"Terrell Eleby, a Brooklyn native incarcerated in New York's Shawangunk Correctional Facility, wrote to a conviction review unit in Kings County in 2013, asking it to reinvestigate his murder and assault convictions. He claimed in part that police had threatened witnesses to keep them from testifying in his favor. A decade would pass before he learned the unit rejected his application."
"None of the men had legal representation when they applied to a conviction integrity unit, or CIU. Like many incarcerated people, they either couldn't afford to hire a lawyer or couldn't convince one to take on their wrongful conviction claims. They applied on their own - what the justice system calls "pro se." Without legal aid, they saw their county CIUs as one of their best shots at a fair reinvestigation into their cases."
"Chad Richards, currently behind bars at the same facility for possessing and selling cocaine, sought a conviction review from a similar unit in Ulster County in 2019. It promised to follow up with him in the "near future." Richards has yet to hear back."
Three incarcerated New Yorkers applied pro se to county conviction integrity units seeking reinvestigation of convictions tied to murder, assault, and drug offenses. None of the applicants had legal representation because they could not afford attorneys or could not persuade lawyers to take their wrongful-conviction claims. Applicants viewed CIUs as one of the few available avenues for a fair reinvestigation. Many applicants received no acknowledgment or response, experienced long delays, or were never informed of outcomes. The CIU process proved opaque and complex, leaving applicants unsure whether their filings were received, investigated, or resolved.
#conviction-integrity-units #pro-se-applicants #post-conviction-review #criminal-justice-transparency
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