Nearly every week we read in the news about a wrongfully convicted person, somewhere in the U.S., being released after decades in prison. Law enforcement and lawyers are aware that mistakes have been made in the past that contributes to innocent people being locked up. According to The National Registry of Exonerations, this has happened 1,588 times in the U.S. since 1989.
During the just-concluded legislative session in Montana a bipartisan coalition emerged to address justice in our state. With great majorities, liberals and conservatives joined together in support of legislation that will make our justice system more just, and less prone to error.
Six bills became law, sponsored and supported by senators and representatives from both sides of the aisle: Margie MacDonald, Terry Murphy (from the interim), Ellie Boldman Hill, Jennifer Eck, and Frank Garner. During the legislative session, partisanship was suspended in the name of justice.
These laws make the Board of Pardons and Parole more transparent and responsible (HB128, HB28). They give our governor the authority he needs to add balance to the system (HB43, HB19). We now have a stronger DNA statute, perhaps the best in the entire country, which will help establish guilt and innocence based on science instead of outdated forensics (HB516). And we now have an opportunity to employ best practices in eyewitness identification (HJ14).
The cause of justice has been helped in 2015 by the effort and common purpose of the Montana Legislature.
Dan Weinberg
President of the Montana Innocence Project
Whitefish