Home / Faculty & Staff / Mark A. Godsey
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Contact Information

Education

  • BS, Northwestern University
  • JD, The Ohio State University

Links

Areas of Interest

  • Criminal Law and Procedure
  • Evidence

Mark A. Godsey
Daniel P. and Judith L. Carmichael Professor of Law and Director, Lois and Richard Rosenthal Institute for Justice/Ohio Innocence Project


Following his graduation from the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University, where he served as an articles editor of the Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif, summa cum laude and 2nd in his class, Professor Godsey clerked for Chief Judge Monroe G. McKay of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Salt Lake City, Utah. He then practiced civil litigation and white collar-criminal defense at Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue in Chicago and New York City, where he performed significant pro bono work for the Federal Public Defenders. Professor Godsey then joined the Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) for the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted federal crimes ranging from political corruption to hijacking to organized crime. As a federal prosecutor, Professor Godsey supervised FBI investigations, presented cases to federal grand juries, conducted jury and bench trials, and argued numerous appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He prosecuted several cases that garnered national media attention, and received several awards for his performance as an AUSA, including the Director's Award for Superior Performance, presented to him by then Attorney General Janet Reno, and a major award from the FBI.

Professor Godsey then joined the faculty at the Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University, where he was a Faculty Supervisor to the Kentucky Innocence Project. At Chase, Professor Godsey was awarded the Lukowsky Award for teaching excellence by vote of the graduating class of 2003.

Professor Godsey joined the UC Law faculty in 2004, and was a recipient of the Goldman Prize for Excellence in Teaching that same year.  In addition to his teaching and scholarly activities at UC Law, Professor Godsey is an active criminal litigator. He serves as the Director for the Lois and Richard Rosenthal Institute for Justice and Ohio Innocence Project, where he represents convicted Ohio inmates for whom new evidence, such as DNA evidence, proves their innocence. Recent high profile cases of the OIP include that of Clarence Elkins (exonerated in 2005 by DNA and released from life sentence for murder and double rape), Chris Bennett (released in 2006 through DNA evidence from imprisonment for aggravated vehicular homicide), Robert McClendon (exonerated by DNA and released in 2008 after serving 18 years for a rape), and Raymond Towler (exonerated by DNA and released in 2010 after serving 29 years for a rape). 

Professor Godsey and the OIP have also proposed several significant legislative reforms in Ohio, and worked tirelessly to get them passed into law.  In 2010, for example, Governor Strickland signed Senate Bill 77, a law proposed and championed by the OIP that has been called "one of the most important pieces of criminal justice legislation in this state in a century," and a law that makes Ohio a "national model" on reforms to reduce and prevent the wrongful conviction of the innocent.

In 2008, Professor Godsey was elected to the Board of Directors of the Innocence Network, the organization representing Innocence Projects in the United States and around the world.  As a board member, he chairs the Awards Committee and serves on the International and Amicus committees.  Recognized as a leading authority on wrongful convictions, Professor Godsey has lectured on the subject across the United States, and in Europe, Africa and Asia.

Professor Godsey also represents indigent criminal defendants before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit as a member of the CJA panel, and occasionally defends criminal defendants in high-profile cases outside of the OIP, such as the Warren County murder case of Ryan Widmer.  In 2004, he was honored as a Superstar of Criminal Law by the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, was profiled in Cincinnati magazine, and was named Outstanding Recent Alumnus by his law school alma mater. In 2007, he recieved the TIAA-CREF Award for Distinguished Public Service from the University of Cincinnati, an award given to one faculty member university-wide each year. Also in 2007, Professor Godsey was honoroed as one of the eight most inspiring men in Cincinnati by Inspire Magazine. He received a "Champion of Justice" Award from the Ohio Association of Crminal Defense Lawyers in 2010 for his work in getting Senate Bill 77 passed into law, and was once again featured in Cincinnati Magazine.

Professor Godsey is a regular commentator on issues relating to criminal law in both the local and national press. He is frequently interviewed by local television news and newspapers, and has appeared nationally on Larry King Live, Dateline NBC, CNN, ESPN, BBC, Forensic Files, Court TV, the Oxygen Network, NPR and A&E's American Justice, among others. He has been quoted in papers and magazines across the country, including The New York Times, Newsweek, People and the Wall Street Journal.

Publications

Presentations

  • Reformulating the Miranda Warnings in Light of Contemporary Law and Understandings, presented to University of Florida Law Faculty (November 9, 2005)
  • Reformulating the Miranda Warnings in Light of Contemporary Law and Understandings, presented to Ohio State Law Faculty (September 12, 2005)
  • Law Review Placement Strategies, UC Summer Workshop (June 8, 2005)
  • Going Home To Stay: A Review of Collateral Consequences of Conviction, Post-Incarceration Employment, and Recidivism in Ohio, University of Toledo Law School Symposium (October 2005)
  • The Voluntary Confessions Rule and the “Veil of Ignorance”: Reexamining and Reformulating the Standards for Confession Admissibility, Ohio Legal Scholarship Workshop, Akron, Ohio (June 24, 2004)
  • The Innocence Revolution and Our Evolving Standards of Decency in Death Penalty Jurisprudence, Gilvary Symposium at the University of Dayton College of Law (October 10, 2003)
  • The Voluntary Confessions Rule and the “Veil of Ignorance”: Reexamining and Reformulating the Standards for Confession Admissibility, Chicago-Kent College of Law Faculty (February 9, 2004)
  • The Voluntary Confessions Rule and the “Veil of Ignorance”: Reexamining and Reformulating the Standards for Confession Admissibility, workshop at the University of Cincinnati College of Law (July 7, 2003)
  • The Final Frontier of Constitutional Confession Law—The International Arena: Exploring the Admissibility of Confessions Taken by U.S. Investigators from Non-Americans Abroad, on Kiawah Island, South Carolina (July 31, 2002)
  • The Final Frontier of Constitutional Confession Law—The International Arena: Exploring the Admissibility of Confessions Taken by U.S. Investigators from Non-Americans Abroad, Salmon P. Chase College of Law Scholarship Workshop Series, Northern Kentucky University (September 27, 2002)
  • Miranda's Final Frontier—The International Arena: A Critical Analysis of U.S. v. Bin Laden, and a Proposal for a New Miranda Exception Abroad, Salmon P. Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University (March 27, 2002)

