New Jersey Is Sending Innocent People To Jail: Republican Senator

NEWARK, NJ — It’s the worst-case scenario of any equitable court system: an innocent person gets sent to jail. And it happens a lot more than New Jersey residents like to admit, according to State Senator Joseph Pennacchio.

Pennacchio, the Republican whip who represents District 26, is leading the charge for S-3045, a bill that would establish a “New Jersey Innocence Study and Review Commission,” which would be charged with developing reforms to prevent wrongful convictions statewide. (Read the full bill here)

In addition to other duties, the panel would “review all aspects of criminal cases involving wrongful conviction in New Jersey” and recommend reforms to “reduce the likelihood of wrongful conviction occurring in the future.”

Think that this kind of watchdog agency isn’t needed New Jersey? The stories of Rodney Roberts and A. Jabir Nash might convince you otherwise.

According to the National Registry of Exonerations:

• Rodney Roberts was charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl in Newark in 1996. He pleaded guilty to kidnapping in Essex County Superior Court and was sentenced to seven years in prison. The prosecution then dismissed the sexual assault charge. DNA testing and a victim’s statement “riddled with inconsistencies” led to a dismissal of the kidnapping charge and his release from prison… after almost a decade behind bars.
• A. Jabir Nash, a former librarian at a Newark middle school, was accused of sexually molesting two 12-year-old boys in 2000, one of them a special-education student. After a four-day trial, the jury convicted Nash of two counts of aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment; he was later sentenced to 22 years in prison. Even though Nash discovered evidence within two years after the conviction that supported his claim that there was an aide assigned to the student who would have witnessed the alleged assault, his attempts to obtain a new trial were repeatedly rejected for a decade. The prosecution dismissed the charges in 2013 after Nash had already spent more than 10 years in jail.

Roberts and Nash – both of whom spoke about their cases during a press conference with Pennacchio last week – cautioned the public that being unjustly accused is one of the worst experiences a person can have.

“It happens more than you think,” said Roberts, who is still working with a lawyer to obtain compensation from the state for his conviction.

With the “factual innocence rate” for convictions of serious crimes at about 1 percent of all criminal cases, 58 innocent men and women are likely languishing in a New Jersey jail for crimes they did not commit, according to The Last Resort Exoneration Project at Seton Hall University School of Law.

Overall, New Jersey has seen 27 wrongful convictions overturned since 1989, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

The average innocent inmate in New Jersey spends 10 years in prison before their exoneration… a decade of their lives spent unjustly behind bars, the report states.

• See related article: 1 In 10 New Jersey Inmates Will Likely Die In Jail, Report Says

“Our criminal justice system isn’t perfect,” Pennacchio said. “Even for an innocent person with an ironclad case, the journey towards exoneration is a steep climb, and the road to getting the restitution they deserve can be even harder. I put forward a bipartisan solution to find out why the system is failing so many people months ago. The wrongfully convicted of New Jersey shouldn’t have to wait any longer for this Legislature to take action.”

“I strongly support Senator Pennacchio’s efforts to seek justice for wrongfully convicted individuals in New Jersey,” Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean said during last week’s press conference. “Clearly, there is a critical need for this legislation. I hope that it will advance as swiftly as possible.”

“I wholeheartedly applaud Senator Pennacchio for seeing a need and ultimately authoring meaningful legislation to address that need,” NJSC NAACP President Richard Smith said. “We are optimistic that this legislation can address the racial disparity among wrongfully convicted individuals in the state, as African-Americans make up a disproportionate amount of people found to have been convicted of crimes they did not commit, both in state and in the nation.”

• See related article: New Jersey Marijuana Arrests Are Criminalizing Black Residents, Study Says

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Photos: Office of Senator Joseph Pennacchio