Innocence Lost: DNA Tests Expose Justice System's Flaws

By Sandeep Kaushik, AlterNet. Posted November 6, 2001.

It's the morning of Thursday, October 11 and Anthony Michael Green makes a quick stop at a convenience store. Purchase in hand he pockets his change, all except for one coin, which he stares at intently as he exits. Finally, he turns to the journalist walking at his side, the coin held up for closer examination. "What kind of money is this, some kind of Canadian quarter?" he asks, the confusion on his face evident.

Laughing, the reporter assures Green that it is indeed American money. "It's a state quarter," he says, "that one's from Connecticut." Noting his companion's bewilderment, he then explains how for several years now the government has been releasing different quarters for each of the 50 states.

"I've been gone a long time," Green mutters in reply, still staring fixedly at the silvery disk, and for a moment his brow furrows and his face grows dark. But within seconds his expression abruptly shifts, a spreading grin indicating his previous good humor is restored. "This is my first quarter," he chuckles, "I'm going to save this one."

There's an obvious reason why Michael Green (he prefers to go by his middle name) has never seen a state quarter, why even mundane acts carry an emotional punch for the handsome, well spoken 35 year-old. You see, it is only the second full day of Michael's freedom. In fact, for the previous 13 years -- nearly the entire span of his adult existence -- he has been locked away and largely forgotten in a maximum security penitentiary, the result of his 1988 conviction "beyond a reasonable doubt" in an Ohio courtroom for the brutal rape of a dying, cancer-stricken woman at the famed Cleveland Clinic.

Of course, that's all changed now. Released on on bail October 9, his freedom became final nine days later when, on the basis of a legal motion by famed O.J. defense attorney and DNA expert Barry Scheck, a Cleveland judge vacated Green's conviction.

It is just the latest coup for Scheck's Innocence Project, the non-profit legal advocacy organization he co-founded nine years ago to harness fast developing DNA technology in the service of the wrongly convicted. Judges, prosecutors and much of the press will tell you that this proves the system works, that it can and will correct its mistakes. But the truth is, Green's case embodies exactly the opposite; examined closely, it reveals everything that is wrong with the criminal justice system, and exemplifies why DNA evidence, at least for the vast majority of wrongly convicted individuals, hasn't been the magic bullet the press and public think it is.

No Fault

Dr. Ed Blake of Richmond, California is the nationally renowned scientist who first introduced forensic DNA testing to the United States, and it is he who conducted the testing and produced the report for the Innocence Project that finally set Green free. "You don't convict someone beyond a reasonable doubt by accident," he says bluntly. "What happened to Anthony Green was not an error. The only way you prove an innocent man guilty is if the guy was framed."

And while there will likely never be an official assessment of why Green was wrongly convicted, the case has received enough scrutiny to make the key factors in the miscarriage of justice evident. In a nutshell, at the moment Green was chosen as a suspect by Clinic cops -- he roughly fit the victim's description of her assailant and had been recently fired by the hospital -- he was essentially as good as convicted. As with so many other Innocence Project cases, standard investigatory safeguards were violated and scientific evidence manipulated and misrepresented in order to make him appear guilty.

Along with a flawed identification from the victim, prosecutors used what seemed like solid scientific evidence to link Michael to the rape. One item from the crime scene was particularly important: a washcloth used by the assailant to wipe himself off after the rape was concluded. Based on stains on the washcloth, a Cleveland Police Department forensic lab employee named Joseph Serowick provided testimony concerning blood type that pointed to Green.

That testimony was later examined in detail by Dr. Blake. His conclusions were devastating, and led Michael's Innocence Project lawyers to describe Serowick's testimony as "scientifically irresponsible and misleading to the jury." Start with the fact that Serowick was well aware (or should have been) that, since the rapist had wiped off his genitals after the rape, the stain obviously contained both semen from the attacker and vaginal secretions from the victim. Though that was perfectly clear from the victim's account, if he had any doubts he could have confirmed it from a simple microscopic examination of the washcloth stain, which should have been standard procedure anyway, according to Blake. Nevertheless, Serowick testified that he was testing a pure semen stain, rather than a co-mingled one, and that therefore the "type B secretor" test result must have come from the rapist. He then told the jury that not only was Green a type B secretor, but also that fully 84 percent of the male population could not have produced such a result, a fact that the prosecution stressed in its summation.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »