Friday Roundup: Police Misconduct, Recording Interrogations and a New Latin American Innocence Project

A Virginia man convicted of rape in 1997 is

hoping to have his conviction overturned

based on a detective’s history of police misconduct.

An editorial in the Hartford Courant

argues that electronic recording of interrogations should be mandatory

.

Florida prosecutors are trying to delay a murder trial to

prevent eyewitness testimony

because they believe eyewitness identification hasn’t reached the scientific level required to be admitted in court.

The National Institute of Justice

gave more than $1 million

to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to study handwriting characteristics and bloodstain patterns, two forms of fairly subjective evidence,

according to the 2009 National Academy of Sciences report

.

California Western School of Law is launching

Inocente!

, the first Latin American Innocence Project, focused on the release of the wrongfully convicted and reforming laws that lead to wrongful conviction.