False Imprisonment

In his analysis of Bruce Lisker's 1985 murder conviction, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ralph Zarefsky this week debunked incriminating evidence against Lisker, assailed the government's case and showed a willingness to break new legal ground. Zarefsky's findings dealt a severe blow to the state attorney general's defense of Lisker's conviction and added credence to Lisker's claim that he was wrongly convicted of the killing of his mother.

A man executed by the state of Texas in 2004 was convicted on an erroneous interpretation of fire evidence, according to a report from four leading arson experts. The experts called the fire evidence presented at the trial of Cameron Willingham for the 1991 murders of his three children in a house fire "bad science" in the report presented to Texas officials Tuesday. The state's expert witnesses "relied on interpretations of 'indicators' that they were taught constituted evidence of arson.

An African woman whose first night in this country was spent in jail will receive $45,000 from the federal government to settle her lawsuit, which alleged abuse by airport immigration officials. Tsungai Tungwarara, then 18, arrived in San Francisco from Zimbabwe in January 2002 to visit her mother. She was strip-searched and sent to jail because immigration officials believed she planned to attend college in violation of her tourist visa.

One by one they ascended the stage and introduced themselves, each an embodiment of the legal system's fallibility in California. "My name is Herman Atkins," a tall ponytailed man said. "The state of California stole 12 years of my life for a rape and robbery I did not commit in Riverside." "Good morning, my name is Gloria Killian," a well-spoken middle-aged woman said. "The state stole 22 years of my life for a robbery and murder I did not commit in Sacramento." "Good morning.

The young farmer from the Indian Ocean country of Sri Lanka wanted only to get to Canada to escape the torture. Instead, he has landed in the north Los Angeles suburb of Lancaster. Accused of being a terrorist in his native country, Ahilan Nadarajah left in September 2001 and was guided by smugglers through Thailand, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico. He intended to sneak into the United States on his way to Toronto but was arrested at the border. He was twice granted political asylum by a U.S.

Just a day after celebrating the second anniversary of his freedom, Thomas Goldstein was in court Monday, fighting what may be a long battle to get compensation for the 24 years he spent in prison on a wrongful murder conviction. At the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, Goldstein, now 56, watched his lead lawyer, Ronald O. Kaye, spar with Los Angeles County's outside counsel, attorney David J.

The Bahamas Court of Appeal has awarded $500,000 to a Japanese amnesiac who was kept in a Bahamas prison and an immigration center for eight years without being charged. Atain Takitota, 41, was held unlawfully, the court said last week. Atain said he went to a Paradise Island casino shortly after he arrived in the Bahamas in August 1992 from Osaka, Japan. He said his luggage and passport were stolen.

A man was freed in Tampa after spending nearly 24 years in prison after being convicted of rapes that new DNA tests showed he did not commit. Alan Crotzer, 45, was convicted of raping a 38-year-old Tampa woman and a 12-year-old girl and sentenced to 130 years. Prosecutors told the court that there now was significant doubt about Crotzer's guilt and asked Judge J. Rogers Padgett to set aside the conviction and free him.

An El Monte man has filed suit against the Sheriff's Department, alleging that he was improperly held in the county jail for 73 days past his release date without any charges pending against him. Juan Avalos also alleges in the suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, that he was forced into an illegal settlement before being released in 2004. Attorney Stephen Yagman said the department threatened to continue to detain Avalos unless he signed a liability waiver.

Robert Gayol spent five years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit. Then the real killers were caught, and Gayol was released to rebuild his life. Two years later, he's among hundreds of people in Illinois waiting for a pardon to officially clear his record and allow him to seek compensation from the state. "I don't think it should be on my record," said Gayol of Chicago. "It's just unfair." Gov.