Hayne subject of legal fight
UPDATED 7:09 AM CST Feb 07, 2013
NATCHEZ, Miss.
Time is running out for Jeff Havard, who is sitting on death row convicted of murder.
But now, the man who helped put him there is under fire. ”I’m not one to usually use the language, but it’s pure hell knowing that unless something comes about, that he could by laying there, you know, and put to death for something that didn’t happen,” said his Havard’s mother, Cheryl Havard Harrell.
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ANDRE DAVIS
Nearly 32 years behind bars —and innocent
See the full report with the other 4 exonerees stories here:
Year End Report
New Report Reveals Many More Exonerations and False Convictions than Previously Found, but Represents Only “the Tip of the Iceberg”
More than 2,000 people who were falsely convicted of serious crimes have been exonerated in America in the past 23 years.
Nearly 900 of these exonerations are profiled, with searchable data and summaries of the cases on the National Registry of Exonerations, a new joint project of the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University. The Registry, available at exonerationregistry.org, will be updated on an ongoing basis. It is by far the largest collection of such cases ever assembled – and the most varied. Click here to read more »
Tuesday, October 25, 5:30 p.m.
“MISSISSIPPI INNOCENCE”
The award-winning documentary, prepared by Ole Miss filmmakers and spotlighting the success of the Law School’s Innocence Project in freeing two Noxubee County men wrongfully imprisoned after murder convictions, will be shown and discussed by principal characters in the cases. After the screening there will be a panel discussion moderated by civil rights and defense attorney Rob McDuff — and including former Supreme Court Judge Fred Banks, Radley Balko of The Huffington Post, Campbell Robertson of The New York Times, and Joe York, director of “Mississippi Innocence.”
For more information about the film, please visit:
www.mississippiinnocencefilm.org
The New York Times
By ADAM LIPTAK
WASHINGTON — Every year, more than 75,000 eyewitnesses identify suspects in criminal investigations. Those identifications are wrong about a third of the time, a pile of studies suggest.
Mistaken identifications lead towrongful convictions. Of the first 250 DNA exonerations, 190 involved eyewitnesses who were wrong, as documented in “Convicting the Innocent,” a recent book by Brandon L. Garrett, a law professor at the University of Virginia.
Many of those witnesses were as certain as they were wrong. “There is absolutely no question in my mind,” said one. Another was “120 percent” sure. A third said, “That is one face I will never forget.” A fourth allowed for a glimmer of doubt: “This is the man, or it is his twin brother.”
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