The Schuster Institute
for Investigative Journalism

"Failing the DNA Test," Michael Blanding and Lindsay Markel, November 20, 2011, The Boston Globe Magazine

WBUR's Radio Boston hosts talk with Schuster Senior Fellow Michael Blanding about DNA testing for prisoners in Massachusetts

WGBH's Phillip Martin discusses the proposed Mass. DNA access law: Part 1 | Part 2

About the Justice Brandeis
  Innocence Project

The Justice Brandeis Innocence Project at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University was established to make a contribution to resolving the untenable ethical, civil and human rights issues created by wrongful convictions.

In the past decade—thanks largely to the advances in DNA testing used to exonerate 280 prisoners—this tragedy has taken on a very human face.

The Justice Brandeis Innocence Project is a member of the Innocence Network, an international network of innocence projects—most of which are modeled after the Innocence Project founded by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld at the Cardozo School of Law in 1992.

The Justice Brandeis Innocence Project, however, is different. It is one of the few projects around the country that uses journalistic methods as a primary tool. Although we consult with attorneys and academic experts in criminal justice, we depend on investigative reporting techniques to probe cases of likely wrongful conviction because often, there is no DNA to test.

Using time- and resource-intensive techniques, we dig into the facts of such cases, including examining reams of court documents and police records; reconstructing the crime scene and timeline; and interviewing or re-interviewing witnesses.

Presently, we are investigating two compelling cases, and will be reporting our findings through publications and broadcasts. We also help find qualified defense attorneys when the evidence suggests the case should move forward.

Student involvement. Brandeis students form an integral part of our work. Student research assistants have offered not just enthusiasm but also great intelligence to help address the issue of wrongful convictions. Most tell us that this work has changed their lives forever. Any student interested in assisting the Justice Brandeis Innocence Project as a research assistant may apply for a position by completing and submitting this form.

Why are Innocence Projects needed?

Learning from cases in which the criminal justice system has made mistakes—sometimes fatal mistakes—innocence projects around the country have identified a number of factors common in wrongful convictions. These include eyewitness misidentification, bad lawyering, government misconduct, false confessions, snitches, and bad forensics that defy the scientific method. All have contributed to the imprisonment of innocent people while allowing actual perpetrators to remain free.

Often, issues of race, class, and prejudice conflate to place certain groups at high risk for wrongful arrest, prosecution, and, ultimately, conviction.

We may never know how many innocent people are in prison. But here are some troubling facts about this huge ethical and criminal justice problem, nationally and in our state of Massachusetts.

In the United States:

• As of November 2011, there have been 280 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the U.S. These cases are becoming familiar as more innocent people gain their freedom through post-conviction DNA testing of biological evidence, and are symptomatic of a seriously flawed criminal justice system (innocenceproject.org).
• 10% of America’s 2 million prisoners may have been wrongfully convicted, suggesting that 200,000 innocent people may be in prison, according to the National Institute of Justice (1996).
• During the past 15 years, more than 28,500 non-death row inmates would have been exonerated if criminal justice reformers like innocence projects “reviewed prison sentences with the same level of care we devote to death sentences”(Gross, 2004).
• 17 of the first 273 people exonerated through DNA to date served time on death row (innocenceproject.org).
• The average sentence served by the first 250 exonerees was 13 years. Together, they served a total of approximately 3,160 years (Cardozo, 2010).
• About 70% of those exonerated by DNA testing are members of minority groups (innocenceproject.org).
• In 43% of the first 251 DNA exoneration cases, the real perpetrator of the crime was identified after the wrong person served prison time for it—and after those real perpetrators committed at least 72 more violent crimes before being caught (Innocence Project correspondence, March 2010).

In Massachusetts:

• 34 individuals have been exonerated in Massachusetts; 9 of them were exonerated by DNA evidence and the remaining 24 were freed by other means.
• Despite the state’s liberal reputation, wrongful convictions are a serious problem in Massachusetts. Scholars estimate that between 0.5 and 4% of convictions are incorrect. Using the lowest estimate, Boston University Law School Professor Stanley Z. Fisher (2002) estimated that 94 innocent people were likely convicted in FY 2000 alone.
• Massachusetts is one of only two states that have not passed a law granting convicts access to DNA tests that may prove their innocence. Oklahoma is the other. In fact, Dennis Maher, a Massachusetts DNA exoneree, had to wait 19 years and for the judge who blocked tests to retire before lawyers were allowed to test the evidence that proved he was innocent of the three 1983 rapes for which he was convicted.
• Massachusetts has two projects working on cases of likely wrongful conviction. In addition to the Justice Brandeis Innocence Project, The New England Innocence Project (NEIP) examines cases in which DNA was available to test, and expanded its scope om 2009 to include other factors (www.newenglandinnocence.org).
• The exoneration of Kenneth Waters is told in the film, "Conviction." In this case, NEIP and New York Innocence Project attorneys worked with Kenneth’s sister, Betty Anne Waters, who got her GED and put herself through college and law school so she could help free her brother from prison.