https://report2024.innocenceproject.org
The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck at Cardozo School of Law, exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing. Since its inception over two decades ago, the Innocence Project has restored liberty to hundreds of innocent people. According to the Innocence Project, mistaken eyewitness testimony is the leading cause of wrongful convictions. More than three-quarters of wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA evidence relied on faulty eyewitness evidence. Overturned cases also confirmed that black people were overwhelmingly more likely to be wrongfully convicted, even when facts and evidence proved they were innocent.
Flashback to 1975, well before the establishment of the Innocence Project. A seventeen-year-old Leslie Vass, a senior in high school and star basketball player, made a routine trip to his neighborhood pharmacy in Baltimore, MD to buy a newspaper for his mother. This simple trip forever altered the course of Leslies life. A delivery driver for the pharmacy identified Leslie as one of the assailants who had robbed him at gunpoint four months earlier. Based on this drivers erroneous identification, Leslie was arrested, charged as an adult, and subsequently convicted of armed robbery at a trial by judge.
In addition to the mistaken identification, Leslie knows without a doubt that he was convicted due to his race and collusion among the judge, prosecutor, and even his attorney. Leslie had the misfortune to get trapped in two of the largest contributors to wrongful convictions—his race and mistaken eyewitness testimony.
Leslie’s aspirations for graduation and a pro basketball career came to a screeching halt. Sentenced to twenty years as a first-time offender, with no prior criminal record, he was placed in the Maryland State Penitentiary, a maximum security facility. He was thrown into an environment where predators prowled for weak, unaware individuals.
Like all wrongfully convicted comrades, he never envisioned being imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. While he woke up every day to the reality of being in prison, he would not let himself fall into the prison mentality. Leslie knew he did not belong there; he had not committed the act he was accused of. He was sickened to hear other inmates brag about their crimes. He earned his high school diploma through the GED course, and enrolled in the prison’s college program, working toward a sociology degree.
Attorneys failed Leslie, and there were not yet any innocence projects or other advocacy groups for the wrongfully convicted, so it became clear to him that the only way to regain his freedom was to understand the system and laws that had robbed him of that precious freedom. His fate was in his own hands. Leslie took the paralegal training course offered at the Maryland State Penitentiary, obtained the pertinent case records concerning his case, and began to research, prepare, and submit his post-conviction motions. He became well known within the prison community as learned in law. He was instrumental in starting a legal clinic in the prison, applying his developing legal skills to assist other inmates and even prison staff.
Leslie knew that each meeting with the parole commission was futile; in order to be granted parole he would have to admit guilt and express remorse. Like so many other innocent prisoners, Leslie fell into the parole paradox—either compromise his principles and admit to a crime he didn’t do to obtain parole, or stand by his innocence and be denied parole. Leslie refused to accept responsibility for a crime he did not commit; therefore, parole was never granted.
In 1982, after seven years of imprisonment, a witness came forward with evidence that Leslie was not the robber. Leslie obtained a photo of the person actually responsible for the robbery. A ray of hope surfaced for Leslie; he sent this photo to the Baltimore Public Defenders’office in hopes of getting a new trial. Two more years passed. Finally, the delivery driver, after being shown the photo of the actual perpetrator, admitted that he wrongly identified Leslie. It boggles the mind to imagine the guilt of the delivery driver, knowing Leslie served time for almost 10 years based on his erroneous identification.
THE PARDON!
Leslie was released from prison in 1984. Then-Governor Harry Hughes wrote him a letter in August, approving his application for pardon and urging him to seek compensation for his time served. “I would like to express my sincere regret for the terrible injustice you have suffered. It must have been devastating to spend ten precious years in jail for a crime which you did not commit.” Acknowledgement of the miscarriage of justice was appreciated, but the governors words were hollow at best. At a time when Leslie should have been making connections, contributing to society, and learning valuable life lessons, he was stuck in prison, fighting for the freedom that most people take for granted.
Leslie was the first Maryland exoneree to petition the state for compensation for his years spent wrongfully imprisoned. He received $250,000 from the State of Maryland in 1987 (far less than his requested $5 million), paid in installments over eight years.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Had Leslie been released on parole, he would have qualified for support in areas such as job training, counseling, and housing assistance. Since he was released after an overturned conviction, however, there was no such support. Leslie may have been age 28 upon release from prison, but essentially he was still 17, having had ten years of a critical life phase stolen. Suspended in the adolescence mindset and trying to make up for lost years, Leslie squandered his money. Add to that a denied opportunity to learn fiscal skills, plus a lack of guidance on reentry into the world, and it was no surprise that his payout did not last.
But, at least, with a pardon from the governor and his record expunged, Leslie would be able to move on with his life, obtain employment, and reintegrate himself into society, right?
25 YEARS AND STILL NO EXPUNGMENT OF RECORD
The armed robbery conviction became a barnacle, an unwelcome parasite attached permanently to Leslie. Despite promises that the record would be expunged, the state failed to erase the erroneous conviction. Potential employers discovered this conviction during background checks, concluded that Leslie was a violent ex-con, and refused to hire him. As a result, Leslie struggled to find and keep steady employment.
Talk about adding insult to injury. Not only was Leslie wronged by the robbery conviction, but the failure of the state to rid his record was perhaps the real crime, lingering and challenging Leslie’s attempts to reclaim his life. He has carried this burden for years, fighting all the while to prove the conviction did not apply. In 1999, Leslie filed and won a lawsuit against the state of Maryland for its non-compliance in expunging his record. He received an award of $50,000, but, lo and behold, the conviction records remained, haunting Leslie to this day.
A devastating effect of this non-expungement occurred in 2004, after Leslie had made strides to reestablish his life, obtain meaningful employment, secure housing, and start a family. His estranged wife accused Leslie of stabbing her. The judge used the erroneous criminal record to deny bail, despite Leslie’s presentation of Governor Hughes’ letter and orders of expungement. Although acquitted of this stabbing charge, Leslie lost another 16 months of his life in jail pending trial. His home and possessions were gone, and his young children were forced into foster care.
“It still impacts my life. It is really hard, at my age now, to have my criminal record pop up when I try to find employment in positions for which I am trained. It is traumatic that from the age of 17 on I am still dealing with the same situation from an unlawful imprisonment case.”
ADVOCATE FOR JUSTICE
The criminal justice system failed Leslie at every turn. He was innocent, yet unable to escape the system. Despite these hurdles, Leslie refuses to let the negative experiences define his life. His goal now is to help young people avoid the life that he spent behind bars. He particularly wants the state of Maryland to stop the prosecution of youth as adults. “My passion is to have Marylands law that automatically charges juveniles as adults changed, which is what happened to me. An arrest and conviction as a juvenile will follow you for the rest of your life. I am tired of seeing youth get charged as adults when they have never had a life.”
Leslie, now age 60, refers to himself as the “Grandfather of Exonerees.” He welcomes the opportunity to convey his story, eager to help others avoid similar situations. No one could fault him for feeling angry and resentful about the injustices he has endured, but he has risen above those acrimonious emotions, using his experience as a springboard to help others. He is an activist and speaker on wrongful imprisonment with Life After Exoneration and the Mid-Atlantic Innocent Project. “I’m not bitter. I would like my case to be a stepping stone to help others. I was wronged, but my message is to stay as focused as possible. You can still achieve what you set out to do.” Exemplary thoughts from a man who has worked hard to overcome his obstacles. One only has to imagine the route his life would have taken absent his wrongful conviction.