California leads the nation in wrongful convictions, according to a 2012 study, but it trails many states, particularly New Jersey, in safeguards and best practices aimed at reducing critical areas where wrongful convictions are likely to occur. Assemblymember Tom Ammiano has been attempting to change that with his support of the Innocence Project Bill.
The law would authorize “law enforcement agencies to adopt regulations for conducting in person and photo line-ups; allows expert testimony at trial regarding the reliability of eyewitness identification; and requires the court to provide a jury instruction advising that it may consider whether or not law enforcement followed specified procedures when determining the reliability of eyewitness identification.”
“Prosecutors and police investigators are often under pressure to identify a culprit. It’s important to make sure they identify the right person,” Assemblymember Ammiano said in a press release.
“There is research that has shown that police can improve the reliability of their investigation, so the bill rewards the techniques that would help like the double-blind administration,” Assemblymember Ammiano told the Vanguard in a phone interview back in February.
“When a trial introduces witness identification that took place before the trial the bill would say that the judge must give the jury an instruction indicating that certain techniques provide better results in reliability and that jurors can take that into account when deciding on the reliability of the ID,” he said.
Tom Ammiano is a San Francisco leader who has served the city for four decades as a teacher, civil rights leader, educator, supervisor and assemblymember. In 1975, he became the first public school teacher in San Francisco to make his sexual orientation public knowledge.
Assemblymember Ammiano was elected to the San Francisco School Board in 1990 and to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1994. He remained on the board until his election as assemblymember in 2008.
Accomplishments as a supervisor include institution of district elections, a city Health Care Security Ordinance, a domestic partners ordinance, and a municipal ID system to benefit those who can’t get conventional identification.
“Since arriving in Sacramento, his work in the Assembly has been driven by the same belief in reform and good government as his time on the Board of Supervisors,” according to his bio. His legislative priorities have included protections and rights for workers, the homeless, immigrants, youth and the LGBT community.
He has continued to promote thoughtful legislation for the reform of medical marijuana laws. As the Chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, he has been a key figure speaking out for research-based reform of California’s corrections system and criminal sentencing.
In addition to the Public Safety Committee, Assemblymember Ammiano is a member of the Assembly Health Committee, Human Services Committee, Transportation Committee and Joint Committee on the Arts. Additionally, he is a member of the State Legislature’s LGBT Caucus and a member of the Environmental Caucus and the Assembly Coastal Caucus.
In September, the legislation was shelved when the assemblymember used a parliamentarian trick called “gut and amend” that swapped language from a cannabis regulation bill that died in May into the language for AB 604.
The legislative effort died last week, when Assemblymember Ammiano’s bill “would have created a new wing of the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to license and oversee the medical marijuana industry, which nets more than $1.3 billion in annual revenue.”
“The current unregulated situation can’t continue and the U.S. Department of Justice memo makes it clear we need to have a plan for California,” Assemblymember Ammiano said in a statement in September, noting that he will try again in the next legislative session in 2014. “Although this is already the strongest and most effective legislation California has seen, it can still be honed and I will keep working.”
Hopefully, the Innocence Project Bill will come back against as well.
“The goal of a law enforcement criminal investigation is to find and apprehend the person or persons responsible for committing a crime. Eyewitness identification procedure studies indicate that the criminal justice system can significantly decrease the rate of erroneous eyewitness identifications by implementing changes to identification procedures,” the Assemblymember said in a statement earlier this year. “A decrease in the number of erroneous eyewitness identifications will increase public trust in the criminal justice system, which, in turn, will increase the ability of law enforcement and prosecutors to convict the guilty and protect our communities.”
The ACLU of California, a co-sponsor of the original bill, stated, “Mistaken eyewitness identification is one of the greatest causes of wrongful convictions. Seventy-five percent of convictions overturned through DNA testing involved mistaken identifications by eyewitnesses.”
The ACLU added, “”We know California can significantly decrease the rate of wrongful convictions by passing AB 604. In doing so, AB 604 will also increase public trust in the criminal justice system, which, in turn, will increase the ability of law enforcement and prosecutors to convict the guilty and protect our communities.”
“I feel confident that while it’s not a panacea for wrongful convictions, I feel like it will sensitize the criminal justice system and also have an impact on the sentencing of an individual. It gives the judge and jury a little more flexibility,” the assemblymember told the Vanguard. “It will recommend that these techniques have or have not been used and allow the jury to take that into consideration.”
On Saturday, the Vanguard will honor Assemblymember Tom Ammiano as its Elected Official of the year for his work on behalf of reforming the justice system such as with reforms to eyewitness identification through the Innocence Project Bill as well as his overall body of work on behalf of social justice.
If you wish to see the Assemblymember speak please buy tickets as soon as possible.
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—David M. Greenwald reporting
Hopefully Assemblyman Ammiano keeps trying to reform the legal system. We need many more like him in all levels of politics.