by Donna Hicks

Created on: September 28, 2010   Last Updated: October 01, 2010

It is no secret that there are innocent people who have been wrongly convicted. Recent newspaper articles, television news accounts of the wrongly convicted, special organizations dedicated to proving or publicizing information about the innocent who are wrongly convicted have not only surprised, but shocked many of us. What is even more shocking is the degree of intentional misconduct on the part of the police, prosecutors, detectives and even judges who have played a role in innocent people being convicted of crimes they did not commit.

The Convicted Innocent

There are hundreds of “convicted felons” who have been released from prisons around the country, due to proof that they did not commit the crime(s) they were accused of committing. Just this week, a deaf man in Texas has been ordered to be freed by a Texas judge. According to an Associated Press article, Steven Brodie was sentenced to five years in prison for sexually assaulting a five year old girl. Police officers questioned him for hours without an interpreter present, eventually obtaining a confession. He was convicted with no evidence connecting him to the crime, and evidence at the scene not a match to Mr. Brodie. The five years was a plea deal; he was told he could face up to 99 years in prison if he did not accept it. Another man, a sex offender, has been linked to that crime.

In February, 2010, the Yakima Herald reported on the “innocent” verdict at the second trial of Ted Bradford, who had already served 10 years in prison for a rape and burglary that he did not commit. Even though the rapist made the victim wear a mask when he attacked her, the victim still identified Bradford as the attacker at the first trial. Mr. Bradford said he was pressured into confessing. The Innocence Project was involved in trying to clear Bradford of the crime, and DNA collected recently from evidence from the 1995 was determined not to belong to Bradford, but to an unknown subject.

The Innocence Project

The Innocence Project is committed to winning the freedom of those who are wrongly convicted. To date, well over 300 men who have been wrongly convicted of crimes they did not commit have been exonerated. Steven Barnes is one such example. Mr. Barnes served nearly twenty years imprisonment for the rape and murder of a 16 year old girl. At trial, testimony was given that no fingerprints at the scene matched Mr. Barnes and that tire tracks at the scene did not match those of Barnes’ truck.

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