>> >>JOANNE: Brian banks had a promising football career as a middle line backer at long beach
high.
His prospects and lie kiem came to an abrupt halt when he was convicted of rape in 2002,
wrongly convicted.
Last week, an L.A. county judge over turned the conviction.
>> >>: [inaudible] >> >>: I
know that I'm here today and I remain unbroken.
I send my heart out to prove my innocence by any means necessary.
And we did that today.
>> >>JOANNE: That video comes from press telegram.
Brian banks is one of many wrongly convicted people in the U.S.
A new database release said last week documents hundreds since 1989.
Justin brooks at California western school of law and project directer of the California
innocence project.
You helped free Brian banks, tell us a little bit more about his story.
>> >>JUSTIN BROOKS: I helped free him along with my law students.
Brian was this incredible football prospect.
Every college in the country wanted him, people talked about him going to the NFL and then
he was falsely accused of rape by another student at the school.
>> >>JOANNE: He actually served 5 years in prison.
>> >>JUSTIN BROOKS: In fact, he wrote to us while he was in prison and we looked into
his case and the problem with it as there is with any case like that is we had to say
to him without any evidence to prove your innocence, there's nothing we can do.
So he served his time, and he got outed, and then all of a sudden he gets this Facebook
friend request from this woman saying she wants to let bigones by tbi gones and can
we still be friends.
>> >>JOANNE: And he ends up getting a recorded confession from her, which is what you were
able to use to get his case over turned.
>> >>JUSTIN BROOKS: She gave a statement saying it never happened in fact she lost her virginity
years later.
And then we got the video, but the problem is we have the video, but that doesn't mean
we're out of the woods because we have the burden of proof of showing innocence.
There was a chance that they wouldn't have admitted that video.
So we started negotiating with the District Attorney's office in aws Angeles saying look
into this case, investigate it with us, meet with our client.
What's great about running the innocence project is, you know, we have truth on our side.
We're not hiding anything.
We brought our client into the interview by the District Attorney.
We met with their investigators and the right thing happened last week.
>> >>JOANNE: Here's the scary thing, though.
This isn't an isolated incident.
That's according to now this nagdz national database released last week.
It showed it looked at 900 cases of innocent people who were wrongly convicted.
What are some of the crimes peep rl going to prison for that it turns out they never
even committed?
>> >>JUSTIN BROOKS: For every type of crime peep rl going to priz expn they're innocent.
The study, even though it's documentedÊ actually 2000 in totality of wrongful conviction t
really is the tip of the ice berg.
Those who got exonerated are the lucky ones.
Brian's case, had this woman not come forward and recanted there's another guy wrongfully
convicted that never would have been reswrawrved.
>> >>JOANNE: Half of these cases that are documented were actually murder.
>> >>JUSTIN BROOKS: Yeah, and in murder cases the thing is lots of times there is ever dns
you can use for Exxon raigz.
Rape, murder cases, sometimes you have biological materials, DNA, but how many drug cases outed
there are people wrongfully convicted.
Those cases are almost impossible to reserve.
>> >>JOANNE: What are some of the reasons people are convict whd they shouldn't have
been.
>> >>JUSTIN BROOKS: The leading cause in this study is false testimony.
One of the big reason for that is the use of jail house snitches.
Snitch testimony is very unreliable.
In fact, in Canada, they've abolished using it in courts.
You bring guys into court who have a lot of motivation to make a deal andÊ that the prosecutor
or police want them to say and sometimes it's not even misconduct by the police or the prosecution.
It's just somebody comes forward, gets information off a guy, maybe they locked up with, says
this guy told me high he did it and maybe they know something special about the case.
The problem is jurors don't always get that.
They don't see the motivation for that.
Another big reason is misidentification.
When somebody walksinto court and says that's the person who did it, that's very powerful
evidence.
Studies have shown it's not reliable evidence.
>> >>JOANNE: How will this new database now that can documento kay, here's what went wrong
in these cases, how can it help you do your job, and perhaps even look at the justice
system to try to establish what are the common mistakes, can it change any of that?
>> >>JUSTIN BROOKS: I think us sitting here talking about it can change things.
The general public is starting to understand the system makes mistakes.
We're looking at the death penalty in qulfer now, and people are getting that innocent
people have been sent to death row.
That innocent people, more than a hundred of them have been walked off to death row
after finding of innocence.
I think we can change the system.
The first step is rek recognition that these mistakes happen.
We can make identification procedures better, be more cautious about using snitch testimony,.
>> >>JOANNE: We haven't got a lot of time.
I want to know what happens to Brian banks necks lt he basically now his conviction is
over turned, what are his plans?
>> >>JUSTIN BROOKS: Brian had a dream that he says is paused.
His driem dream was to play football in the NFL.
I'm told by the people around him and trainer who have work would him, he has the speed
and strength to do it.
I'm hoping we're going to have a fairy tale ending to this and he ends up in the NFL.
>> >>JOANNE: Thanks for being here.
>> >>JUSTIN BROOKS: My pleasure.