Courses

  • Criminal Law
  • Criminal Procedure I
  • Evidence
  • Ohio Innocence Project
  • Research Seminar: Wrongful Convictions

Awards

  • 2007 TIAA-CREF Award for Distinguished Public Service
  • 2004 Goldman Prize for Excellence in Teaching
  • 2004 Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award
  • 2004 Parker/McFarland Award for Excellence
  • 2004 Superstar of Criminal Law Award
  • 2003 Lukowsky Award for Teaching Excellence

November 2011

Mark submitted the essay, False Justice and the "True Prosecutor": A Memoir, Tribute and Commentary, to the peer-reviewed Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law.

Mark and Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) exoneree, Raymond Towler, made a presentation, DNA and the Innocence Movement, at a CLE for public defenders and judges in Southwest Ohio.

Mark’s symposium contribution, She Blinded Me with Science: Wrongful Convictions and the 'Reverse CSI-Effect', 17 Tex. Wesleyan L. Rev. 481 (2011), is now in print.

The Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) hosted Dr. Greg Hampikian, famed DNA expert and the expert in the Amanda Knox case in Italy, who spoke at the College of Law on November 11.

 

October 2011

Mark's article, She Blinded Me with Science:  Wrongful Convictions and the Reverse CSI-Effect, 17 Tex. Wesleyan L. Rev. 481 (2011), is now in print.

Mark, Director of the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP), and OIP exoneree Raymond Towler presented remarks entitled, “Wrongful Convictions,” to the UC Alumni Club in Indianapolis.   Mark also presented “Wrongful Convictions” to two community groups in Cincinnati, and attended the Innocence Network's Board of Directors Meeting in San Diego.

The OIP helped to exonerate David Ayers of Cleveland, who spent more than 11 years in prison for a murder that DNA proved he did not commit.  OIP staff attorney, Carrie Wood, was the lead attorney on the case.

Mark’s article, Rethinking the Involuntary Confession Rule: Toward a Workable Test for Identifying Compelled Self-Incrimination, 93 Cal. L. Rev. 465 (2005), was cited in State v. Iowa Dist. Court, 801 N.W.2d 513 (Iowa 2011) 

September 2011

The Ohio Innocence Project (OIP), which Mark directs, won the release of David Ayers in Cleveland on September 12, who had served eleven years in prison for a murder DNA evidence proved he did not commit.  Mark credits OIP staff attorney, Carrie Wood, and 3Ls Ryan McGraw, Zach El-Sawaf, Lindsey Fleissner and Megan Collard for the success.  Read more about it at Deb Rieselman, UC Law Students Help Free Man Wrongly Convicted of Murder, UC News, Sept. 15, 2011.

Mark spoke about wrongful convictions in the international arena at four law schools in China: Remnin University of China (Beijing), Beijing School of Politics and Law, Northwest School of Politics and Law (Xi'an), and Xi'an School of Architecture and Techmology.  He  spoke at Renmin University at a conference dedicated to assisting China to adopt the concept of judicial precedent.  There, Mark described the American judicial system and how stare decisis works to bind lower courts.

Mark’s article, Rethinking the Involuntary Confession Rule: Toward a Workable Test for Identifying Compelled Self-Incrimination, 93 Cal. L. Rev. 465 (2005), was cited in State v. Iowa Dist. Court for Webster County, 801 N.W.2d 513 (2011).

Mark was quoted in Kimball Perry, Murder Case Could Hinge on the Blink of an Eye, Cincinnati Enquirer, Sept. 12, 2011.

Summer 2011

In July, Mark, who serves as the faculty director of the College’s Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) traveled to a conference in Athens, Greece, where he was invited to speak on the spread of the Innocence Movement internationally.  

Mark was solicited by the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law to write a book review of Jim and Nancy Petro's bookFalse Justice: Eight Myths That Convict the Innocent.  

In August, Mark, OIP staff attorneys Jennifer Paschen Bergeron and Karla Markley Hall, and OIP exonerees Robert McClendon and Raymond Towler spoke to the UC law faculty as part of the College’s Summer 2011 Faculty Workshop series.  An article about Raymond Towler, as well as Mark and the OIP’s involvement in the Towler case, was published in Reader's Digest.  

Mark was interviewed by Dateline NBC for an upcoming one-hour special on OIP exoneree Nancy Smith.

Clarence Elkins, one of the OIP’s first exonerees, has given a $5,000 gift to the OIP.  The OIP will establish the Clarence Elkins Fellows with this gift.  In 2005, with the help of the OIP, Elkins was exonerated through DNA testing after serving six years of a life sentence for murder. 

Mark and OIP students and staff represented petitioner Tony R. Gross in Gross v. Warden, No. 08–4727, 2011 WL 1597659 (6th Cir. Apr. 27, 2011).

