Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Michael Sullivan: Massachusetts: He has been awarded a $13 million judgment after being jailed 26 years for murder he didn’t commit," The Boston Herald (Reporter Clint McColgan) reports, noting that, $13 million judgment after being jailed 26 years for murder he didn’t commit…. "At the 1987 trial, the state crime lab chemist Robert Pino testified that blood was found on Sullivan’s clothing. That clothing would later test negative for blood and that McGrath, the murder victim, was not a contributor to any other DNA found on the clothing."


PUBLISHER'S NOTE ONE:  "WORDS TO HEED: FROM OUR POST ON KEVIN COOPER'S  APPLICATION FOR POST-CONVICTION DNA TESTING; CALIFORNIA: (Applicable wherever a state resists DNA testing): "Blogger/extraordinaire Jeff Gamso's blunt, unequivocal, unforgettable message to the powers that be in California: "JUST TEST THE FUCKING DNA." (Oh yes, Gamso raises, as he does in many of his posts, an important philosophical question: This post is headed: "What is truth, said jesting Pilate."...Says Gamso: "So what's the harm? What, exactly, are they scared of? Don't we want the truth?") 


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PUBLISHER'S NOTE TWO: Enough to make one weep: The false  testing  by  state crime lab chemist Robert Pino cost Michael Sullivan  26 years of his life and so much more.  So what happened? Most importantly, was this an isolated case? The magnitude of this error certainly calls for  more than the $13 million judgment. It calls for an independent probe of all  of the other criminal cases may have tainted. 


Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;


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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Sullivan’s conviction on that murder hinged on the false analysis by Pino’s work at the crime lab, the testimony of the man Sullivan says is the real murderer, and his own purple down West Wind-brand large jacket. Pino, who along with the state was the defendant in this case, had said that Sullivan’s purple jacket had blood on it. Sullivan continually appealed to have the evidence tested, as he insisted that no blood would be found. The Supreme Judicial Court upheld the conviction in 1991, so Sullivan’s attorney tried to take it up in federal court in 1996, but that litigation was halted in 2002 to allow for further state appeals. In 2008, Sullivan’s attorney filed for a new trial, but that was denied without a hearing. Finally, in October 2010, a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court allowed for the purple jacket to be retested at a private library with funding from the Committee for Public Counsel Services Innocence Program, according to SJC records. That testing found that there was no blood on the jacket and that McGrath’s DNA was not found. The testing led to the new trial."


-------------------------------------------------------


STORY: "Massachusetts man awarded $13 million judgment after being jailed 26 years for murder he didn’t commit," by  Police and Courts Reporter Flint McColgan, published by The Boston Herald,  on November 20, 2024.



GIST: Michael Sullivan spent more than 26 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. On Tuesday, a Suffolk County jury awarded him $13 million for his lost time and suffering.

Sullivan, originally of Cambridge and now of Lowell, was convicted in 1987 at age 26 for the armed robbery of Wilfred McGrath, 52, of East Cambridge.

Sullivan remained in prison until he was granted a fresh trial in 2013 after a key piece of evidence and testimony appeared to be lies. At the 1987 trial, the state crime lab chemist Robert Pino testified that blood was found on Sullivan’s clothing. That clothing would later test negative for blood and that McGrath, the murder victim, was not a contributor to any other DNA found on the clothing.

Superior Court Justice Kathe Tuttman vacated Sullivan’s convictions in November 2012 and he was released on bond the following January.

According to Sullivan’s attorneys, the Middlesex District Attorney’s office waited an additional six years before dropping the charges against Sullivan in 2019. The law firm Heinlein Beeler Mingace & Heineman then took on the case as a civil matter, which led to a three-week civil trial that ended on Tuesday with a verdict granting Sullivan $13 million.

“At this civil trial, Mr. Sullivan bore the burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that he was actually innocent of the crimes,” the law firm stated in a press release. “The jury today, in a resounding verdict, declared that Michael had been erroneously convicted in 1987 and had proven by clear and convincing evidence that he was innocent of the crimes.”

