Tangled Up in Blue: The Scott Hornoff Story

The New England Innocence Project

REFLECTIONS ON THE SCOTT HORNOFF EXONERATION

By attorney Robert N. Feldman (rnf@birnbaumlaw.com)

In 1999, Boston Attorney Amanda Metts and I took on Scott Hornoff's case through our work with the New England Innocence Project. In the three years since the Project was founded, six men in New England have been exonerated, five of them -- all but Scott -- with the help of DNA testing. Though DNA did not trigger Scott's exoneration, it has helped exonerate more than 120 men and women nationwide.

In New England, the recent exonerees have collectively served more than sixty years in prison for crimes they did not commit. The amount of destruction this has caused these individuals and their families is hard to fathom, but it is very real. Lost time with spouses, brothers, sisters, children, and parents, are all part of the wrongly convicted's reality. And, there is the more practical side of it -- finding their way back to a comfortable job, comfortable house, and comfortable life after spending six years in a cage.

As noted in Seamus McGraw's fine piece, there are no easy answers to why the system failed Scott Hornoff. But, like all other wrongful convictions, we can learn some lessons from it.

First, the Hornoff case, more than any other I have worked on, exemplifies why states should investigate fully each and every wrongful conviction within their jurisdictions. There remain serious questions about the quality of the investigation that led to Scott's conviction. We need to find answers to these questions to make our system more accurate, and to make it less likely that we repeat this kind of tragedy. When a building burns, a plane crashes, a patient dies on the operating table, fire departments, the FAA and hospitals immediately examine what went wrong. Why? To stop it from happening again. The difficulty in determining why Scott Hornoff was wrongly convicted is the very reason we need an independent commission to look hard and see what went wrong.

Second, inmates with a viable claim of innocence should have better access to post-conviction DNA testing. In Scott's case, we were only at the earliest stages of DNA testing when Todd Barry came forward and confessed to the crime. But, Scott was headed down the DNA path only because he was resourceful. Hornoff worked hard to get the attention of Barry Scheck and ultimately the New England Innocence Project. Even after we joined Scott's team, it took many months before the state and the court granted us permission to undertake DNA testing. Given the power of DNA, and its role in exposing more than 120 wrongful convictions to date, inmates like Scott should not have to jump through hoops to have access to post-conviction DNA testing.

Third, Scott's exoneration teaches us humility. Many people were convinced of Scott's guilt. In fact, in 2001, The Providence Journal published an essay by a Brown University professor criticizing the Innocence Project for taking on Scott Hornoff's case. After describing Hornoff as "truly guilty," the essay concluded that "[t]aking the Hornoff case reveals the Innocence Project as a cynical enterprise that is willing to trample on victims and their families without good cause." If DNA and other exonerations teach us anything, they should teach us to recognize that our system has and will, at times, make catastrophic mistakes. Because of this, we should exercise some measure of humility when we consider claims of innocence. There are many reasons we should do this, not the least of which is self-interest. For, as Scott puts it, if it happened to him, it can happen to anyone.

Scott, with the support of his friends and family, has shown tremendous courage and resolve through this ordeal. Since his release, he has done volunteer work with the New England Innocence Project and others to help those who find themselves in the position he was in for more than six years. If there is any good that has come out of this it is that the wrongly convicted now have another advocate in Scott Hornoff. And, they need it.

If anyone you know currently is in prison for a crime he or she did not commit, you can contact the National Innocence Project at: Innocence Project, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, 55 5th Avenue, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10003. If the matter is in one of the New England states, you can contact the New England Innocence Project at: New England Innocence Project, c/o Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP, 125 High Street, Boston, MA 02110.