March 24, 2010
Convicting the Innocent in America
James McCloskey
Founder, Centurion Ministries
Minutes of the 25th Meeting of the 68th Year
These minutes review the 25th meeting of the 68th year when James McCloskey shared his experience, commitment, dedication and personal passion about the work of freeing the imprisoned innocent.
Once again members could set their watches to precisely 10:15 am when President George Hanson called the nearly 80 members to order. Don Edwards led the invocation. Jim Johnson read the minutes of the March 17th meeting.
Guests Marcia Van Dyck and Jean Stratton were introduced by Nicholas Van Dyck and Lanny Jones, respectively. Ms Stratton is a contributing editor for Town Topics and is preparing an article on our speaker.
Membership Committee Chairman John Reilly presented biographical information on five nominees for election to membership at the March 31st meeting. The nominees are
Adele Agin, Robert Cagan, Robert Geddes, Caroline Moseley and Charles Taggart.
Al Kaemmerlen introduced James McCloskey, founder and executive director of Centurion Ministries. Mr. McCloskey grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of Havertown, graduated from Bucknell, and served as a Navy officer in Viet Nam. After earning a masters degree in International Business, he worked for consulting firms in Tokyo and Philadelphia. At the age of 37 he left the business world and enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary.
During his Field Education as a student chaplain at Trenton State Prison he encountered an inmate who convinced him of his innocence. Mr. McCloskey took a year off from his studies and successfully worked for the release of this innocent man. Centurion Ministries was founded in1983 and Jim McCloskey had found his calling.
Since then Centurion Ministries has freed 42 men and 2 women from death row or life sentences. In his talk, Mr. McCloskey used these cases to illustrate some of the reasons an innocent person can be convicted.
Contrary to his previous assumptions about the integrity of the criminal justice system, he found ample evidence of misconduct in his first case. The accused could speak, but not read, English. He had his cellmate read the police reports and other pre-trial material to him. The prosecutor knowingly used the testimony of this habitual jailhouse informant who claimed he had heard a confession from the man on trial.
On the other hand, McCloskey praised the new District Attorney in Dallas, Texas for creating a Conviction Integrity Unit in his department and supporting the release of Centurion’s latest freed prisoner. In the last two years that unit has reversed the convictions of nine individuals, all based on DNA evidence. The Centurion case was the first non-DNA reversal by this unit.
Faulty or coerced eyewitness identification is often another reason for wrongful conviction. In the Dallas case the witness was instructed by the prosecutor just to point out the person at the defense table as the perpetrator.
McCloskey admitted to his own honest misidentification at the Trenton State Prison when he thought an inmate who verbally attacked him from three feet away was black, when in fact he was white. Eyewitnesses can often look without seeing.
Despite the guarantee of legal representation, there is no guarantee a court appointed attorney is qualified for criminal defense or able to devote adequate time. Public defenders are notoriously overworked and an assigned attorney’s expertise may be real estate law. In a current case the court appointed attorney was disbarred a few years after the trial for malfeasance.
Centurion is currently working on a racially charged case in Savannah, Georgia where three white soldiers were convicted of the drive-by shooting of an African-American man. It is an example of political pressure to quickly solve a high-profile case as well as prosecutor pressure on an eyewitness. Our speaker’s emotional commitment to freeing the innocent was evident as he recounted his conversation with the initially hostile eyewitness. He eventually thanked McCloskey for finding him and letting him tell the truth about the pressure he was under to lie on the witness stand. Many jurors in this case were afraid of a Rodney King riot if they returned a verdict of not guilty.
As for DNA exonerations, 250 men have been exonerated on the basis of DNA evidence since the first case in 1989. Of these, 80% had been convicted by eyewitness testimony and an amazingly 25% had actually confessed! DNA evidence has been used in only eight of Centurion’s exonerations.
Each of Centurion’s cases is discussed in detail on the Centurion Ministries web site. (http://www.centurionministries.org). They are stories that can be stranger than fiction.
