Advanced Criminal Law: Convicting the Innocent
Professor James R. Elkins College of Law
West Virginia University|Fall|2016|

   

 

Prosecutorial Misconduct: Assuring Conviction Integrity

Readings

Ellen Yaroshefsky, New Orleans Prosecutorial Disclosure in Practice After Connick v. Thompson, 25 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 913 (2012) [online text]

Aviva Orenstein, Facing the Unfaceable: Dealing with Prosecutorial Denial in Postconviction Cases of Actual Innocence, 48 San Diego L. Rev. 401 (2011) [online text]

Barry Scheck, Professional and Conviction Integrity Programs: Why We Need Them, Why They Will Work, and Models for Creating Them, 31 Cardozo L. Rev. 2215 (2010) [online text]

Supplemental Reading

John Hollway, Conviction Review Units: A National Perspective (Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice, University of Pennsylvania Law School, 2016) [online text]

Daniel S. Medwed, The Prosecutor as Minister of Justice: Preaching to the Unconverted from the Post-Conviction Pulpit, 84 Wash. L. Rev. 35 (2009) [online text]

Background: Symposia on Conviction Integrity

A Systems Approach to Conviction Integrity
[49:51 mins.] Pt1 [1:48:23 mins.] Pt2 [1:06:52 mins.] Pt3 [1:15:11 mins.] [Craig Watkins presentation begins at 6:30 mins.] Pt4 [1:26:40 mins.]

Symposium | Conviction Integrity Units: Can Prosecutors Regulate Themselves?
[1:23:49 mins.] [Jeff Rosen, DA, Santa Clara County; presentation begins at 3:23 mins.] [Judge Alex Kozinski] [Linda Starr, Legal Director, Northern California Innocence Project] [Professor Kami Chavis Simmons, Wake Forest University School of Law] [note: poor quality video]

Introduction: Brooklyn DA's Office

Ken Thompson Campaigns for Office: Interview [14:58 mins.; class presentation can end at 3:58 mins.] Pt2: Campaign Interview [14:56 mins.] [this video is not being shown in class]

NY 1: Conviction Integrity Units
[2:01 mins.] [Brooklyn DA, Ken Thompson]

Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson Announces He Will Vacate Conviction of David McCallum [1l:18 mins.] [The David McCallum case involves false confessions, ineffective assistance of counsel]

DA Ken Thompson Addresses the New York City Bar Association on Wrongful Convictions [11:32 mins.]

First Woman Exonerated by Brooklyn's Conviction Review Unit
[7:40 mins.] [Vanesa Gathers case; false confession]

Brooklyn Conviction Integrity Unit
[1:20 mins.]

DA Craig Watkins & Conviction Integrity

Craig Watkins: A New Style DA
[7:30 mins.] [Al Jazeera] [reference to the Christopher Scott case; an eyewitness identification case]] [Craig Watkins was, reputedly, the first African-American DA in Texas] [created a Conviction Integrity Unit in the DA's office]

Craig Watkins Presentation at a Conviction Integrity Symposium
[1:15:11 mins.] [Craig Watkins presentation begins at 6:30 mins. and ends at
11L28 mins.]

Becoming a Prosecutor
[1:53 mins.]

Convicted Texas Man Cleared by DNA Test After 30 Years in Prison
[7:39 mins.] [PBS Newshour] [Craig Watkins is interviewed] [discussion of the Cornelius Dupree case] [eyewitness identification]

DA Craig Watkins: Advocating Change
[6:39 mins.] [recommending legislative changes to address wrongful convictions]

Conversation with Craig Watkins
[57:38 mins.] [Wake Forest School of Law] [Watkins talks about his background]

Craig Watkins speaks at NACOLE 2009
[9:24 mins.] Pt2 [9:16 mins.] [poor quality video]

DA Craig Watkins, Public Official of the Year 2008
[9:02 mins.]

DA Craig Watkins: Guilty Until Proven Innocent
[41:24 mins.] [Craig Watkins speaking to students]

Craig Watkins Dallas District Attorney
[12:48 mins.]

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins on Southern Shift TV
[9:30 mins.]

Craig Watkins on Preventing Wrongful Convictions
[5:57 mins.] [panel discussion] [poor quality video]

Craig Watkins Address Media and Death Penalty
[9:15 mins.]

Craig Watkins makes case for Reelection
[3:30 mins.]

Conviction Integrity Units

US Attorney in DC Creates Post Conviction Integrity Unit
[2:22 mins.]

A Prosecutor Talks about an Exoneration Case and Eyewitness Identification
[15:50 mins.] [Prosecutor Mark Larson talks about exoneration cases. Larson is a DA in Kings County, Seattle, Washington.]

Attorney Elliot Zinger & Wallace Gator Bradley: Wrongful Convictions In Illinois
[15:48 mins.]

Prosecutor's Apology (Glenn Ford Case)

Louisiana death row inmate freed after nearly 30 years behind bars
[1:00 mins.]

Glenn Ford Released
[1:49 mins.]

Glenn Ford Released After 25 Years Of Death Row
[3:01 mins.]

Innocent Man On Death Row Released After 30 Years
[7:15 mins.]

Louisiana Man Glenn Ford Released From Prison After 26 Years For A Murder He Did Not Commit! [4:17 mins.]

Louisiana Denies Compensation to Dying Exonerated Death Row Prisoner as Former Prosecutor Apologizes [14:24 mins.] [Democracy Now]

Exonerated Death Row Inmate Meets Prosecutors Who Put Him There
[8:44 mins.] [ABC News]

Marty Stroud, Prosecutor Who Put Innocent Man On Death Row 'Whole System Is Fatally Flawed'
[5:56 mins.][Al Sharpton, Politics Nation]

Innocent Man Spent That 31 Years On Death Row Meets Prosecutor Who Put Him There!
[7:08 mins.] [prosecutor expresses regret for his handling of the case]

“Marty” Stroud III on the wrongful conviction and exoneration of Glenn Ford
[16:56 mins.]

The Best Apology EVER?
[9:06 mins.]

Volunteers Gather to Care for Glenn Ford, Exonerated Louisiana Man Who Is Now Dying from Cancer
[1:50 mins.] [Democracy Now]

No Apologies (DA in David MacCullum Case)

Corrupt DA Unashamed Of Wrongful Death Row Convictions
[5:20 mins.]

Overl Zealous Prosecutors

Corrupt DA Unashamed Of Wrongful Death Row Convictions
[5:20 mins.]

Cruelest Prosecutor In America Dumped
[7:39 mins.]

Web Resources

Wrongful Convictions: Can Prosecutors Reform Themselves?
[Hella Winston, The Crime Report] [The Crime Report  (TCR) is the nation's only comprehensive news service covering the diverse challenges and issues of 21st century criminal justice in the U.S. and abroad. Staffed by working journalists in New York, Washington and Los Angeles, it is published daily through the year by the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. ]

Curbing Prosecutorial Excess: A Job for the Courts & Congress
[Arnold I. Burns & Warren L. Dennis, article in the Champion, published by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers]

Orleans DA Leon Cannizzaro announces new unit to ensure fair convictions
[The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, August 19, 2014]

Conviction Integrity Units: Vanguard of Criminal Justice Reform
[White Paper, Center for Prosecutor Integrity, 2014]


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