- To identify, investigate, and exonerate individuals who have been wrongly convicted in the state of Alaska.
- To provide educational opportunities for advocates and for the public that foster a culture that champions the defense of the innocent.
- To suggest and implement policies, practices and reforms that will prevent wrongful convictions and hasten the identification and release of innocent persons.
 | Exonerated to date 311 |
_________
For those who saw and heard Greg Wilhoit when he was in Alaska, we have lost a friend. To all, we have lost a champion
A Final Farewell to Greg Wilhoit, Who Survived Oklahoma's Death Row
America's community of death row survivors bids a farewell to another one of its own. Gregory R. Wilhoit,
who had spent five years on Oklahoma's death row after being wrongfully
convicted for the brutal murder of his wife, died in his sleep on
February 13.
Greg had suffered. Suffered a whole lot. He was
convicted of killing his wife Kathy -- the mother of his two little
daughters, then 4 months and 14 months old -- on June 1, 1985. The case
rested on the testimony of dental experts, one of them barely out of
dental school, who said the bite mark found on Kathy's body matched
Greg's teeth.
But that wasn't all. Greg was a victim of bad
lawyering. He hired two lawyers who were incompetent and did not defend
him. In fact, Greg's defense counsel came to court drunk and threw up in
the judge's chambers. And Greg was convicted in 1987 and sent to Death
Row, because after all, somebody had to pay.
"All they wanted me to do was enter a guilty plea, despite the fact that I had pleaded not guilty," Greg said in an interview
over a decade ago. "I felt helpless and defeated. I felt I was going to
be convicted and there was nothing I could do about it. The experts
against me were very convincing. If I had been on the jury, I wouldn't
have hesitated to find me guilty."
The jury took merely two hours
to return with a guilty verdict for Greg. "I was sentenced to be
executed by lethal injection, but I was shaken even more when the judge
told me that I might be electrocuted, hung or shot if necessary," Greg
recalled. This would prove to be the most sobering moment of my life.
In
1991, Greg's conviction was overturned when 11 forensic experts
testified that the bite mark found on his wife was not his, and an
appeals court ruled that Greg had ineffective counsel at trial. He was
released, and ultimately acquitted on retrial in 1993.
Still a
death penalty supporter in his third year on Death Row, Greg would
become a strong opponent of capital punishment. Along with his sister
Nancy Vollertsen, he became a member of Witness to Innocence, the national organization of death row survivors and their loved ones.
Like
many innocent people who are released from prison, Greg Wilhoit never
received a penny for his troubles, not as much as an apology for the
suffering he endured, and for what they took from him. That would
surprise those people who assume that the wrongfully convicted all
receive ample compensation, set for life, with riches lavished upon
them. Although the Oklahoma legislature had passed a compensation law allowing up to $200,000 for the wrongfully imprisoned, officials told Greg that he wasn't eligible because he needed a pardon, but was ineligible because he was innocent.
The
tortuous conditions of death row -- in which prisoners await their own
homicide in solitary confinement -- took an emotional and psychological
toll on Greg Wilhoit. He had to grapple with his Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder, and deteriorating physical health challenges.
"Greg
was one of those men who suffered the greatest because of his death row
conviction. He not only lost his wife but his kids as well as he sat on
death row for a crime he did not commit," said Ron Keine,
assistant director of membership and training at Witness to Innocence,
himself an exonerated death row survivor who had spent two years on New
Mexico's death row. "Even after his release he never fully connected
with his kids. This bothered him greatly. We almost lost him a few times
in the past where he pulled through like a trooper. I mean like the man
walked out of hospice, where he was near death, and got married to a
sweet lady and began life again," Keine added.
In spite of his
deteriorating frame, the man had a strength about him that could not be
denied, and allowed us to draw strength. "Greg's style of speaking was
unique. He could make the audience cry and laugh at the same time,"
Keine reflected. And despite his pain and suffering and all he had seen
and lost, Greg was able to crack a joke and make us laugh.
It is not funny that Greg Wilhoit never received a penny for his troubles. We will miss him.
________________________________
FIRST WIN for Pa. Innocence Project - 4 years in the making!
