Law Students' Investigations Lead To First Filing By Ohio Innocence Project

The Ohio Innocence Project takes a major step forward this week with the filing of its first legal appeal on behalf of an Ohio inmate it believes has been jailed for a crime he did not commit.

On Thursday, Ohio Innocence Project Faculty Director Mark Godsey expects to file a motion in Stark County Common Pleas Court on behalf of Christopher Lee Bennett, who is currently serving a nine-year sentence for aggravated vehicular homicide.

Bennett pled guilty in the 2001 death of Ronald Young after the van in which they were riding crashed. Bennett, however, suffered significant head injuries in the crash and has no memory of the accident.

Evidence initially developed by the prosecution suggested that Bennett was the driver, but additional new evidence - including DNA analysis and new witness testimony - produced through investigation by UC law students participating in the Ohio Innocence Project now makes a strong case that Bennett could not have been behind the wheel.

"The new evidence demonstrates Bennett's innocence," says Godsey, who is also an assistant professor of law at UC, as well as a former federal prosecutor. "The only logical conclusion that can be drawn from the DNA test is that Chris Bennett was the passenger, not the driver. All of the other evidence in the case, including new testimony from the first witness to reach the scene, also supports Chris Bennett's innocence."

A team of UC law students has been working under the leadership of Godsey and Ohio Innocence Project Administrative Director John Cranley since establishment of the project last year. Bennett's case was among an initial batch of six to be thoroughly reviewed by the project.

DNA evidence from the passenger's side of the dashboard in the van that crashed was submitted for review with Cincinnati's Hoxworth Blood Center. It showed that blood found in a paper towel and around a rock found deep within a crack where the windshield and the dashboard met came from Bennett, and Bennett only. Additionally, a small cluster of hair and scalp found within the passenger's side defrost vent was a match for Bennett.

Finally, Young had no injuries consistent with a windshield impact or that were producing the type of blood loss pattern seen on the windshield.

Bennett says the only reason he pled guilty in the first place was because he had no memory of the accident, and the prosecution had a witness that placed Bennett on or around the driver's seat when he arrived at the accident. Young's body was found on the floor between the passenger's side and center console.

Investigation by the Ohio Innocence Project students found that a nearby resident to the crash scene, Lee Meadows, was actually on the scene before the prosecution's witness. Meadows states in an affidavit that he arrived only seconds after the accident, and that he found Bennett in the passenger's side seat of the van with his right arm extended out the open van window.

Bennett's counsel at the time of his prosecution neither sought out additional witnesses for interview nor pursued DNA or accident reconstruction expert testimony.

"All of the new facts uncovered would lead reasonably fair-minded people to believe that Bennett should at least be entitled to a trial-to his day in court, and with the real evidence in this case," says Godsey. "The way things unfolded in this case, the evidence that existed at the time of the guilty plea is now largely irrelevant."

Godsey, who has assumed representation of Bennett, will ask the court to reconsider Bennett's conviction and allow Bennett to withdraw his initial guilty plea.

"This is exactly the kind of case we envisioned when the Ohio Innocence Project was first considered," says Godsey. "Our students are gaining invaluable experience in the inner-workings of the justice system while, at the same time, performing a public service by working to prove or disprove the claims of those imprisoned who are able to make the strongest cases for their innocence."

The mission of the Ohio Innocence Project is not only to identify Ohio prisoners who might be innocent and obtain their release, but also to provide practical legal experience that cannot be matched in the classroom or in most legal jobs available to law students.

The Ohio Innocence Project became operational in the summer of 2003. A total of 19 UC law students are currently involved with the project. The project is funded entirely through private donations.