Friday Roundup: Fighting Injustice and Telling the Tale

05.28.10

A New York prisoner is

seeking a new hearing

after an NYPD detective came forward with evidence that a key witness may not have told the truth at trial. Jabbar Collins has spent 15 years in prison for a murder he has always said he didn’t commit, and his attorneys are asking a judge to toss his conviction based on the new evidence.

Joseph Abbitt was exonerated in North Carolina last year after serving 14 years for a crime DNA testing proves he didn’t commit. The

search for the real perpetrator in the case is still on

after recent DNA tests cleared another suspect. Winston-Salem police say they have now focused on another possible perpetrator in the case.

A Milwaukee man has been in prison since 1998 for a murder

DNA now indicates he didn’t commit

, but he remains in prison over another disputed sentence. If William Avery agreed to a signature bond, he would have to accept three years of parole for a separate drug conviction from the same year. He believes that he has already served the time for the drug conviction, and decided to stay in prison while his attorney resolves the issue with the Corrections Department and expects to be fully exonerated soon.

Author John Grisham, a member of the Innocence Project Board of Directors, spoke this week at BookExpo America about

his next book

, “Confession,” about a wrongful conviction. The book is due to be released in October.

And a newly released book, “

Killing Time

,” by John Hollway and Ronald M. Gauthier, tells the story of the wrongful conviction of John Thompson in Louisiana and explores the causes of injustice in the American criminal justice system.

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