Brandon Garrett
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Wrongful conviction is, both morally and practically, the worst mistake that society can inflict on an individual. From Franz Kafka to Errol Morris, from Arthur Koestler to Harper Lee, Western culture is deeply shaken at the prospect of the innocent person condemned. Outside of fiction, it used to be nearly impossible to prove a convict’s innocence to a level of certainty that could overturn the judgment of a jury: after all, twelve peers have found that it would be unreasonable even to doubt his guilt. In the absence of procedural error, society lacked any way to correct such a verdict. But in the late nineteen-eighties, with the advent of reliable DNA testing, that changed.
One wrongful conviction is a tragedy; a hundred thousand wrongful convictions is a statistic. In his new book Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong (Harvard UP, 2011), Brandon L. Garrett tries to bridge the gap between the two. Drawing on court records and archives at the Innocence Project, he presents an extensive analysis of two hundred and fifty erroneous convictions for extremely serious crimes. The data, unique in history, constitute a perfect ‘natural experiment’ for evaluating the weaknesses of the criminal-justice system. The stories Garrett brings to light are horrifying in their routine simplicity and in the absence of malice that led to such unjust results. Moreover, the exonerees’ faulty trials share many common elements, and the patterns of error Garrett has identified point the way toward crucial reforms.
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my father was sentenced to 4 years in prison, i was not my self when i heard the sentence.He was all i had and i was thinking of committing suicide.His friend that worked with him took me to a spiritualist,after we negotiated,he prepared something for me afterwards which i used perfectly well.After 1 week the state pardoned my father and he was set free.we are happy together thanks to him.i decided to share his email address on this site for those that has a similar problem with mine doctorjeffersontemple@gmail.com
Mr. Garrett,
If you get this or read these comments please help us. I am sending this in place of my mom, Lori Garding.
The American system of justice has stolen my daughter’s life. She is 24 years of age and will be sentenced August 26, 2011. Katie is graceful and soft-spoken, with teardrops in her eyes she has confessed her innocence through this whole ordeal. She has declined the numerous deals that the state had offered her. Katie was the victim of an overzealous investigator, who had no experience and had an hatred for her father. There was no evidence to corroborate this case, and yet she was convicted. Wrongful conviction can and does happen to people. How can Americans, be convicted of crimes with which they had no involvement? Katie’s main mistake was in trusting too much. Because she is innocent, she cooperated with investigators, not suspecting that the investigators were targeting her. Katie waived her Miranda rights and agreed to hours of interrogations, all in an effort to solve the crime. She trusted the police to act with integrity. She took investigators at their word. Even after she was charged, she reasoned her predicament would get straightened out in a fair trial. She trusted that the system worked.
If this email is read I will provide more documentations.
My goal is to scream till some one hears my plea for help for my daughter.
I will send you any and all information that you need just tell me what it is. We have not received transcripts from court yet. We have requested and have not gotten any call backs. You can go to the local newspaper website and read each article regarding Katie and the charges.
http://www.missoulian.com and search for my daughter’s name “Katie Garding”. You will also see pictures of her there.
There was a hit and run in East Missoula, Montana on January 1st, 2007 and a young man lost his life. The state did not pursue Katie as a suspect until a Missoula inmate that was jailed with her exboyfriend (she’d known for only three weeks) came forward two years later and stated he had information regarding the hit and run. He asked to get out of jail in return for his statement, the statement which has changed more times than I can count. Missoula County has invested countless dollars and hours of taxpayer money to prove that the original/prime suspect, Gabrielle Weiss, was innocent. Never once did they attempt to rule Katie out as a suspect. The forensic evidence the State has does not correlate to Katie’s vehicle. There is broken windshield glass found in Mr. Parson’s clothing Katie’s vehicle had NO broken glass, this was disregarded. The paint chips found on the clothing of Mr. Parson’s were analyzed by the FBI crime lab. They do not match her vehicle, this was also disregarded. The time of day the incident occured cannot be matched to Katie’s whereabouts on that evening, also disregarded. The state medical examiner can be quoted as saying there is no way to say with certainty that Katie’s vehicle caused these injuries. They are consistent in dimension and that is the only match. There was an anatomic, clinical and forensic pathologist who is an associate Montana State Medical Examiner that testified in court that the bruising pattern on Parson’s legs could not have been caused by the bumper on Katie’s truck, the bruising pattern does not match. The key witness (her exboyfriend now a prisoner in Missouri) had to be coached as to the location of the accident in order to create a story which could be consistent with the facts.
Gloria,
As I’m sure you know well this a shorthand report of all that actually happened. Please help us. Tell me what more I can get you to help you out also. My husband Rob and I would both be willing to talk on your radio show. Whatever we need to do to help our daughter. She should not have to spend another day in jail for this wrongful conviction. We also believe that there may be malicious intent by the investigator and the State of Montana.
Sincerely,
Lori Garding
Mother
(406)239-4650