Sunday, January 29, 2006

Podcast examines DNA evidence and wrongful convictions

This week, an Illinois man who spent nearly two decades in prison for sexual assault was released after DNA evidence exonerated him. A week earlier, DNA evidence freed a Florida man after more than 24 years in prison for crimes he did not commit. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case in which DNA evidence calls into question a conviction.

On our weekly legal news podcast Coast to Coast this week, we discuss the issues surrounding the use of DNA evidence. Our guests are Robert N. Feldman, a founder of the New England Innocence Project and an attorney in Boston, and Joshua Marquis, district attorney of Clatsop County, Oregon, and vice president of the National District Attorneys Association.

Coast to Coast is the weekly legal news podcast cohosted by J. Craig Williams and me. An archive of all past shows is available here. All shows are available to listen to in Windows Media format or to download in MP3 format. The show's RSS feed is available here.

1 comment:

Ruth said...

Why does the law make it difficult to present new evidence, such as DNA, when this new evidence could prove the innocence of the wrongly convicted? These men are not the first people to be freed from DNA testing. If the government is "for the people", then why not make it easier to get DNA testing? Instead, innocent people are having their lives snatched away. Yes, now they may have their freedom but for them, freedom came too late, decades late.