Irish solicitor Niamh Gunndescribes the exoneration of Walter Swift by the Innocence Project in the US, on which she worked
INNOCENT OF a crime he never committed, Walter Swift spent 26 years in a Detroit prison. On Wednesday May 21st Walter walked free, thanks to the team at the Innocence Project that worked on his case, spearheaded by its founder, Barry Scheck.
Five years ago I spent six months in New York working with the project on a secondment as part of my apprenticeship with the Law Society.
For the past 10 years Scheck has run the project, uncovering evidence to free the wrongfully convicted from life sentences and even death row, helping society's forgotten. So far, 216 people have walked free. Some have served more than 20 years for crimes they have not committed.
The project painstakingly revisits each case, re-testing evidence and using DNA to prove wrongful incarcerations. Those working on the project operate pro bono, taking no fee.
How these people are found guilty in the first place is described by Scheck in his book Actual Innocence.
"Sometimes eyewitnesses make mistakes. Snitches tell lies. Confessions are coerced or fabricated. Racism trumps the truth. Lab tests are rigged. Defence lawyers sleep. Prosecutors lie."
In June 2003 I was handed 15 files to work on for that summer. But from the very start, one file and one name stood out - Walter Swift. So many things about his case didn't add up. Discrepancy after discrepancy emerged.
Walter Swift was convicted in 1982, but always protested his innocence, even refusing parole as it would have meant admitting guilt.
He was sentenced to 55 years for rape. He entered the prison aged 21, when his daughter Audrey was a toddler. Two months ago he left the Wayne County Court a 47-year-old man. He lost a quarter century of his life, imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.
In Swift's case, the tangible real evidence was destroyed, so a DNA test was not an option. However, I uncovered a flawed eyewitness ID, an unreliable police witness line-up, and an old laboratory report that pointed towards someone other than Swift as the attacker. The major breakthrough in the case was when I tracked down the original investigating officer, Janice Nobliski. When I called her at her Las Vegas home, she explained how they had sent an innocent man to prison - they had rail-roaded him. The victim had chosen multiple photos during the mugshot selection process, a factor that was never exposed at trial. The victim's identification was crucial to the prosecution's case.
Swift actually had a very defendable case - the case just wasn't defended. Swift didn't even match the description that the victim gave and he had an airtight alibi. His defence lawyer failed to expose any of these facts and has since been the recipient of numerous actions for misconduct and has been disbarred.
Even though he has been suspended from practising law, he now lectures in criminal law in a Michigan university.
Wayne County Circuit Court judge Vera Massey Jones granted the motion to release Walter after a brief hearing. The Innocence Project was joined in its motion by the District Attorney's office.
On the steps of the court house, to a frenzied media pack, Swift stated: "My incarceration of 26 years was my personal adversity. And to harbour any ill feelings towards anyone because of it would not only cheapen me as an individual, but it would put a remarkable blemish upon the excellent work and the struggle of these people who laboured on my behalf.
"It feels like a bird has been let out of a cage. That's how I feel," he said.
I would encourage all of you here today to visit the Innocence Project website.
Who knows some of you could volunteer a summer to work with one of the many Innocence Projects scattered all over the US.
Perhaps you too will make a contributory difference. Also I would like to add that the Innocence Project is a pro bono legal clinic and relies on donors to help fund the project.
This is an edited version of Niamh Gunn's address to a symposium to honour Walter Swift held in the Law Society last week