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HEADLINE: ATTORNEYS SEEK CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORMS;
GIVE PRISONERS ACCESS TO DNA TESTS, THEY SAY

BYLINE: By Pamela Coyle Staff writer

BODY:
Some of the country's top criminal defense attorneys said Friday that the case of a Houma man recently exonerated after spending 19 years in prison for rape shows why states need laws giving prisoners access to DNA testing and compensation for years wrongly taken from them.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, meeting in New Orleans this week, also called for better rules governing the use of testimony by informants and making crime labs independent from police departments. These and other proposed reforms make up what the association dubbed "The Innocence Agenda," a far-reaching program defense attorneys and some lawmakers contend is needed to help correct a criminal justice system gone astray. "All over this country, we have seen the greatest injustice -- the innocent who have been convicted, sentenced to prison, sometimes under the threat of death. Our system is broken," said William B. Moffitt, the association's president. "Every time we convict an innocent person we leave a guilty person on the street."

He was joined at a news conference by four Louisiana legislators, noted DNA expert and lawyer Barry Scheck, who represented former football star O.J. Simpson in his murder case, and Clyde Charles, who was freed after DNA testing proved he did not rape a nurse almost 20 years ago.

State Rep. Reggie Dupre, D-Montegut, said he supports legislation allowing post-conviction DNA testing and compensation for people wrongly put behind bars.

"We need to make sure what happened to Mr. Charles never happens again in Louisiana," Dupre said. He said he has not yet received a response from Gov. Foster's office on whether such issues will be included in the upcoming special session.

Reps., Leonard Lucas, Arthur Morrell, both Democrats from New Orleans, and Kyle Green, D-Marrero, also supported the measures. Green said Louisiana's conservative Legislature should back the reforms because they are about fairness.

Scheck said DNA testing has exonerated 64 other people in the United States and credited Charles and his family with waging the battle to get the test for years.

"The door was shut for him everywhere he went," Scheck said.

Charles, wearing a tan three-piece suit he said was at least 20 years old, joked he was glad the clothes still fit because he has no money to buy new ones. In prison, he developed tuberculosis and diabetes but has been denied Social Security and Medicaid benefits because he had not been paying into the system for the past 19 years.

GRAPHIC: 'You can't lynch a man and then ask him if he's innocent or guilty,' Rep. Leonard Lucas, D-N.O., said Friday at a press conference at Le Meridien Hotel. The National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys held the conference to unveil their ideas for criminal justice reforms they believe will help keep innocent people out of prison. Barry Scheck, to the left of the podium, brought books to help explain the problem of the unjustly jailed in America. Former Angola inmate Clyde Charles and his sister, Lois Hill, speak at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers press conference. DNA testing proved Charles' innocence. 2 STAFF PHOTOS BY TED JACKSON

LOAD-DATE: February 28, 2000