The highlighting of wrongful conviction cases by the news media has been a critical step towards exoneration for a number of innocent prisoners. How the media impacts wrongful convictions will be the focus of the Faces of Innocence virtual event Thursday evening, put together by the Midwest Innocence Project.
Erin Moriarty of CBS News, the keynote speaker for the event, has been reporting on wrongful convictions for over two decades. She says of the cases she has covered, she's watched 10 people walk out of prison.
"There may be no more exhilarating feeling than that," Moriarty says. "But, along the way, there's a lot of frustrations, too."
Case in point, when Moriarty first met eventual-exoneree Kevin Strickland, she believed it was questionable as to whether he would actually get out.
Strickland, who spent 43 years in prison for a triple murder he did not commit was exonerated last November. He says without reporting on his case from The Kansas City Star's Luke Nozicka, he would still be behind bars. Strickland believes there are many others in prison whose cases deserve a second look, but that they might never get that opportunity.
"Y'know, everyone in prison says they're not guilty. But yeah, there are a few people behind those gates and walls that are actually innocent, and they're just not receiving assistance from attorneys to have their cases brought to the light."
Strickland believes a lack of investigative reporters diving into this kind of research is at the heart of the problem, and that's something that Moriarty has grown concerned with as well.
"These cases have long histories, they're complicated, they take a lot of time, they take a lot of research," explains Moriarty. "And a lot of local news operations and even the networks don't have the staff for that."
Along with a better understanding of how confessions can be coerced in the criminal justice system, Moriarty thinks strides made in forensic technologies are helping people understand just how many of these cases exist.
"DNA and all of these forensic types of new technologies have really allowed us to see how often the system doesn't work," says Moriarty. "There's estimates that between three and four percent of the people currently in prison are actually innocent."
- Erin Moriarty, reporter for CBS News
- Kevin Strickland, exoneree
Erin Moriarty and Kevin Strickland will be featured at "Faces of Innocence," a benefit for the Midwest Innocence Project at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 28th. Registration for this virtual event is free.
