Anyone could be wrongfully convicted:
What causes wrongful Convictions?
Police misconduct is a leading cause of wrongful convictions in the United States. Just over 2,900 people have been exonerated in the U.S. since 1989 according to data from the National Registry of Exonerations. That amounts to 25,900 lost years for those stuck behind bars.
Organizations that help wrongfully convicted people:
Miracle of Innocence
Since July 2017, Miracle of Innocence has helped free four innocent men and women. Miracle of Innocence supports retrials for incarcerated individuals and continuously provides care for the exonerated when they return back into society. State departments of corrections and reentry programs do not have adequate assistance when they are freed. With your help, Miracle of Innocence is able to help provide these individuals with the following care services: habitation, identification, communication, transportation, occupation, mental health counseling, adult mentorship, food, and clothing.
Midwest Innocence Project
Midwest Innocence Project represents individuals convicted of crimes they did not commit, we work to bring them home, support them upon re-entry, and change the system to prevent wrongful convictions in the first place. We are an independent innocence organization that is a part of the national Innocence Network. Our partnerships with law firms, law schools, and volunteers allow us to provide the very best representation at no cost to innocent people within our region.
Paul E. Wilson Project for Innocence & Post-Conviction Remedies
The Defender Project was founded at KU Law in 1965 by former Professor Paul E. Wilson to help prisoners who otherwise might not receive legal representation. In 2008, the Project was renamed in Wilson’s honor. The project’s representation extends to both district and appellate court litigation at the state and federal level.
Corruption in the Kansas Justice System
Judge who signed Marion Co. Record search warrant has criminal history
Eighth Judicial District Magistrate Judge Laura Viar has two DUI arrests on her record. Both incidents happened in 2012 in Morris and Coffey counties. Viar, who went by Laura Allen at the time, was put on diversion for an arrest in Coffey County. Seven months later, she was arrested again for a DUI in Morris County while she was the county attorney. Viar (Allen) was not supposed to be driving since her license had been suspended for the first arrest. Viar (Allen) drove off the road and crashed into a school building while driving a then-8th district magistrate judge’s vehicle.
Pages missing from witness statement in Marion raids, according to witness
A witness statement used as evidence to raid the Marion County Record newspaper is missing pages, according to the witness. The evidence list provided to the court and the list provided to the newspaper's attorney, which detailed items seized in the raids, did not match. Police downloaded computer information from the newsroom to a hard drive and kept it after the courts ordered the items be returned. The hard drive was included on the court's evidence list but left off of the one provided to the newspaper's attorney. "The failure to list the hard drive was important because it signaled they actually kept a copy of records that theywere not supposed to be keeping," Leben said. Leben said the discrepancy appeared to be intentional.
Marion, Kansas, Police Chief Gideon Cody — formerly a member of the Kansas City Police Department — resigned after an earlier suspension.
Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody has resigned, less than two months after he instigated a widely covered raid on a local newspaper that culminated in a federal lawsuit and one woman’s death.
Marion Mayor David Mayfield announced Cody’s departure during a Monday city council meeting, following the previous week’s announcement that Cody was suspended. Mayfield said the resignation was “effective immediately,”.
Prosecutors persist in Topeka double-murder case despite vexed jurors, flawed testimony, no science
TOPEKA — As juror Ben Alford listened to Terri Anderson’s sensational story at last month’s high-profile double-murder trial in Topeka, he scribbled a big “WTF” in his notes.
The decision by prosecutors to place Anderson on the stand, even though they knew her story lacked credibility, and their request for a new trial demonstrate their persistence in a 20-year quest to convict Dana Chandler.
KCK Detective Roger Golubski
The indictment outlines the horrors victims have described for decades that Golubski used his power and badge to sexually assault and harass women. The allegations don't end with sexual assault. He also faces accusations that he framed people for crimes they didn't commit, coerced people with drugs to give statements, and terrorized the Black community.
His actions fed into the overall culture within the department in the 80s and 90s.
Accusers of former KCK detective Roger Golubski file lawsuit against former KCK police chiefs
A new lawsuit claims several former Kansas City, Kansas Police Department chiefs and detectives operated a criminal enterprise for decades “preying upon and coercing sexual acts from vulnerable Black women”. The suit filed in Kansas U.S. District Court Friday names former police chiefs Thomas Dailey, James Swafford, Terry Zeigler, and Ronald Miller as defendants.
D.A. alleges corruption in Topeka narcotics unit Report: Top officials, including chief, knew of problems
Oct. 2005 - Topeka KS Narcotics officers regularly tampered with drug evidence and falsified records, and Topeka’s police chief knew about the problems when he sought prosecution of flawed criminal cases, Shawnee County’s top prosecutor said Thursday. Dist. Atty. Robert Hecht said top Topeka police officials, including Chief Ed Klumpp, knew about problems in the narcotics unit by 2003, yet no officers were disciplined. Hecht also said his office was forced to dismiss 25 criminal cases filed since 1999 because of questions about officers’ conduct. “It is clear that the chain of command, including the chief of police, were aware that there were serious factual flaws in these cases and that they contained false statements and allegations,” Hecht said in a report on the narcotics unit.
Kansas Reflector Articles about Marion Newspaper Raid
MARION — Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody enlisted the support of local and state law enforcement officials in the days before he led raids on the local newspaper office, the publisher’s home and the home of a city councilwoman.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Kansas Department of Revenue, Marion County Sheriff’s Office and the Office of the State Fire Marshal — along with the county attorney and a magistrate judge — were complicit in the Aug. 11 raid or knew it was imminent. But in the days
In the nearly three months since law enforcement raided the Marion County Record, we’ve seen an abundance of news coverage and a handful of changes on the ground.
Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody resigned after scrutiny of his career and actions around the search. Record editor and publisher Eric Meyer received the Above and Beyond Award from the Kansas Coalition for Open Government at a Friday luncheon. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation continues to look into the whole affair.