gable.JPG

Frank Gable, pictured in 1990 at the Marion County Courthouse.

(File photo)

By Steve Wax

The Oregon Innocence Project, of which I am legal director, has drawn criticism from Clackamas County District Attorney John Foote for its friend of the court brief highlighting circumstances that raise questions about the Frank Gable case ("Oregon Innocence Project misses mark in notorious murder"). As we told the court, we do not take a position on Mr. Gable's innocence.

We examined Frank Gable's case at the request of his attorney, who recognized our expertise on the causes of wrongful convictions. Our brief focuses on how evidence was gathered during the criminal investigation in light of later recantations by at least seven witnesses. Mr. Gable's case raises a significant issue: how courts should view recantation evidence. Oregon Innocence Project exists to shine a light on those broader problems and the causes of wrongful convictions within our justice system.

The values of fairness, transparency and due process are at the core of our work, and I believe after 43 years' experience in criminal law that almost everyone in our justice system shares them. Despite this, recent decades have exposed hundreds of wrongful convictions across our nation. While exonerations make for good headlines, our painstaking work to promote reforms that will prevent wrongful convictions in the first place is just as important as our efforts to champion individuals. Wrongful convictions are not isolated cases: They are the signs that something is going wrong in our justice system that we must fix.

Wrongful convictions are not just deeply distressing and life-altering for those who are falsely imprisoned and their families. They harm victims when they realize they have had an illusory sense of closure from their supposed offenders' incarceration. They put us all at risk from guilty people who are free to victimize again. The National Registry of Exonerations identifies 10 wrongful convictions overturned here in Oregon out of more than 1,700 nationwide. These 10 have collectively lost more than 60 years to incarceration for crimes they did not commit. The claim that there are no innocent people in Oregon's prisons and jails has already been disproved. That is why innocence projects are needed.

Oregon Innocence Project is the only program in Oregon dedicated to investigating and litigating claims of innocence - at no cost to our clients. We only do so at the request of people who have been convicted, their families, or attorneys who believe they have a valid claim of innocence. We review applications looking for a legal path to prove innocence. In most cases, it is not possible. Since 2014, we have received nearly 200 applications and reviewed nearly half of them. We are still examining the remainder and are formally involved in only five cases.

In my career, I have sometimes had to defend unpopular people. When I hear criticism from those who seem to suggest some defendants are unworthy of their constitutional right to a fair defense, I think of the words of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Hugo Black:

"Nowhere is this service deemed more honorable than in case of appointment to represent an accused too poor to hire a lawyer, even though the accused may be a member of an unpopular or hated group, or may be charged with an offense which is peculiarly abhorrent."

Some consider the men formerly imprisoned at Guantanamo whom I defended to be "member[s] of an unpopular or hated group." But, in fact, none belonged to Al Qaeda, and all were released some years ago. One military officer called one of the men's imprisonment "unconscionable." The work my former office and I did led a federal judge to write that the government's position "defie[d] common sense."

Oregon Innocence Project continues to be proud to work on behalf of those our society sometimes deems undeserving. We will persist in reviewing cases, representing clients and working for systemic reform. Our justice system is at its best when it is willing to take a second look, believing the worst outcome is for an innocent person to be denied his or her liberty by the state in your name and mine.

Steve Wax is the Legal Director of Oregon Innocence Project, a program of Oregon Justice Resource Center. Prior to joining Oregon Innocence Project, Wax served as Oregon's federal public defender for 31 years.