Although it is a non-sectarian organization, Centurion Ministries was established on the basis of Mr. McCloskey’s personal sense of Christian calling. He continues, one inmate at a time, to recognize as did the biblical Centurion, “Surely, this one is innocent”.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jock McFarlane
Once again members could set their watches to precisely 10:15 am when President George Hanson called the nearly 80 members to order. Don Edwards led the invocation. Jim Johnson read the minutes of the March 17th meeting.
Guests Marcia Van Dyck and Jean Stratton were introduced by Nicholas Van Dyck and Lanny Jones, respectively. Ms Stratton is a contributing editor for Town Topics and is preparing an article on our speaker.
Membership Committee Chairman John Reilly presented biographical information on five nominees for election to membership at the March 31st meeting. The nominees are
Adele Agin, Robert Cagan, Robert Geddes, Caroline Moseley and Charles Taggart.
Al Kaemmerlen introduced James McCloskey, founder and executive director of Centurion Ministries. Mr. McCloskey grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of Havertown, graduated from Bucknell, and served as a Navy officer in Viet Nam. After earning a masters degree in International Business, he worked for consulting firms in Tokyo and Philadelphia. At the age of 37 he left the business world and enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary.
During his Field Education as a student chaplain at Trenton State Prison he encountered an inmate who convinced him of his innocence. Mr. McCloskey took a year off from his studies and successfully worked for the release of this innocent man. Centurion Ministries was founded in1983 and Jim McCloskey had found his calling.
Since then Centurion Ministries has freed 42 men and 2 women from death row or life sentences. In his talk, Mr. McCloskey used these cases to illustrate some of the reasons an innocent person can be convicted.
Contrary to his previous assumptions about the integrity of the criminal justice system, he found ample evidence of misconduct in his first case. The accused could speak, but not read, English. He had his cellmate read the police reports and other pre-trial material to him. The prosecutor knowingly used the testimony of this habitual jailhouse informant who claimed he had heard a confession from the man on trial.
On the other hand, McCloskey praised the new District Attorney in Dallas, Texas for creating a Conviction Integrity Unit in his department and supporting the release of Centurion’s latest freed prisoner. In the last two years that unit has reversed the convictions of nine individuals, all based on DNA evidence. The Centurion case was the first non-DNA reversal by this unit.
Faulty or coerced eyewitness identification is often another reason for wrongful conviction. In the Dallas case the witness was instructed by the prosecutor just to point out the person at the defense table as the perpetrator.
McCloskey admitted to his own honest misidentification at the Trenton State Prison when he thought an inmate who verbally attacked him from three feet away was black, when in fact he was white. Eyewitnesses can often look without seeing.
Despite the guarantee of legal representation, there is no guarantee a court appointed attorney is qualified for criminal defense or able to devote adequate time. Public defenders are notoriously overworked and an assigned attorney’s expertise may be real estate law. In a current case the court appointed attorney was disbarred a few years after the trial for malfeasance.
Centurion is currently working on a racially charged case in Savannah, Georgia where three white soldiers were convicted of the drive-by shooting of an African-American man. It is an example of political pressure to quickly solve a high-profile case as well as prosecutor pressure on an eyewitness. Our speaker’s emotional commitment to freeing the innocent was evident as he recounted his conversation with the initially hostile eyewitness. He eventually thanked McCloskey for finding him and letting him tell the truth about the pressure he was under to lie on the witness stand. Many jurors in this case were afraid of a Rodney King riot if they returned a verdict of not guilty.
As for DNA exonerations, 250 men have been exonerated on the basis of DNA evidence since the first case in 1989. Of these, 80% had been convicted by eyewitness testimony and an amazingly 25% had actually confessed! DNA evidence has been used in only eight of Centurion’s exonerations.
Each of Centurion’s cases is discussed in detail on the Centurion Ministries web site. (http://www.centurionministries.org). They are stories that can be stranger than fiction.
Although it is a non-sectarian organization, Centurion Ministries was established on the basis of Mr. McCloskey’s personal sense of Christian calling. He continues, one inmate at a time, to recognize as did the biblical Centurion, “Surely, this one is innocent”.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jock McFarlane