Read about the case here, facts which bring to mind the case recently filed in Fairbanks by the Alaska Innocence Project.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20131009_breaking.htm
__________________________________________
If you forgot to Pick Click Give
when you filed for your PFD, you still have time! Saturday, August 31
is the last day you can go back into your application and add a
donation.
Follow the link below and Pick.Click.Give. to your
favorite organization -- it's a quick, easy way to make a difference.
Thank you!
https://myalaska.state.ak.us/myPFDInfo/retro
__________________________________________
IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN
THE ALASKA INNOCENCE PROJECT'S
FOURTH ANNUAL BARBECUE RIB-OFF
FUNDRAISER
Those of you who have been before know how
special this is.
-Celebrity chef judges
-Fierce contestants
-Great food
-Inspiring conversation
Thursday, August 15, 2013
5:00 - 7:30 p.m.
1435 W. 12th Ave., Anchorage, AK
Join us
______________________________________
Listen and watch AKIP Executive Director Bill Oberly
on KIMO, Channel 13
http://www.youralaskalink.com/politics/API-Alaska-Innocence-Project-212403941.html
If you are inspired by our work, please donate.
No amount is too small, or too big.
______________________________________
MARCH FOR JUSTICE and POW WOW
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Noon at Anchorage Towne Square Park
March to the Park Strip for a rally for justice and to support the Fairbanks Four
______________________________________
Join us June 20, 2013 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.
to hear
Ted Bradford
tell his amazing story of wrongful conviction
and redemption
Ten years in prison for a crime he did not commit
A fundraiser for the
Alaska Innocence Project
1964 Loussac Drive
Save the date
Light food and beverages will be served
------------------------------------------------------------------
Bear Tooth Theatrepub
Art House Monday Premiere
Monday February 11, 7:45 PM
$3.50 GA
The Central Park Five, US 2012 Documentary, 119
minutes
MPAA Rating: Not rated; contains explicit discussion of rape.
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/TheCentralParkFive
Images:
IFC/Sundance Selects http://www.ifcfilmsextranet.com/downloads.php?film=centralpark5
User IFCGuest01 PW kubrick
Cast: Angela Black, Calvin
O. Butts III, Natalie Byfield, David Dinkins, Jim Dwyer, Ronald Gold, LynNell
Hancock, Michael Joseph, Saul Kassin, Ed Koch, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson,
Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana Sr., Raymond Santana
Director: Ken Burns, Sarah
Burns
Short synopsis: Documentary
about five black and Latino teenagers who were wrongfully convicted of brutally
attacking and raping a white female jogger in Central Park in
1989.
Long synopsis: In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers were arrested and
charged for brutally attacking and raping a white female jogger in Central Park.
News media swarmed the case, calling it “the crime of the century.” But the
truth about what really happened didn’t become clear until after the five had
spent years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit. With The Central Park
Five, this story of injustice finally gets the telling it deserves. Based on
Sarah Burns’ best-selling book and co-directed by her husband David McMahon and
father, the beloved doc filmmaker Ken Burns, this incendiary film tells the
riveting tale of innocent young men scapegoated for a heinous crime, and serves
as a powerfully troubling mirror for our times.
A Final Farewell to Greg Wilhoit, Who Survived Oklahoma's Death Row
America's community of death row survivors bids a farewell to another one of its own. Gregory R. Wilhoit,
who had spent five years on Oklahoma's death row after being wrongfully
convicted for the brutal murder of his wife, died in his sleep on
February 13.
Greg had suffered. Suffered a whole lot. He was convicted of killing his wife Kathy -- the mother of his two little daughters, then 4 months and 14 months old -- on June 1, 1985. The case rested on the testimony of dental experts, one of them barely out of dental school, who said the bite mark found on Kathy's body matched Greg's teeth.
But that wasn't all. Greg was a victim of bad lawyering. He hired two lawyers who were incompetent and did not defend him. In fact, Greg's defense counsel came to court drunk and threw up in the judge's chambers. And Greg was convicted in 1987 and sent to Death Row, because after all, somebody had to pay.
