the charles smith blog
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Wayne Burgess: Tennessee: Major (Welcome) Development: A disgraced former medical examiner Charles Harlan case: As Evan Mealins reports in The Tennessean, this innocent man, who was wrongfully imprisoned 24 years on the testimony of disgraced former medical examiner Harlan, has filed a lawsuit against the county, city and police officers that investigated and prosecuted him…"Burgess, 59, was released from prison in May last year after a Giles County judge overturned the first-degree murder conviction he received in 1999, which was reached in large part due to the flawed testimony of former medical examiner Charles Harlan. Judge David L. Allen found that new scientific evidence showed Burgess was innocent of the 1997 death of his then-girlfriend's daughter. On April 12, Burgess filed a federal lawsuit against Giles County, the Pulaski Police Department and Joel Robison and John Dickey, the two officers he says illegally coerced a confession from him. Dickey is now the police chief of Pulaski. "As a result of this wrongful conviction Wayne spent an unimaginable 24 years in prison, unjustly plucked from society in the prime of his life," the lawsuit states."
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PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "On Aug. 8, 1997, 16-month-old Nakeavia Rivers was rushed to the hospital minutes after she began showing signs...
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter: World Boxing Council pays tribute to the great boxer and fighter for justice who died a decade ago (on April 20, 2014) , in an article headed, "Remembering Courageous Rubin “Hurricane” Carter 10 Years After his Passing."…Rubin, was Executive Director of the Association for the Defense of the Wrongfully Convicted from 1993-2005. He never forgot those who were unjustly imprisoned, as he had been, and he tried everything possible in campaigns to get them released. As a professional boxer, Rubin Carter fought 40 times, with 27 wins, 19 of which were knockouts, one draw, and twelve losses."
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I was delighted to find this wonderful tribute to 'The Hurricane." As my good friend Win Wahrer, who worked ...
Queensland DNA Disaster lab: Time to shut it down? David Murray and Lydia Lynch report in The Australian on calls to shut the infamous lab down, noting that Kirsty Wright, the forensic scientist who exposed Queensland’s DNA lab disaster,says her worst fears are being realised, with the discovery of profiles that had previously been missed in almost half the major crime cases that have undergone retesting so far. - and that, "the “mind boggling” results are evidence the lab is facing impossible demands, and has called on the state government to shut the lab down and outsource all further testing internationally until it can be rebuilt."
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: " FSQ chief executive Linzi Wilson-Wilde said in mid-2023 that she was confident clearing the backlog of samples wo...
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Beleaguered DNA Analyst Yvonne "Missy" Woods; Santos Romero: Colorado: As the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) continues, a county District Attorney (Larimer County) has notified attorneys in more than 50 cases that Yvonne "Missy" Woods" credibility may be in question…"The Brady Letter sent to 57 defense attorneys says information in files from CBI may affect Woods' credibility in court, or may otherwise "negate the guilt of the accused or mitigate the offense, or would affect a defendant's decision about whether to accept a plea disposition." According to the district attorney's office, anomalies were found in Woods' work on these 57 cases. "The District Attorney is not able to provide any information or opinion as to whether these anomalies may have any impact on any conclusions Ms. Woods reached in your case," the letter said. "
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: " The Brady Letter mentions a murder case from 1981 against a man named Santos Romero. Records obtained by 9NEWS sh...
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