South Carolina Criminal Defense Blog

Prosecutorial misconduct such as withholding evidence, the use of jailhouse snitch testimony, faulty eyewitness identifications, and coerced confessions lead to wrongful convictions that destroy lives. There is nothing to prevent these miscarriages of justice unless prosecutors are held accountable for misconduct and unless laws are passed or rules put into place to limit the use of unreliable evidence at trials.

In the news recently:

In California, Adam Miranda is granted a new trial after nearly 30 years in prison, following the revelation that his prosecutors withheld evidence that could have exonerated him - Judge David S. Wesley found that prosecutors did not tell the defense attorneys that their star witness Joe Saucedo had confessed to the murder himself before Miranda was charged. Saucedo was paid $1350, was relocated, and was given a deal that resulted in 2 years of probation on his own charge.

"This kind of violation snaps the spine of the justice system," defense attorney Kerry R. Bensinger said after Friday's hearing.

Tim Masters' 1999 murder conviction in Fort Collins, Colorado, was overturned last year after new evidence was discovered, but still struggles to put his life back together with the stigma of a first degree murder conviction hanging over him:

In 1987, Masters became the prime suspect in the slaying of Peggy Hettrick, a 37-year-old found in a field near his house. Among the reasons police said they focused on Masters was that he failed to report the body after he found it and his childhood drawings and stories suggested he was fixated on death.

Masters was convicted of murder in 1999, but a judge last year threw out the conviction and released him from prison, citing new evidence that did not implicate Masters. Masters now has a lawsuit pending against several police officers, ex-prosecutors and the city.

In Louisiana, the City of Covington has agreed to settle a lawsuit for $1.4 million for the 19 years that Dennis Patrick Brown spent in prison for a rape he did not commit.

Covington police arrested Brown in September 1984 after a woman reported being raped at knifepoint in her home on Polk Street. Based on her description, police sketched an image of a suspect with a bandanna covering all but his eyes.

She later picked Brown out of a lineup. During the September 1985 trial, the victim testified that she had no doubt Brown raped her.

Brown denied the attack, testifying that police had threatened him with a knife to gain a confession. He told the jury that police investigators were lying and that the first time he set eyes on the victim was in court. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

In 2004, the Innocence Project of New Orleans obtained a court order to test blood, semen and clothing found at the scene of the rape. Two tests of the evidence excluded Brown as the rapist.