JUSTICE SERVED
Monika Blackwell: If you’re a fan of Serial or Making a Murderer, you’re probably somewhat familiar with the Innocence Project. The national organization works to free wrongfully convicted individuals and is working to reform the criminal justice system.
In the first episode of Making a Murderer, viewers learn that Steven Avery’s first conviction was ultimately overturned because of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. The organization requested new DNA testing and not only were they able to prove that Avery was not the person responsible for a 1985 sexual assault—they identified the person who was. Over 19 million viewers watched the show in its first 35 days. And discussion about the case is still sparking headlines.
On Serial, Sarah Koenig consults with the head of the Innocence Project clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law. In case you’re unfamiliar with the first season of Serial, the main character, Adnan Syed is serving life in prison for a murder he says he didn’t commit. The series is the most popular podcast in the world, with season one hitting 80 million downloads in February.
The UVA team—composed primarily of 8 law students—began their own investigation and looked into ways they could exonerate Syed. His story is still ongoing. And many of the latest developments in his case are directly related to the work of Serial and the Innocence Project.
What many people may NOT realize, though, is that Texas A&M University School of Law operates its own Innocence Clinic. And it’s set up much like UVA’s… eight students meet weekly with a practicing attorney to discuss real cases and real convictions.
After A&M acquired the law school a few years ago, Dean Andrew Morriss made expanding the clinic experience a priority. The clinic is set up to reproduce a law firm setting, and it sometimes takes students into the actual courtroom. Those who participate get to use their legal skills before they finish school.
This law firm experience is exactly what students in Mike Ware’s Innocence Clinic are getting. Mike is an adjunct professor with the law school and the executive director of the Innocence Project of Texas. He is also the 2014 recipient of the Percy Foreman Lawyer of the Year award, given by the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association for his work on a case known as the San Antonio 4. We’ll get back to that later.
Back in January, I drove up to Fort Worth to meet with Mike and attend a session of his clinic.
In his office in Downtown Fort Worth, I asked him for a background on the Innocence Project of Texas.
Mike Ware: The Innocence Project of Texas is a 501 C3 nonprofit. I was a cofounder back in 2006. I was on the board. In July of 2007 I had to resign from the Innocence Project because I was working with the District Attorney’s Office. Even though many times we were working toward the same goals. I.E. Justice.
In 2011, Mike rejoined the Innocence Project and is now the executive director. Last year, he worked with lobbyists from Texas A&M to help get some grant money to run a clinic. Now he’s teaching that clinic.
And part of his lesson for the day I was visiting was – fittingly -- Making a Murderer.
Before my visit, Mike sent me an article in the New Yorker called Dead Certainty: How Making a Murderer goes wrong. If you’re a fan of the show, I recommend you read it. Mike assigned it to his class for a larger discussion on interrogation and false confessions.
It may not surprise you that he has strong opinions about the interrogation process. The kind of process that flabbergasted many viewers when they watched Brendan Dassey’s interviews with prosecutors in Making a Murderer.
MW: In that documentary is in fact a false confession. You see it right before your eyes when they tell him what he needs to say to really make their case. Because he evidently doesn’t know what he needs to say, which would indicate that he wasn’t there and is basically trying to please them or comply with what it is he thinks the authorities want him to say.
MB: And he doesn’t understand the repercussions.
MW: As a matter of fact they are LYING to him about the repercussions. They are lying to him about it. Which they’re allowed to do. The Supreme Court says it’s perfectly fine for the police to lie to the people that they’re interrogating. That is a legitimate quote unquote technique. So no, He doesn’t understand it and they help his misunderstanding by lying him to the repercussions.
MB: Why do you think these shows are so popular right now? Making a Murderer? Serial? The Jynx? Why are they so popular?
MW: I don’t know. I guess because it shows another side, a true side in some ways, up close and personal of things that go on all the time that most of society was completely unaware of and assumed the opposite. I think most good citizens go along thinking everybody who goes to prison is guilty, the police do a thorough job, an honest job in investigating, that politics are not involved. It’s like it is in on Law and Order or CSI.
But despite the buzz surrounding real crime documentaries, Mike is still somewhat surprised that his line of work garners so much attention in pop culture.
MW: It’s interesting to me that someone captures it in a documentary and shows it and across the nation people are fascinated by it. And it is fascinating when you see it in that form but as a realistic manner many of those issues me and other criminal defense lawyers deal with them on a daily basis.
