| NEWS
| July 19, 2005
Innocence Lost
Program seeks to help wrongfully
convicted inmates
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| The Shorthorn: Sara Bookout |
| John Stickels, criminal justice
assistant professor, gives a speech explaining
the Innocence Project to the Tarrant County criminal defense
association Thursday at Joe T. Garcias restaurant. Dr.
Stickels was trying to illicit the help of defense attorneys
in the area to help with the project which seeks to help
wrongfully convicted inmates. |
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By Rebekah
Workman
The Shorthorn Staff
Roger Heath believes that it is the duty
of the community to serve the pursuit of justice.
But instead of pursuing criminals, he spends his time helping those
behind bars.
The interdisciplinary studies senior participates in the Innocence
Project, a criminology and criminal justice undergraduate program
that seeks to help wrongfully convicted inmates.
“I truly believe there are a significant amount of [them],”
Heath said.
Initiated by John Stickels, criminal justice assistant professor,
the project meets once a week during the course of a semester to
review inmate applications and examine cases. He said each semester,
10-12 students are selectively chosen to participate in the educational
class.
“Two and a half percent of the people in prison are wrongfully
convicted. I want to teach the students how it’s possible,”
Dr. Stickels said. “We only look at crimes where someone could
actually be innocent.”
He said possible causes for wrongful convictions are police officers
getting tunnel vision about what they’re investigating or
prosecutors believing it’s their job to get a conviction while
representing a victim.
After considering inmate’s claims, a determination is made
on whether or not there are grounds to investigate further.
“Word travels around the prison very fast,” Stickels
said. “We started out investigating 32 cases — we have
two that we are investigating that are possible claims.”
The project is typically offered on a graduate level. Stickels,
a former
defense attorney with 24 years of
experience, said the project also allows students desiring to attend
law school a chance to get involved.
“I would like to teach future defense attorneys and prosecutors
how to guard against wrongful convictions,” he said. “Doing
this for many years, I have found it possible to wrongly convict.”
Heath said it’s a privilege to be involved in the project
because it prepares him for his desired career path.
“When I graduate, I want to go straight to law school,”
he said.
Criminal justice senior Richard Newton, who works as a detention
officer for the Bedford Police Department, is also involved in the
project.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for me to work both sides,”
Newton said. “It’s a small percentage that is wrongfully
convicted, but that’s too many.”
Concentrating less on the legal parts of the law and more on investigating,
Stickels solicits support from the Tarrant County Criminal Defense
Lawyers Association for help in court, if necessary.
“I think it’s not only a great education tool, but I
think they have a great opportunity to do some good work,”
criminal defense lawyer Larry Moore said. “Whether or not
it’s successful is dependant on the amount of effort the students
put into it.”
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