A Task Force on Wrongful Convictions

Friday, May 1st, 2009

Jonathan Lippman, New York’s top jurist, created a task force permanently to examine wrongful convictions, as well as recommend action steps on how to minimize them. As his first major initiative, the state’s Chief Judge has selected lawmakers, scientists, defense lawyers, and prosecutors to be members of the task force.

In his interview, Judge Lippman said “We will take the raw material from New York criminal cases and from around the country too, for that matter. Let’s see what we can do to change the justice system.”

Recent spate of overturned convictions includes high-profile cases of Martin Tankleff, who was convicted of bludgeoning his parents; and Jeffrey Deskovic, who was convicted of raping and murdering his high school classmate. In fact, according to a report of New York Bar Association, there were 53 people exonerated in the state since 1964, half of them were absolved through DNA testing.

The founder of Innocence Project and a criminal lawyer himself, Peter Neufeld, said “This move was unprecedented. Actually, one of the problems with wrongful convictions is that nobody ever collects data on it.”

While a handful of lawmakers and court officials in other states have already set up task forces or commissions with the same objective, some experts say that the version created by Judge Lippman promises to be quite robust compared to the rest.

Tags: criminal lawyer, defense lawyers, Jeffrey Deskovic, Jonathan Lippman, Martin Tankleff, New York, Peter Neufeld, task force, wrongful convictions
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