The murder

A little after midnight on March 8, 1986, someone found a body wrapped in a quilt with its feet bound with electrical wire behind an abandoned Stop & Shop in Somerville, according to the civil complaint in the case. Police would identify the body as McGrath. A contemporary account in the Herald described McGrath’s remains as “badly beaten.”

Sullivan’s conviction on that murder hinged on the false analysis by Pino’s work at the crime lab, the testimony of the man Sullivan says is the real murderer, and his own purple down West Wind-brand large jacket.

Pino, who along with the state was the defendant in this case, had said that Sullivan’s purple jacket had blood on it. Sullivan continually appealed to have the evidence tested, as he insisted that no blood would be found. The Supreme Judicial Court upheld the conviction in 1991, so Sullivan’s attorney tried to take it up in federal court in 1996, but that litigation was halted in 2002 to allow for further state appeals. In 2008, Sullivan’s attorney filed for a new trial, but that was denied without a hearing.

Finally, in October 2010, a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court allowed for the purple jacket to be retested at a private library with funding from the Committee for Public Counsel Services Innocence Program, according to SJC records. That testing found that there was no blood on the jacket and that McGrath’s DNA was not found. The testing led to the new trial.

A man named Gary Grace was arrested and charged with the murder, according to court filings, but he denied it and instead pointed to Sullivan and two men named Stephen Angier and Emil Petrla. Prosecutors struck a plea deal with Grace, reducing his charge to “accessory after the fact” in exchange for his testimony implicating the others.

“Grace’s fabricated and self-serving narrative detailed the brutal beating of McGrath, which involved Sullivan allegedly stomping on McGrath’s head numerous times,” the civil complaint states.

Sullivan’s defense “was based in large part upon the testimony of Petrla, who admitted his own guilt, despite being held for his own trial,” the complaint states. Petrla testified truthfully that Grace was the killer and that Sullivan was not present.”

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.bostonherald.com/2024/11/20/massachusetts-man-awarded-13-million-judgement-after-being-jailed-26-years-for-murder-he-didnt-commit/


PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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.

  • SEE BREAKDOWN OF  SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG,  AT THE LINK BELOW:  HL:


    https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985

    ———————————————————————————————

    FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
    Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
    Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

    —————————————————————————————-
    FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions.   They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!


    Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Paul Caneiro: New Jersey: DNA analysis computer software under attack: Bulletin: John Buckleton, A co-creator of the controversial DNA analyzing software prosecutors hope to use against Paul Caneiro at trial, has been grilled for two days on purported limitations of the 'STRmix' software, AOL.com (Reporter Kathleen Hopkins) reports…"John Buckleton, principal scientist at New Zealand's Institute of Environmental Science and Research, was on the witness stand Nov. 14 and 15, vouching for the computer software known as STRmix at a hearing to determine if the DNA evidence it produced will be admissible at Caneiro's upcoming trial. Caneiro, 57, of Ocean Township is charged with the murders of his brother Keith, 50; sister-in-law Jennifer, 45; niece Sophia, 8; and nephew Jesse, 11, at Keith Caneiro's Colts Neck mansion, where the victim's bodies were discovered Nov. 21, 2018. DNA that analysts say is a mixture of Paul and Sophia Caneiro was later found on gloves and a pair of jeans in the basement of the defendant's Ocean Township home. "Are you satisfied in the fact that STRmix is generally accepted in the scientific community,'' Christopher Decker, deputy first assistant Monmouth County prosecutor, asked Buckleton Nov. 15 at the hearing before Superior Court Judge Marc C. Lemieux, Monmouth County's assignment judge. "Yes,'' Buckleton responded."


