Panel on Student Research Curry College Tuesday 10/23/2018; 10-11 am Leona D. Jochnowitz, JD/Phd

I am Currently Engaged in Three Types of Student Research Projects Coding Trial Transcripts from the Innocence Project and Interviewing Public Officials on Wrongful Convictions for Qualitative Methods and Wrongful Convictions Classes Analyzing Wrongful Convictions Beyond the Traditional Canonical List of Errors, for Enduring Structural and Sociological Attributes, (Juveniles, Racism, Adversary System, Policing Policies) Book Reviews published in Criminal Law BUlletin; James R. Acker, Lawlemmas; James R. Acker, Questioning Capital Punishment: Law, Policy, and Practice (Routledge 2014); MARIE GOTTSCHALK. CAUGHT: THE PRISON STATE AND THE LOCKDOWN OF AMERICAN POLITICS (Princeton Univ. Press: Princeton, NJ 2015) Student Symposium

Project Title; Analyzing Wrongful Convictions Beyond the Traditional Canonical List of Errors, for Enduring Structural and Sociological Attributes, (Juveniles, Racism, Adversary System, Policing Policies) This is an exploratory study which researches the explanation for wrongful conviction error in the criminal justice system. The research question is what are the explanations of wrongful conviction cases, beyond the traditional canonical list of errors, including more enduring structural and sociological explanations? The routine canonical list of errors includes: eyewitness misidentification, invalidated forensic science, false confessions by juveniles and adults, government misconduct, snitches, and bad lawyering. Scholars state that unless the root sociological causes of conviction error are identified, the currently recognized causes of error will continue to re-occur. Finding the social structural causes of wrongful convictions involves identifying the larger contexts in which particular groups become vulnerable to being arrested “The vulnerability to arrest was much more a product of who they were and the relationships between their community and the criminal justice system. They were the usual crime subjects. ” Lofquist, William (2014). These structural causes include: racism, gender bias, stop and frisk policies, adversarial justice system culture, media, plea bargaining, coercive interrogations of juveniles and intellectually impaired accused, punitive wars on drugs and crime and cognitive biases like tunnel vision.

What Students Did Students in Hartwick College and Johnson State College qualitative methods and wrongful convictions classes coded unique archival data and trial transcripts obtained from the Innocence Project for 17+ cases including the Central Park five exonerees and other cases. The design to code original trial transcripts added a special resource to the study because it provided information which may not have been provided by the media, and showed what the jury heard but disregarded to reach a wrongful conviction verdict. Students also designed a vignette of their case and conducted structured interviews with public officers and college students. Interviews with public officers, judges, lawyers, and investigators inquired into the subjects’ awareness of exonerations. The students used both their experience and depth in coding the trial transcripts and cases and their analysis of the structural reasons explaining wrongful convictions in the interviews. They pressed the interviewees to give insight into the causes and remedies for wrongful convictions. One highlight was an interview with a local prosecutor in which students persisted bringing out structural issues that lay between the lines for law enforcement.

IRB approval and Ethical Student Research IRB approval was obtained by all participants through the Hartwick College and Johnson State College IRB. All the students completed IRB-related training, and the interviewees who are public officials knew and gave consent to being identified and quoted. They also will be informed about their remarks being used even if exempt from formal confidentiality requirements. In addition, there were inter- rater reliability checks, with several students assigned to coding the transcripts and doing interviews.  

Results: Student Transcript Coding and Analysis; Racial Profiling The police had tunnel vision and racist stereotypical views in that they focused on only the ABLA housing projects where approximately 350 black people resided. Additionally, they made a list of ninety-two suspects, all young black men from the ABLA housing project, arresting twenty (OLL-000770 at 797:4; 801:8). They brought in several young black men threatening to arrest approximately 6 until they finally found one who would falsely testify. The fingerprints did not match Defense: “You finally concluded that the factor was the fourth factor was that the person that was seen at 15th and Loomis at 4:30 or 4:40 a.m. was a young black person, is that correct?” Detective Mercurio “Yes” Defense “And you based upon those facts you believed, and you focused your investigation on young black teenagers who lived in the ABLA housing project? Detective Mercurio “There are other factors, but that’s most of it” (OLL-000718 at 800: 12-21).

False Confessions Based on the testimony below, I concluded that the investigators coerced Bradford into testifying against Ollins Defense: “Sir, I’m asking you if you confronted Marcellius Bradford with the fact that Larry Ollins said that he, Bradford, was involved in the murder of Lori Roscetti?” Detective Mercurio: “That Larry Ollins said that him and Bradford were involved?” Defense: “And you confronted him with that before he ever mention the name of Larry Ollins in connection with this case, isn’t that right? Detective Mercurio: “That’s right” (OLL-000718 at 818: 9-21).  Defense: “So, you had him in custody over 24 hours before a court-reported statement was given, is that right?” Detective Mercurio: “That’s right” (OLL-000718 at 810: 6-13).

Interview results; Prosecutor- possible racial bias; Prosecutor’s views of false confessions-self benefit not misconduct. Student Q. “62% of DNA exonerees are African American. How big a role do you think race places in our criminal justice system? What do you think can be done to identify areas of potential racism or bias that lead detectives from having tunnel vision?” “Non-white people in jail in Vermont area are a higher percentage of the inmate population than in the population at large.” “Many of the people, not all, …who are engaged in drug activity are inner city people from New York City. They stand out in a state like Vermont. If you arrest someone from New York City on a drug charge and it comes time to sentence them, you are not going to put them on probation because they are not part of the community…..A person from Vermont …okay you should go to jail for a while and they go on probation and we will get you treatment and we’ll monitor your behavior. If you are from the Bronx and you are just in it for the money we really don’t want to encourage people to establish routes in the community.” “Most violence coming into Vermont is from “others” who carry with them their violent culture….” Mr. F. tries to explain why someone would falsely confess as a matter of his self-benefit, not misconduct. The guilty are guilty and the only reason they would say they were not was if they had ulterior motives to do so.

Linking Teaching and Research; Teaching, Research and Teaching Research The study concludes that that the canonical list of errors in these cases were just a veneer for deeper structural problems. Minority kids and other disadvantaged persons were coerced into confessing due to racial profiling, narrative contamination, tunnel vision, and overzealous prosecution or misconduct. These projects represent one of the best approaches to teaching and incorporating research into undergraduate courses. They involve a linkage of teaching and research. Frank R. Baumgartner also used student collaboration with undergraduate student researchers who took his courses on the death penalty taught at UNC Chapel Hill. The students gain enormous benefits in learning and many go on to graduate work and/or fulfilling careers. They take pride in the publications. They learn to work with colleagues and team work They also learn the ethics of human subjects research and working on getting IRB approval. The types of student research discussed here can be tailored in accordance with student interest and ability