Innocence puts you at risk in an interrogation room This article was originally published on The Conversation. If you are one of the millions of people who have listened to the podcast “Serial” or watched Netflix’s series “Making a Murderer,” you may believe there are innocent people in prison. But long before the cases of Adnan Syed, Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey were brought to the public’s attention, we and other researchers have been hard at work studying how it is that innocent people sometimes go to prison for crimes they did not commit. In fact, a recent report documented that in 2015, there were a record number of exonerations in the United States. While it’s difficult, if not impo
Laura Nirider highlights mentorship in keynote speech at Young Women in Law Gala What: 7th Annual Young Women in Law Charity Gala Where: Omni King Edward Hotel, Toronto When: Wednesday, April 5, 2017 “I come here, as all young women in law do, wearing several hats,” said Laura Nirider in her keynote speech at the Young Women in Law (YWL) Charity Gala in early April. The mother of two is the project director with the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth and a clinical assistant professor of law at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. She has also been practising law for nine years. Nirider is best known as the lawyer for Brendan Dassey, whose coerced confession to murder was featured
Did you know that in the state of Wisconsin, children as young as 10 may be tried as adults for first-or second degree intentional or first degree reckless homicide? Or that the state does not specify that a juvenile has the right to an attorney or parental presence during interrogation? Wisconsin's lack of protection for juveniles navigating the states justice system reduces transparency, and raises doubts about the voluntariness of authentic confessions for all juveniles. Wisconsin is also firmly entrenched among the many states who do not offer specific Miranda warnings for juveniles, unlike Pennsylvania for example who legislated that 'a child's waiver of Miranda is usually not effective
Update on Brendan Dassey case: As we wait and watch for a ruling, we would like to thank all of you for your continued support and solidarity. In response to those who have asked how best to help Brendan, we urge you to keep writing him letters and notes at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin. Your messages of outreach and friendship sustain him and give him hope every day. The Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth Please send letters only: Brendan Dassey DOC# 516985 Columbia Correctional Institution P.O. Box 900 Portage, WI 53901 Please remember to include your return address on the envelope and on your letter.
Tension is building for "Making a Murderer" fans who are following the saga of convicted murderer Steven Avery, and April might be one of the most memorable months in the history of the case. To recap: Sheboygan County Judge Angela Sutkiewicz entered an order on Nov. 23, 2016, allowing for independent scientific testing on nine items of evidence related to the Oct. 31, 2005, murder of Teresa Halbach. Last summer at the Manitowoc County courthouse, suburban Chicago attorney Kathleen Zellner told reporters that she would file her formal petition asking the judge to overturn Avery's conviction after the scientific testing was completed. That testing was scheduled to conclude in March. On March
