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NEW YORK - In New York, DNA evidence has exonerated 23 people wrongfully convicted of crimes since 1991, but the state has failed to enact laws that would prevent sending more innocent people to jail.
A study released on Thursday by the Innocence Project, an organisation dedicated to exonerating the wrongfully convicted through DNA testing, found New York second only to Texas and Illinois in using DNA to clear the wrongfully convicted.
But while Texas enacted a law mandating the preservation of crime scene DNA evidence and Illinois halted executions, New York has left its laws unchanged, said a report entitled "Lessons Not Learned.
"It's hell in prison," said Korey Wise, who was wrongfully convicted in the 1989 Central Park attack and rape of a jogger and served 11-1/2 years in prison before being cleared, partly through the efforts of the Innocence Project.
"This can happen to you, your son, your nephew or your daughter," said Wise, who spoke on the sidelines of a news conference to release the study.
Twenty-two states including Texas require crime scene DNA evidence to be preserved, the report said. In Illinois, former Governor George Ryan halted executions in 2000 after 13 men on death row were exonerated, saying the system was fatally flawed.
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer introduced legislation last May that would have expanded the state's DNA databank, improved collection and preservation methods and enhanced the ability of defendants to use DNA evidence to prove their innocence.
The state senate passed the bill but the lower house adopted competing legislation and the parties were unable to agree on a compromise.
The report called on New York to preserve, catalogue and retain biological evidence; avoid limits on when DNA can be retested to establish the innocence of the wrongfully convicted and require videotaping of police interrogations.
Seven of those exonerated by DNA evidence in New York since 2000 were wrongfully convicted of murder - more than in any other state over the same period, the report said.
"Six of those seven men could have received the death penalty if it were an option at the time of their convictions or if prosecutors had sought it," it said.
In 10 of the New York cases, innocent people falsely confessed or admitted to crimes that DNA evidence later proved they did not commit. In 10 cases, the true perpetrator was later identified but nine went on to commit additional crimes.
"At 35, I should be in professional football or baseball or even a successful investment banker. Or I should have four kids right now," said Wise. "I missed out so much."
- REUTERS
