Newswise — Cedric Willis of Jackson, Miss., was convicted in 1997 of murder and robbery and sentenced to life in prison despite the fact that DNA evidence excluded him as the perpetrator.
Thanks to help from the Innocence Project of New Orleans, Willis was granted a new trial, found innocent and freed from prison in 2006.
To help those like Willis who are serving time for crimes they did not commit, the Mississippi Innocence Project at the University of Mississippi School of Law was announced last spring.
Sentenced at age 19 to life plus 90 additional years for three robberies, Willis said he felt completely heartbroken when the conviction was handed down.
"To see my mom crying and to have them telling me that I would never be able to be at home with my son again, I really can't explain how heartbreaking it was," he said.
On Oct. 22, the Mississippi Innocence Project, in conjunction with the UM law school, plans to host a fundraising dinner at the Hilton in Jackson featuring author and UM law alumnus John Grisham, author Scott Turow and UM Chancellor Robert Khayat. Dinner tickets at $125 per person are available by contacting Renee Van Slyke at 662-915-6822 or [email protected].
Initial funding for the project came from Grisham and Columbus attorney Wilbur Colom, a graduate of Antioch Law School.
Willis said the project is greatly needed in Mississippi.
"I believe there are people who are out there who need help. You run into a lot of people in jail who say they are innocent, and after what I went through in the courtroom, I know that innocent people can be put in jail," Willis said.
In September 2005, in conjunction with work done by the Innocence Project of New Orleans, the Circuit Court of Hinds County reversed Willis' conviction and granted him a new trial on all counts. In March 2006, the court determined that the eyewitness identifications were inadmissible at a new trial, and upon joint motion of the defense and the state, dismissed the charges against him. An hour later, Willis walked down the front steps of the Hinds County jail into the arms of his family and supporters.
It is stories like this that fuel the desires of those working with the Mississippi Innocence Project, including its director Tucker Carrington, formerly a visiting professor at Georgetown Law School. Carrington said the program is committed to providing legal representation to its clients: state prisoners serving significant periods of incarceration who have cognizable claims of wrongful conviction.Throughout the fall semester, the project will continue to identify and investigate other potential cases, and by January 2008, plans call for it to become an integral part of the law school's course offerings. In addition, college and university students from around the state who are studying law and journalism are to be involved in investigating the cases.
Besides serving its clients, the project seeks to identify systemic problems in the state's criminal justice system and develop initiatives designed to raise public and political awareness of the prevalence, causes and societal costs of wrongful convictions, Carrington said.
Carrington said the Mississippi project already is consulting on the case of Kennedy Brewer, a Noxubee County man who served 15 years for the rape and murder of a 3-year-old. Brewer was released in August on bail after DNA results showed him not to be the person who raped the girl.
Emily Maw, director of the Innocence Project of New Orleans, said such projects are important because "like it or not, our criminal justice system incarcerates innocent people for very long prison terms."
There have been 207 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States since 1989 and well over 200 additional post-conviction exonerations that involved other more-traditional evidence of innocence, she said.
"If it were not for innocence projects, there would be virtually no way for innocent prisoners to get legal help to get out of prison," she said. "State prisons in Louisiana and Mississippi contain almost exclusively poor people. Therefore, the innocent amongst them cannot afford to hire a lawyer to prove their innocence and a very large percentage of prisoners in both states are functionally illiterate, so even if they weren't stuck behind razor wire, they wouldn't be able to advocate for themselves."
Maw said the Innocence Project of New Orleans has received more than 2,000 requests for help since it was established in 2001. The cases are put through an intensive screening process, and the project accepts cases only in which there is compelling evidence of innocence.
The Innocence Project of New Orleans was eager to help establish the Mississippi Innocence Project, because since 2003, the IPNO has been accepting cases from the state of Mississippi.
"We very quickly realized that, while we could pursue some cases and start to lay the groundwork for innocence litigation in the state, there needed to be a full-time office in Mississippi. Having a small, nonprofit office of three lawyers in New Orleans trying to cover both states was not enough," Maw said.
Grisham, who graduated from the UM law school in 1981, is the author of numerous novels and other books, including his most recent, "The Innocent Man," profiling a man wrongfully convicted and freed years later with the help of several attorneys. Turow, a 1978 graduate of Harvard Law School, also has authored numerous books, including "Presumed Innocent" and "Ultimate Punishment."
Both authors have supported similar projects in law schools across the country. However, the upcoming dinner marks the first time the two have jointly raised money for such a cause.
For more information on the Innocence Project or the fundraising dinner, contact Tucker Carrington at 662-915-5207 or [email protected]. To request assistance related to a disability in order to attend the dinner, call 662-915-6900. To learn more about the UM law school, visit http://www.law.olemiss.edu.
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