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Johnny Hincapie's Wrongful Convictions Analysis

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Johnny Hincapie's Wrongful Convictions Analysis
On November 10th York had a Fighting Wrongful Convictions: Journalists Police the Justice System panel hosted by the Journalism Department. The main point of the panel was to talk about how a journalist should properly go about writing a story on wrongful convictions and to help illustrate the point they brought in Johnny Hincapie. Hincapie was an 18 year old who was wrongfully charged with helping in the murder of Brian Watkins in the 1990s. Now at 42 years old, and after serving 25 years in prison his case has been dismissed and he is being tried fairly all thanks to the hard work, and dedication of journalist and York professor Bill Hughes who published an article in City Limits Magazine in 2010 addressing Hincapie’s wrongful conviction. At the panel they had Bill Hughes, Johnny Hincapie, Robert Dennison (the former Chairman of the New York State Board of Parole), Pete …show more content…
One reason I chose to go to this event was that as a Journalism major I felt that I would be able to gain some valuable insight on how to treat stories on wrongful convictions and also I found Johnny Hincapie’s case extremely intriguing and a story that I could not possibly pass up the chance to hear about first hand.
Personally I found the panel extremely interesting and did not dislike any aspect of it. One of the things I did like about the panel was that the panelist gave in depth answers on how to write a successful story on wrong convictions and gave advice to the Journalism students in the room on what it means to be a reporter. I also liked how open Hincapie was with his story and his struggle for justice as it helped me realize what an impact reporters can have on someone's lives. One other thing I like was that members of the audience were able to ask the panelist

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