Don't Let Mistakes Send Innocent People to Jail-SUPPORT SB 1544

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http://ga1.org/campaign/SB1544

Don’t Let Mistakes Send an Innocent Person to Jail

 

Mistaken identification by an eyewitness is the leading cause of wrongful

conviction cases in the country - an estimated 4,500 innocent people are wrongly

convicted each year. Furthermore, nearly 75 percent of cases where individuals

were exonerated by DNA evidence involved mistaken eyewitness identification.

 

Don’t let mistakes send an innocent person to jail.

 

Senator Carole Migden and the ACLU California affiliates are sponsoring SB

1544, the Criminal Investigations Act, which would improve California’s

eyewitness identification procedures using scientific standards to decrease the

rate of wrongful convictions and increase law enforcement’s ability to convict

those who have really committed crimes.

 

Urge your legislators to support SB 1544 to ensure fair and accurate California

eyewitness policies and procedures.

 

You can take action on this alert via the web at:

http://ga1.org/campaign/SB1544

 

We encourage you to take action by June 30, 2006

Decrease the Rate of Wrongful Convictions - Support SB 1544

 

INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE WEB:

If you have access to a web browser, you can take action on this alert by going

to the following URL:

http://ga1.org/campaign/SB1544

 

 

Your letter will be addressed and sent to:

Your Assemblyperson (if you live in CA)

Your State Senator (if you live in CA)

 

----THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT IN YOUR NAME----

Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],

 

I strongly urge you to support SB 1544, the Criminal Investigations Act,

sponsored by Senator Carole Migden (D-San Francisco), which would improve

California’s eyewitness identification procedures using scientific standards

to decrease the rate of wrongful convictions and increase law enforcement’s

ability to convict those who have really committed crimes.

 

Mistaken identification by an eyewitness is the leading cause of wrongful

conviction in the country. An estimated 4,500 innocent people are convicted in

the U.S. each year due to mistaken eyewitness identification. In cases where DNA

evidence has exonerated individuals, nearly 75 percent involved mistaken

eyewitness identification.

 

SB 1544 directs law enforcement officials to establish new policies and

procedures, based on the National Institute of Justice’s (NIJ)

recommendations, to ensure that California’s eyewitness procedures are the

best possible. The NIJ’s guidelines include suggested procedures such as

“blind†lineup administrators, specific instructions to witnesses, and

sequential presentation. Improving these procedures will simultaneously decrease

the rate of wrongful conviction and increase our ability to convict those who

have really committed crimes.

 

Again, I encourage you to support SB 1544 and I look forward to hearing your

thoughts on this important issue.

 

Sincerely,

 

" To be nobody-but-myself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to

make me everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being

can fight, and never stop fighting. " -e.e. cummings-