A first peek into Virginia's post-conviction DNA project data shows a potential wrongful conviction rate of 6 percent in the decade and a half before DNA testing was widely available.
The preliminary figure from the Urban Institute, which is studying the results, roughly matches the exoneration rate found in 2005 when testing in a small sample of cases cleared two men of rapes and prompted …
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Study of DNA data shows potential for wrongful convictions
January 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
In Texas, a Tragic Miscarriage of Justice Fails to Excite the Liberal Media
November 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A tragic and Kafkaesque miscarriage of justice in central Texas grows more intriguing by the day, with one stunning development after another generating new headlines. Yet, strangely, the wrongful conviction of Michael Morton in 1987 for murdering his wife has failed to excite liberal media outlets and advocacy groups that typically go wild over such cases. Why?
On Wednesday, the newest …
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Wrongfully exonerated? Report claims ‘DNA activism’ contaminates post-conviction investigations
February 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
In the post-conviction proceedings focusing on the rape of Penny Ann Beernsten four years earlier, the absence of Avery's DNA was construed as proof of innocence.'But what if the DNA was not deposited during the initial attack,' Collins & Jarvis inquired. 'After all, Penny Ann Beernsten had been strangled and slipped into unconsciousness. What if Avery was, in fact, the initial attacker but …
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Trial Day Four
December 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
April 6, 2006
By Bridget DiCosmo and Elizabeth Perry
Innocence Institute of Point Park University
A Fayette County jury listened yesterday to testimony from Crystal Dawn Weimer, accused mastermind of the 2001 murder of a 21-year-old man, then spent two hours of deliberations without reaching a verdict.
This morning, the six-man, six-woman panel will continue to try to decide whether the …
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Whitley Sues Allegheny County
December 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Whitley Sues for Malicious Prosecution
Exonerated Man Wants Damages for 18 Years in Prison
By Bill Moushey
The Innocence Institute of Point Park University
A man exonerated last year by DNA evidence after serving 18 years in prison for a heinous 1987 killing has filed a malicious prosecution suit in federal court against Allegheny County and six of its homicide detectives and accuses a …
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Whitley Finds the Cost of Freedom
December 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Exonerated by DNA Evidence, But Set Free With Nothing
May 12, 2006
By Bill Moushey
Drew Whitley never before met the young woman who approached him outside his mother’s Braddock apartment yesterday, gently shook his hand and muttered: “God bless you.”
Just days after Mr. Whitley emerged from 18-years in prison because DNA tests proved he was not the man who brutally murdered a …
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Whitley Freed May 1, 2006
December 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
by Bill Moushey
Taking in freedom after 18 years of incarceration for a murder he didn’t do, Drew Whitley gazed longingly towards his mother Hattie, thanked her for not only helping him fight his personal war for exoneration but for consoling him in his darkest hours.
“I got a little weary at times, and I would call mom, she was always there, keeping me focused throughout this …
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Free At Last
December 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Monday, May 01, 2006
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
DNA exonerations are becoming oft-repeated refrains in the halls of justice. Freedom sounds like a sweet lullaby.
Eighteen lonely years of Drew Whitley's life have been wrongly taken -- squandered in prison. Not once, but twice evidence from DNA testing has shown Mr. Whitley, 50, didn't kill Noreen Malloy, the night manager at a fast-food …
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Drew Whitley To Be Free
December 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Eighteen years after Drew Whitley was imprisoned for life in the 1988 murder of a McDonald’s night manager, prosecutors are poised to ask a judge to free the former West Mifflin man after a second round of DNA tests indicated he was not responsible for the killing.
Yesterday, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. asked a judge to vacate Mr. Whitley’s 2nd Degree murder …
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