Sometimes, it seems like the police don’t follow evidence at all. They seem almost determined to identify a suspect. “Who looks good for this crime?” they might ask. They sometimes get tunnel vision, looking for evidence the suspect is guilty and dismissing evidence...
laura.reynolds@thomsonreuters.com
Are there really ways experts can tell that someone is lying?
If you hadn’t heard, polygraph tests (so-called “lie-detector tests”) are not very reliable. While they still have their defenders, many courts won’t except the results as evidence. A polygraph can’t tell if you’re lying; it can only tell if you’re nervous. But...
Robert Roberson is on death row for what might have been an accident
“It’s no exaggeration to say hundreds if not thousands of parents and caregivers are in prison in cases where no crime occurred,” says a spokesperson for the Innocence Project. Robert Roberson may be one of them. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 after...
A forensic analyst’s exaggerated testimony leads to new trial
A Colorado man who has insisted on his innocence for 30 years will get a new trial because the forensic analyst’s testimony in his trial is no longer supported by scientific evidence. In order for someone to offer an expert opinion in court, the judge must be...
Minneapolis and St. Paul have very different police reform stories
Two recent articles show very different things happening in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The U.S. Department of Justice has just entered into a deal requiring Minneapolis to reform its police, who the DOJ says discriminate against Black and Indigenous people and those...
Ohio man gets $4M; exonerated of rape after 16 years in prison
Christopher Miller was convicted of rape and other charges in 2002. He was sentenced to 40 years. The hitch is, he didn’t commit the crime. He was convicted in an apparent rush to judgment after a Cleveland Heights, Ohio, woman was attacked and raped. Her purse was...
Federal judge holds a federal sex offender rule unconstitutional
A federal judge in California has found a key part of the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) to be unconstitutional. SORNA makes it a federal crime when a sex offender fails to register and then travels outside their state. People convicted...
Bail measure passes legislature, will become ballot question
Recently, the legislature passed a measure to change how bail is determined in Wisconsin. It has passed twice in consecutive legislative sessions, which means that it will now head to our April ballot as a constitutional amendment. How bail is determined is critically...
Supreme Court to decide if you can be punished after an acquittal
This may come as a shock. Being acquitted of a crime doesn’t mean you can’t be punished for committing it. People can and do get punished for crimes they got acquitted of committing. It happens when a person is charged with more than one crime. If they are acquitted...
Garland: feds to stop using the crack/powder sentencing disparity
There is good news for people facing federal charges for distributing crack cocaine. According to Attorney General Merrick Garland, federal prosecutors will no longer seek longer sentences for crack offenders than they do for powder cocaine defendants. Since the...