Legislative Update/GMO Bill Signing Thursday 2:30 at State House
Innocence Protection. This has gained preliminary House approval. I reported this bill to the full House.
S.184 is related to law enforcement practices and the use of best policing practices. It addresses the adoption of an eyewitness identification policy and the recording of custodial interrogations in homicide and sexual assault cases. It is a continuation of the Judiciary committee’s work with the Innocence Project and our commitment to ensure that innocent people are not wrongly incarcerated, actual perpetrators are found, enhancing public safety and the proper functioning of our criminal justice system.
S.184 will aid in the prevention of wrongful convictions by addressing two of its largest causes - eyewitness misidentification and false confessions.
In 2007, the legislature passed The Innocence Protection Act that gave those incarcerated in Vermont with a claim of actual innocence, access to forensic evidence associated with their cases. The Act, created a task force to look at eyewitness identification protocols and create recommendations for their adoption. Since that task force released its report, The Innocence Project, Vermont law enforcement and others within the criminal justice system have worked together to develop and implement policies and a training system so that all Vermont officers are trained in using best practices for eyewitness identification procedures. S.184 is a product of that work.
S.184 promotes statewide uniformity: Everyone involved in the criminal justice system will have a chance to learn what best practices are. We heard testimony that in fact the majority of law enforcement officers have been trained in the best practices set forth in the bill.
Above all, it allows our criminal justice system to better meet the goals it was created to achieve- to protect the innocent, hold those guilty accountable, and not send an innocent man or woman to prison for a crime he or she did not commit.
Innocent people wrongfully convicted after eyewitnesses misidentify them as the perpetrator of a crime are not the only ones who suffer from misidentification. Public safety is greatly diminished, as misidentifications cause the police to focus their investigation on an innocent person, leading them away from the real perpetrator, who is then free and often does commit further crimes.
Crime victims suffer, believing they are to blame for the misidentification of the innocent person and also experience guilt about the subsequent crimes committed by the real perpetrator while the innocent person was incarcerated. Simply put, the only beneficiary of a misidentification is the actual perpetrator.
Section 4 addresses preventing false confessions. False confessions were present in 25% of the nation's 316 DNA exonerations proven by DNA testing. According to testimony we heard, the single most important thing we can do to guard against the power of false confession evidence is to record custodial interrogations, which is required in homicide and sexual assault cases.
The bill also included a very much-needed section requiring law enforcement agencies to adopt policies on bias free policing.
H.62 Ban on Hand-held Cellphones—passed the House: we amended this bill to the miscellaneous Department of Motor Vehicles bill. The handheld cell phone ban is very important to a strong majority of Vermonters. We wanted to send a strong message to the Senate and Governor.
GMO Bill Signing Thursday: Gov. Peter Shumlin will sign the newly passed legislation requiring the labeling of foods that contain GMOs into law at a State House ceremony in Montpelier on Thursday, May 8 at 2:30 p.m. There has been broad interest in the issue, and the Governor said the press and public are invited to attend the bill signing.
Oct 23, 2024, 10 AM to 1:30 PM
Mini Wall Weaving Workshop at Addison West WaitsfieldOct 27, 2024, 1 to 4 PM
Weekly Bible Study Starting Sept 17Oct 29, 2024, 6:30 to 8 PM