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February 2, 2016 ncip

Source: National Registry of Exonerations

It was a busy year for Innocence Network affiliated organizations. According to a recent report by the National Registry of Exonerations (Registry), researchers found that 149 people were cleared in 2015 for crimes they didn’t commit — more than any other year in history.

The busy trend continued throughout the winter months with Innocence Network affiliated organizations playing a key role in nine out of fifteen exonerations documented by the Registry between December 2015 and January 2016. According to the Registry, there have been 1,733 exonerations nationwide since 1989.

In December, exonerees finally caught a tax break with Congress’s passing of House Resolution 3086, the Wrongful Conviction Tax Relief Act of 2015. Passed with bipartisan support, the Act, introduced by Representatives Sam Johnson (R-TX) and John Larson (D-NY) and supported by several members of the senate, eliminates federal income tax on wrongful conviction compensation. That is good news for exonerees in the 30 states that provide exoneree compensation.

A number of states that provide compensation have highly inadequate statutes. Wisconsin, for example, currently provides exonerees only $5,000 per year of wrongful incarceration, capped at $25,000. In January, a Senate committee gave unanimous support to a bipartisan bill (Assembly Bill 460/Senate Bill 322) to dramatically increase payouts for people wrongly convicted of crimes in Wisconsin. The proposed bill would increase the statute to $50,000 per year of wrongful incarceration and cap payments at $1 million. The bill would also provide health care services for the exoneree.

Several states are also working to improve eyewitness identification police practices. The Missouri State Legislature is currently taking up the issue with Senate Bill 842. The bill calls for the adoption of a number of evidence-based practices including blind administration of lineups and recording of confidence statements.

Nebraska Senator Patty Pensing Brooks, is also supporting efforts in her state to implement eyewitness identification best practices with the introduction of Legislative Bill 846 which would require each agency to develop a written policy and submit a copy to the Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. Each agency would be required to follow best practices developed by the National Research Council, International Association of Chiefs of Police and the American Bar Association.

As a means to support network affiliated organizations and other individuals involved in the innocence movement, the Innocence Network hosts an annual conference. This year’s conference will be held in San Antonio, Texas from April 7-9. At the conference, NCIP staff will be leading a panel on the implementation of effective conviction review units and presenting information about challenges to child sexual assault cases postconviction. Over 550 attendees are expected, including at least 150 exonerees. For more information, click here.

Exonerations in December 2015 and January 2016*

Ben Baker
State: IL
Date of Exoneration: 1/14/2016
In 2006, Ben Baker was sentenced to 18 years for possession of cocaine and heroin in Chicago. He was exonerated in 2016 after the police officer in charge of his case was convicted of framing suspected drug dealers and forcing people to pay bribes to avoid false arrest.

Marvin Roberts, Kevin Pease, George Frese and Eugene Vent

State: AK
Date of Exoneration: 12/18/2015
Marvin Roberts, Kevin Pease, George Frese and Eugene Vent, who became known as the Fairbanks Four, were convicted and sentenced to decades in prison for a 1997 murder in Fairbanks, Alaska. They were exonerated in 2015 after the real killers were identified.

Calvin Day

State: TX
Date of Exoneration: 12/18/2015
In 2013, Dr. Calvin Day, a San Antonio, Texas dermatologist, was convicted of sexually assaulting a patient. He was granted a new trial and the charges were dismissed in 2015 because his attorneys failed to present evidence casting doubt on the truthfulness of the complaining witness.

Han Tak Lee

State: PA
Date of Exoneration: 12/17/2015
Han Tak Lee was sentenced to life in prison without parole for setting a fire that killed his daughter in Pennsylvania in 1989. He was exonerated in 2015 after fire expert John Lentini demonstrated that forensic evidence did not support the theory that the fire was intentionally set.

Amaury Villalobos, William Vasquez, and Raymond Mora

State: NY
Date of Exoneration: 12/16/2015
Amaury Villalobos, William Vasquez and Raymond Mora were sentenced to 25 years to life for setting a fire that killed a mother and her five children in Brooklyn in 1980. In 2015, they were exonerated (Mora posthumously) after the fire was shown to have been an accident and a witness who identified them recanted.

Evan Lee Deakle, Jr.

State: AL
Date of Exoneration: 12/10/2015
In September, 2015, 61-year-old Evan Lee Deakle, Jr. was convicted of sexually abusing his 14-year-old step-granddaughter. After the complainant made a similar false accusation against her father, Deakle’s conviction was vacated and the charge was dismissed.

Floyd Bledsoe

State: KS
Date of Exoneration: 12/8/2015
Floyd Bledsoe was sentenced to life in prison in 2000 in Jefferson County, Kansas for the sexual assault and murder of his 14-year-old sister-in-law. He was exonerated in 2015 when DNA testing linked his brother to the crime.

Alan Tong

State: TX
Date of Exoneration: 12/4/2015
In 2012, Alan Tong pled guilty to possession of LSD and was sentenced to six months in jail in Montgomery County, Texas. He was exonerated in 2015 after lab tests performed in 2013 were negative for any controlled substance.

Donovan Allen

State: WA
Date of Exoneration: 12/1/2015
In 2002, Donovan Allen was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of his mother in Longview, Washington. Allen was exonerated in 2015 after DNA tests implicated the victim’s nephew as the killer.

*Source: http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/featured.aspx

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