There wasn't a flood of new wrongful-conviction news in the last few days, so today's roundup pairs the developments we could confirm with the Registry and innocence-organization data that puts them in context.
Lead: New York's judicial watchdog orders a Queens judge removed
The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has ordered Queens Civil Court Judge Joseph Kasper removed from the bench, in a decision centered on findings that he continued practicing law after taking the bench — using a paralegal to carry out legal work on his behalf, according to amNewYork. The Queens Daily Eagle reported that removal — the commission's harshest sanction — is a rarity for a judge in the borough.
Why a civil court judge matters to an innocence organization: judicial discipline is one of the few external checks on the people who preside over criminal proceedings, and it is used sparingly. The commission's own public news page shows how the pipeline actually looks — a March 12, 2026 determination that Canandaigua Town Court Justice Walter W. Jones should be removed, alongside other individual matters. A handful of determinations a year, in a state with roughly 3,000 judges, is the entire visible output of that oversight. Anything a judge does that never generates a complaint effectively never gets reviewed.
Action: Anyone — not just lawyers or litigants — can file a complaint with the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. The complaint form and instructions are at cjc.ny.gov. Complaints must be in writing and signed; the commission does not accept anonymous complaints.
Louisiana: exonerated after 42 years, and the state still won't pay
Elvis Brooks spent 42 years in Louisiana prisons before a court threw out his murder conviction. He is eligible for roughly $480,000 under the state's compensation statute — and the Louisiana Attorney General's Office is opposing it, Verite News and the Louisiana Illuminator reported on Aug. 6.
This is the part of the story that almost never makes headlines. The National Registry of Exonerations' compensation research, updated this month, notes that 38 states and the District of Columbia now have wrongful-conviction compensation statutes — and then asks the harder question of how many exonerees actually seek compensation under them and how many succeed. Having a statute on the books and getting paid under it are two different things, and the gap is usually filled by a state lawyer arguing that a freed person still hasn't proven enough.
That same dynamic — a state attorney general's office as the last gate — is why we're still pushing on Richard Barge's case in New Jersey. New Jersey's Conviction Review Unit has already recommended his exoneration. The sole eyewitness recanted. The informants recanted. The file now sits with the Attorney General's Office awaiting final action. If you make one call today, make it that one: (609) 292-4925, reference Richard Barge's case, and mention Jennifer Davenport.
Forensic failures still working their way through the system
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation case remains the largest active forensic scandal in the country. Former CBI analyst Yvonne "Missy" Woods faces 102 criminal charges over her handling of DNA evidence across a career spanning nearly three decades, and she pleaded not guilty in February. CBI's internal review concluded she cut corners and deviated from testing protocols rather than fabricating DNA profiles outright — a distinction that matters less than it sounds when the reliability of hundreds of case files is in question. As of reporting in June, at least one murder conviction had already been overturned: Michael Clark was released in 2025 after his attorneys argued the DNA evidence against him was compromised by Woods' work, and prosecutors are seeking to retry him.
Illinois has its own version. In March, the state's Forensic Science Commission publicly criticized the University of Illinois Chicago for what it called an inadequate investigation into a now-shuttered toxicology lab whose work has been implicated in wrongful convictions.
And in Philadelphia, the Exoneration Project won the vacatur of three convictions — Jermal Shuler, Marc Brittingham, and Rasheed Smith — in a 1997 North Philadelphia murder, after new forensic evidence discredited expert testimony about the victim's time of death.
The data behind all of it
The National Registry of Exonerations' 2025 annual report found official misconduct in at least 70 exonerations recorded that year. Among homicide cases, it's worse: 40 of the 51 homicide exonerations — 78% — were marred by official misconduct. The 2024 report recorded 147 exonerations, with official misconduct in at least 104 of them and in 79% of the 85 homicide exonerations. Both reports emphasize the same structural point: "professional exonerators" — innocence organizations and conviction review units — are responsible for a large and growing share of exonerations. Wrongful convictions rarely unravel on their own.
On capital cases, the Death Penalty Information Center's innocence tracker logs two 2026 developments worth knowing: on June 29, the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed a finding that Jimmie Duncan is factually innocent, vacating his first-degree murder conviction and death sentence; and on July 23, a Delaware judge ordered a Certificate of Innocence for Jermaine "Marlow" Wright and expunged his conviction. The Innocence Project maintains its own running exonerations data set for cases it has worked.
One more piece of plumbing that matters: Illinois courts and legislators have been fighting over who qualifies for a certificate of innocence — the document that unlocks compensation and record relief. An appellate ruling and a pending bill could widen the door, Injustice Watch reported in June, with Exoneration Project executive director Josh Tepfer arguing the appeals court was right to reject a stricter requirement.
What you can do today
- New Jersey (Barge): Call the NJ Attorney General's Office at (609) 292-4925. Then sign the petition.
- New York (judicial conduct): File a signed written complaint with the NYS Commission on Judicial Conduct via cjc.ny.gov if you have firsthand knowledge of judicial misconduct.
- Louisiana (compensation): Contact the Louisiana Attorney General's Office through its public constituent-services line and ask why the state is contesting Elvis Brooks' statutory claim after 42 years.
- Anywhere: If you or someone you know has a claim of actual innocence, start with the Innocence Network's directory of member organizations to find the project covering your state. Most take written intake requests only, and most have long waitlists — apply anyway.
If you spot a story we missed, send it our way. We'd rather run a shorter roundup than a padded one.