Wrongful Convictions Clinic
- Professor, Wrongful Convictions Clinic: H. Patrick Furman
Mission and Clients
Colorado Law’s Wrongful Convictions Clinic investigates claims by Colorado prisoners who, despite being convicted, assert they are, in fact, innocent. The Clinic gets these cases through its work with the Colorado Innocence Project.
The Colorado Innocence Project receives requests for help from inmates, and makes a preliminary determination as to whether there are factual and legal grounds that might support the claim of innocence. When a case appears deserving of being re-litigated, the Innocence Project recruits private lawyers and law firms to represent the inmate, and students in the Wrongful Convictions Clinic are assigned to help with further evaluation. The Clinic has pursued cases in all stages of this process.
These cases are difficult and time-consuming. There are huge structural, factual, procedural, legal, and practical problems standing in the way. But an effort to free a wrongfully convicted person is as noble an effort as we lawyers can ever undertake, and the students in the Wrongful Convictions Clinic find the hard work well worth it.
Scope
Students correspond with and meet the prospective clients, review trial and hearing transcripts, read discovery, research the state of the law at the time of the conviction and at present, search for undiscovered errors, determine whether new forensic techniques might help, and make recommendations as to whether the case should be pursued. In addition to reviewing referred cases, clinic students are active on the legislative front as well.
Type of Legal Assistance
A typical case involves a serious felony conviction, such as murder or sexual assault, which occurred more than 10 years ago. The case was appealed unsuccessfully, and further post-conviction proceedings, in both state and federal court, have also failed. The inmate, who has consistently alleged actual innocence, is now hoping that we can uncover additional errors of law, or new investigative leads, or apply new forensic techniques, such as DNA testing, to the case to demonstrate innocence.
In 2002, clinic students wrote, lobbied for, and helped pass legislation that gives Colorado state court inmates access to DNA evidence in the post-conviction setting. C.R.S. § 18-1-411. In academic year 2004–2005, students worked on legislation requiring that statements of suspects be electronically recorded whenever possible in the hope of reducing the incidence of false confessions generated through inappropriate interrogation techniques and reducing frivolous suppression claims by defendants.
Another project is an effort to reform the way that the police conduct live and photographic lineups, since researchers have consistently shown that mistaken identification is the most common cause of a wrongful conviction, and have also developed ways to improve the accuracy of the lineup process. The goal of both these ongoing efforts, of course, is to improve the accuracy of the information that is presented to the fact-finder.
“Wrongful Convictions and the Accuracy of the Criminal Justice System” (32 The Colorado Lawyer No. 9, p. 11, September 2003) by Professor Pat Furman is an overview of the causes of wrongful convictions. Much of the work around the nation concerning efforts to free wrongfully convicted inmates is chronicled by the Innocence Project at the Cardozo School of Law.
