Saturday, April 2, 2016

Keith Allen Harward: Virginia; Did flawed "bite-mark" testimony lead to his wrongful rape and murder conviction in 1986? Professor Brandon Garrett thinks it did - and so does the Innocence Project; The Harward case was one of nine Virginia non-exoneration rape and murder cases to which Garrett and Neufeld refer in their 2009 law review article, and the case is listed with others on the law school’s website. Concerning Kagey and Levine’s testimony, Garrett said, “There was and is no scientific research to support making such aggressive claims about bite mark evidence.” He said, “Not only are the conclusions overstated, but there’s no criteria for how you reach them.” “Even apart from making unscientific and invalid claims, the technique of bite-mark comparison is quite unreliable. We have seen case after case of exonerations where the marks were not made by the convicted person and some where they were not even human bite marks but rather insect bites or bruises,” he said. Garrett said he was not suggesting the odontologists were attempting to commit an injustice. “They were probably testifying the way they always testify,” Garrett said. Harward’s innocence petition contends, “these forensic scientists ... presented to the jury what appeared at the time to be conclusive evidence of my guilt, but modern objective scientific scrutiny has more recently shown that this evidence entirely lacks reliability.” Richmond Times-Dispatch;


STORY: ""Bite mark" testimony questioned in 1982 rape and murder case," by reporter Frank Green, published by the Richmond Times-Dispatch on March 27 2016.

GIST: In 2009, University of Virginia law professor Brandon L. Garrett was poring over old trial records, looking for questionable forensic science evidence, when he came across the case of Keith Allen Harward, convicted of rape and murder in Newport News in 1986. Now, the Innocence Project says recent DNA testing proves Harward didn’t commit the brutal 1982 crimes, casting further doubt on the validity of bite-mark comparison — a forensic technique that two experts testified strongly linked Harward to the crimes. It was their testimony that drew Garrett’s attention and concern in 2009. At the time, he was researching a law review article, “Invalid Forensic Science Testimony and Wrongful Convictions,” when he began looking into non-innocence cases as well. “Sure enough, I found forensic testimony that had all the same problems that I saw in the innocent people’s cases ... and I found two bite-mark cases by accident, one of which was Harward,” he said. Reached by telephone at his Roanoke-area home last week, Dr. Alvin G. Kagey, one of the bite-mark experts called forensic odontologists who testified in Harward’s trial, said it is possible Harward is innocent, but he stands by his work in the case. “In my opinion, this was a very unique situation. At that time, bite-mark analysis was new, relatively, and there was a lot of publicity about it in the Tidewater area, and I think that people were taking it and adding maybe some of their own twists to it — not that they changed what we said — but their interpretation made it sound like this was set in concrete and it’s just not,” Kagey said. According to Kagey, “I never say about a bite mark, ‘He or she is the only person that could have done this.’” Garrett, after reviewing the trial transcript, is not persuaded the bite-mark testimony was valid and said that when he learned a petition for a writ of actual innocence was filed by Harward earlier this month, “It was really, really, really disturbing to think you can just come across innocent people’s cases by accident like that.” Harward, 59, has not been exonerated. Lawyers with the Innocence Project and the Washington law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP filed the innocence petition on March 4......... Proceedings have been stayed by the Virginia Supreme Court so that more DNA test results — said by Harward’s lawyers to further support innocence — can be submitted to the court.........The Harward case was one of nine Virginia non-exoneration rape and murder cases to which Garrett and Neufeld refer in their 2009 law review article, and the case is listed with others on the law school’s website. Concerning Kagey and Levine’s testimony, Garrett said, “There was and is no scientific research to support making such aggressive claims about bite mark evidence.” He said, “Not only are the conclusions overstated, but there’s no criteria for how you reach them.” “Even apart from making unscientific and invalid claims, the technique of bite-mark comparison is quite unreliable. We have seen case after case of exonerations where the marks were not made by the convicted person and some where they were not even human bite marks but rather insect bites or bruises,” he said. Garrett said he was not suggesting the odontologists were attempting to commit an injustice. “They were probably testifying the way they always testify,” Garrett said. Harward’s innocence petition contends, “these forensic scientists ... presented to the jury what appeared at the time to be conclusive evidence of my guilt, but modern objective scientific scrutiny has more recently shown that this evidence entirely lacks reliability.”"

The entire story can be found at:

http://m.richmond.com/news/article_66b9e47f-a917-5413-b7dc-ff5f8b432764.html?mode=jqm

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.