Two of Mark’s articles were cited:

Reformulating the Miranda Warnings in Light of Contemporary Law and Understandings, 90 Minn. L. Rev. 781 (2006), in Kit Kinports,Criminal Law: The Supreme Court's Love-Hate Relationship With Miranda, 101 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 375 (2011); and

Mark was quoted in:

Jonathan Stempel, U.S. Narrows Case versus Accused Ponzi Schemer Stanford, Reuters, May 5, 2011;

May 2011

Mark spoke about founding the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) at the Cincinnati Academy of Leadership for Lawyers at Hebrew-Union College. 

Mark represented OIP client, Roger Dean Gillispie, in an evidentiary hearing in federal court in Dayton, Ohio, the fourth evidentiary hearing in this case in the past year.  Mark also briefed the case extensively in parallel proceedings on different legal issues in the federal district court and the Second District Court of Appeals in Ohio.  Mark has investigated and litigated the Gillispie case since the OIP was founded in 2003.  A final decision on Gillispie's long-sought exoneration is expected before the end of 2011. 

Mark was quoted in: 

Mark appeared on the Dateline NBC episode, The Bathtub Mystery, about the Ryan Widmer trial.

April 2011

The Ohio Innocence Project (OIP), which Mark directs, scored a victory in the case of Wally Zimmer, who had been in prison for 12 years for a murder that DNA evidence proved he did not commit.  Mr. Zimmer was released on April 1, 2011.

Mark and the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) presented the 2011 Innocence Network Conference: An International Exploration of Wrongful Conviction, at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in downtown Cincinnati.  As part of the conference and in collaboration with the OIP and fifth-year design students at UC DAAP (College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning), the Freedom Center Journal (FCJ) produced a special edition, Illustrated Truth:  Expressions of Wrongful Conviction, which is the first-ever compilation of artwork, poetry, and other writings by the wrongfully convicted.  In addition to the FCJ’s student editors, second-year OIP student Amanda Rieger and OIP Administrative Coordinator and Policy Analyst Jodi Shorr, made significant contributions to the volume.  The special edition is available for sale on Amazon.com.

Mark’s article, Reformulating the Miranda Warnings in Light of Contemporary Law and Understandings, 90 Minn. L. Rev. 781 (2006), was cited in Stephen Rushin, Rethinking Miranda: The Post-Arrest Right To Silence, 99 Cal. L. Rev. 151 (2011).

Mark was quoted in:

March 2011

The Ohio Innocence Project(OIP), which Mark directs, scored a victory in the case of Glenn Tinney, who had been in prison for 18 years. Judge James DeWeese granted the OIP’s motion to withdraw Mr. Tinney’s original confession and ordered his release in Ohio v. Tinney, No. 92-CR-239 D, slip op. (Richland Co. Common Pleas, Mar. 25, 2011).

Mark served as lead counsel in the innocence hearings before Judge Merz in federal court in Dayton in the OIP case of Roger Dean Gillispie. Mark and the OIP have been working on Dean's case since 2003, when the OIP first opened its doors. A decision is expected in August of 2011.

February 2011

Mark Godsey was named theDaniel P. and Judith L. Carmichael Professor of Law at the College of Law. In his official announcement of Mark’s new chair, Dean Lou Bilionis described Mark as “[a] nationally recognized authority on wrongful convictions, one of his generation's foremost scholars in the law relating to confessions and police interrogations, an award-winning teacher, and an award-winning model of inspiring service to students and colleagues alike.” Congratulations to Mark on this well-deserved honor!

The Ohio Innocence Project, which Mark directs, won a victory on Feb. 10 when one of its clients, Bryant Gaines, was vindicated. Mr. Gaines had been in prison since 2003 on a 15-to-life sentence for murder. Read more about Mr. Gaines and his case here.

Mark’s article, Rethinking the Involuntary Confession Rule: Toward a Workable Test for Identifying Compelled Self-Incrimination, 93Cal. L. Rev. 465 (2005), was cited in Donald P. Judges Stephen J. Cribari, Speaking Of Silence: A Reply To Making Defendants Speak, 94 Minn. L. Rev. Headnotes 11 (2009).

Mark was quoted in:

•UD Panel Confronts Unjust Imprisonment,Dayton Daily News, Jan. 24, 2011; and

•Seen Overheard,Dayton Daily News, Jan. 22, 2011.

Mark gave a presentation on the Ohio Innocence Project to 75 members of the women's club at the Sycamore Presbyterian Church.

January 2011

 

Mark attended Association of American Law Schools annual meeting in San Francisco.

Mark gave a lecture with Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) exonerees Robert McClendon and Raymond Towler in conjunction with the Dayton Opera's staging of the Beethoven opera Fidelio, a 200-year old opera about wrongful conviction.

Mark spoke at an OIP fundraiser in Columbus, centered around former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro's new book False Justice, which Jim co-authored with his wife Nancy. False Justice is a memoir about Petro's career as a law-and-order Republican Attorney General and his "enlightenment" to the problem of wrongful conviction. Mark is featured heavily in the book, along with several OIP cases. False Justice is available at Amazon.com.

Mark ‘s article, Rethinking the Involuntary Confession Rule: Toward a Workable Test for Identifying Compelled Self-Incrimination, 93 Cal. L. Rev. 465 (2005), was cited in Kathleen Kim, The Coercion Of Trafficked Workers, 96 Iowa L. Rev. 409 (2010).

Mark was quoted inWagner Wrong To Try To Veto Gov. Strickland, Dayton Daily News, Jan. 5, 2011.

