Harvey's case has been taken by Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld and their colleagues at the Innocence Project sponsored by the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law in New York City. Instead of cooperating in righting a possible wrongful conviction, the commonwealth attorney is appealing Federal District Judge Albert Bryan's court order to release the evidence for testing. Horan's response to possible injustice is all too typical of the criminal justice system. Ever since the von Liszt experiment in 1902, criminologists have known that eyewitnesses are as likely to be wrong as right. Despite the undeniable fact that an eyewitness is no better than a flip of a coin, police, prosecutors and juries put great weight on eyewitness evidence even in cases where suspects have unshakeable alibis.
False confessions arise from any number of known reasons.
Zain intentionally convicted innocents with false testimony, and West Virginia intentionally tried to suppress the extent of the injustice. Finding a suspect and convicting him is more important to many police and prosecutors than getting the right man. Wrongful conviction has become so prevalent that a number of law schools sponsor pro-bono innocence projects. In rape cases and other cases where DNA evidence can play a role, there is hope for the wrongfully convicted. But for a large number of offenses, all hope ends with conviction.