The sixth annual Access to Equal Justice conference will explore one of the country’s most significant criminal justice issues: the possibility that innocent defendants have been convicted and executed.
“Examining the Risks of Wrongful Executions and the Role of Prosecutors, Defense Attorneys, Academia and the Press” will be held from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17, in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall.
U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr., D-Mo., will deliver the morning keynote address at 9 a.m. Afternoon keynote speakers are Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project and professor of law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York, and Roscoe C. Howard Jr., partner at Troutman Sanders LLP in Washington, former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and former professor of law at the University of Kansas. They will speak at the lunch session at 1 p.m.
During the conference, panelists from the legal profession, academia and the press will examine four criminal cases that many critics believe ended in the executions of innocent defendants:
• Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 for the arson-murders of his three daughters. The death penalty was based on interpretations by fire investigators that have been scientifically disproved.
• Ruben Cantu was executed in Texas in 1993 for a murder that occurred when he was 17. During the years following Cantu’s conviction, a surviving victim, the co-defendant, the district attorney and the jury forewoman made public statements that cast doubt on Cantu’s guilty verdict and death sentence.
• Larry Griffin was convicted in 1980 of the St. Louis murder of teenage drug dealer Quintin Moss and executed by the State of Missouri in 1995. The conviction has been criticized in that there was no evidence against Griffin except the testimony of Robert Fitzgerald, a professional criminal in the Federal Witness Protection Program.
• Carlos DeLuna was executed in Texas in 1989 for stabbing Wanda Lopez to death in a robbery at a Corpus Christi gas station/convenience store six years earlier. Claims of unreliable eyewitness identification and inadequate representation raise concerns about his conviction and execution.
“These four cases underscore serious weaknesses in our criminal justice system that cannot be ignored,” said Karen L. Tokarz, J.D., professor of law and director of the Clinical Education Program and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Program at the School of Law.
“They cry out for a more thorough examination of the death penalty and the process that leads up to it.”
The conference is hosted and co-sponsored by the law school’s Clinical Education Program and the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, with the Saint Louis University School of Law.
The conference is free and open to the public; however, attendees must pre-register. The conference qualifies for seven hours of MCLE credit for lawyers and judges.
For more information, contact Beth Niehaus at 935-6419 or e-mail ekniehaus@wulaw.wustl.edu.