December 2010

Mark was featured in and his photograph appeared on the cover of We Asked: UC Experts Answered, UC Today, Dec. 2010. Mark was quoted in Judge Denies Convicted Rapist Gillispie A New Trial, Dayton Daily News, Dec. 30, 2010, at A8.

November 2010

Mark was quoted in:

 

October 2010

Mark, former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, and Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) exonerees Raymond Towler and Robert McClendon, spoke to judges at the common pleas and appellate levels during the Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals annual conference in Cleveland.

Mark presented his paper, She Blinded Me with Science:  Wrongful Convictions and the Reverse CSI Effect, at Innocence and the Road to Exoneration, a symposium held at the Texas Wesleyan School of Law in Fort Worth, Texas.

Mark spoke on a panel about the Ryan Widmer murder trial case at the Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University. 

Mark attended the Innocence Network Board of Directors Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Mark attended the annual Association of American Law Schools Faculty Recruitment Conference in Washington, D.C.

Mark served as attorney for the appellant in U.S.A. v. Lewis E. Larch, Jr., No. 08-4178, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 20891 , (6th Cir. Oct. 8, 2010).

Mark’s article, Going Home to Stay: A Review of Collateral Consequences of Conviction, Post-Incarceration Employment, and Recidivism in Ohio, 36 U. Tol. L. Rev. 525 (2005) (with Marlaina Freisthler), was cited in Emily Tancer Broach, Post-Conviction Proceedings, Supervised Release, and a Prudential Approach to the Mootness Doctrine, 2010 U. Chi. Legal F. 493.

Mark was quoted in NKU To Host Panel On Widmer Case: Lawyers, Police, Media To Discuss Bathtub Death, Cincinnati Enquirer, Oct. 4, 2010.

September 2010

Mark spoke about the innocence movement with Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) client and exoneree, Raymond Towler, at the University of Dayton Law School at an event sponsored by their student chapter of the American Constitution Society.

Mark’s article, Rethinking the Involuntary Confession Rule: Toward a Workable Test for Identifying Compelled Self-Incrimination, 93 Cal. L. Rev. 465 (2005), was cited in U.S. v. Ghailani, No. S10 98 Crim. 1023(LAK), 2010 WL 3430514 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 17, 2010).

Mark was quoted in:

Summer 2010

Mark gave a presentation at Witwatersrand Law School in Johannesburg South Africa on the Innocence Movement in the U.S. and internationally.

Mark presented to the UC Law Faculty on a work-in-progress, ‘Wrongful Convictions and the Reverse CSI Effect.’

Mark gave a presentation, along with former Ohio Attorney General James Petro and three Ohio Innocence Project exonerees, to approximately 150 common pleas judges in Ohio at their annual summer conference in Oxford, Ohio.

Mark gave a presentation on “Revisiting Old Convictions in Light of New Technology” to federal judges at the Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference in Columbus, Ohio.

Mark’s article, Shining the Bright Light on Police Interrogation in America (reviewing Richard A. Leo, Police Interrogation and American Justice), 6 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 711 (2009), was cited in Lunbery v. Hornbeak, 605 F.3d 754 (9th Cir. 2010).

Mark was quoted in:

June 2010

Ohio Innocence Project client Raymond Towler walked free on May 5, 2010 after serving 29 years of a life sentence for a rape that DNA testing showed he didn't commit. OIP has been involved with this case since 2004. It is the OIP's 7th exoneration and 10th person freed on grounds of innocence.

Two of Mark’s articles were cited:

Mark was also quoted in:

May 2010

Mark gave public presentations on Wrongful Convictions and the Innocence Movement at the University of Arizona in Tucson and at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. He gave a talk to the faculty and foundation members at the University of Arizona Law School on Fundraising, Politics, and Establishing a Successful Law School Center.

The Innocence Reform Act that Mark and the OIP have been working on for three years was passed by the Ohio House of Representatives by a vote of 85-7. Mark served as counsel in Roger Dean Gillispie v. Deb Timmerman-Cooper, No. 3:09-cv-471, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39519 (S.D. Ohio, Apr. 20, 2010).

Mark’s articles, Reformulating the Miranda Warnings in Light of Contemporary Law and Understandings, 90 Minn. L. Rev. 781 (2006); and When Terry Met Miranda: Two Constitutional Doctrines Collide, 63 Fordham L. Rev. 715 (1994), were cited in Charles Alan Wright, et. al., Federal Practice and Procedure (West, 2010 Supp.).

Mark was quoted in:

Mark appeared on Cincinnati’s Channel 9 (WCPO) on two occasions as an expert on the case of Anthony Kirkland, who was recently convicted of being a serial killer in Cincinnati. The Ohio Innocence Project produced a new newsletter with updates on their activities.

April 2010

Several of Mark’s articles were cited:

Mark served as counsel in:

  • Roger Dean Gillispie v. Deb Timmerman-Cooper, 3:09-cv-471, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25005, (S.D. Ohio, Mar. 17, 2010).
  • Roger Dean Gillispie v. Deb Timmerman-Cooper, 3:09-cv-471, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25004, (S.D. Ohio, Mar. 12, 2010).

Mark was quoted in:

March 2010

Mark’s article, Rethinking the Involuntary Confession Rule: Toward a Workable Test for Identifying Compelled Self-Incrimination, 93 Cal. L. Rev. 465 (2005), was cited in Donald P. Cribari & Stephen J. Cribari, Speaking of Silence: A Reply to Making Defendants Speak, 94 Minn. L. Rev. 800 (2010). He presented Guilty Until Proven Innocent...DNA & the Innocence Project as part of Sunday Salons.

