Friday Roundup

It was a big week for the United States – we have a new President elect, a new landscape in Congress, and new state legislatures across the land. We

blogged earlier this week

about the opportunities for bipartisan criminal justice reform on the horizon.

Meanwhile, politics bumped news on wrongful convictions and forensics from the national radar for a few days. Here are some of the stories you might have missed:

A panel discussion last night at Southern Methodist University in Dallas brought together exonerees and officials from all corners of the criminal justice system. Innocence Project client James Waller told the audience why he kept his anger at bay while appealing his conviction. "If I were to stay angry," he recalled, "I wouldn't have been able to work on my case. Bein' angry wouldn't do me no good."

Blogger Bethany Anderson covered the event here

.

At several other events around the country this week, exonerees

told their stories and discussed the reforms that can prevent wrongful convictions in the future

.

Florida prosecutors said they have new “

people of interest and new DNA tests

” in the case of William Dillon, who has served 27 years for a murder he says he didn’t commit.

And a

new innocence organization

will open its doors in Glasgow on November 12.