This Week in Innocence News – February 17, 2017

02.17.17 By Innocence Staff

This Week in Innocence News – February 17, 2017

Here are some of this week’s news highlights:

Brendan Dassey case goes before appeals court
A federal appeals panel heard arguments on Tuesday on whether Brendan Dassey’s confession to a 2005 murder was coerced. Attorneys from the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth say investigators fed him details about the crime and promised he would be released if he confessed. Dassey was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for the murder of Teresa Halbach, a case featured on the first season of the Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

New York City to award exoneree $7 million for wrongful conviction
Fernando Bermudez, who spent 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, will receive a $7 million settlement from the City of New York for his 1992 wrongful conviction. Bermudez settled with New York State in 2014 for $4.75 million. The New York Daily News

Kansas exoneree advocates for reform in his state
Floyd Bledsoe, who spent 16 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, urged Kansas lawmakers to pass SB 92, requiring interrogations relating to serious crimes to be electronically recorded from start to finish. The Topeka Capitol-Journal

Chicago’s Marquette Park Four Exonerated
After reviewing the convictions of Charles Johnson, Larod Styles, Lashawn Ezell and Troshawn McCoy, new Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx determined that the armed robbery and murder charges against them should be dropped. Fingerprint evidence supported by eyewitness testimony suggests that the crime was committed by an offender who lived near the crime scene. The Chicago Sun-Times

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