“This case was essentially a case where it appeared to be going nowhere and the detectives in this case built this case out of absolutely nothing,” Mark Williams, a Milwaukee County assistant district attorney, said at trial. “They deserve the credit of the community for the job that they did.”
Tag: wrongful convictions
Posted inGovernment, Justice & Safety
Sidebar: California case prompts policy reforms
Revelations from jailhouse informant Leslie Vernon White prompted a mass review of cases spanning an entire decade in which jailhouse testimony had been used to secure a criminal conviction. And it led Los Angeles County to adopt what one expert calls some “of the best jailhouse snitch protections in the country.”
Posted inGovernment, Justice & Safety
Sidebar: Cases raise concerns about informant testimony
Several Wisconsin cases from the The National Registry of Exonerations show how incentivized testimony can contribute to wrongful convictions. Each involves testimony from informants that was later proven false.
Posted inJustice & Safety
Nine people freed on strength of DNA testing in Wisconsin
In the last 10 years, about one-third of the post-conviction DNA testing in Wisconsin has resulted in a conviction being overturned.