The Innocence Project

In the Williamson-Fritz case, the Innocence Project was able to get the DNA testing for Fritz and Williamson. The results vindicated both of them and they were freed in 1999. 

I n 60 of the 75 exonerations resulting from DNA testing since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, mistaken identity has been the leading cause of wrongful convictions for all types of crime. 

Mistaken identity, combined with suggestive identification by the police, was behind one of Madeleine Severin’s cases. The defendant was Gene Bibbins. The case involved a 13-year-old girl who was raped at knifepoint in 1986 in her house in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The rapist also stole a radio. 

At first she described her attacker as a black man with long, curly hair and wearing jeans. 

“However, the police didn’t write this down,” said Severin. After the victim was shown Bibbins in person, she identified him as her assailant, even though he was wearing shorts and had short hair. “Only then did the police write down a description, which was based on Bibbins.” He was carrying what looked like the broken radio the rapist had stolen. At that point, they showed the girl the stolen radio before they showed her Bibbins. 

When Severin got this case, she didn’t have to go on an evidence hunt because “the student who had the case last year located it in a storage facility of the Clerk of the Court’s office in East Baton Rouge.” The DNA tests were done in December 2002. The tests came back exonerating Bibbins, Severin wrote a Motion to Vacate Conviction, which was then signed by her supervising attorney. In March 2003 the district judge in Louisiana signed the motion. At that point, Bibbins had been in jail for 16 years. The victim still maintains that Bibbins was the one who raped her, in spite of two DNA tests that excluded him. 

I n the fall of 1986, two women were raped and killed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Robert Miller was in the police station when the police asked him if he could help them solve these crimes. 

“I can see through the killer’s eyes. I got these powers from my Choctaw grandmother. I dreamed about it one night,” Miller answered. After getting this response, the police took advantage of his fragile mental condition by putting a hidden video camera in the room and taping his talk with them. He seemed to know more about the crime than he should have. They considered this a confession. 

During the 1988 trial, Miller denied any involvement in the crime, but the jury believed what they heard on the tape. Later, at the 1996 trial, the judge ruled that there were many factual errors in the tape and many outright denials of involvement. He said that the tape could not be used as primary evidence. Miller was tested in 1996 and found innocent. He was freed in 1999, after being incarcerated on death row for nine years. His experience is not uncommon since the police often prey on the mentally ill or mentally retarded. 

In 1981, Jimmy Ray Bromgard was living in Billings, Montana when a little girl was raped in her house. The semen couldn’t be typed and there were no fingerprints that matched Bomgard’s in the house. At the trial, the girl testified that she was only 65 percent sure that it was Bromgard. Instead of making a motion to withhold this identification as unreliable, the defense attorney did nothing. Most of the case for the prosecution rested on an analysis of head and pubic hairs, which proved to be fraudulent. 

The defense attorney did not challenge this by hiring experts who would investigate and testify against this false evidence. 

According to a letter dated September 30, 2002 from Peter Neufeld to Mike McGrath, attorney general of Montana, he also failed to make an opening statement, even though studies have shown that juries tend to make up their minds after hearing opening statements. He also did not file an appeal after the defendant’s conviction. Bromgard was exonerated in October 2002 after 15 and a half years in jail. 

A s part of its activities, the Innocence Project spearheaded legislation called the Innocence Protection Act of 2001. It would have helped the states provide well- trained defense attorneys in capital cases. It would also have ensured access to DNA testing to death row and non-death row inmates who had a reasonable claim. Unfortunately, this legislation never got through Congress. 

Actual Innocence gives many examples of reforms and legislation that could minimize the number of wrongful convictions, aside from DNA testing (which acts as a correction not a cure). One example is preventing forensic fraud. The book says that no labs should be under police control. Another problem is with prosecutors’ attitudes, i.e., that such reforms are not likely to be instituted soon, if at all. 

Severin sums up the problem with prosecutors: “The job of the prosecutor is to prosecute guilty people. It’s not his [or her] job to defend old, incorrect rulings. There is nothing inconsistent about a prosecutor being tough on crime and the reopening of cases where innocent people have been convicted. No legitimate purpose is served by keeping an innocent person in jail. Fear of the truth is not a good reason to keep someone in prison.” 

The Innocence Project will continue to bring justice through the voices and actions of students like Severin, who is dedicated to playing  “as much of a role as possible to help innocent people prove their innocence.”