5-31-2012 National:
When Beverly Monroe met her new neighbors in the free world after spending seven years in a Virginia prison for a crime she didn’t commit, she spoke candidly about her past. “I said I’d been through a crisis,” she says. “People immediately think a divorce or you lost your husband or something like that, which is all terrible enough.”
Monroe did lose her longtime boyfriend, Roger de la Burde, who was found shot to death with his own handgun in 1992. An overzealous state police agent suspected foul play, even though officials initially believed that de la Burde had shot himself. Monroe’s statements to police, which were deemed to be self-incriminating, coupled with an informant who received a deal from the prosecution in exchange for her testimony, formed the basis for the case against her.
At 54, the mother of three was charged and convicted of murdering de la Burde and sentenced to twenty-two years at the Pocahontas Correctional Center. Monroe might have served the whole sentence had her attorneys not discovered a collection of concealed exculpatory documents, including a crucial medical examiner’s report from 1999 that strongly suggested that de la Burde had indeed committed suicide. In 2002 a US District Court judge vacated the conviction.
Now in her 70s, Monroe works as an administrative assistant. The lost income and lack of savings from her years behind bars have made retirement a distant dream. “I’ll have to work until I’m 105,” she says. Virginia has not compensated her for the years lost to prison or for her legal expenses. (Her trial cost nearly $200,000.)
“Being innocent in prison is real torture,” Monroe says. “It’s a lasting kind of trauma…. You’re released, and you realize that it didn’t just happen to you—it’s happened to other people who have had it so much worse.”
How many other people? No one knows. The Bureau of Justice Statistics doesn’t track exonerations, so for years that task has fallen to lawyers, academics and activists relying on news reports and legal filings. While the Innocence Project and the Death Penalty Information Center track exonerations, neither group’s database is complete. No single resource has amassed all of the known exoneration cases.
Until now. On May 21, the University of Michigan Law School, in conjunction with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law, released the first-ever National Registry of Exonerations. The searchable online database is the most credible and comprehensive resource on wrongful convictions in the United States. Peter Neufeld, the co-founder and co-director of the Innocence Project, has called it the “Wikipedia of Innocence.” The registry, which can be viewed at exonerationregistry.org, currently counts 891 cases since 1989, the year of the first exoneration achieved using DNA. ..For the remainder of this story: by Liz Webster
May 31, 2012
How Many Innocent People Have We Sent To Prison?
October 24, 2011
Innocence Project says 'registered sex offender' arrested this month was falsely accused
10-24-2011 Virginia:
THE SHERIFF'S PRESS RELEASE:
On October 14, 2011 at approximately 8 p.m., while working security at the Orange High School game against River Bend High School, Deputy Garcia Madison observed and identified Edger Lee Coker, a violent sex offender from the VA State Police registry, on school property observing the football game.
Deputy Madison took Coker into custody and transported him to Central Virginia Regional Jail. Coker was charged with VA Code Section 18.2-370.5 ( Sex Offenders—prohibiting entry to school property).
Coker was held at the jail on a $3000.00 secured bond.
Sheriff Mark A. Amos
Orange County Sheriff's Office
THE INNOCENCE PROJECT'S STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO SHERIFF'S PRESS RELEASE:
Edgar Coker was adjudicated delinquent in 2007 upon false allegations that when he was 15-years old, he forcibly raped a 14-year old girl. After Edgar's adjudication, the alleged victim fully recanted her allegations against him and admitted that she had invited him into her home and had engaged in consensual sexual activity with him, but made up the rape story because she was afraid of getting in trouble after her mother came home. There is currently an appeal pending in the Supreme Court of Virginia addressing the recantation. The alleged victim and her mother have been tirelessly working to reverse his wrongful adjudication for over three years.
After he had completely served his time in the Department of Juvenile Justice, Edgar sought and received permission to enroll in Orange High School, despite the fact that he was already on the sex offender registry due to the false rape adjudication. Orange High School allowed Edgar to enroll. Edgar in fact enrolled at Orange High School and recently graduated. While he was a student at Orange, Edgar participated in the Orange High School track team and was featured in the Orange County Review for his athletic achievements.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office's press release omits all of this critical information and instead creates the misimpression that a sexual predator was caught attending a high school football game. In fact, Edgar Coker is innocent of wrongdoing and had permission to attend Orange High School.
We are requesting that, if you will not remove Sheriff Amos's misleading press release from your website and Facebook page, that you at least print the contents of this e-mail alongside the press release.
Counsel for Edgar Coker,
Matthew Engle
Deirdre Enright
The Innocence Project
University of Virginia School of Law ..Source.. by False Rape Society
September 20, 2011
Register-her.com Launches New Website
Online Registry Targets False Accusers
HOUSTON, Sept. 19, 2011 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Register-her.com, a public service website, has launched providing a registry of individuals proven to make false allegations of rape and other crimes. The site creators cite the following:
A study in 1994 by Dr. Eugene Kanin of Purdue University concluded that 41% of rape allegations in America are fabricated.[1] Kanin's study covered a 9 year period and was conducted with the cooperation of civic government.
The Orlando Police Department made an appeal for false rape allegations to stop because they were putting a stress on police resources and creating a climate of undue fear.[2]
The Baltimore Police Department reported that 30% of rape reports received proved to be false.[3]
The Innocence Project reports that the primary crime for which they secure the release of wrongfully convicted individuals is rape.[4] 153 of 268 exonerations, 57.1%, noted by the Innocence Project, were convictions for rape.
"When someone is falsely accused of rape the consequences are swift and severe," says Dr Tara Palmatier, a clinical psychologist who has counseled victims of false allegations.
"Some of my clients have lost their jobs, homes and good reputations," she adds. "When allegations are proven false, it's far too late. The damage has already been done. For the accuser there is rarely any downside risk."
Frequently the false accusers are not jailed. Many are referred to counseling, community service or probation. [5][6][7][8].
The consequences for those accused are severe; resulting in false imprisonment, damaged reputations, financial devastation, loss of employment and even suicide.[9][10][11] Dalton, Georgia police officer Paul Sparks killed himself after a rape allegation which had no merit. Student Olumide Fadayomi attempted suicide after being falsely accused of rape, and another student, accused by the same woman, succeeded in taking his own life.
"This kind of public service is long overdue." says Register-her.com spokesman Paul Elam, who added, "The devastation of these acts continues long after the allegations are disproven." ..Source.. by Register-her.com is a public service provided to heighten awareness of the false allegation problem and to publicly register individuals known to have made false criminal complaints. For more information contact Candice Howe at 832-506-4578, or by email at Candice.howe@register-her.com
