By a vote of 23 – 12, the California Senate passed a res­o­lu­tion estab­lish­ing the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, a pan­el of experts who will inves­ti­gate the state’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and present a series of rec­om­men­da­tions to the leg­is­la­ture and gov­er­nor based on their find­ings. Members of the pan­el will be appoint­ed by the Senate Committee on Rules and will be charged with hold­ing a series of meet­ings and pub­lic hear­ings to deter­mine why inno­cent indi­vid­u­als have been wrong­ly con­vict­ed in the state and what safe­guards should be put into place to improve the cur­rent poli­cies. The pan­el will review exist­ing data and research about California’s jus­tice sys­tem and will solic­it fur­ther com­ment from schol­ars, judges, pros­e­cu­tors, law enforce­ment, pub­lic and pri­vate defense attor­neys, elect­ed offi­cials, vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers, and oth­er experts. The Senate-imposed dead­line for rec­om­men­da­tions from the pan­el is December 31, 2007. The for­ma­tion of the Commission comes in the wake of a series of reports and devel­op­ments draw­ing atten­tion to the flaws in California’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem in gen­er­al, and its death penal­ty sys­tem in par­tic­u­lar. A 2003 review of California’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem in the Santa Clara Law Review iden­ti­fied more than 80 flaws, includ­ing a lack of inde­pen­dent DNA review for pris­on­ers with inno­cence claims, a lack of train­ing for homi­cide detec­tives and lawyers regard­ing the unre­li­a­bil­i­ty of ​“jail­house snitch­es,” and the fail­ure to estab­lish state-wide qual­i­fi­ca­tions, edu­ca­tion and train­ing for judges and lawyers han­dling cap­i­tal cas­es. (See California Senate Resolution No. 44 and Press Release from California’s Death Penalty Focus, August 31, 2004) See Innocence and Studies.

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