Pollner lecture
DNA evidence exposes flawed justice system

By Jesse Nation-Ames
J-School Web Reporter

The American justice system needs an overhaul, and DNA testing is the perfect way to effect that change, said award-winning journalist Maurice Possley at the T. Anthony Pollner lecture earlier this month on University of Montana campus.

“We have to tell legislators and voters that tinkering with the system is not being soft on criminals,” said Possley.

photo by Kate Medley

"DNA provides us a window into the engine room of the justice system," said Chicago Tribune reporter Maurice Possley, this year's Distinguished Pollner Professor.

Possley is a criminal justice reporter at the Chicago Tribune and has uncovered prosecutorial misconduct, forced confessions and wrongful convictions in his three decades at the paper. His work, along with that of his fellow reporter Steve Mills, on death penalty cases persuaded former Illinois Gov. George Ryan to place a moratorium on executions in the state in January 2000.

This semester, Possley is the Pollner Distinguished Professor at the UM Journalism School and is teaching a seminar on covering cops and courts. The Pollner Professorship was created by the family of T. Anthony Pollner, a 1999 J-school grad who died in a 2001 motorcycle accident. Each fall semester it brings a distinguished journalist to UM to teach a special seminar, assist the Kaimin newspaper staff and deliver a public lecture. Possley’s lecture, the third in the Pollner lecture series, was Oct. 6.

“I’m not here to debate the moral issue,” Possley said of capital punishment. Instead he described the shortcomings of the legal system that imposes it. When Ryan called a halt to executions in Illinois, the state had executed 12 prisoners since 1977 but had exonerated 13 based on DNA evidence
.
“Can this system be trusted to kill the right people?” he asked.

In the United States, DNA evidence has helped exonerate 135 people, Possley said. He recounted several cases he worked on that helped free innocent men. In most of these cases the DNA of the real criminal was entered into a database only to find that the actual perpetrator was already behind bars for similar crimes.

“The real true value of DNA is what it’s telling us about the criminal justice system,” said Possley. The 15 years since DNA evidence came into wide use have been, he said, “the greatest learning time in the history of American jurisprudence.”

DNA evidence proves that eyewitnesses make mistakes and that police lie, he said.

photo by Kate Medley

J-School Dean Jerry Brown, right, introduces Possley at the Oct. 6 lecture.

“It tells us people do confess to crimes they didn’t commit and that jailhouse snitches lie,” he said. He also cited police and prosecutorial misconduct as a major reason that innocent people are convicted.

One Illinois case Possley described was the murder of Lori Roscetti. Four teenagers were convicted of the crime. Because of their age they were sentenced to life in prison rather than death. Possley and Mills dug into the case and found that one of the four boys had been coerced into confessing and condemning his three friends in exchange for leniency. The reporters’ investigation prompted DNA testing of the accused and eventually their exoneration after 15 years behind bars.

“We found a number of cases where the prosecutor had crossed the line from prosecuting the case to winning at all costs,” he said.

But Possley didn’t just criticize the justice system; he also listed a number of reforms he thought could help cure it.

“It’s not enough to just admit the mistake, you gotta do something about it,” he said. More police training, video-taped interrogations, uniform post-conviction DNA testing, one-on-one lineups, and minimum requirements for defense lawyers were just a few of the reforms he suggested.

“There are always going to be reasons people will give for why something can’t be done,” said Possley. “But isn’t getting to the truth worth it?”

Return to J-School news page