An open letter from Maya Harris,
Executive Director of ACLU Northern California:
Executive Director of ACLU Northern California:
Thanks to the hard work and dedication of California’s Innocence Project, two California men were found innocent and freed in one week in February after years in prison for crimes they did not commit.
On Monday, Feb. 5, the District Attorney in Santa Clara County dismissed charges against Jessie Rodriguez, who served six years of a potential life sentence in prison for a robbery he did not commit.
Just four days after Rodriquez was freed, Timothy Atkins of Los Angeles was also freed after a Superior Court judge reversed his wrongful conviction for being an accomplice to murder. Atkins was in prison for more than 20 years for a crime he did not commit.
Two exonerations in one week -- and more than 200 wrongfully convicted statewide -- are too many for California.
The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice (CCFAJ), charged with reviewing the causes of wrongful conviction and wrongful execution in California, has issued three interim reports recommending legislative changes to prevent the most common causes of wrongful conviction in California: mistaken eyewitness identification, false confessions, and the use of jailhouse informants.
Three bills have been introduced to implement the commission’s recommended reforms:
- Senate Bill 511 (Alquist) will require the electronic recording of police interrogation in cases involving homicides and other serious felonies.
- Senate Bill 756 (Ridley-Thomas) will require the appointment of a task force to draft mandatory guidelines for the conduct of police lineups and photo arrays to increase the accuracy of eyewitness identifications.
- Senate Bill 609 (Romero) will require the corroboration of testimony by jailhouse informants.
TAKE ACTION!
By continuing to speak out against the failures of the criminal justice system generally and the death penalty in particular, we are able to give a voice to the voiceless: the unknown number of innocent men and women languishing in California’s prisons and on its death row.
If you have not done so already, I invite you to become a proud card-carrying member of the ACLU, and to encourage your friends and family to visit our new website and sign up for our online communications.
Thank you for your support!
Maya Harris,
Executive Director,
ACLU of Northern California
0 comments:
Post a Comment