So what does Mike deal with on a daily basis? To answer this question, it’s probably best to look at one of the cases he’s been involved with for over 4 years. The San Antonio Four.
MW: Elizabeth Ramirez. Cassandra Rivera. Kristie Mayhugh and Anna Vasquez. And they were convicted based on allegations that originally dated back to 1994.
The four women were charged with sexually assaulting Elizabeth Ramirez’s two young nieces. Each woman insisted she was innocent. In 2011, Mike got involved through the Innocence Project of Texas, and in 2013 he filed a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of the women. A writ of habeas corpus is a mandate that orders an inmate be brought back to court to determine if he or she was imprisoned lawfully.
In the San Antonio Four case, Mike’s writ said two things. One: That an important testimony by one of the expert medical witnesses in the case was completely off-base. And two: That the women in the case were, in fact, innocent. Around the same time, one of the victims—now in her 20s—came forward to say that the crime had been made up.
Mike did all of the work for the case pro bono. And while he may not have gotten paid for the work, his work has paid off. In 2013, the women were released from prison. But their story is far from over.
A quick word on the quality of this tape. Mike and I talked about the case on a car ride over to the clinics building. There are occasional interruptions where Mike gave me directions.
MB: Have any of the women been exonerated yet?
MW: They've been released and the state has agreed that their convictions should be vacated. We still have an issue. And the state says they will not retry them. The state believes they’re innocent as well but the judge is deciding whether or not there is enough evidence to actually exonerate them. Which I think there clearly is, but he's taking his sweet time to make a decision. So we’ll see…
MB: So what happens if they’re not exonerated? What happens for you I guess?
MW: That means they get some justice but they don’t get enough justice. They won't be retried. They'll have their freedom and they'll be fine with that, but at the same time if you're accused of something really horrible particularly something with a child you really want full exoneration. You want a judicial finding that you're innocent. Not just a judicial finding that you had an unfair trial.
MB: It’s important to distinguish here between exoneration and acquittal. I asked Mike about this and he said that a better way to describe exoneration is to call it actual innocence. And that the difference between an acquittal and actual innocence is that to be found actually innocent you—ironically—have to be found guilty first.
After my initial conversation with Mike, the judge looked at his writ, and agreed that the conviction was based on—in Mike’s words--“junk science.” The judge overturned the prior convictions, but the women still haven’t been given their innocence. The case is now at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals waiting for a final decision.
As you’ve probably guessed by now, Mike’s a pretty busy guy. Case in point, over the years, he’s worked on so many exonerations he’s lost count. He estimates it to be at around 30. And the case of the San Antonio Four is the subject of its own documentary, for which Mike was also interviewed. It's also one of the real cases he and his students have discussed in class. In April, he and the class went to the Innocence Network conference in San Antonio, where he was part of a panel discussion about the San Antonio Four with the documentary film’s director. That film, called Southwest of Salem, debuted this spring at the Tribeca Film Festival.
On the elevator down to the clinic, I met Mahreen Mazhar, a second-year law student at A&M.
Mahreen Mazhar: I'm particularly interested in criminal law and I’ve never really had much experience with like drafting motions looking at evidence looking at verdicts looking at appeals and that's kind of what this class is going to do. I've interned with family law and also like probate stuff and I’ve never done anything criminal based so I want to get experience with that.
Meanwhile, in class, Mike quickly switches into professor mode.
MW: Y’all were going to give me something on Adrian Thomas. I got one paper in about what happened in that case ultimately.
MB: The class discusses Making a Murderer and another documentary about a false confession.
And then it was time for me to turn my recorder off. The students were about to go over a confidential ongoing case.
Just like the law school promised about the clinic experience: Students get the chance to dive right into real cases and real life. Justice in action. That is, after all, why they are here.
For more information on the Innocence Project of Texas visit ipoftexas.org.
To support the Innocence Clinic, visit give.am/tamuinnocence.
To learn about the documentary film based on the San Antonio Four visit southwestofsalem.com.
Music on this episode by: Blue Dot Sessions, Heavix
Photo by: Eric Gay/Associated Press Cassandra Rivera, center, followed by Elizabeth Ramirez and Kristie Mayhugh, leave the Bexar County Jail with their attorney Mike Ware, right, on Monday, Nov. 18, 2013.
