Death Penalty

Prosecutor pushes smear campaign against students

Darren Hutchinson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:12:00 PST

Recently, major news outlets reported that Anita Alvarez, the district attorney for Cook County, Illinois, had subpoenaed the grades, grading standards and electronic communications between students and professors in the Medill Innocence Project. Northwestern University runs the Medill project, which, during its 10-year history, has helped to secure the release of 11 innocent inmates.

Shameful Illinois prosecutors go after student investigators

Darren Hutchinson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:27:00 PDT

Students in the Medill Innocence Project at Northwestern University investigate claims of innocence and wrongful conviction by inmates. Over the course of a decade, the Medill project has helped secure the release of 11 innocent persons, five of whom were slated for execution.

Texas, the eyes of Justice are upon you

Bill Moyers and Michael Winship — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:24:00 PDT

On Oct. 13, we lost a resolute champion of the law, a man who left his impact on the lives of untold numbers of Americans.

Ardor in the court, Part 3

Alan Berlow — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:19:00 PDT

If anyone had any doubt that the Texas justice system operates in a parallel universe, look no further than the latest decision by the state's highest court in the case of death-row inmate Charles Dean Hood. On Wednesday the Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) said it wasn't interested in examining whether there was a conflict of interest in Hood's 1990 trial simply because District Attorney Thomas S. O'Connell Jr., Hood's prosecutor, had had a long-term sexual relationship with presiding Judge Verla Sue Holland, an affair the two tried to hide for 20 years.

Ardor in the court, Part 2

Alan Berlow — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 03:57:00 PDT

Rarely in the annals of criminal justice does a conflict of interest get more sordid or have greater consequences than this. Charles Dean Hood is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Tuesday morning. In 1990, when he was on trial for capital murder in the Dallas suburbs, the presiding judge who imposed that death sentence and the local prosecutor who was trying to have Hood put to death had been involved in a "long-term intimate relationship."

Ardor in the court

Alan Berlow — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 07:45:00 PDT

Here's a not very tough question of legal ethics to ponder over the morning coffee: Let's say you're on trial for murder, and the judge and the prosecutor in your case have been having an affair. Is it possible for you to get a fair trial?