Mark was quoted in:

February 2010

Mark attended the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans and spoke at the Section on Section on Criminal Justice Meeting on The Lessons of the DNA Revolution on the Criminal Justice.

Two of Mark’s articles were cited:

Mark was quoted in

January 2010

Mark testified in the Criminal Justice Committee of the Ohio House of Representatives in support of Senate Bill 77, an omnibus Innocence Protection Act that passed the Ohio Senate last spring.

Mark was quoted in:

December 2009

Mark spoke at an event sponsored by the ACLU of Ohio regarding the Ohio Innocence Project's legislation, SB77, which is currently pending in the House of Representatives. He also spoke along with exoneree, Robert McClendon, on DNA and junk science at the Death Penalty Seminar in Columbus sponsored by the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Mark was featured in Area Universities Team up to Educate Retired Adults, Hamilton Journal-News, Nov. 3, 2009.

November 2009

Mark’s essay, Shining the Bright Light on Police Interrogation in America, 6 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 711 (2009) (reviewing Richard A. Leo, Police Interrogation and American Justice (2008)), was featured on Larry Solum's Legal Theory Blog. He spoke on the death penalty at the University of Akron.

The Ohio Innocence Project gave a seminar, Strengthening Prosecutions: Improving Eyewitness Identification Procedures in Ohio, for police and prosecutors in Columbus on wrongful conviction and the proper way to perform eyewitness identification procedures. Mark both spoke and served as master of ceremonies for the event.

Mark was quoted in:

October 2009

Mark hosted Celebrating Constitution Day at the College of Law and repeated his performance at the Museum Center. He testified twice in the Ohio House of Representatives in favor of Senate Bill 77, a comprehensive Innocence Protection Act designed to reduce the number of wrongful convictions. The bill passed the Senate last Spring.

Mark was quoted in:

Summer 2009

Mark, with Adjunct Professor Pierre Bergeron and '06 Law grad Michele Berry, represented Warren County defendant Ryan Widmer, charged with murder, and were successful in winning him a new trial based on juror misconduct. The team then successfully defended that victory before the Court of Appeals, resulting in Widmer's release pending a new trial. Mark appeared four times on the Bill Cunningham show and once on the Eddie and Tracey show on 700 WLW to discuss the case.

Mark presented his research involving international issues in wrongful convictions to the faculty as part of the 13th Annual UC Faculty Summer Scholarship Series. He traveled to New York City and met with Ulf Stridbeck, Professor at the University of Oslo in Norway, who is a founding member of Norway's Criminal Case Review Commission--a government equivalent of an innocence project.

Mark spoke in Indianapolis at the annual conference for the Society of Professional Journalists. He was on a panel with two senior editors of the Chicago Tribune and a journalism professor from Depauw and discussed ethical issues that arise between attorneys and journalists on high-profile legal cases.

Mark’s article, Educational Inequalities, The Myth of Meritocracy, and the Silencing of Minority Voices: The Need for Diversity of America's Law Reviews, 12 Harv. Blackletter L.J. 59 (1995), was cited in Rachel J. Anderson, From Imperial Scholar to Imperial Student: Minimizing Bias in Article Evaluation by Law Reviews, 20 Hastings Women's L.J. 197 (2009).

Mark was quoted in:

June 2009

Mark published Shining the Bright Light on Police Interrogation in America (reviewing Richard A. Leo, Police Interrogation and American Justice (Harvard University Press, 2008)), 6 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 711 (2009).

Mark appeared for an hour on Wednesday, May 13th, on WLW's Bill Cunningham show to discuss his representation of Ryan Widmer and attempts to get Ryan a new trial. He spoke on Fountain Square at a vigil for Ryan Widmer attended by several hundred supporters.

Several of Mark’s articles were cited:

Mark was quoted in:

May 2009

Mark visited several law schools in China, where he gave a talk on Wrongful Conviction of the Innocent in the United States. In Beijing, Mark spoke at Renmin University Law School and Beijing Normal University Law School. Mark also went to dinner and met informally with faculty and students from both schools.

Mark then visited UC's sister law school at Shandong University in Jinan, China. There, Mark was a visiting scholar, and made presentations and gave seminars on a variety of topics. Mark also met extensively with criminal law faculty, who discussed with Mark some of China's high profile innocence cases and exonerations in recent years. Mark also visited the coastal city of Qindao, China, where he met with criminal law faculty from Qindao law school. In Qindao, Mark was hosted by the Deheng Law Firm, a prominent Chinese law firm that specializes in criminal defense. Mark spoke to the criminal law department of the firm, and went to dinner with the Chairman and several key partners in the criminal justice department where they discussed the possibility of stating an innocence project in China.

The tour was very helpful to Mark's understanding of how China's criminal justice system handles post-conviction claims of innocence. Mark made numerous contacts that will hopefully pave the way for comparative scholarship, and possibly joint research with Chinese scholars, in the future.

Mark published Professor Mark Godsey on the Sixth Circuit’s Garner v. Mitchell, 2009 Emerging Issues 3527 (Apr. 16, 2009). He was quoted in Garner v. Mitchell, 557 F.3d 257 (2009). Mark’s articles, Reformulating the Miranda Warnings in Light of Contemporary Law and Understandings, 90 Minn. L. Rev. 781 (2006), and When Terry Met Miranda: Two Constitutional Doctrines Collide, 63 Fordham L. Rev. 715 (1994), were cited in Charles Alan Wright, et al., Federal Practice and Procedure (West 2009 Supp.).