BACKGROUND:  "A trial date for the Colts Neck family murders case is expected to be set in November, Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Christopher Swendeman said. Paul Caneiro, 57, of Ocean Township, has been awaiting trial in the case since 2018, and is accused of killing his brother, his brother’s wife, and their children.  According to authorities, Caniero’s brother Keith, Keith’s wife, Jennifer, and their two children were found dead at Keith’s home in Colts Neck on Nov. 20, 2018, when a fire broke out at their home. Keith Caneiro had been shot to death, authorities said.  That fire was discovered a few hours after two fires were started at Paul Caneiro’s home at 27 Tilton Drive in Ocean Township. Though Caneiro’s home was damaged from the fire, Caneiro, his wife Susan, and his two daughters all escaped uninjured. On Nov. 21, Paul Caneiro was taken into custody by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and accused of setting his own home on fire. He would later be charged with four counts of first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree felony murder amongst other charges for the deaths of his brother and his brother’s family.  According to Swendeman, Superior Court Judge Marc C. Lemieux intends to set a trial date for Caneiro on Nov. 12, and expects jury selection to begin either in late February or early March. Last week, Lemieux rejected a request from defense attorneys to extend deadlines for experts to submit reports on DNA evidence being challenged by the defense, the Asbury Park Press reportedAccording to the report, Caneiro’s defense first filed to have a hearing challenging the admissibility of DNA evidence in March 2022. Delays in the hearing taking place have been the only thing standing in the way of Caneiro’s trial, the report said. "This court can't allow experts, whether they are paid or they're doing it on a voluntary basis, to continue to slow down this court's process of getting to a hearing date,'' Lemieux said, according to the report."

https://patch.com/new-jersey/marlboro-coltsneck/trial-date-colts-neck-family-murders-case-be-set-november

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The state Public Defender's office, representing Caneiro, is challenging the reliability of STRmix. In its challenge, the office has pointed out limitations in the software's ability to analyze mixtures of DNA belonging to related persons. It also has asserted that the laboratory that analyzed the Caneiro DNA evidence did so beyond the boundaries for which the STRmix software had been validated as reliable."

-------------------------------------------------------

STORY:"In Caneiro murder case, expert grilled on limitations of software that analyzed DNA,"by Reporter Kathleen Hopkins, published by  Ashbury Park Press, on November 18, 2024.

GIST: "A co-creator of controversial computer software that analyzed DNA evidence implicating Paul Caneiro in the murders of four family members stood by the technology in court last week, fending off questions for two days about its limitations and errors.


John Buckleton, principal scientist at New Zealand's Institute of Environmental Science and Research, was on the witness stand Nov. 14 and 15, vouching for the computer software known as STRmix at a hearing to determine if the DNA evidence it produced will be admissible at Caneiro's upcoming trial.  


Caneiro, 57, of Ocean Township is charged with the murders of his brother Keith, 50; sister-in-law Jennifer, 45; niece Sophia, 8; and nephew Jesse, 11, at Keith Caneiro's Colts Neck mansion, where the victim's bodies were discovered Nov. 21, 2018.


DNA that analysts say is a mixture of Paul and Sophia Caneiro was later found on gloves and a pair of jeans in the basement of the defendant's Ocean Township home.  

"Are you satisfied in the fact that STRmix is generally accepted in the scientific community,'' Christopher Decker, deputy first assistant Monmouth County prosecutor, asked Buckleton Nov. 15 at the hearing before Superior Court Judge Marc C. Lemieux, Monmouth County's assignment judge.

"Yes,'' Buckleton responded.

"Is there any doubt in your mind that STRmix is fit for casework?'' Decker asked the witness.

"No," Buckleton answered.

The outcome of the hearing on the admissibility of the evidence will have statewide implications for STRmix because, while the New Jersey State Police recently began using the technology in its DNA lab, the computer software has never before been challenged or deemed reliable in a New Jersey court.

Deputy First Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Decker questions Dr. John Buckleton of New Zealand, co-developer of STRmix and principal scientist at Institute of Environmental Science and Research, during the pretrial hearing for Paul Caneiro.


STRmix deviates from the traditional DNA analysis method of random match probability, which generates a statistic on the probability a match to a DNA profile can be found in the general population.


 Instead, the computer software in question uses a method known as probabilistic genotyping, designed to test small amounts of DNA and complicated mixtures that often cannot be analyzed by traditional methods.


Probabilistic genotyping analyzes mixtures to which more than one person has contributed to generate a "likelihood ratio'' that a person of interest can either be included or excluded as a contributor.

