Ultimate Justice: Four Perspectives on Wrongful Convictions of the Innocent—“Anatomy of an Exoneration”

The Siegal Lifelong Learning Program’s Ultimate Justice: Four Perspectives on Wrongful Convictions of the Innocent series will continue with “Anatomy of an Exoneration” Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m. at the Landmark Centre Building (25700 Science Park Drive, Beachwood). The event will feature:

• Brian Howe, attorney for the Ohio Innocence Project;
• Carmen Naso, senior instructor of law at Case Western Reserve University; and
• Russell Tye, chief of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office Conviction Integrity Unit.

Attendees will meet the legal experts from the prosecution, defense and advocacy organizations who work in Ohio to ensure that claims of wrongful conviction are properly reviewed, analyzed and litigated. The attorneys will discuss cases in which exonerations occurred and how they happened, with attention on to the amount of resources, length of time and impediments to success. The discussion also will include a brief review of strategies being employed by prosecutors to avoid wrongful convictions. This presentation is made possible through the generosity of Berkman, Gordon, Murray & DeVan law firm.

About the series

Sessions in the Ultimate Justice: Four Perspectives on Wrongful Convictions of the Innocent series will examine and discuss the Ohio Innocence Project’s efforts to exonerate innocent people convicted for crimes they did not commit. Attendees will hear from exonerees on their stories and experiences of conviction, incarceration and ultimate freedom. Participants will examine the root causes of wrongful convictions through review of Blind Injustice by Mark Godsey, director of the Ohio Innocence Project. Lawyers who have litigated cases leading to exonerations also will discuss the strategies and technical aspects of their work. The series began with “The Faces of Wrongful Conviction” Oct. 3 and “The Myths and Realities of Wrongful Convictions in Popular Culture” Oct. 10. The last talk of the series will be “Causes of Wrongful Conviction: Why Innocent People Get Convicted of Crimes They Did Not Commit” Oct. 24. The series is free and open to the public. Register for the full series. The series is made possible through the generosity of Dworken & Bernstein Co., LPA, and Northeast Ohio Board of Advocates for Ohio Innocence Project.