Mark was quoted in:

April 2009

Mark attended the United States Supreme Court arguments in District Attorney's Office of the Third Judicial District v. Osborne, along with approximately 18 students from the Ohio Innocence Project and his Wrongful Convictions seminar. The case addresses whether inmates have a constitutional right to DNA testing to prove their innocence.

A joint project between the Ohio Innocence Project and the Columbus Dispatch paved the way for the exoneration of Joseph Fears, which is described in Ohio Innocence Project Helps Man Clear His Name After Wrongful Conviction, UC News, March 6, 2009.

Mark and exonerees Robert McClendon and Joseph Fears were luncheon speakers at the Wise Temple in Cincinnati.

Mark and Melinda Dawson-Elkins were the keynote speakers at the annual alumni day for Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis. They spoke to a crowd of approximately 350 people. The audience also watched the award-winning documentary Conviction: The True Story of Clarence Elkins. The event was described in Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Event Explores Homicides from Crime Scene to Court, Lexis US Fed News, Feb. 25, 2009.

Mark, exoneree Robert McClendon, and the Ohio Innocence Project staff attended the Innocence Network Conference in Houston. Mark attended the Board of Directors meeting, and spoke at the International Committee group.

Mark was a panelist at the Weaver Institute symposium, Interrogations and False Confessions: Social Science Confronts the Law, and gave a talk on Reliability Lost, False Confessions Discovered.

Mark and several Ohio Innocence Project exonerees testified before the Criminal Justice Commitee of the Ohio House of Representatives regarding the Ohio Innocence Project's wrongful conviction bill pending in the Ohio legislature.

Mark and exoneree Robert McClendon, spoke at DNA Diagnostics Center, the lab in Fairfield, Ohio that provides free DNA testing for the Ohio Innocence Project and performed the testing in the Robert McClendon case. The visit is described in Ohio Innocence Project Joins Freed Inmates in Thanking Fairfield DNA Center Through On-Site Visit, UC News, March 20, 2009.

Mark and the Ohio Innocence Project were featured as the cover story of the Akron Legal Times for February 2009 in an article entitled, Innocence Project Live and Well in Ohio.

Mark was quoted in:

March 2009

Mark's proposal for a panel on The Lessons of DNA and the Innocence Revolution for the Criminal Justice System was one of only two proposals accepted by the AALS Criminal Justice Section for the 2010 AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Mark will moderate the panel, which will include Brandon Garrett (Virginia), Cynthia Jones (American), Richard Leo (San Francisco), and Daniel Medwed of (Utah). Mark spoke with OIP exoneree Robert McClendon at Akron Law School and at a faculty lunch and then to the student body and local bar.

Mark filed an amicus brief with Douglas Berman (Ohio State) in the Ohio Supreme Court on behalf of death row inmate Kevin Keith, who is represented by the Ohio Public Defender. Along with 2Ls Amanda Smith and Melissa Laugle, and former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, Mark filed an appellate brief in the case of Roger Dean Gillispie, who has been a client of the Ohio Innocence Project since 2003.

Mark was quoted in:

February 2009

Mark gave an Ohio Criminal Justice Legislative Update and taught a course on using DNA pretrial to exculpate the accused at a CLE event sponsored by the Cincinnati Criminal Defense Association. He acted as the discussant at a faculty workshop at the College by Bennett Capers (Hofstra) on Canaries, the Fourth Amendment, and the Equity Principle as part of the College’s Faculty Workshop Series.

January 2009

Mark’s article, Going Home to Stay: A Review of Collateral Consequences of Conviction, Post-Incarceration Employment, and Recidivism in Ohio, 36 U. Tol. L. Rev. 525 (2005) (with Marlaina Freisthler), was cited in Susan Pace Hamill, An Argument for Providing Drug Courts in All Alabama Counties Based on Judeo-Christian Ethics, 59 Ala. L. Rev. 1305 (2008). He was quoted in Down by Law: Facts Aren’t Always Enough to Prove a Man’s Innocence, CityBeat, Dec. 17, 2008.

December 2008

Mark was quoted in Group: DNA Raises Questions of Guilt in '81 Rape, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nov. 22, 2008, at B3.

November 2008

Mark spoke at the Cardiff University School of Law, in Cardiff, Wales, at the UK Innocence Network's annual conference. He spoke on the innocence movement in the U.S., the similarities and differences between post-conviction innocence law in the U.S. and U.K., and also on some of his scholarship regarding the causes of wrongful conviction.

Mark was quoted in DNA Test Doesn't Help Rapist; Results Show He's Likely the Man Who Attacked Toledo Woman in '92, Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 18, 2008, at 01B.

October 2008

Mark submitted a solicited book review for publication in the peer-reviewed Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, Shining the Bright Light on Police Interrogation in America (reviewing Richard Leo, Police Interrogation and American Justice (Harvard University Press, 2008)).

Mark spoke to sixty members of the Glendale Lyceum about the Ohio Innocence Project and the problem of wrongful convictions. The OIP's recent exoneree, Robert McClendon, also spoke with Mark about his experience of serving 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. The speeches were featured inHamilton and Clermont Counties: Film about Innocence Project Winds up with Q and A Session, Cincinnati Enquirer, Sept. 14, 2008, at 3B.

Mark's article, The Innocence Revolution and our "Evolving Standards of Decency" in Death Penalty Jurisprudence, 29 U. Dayton L. Rev. 265 (2004) (with Thomas Pulley), was cited in Daniel S. Medwed, Innocentrism, 2008 U. Ill. L. Rev. 1549.