The state Public Defender's office, representing Caneiro, is challenging the reliability of STRmix. In its challenge, the office has pointed out limitations in the software's ability to analyze mixtures of DNA belonging to related persons. It also has asserted that the laboratory that analyzed the Caneiro DNA evidence did so beyond the boundaries for which the STRmix software had been validated as reliable.

Buckleton said there were 15 coding errors, all since corrected and publicly posted on STRmix's website. He insisted the errors had minimal impact on criminal cases.

Decker pointed out that one of the defense experts wrote in his report that the errors impacted 60 criminal cases, requiring that the "likelihood ratio'' be adjusted in 24 of the cases.

"It caused a relatively minor difference in the population reference counting,'' Buckleton said.

Buckleton went on to say that the critic erroneously wrote in his report that the error affected thousands of criminal convictions.

"It did not affect thousands of convictions,'' Buckleton testified.

In the 60 cases in question, the likelihood ratios were recalculated, and in many of the cases, the result was the same, he said. Buckleton said all the mistakes were caught pre-trial.

Pressing Buckleton about the errors, Christopher Godin of the Public Defender's Office pointed out that a majority of criminal cases in the United States never go to trial but instead are resolved with guilty pleas.

"In those cases, it's not necessarily likely a person would discover that a miscode affected DNA evidence in that case,'' Godin said.

"Miscodes have not affected DNA evidence,'' Buckleton insisted. "The miscodes that we have detected to date all have a minor effect on the numerical values or on a peripheral functionality.''

Godin questioned Buckleton about the limitations of the software to analyze the DNA of relatives. He pointed out, and Buckleton agreed, that relatives share what is known as alleles, which are sequences of DNA a person inherits from each parent.

"Because of that, family members can sometimes deposit DNA that looks like it came from some other relative?'' Godin asked.

'Yes,'' Buckleton responded.Godin suggested to the witness that the DNA analysis in the Caneiro case may have falsely excluded Keith Caneiro from the DNA profiles in favor of his brother, to Paul Caneiro's detriment.

"There are exclusions that STRmix has made that are very harmful to Mr. (Paul) Caneiro,'' Godin said.

"Absolutely,'' Buckleton said.

Authorities allege Paul Caneiro committed the murders after Keith discovered he was stealing from the businesses they co-owned.

The victim's bodies were discovered by emergency workers responding to a slow burning fire at the Colts Neck mansion. Keith Caneiro had been shot four times in the head and once in the back. Jennifer Caneiro and the two children were repeatedly stabbed and badly burned. Jennifer also was shot in the head.

Authorities allege Paul Caneiro set fire to the mansion to cover up the murders, and then set fire to his own home to mislead investigators into thinking a violent criminal was targeting the entire family.

Caneiro is expected to stand trial in the case early next year.

The hearing on the DNA evidence is expected to continue Monday, Nov. 18."

The entire story can be read at: 

https://www.aol.com/caneiro-murder-case-expert-grilled-100229939.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANY6opaq90zvhMSE_jliuDCaJueC_57Fp2c251WcTB9xc3a9LxuHbBramf-p_7VQgsvV1iknztYZcmd1DFt2YyfUsDuVMYD2E4kUcc4npiTmm0Mn7O8pc9bUgZwBiH8SLTCNJ4oVP4cIt6emrc6ouEFr5GWCyQj-MHoUE9cl-nnD

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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.

  • SEE BREAKDOWN OF  SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG,  AT THE LINK BELOW:  HL:


    https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985

    ———————————————————————————————

    FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
    Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
    Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

    —————————————————————————————-
    FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions.   They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!


    Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, November 18, 2024

Andrew Roark: Texas: Widely debunked shaken baby syndrome: From our 'Something is terribly wrong in this picture," department: As the state's courts - misguided, heartless, cruel and blinded by ignorance of science, legal technicalities and a lust for the death penalty - pave the way for Robert Roberson's debunked shaken baby syndrome execution, Andrew Roark has been exonerated in a different Texas case, Fox 4 News reports, noting that, "Roark was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison. However, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office said that the theory of Shaken Baby Syndrome is no longer supported by medical and scientific experts."…The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals officially overturned the conviction in October and the exoneration was finalized in November. "There exists no evidence in which we could support a conviction and believe Mr. Roark is actually innocent," Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said. "We firmly believe would the same facts and circumstances occur today, Mr. Roark would be acquitted of any charges brought against him, therefore he should enjoy the presumption of innocence."


QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals officially overturned the conviction in October and the exoneration was finalized in November. "There exists no evidence in which we could support a conviction and believe Mr. Roark is actually innocent," Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said. "We firmly believe would the same facts and circumstances occur today, Mr. Roark would be acquitted of any charges brought against him, therefore he should enjoy the presumption of innocence."  

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STORY: "Dallas County man exonerated in 1997 shaken baby case," by FOX 4 Staff (from a Dallas County District Attorney's Office release) on November 18, 2024.

SUB-HEADING: (The brief): "Andrew Roark was convicted in Dallas County in 2000 for the death of his girlfriend's 1-year-old daughter. At the time, doctors said the little girl died after being violently shaken. The science behind Shaken Baby Syndrome is no longer accepted in court. Roark's conviction was officially overturned in October and his exoneration was finalized in November."

DALLAS - A Dallas County man who was convicted in a Shaken Baby Syndrome case more than two decades ago has been exonerated.

In 1997, Andrew Roark was arrested for injury to a child after his girlfriend’s 1-year-old daughter was found unconscious in his home. Doctors at the time said the child had been violently shaken.

Roark was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

However, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office said that the theory of Shaken Baby Syndrome is no longer supported by medical and scientific experts.

Roark was released on bond in 2012 after the DA’s office agreed to give him a new trial.

After additional court hearings in 2014, 2019, and 2023, the DA’s office recommended that Roark’s conviction be vacated.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals officially overturned the conviction in October and the exoneration was finalized in November.

"There exists no evidence in which we could support a conviction and believe Mr. Roark is actually innocent," Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said. "We firmly believe would the same facts and circumstances occur today, Mr. Roark would be acquitted of any charges brought against him, therefore he should enjoy the presumption of innocence."  

"The scientific evidence in this case was highly technical and required careful review.  After reading the Court of Criminal Appeals’ opinion, it is evident that the high court also thoroughly examined all the evidence when reaching the conclusion that the advancements in science entitled Roark to a new trial and that it is unlikely a jury would convict him in light of those advancements," said CIU Chief Prosecutor Cynthia R. Garza. 

Roark is the 47th person exonerated in Dallas County since 2001.

The Innocence Project of Texas represented him.{

The entire story can be read at: 

https://www.fox4news.com/news/dallas-county-andrew-roark-exonerated-shaken-baby

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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.

  • SEE BREAKDOWN OF  SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG,  AT THE LINK BELOW:  HL:


    https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985

    ———————————————————————————————

    FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
    Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
    Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

    —————————————————————————————-
    FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions.   They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!


    Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Willie Manning: Mississippi: He is facing execution despite a crumbling case, Veteran Investigative Reporter Jerry Mitchell reports in 'Mississippi Today', noting that: "He remains on death row, convicted of the 1992 murders of two Mississippi State University students, Jon Stephen Steckler and Pamela Tiffany Miller, but the scientific evidence that helped convict him has gone up in smoke. At trial, an FBI examiner told jurors that bullets fired into a tree, allegedly by Manning, matched those used to kill the couple to the exclusion of all other guns. The FBI later said such a conclusion was not supported by scientific standards. Another FBI examiner testified that hairs found in Miller’s car belonged to someone Black. Steckler and Miller were white, and Manning is Black. The FBI later called such hair analysis invalid. Beyond such evidence, the jailhouse informant who implicated Manning has since recanted."



QUOTE OF THE DAY: "“In this case, there are no fingerprints, fibers, DNA, or other physical evidence linking Manning to the murders or the victims,” wrote Manning’s defense team, which includes attorneys David Voisin and Robert Mink Sr. as well as Krissy C. Nobile, director of the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel. “All that remains in his case is recanted testimony and debunked forensic science.”

