Taiwan Innocence Project is excited to share a good news that on May 15, 2020, our client, Mr. Hsieh Chih-Hung, who had been sentenced to death in 2011 and spent 18 years behind bars, was exonerated!
Preventing Miscarriages of Justice in Asia
On April 1, 2020. Senior Research Fellow Ira Belkin and USALI staff Allen Clayton-Greene, Amy Gao, Yin Chi, and Eli Blood-Patterson introduce the U.S.-Asia Law Institute's (USALI) program: "Preventing and Redressing Wrongful Convictions." Through this program, international experts, including individuals who themselves had been wrongfully convicted and later exonerated, shared their experience and state-of-the-art expertise with the Asian criminal justice community concerning the root causes of wrongful convictions and measures that can be adopted to prevent them and redress them. Belkin discusses the project background, activities, and lessons learned, while USALI staff members share the long-term impact the program has had in Taiwan, China, and Japan respectively.
Over the course of the four year program, approximately 70 criminal justice experts from Asia participated in intensive month-long workshops at NYU and over 500 Chinese and Japanese experts attended lectures given by USALI-sponsored international experts in China and Japan, respectively. The use of social media expanded the audience in Asia to hundreds of thousands. The project has led to the expansion of Innocence work in Asia as well as more Asian experts joining the international community of lawyers doing Innocence work. Project participants published several books and numerous articles in multiple languages on topics relevant to Innocence work, from how common interrogation techniques can lead to false confessions to why prisons should have law libraries.
Event Videos
Part I: Senior Research Fellow Ira Belkin discusses the project background.
Part II: Senior Research Fellow discusses the project overview, including activities in New York and overseas.
Part III: Research Scholar Yin Chi discusses the project impact in China, especially its impact for Innocence Movement Groups.
Part IV: Research Scholar Allen Clayton-Greene introduces the Taiwan Innocence Project, including the successful exonerations and capacity building in Asia.
Part V: Research Scholar Amy Gao introduces Innocence Project Japan (IPJ) and USALI’s impact in Japan.
Project VI: Research Scholar and Program Manager Eli-Blood Patterson discusses the impact that the project had in the United States.
Part VII: Senior Research Fellow Ira Belkin discusses lessons learned from the project.
First Innocence Film Festival: What If
40 Years Later: Members Supporting Retrial for the Osaki Case Demand Judicial Reform
Originally published: Nishi Nippon Shimbun
Publication date: October 16, 2019
Author: Daisuke Kono
Original article location
Abstract: In 1979 the body of a brutally murdered man was discovered in Osaki City, Kagoshima Prefecture. Ayako Haraguchi was charged with the crime but has always maintained her innocence. Recently, Haraguchi’s lawyer called together a meeting of researchers and wrongfully convicted individuals to demand judicial reform.
In Haraguchi’s third request for retrial, a district court and high court initially reviewed the case. In June of this year (2019) the court made the unusual decision to reject the request without returning it to the high court. The defense team has decided to make a fourth claim and is preparing to submit new evidence. “If possible, I would like to be charged within the year or at the latest within the year” says the lawyer.
Meanwhile, at the gathering which included about 110 people, Professor Kana Sasakura from Konan University reported on the situation in the United States in which the false accusations were revealed through DNA testing. “Societies believeing that there is no such thing as wrongful convictions has changed a lot,” she said.
In 2016, Keiko Aoki who was imprisoned for over twenty years for burning six small girls in Osaka in 1995, had his case reopened and was declared innocent. “What happened to me was unfortunate, but I won after my first retrial. It only took twenty years. Compared to Ayako, I had it easier.” The Osaki incident overturned the decision to start three retrials, and criticism has been raised in the prosecutor's appeal, which has been a factor for the lengthy process.
Related coverage and information from Japan Innocence and Death Penalty Information Center.
Library Access and Wrongful Conviction Rectification
Originally published: Library Access and Wrongful Conviction Rectification
Publication date: December 7, 2018
Author: Rongjie Lan
Abstract: China’s Public Library Law took effect on January 1, 2018. Not only to the general public, public libraries have a special role for inmates to educate themselves and even help them get exonerated. Some American exoneration cases indicated that prison libraries contributed to the success of innocent inmates regaining freedom. The author advocate for establishing libraries in prisons in China.
Police Induced False Confession: Risk Factors and Prevention
Publication source: Journal of Evidence Science
Publication date: December 2018
Authors: Saul M. Kassin, Steven A. Drizin, Thomas Grisso, Gisli H. Gudjonsson, Richard A. Leo
Translators: Yuan Gao, Chao Liu
Abstract: Recent DNA exonerations have shed light on the problem that people sometimes confess to crimes they did not commit. Drawing on police practices, laws concerning the admissibility of confession evidence, core principles of psychology, and forensic studies involving multiple methodologies, this White Paper summarizes what is known about police-induced confessions. In this review, we identify suspect characteristics (e.g., adolescence; intellectual disability; mental illness; and certain personality traits), interrogation tactics (e.g., excessive interrogation time; presentations of false evidence; and minimization), and the phenomenology of innocence (e.g., the tendency to waive Miranda rights) that influence confessions as well as their effects on judges and juries. This article concludes with a strong recommendation for the mandatory electronic recording of interrogations and considers other possibilities for the reform of interrogation practices and the protection of vulnerable suspect populations.