Summer 2008

Mark and nine 2Ls, along with '06 UC Law and OIP alum Michele Berry, drafted legislation containing four significant reforms to curb the number of wrongful convictions in Ohio. These reforms include a DNA preservation law, a requirement that detectives videotape interrogations, eyewitness identification reforms, and expansions to the OIP-drafted DNA testing law that was enacted in 2006. The bill, which is being promoted by former Attorney General Jim Petro, and sponsored by Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) and David Goodman (R-Columbus), was introduced into the General Assembly in August at a press conference at which Mark and recent OIP exoneree Robert McClendon spoke. Mark also spoke in favor the bill at the Ohio Prosecutors Association meeting at Cedar Point, and will promote the bill at the Buckeye Sherrif's Association meeting in September in Columbus.

Mark accepted an invitation to speak at the annual conference of the UK Innocence Project, to be held this October in Cardiff, Wales. While there, Mark will meet with criminal law faculty from Cardiff Law School and other law schools around the UK to discuss his confession law scholarship.

Mark presented The Ohio Innocence Project as part of the 12th Annual UC Faculty Summer Scholarship Series.

Two of Mark's articles were cited:

Mark and the Ohio Innocence Project were featured in a number of media reports over the summer:

Mark and the Ohio Innocence Project were featured in a number of media reports over the summer:

June 2008

Mark spoke about wrongful convictions to UC English students and professors, and at two local church services. He gave a presentation at a Town Hall meeting and CLE for the Cleveland Bar Association.

Six legislative reforms that Mark drafted with 1L students were introduced in the Ohio General Assembly. He filed numerous briefs across the state on active OIP cases.

Mark was quoted in Free Pass out of Prison?, Ashtabula Star Beacon, May 1, 2008.

May 2008

Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Lois and Richard Rosenthal Institute for Justice, Ohio Innocence Project

Mark spoke at the issue of wrongful convictions to the Cincinnati CALL chapter (leadership training for young lawyers) at Hebrew-Union College, and at the First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati. Mark and the Innocence Project were featured in 30 Ohio Inmates Seeking New Dna Tests to Prove Innocence: Ohio Prisoners Request New Tests, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Apr. 27, 2008.

Mark's article, The Innocence Revolution and our "Evolving Standards of Decency" in Death Penalty Jurisprudence, 29 U. Dayton L. Rev. 265 (2004) (with Thomas Pulley), was cited in Melanie D. Wilson, Prosecutors Doing Justice Through Osmosis  Reminders to Encourage a Culture of Cooperation, 45 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 67 (2008).

April 2008

Mark was elected to the National Innocence Project Board of Directors and attended the National Innocence Network conference at Santa Clara law school, where he presented on fundraising and development, case intake procedures, and how to litigate non-DNA cases.

Mark hosted two speaking events at the College:

  • The Death Penalty in Ohio, by Phyllis Crocker (Cleveland State) and Joe Deters (Hamilton County Prosecutor).
  • Unnecessary Barriers to Successful Re-entry for Inmates Released from Prison, by Jack Chin (Arizona)

Mark and the Ohio Innocence Project's Elkins case was featured on the Forensic Files TV show on the Tru TV network.

Several of Mark's articles were cited:

Mark was quoted in News Viewership Sank During Strike, Cincinnati Enquirer, Mar. 2, 2008, at 5D.

March 2008

Mark posted Reliability Lost, False Confessions Discovered, 10 Chap. L. Rev. 1 (2007) on SSRN. He spoke at the University of Dayton as part of its annual Human Rights Week.

Mark and a volunteer attorney and nine 1L students submitted a 42-page memorandum to Governor Strickland on February 20th, asking for six new laws in Ohio to protect against wrongful convictions. Former AG Jim Petro is acting as a lead lobbyist in working to get these legislative proposals passed into law.

Mark was featured in the documentary Conviction: The True Story of Clarence Elkins, which won the award for Best Short Documentary at the Big Sky Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. Mark was present at the premiere of the film and answered questions from the audience after the film debuted.

Mark was solicited by the peer-reviewed Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law to write a book review of Richard Leo, Police Interrogation and American Justice (Harvard University Press, 2008).

After a four-year investigation, Mark and students Ashley Couch and Miranda Hamrick filed a 60-page brief in Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas seeking the exoneration of OIP client Roger Dean Gillispie. The case involves witness misidentification and police corruption, including Brady violations and tampering with witnesses and other evidence. The following week, the Dayton Daily News printed an editorial demonstrating the paper's support of the OIP's efforts in the case (Case Casts Dark Cloud on Local Justice System, Dayton Daily News, Feb. 18, 2008, at A14.)

The Columbus Dispatch ran a 5-part series on DNA and wrongful convictions in Ohio at www.dispatch.com/dna. The OIP worked with the Dispatch for more than a year in performing research for the series. The OIP filed more than 20 briefs seeking DNA testing for inmates identified in the articles as inmates who have potentially meritorious DNA claims.

Mark was quoted in several newspaper articles:

February 2008

Mark attended the AALS Annual Meeting in New York City. He was quoted in:

December 2007

Mark and his Innocence Project students were featured in the Court-TV program, Justice Delayed. He was quoted in 'Justice' Shows Work of UC Law Students, Cincinnati Enquirer, Nov. 1, 2007, at 6D.

Mark hosted a visit to the College by author Scott Turow (OneL, Presumed Innocent, Ultimate Punishment, etc.).

November 2007

Mark provided commentary on a presentation by Stephanos Bibas (Penn) at the College on Formalism in Criminal Procedure: The Triumph of Justice Scalia, The Unlikely Friend of Criminal Defendants? He was interviewed by the show Forensic Files for a Court TV episode to air in the coming months.

