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ST. LOUIS – United States Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay will offer the keynote address at the Sixth Annual Access to Equal Justice Conference, at 9 a.m., Friday, Nov. 17, 2006, at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law.
Washington University School of Law Clinical Education Program and Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, and St. Louis University School of Law present the 2006-07Access to Equal Justice conference, on “Convicted, Executed, But Not Guilty? Examining the Risks of Wrongful Executions and the Role of Prosecutors, Defense Attorneys, Academia and the Press,” Fri., Nov. 17, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the Washington University School of Law, Anheuser-Busch Hall, Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom.
The conference is free and open to faculty, students, staff and the public, but attendees must register to receive materials and attend the lunch. Registration limited to the first 150 registrants. The conference qualifies for 7.0 MCLE credit hours for lawyers and judges.U.S. Representative William Lacy Clay, Jr., D-Mo., will deliver the morning keynote address at 9 a.m. Barry Scheck, professor of law and co-director of the Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, and Roscoe C. Howard, Jr., partner at Troutman Sanders LLP in Washington D.C., former U.S. Attorney for D.C., and former professor of law at the University of Kansas, are the afternoon keynote speakers.
They will speak during the lunch session at 1 p.m.Panelists from the legal profession, academia and the press will examine four criminal cases that many critics believe ended in the executions of innocent defendants.
• Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted and executed in Texas in 2004 for the arson-murders of his three daughters. The death penalty was based on interpretations by fire investigators that have been scientifically disproved.
• Ruben Cantu was executed in Texas in 1993 for a murder that occurred when he was 17. During the years following the conviction, the surviving victim, the co-defendant, the district attorney and the jury forewoman made public statements that cast doubt on Cantu's guilty verdict and death sentence.
• Larry Griffin was convicted in 1980 of the St. Louis murder of teenage drug dealer Quintin Moss and executed by the State of Missouri in 1995. The conviction has been criticized in that there was no evidence against Griffin, except the testimony of Robert Fitzgerald, a professional criminal in the federal witness protection program.
• Carlos DeLuna was executed in Texas in 1989 for knifing Wanda Lopez to death in a robbery at a Corpus Christi gas station/convenience store six years earlier. Claims of unreliable eyewitness identification and inadequate representation raise serious concerns about his conviction and execution.
Karen Tokarz, Professor of Law and Director of Clinical Education and Alternative Dispute Resolution at the School of Law, says this conference will explore “one of the country’s most significant criminal justice issues – the possibility that defendants who are not guilty have been convicted and executed. These cases cry out for a thorough examination of the death penalty process in America.”
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