RESOLUTION ON A MASSACHUSETTS INNOCENCE COMMISSION

Proposed by Christ’s Community Church , Chicopee and
the Executive Committee of the Hampden Association  

WHEREAS the prophet Amos warns us of God’s judgment of those who have allowed justice to go wrong (“You have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood”) —Amos 6:12b;

AND WHEREAS 67 persons have been found to be totally innocent of their conviction of a serious crime through DNA testing*;

AND WHEREAS a survey of 62 of these above cases showed that 84% involved mistaken eyewitnesses, 21% involved informant’s lies, 24% involved false confessions, 27 % involved failures by defense attorneys, 42% involved misconduct by the police, and 33% involved fraudulent science*;

AND WHEREAS convicting the wrong person means that one person is suffering unjust punishment while another has escaped completely and is free to commit more crimes;

AND WHEREAS an unknown number of inmates in jails and prisons in Massachusetts at this moment are completely innocent, and more will join them, while no effort is made to seek out the actual offender.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the 209th Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ supports the creation of a Massachusetts Innocence Commission that would deal with the following reforms:

1. Post-conviction DNA testing
2. Scientific methods of eyewitness identification to eliminate bias
3. Videotaping confessions to reduce or eliminate false confessions
4. Careful analysis of jailhouse informants to eliminate those who are lying as a benefit to their own case
5. Independence of crime labs from the police and prosecution, and conduct of crime lab work under direct scientific principles
6. Blue-ribbon commissions to investigate any allegations of misconduct of prosecutors, police or defense attorneys
7. Standards, pay and workload conditions for defense attorneys made equal to those of the prosecution to achieve equality in the adversary court system
8. Any other recommendations to reduce the likelihood of convicting the innocent and allowing the guilty to avoid prosecution.

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Massachusetts Conference, UCC, communicate the contents of this resolution to Gov. Patrick, Lt Gov. Murray, Atty. General Coakley, and all members of the Senate and House of Representatives;

AND BE IT ALSO FURTHER RESOLVED that the Annual Meeting urge members of the United Church of Christ in Massachusetts to request their elected representatives to support a Massachusetts Innocence Commission.

* statistics from Actual Innocence by Barry Schleck, Peter Neufeld and Jim Dwyer; Doubleday, 2000.