News and Press - 2011

USA Today 10/27 Exoneree to advocate nationally against prosecutorial misconduct

NCIP 10/27 press release on John Thomspon kick off tour

NPR 10/5 story on Obie's release 

Washington Examiner 10/5 reported on Obie's release from prison

LA Times 10/1 Judge overturns murder convictions in 1994 slaying for Obie Anthony

NCIP 9/30 Judge Overturns Conviction and Vacates Life Sentence of Northern California Innocence Project Client, Obie Anthony

LA Times reports on 8/25 the Souliotes case

On March 28, 2011, a San Francisco Superior Court judge ordered the release of Maurice Caldwell from prison where he has spent the last 20 years after being convicted of a murder he did not commit. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Charles Haines issued the order after San Francisco County prosecutors said they would not retry Mr. Caldwell. Haines set aside Mr. Caldwell’s 1991 conviction last December and ordered a new trial after lawyers for the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) at Santa Clara University School of Law demonstrated evidence of actual innocence and that Mr. Caldwell's defense attorney at trial was incompetent. Read more..

ABC News reported on the 3/16 release of Franky Carrillo.

LA Times reported on Franky Carrillo's 3/16 release from Los Angeles County jail.

LA Times reported on the Franky Carrillo case.

On March 14, 2011, the Los Angeles County Superior Court reversed Francisco “Franky” Carrillo Jr.’s 1992 conviction for the murder of Donald Sarpy, and ordered his release from incarceration pending the district attorney’s decision on whether to dismiss the charges against Mr. Carrillo, who has been behind bars for nearly two decades. Carrillo’s legal team consisted of attorney Ellen Eggers; attorneys Alison Tucher, George Harris and Erika Drous from the law firm of Morrison and Foerster, and Linda Starr and attorney Paige Kaneb from the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP). Read more...

Cookie Ridolfi and Maurice Possley wrote an opinion piece published in the San Jose Mercury News. Their article relates to the recent case against Prabhat Goyal who was prosecuted with absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing and convicted through prosecutors stretching the law to fit their case. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the conviction and completely dismissed the charges.

News and Press - 2010

The Northern California Innocence Project released a study on prosecutorial misconduct which found that found that punishment was meted out in about 1% of some 600 cases it tracked where prosecutorial misconduct was established. The study was authored by Cookie Ridolfi and Maurice Possley, and received widespread press coverage, including articles in the Wall Street Journal, KGO ABC TV 7, the Los Angeles Times, and the ABA Journal.

Work by the Northern California Innocence Project to get a new trial for an accused arsonist was featured a Los Angeles Times story that ran in more than a dozen papers including the Sacramento Bee and the Modesto Bee, where a columnist also discussed the case.

Linda Starr was interviewed on KCBS radio regarding the recent US Supreme court decision that held it unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to life without the possibility of parole for crimes other than homicide.

The ACLU of Santa Clara Valley will be honoring Cookie Ridolfi and Linda Starr of NCIP in the annual Don Edwards Award Celebration on June 12. Read more...

On May 13, 2010 Women Defenders honored Cookie Ridolfi for her contribution to the world of criminal defense. Go to www.womendefenders.org for more information.

Cookie Ridolfi and Maurice Possley wrote a guest column in the January 29, 2010 issue of the Los Angeles Daily Journal, "Boycott Threatens Independent Judiciary", which discusses the decision by Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr to stop bringing criminal cases before Superior Court Judge Andrea Bryan. Carr said she was upset over a number of rulings by the judge. Ridolfi and Possley state that on January 6, Judge Bryan decided to ..."release Augustin Uribe, who was serving a sentence of 38 years to life on child molestation charges. Judge Bryan found that Carr’s Deputy District Attorney Troy Benson had testified falsely and committed “numerous acts of misconduct.” Uribe was convicted of sexually assaulting a young relative, but the conviction was set aside by the California appellate court, which held that the district attorney’s office had improperly withheld a videotape of the alleged victim’s physical exam. That tape was not turned over until after Uribe was convicted. Subsequently, an expert hired by Uribe’s defense team examined the tape and declared that it contradicted assertions by the prosecution witnesses that the child had been assaulted."