The Innocence Project ? which attempts to exonerate wrongfully convicted people through DNA evidence ? is expected to a hit a milestone this month when lawyers announce their 200th exoneration nationwide.
The tentative date for the announcement is April 23, said Alice Leeds, a spokeswoman for the Innocence Project.
“This is a watershed moment for the criminal justice system, since these DNA exonerations represent an unprecedented data set on wrongful convictions in the U.S.” she said. “They show us the shortcomings of the criminal justice system that have been proven by hard science.”
Leeds would not say in which jurisdiction the 200th exoneration would occur.
In Maryland, the public defender?s Innocence Project says DNA evidence has helped eight defendants after police and prosecutors wrongly implicated them.
Last October, defense attorneys announced DNA testing had cleared two defendants, James Owens and James Thompson, of a 1987 rape, although both men remain behind bars awaiting their post-conviction hearings. Owens? hearing is scheduled for May 24.
“This should be a huge wake-up call for the entire criminal justice system,” Johns Hopkins criminologist Doug Ward said of the 200th exoneration. “I?d like to see it have more effect. I don?t see many changes and I think that?s unfortunate. I?d like to see the police do a more thorough job of exhausting all leads instead of focusing in on one suspect.”
Suzanne Drouet, an attorney with Maryland?s Innocence Project, said she believes there are many more wrongly convicted people in America.
“To think that we?ve got the only 200 people is sort of ridiculous,” she said.
Still, Drouet said the number demonstrates that many forms of traditional evidence are unreliable.
“It?s a confirmation for what defense attorneys have talked about for years: Eyewitness identification should be regarded with skepticism, scientific evidence is not infallible and confessions can be coerced,” Drouet said. “People doubted that. With the advent of the DNA revolution, it showed what defense attorneys have been saying for years was correct.”
Eyewitness misidentification played a role in 75 percent of the 200 wrongful convictions that were overturned by DNA evidence, and faulty science played a role in more than 60 percent of the cases, according to the Innocence Project.
As a result of the DNA exonerations, courts across the country have instituted some reforms ? including better eyewitness identification procedures, better oversight of crime labs and recording of interrogations, according to the Innocence Project.
University of Baltimore criminologist Jeffrey Ian Ross said the anticipated 200th exoneration shows the “justice system is not infallible.”
“I think 200 is a drop in the bucket,” he said. “But it?s a good thing.”
