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Texas Man Exonerated by DNA Evidence After 25 Years of Maintaining His Innocence

Loaded on Aug. 1, 2024 by Jo Ellen Nott published in Criminal Legal News August, 2024, page 20
Filed under: DNA Testing/Samples, Wrongful Conviction, Actual Innocence/Claim of Innocence, Innocence Protection Act. Location: Texas.

by Jo Ellen Nott

Martin Lucio Santillan, now 50 years old, was fully exonerated in the Frank Crowley Criminal Courts in Dallas, Texas, on March 22, 2023. His 25 years of wrongful imprisonment ended because Centurion Ministries believed his innocence after a simple interview in 2008. 

When 21-year-old Damond Wittman ...

 

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More from this issue:

  1. Demonstrable Remorse, Psychiatric Diagnoses, and Alternatives to Incarceration, by Casey Bastian
  2. New Mexico Supreme Court Revises Rules Governing Pretrial Release, by Douglas Ankney
  3. SCOTUS Announces Existence of Probable Cause for One Charge in Criminal Proceeding Does Not Categorically Defeat Fourth Amendment Malicious-Prosecution Claim Relating to Another Baseless Charge, by Sam Rutherford
  4. Down with Big Brother: Warrantless Surveillance Makes a Mockery of the Constitution, by Nisha Whitehead, John W. Whitehead
  5. First Circuit: District Court’s One-Sentence Explanation for 10-Year Upward Departure From Sentencing Guidelines Range Insufficient to Justify Significant Variance, by Sam Rutherford
  6. After California Cops Kill Someone, They Probe Families for Information on Deceased Before Telling Them Their Loved One Is Dead, by Douglas Ankney
  7. SCOTUS Clarifies Nieves Exception to Lack of Probable Cause Requirement for First Amendment Retaliatory-Arrest Claim Does Not Require ‘Virtually Identical and Identifiable Comparators’, by Sam Rutherford
  8. SCOTUS: Jury, Not Judge, Must Determine Whether Defendant’s Prior Offenses Were Committed on ‘Occasions Different From One Another’ for Enhanced Sentence Under Armed Career Criminal Act, by Sam Rutherford
  9. FBI Encourages Use of Controversial Surveillance Program Despite Misuse, by Jo Ellen Nott
  10. Texas Man Exonerated by DNA Evidence After 25 Years of Maintaining His Innocence, by Jo Ellen Nott
  11. Third Circuit Orders Evidentiary Hearing on State Prisoner’s Petition Seeking Federal Habeas Relief Because Both State and Federal Courts Denied Relief Without Holding Hearing on IAC Claim That, if Proven, Would Entitle Him to Relief, by Douglas Ankney
  12. Nevada Supreme Court Announces District Courts Have No Discretion to Deny Motion to Set Aside Judgment of Conviction Filed by Statutorily Qualified Defendants Under NRS 176A.240(6)(a), by Douglas Ankney
  13. Don’t Stand Too Close to First Responders Under New Florida Law, by Douglas Ankney
  14. First Circuit: Sentencing May Not Be Based Upon Unreliable Hearsay Testimony, by Anthony Accurso
  15. California Supreme Court: Presence in High Crime Area and Desire to Avoid Contact With Police Does Not Amount to Reasonable Suspicion Justifying Detention for Suspected Criminal Activity, by Sam Rutherford
  16. College and Post-Carceral Job Searches, by Michael Thompson
  17. Kansas Supreme Court Severs ‘Noisy Conduct’ Law as Unconstitutionally Overbroad, by David Reutter
  18. Big Money and Massive Surveillance: The Finance Industry’s Partnership With Federal Law Enforcement, by Douglas Ankney
  19. Researchers Discover Wire-Cutting Evidence Is Too Unreliable for Court, by Douglas Ankney
  20. For Signal, Privacy Is Not Merely a Buzzword, by Michael Thompson
  21. Dozens of Prisoners in Colorado Notified About Potential Compromised DNA Evidence
  22. Minnesota Sex Offender Program: The Indefinite Detention of the Reviled, by Casey Bastian
  23. Louisiana Supreme Court Finds Prosecution Withheld Favorable Impeachment and Exculpatory Evidence in Violation of Brady, by Matthew Clarke
  24. Dogs Are Sniffing Out Electronics, by Michael Thompson
  25. False or Misleading Forensic Evidence Plays an Oversized Role in Wrongful Convictions, by Jo Ellen Nott
  26. Tenth Circuit: Counsel Advising Black Defendant No Minorities Would Be on Jury Is Material Misrepresentation About Right to Impartial Jury Rendering Guilty Plea Unknowing and Involuntary, by David Reutter
  27. The Prosecutor and the Snitch Ring, by Jordan Smith, Liliana Segura
  28. News in Brief
  29. Bluetooth Surveillance Tool Added to List of Known Cache of DHS’ Surveillance Technology, by Douglas Ankney

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