Wrongful Convictions
Why do wrongful convictions matter?
Wrongful convictions have emerged as a significant concern in the United States, with estimates suggesting that a considerable percentage of incarcerated individuals, ranging from 4-6%, are likely innocent.
​
According to estimates, between 4-6% of incarcerated people in the United States are likely innocent, which means tens of thousands of individuals are serving time for crimes they did not commit, with some experts suggesting this could represent as many as 110,000 people wrongfully convicted based on a 2.5-5% rate of wrongful convictions.
​
This alarming statistic underscores the pressing need for support from compassionate individuals, organizations, and legal experts to address the issue. It is worth that wrongful convictions have far-reaching implications, only for the wrong accused but also for crime victims and society at large.
​
​
​
Disclaimer:
Please be advised that the information presented on this website is not intended to be construed as legal advice. We do not have licensed or practicing attorneys representing the information provided here
Policy Issues
Innocence/Prosecutorial Accountability
May 28, 2020
Texas Federal Judge Overturns Death-Row Prisoner’s Conviction, Finding Now-Celebrity TV Host Hid Evidence of Misconduct
A federal district court judge has overturned the conviction and death sentence of Texas death-row prisoner Ronald Prible, finding that celebrity ​“true crime” host Kelly Siegler (pictured) had engaged in extensive misconduct as a Harris County homicide prosecutor in Prible’s capital trial in 2002. U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison granted relief on six separate claims that Siegler hid exculpatory evidence from the defense, provided undisclosed favors to others...
​
He was given the death penalty in 2002 for the 1999 deaths of five family members in Houston. A jury convicted him of capital murder for the shooting deaths of Esteban "Steve" Herrera and Nilda Tirado, and the deaths by smoke inhalation of their three children -- Rachel, 7, Valerie, 7, and Jade, 1.
​
District Judge Keith Ellison granted Prible's motion for relief based on his lawyers' arguments that prosecutors suppressed evidence and improperly handled testimony from jailhouse informants.
​
An inmate at the Federal Correctional Institute in Beaumont, Texas, testified that Prible confessed to him he killed the family. Defense lawyers, though, said prosecutors coached informants to speak against Prible, and that his cellmate, Michael Beckcom, acted "based on promises of relief" from investigators.
"Beckcom's testimony was plainly the most compelling evidence that the jury heard at trial," Ellison wrote.
"Although the defense could and did impeach Beckcom's credibility as a jailhouse smith, they did not have strong impeachment evidence about the actual substance of what he relayed to the jury about Prible's confession.
​
"Prible has made a strong case that there is more than a 'reasonable probability' that exclusion of Beckcom's testimony would have altered the outcome of the trial."
Ellison gave prosecutors 180 days to bring a new case against Prible or he'd be entitled to release from confinement.
​
Central to the travesty of Jeff's case is the conduct of Kelly Siegler, the prosecutor known for her theatrical courtroom tactics. Revelations of undisclosed evidence and the manipulation of witness testimonies have surfaced, casting a long shadow on the integrity of the proceedings.
A federal judge once granted Jeff relief based on these and other grounds, recognizing the substantial doubt surrounding his conviction. Unfortunately, this relief was overturned on a procedural technicality, a decision that defies principles of fairness and justice.
California inmate on death row for 33 years must either be released or retried due to prosecutorial misconduct
CNN —
A convicted murderer who has been on California’s death row for 33 years must either be released or retried after a federal judge on Thursday approved the state attorney general’s request to do so because of prosecutorial misconduct in jury selection decades ago.
​
The judge’s ruling, at the request of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, gives the Alameda County prosecutor’s office 60 days to retry 71-year-old Curtis Lee Ervin or let him go free. Ervin was found guilty of a 1986 murder-for-hire.
​
It is the latest development in the ongoing review of dozens of death penalty cases that current Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price says shows prosecutors deliberately excluded Black and Jewish prospective jurors. Price told CNN it is a practice that started in the 1980s and ran through the early 2000s.
​
On Friday Price’s office told CNN in an email there was no information on plans on how to proceed with Ervin’s case. Bonta conceded the Alameda prosecutors in the Ervin case illegally excluded Black jurors. Alameda County now must make a decision by September 30.
​
In 1991 jurors found Ervin guilty of murder in the death of Carlene McDonald, the 43-year-old ex-wife of Ervin’s co-defendant, Robert McDonald. McDonald was also found guilty and died in prison. CNN has attempted to reach out to family members of the victim.
​
Ervin’s lawyer, Pamala Sayasane, said her client is “overjoyed and in disbelief. He’s been incarcerated for 38 years. He’s grateful to everyone who helped him. I’m in a daze, as is my client.”
​
Sayasane said the state attorney general’s concession “is rarely made. It’s a big thing and it’s going to have ramifications for others on death row.”
CNN has reached out to Bonta’s office for comment.
Gregory Bright
Glenn Davis
Robert Jones
Wilbert Jones
Larry Delmore
L-R
Bottom
IPNO-Innocence Project New Orleans- frees innocent people sentenced to life in prison and those serving unjust sentences. We recognize the root causes of wrongful convictions and unjust sentences as systemic racism and inequities. We work to expose and address these root causes by sharing our clients’ stories in court, the legislature, the community and the media. IPNO supports their clients living well and fully in the free-world after their release.
Love Beyond Bars: Raymond and Cassandra
Raymond Flanks spent nearly 39 years in Louisiana lockups for a murder he didn’t commit. Luckily, he found love with an old friend, Cassandra Delpit.
In December 1983, at the age of 20, Raymond Flanks was arrested for robbing a New Orleans supermarket. He pleaded guilty to that crime, but not before police found a gun on him that they wrongly connected to the fatal shooting of an elderly man named Martin Carnesi.
The state’s case relied heavily on the account of a single eyewitness to the botched robbery that claimed Carnesi’s life: his traumatized widow. Although the suspect she described did not match Flanks’ age or appearance, police put his picture in a photo lineup. She picked him out with the help of a flashlight.
Flanks was tried twice. The first jury deadlocked. The second found him guilty, and in 1985 he was sentenced to life without parole. He wrote to the Innocence Project dozens of times, but he lacked the DNA evidence the organization needed to take his case.
Innocence Project New Orleans agreed to help Flanks in 2020. In their investigation, they discovered that the prosecution had withheld key evidence that might have led police to another man. Louisiana agreed to vacate Flanks’ conviction on November 17, 2022. He walked out of the courtroom a free man after nearly 39 years of incarceration. He’d served most of his time at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary, which is better known as Angola.
​
One bright spot in Flanks’ ordeal was Cassandra Delpit, an old friend who became his life partner. In an installment of a series, “Love Beyond Bars,” Raymond describes how the couple bonded at the Angola Prison Rodeo.
​
Cassandra and I grew up in the same neighborhood, but we lost touch when I was arrested. I used to walk by her house to get to work when I was 15 or 16 years old. We hadn’t seen each other in years, but had begun speaking in letters when she surprised me at the Angola Prison Rodeo in 2012.