——————————————————————————————

QUOTE TWO OF THE DAY: "Manning’s defense team said if the state of Mississippi goes forward with his lethal injection, it will execute an innocent man. “What measure of justice is served if the wrong man is put to death?” the lawyers asked. “Will Mississippi allow a man to be executed when it has been proven that corruption, coercion, and false forensics lie at the core of his conviction and death sentence?"

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STORY: "Willie Manning faces execution, despite a crumbling case," by Investigative Reporter Jerry Mitchell, published by  Mississippi Today, on November 14, 2024. "The stories of investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell have helped put four Klansmen and a serial killer behind bars. His stories have also helped free two people from death row, exposed injustices and corruption, prompting investigations and reforms as well as the firings of boards and officials. He is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a longtime member of Investigative Reporters & Editors, and a winner of more than 30 other national awards, including a $500,000 MacArthur “genius” grant. After working for three decades for the statewide Clarion-Ledger, Mitchell left in 2019 and founded the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting."


When death row speaks

It comes truly from the heart

It’s a lonely situation

The frustration’s just a start.


— Willie Manning


GIST: "Unless a court intervenes, the state of Mississippi will execute Willie Manning, despite the fact much of the case against him has crumbled.

If the Mississippi Supreme Court doesn’t give Manning another hearing, justices are expected to grant Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s request to set an execution date.

He remains on death row, convicted of the 1992 murders of two Mississippi State University students, Jon Stephen Steckler and Pamela Tiffany Miller, but the scientific evidence that helped convict him has gone up in smoke.

At trial, an FBI examiner told jurors that bullets fired into a tree, allegedly by Manning, matched those used to kill the couple to the exclusion of all other guns. The FBI later said such a conclusion was not supported by scientific standards.

Another FBI examiner testified that hairs found in Miller’s car belonged to someone Black. Steckler and Miller were white, and Manning is Black. The FBI later called such hair analysis invalid.

Beyond such evidence, the jailhouse informant who implicated Manning has since recanted.

“In this case, there are no fingerprints, fibers, DNA, or other physical evidence linking Manning to the murders or the victims,” wrote Manning’s defense team, which includes attorneys David Voisin and Robert Mink Sr. as well as Krissy C. Nobile, director of the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel. “All that remains in his case is recanted testimony and debunked forensic science.”

Fitch said Manning needs to be executed.

“The Court should not allow Manning to abuse the system by citing inapplicable rules, raising baseless claims, and incorrectly relying on this Court’s precedent to further delay execution of his lawful punishment,” she told the justices. “This Court should reject Manning’s latest attempt to further delay execution of his lawful sentence imposed thirty years ago.”

Two double homicides

Two weeks before Christmas in 1992, Mississippi State students were celebrating the end of final exams when the bodies of 19-year-old Steckler and 22-year-old Miller were found on a blood-spattered road at 2:15 a.m., a little more than an hour after they were last seen leaving Steckler’s fraternity house.

Steckler had been shot and run over by Miller’s car. She had been shot twice, and one leg was out of her pants and underwear, but authorities found no evidence of sexual assault.

A month later, the bodies of 90-year-old Alberta Jordan and her 60-year-old daughter, Emmoline Jimmerson, were found slashed to death in their apartment in Starkville.

Both double homicides went unsolved.

The couple’s murders took place on the same night that Steckler’s fraternity brother, John Wise, had his Chrysler Eagle Talon burglarized. He said several items were stolen from his car: a CD player, a silver huggie, a leather bomber jacket and $10 in change, plus a restroom token. Steckler’s watch, gold necklace and Cathedral High School class ring were also missing. So was Miller’s ring.

Wise identified the token found at the murder scene as identical to the one taken from his car, and authorities theorized that Steckler and Miller had interrupted a burglary outside the fraternity house.

In April 1993, firefighters in Starkville found a silver huggie, which Wise identified as his. At this point, Manning became a primary suspect, Oktibbeha County Sheriff Dolph Bryan testified, but he didn’t explain why. Manning lived out of town, five miles from where the huggie was found.

