New York’s record on wrongful convictions is beyond embarrassing. A couple of days ago Frank Sterling, a 46-year-old former truck driver, was exonerated and released from prison after serving 19 years for a murder that he did not commit.
 
Add Mr. Sterling to a list that now numbers 27 people exonerated by DNA since January 1, 2000 after being wrongfully convicted of murder or rape in New York State. This list does not include the 11 people exonerated by means other than DNA over the past 10 years.
 
My friend Jeffrey Deskovic believes the 38 exonerees represent just the tip of the iceberg. He should know. He spent 16 years incarcerated in a maximum security prison beginning at age 17 for a rape and murder that he had nothing to do with. Jeffrey was freed in 2006 after DNA evidence identified the real killer.
 
Just recently, he completed his course work for a master’s degree at John Jay School of Criminal Justice. He is now working on his master’s thesis - a dissertation on the topic of (guess what!) wrongful convictions. To hear Jeffrey’s radio interview with Alan Chartock of WAMC Northeast Public Radio, visit our website, www.nyadp.org and double-click on “Resources and Links.”
 
The Deskovic and Sterling cases show eerie similarities. Both men “confessed” after being subjected to harsh and manipulative interrogations. Deskovic was a naïve 16-year-old, scared out of his wits by interrogators who threatened to hurt him if he didn’t confess. Sterling was sleep-deprived after a night of interrogation. According to Jeffrey, he might have been hypnotized into giving a false confession.
 
What happened to Deskovic and Sterling (and to so many others) ought to dismay us. But what happened to them is not even the most appalling element in these tragedies. Because Deskovic and Sterling were wrongfully convicted, dangerous men were allowed to roam free and commit additional murders. Two years after Sterling went to prison for a murder actually committed by Mark Christie, Christie strangled to death  4-year-old Kali Ann Poulton.
 
Wrongful convictions, like violence itself, harm many additional people beyond the obvious victims.
 
I talked to Mr. Sterling by phone briefly after the press conference that announced his exoneration. It seems that my friend Jeffrey felt an impulse to connect us. For that, I felt honored. Mr. Sterling sounded like a man in a daze, hardly remembering what “freedom” means.
 
Frank and Jeffrey became close friends while serving time together in prison. Since his release in 2006, Jeffrey has repeatedly called for a reinvestigation of Sterling’s case. Naturally, Jeffrey was on hand at the press conference in Rochester to celebrate his friend’s exoneration. Now and then, life is more beautiful than fiction.
 
I don’t quite understand the state legislature’s hesitancy in tackling the problem of wrongful convictions. We know many of the factors that lead to them, including unethical and abusive interrogation tactics. Some DAs, like Schenectady’s Bob Carney, are voluntarily videotaping in-custody interrogations of suspects. For starters, why not make this standard police procedure, codified in state law? What are our legislators fearful of – pushback from the DAs and police? being labeled in a political campaign as “soft on crime”? The needless death of little Kali Ann Poulton at the hands of Mark Christie ought to convince us that nothing is softer on crime than a wrongful conviction.