PUSH FOR LONG OVERDUE REFORM IN "DON'T CARE" CALIFORNIA

One by one they ascended the stage and introduced themselves, each an embodiment of the legal system's fallibility in California. "My name is Herman Atkins," a tall ponytailed man said. "The state of California stole 12 years of my life for a rape and robbery I did not commit in Riverside." "Good morning, my name is Gloria Killian," a well-spoken middle-aged woman said. "The state stole 22 years of my life for a robbery and murder I did not commit in Sacramento." "Good morning. My name is Ken Marsh," a third speaker said. "The state took 21 years of my life for a murder I did not commit in San Diego in 1983."

Seventeen people in all reiterated the point to a packed ballroom at UCLA on Saturday: that although they now were free, countless other innocent people are imprisoned in the state. Atkins, Killian, Marsh and the others were wrongfully convicted and cleared years later. They took part in the event, called "The Faces of Wrongful Conviction," to dramatize the flaws in the state's criminal justice system. The gathering was sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union, Death Penalty Focus, Amnesty International and others.

It came as a state Senate-created commission is beginning to study and review the criminal justice system in California, with a particular focus on the causes of wrongful convictions and possible disparities in how death sentences are meted out. Former California Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, chairman of the commission; San Francisco attorney Jon Streeter, the vice chairman; and Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen, the commission's executive director, all were in attendance Saturday.

"We realize the system is imperfect," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a pro law-enforcement organization in Sacramento, in a telephone interview. If the commission comes up with needed reforms, that will be a public benefit, he said. Scheidegger added, however, that he thought individuals sentenced to long terms, rather than the death penalty, were "more vulnerable" to errors in their cases, because death row inmates are entitled to more legal assistance after a conviction.

After identifying themselves and the duration of their time behind bars, each participant in Saturday's ceremony hung handcuffs on a wall on the stage and then 10 more pairs on behalf of so-called exonerees unable to attend the two-day conference. As the half-hour event, the first of its kind in California, concluded, the crowd gave the group of former inmates a prolonged standing ovation.

The speakers were a varied group. A few, such as Atkins, were cleared as a result of DNA evidence discovered after their trials. But most — including Killian and Marsh — gained their freedom after even longer legal battles in which there was no magic bullet like DNA. There were whites, African Americans, Latinos, an Asian American and a Native American. They had come from as far south as San Diego and as far north as Yreka. All but Killian were male. They had served as little as one year — Bobby Herrera, for assault in Santa Clara County — and as much as 24 years — Thomas Goldstein, for murder in Long Beach. Two had been on death row.

Summaries of their cases indicate they were victims of such problems as inaccurate eyewitness identifications, unreliable jailhouse informants, the failure of police and prosecutors to disclose exculpatory evidence and faulty forensics.

More than 200 people have been wrongfully convicted in California since 1989, said Jeffrey Chin, assistant director of the Innocence Project at California Western School of Law in San Diego, one of the conference sponsors. That's one a month, said state Sen. Gloria Romero, (D-Los Angeles), who opened the conference.

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