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Lessons from a wrongful conviction

By Mark Obbie

Last night, Syracuse University was privileged to play host to a public screening of a documentary on a local wrongful conviction, followed by a Q&A with one of the filmmakers and with freed convict Roy Brown. Blanchard Road: A Murder in the Finger Lakes (watch the trailer here) was made by Newhouse School graduate Alex Dunbar and Andrew Wolf. Brown served 15 years in prison for the 1991 murder of Cayuga County social worker Sabina Kulakowski. He was cleared by DNA and other evidence pointing to another man, who committed suicide when confronted by Brown -- 12 years after the murder, four years before Brown's exoneration and release, and long before local law enforcement showed any inclination to follow leads pointing to the suspect.The film and the Q&A aired several important points about wrongful convictions:The power of persistence (and public-records access)Brown himself proved his innocence by using New York's Freedom of Information Law to discover witness statements that never were disclosed to the defense at trial. His repeated attempts at getting a hearing and DNA tests based on his innocence claims were barred for years by state and federal courts. But, by discovering procedural flaws in his trial, Brown and his lawyers were able to win an order for DNA testing of evidence. Brown eloquently described his refusal to give up, and his continued faith in the system. "The system worked," he told a large crowd of students, but systems can be easily thwarted by people who betray their duty to justice.The value of enterprising reporters and public pressureDunbar was quick to point out his debt to WSTM-TV's Jim Kenyon, the investigative reporter whose coverage of the case for more than a decade helped shame Cayuga County officials into permitting DNA testing, after years of refusing. Kenyon, who attended the screening and answered questions, appears on camera extensively in the documentary. Among his anecdotes: the DA's hostile and threatening reactions to Kenyon's dogged reporting. When asked about the role of journalists in his case, Brown pointed out that investigators used the press to portray him as guilty, freely lying about evidence without contradiction, before a jury was even seated. Although he praised the press (Kenyon especially) for its coverage of the exoneration battle, he would have every right to be bitter about the initial coverage for its lack of skepticism and fairness.The necessity of quality legal assistanceAlthough Brown made himself into a first-class jailhouse lawyer, his success depended on the talent and hard work of pro bono counsel Peter Neufeld and Nina Morrison of the Innocence Project and Syracuse attorneys Katy Karlovitz and James McGraw. As Brown pointed out in the Q&A, how many inmates don't get such help because there isn't enough to go around, in our current post-appellate system, or simply because no one pays attention to their claims of innocence?The Carnegie Legal Reporting Program sponsored the event, along with SU's College of Law and the Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics and the Media. Congratulations to event organizer Sanjay Chhablani, of the College of Law faculty, and to the good guys portrayed in Blanchard Road.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on April 08, 2009 (boomark / email).