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) and Robert McClendon (exonerated by DNA and released in 2008 after serving 18 years for a rape). In 2008, Professor Godsey was elected to the Board of Directors of the Innocence Network, the organization representing Innocence Projects in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. 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, Europe 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.
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, 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.
Articles, Essays & Book Reviews
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.
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.
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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.
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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).
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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:
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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.).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
Mark was quoted in Group: DNA Raises Questions of Guilt in '81 Rape, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nov. 22, 2008, at B3.
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.
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.
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 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.
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).
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: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.
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: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.).
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: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: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: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: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: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 SeriesOn 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 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.