Cognitive Bias and Blindness: A Global Survey of Forensic Science Examiners
Original publication: Journal of Evidence Science
Publication Date: December 2018
Author: Jeff Kukucka, Saul M. Kassin, Patricia A. Zapf, Itiel Dror
Translator: Jinxi Wang
Article Abstract: Exposure to irrelevant contextual information prompts confirmation-biased judgments of forensic science evidence(Kassin, Dror, &Kukucka, 2013). Nevertheless, some forensic examiners appear to believe that blind testing is unnecessary. To assess forensic examiners’ beliefs about the scope and nature of cognitive bias, we surveyed 403 experienced examiners from 21 countries. Overall, examiners regarded their judgments as nearly infallible and showed only a limited understanding and appreciation of cognitive bias. Most examiners believed they are immune to bias or can reduce bias through mere willpower, and fewer than half supported blind testing. Furthermore, many examiners showed a bias blind spot(Pronin, Lin, & Ross, 2002), acknowledging bias in other domains but not their own, and in other examiners but not themselves. These findings underscore the necessity of procedural reforms that blind forensic examiners to potentially biasing information, as is commonplace in other branches of science.
Evidence Science
Snapshot of the over of Evidence Science with highlighted articles from USALI’s Visiting Scholars
The December 2018 issue of Evidence Science included several articles by former Visiting Scholars, including Weijing Huang, Jie Meng, Jinxi Wang, Xiaoyu Sun, Kuibun Zhu, and Yuejun Lan. Additionally, a translation from USALI staff Chao Liu and Yuan Gao was included in the publication.
Table of Contents
(Original Chinese language Table of Contents listed below)
Empirical Study of Police Fabricated Evidence in Wrongful Convictions in the U.S. by Weijing Huang
Induce or Prevent False Confession – A Study on Reid Interrogation Technique in the U.S. by Jie Meng
Cognitive Bias and Blindness: A Global Survey of Forensic Science Examiners by Jeff Kukucka, Saul M. Kassin, Patricia A. Zapf, Itiel Dror, Translated by Jinxi Wang
A Preliminary Study of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission by Xiaoyu Sun
Police Induced False Confessions: Risk Factors and Prevention Recommendations by Saul M.Kassin, Steven A.Drizin, Thomas Grisso, Gisli H.Gudjonsson, Richard A.Leo, Allison D.Redlich, Translated by Chao Liu, Yuan Gao
Use Evidence Collected by the Supervision Agencies in Criminal Litigation by Yuejun Lan
Road-map for Application of Interrogation Recording in “Trial Centered” Reform by Kuibin Zhu
Prevention and Redressing Wrongful Convictions in the U.S.
Originally published: Journal of People’s Procuratorate
Publication date: 2017, Issue II
Author: Ira Belkin, USALI Senior Research Fellow
Abstract: Prevention and Redressing Wrongful Convictions is a common challenge faced China and the U.S. As a research subject, it covers almost every aspect of a criminal justice system. This article discussed in the context of American criminal justice system on how miscarriage of justice occurred, what the root causes are, who is responsible for rectifying these cases, as well as responses from the legislature and policy makers.
Read the original article in Chinese.
Reform and Development of Video and Audio Recording in Police Interrogation in the U.S. Published at: the Prosecutorial Daily
Author: Siyuan Wu
Published: May 23, 2017
Abstract: : Many states in the U.S. started to push for audio or video recording of interrogation after 2003. The main force for this reform is the innocence movement led by the Innocence Project. The article described how the Innocence Project found false confession is one of the leading contributors to wrongful convictions, and the DOJ’ measures on this in 2014. The article also put a great detail in New York State’s practice and regulation, as well as on how an interrogation room is laid out and operated in NYC.
Mechanisms and Practices of Rectifying Wrongful Convictions in the U.S.
Originally published: Journal of People’s Procuratorate
Publication date: 2015, Issue XI
Author: Barry Sheck
Translator: Zheng Li
Abstract: This article introduced the establishment and operation of the Innocence Project of New York and how DNA exonerations promoted the judicial reform in more effectively redressing wrongful convictions in the U.S. the author stressed that miscarriage of justice is inevitable and there is no silver bullet. However, the author suggested that strict evidentiary review and seeking for root causes in sentinel events are critical in preventing mistakes.