Sunday, September 20, 2015

Bulletin: Gugsa Abraham Dabela: Connecticut; More than a year later, the family of Conn. lawyer Gugsa Abraham Dabela still searches for answers...(P)olice ruled Dabela’s death a suicide April 5, 2014, but his family is not convinced that’s the whole truth. "The family is using the website as a means of listing as many points of questioning as it can, given that the case remains an open investigation, along with providing the documentation it has to support the framework of its questions. One example, Albab Dabela offers, was that last year, the state crime lab excluded her brother as a contributor to the DNA recovered from the gun, particularly the trigger of the gun. That means there is no physical evidence to support that “Abe,” as Gugsa Dabela was affectionately called, was the last person who fired his gun or that it was his gun that actually ended his life." The Root.


Countdown to Wrongful Conviction Day:  Friday, October 2,  2105; 12 days. For information: http://www.aidwyc.org/wcd-2015/

"It’s been some 17 months since Gugsa Abraham Dabela was found dead by a Redding, Conn., roadside. By all accounts, just hours before his body was found, Dabela was hanging out with friends, having a good time and handing out business cards for his new law practice. His family has been reeling in the aftermath; questions don’t seem to have straightforward answers, and facts don’t add up. In a heartfelt appeal to the public, last month the “Justice 4 Abe” website was launched, hoping to get people, especially people in Redding, thinking..........Some five hours after Gugsa Dabela, a charismatic Ethiopian-American private attorney, was found the early morning of April 5, 2014, in his overturned vehicle with a gunshot wound to his head, Redding investigators ruled the death a suicide. The family is not certain, however, if that is the case. “The information that’s been processed by the various crime labs and the police etc., they just raise more questions than actually bring answers,” Albab Dabela says. “The classification of his death as a suicide happened five hours after he was allegedly found by the police, and they’ve conducted a suicide investigation almost to confirm their assumption, but the actual facts ... don’t seem to support a suicide conclusion.”.........The family is using the website as a means of listing as many points of questioning as it can, given that the case remains an open investigation, along with providing the documentation it has to support the framework of its questions. One example, Albab Dabela offers, was that last year, the state crime lab excluded her brother as a contributor to the DNA recovered from the gun, particularly the trigger of the gun. That means there is no physical evidence to support that “Abe,” as Gugsa Dabela was affectionately called, was the last person who fired his gun or that it was his gun that actually ended his life. There is also the fact that after talking to experts on suicide and thinking back on the 35-year-old’s life and behavior, the family can find no indication that he was suicidal or had a history of having been suicidal. “My brother, I know, died of a gunshot wound to the backside of his head, in his overturned car. No one has been able to explain how his car overturned, and no one’s been able to explain who or how or why he was shot. But I know he died of a gunshot wound. We’re trying to get the whole story,” Albab Dabela says."
http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2015/09/_justice4abe_more_than_a_year_later_the_family_of_conn_lawyer_gugsa_abraham.html