{"id":3132,"date":"2018-05-24T16:26:13","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T20:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/?p=3132"},"modified":"2018-05-24T16:26:13","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T20:26:13","slug":"dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\/","title":{"rendered":"Dontia Patterson \u2013Innocence or Injustice?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The May 16 news report that the Philadelphia District Attorney\u2019s Office has dropped charges against Dontia Patterson (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.philly.com\/philly\/news\/crime\/judge-approves-philly-das-request-clears-man-of-murder-after-11-years-behind-bars-20180516.html\">http:\/\/www.philly.com\/philly\/news\/crime\/judge-approves-philly-das-request-clears-man-of-murder-after-11-years-behind-bars-20180516.html<\/a> ) because he was wrongfully convicted and is actually innocent prompted a retort from the original prosecutor that this is a \u201chorrific travesty of justice.\u201d \u00a0The case raised claims of actual innocence and of the failure to reveal to the defense information in the police file of an alternative suspect.<\/p>\n<p>I write here not to address the latter but to respond to the claim that this is a travesty of justice and that the conviction is valid because the case against Patterson\u00a0\u201cwas not weak\u201d and \u00a0two witnesses identified him.\u00a0 What the prosecutor omitted is that neither witness could actually see the face of the shooter.<\/p>\n<p>How can this be, and how could a jury have convicted in such circumstances?\u00a0 I was asked by the Pennsylvania Innocence Project to review Mr. Patterson\u2019s case to see whether, based on the science of eyewitness perception and memory, it was possible that an innocent man had been convicted.\u00a0 In a case where the crime took only a few seconds and the witnesses were well over 100 feet away, that possibility was high.<\/p>\n<p>A review of the trial transcript showed that Mr. Patterson\u2019s own lawyer never demonstrated that the eyewitnesses could not have seen the shooter.\u00a0 A trip to the scene \u2013 apparently never undertaken by defense counsel \u2013 made this clear.<\/p>\n<p>The above photograph was taken from precisely where the two witnesses stood.\u00a0 It was taken under the clearest viewing conditions possible \u2013 a bright sunny day.\u00a0 Where the two people are standing is where the murder occurred.<\/p>\n<p>If the trial prosecutor had visited the scene and stood where the witnesses were, he should never have presented this identification testimony; and if he did not go there, he never knew what a simple photo shows \u2013 that \u201ctwo eyewitnesses\u201d do not equal convincing proof.<\/p>\n<p>The Patterson case involves a separate, and deeply disturbing claim \u2013 whether information about who might have been the real killer, information known to police one day after the shooting, was not disclosed to the defense.\u00a0 However that is resolved, it is simply wrong to claim that the conviction is solid when it was based on a claim of \u201cI saw the shooter\u201d when the capacity of the human eye makes that impossible.\u00a0 It is no \u201chorrific travesty of justice\u201d to free Dontia Patterson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The May 16 news report that the Philadelphia District Attorney\u2019s Office has dropped charges against Dontia Patterson (http:\/\/www.philly.com\/philly\/news\/crime\/judge-approves-philly-das-request-clears-man-of-murder-after-11-years-behind-bars-20180516.html ) because he was wrongfully convicted and is actually innocent prompted a retort from the original prosecutor that this is a \u201chorrific travesty of justice.\u201d \u00a0The case raised claims of actual innocence and of the failure to reveal to the defense information in the police file of an alternative suspect. I write here not to address the latter but to respond to the claim that this is a travesty of justice and that the conviction is valid because the case against Patterson\u00a0\u201cwas not weak\u201d and \u00a0two witnesses identified him.\u00a0 What the prosecutor omitted is that neither witness could actually see the face of the shooter. How can this be, and how could a jury have convicted in such circumstances?\u00a0 I was asked by the Pennsylvania Innocence Project to review Mr. Patterson\u2019s case to see whether, based on the science of eyewitness perception and memory, it was possible that an innocent man had been convicted.\u00a0 In a case &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"audience":[],"coauthors":[40],"class_list":["post-3132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-commentary"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\r\n<title>Dontia Patterson \u2013Innocence or Injustice? - Voices at Temple<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dontia Patterson \u2013Innocence or Injustice? - Voices at Temple\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The May 16 news report that the Philadelphia District Attorney\u2019s Office has dropped charges against Dontia Patterson (http:\/\/www.philly.com\/philly\/news\/crime\/judge-approves-philly-das-request-clears-man-of-murder-after-11-years-behind-bars-20180516.html ) because he was wrongfully convicted and is actually innocent prompted a retort from the original prosecutor that this is a \u201chorrific travesty of justice.\u201d \u00a0The case raised claims of actual innocence and of the failure to reveal to the defense information in the police file of an alternative suspect. I write here not to address the latter but to respond to the claim that this is a travesty of justice and that the conviction is valid because the case against Patterson\u00a0\u201cwas not weak\u201d and \u00a0two witnesses identified him.\u00a0 What the prosecutor omitted is that neither witness could actually see the face of the shooter. How can this be, and how could a jury have convicted in such circumstances?\u00a0 I was asked by the Pennsylvania Innocence Project to review Mr. Patterson\u2019s case to see whether, based on the science of eyewitness perception and memory, it was possible that an innocent man had been convicted.\u00a0 In a case &hellip;\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Voices at Temple\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-24T20:26:13+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/dontia-1-120-feet.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1430\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1073\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jules Epstein\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jules Epstein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Beckie Schatschneider\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/505b7875ef49205bf81379b92d47f94e\"},\"headline\":\"Dontia Patterson \u2013Innocence or Injustice?\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-24T20:26:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":412,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/cms\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/05\\\/dontia-1-120-feet.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Faculty Commentary\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www2.law.temple.edu\\\/voices\\\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dontia Patterson \u2013Innocence or Injustice? 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I write here not to address the latter but to respond to the claim that this is a travesty of justice and that the conviction is valid because the case against Patterson\u00a0\u201cwas not weak\u201d and \u00a0two witnesses identified him.\u00a0 What the prosecutor omitted is that neither witness could actually see the face of the shooter. How can this be, and how could a jury have convicted in such circumstances?\u00a0 I was asked by the Pennsylvania Innocence Project to review Mr. Patterson\u2019s case to see whether, based on the science of eyewitness perception and memory, it was possible that an innocent man had been convicted.\u00a0 In a case &hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\/","og_site_name":"Voices at Temple","article_published_time":"2018-05-24T20:26:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1430,"height":1073,"url":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/dontia-1-120-feet.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jules Epstein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jules Epstein","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\/"},"author":{"name":"Beckie Schatschneider","@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/#\/schema\/person\/505b7875ef49205bf81379b92d47f94e"},"headline":"Dontia Patterson \u2013Innocence or Injustice?","datePublished":"2018-05-24T20:26:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\/"},"wordCount":412,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/dontia-1-120-feet.jpg","articleSection":["Faculty Commentary"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\/","url":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/dontia-patterson-innocence-or-injustice\/","name":"Dontia Patterson \u2013Innocence or Injustice? 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