wrongful conviction

“The Trials and Tribulations of Discovering Brady Violations During a CIU Review” was presented as part of the Conviction Integrity Unit series through subgrantee APA on February 25, 2021 at 3pm ET. According to a report released by the National Registry of Exonerations in September 2020, official misconduct contributed to the wrongful conviction of 54% of people who were later exonerated.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance is seeking applications for its Fiscal Year 2020 Upholding the Rule of Law and Preventing Wrongful Convictions (ROL/WCR) Program. To prioritize the integrity of the criminal justice system, the ROL/WCR program will support entities in reviewing wrongful conviction cases for individuals they represent who claim their innocence.

NACDL will conduct an in-person, one-day training for at least 150 defense attorneys on litigating post-conviction claims of innocence. The goal of this training is to increase the ability of attorneys representing individuals in post-conviction proceedings to efficiently and effectively evaluate and litigate cases involving claims of innocence.

APA and NACDL presented the next webinar in the CIU series on April 23, 2019 at 3pm EST: Evolution of a Conviction Integrity Unit. Santa Clara County first established its conviction integrity unit in 2004. Over the last fifteen years, the function of the CIU has changed, and lessons have been learned. This webinar discussed how Santa Clara’s CIU was established, and how it evolved over time from a small unit that reviewed individual cases to a centralized function that seeks to prevent wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice in the first place.

NACDL and subgrantee APA worked to produce a webinar on the operation of a successful CIU and its collaboration with the defense. On Tuesday March 5, 2019 at 3:00 PM EST this webinar kicked off the planned Conviction Integrity Webinar Mini-Series. To better understand the issues and practices related to Conviction Integrity and Conviction Review Units, the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys and Bureau of Justice Assistance presented a discussion of mechanics and obstacles of starting a conviction review unit and the results of a national survey of conviction review practices and units.

Provide ongoing assistance and support to grantees under the Upholding the Rule of Law & Preventing Wrongful Convictions program through direct consultations and feedback, as well as connecting grantees to each other for more general and global assistance.

In Washington DC from 2009-2012, three men were exonerated in cases where three different FBI agents provided erroneous testimony regarding the hair comparison evidence that served as the primary physical evidence in those cases. Subsequently, the FBI and DOJ agreed to conduct a review of testimony in microscopic hair comparison analysis in collaboration with NACDL and the Innocence Project.

A recorded training video that provide analysis of the scientific limits of the discipline of microscopic hair comparison analysis including discussion of the scientific standards applied in the FBI's Microscopic Hair Comparison Analysis Review and application of those standards to identify cases with invalid scientific evidence.

NACDL will conduct an in-person, one-day training for at least 150 defense attorneys on litigating post-conviction claims of innocence. The goal of this training is to increase the ability of attorneys representing individuals in post-conviction proceedings to efficiently and effectively evaluate and litigate cases involving claims of innocence.

In March 2017, NACDL provided a faculty member for the Federal Defender Services capital habeas training: “7th National Seminar on Forensic Evidence & the Criminal Law.” NACDL Senior Resource Counsel trained federal habeas corpus lawyers on the results and lessons from the FBI Microscopic Hair Comparison Analysis Review, problems with the scientific validity of hair comparison evidence, relevance to other feature comparison disciplines and litigating innocence cases. (grant travel funds were NOT needed for this)