Cops & Courts

Shows like CSI have taught us that a lot can be gleaned from clues left at a crime scene, and painstakingly pieced together by investigators. What they don’t often show is how fallible evidence can actually be if it’s not properly obtained. More and more, prosecutors and police are coming to question the ways in which they’ve typically done business.

Linda Starr is the Legal Director of the Northern California Innocence Project. She spoke with KALW’s Rina Palta about the criminal justice system and what happens when it sends the wrong person to prison.

RINA PALTA: So, just to start out, tell me a little bit about the Innocence Project and how it started.

Last night, members of Occupy Oakland gathered at the Grand Lake Theater to discuss the Oakland Police Department’s crowd control policies and their use of force in response to Occupy demonstrations. The meeting was held in place of a similar event that was to be hosted by the Citizen’s Police Review Board, an independent volunteer body comprised of residents of the City of Oakland. Originally scheduled to be held at City Hall, the CPRB event was postponed somewhat last minute.