by
NARR: Roy Brown went to prison 15 years ago for a murder he insisted he didn't commit. Last month, DNA testing proved Brown was right, and he became the 8th innocent person in the past two years to be freed by such evidence in New York. Alicia Eckhart is a law student who began working on Roy Brown's case last year through the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal clinic. She says that cases like Brown's show that New York has a problem.
ACT: ECKHARDT: (:12): We're aware that innocent people are in jail, in prison for many many years, and this is the point when in our history when we really need to investigate: what's going on here? Why are so many people being wrongfully convicted?
NARR: Many people look at New York's recent exonerations and say there's a simple solution: do more DNA testing, which offers conclusive proof that someone is innocent. But Eckhart says that DNA testing isn't enough.
ACT: ECKHART (:12): Most of the criminal cases in New York are not cases where you're going to have blood, semen, saliva, or other DNA. There's going to be a lot of innocent people who have no course of action after they've been convicted.
NARR: Brown's lawyer Katy Karlovich says that DNA exonerations provide proof that wrongful convictions aren't rare events. She says one main problem is that New York's criminal justice system simply doesn't have enough checks and balances.
ACT: KARLOVICH (:16): The exoneerees that the Innocence Project has dealt with, it's a tip of the iceberg situation… Peter Neufield from the Innocence Project likes to say if there's a doctor where there's a couple surgeries that go bad, there's an agency that steps in and investigates the circumstances and makes sure it doesn't happen again."
NARR: New York assemblyman Michael Gianaris of Astoria is trying to create such an agency to step in. He's sponsoring a bill to establish an Innocence Commission, which would examine exoneration cases and make policy recommendations to try to make sure more innocent people don't spend decades in prison.
Rebecca Brown from the Innocence Project says this idea isn't new: innocence commissions already successfully exist in six states.
ACT: BROWN (:20): The public finds it horrifying to think this could happen to them, but also more than that hat this could happen in a free democracy where we believe that there are systems in place to ensure ensures an innocent is never convicted wrongfully. So I think it really provides an extra check or balance on the justice system.
NARR: Gianaris' legislation would create a commission of 10 people representing law enforcement, judges, defense attorneys and academics. Those appointees would identify the major causes of wrongful convictions in New York, and implement reforms to make sure that fewer innocent people get trapped in the system.
For now, Roy Brown serves as living proof of why New York needs such a commission. His lawyer Katy Karlovich describes how difficult Brown's life is after 15 years behind bars.
ACT: KARLOVICH (0:18): He had children that were small when he was first locked up, these children are grown, some have children of their own. We went to the bank to open an account and I was trying to explain an ATM card to him, he hasn't emailed anybody, he's trying to get used to using a cell phone, the world changes so much in that time frame.
NARR: Brown and others freed by the state of New York by DNA evidence have served a total of 249 years in prison for crimes they never committed. Assemblyman Gianaris' legislation for an Innocence Commission will be introduced for the 2007 session this month.
SOC: This is Sitara Nieves for Columbia Radio News.