Law Prof Fears Newsroom Cuts Will Harm Unjust Conviction Probes

Death penalty opponents who relied on journalists to investigate unjust convictions and seek DNA evidence are bemoaning newsroom cuts that are costing investigative reporters their jobs.

Lawyers fighting for access to DNA evidence to prove an inmate’s innocence had sometimes enlisted media representatives to file motions citing their First Amendment right to the evidence, the New York Times reports. Now lawyers worry that newspapers slashing jobs won’t be willing to spend resources on legal battles or fund investigative legwork.

The First Amendment argument has been tried in Virginia and in Georgia; the test confirmed guilt of the Virginia inmate and was inconclusive in Georgia, according to Barry Scheck, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and the co-founder of the Innocence Project in New York.

He told the Times of his concerns. “It’s extremely troubling, some of the leading investigative journalists in this country have been given golden parachutes or laid off,” he said. “When procedural mechanisms begin to fail, the press is the last resort for the public to find out the truth.”