Post-conviction habeas work is hard. Although the development of DNA testing has shown that hundreds of defendants have been wrongfully convicted, it is still an uphill battle to convince a court to revisit the question of a defendant’s guilt or innocence. The criminal justice system is geared toward finality. Victims and prosecutors become accustomed to believing that because a case has gone through the trial and appellate process, a correct result must have been reached. However, as we know, that assumption can be wrong, even in cases in which no DNA is available to resolve the dispute.
In bringing habeas claims, petitioners often run up against the enemy of time. It may take decades for inmates to attract the attention of a lawyer who can help them bring their post-conviction claims to the attention of the court. During that time, evidence will be lost or destroyed and witnesses will disappear. To overcome these obstacles, petitioners must often reinvestigate a case from scratch and seek to introduce hearsay when the original witnesses are no longer available. These efforts are often made more difficult by law enforcement’s efforts to encourage witnesses not to recant their testimony. Ultimately, petitioners can be left with nothing more than hearsay to convince a judge that an injustice has incurred.