"All they wanted me to do was enter a guilty plea, despite the fact that I had pleaded not guilty," Greg said in an interview over a decade ago. "I felt helpless and defeated. I felt I was going to be convicted and there was nothing I could do about it. The experts against me were very convincing. If I had been on the jury, I wouldn't have hesitated to find me guilty."
The jury took merely two hours to return with a guilty verdict for Greg. "I was sentenced to be executed by lethal injection, but I was shaken even more when the judge told me that I might be electrocuted, hung or shot if necessary," Greg recalled. This would prove to be the most sobering moment of my life.
In 1991, Greg's conviction was overturned when 11 forensic experts testified that the bite mark found on his wife was not his, and an appeals court ruled that Greg had ineffective counsel at trial. He was released, and ultimately acquitted on retrial in 1993.
Still a death penalty supporter in his third year on Death Row, Greg would become a strong opponent of capital punishment. Along with his sister Nancy Vollertsen, he became a member of Witness to Innocence, the national organization of death row survivors and their loved ones.
Like many innocent people who are released from prison, Greg Wilhoit never received a penny for his troubles, not as much as an apology for the suffering he endured, and for what they took from him. That would surprise those people who assume that the wrongfully convicted all receive ample compensation, set for life, with riches lavished upon them. Although the Oklahoma legislature had passed a compensation law allowing up to $200,000 for the wrongfully imprisoned, officials told Greg that he wasn't eligible because he needed a pardon, but was ineligible because he was innocent.
The tortuous conditions of death row -- in which prisoners await their own homicide in solitary confinement -- took an emotional and psychological toll on Greg Wilhoit. He had to grapple with his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and deteriorating physical health challenges.
"Greg was one of those men who suffered the greatest because of his death row conviction. He not only lost his wife but his kids as well as he sat on death row for a crime he did not commit," said Ron Keine, assistant director of membership and training at Witness to Innocence, himself an exonerated death row survivor who had spent two years on New Mexico's death row. "Even after his release he never fully connected with his kids. This bothered him greatly. We almost lost him a few times in the past where he pulled through like a trooper. I mean like the man walked out of hospice, where he was near death, and got married to a sweet lady and began life again," Keine added.
In spite of his deteriorating frame, the man had a strength about him that could not be denied, and allowed us to draw strength. "Greg's style of speaking was unique. He could make the audience cry and laugh at the same time," Keine reflected. And despite his pain and suffering and all he had seen and lost, Greg was able to crack a joke and make us laugh.
It is not funny that Greg Wilhoit never received a penny for his troubles. We will miss him.
________________________________
FIRST WIN for Pa. Innocence Project - 4 years in the making!
Read about the case here, facts which bring to mind the case recently filed in Fairbanks by the Alaska Innocence Project.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20131009_breaking.htm
__________________________________________
If you forgot to Pick Click Give when you filed for your PFD, you still have time! Saturday, August 31 is the last day you can go back into your application and add a donation.
Follow the link below and Pick.Click.Give. to your favorite organization -- it's a quick, easy way to make a difference. Thank you!
https://myalaska.state.ak.us/myPFDInfo/retro
__________________________________________
______________________________________
Listen and watch AKIP Executive Director Bill Oberly
http://www.youralaskalink.com/politics/API-Alaska-Innocence-Project-212403941.htmlIf you are inspired by our work, please donate.
No amount is too small, or too big.
______________________________________
MARCH FOR JUSTICE and POW WOW
______________________________________
Join us June 20, 2013 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Bear Tooth Theatrepub
Images: IFC/Sundance Selects http://www.ifcfilmsextranet.com/downloads.php?film=centralpark5
------------------------------------------------------------
Alaska Innocence Project to host fundraiser Friday
The Alaska Innocence Project, which strives to exonerate prisoners who have been wrongfully convicted, will host its first fundraiser in Juneau this Friday, Feb. 8.
The fundraiser is part of an effort to raise awareness in Southeast Alaska of the relatively new nonprofit as it continues to grow. Although based in Anchorage, it serves the entire state.
“It is our first time down there,” AIP Executive Director Bill Oberly said in a phone interview, adding that the idea for the trip to Juneau was suggested by several Juneau attorneys. “We’re hoping this is the first of many.”
