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April 12, 2006
Dear FCL Supporter,
We are witnessing the emergence of a new civil rights movement concerning our criminal justice system. In California, there have been 240 exonerations, including six from death row. DNA evidence -- the new gold standard of forensic science -- demonstrates that the criminal justice system makes mistakes far more often than previously believed. According to a recent Field Poll, support for the death penalty in California continues its steady decline, from a high of 83 percent in the mid-1980s, to 63 percent today.
In 2004, the State Senate created the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice to:
- Examine cases of wrongful convictions, and
- Make recommendations to the Legislature and the governor to insure that the administration of justice in California is just, fair, and accurate
Chaired by former State Attorney General John Van de Kamp, the Commission held its first public hearing in March to consider problems with eyewitness identification. Eyewitness identifications are notoriously inaccurate and are prevalent in wrongful convictions.
Among the recommendations the Commission is expected to make are 1) the use of double-blind lineups so that lineup administrators do not purposely or inadvertently cue witnesses; 2) sequential lineups; and 3) instructions to witnesses that the suspect may or may not be present in the lineup (the hearing is covered in more detail in the upcoming edition of the FCL Newsletter).
FCL will keep you up to date on the Commission's progress.
In the meantime, the Commission has created a website where you can read its reports and make public comment. Though it is a work-in-progress, we hope you will take the time to read the Commission's reports and recommendations and that you will remind the Commission that race, geography, and economic status should never determine who gets convicted.
The Commission's website is found by pointing your web browser to:
http://www.ccfaj.org/index.html
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jim Lindburg
Legislative Advocate
http://www.fclca.org
E-mail: JimL@fclca.org
Phone: (916) 443-3734
Fax: (916) 448-6109
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