Dennis Maher Case

Even when Michael’s new defense team, through the innocence project, found a crime that was eerily similar to the method of murder and subsequent events to the one that Michael was convicted of, the new prosecutor in Williamson County fought hard to keep DNA testing from taking place, even stating that they objected to the testing now because the defense hadn’t requested it before (Morton, 2014). There was further evidence of ineffectiveness in that the coroner who’d changed his estimated time of death between the autopsy and trial, had come under scrutiny for his findings in this case, as well as several others, with claims of gross errors “including one case where he came to the conclusion that a man who’d been stabbed in the back had committed suicide” (Morton, 2014). This was only one of the many injustices that were committed against Michael Morton throughout his trial. In August of 2006, the defense was finally granted permission to perform DNA testing on the items that had been taken from his wife’s body (Morton, 2014). Although this testing did not reveal any information about the guilty party, it did at least give Michael the knowledge that Chris was not sexually violated before or after her death (Morton,

After Terry was convicted with three years in jail, he filed with the Supreme Court of appeals. The court had found that the officer acted responsibly and Chief Justice Warren stated that “a reasonably prudent man would have been warranted in believing

All of his appeals got denied. Then, his post-conviction lawyers Robert Henak and Stephen Glenn had the DNA evidence tested in 1995. The court shot down the evidence stating that the 3rd set of alleles from the test could have belonged to anyone and didn’t prove Steven’s innocence. Eventually, the Wisconsin Innocence Project got the rape kit tested again. The lab found a rooted pubic hair and tested it.

Throughout the trial Steven claimed he had nothing to do with the assault, however, he was still found guilty. In 2002, the Wisconsin Innocence Project took Avery's case. As a result of improvements in DNA testing, they were able to exonerate Avery in 2003 based on DNA evidence indicating that someone other than Avery committed the crime. The DNA was matched to one Gregory Allen.

In September of 1961, a woman from District of Columbia had an intruder break into her apartment. While the invader of the home was there, they had taken her wallet, and also raped the woman. During the investigation of the crime, the police had found some latent fingerprints in the apartment. The police then established and processed the prints. The prints were then connected back to 16 year old Morris A. Kent.

Smallwood and an accomplice had robbed a woman a woman at gunpoint and raped her in a secluded place on September 26, 1993. Two days later, Smallwood and an accomplice robbed another woman at gunpoint and raped her in a secluded place. Smallwood inserted his penis with “slight penetration.” Smallwood and an accomplice robbed a third woman at gunpoint at a local school. Smallwood forced her to perform oral sex and raped her after.

“The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.” The mission of the Innocence Project is to exonerate people who they believe don’t belong in jail and aren’t guilty of the crime they were convicted for. People write to them asking for them to investigate on difference cases and they will evaluate potential cases by gathering information about each case application and see if they can determine whether DNA testing can be conducted. Christopher Abernathy was one of the many people who they successfully exonerated. Christopher was convicted for murder, rape, and robbery.

Modern Day Muckraking “In 1979, Goldschmidt, who as mayor had won national renown for the development of the downtown bus mall and the city 's then-revolutionary light rail, was tapped by President Jimmy Carter to be Secretary of Transportation” (Jaquiss). Neil Goldschmidt was a very successful politician, but he was hiding a very dark secret that the people of Oregon deserved to know. Should the type of person, who raped a 14 year old girl for three years, be considered someone that the people of Oregon look up to? This is just one of the questions Nigel Jaquiss addressed in his article about the affair between Neil Goldschmidt and a 14 year old girl that occurred from 1975-1978 (Jaquiss).

Both men were successful in their appeals as a verdict of guilty could not be settled upon as the case was based on improbabilities and circumstantial evidence that could not lead to a definite

The creation of Blood Spatter Analyst has changed the perspective all crime scenes which are intensely solved in a completely new direction. It is the examination of shapes, distribution patterns and location of the bloodstain in order to find the real image which was created in the crime scene. All bloodstains and bloodstain patterns are evaluated by the force they were originally created. ( http://www.bloodspatter.com/bloodstain-tutorial). There has been a vast change and growing environment for the bloodstain spatters as there work now is recognized and appreciated within the law enforcement and the court officials.

He was arrested that same year for disorderly conduct when he exposed himself at a state fair in August of 1982. He was then arrested again in September of 1986, when he was accused by two young boys of pleasuring himself in front of them. For this, he only received a year of probation. (Biography). In September of 1989, Dahmer was on probation for the molestation of a child after claiming he would “change his ways and better himself,” when he took his first victim (Serial Killer).

First, the victim was taken to a hospital for a rape examination and her clothing and bedspread were collected as evidence. The laboratory found sperm evidence in the rape kit, on the victim’s jumpsuit, and on a blanket, which matched Good’s blood type and one-third of the caucasian male population (Haynes: Circuit judge). This shows that there was evidence but not enough evidence to say it was Donald Good. Next, Good was convicted on the spot. Good spent more than seven years in jail for rape and murder has been exonerated because of a tainted testimony from a former State Police chemist.

The facts of this case start with a woman in her home in Detroit on September 2nd in 1982, who was playing with her 7 month old son when a man broke into her house. He dragged the woman to an upstairs bedroom and raped her on the bed. He then allowed her to put a robe on and led her down stairs and stole $60 dollars from her purse, her wedding band, and $100 more from the house. After the man left this woman called the police and they arrived then they collected the robe she wore and the sheets from the bed. She was then taken to the hospital for a rape kit to be collected.

Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong In Brandon L. Garrett 's book, Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong, he makes it very clear how wrongful convictions occur and how these people have spent many years in prison for crimes they never committed. Garrett presents 250 cases of innocent people who were convicted wrongfully because the prosecutors opposed testing the DNA of those convicted. Garrett provided simple statistics such as graphs, percentages, and charts to help the reader understand just how great of an impact this was.

Mr. Bloodsworth took this as his chance of freedom. After a long amount of debating over the DNA test, the prosecution finally agreed to it on the year 1992. The tests, performed by Edward T. Blake, of Forensic Science Associates, DNA on the victim's shorts, panties, and a stick. The test on the panties excluded Mr. Bloodsworth DNA, the FBI had the same results on their DNA test. Kirk was freed from prison on June 28, 1993.