LUCAS COUNTY, Ohio — In the days ahead, the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office is expected to formally announce details about its new conviction integrity unit.
Earlier this month, Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken confirmed to 11 Investigates that the CIU has been formed. He credited 11 Investigates for its reporting and pressure on the county to begin a unit.
Over the past several years, Lucas County has had a number of high-profile cases that involved claims of innocence. In 2019, 11 Investigates conducted a six-month investigation into the 1998 murder of a 13-year-old Toledo boy. Wayne Braddy and Karl Willis were convicted. As a result of our investigation, Braddy and Willis were released from prison.
More recently, Eric Misch was granted a new trial in the 1992 murder of Toledoan Vernon Huggins. Last year, 11 Investigates reported that several pieces of evidence were not provided to Misch's team. Judge Gary Cook said Toledo detectives should have turned over that potentially key evidence.
Among the evidence were Crime Stoppers tips about family members confronting the victim in the hours before he died and the victim being seen several hours after when police said Misch was involved in Huggins’ death. Another tip said Huggins was seen in a bar with a man later convicted of killing a woman on the night he was with Huggins in a bar.
Misch was paroled in 2020, but he and the four other men convicted with him have always maintained their innocence. The prosecutor’s office has not said whether it will attempt to retry Misch.
A conviction integrity unit is tasked with examining legitimate claims of innocence. Lucas County has not disclosed the organization of its new unit or explained which cases will be investigated or how applications can be submitted.
In his latest appeal, Misch was represented by Joanna Sanchez of the Wrongful Conviction Project, which operates out of the Office of the Ohio Public Defender.
“Our hope is that the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office is committed to establishing a true Conviction Integrity Unit, not just one in name only,” Sanchez said. “A true Conviction Integrity Unit follows best practices like those described by the Quattrone Center, which means it works collaboratively with defense counsel, acts transparently, and is willing to do the right thing even when it’s difficult or unpopular.”
The Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania is the premier source of best practices for conviction integrity units.
Assistant Director Marissa Bluestine has worked with dozens of units across the country, helping those units implement what the center has identified as best practices.
“Is the unit independent? Is it outside the trial or appellate divisions within the prosecutor’s office? Is it run by someone who has extensive experience in the criminal justice system?" Bluestine said. "It can be a career prosecutor, but it’s more likely to be somebody who has defense experience.”
You can watch the full interview with Bluestine here:
In Wayne County, Michigan, Valerie Newman, a former defense attorney, heads the unit in Detroit. In the last five years, more than 40 people have been freed from prison after investigations by her office.
“Conviction integrity units are involved in a large percentage of cases on the National Registry of Exonerations,” Newman told 11 Investigates last year during a visit to her office. “I think the community has a lot more trust in the prosecutor’s office when they’re willing to say, ‘We got it wrong.’”
It is a sentiment shared by Bluestine.
“Creating a CIU is a statement to the community that you take all convictions seriously. You want all convictions to have integrity and be able to withstand an investigation and review,” Bluestine said. “This is core to the prosecutorial function, ensuring that every conviction has integrity and every conviction should stand.”
Both Bluestine and Newman have offered to assist Lucas County with any help it might need in setting up its unit.
Lucas County will be the fifth CIU in the state. Others are in Cuyahoga, Summit, Franklin and Hamilton counties. There are about 125 across the country. The Quattrone Center has worked with at least 80 of them.
Bluestine said the first step is for the unit to establish independence from the trial unit, “But they need to be well-resourced, then they need to decide how they are going to flow the cases. What will the decision points be? How do we decide if a case moves forward? Who makes that decision? Are we going to have an advisory board that helps us remove bias from the process?”
In Minnesota, a review unit out of the attorney general’s office depends on an advisory board to look at reports. Those reports are the subject of a public Zoom meeting every month, so there is transparency in order to build even more trust with the community.
Many CIUs, including in Cuyahoga and Hamilton counties, have been criticized as nothing more than political stunts. Roughly half of the CIUs in the country have not had an exoneration.
“A successful unit devotes the staff, devotes the infrastructure,” Bluestine said. “On their webpage, do they advertise how people can apply or what to do?”
Bluestine said resources include investigators and other independent attorneys.
Chris Gill of Pyramid Security and Investigations, LLC, has offered to have his team of dozens of retired detectives look into cases for the county.
“These need to be factual investigations,” Bluestine said. “This is not just reviewing what happened before. This is going out and looking for witnesses as if it were a cold case and following the evidence.”
Numerous attorneys and others have applauded the decision of Prosecutor Julia Bates to begin a unit.
“I am pleased to learn that the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office will be engaging in the investigation of potential wrongful convictions through a conviction integrity unit,” Toledo defense attorney Mike Stahl said. “Prosecutors have a challenging ethical role in our system. They are both tasked with prosecuting crimes, but also with ensuring justice. Neither obligation is furthered in a wrongful conviction.”