S2 Ep52: That's So Cincinnati: The effort to help people who are wrongfully convicted of crimes

The leader of Cincinnati-based Ohio Innocence Project said in 2011 then-state Attorney General Mike DeWine rejected a request to do a statewide review of cases involving prisoners who claimed to be wrongfully convicted.

But DeWine, now Ohio governor, didn't turn down the offer because he disagreed with the premise of helping people who are wrongfully convicted, his spokesman told The Enquirer. Local, state and federal government bureaucracies made such a review challenging, DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said.

Ohio Innocence Project co-founder Mark Godsey recalled his meeting with then-AG DeWine during an interview with The Enquirer's That's So Cincinnati podcast. 

Godsey's organization works to help free prisoners who were wrongfully convicted by using DNA evidence. Godsey, a former federal prosecutor in New York, said one of his biggest challenges is persuading government officials to have an open mind about revisiting old cases.

"It's not the money. It's ... not wanting to be proven wrong," Godsey said. "The person who was DeWine's assistant in that meeting – I can't remember the person's name – was very much of the mentality like I was when I was a prosecutor. I remember him saying, 'This is ridiculous. There's not going to be any innocent people (based on DNA database information).' It's more like they were in that fog of denial like I used to be in."

DeWine and his team have always had a good working relationship with the Ohio Innocence Project and support the group's mission, Tierney said.

"This was not a policy disagreement. This was a logistical issue," said Tierney, who was also with DeWine in the AG's office. "There was concern that state and federal laws would prohibit the lab from (reviewing old cases). It certainly makes a lot of sense for the local municipalities like Cincinnati to do this on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis. We understand attractiveness of one-stop shop. But in a home-rule state like Ohio, there is not a lot of one-stop shops. The governor is a longtime prosecutor. He certainly believes cases should go where the evidence shows."

Godsey's comments come as the city of Cincinnati police has agreed to review certain homicide cases for the past nine years as part of a $100,000 settlement in a murder case where the department didn't share DNA evidence that pointed to someone else. 

The Ohio Innocence Project, based at University of Cincinnati, has used DNA evidence to help free 30 wrongfully convicted people since Godsey and John Cranley founded the organization 17 years ago. Godsey, a UC law professor, detailed some of the Ohio Innocence Project's cases in his book, "Blind Injustice," released last year. 

The Ohio Innocence Project has gained more momentum with political and government leaders as social justice advocates have gained more attention in recent years. 

"There's still a way to go, but definitely the environment and the culture is different than it was when we started in 2003," Godsey said. In the past "when I said, 'We're looking at cases of someone who could be innocent,' I got looked at like I had two heads. Now it's accepted and understood." 

Godsey has remained close with Cranley, now in his second term as Cincinnati mayor. 

"People think of John as the mayor and a politician, but I got to see him as a young attorney in court," Godsey said. "He won some of our cases and freed innocent people. He could've had a heck of a career as a trial lawyer."