This Week in Innocence

News from the world of wrongful convictions:

• Yesterday, a Connecticut judge freed George Gould and Ronald Taylor from prison. The two served 16 years each for a crime the judge says they didn't commit. Prosecutors are appealing, which means the two will have to wear GPS tracking devices until the appeal is resolved. The two were convicted due to testimony from an eyewitness who later recanted and said she'd be coerced by police. Prosecutors say they still believe her earlier testimony.
• David Wayne Boyce, a Newport News, Virginia man convicted of a 1990 murder, is asking to be released after his attorneys have found new evidence. Most damning is a Polaroid mugshot police snapped of Boyce shortly after the crime showing Boyce with short hair. Eyewitnesses say the murderer had long hair, and a police officer testified at trial that Boyce had long hair at the time of his arrest. Boyce's lawyers had been asking for the photo for years, but were told that it didn't exist.
• The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will allow a civil rights suit filed by Donald Wayne Good to go forward. Good was exonerated in 2004 after serving nine years for rape. Good's suit alleges that an Irving, Texas police detective altered Goode's mugshot in order to get the rape victim to identify him.