Mark hosted the presentation of two documentary films at the MainStreet Cinema, Tangeman Center, on the work by the students in the Ohio Innocence Project.

Mark participated in the Alumni Teach-In Day, as Hon. Nancy Johnson (Class of 1978), U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas (Houston, TX), taught his Evidence Class.

Two of Mark's articles were cited:

October 2007

Mark appeared (along with Jenny Carroll and several UC students) on the A&E Network's Innocence Files Series in a documentary on the Ohio Innocence Project's Glenn Tinney case, featuring several current UC Law Students.

Mark was a member of the ABA panel that published Evaluating Fairness and Accuracy in State Death Penalty Systems: The Ohio Death Penalty Assessment Report  An Analysis of Ohio's Death Penalty Laws, Procedures, and Practices.

Mark's article, Rethinking the Involuntary Confession Rule: Toward a Workable Test for Identifying Compelled Self-Incrimination, 93 Cal. L. Rev. 465 (2005), was cited in Michael M. O'Hear, The End of Bordenkircher: Extending the Logic of Apprendi to Plea Bargaining, 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 835 (2006).

Mark was quoted in:

Summer 2007

Mark presented Silence and the Self-Incrimination Clause as part of the 11th Annual UC Faculty Summer Scholarship Series.

Mark's article, Reformulating the Miranda Warnings in Light of Contemporary Law and Understandings , 90 Minn. L. Rev. 781 (2006), was cited in Pamela R. Metzger, Doing Katrina Time, 81 Tul. L. Rev. 1175 (2007). He appeared on WCPO-TV to discuss a local homicide case. He was quoted in:

June 2007

Mark received the TIAFF-CREF Award for Distinguished Public Service in a ceremony presided over by President Zimpher. The Ohio Innocence Project received "Courageous Advocate" for 2007 by the Inns of Court at a downtown banquet, and Mark spoke at the banquet about the phenomenon of wrongful convictions. Mark also gave a CLE presentation on the Clarence Elkins case and prosecutorial tunnel vision to the Lawyer's Club of Cincinnati at a downtown luncheon.

Several of Mark's articles were cited:

May 2007

Mark spoke on Wrongful Convictions, DNA and the Innocence Revolution at the Rotary Club in Cincinnati, to a group of administrators at UC, and at a leadership training day for Public Alliance. The Ohio Innocence Project was chosen as the "Courageous Advocate" for 2007 by the Inns of Court. Mark and other members of the OIP will receive the award on May 15.

Mark's article, Rethinking the Involuntary Confession Rule: Toward a Workable Test for Identifying Compelled Self-Incrimination, 93 Cal. L. Rev. 465 (2005), was cited in Michael S. Pardo, Neuroscience Evidence, Legal Culture, and Criminal Procedure, 33 Am. J. Crim. L. 301 (2006).

. Mark was quoted in:

April 2007

Mark completed an article, Reliability Lost, False Confessions Discovered, to be published in the Chapman Law Review as part of a symposium on Miranda at 40: Applications in a Post-Enron, Post 9/11 World at which Mark spoke in January.

Mark spoke on DNA and the Innocence Revolution at Ohio Northern University School of Law, Hebrew Union College, and London High School (London, Ohio). He spoke on Successful Fundraising Techniques and on A Primer Course for Lawyers Seeking to Understand How to Use DNA Technology in Post-Conviction Cases at the National Innocence Network Conference at Harvard Law School.

Mark appeared on the Dateline NBC espisode Killer Instinct, a one-hour episode dedicated to the story of Melinda Elkins and her quest to free her innocent husband from prison. He also was interviewed by the Oxygen Network for an upcoming episode on Melinda Elkins and the Elkins case.

Mark was selected as the winner of the TIAA-CREF Award for Extraordinary Public Service. President Nancy Zimpher will present Mark with the award at a ceremony in the Great Hall, Tangeman University Center, on May 1.

Mark hosted two speakers at the College as part of the Seasongood College Visitor Series

  • Richard Leo (San Francisco), Police Interrogations and False Confessions: Understanding and Solving the Problem
  • Victor Streib (Ohio Northern), The Application of Capital Punishment to Women in Ohio

Mark was quoted in several newspapers:

March 2007

On behalf of the Lois and Richard Rosenthal Institute for Justice/Ohio Innocence Project, Mark accepted an additional $1 million donation from local benefactors Lois and Richard Rosenthal. To date, three wrongly convicted persons have been released from prison as a result of the work of the RIJ/OIP.

Mark participated with Ann Hubbard, Suja Thomas, and Verna Williams in a moot oral argument in preparation for Pierre Bergeron's argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in Winkelman v. Parma City School District.

Two of Mark's articles were cited:

Mark was quoted in:

February 2007

Mark was featured in the January/February 2007 cover story in Inspire Cincinnati Magazine on The Eight Most Inspiring Cincinnati Men.

Mark presented Law Review Placement Strategies at the New Law Professors Section Meeting on Scholarship and the New Law Professor: Of Blogs, Books, Networks, and the Placement Game (with Dorothy Brown (Washington & Lee), Paul Caron (Cincinnati), Robert Chesney (Wake Forest) & Lawrence Solum (Illinois)) at the AALS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. He presented Reliability Lost in the Age of False Confessions at a Symposium at Chapman University School of Law on Miranda at 40: Applications in a Post-Enron, Post-9/11 World.

Mark was quoted in two articles:

Please see Faculty News Archives for earlier issues.