Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Bulletin: Douglas Prade; Ohio; His daughters stand by their father as he fights for new trial in 1997 murder of his ex-wife, Dr. Margo Prade;......... "To us," (jury foreman) Kelly said of the panel’s verdict, “I don’t think DNA was ever a factor.” The cumulative effect of the state’s circumstantial evidence, he stressed, carried the day, “and we went through everything when we deliberated.” He also pointed out that Prade had loose-fitting dentures for his upper teeth. “The fact that his lower teeth matched the bite mark fairly well – it sure looked like his teeth – played in as a factor,” Kelly said. In modern criminal trials, however, identifying a perpetrator by a bite-mark impression alone has been discredited by court rulings in many cases of wrongful arrest and conviction, his lawyers maintain." Beacon Journal.