The Massachusetts Conviction Integrity Working Group (MCIWG), established by the Massachusetts Bar Association (MBA) in September 2018, includes Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan and Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz, leaders from the Attorney General’s Office and the MBA, representatives from the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, senior trial counsel and an innocence program attorney from the Committee for Public Counsel Services, a former judge, a leading civil rights attorney, the director of the Boston College Innocence Program, the executive director of the New England Innocence Project, and the former executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services.
In March 2021, the MCIWG released a comprehensive guide, Conviction Integrity Programs: A Guide to Best Practices for Prosecutorial Offices, urging all 11 state district attorney’s offices and the Attorney General’s Office to maintain effective conviction integrity programs to prevent and remedy wrongful convictions and other miscarriages of justice in Massachusetts.
Recognizing that a prosecutor’s highest obligation is to ensure that justice is done and to do so in a way that gives the public trust and confidence in our work, this guide serves as an important resource. We hope that it will help all offices to develop their own model of an effective conviction integrity program.
View the guide here: Conviction Integrity Programs: A guide to best practices for prosecutorial offices March 2021
In 2013, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office joined forces with CPCS, the New England Innocence Project, the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory, the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office, and the Middlesex Superior Court Clerk’s Office to collectively implement M.G.L. c. 278A, which deals with post-conviction access to forensic and scientific analysis (enacted in 2012).
Some of the Working Group’s efforts to date include:
Developing a Best Practices Manual for Evidence Collection, Handling, Storage and Retention, Click here to view;
Facilitating an agreement among the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, CPCS, the New England Innocence Project and the MA State Police Crime Lab to streamline access to information about evidence in the lab’s possession in order to allow access to initial discovery in Middlesex County cases without engaging in litigation;
Securing grant funding to support police departments in conducting inventories of their evidence to improve access to such evidence for testing in the future;
Providing trainings for attorneys on how to prepare 278A motions and for evidence officers that promote uniform protocols and practices for evidence handling, storing, and preservation; and
Instituting a pilot hair microscopy case identification project.