TheLoop21.com

By: Devona Walker (Add to your loop)
Fri, 03/20/2009 - 01:40

Herman Atkins, at age 21, was wrongfully convicted for raping a woman in Riverside County, California. He was later exonerated.

In 2000, California started compensating exonerees. Though many advocated for this change in law, one man — and his egregious story of justice miscarried — stood out more than most.

Herman Atkins was 21 in 1988 when he was convicted of rape, forcible oral copulation and robbery. After serving almost 12 years, DNA evidence proved his innocence. Labeled a rapist in prison, there were three attempts on his life.

An advocacy group called the Innocence Project took up Atkins’ case in 1993. It used DNA evidence to prove someone else had committed the crime, and Atkins was released from prison seven years later.

The project has helped 234 inmates — including 17 on death row — fight wrongful convictions through DNA testing. Out of the 234 inmates freed, 140 were black, 64 white and 20 Latino. According to the project’s Web site, the average time served before exoneration is about 12 years.

African Americans make up less than half of the U.S. prison population but represent 60 percent of the exonerated.

Police Misconduct

Atkins' wrongful conviction was one of the first that resulted in a successful civil suit for wrongful conviction. In 2007, he was awarded $2 million.

His wrongful conviction began in South Central Los Angeles, where he was wanted for questioning in a shooting involving a Los Angeles police officer. An All Points Bulletin was issued for Atkins due to that shooting. About 90 miles away, in Riverside County, in the small community of Lake Elsinore, a woman was raped at a local shoe store. She went into the sheriff's office there to file a complaint. She was placed in a briefing room. On the table, face up, was the APB for Atkins. Without looking through photos of potential suspects in similar cases, she pointed to the Atkins photo and said "that’s the one, that’s the one who raped me."

“It was proven in the civil trial that the lead detective lied under oath, lied by omission and lied in document,” Atkins said of the Riverside County, Calif., sheriff's deputy who investigated his case. “When I was released, no one, not the victim, not the detective in the case, not the DA, not the police department, gave me an apology. ... Where is it written that the slave master has ever apologized to the slave for the brutal treatment of that slave?”

Atkins had no prior convictions.

“Before that trial, I had never even heard of Lake Elsinore,” he said.

In April 2007, a federal jury found that the former sheriff deputy, Danny Miller, made up testimony that helped convict Atkins. It was also discovered that Miller withheld exculpatory evidence from the jury that may have cleared Atkins.

Miller now works for the FBI as an intelligence analyst in Little Rock, Ark. The actual perpetrator in the case was never found.

“During the civil trial, Miller was asked why he had done it,” Atkins recalled. “And he said once it got rolling, it was hard to stop.”

Eyewitness misidentification was a factor in 77 percent of post-conviction DNA exoneration cases in the U.S., making it the leading cause for wrongful convictions, according to the Innocence Project. Of that figure, about 40 percent involved cross-racial eyewitness identification. Studies have shown that people are less able to recognize faces of a people who are of a different race than their own.

“I would say 90 percent of it is racism,” Atkins said. “In this country there are people who think that all black people are violent individuals who have a great disregard for society and its rules and regulations.”

Bad or non-validated forensic science played a role in half of all DNA exonerated wrongful convictions. Techniques such as hair microscopy, bite mark comparisons, firearm tool mark analysis and shoe print comparisons have not been subjected to the same scientific evaluation as DNA.

False confessions, typically after grueling interrogation sessions, have played a role in 25 percent of wrongful convictions. In 35 percent of those cases, the defendant was either age 18 or younger, or developmentally disabled.

Confidential informants or “snitches” contributed to 15 percent of wrongful convictions.

“Before going to prison, I was raised by a law enforcement officer, he instilled in me some very strict rules. I had never been in trouble before,” Atkins said. “When this happened, I was a square placed in a round hole. I went to prison, and it brought out a side of me that I didn’t like. But that was how I had to be in order to survive.”

About half of those who have been exonerated through DNA testing have been financially compensated for the time they lost in prison. About 33 percent of cases closed by the Innocence Project were closed because of lost or missing evidence.

In Atkins case, it took his attorneys three years just to uncover the original evidence.

Life, after prison

“Once I finished that battle, I stepped out of prison, and stepped into a new battle,” Atkins said. “When I was released, my mother was dying of esophogus cancer. I watched my mother deteriorate to the point of her taking her last breath. That was a year after my release.”

Atkins, and a very good size of the wrongfully convicted are in custody during the  informative years of their adult life — their early- and mid-20s. This is the time that many learn a trade. According to a study by the U.S. Department of Education that followed more than 3,000 prisoners, only 22 percent of prisoners who participated in education programs return to prison. That is compared with an overall recidivism rate of about 31 percent.

Likewise, the Bureau of Prisons found these programs reduced misconduct. In all, this research found that for every one dollar spent on prison education, two dollars were saved in re-incarceration cost.

But despite the research, these programs have historically been under-funded and under-utilized. Many prisoners return to society woefully unprepared. Atkins was no exception.

“I didn’t even know how to turn on a computer,” he said. “The humiliating thing happened when I was applying to be a janitor’s assistant at the high school, and they told me I needed some additional training to mop the floors.”

He also battled a litany of biases and suspicions due to his stint in prison, regardless of being exonerated. The gaping hole in his work history was impossible to miss, and just about every job interview ended with him trying to explain why he was convicted and what for.

“It didn’t matter that I was exonerated,” Atkins said. “They thought if you’ve been in prison, you must have done something to deserve it. And even if you didn’t, you must have picked up plenty of criminal behaviors while you were there.”

Fortunately, Atkins had a family that was both financially and emotionally supportive. With their assistance, he enrolled in college and ultimately received a Bachelors of Science in Psychology. Currently, he is working on a Master’s Degree. He and his wife run a small business that sells and rents ATM machines. He also runs the LIFE Foundation, he started it with the $2 million settlement, it provides services for the wrongfully convicted.

This month Atkins celebrated the ninth anniversary of his exoneration.

“What happened to me, made me self destructive. I was very hostile and bitter,” Atkins said. “A fellow inmate, a guy by the name of Michael Stokes, he kind of became my mentor. And he told me I had a choice to make, I could stay in prison and self destruct or I could fight to get out and be successful.

“I decided to get out and be successful,” he added.

Devona Walker is a senior reporter/blogger at TheLoop21.com. She writes the Post-Race? blog

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