NPR's tale of wrongful conviction is great radio

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jun 15, 2007 | by Brad KavaSTAFF

IT'S SAD THAT, with all the attention given to Paris Hilton's legal case, few know the name Larry Peterson.

Peterson, 55, served 17 years, five months, 28 days and "a few hours" for a rape and murder he didn't commit.

He was released last year, after DNA tests showed that the hairs that tied him to the case and convinced a jury he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt weren't his.

His story is being told in two parts, broadcast earlier this week on NPR's "All Things Considered," but available at http:// www.npr.org.

The chilling 40-minute-profile looks into the horrific saga of a New Jersey man who was railroaded by bad science and/or bad law enforcement into a 40-year prison sentence for the 1987 murder of Jacqueline Harrison.

Peterson is one of 203 people whose convictions have been overturned as a result of the Innocence Project, a group founded at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York, which helps prisoners who might be proven innocent through DNA testing. (The Northern California Innocence Project at Santa Clara University plays a similar role locally.)

His case gives an example of how -- even if ours is the best justice system in the world, as its proponents vehemently proclaim - - it is capable of egregious errors.

Forensic evidence

Using the technology at hand, two forensics experts testified in court that Peterson's hair "matched" and "compared" to hairs found on the victim's body. But what was counted as definitive science less then two decades ago wouldn't be admitted in court testimony today.

Still, it was enough to convince a jury, together with testimony from an acquaintance and scratches on Peterson's arms -- which the defendant said came from his job collecting vines for ornamental wreaths, not from a struggle with a victim.

After Peterson was exonerated by the DNA evidence, the acquaintance retracted his testimony, saying he had been coerced by police into giving it. That ended any chance for a second Peterson trial, even though the victim's family still is convinced he committed the crime.

Reporter Robert Siegel and producer Julia Buckley, who followed the case for two years, dramatically take us inside the life of a man whose treatment by the system was nothing short of ghastly.

Siegel follows the now-unemployed laborer from jubilation at his freedom to the deadening sorrow about a life whose pieces may never be glued back together.

Prove his innocence

To receive reparations from the state, because the DNA belonged to an unknown person, Peterson would have to prove his innocence, a situation the legal system was set up to avoid.

You can't help but wonder, as Peterson does, how many other prisoners were given the death sentence with the same kind of "irrefutable" evidence.

In a world gone crazy over the legal "injustices" involving a rich dilettante, Peterson's is a compelling news story that illustrates one way in which the problems of our system are visited upon society's less fortunate.

"You talk about how alarming a few days behind bars might be," says Siegel, referring to Hilton, in a phone interview. "Imagine 17 years and feeling in your bones how terrible that is for someone who is innocent."

We are fortunate to have this kind of radio at the touch of a button.

In an era when the media often seem like something out of Aldous Huxley or George Orwell, it's important to hear reporting on something real.

Staffing note

The new KFRC-FM (106.9) has a new program director, Tim Jordan, who was with the old KFRC and has been with CBS radio since 1985.

Reach Brad Kava at

bkava@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5040.