Oberly will give a talk about the project and its cases at Rockwell following a showing of Ken Burns’ documentary, “The Central Park Five” (2012) at The Gold Town Nickelodeon.
According to its synopsis online, Central Park Five is about five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were arrested and convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. The teens spent between six and 13 years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he alone had committed the crime, resulting in their convictions being overturned.
Oberly says the movie contains themes that are common in wrongful conviction cases, and that it is a good opportunity to do both public outreach and public education about AIP.
“It’s kind of a good tie-in,” he said.
The AIP was founded in 2006, but really just got off the ground in 2008, Oberly says. It’s an offshoot of the national Innocence Project in New York City.
Prior to that, Alaskans seeking exoneration received legal help from the University of Washington through their regional Innocence Project chapter — Innocence Project Northwest. Oberly says they were overwhelmed with the number of requests, and in 2006 they only began accepting cases from Washington.
About 300 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing to date, including 18 who served time on death row, according to the Innocence Project’s website. Eyewitness misidentification, invalidated or improper forensic science and false confessions are some of the issues related to the wrongful convictions, the group says.
The AIP has about 65 cases open that it’s investigating. They filed their first court case seeking to establish innocence in April 2009, for Gregory Marino who was convicted of murder and attempted murder in 1994. That case is still pending as the group tries to raise money — at least $20,000 — for DNA testing.
The AIP has helped work one local case, that of Newton Patrick Lambert who is currently seeking relief through DNA testing. Lambert was convicted of killing a Juneau woman in 1983, but he has maintained his innocence and is asking for a judge to grant his request for DNA testing. The state has opposed the request, saying that the testing is irrelevant given other evidence that tied Lambert to the crime.
The AIP tracked down the DNA evidence to see if it was still being preserved by a lab decades after the fact, which it was. The state, however, took issue with the integrity of the evidence and its chain of custody. The judge has yet to rule on the case.
The AIP has yet to exonerate someone, although Oberly notes the average innocence case takes 12 years, according to Centurion Ministries, another nonprofit that helps with wrongful convictions. The average cost for one of Centurion Ministries cases is more than $300,000, Oberly said.
AIP is hoping to raise money to help with operating costs and case costs, which can include the cost of DNA testing, fingerprint testing and hiring investigators to help track down witnesses.
AIP operates on a $100,000 budget (which does not include case costs). It receives financial assistance through state and federal grants, but the largest share of its budget comes from individual donations.
There’s not one particular case for which the group is fundraising, Oberly said.
“It all goes into the same pot,” he said.
The documentary “Central Park Five” will play at 7 p.m. at The Gold Town Nickelodeon theatre, 171 Shattuck Way, and the fundraiser will be begin at 9 p.m. at Rockwell, 109 S. Franklin St, the old Elk’s Building. There is a suggested $10 to $50 donation.
For more information about the Alaska Innocence Project, visit alaskainnocence.org. For more information about “The Central Park Five,” admission prices and other show times, visit goldtownnick.com
• Contact reporter Emily Russo Miller at 523-2263 or at emily.miller@juneauempire.com.
Please remember The Alaska Innocence Project as you receive your 2013 Permanent Fund Dividend. A donation now will go a long way toward freeing an innocent Alaskan.
Listen to the Exoneree Band
Made up of five individuals who were each wrongfully
convicted and spent time in prison for crimes they did
not commit.
______________________________
PICK, CLICK, GIVE
Remember when applying for your Permanent Fund Dividend check to use some of your dividend to support deserving non-profit organizations that help Alaskans, such as the Alaska Innocence Project. It's easy to do as part of your PFD application, or go to pickclickgive.org to find out more. Your donations to help exonerate innocent Alaskans are greatly appreciated.
Here is a link to the Channel 2 story about Steve and his case http://www.ktuu.com/news/ktuu-innocent-man-released-after-20-years-in-jail-shares-his-story-with-alaskans-20111102,0,7725998.story
Here is a link to the Channel 4 story about Steve and his case http://www.youralaskalink.com/news/local/Finally-Free---133565063.html