responsible for these murders; Levon Brooks was sentenced to life in prison and Kennedy Brewer was sentenced to death. The two men were exonerated and released from prison in 2008, having spent a combined 32 years incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. For Brooks, Brewer, and the victims, justice came very late, so is this even justice at all?

Mississippi Innocence explores this question and others as it tells the story of Brewer and Brooks. Have the close to 300 DNA exonerations since 1989 demonstrated the need for additional practices and policies that would prevent wrongful convictions? As eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions, did the Supreme Court just increase the likelihood of such convictions with its decision in Perry v. New Hampshire? Where are the checks on overzealous law enforcement and prosecutors, faulty forensic science, false confessions, and informants that also lead to wrongful convictions? Importantly, how can our criminal justice system chart a path forward that guarantees accountability and basic fundamental fairness for all?

Reception (5:30 p.m.)

Introduction (6:00 p.m.):
Caroline Fredrickson, President, American Constitution Society for Law and Policy

Remarks:
Congressman Bennie Thompson (MS-2), (Invited)

Screening of Mississippi Innocence (60 min)

Q&A will feature:

• Moderator, Garrett Epps, Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law
• Tucker Carrington, Director, Mississippi Innocence Project; Co-Producer, Mississippi Innocence
• Kennedy Brewer, Exoneree
• Levon Brooks, Exoneree