TAMPA, Fla. -- People who feel they were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to prison for felony crimes in Hillsborough County now have a new way to get charges against them dropped and erased for good.
That’s if the new Conviction Review Unit can prove their innocence.
Tuesday, Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren held a news conference to announce the creation of the special unit.
“Our obligation to pursue justice does not end when a case is closed,” Warren said
A first of its kind in Hillsborough County, the newly formed CRU is a special division within the state attorney’s office to prevent and identify wrongful convictions. It will be run by an investigator, support staff and Lead Attorney Teresa Hall.
“We know it happens. Our job is to make sure that it gets corrected and doesn’t happen again in the future,” Hall said.
Sabrina Smith was 19 years old when she was sentenced to death after being wrongfully convicted of killing her son.
“I want what happened to me not to happen to anyone else,” Smith said. “Can you imagine sitting in a tiny box like that, knowing your death date, and there’s nothing you can do about it?”
Smith is one of several death row exonerees who met with Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren in April as he was working to create the Conviction Review Unit. He says the process started 10 months ago.
“We have received requests periodically for cases to be reviewed, but we’ve never had the mechanism to do anything about it before now,” Warren said.
The Hillsborough CRU is specifically for people convicted of felonies within the county. Tampa now joins 35 other cities with similar boards to help innocent people.
Innocence claims sent to the Hillsborough Conviction Review Unit will be vetted through a four-step process:
- an initial screening of the petition to assess jurisdiction and plausible claim of innocence
- review and investigation
- findings and recommendations will be sent to an outside Independent Review Panel
- the state attorney makes a final decision.
For people like Smith, it’s a decision of life or death. She’s glad something is being done about it for the people in Hillsborough County.
“I want them to change the justice system. It needs an overhaul,” Smith said.
To date, more than 2200 people have been exonerated across the county. That number includes 164 death row exonerations.
Smith is one of only two women in the United States to be exonerated from death row.
If you, or maybe someone you know feels like they were wrongfully convicted in Hillsborough County, this is the link you need to file a claim of innocence through the State Attorney’s office.
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