A month later, the sheriff arrested Manning, previously convicted of burglary, robbery and grand larceny, and charged him with both double homicides.

A day later, the sheriff got a visit from Earl Jordan, who was back in jail after spending more than two years in prison. He had been on the sheriff’s list of suspects because he and another man had reportedly barged into a fraternity house, swiped cash, threatened to steal a car and said, “We are not afraid to kill anybody.”

He told the sheriff that his cousin, Manning, had admitted burglarizing a car with another man, that they forced Steckler and Miller into her car, drove them to a remote location and killed them.

Jailhouse snitches seeking deals

Manning went on trial for the murders of Steckler and Miller.

Witnesses testified that Manning attempted to sell a ring and watch matching the general description of Steckler’s missing jewelry.

Wise testified about the items stolen from his car and identified the token found at the murder scene as identical to the restroom token stolen from his car. One witness said Manning sold him a CD player, which matched the serial number of Wise’s CD player.

Manning admitted he fenced the CD player, according to the sheriff’s notes, but he repeatedly denied being responsible for the couple’s murders.

At trial, two jailhouse informants told the jury, made up of 10 white and two Black jurors, about statements they said Manning had made. Jordan testified that Manning confessed to the murders, and Frank Parker said he overheard Manning talk about selling a gun.

Manning’s former girlfriend, Paula Hathorn, told jurors that Manning fired a gun into a tree in the yard, and FBI examiner John Lewoczko concluded that those bullets matched the ones that killed the couple “to the exclusion of every other firearm … in the world.”

Hathorn told jurors Manning didn’t come home for days after the shooting and gave her a leather jacket, which Wise identified as his.

In closing statements, District Attorney Forrest Allgood pointed at the babyfaced Manning. “He doesn’t look like a blood-thirsty monster,” he said. “Monsters never do.”

The jury convicted Manning.

A day later, the defense lawyer begged for his life, saying vengeance belonged to the Lord.

Allgood said Manning deserved execution for murdering these young students. “They were living bright with promises,” he said. “They were bright with dreams of tomorrows that went on forever. Now they are so much rotting flesh.”

If this “slaughter,” he said, “doesn’t justify the death penalty, then we need to apologize to every other individual on death row.”

The jury agreed, and the judge sent Manning to prison to be executed.

Witnesses recant

Over a five-year period, Hathorn had wracked up 88 bad check charges.

At the time of the murders, she faced 33 of those charges and owed $10,000. Worse than that, she faced up to 10 years in prison.

When she mentioned possible time behind bars, she said Sheriff Bryan told her, “You ain’t going to have to worry about that.”

The sheriff picked her up sometimes and bought her Church’s chicken. She said he also bought her furniture and paid some of her bills.

The sheriff wrote out questions for her to ask Manning and recorded all of her conversations with him in person and over the phone. The defense never knew about these recordings in which Manning said he had nothing to do with the murders.

Before testifying, she said the sheriff coached her, and after the conviction, he took her to the bank and gave her $17,500 in reward money. Authorities dropped all but one of her charges.

She told jurors that she saw him on Dec. 9, 1991, but she did not see him again until Dec. 14.

In a 2023 sworn statement, she said she saw him the day of the Dec. 11 killings. They were both at his mother’s house, which didn’t have running water. They had to boil water on the stove and wash in the sink.

“I never saw Willie Manning with any clothes that had blood on them,” she said, “and I never saw him trying to clean blood off him or off any of his clothes.”

As for Jordan, he initially pointed his finger at two suspects in the murders and passed a lie detector test.

Authorities ruled the men out and arrested Manning. A day later, Jordan told the sheriff that Manning had described carrying out the burglary and murders with Jessie Lawrence.

The problem? Lawrence was in an Alabama jail that day.

There was a logistical problem as well. How did four people cram into Miller’s two-seater sports car?

After Manning’s conviction, Jordan received reward money and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge. He admitted he lied in 2012, but he wouldn’t sign anything until 2023 when the sheriff and district attorney were both out of office.

“Manning never told me he killed anyone,” he said in a sworn statement.

He said he lied at the time because he knew he could have been charged as a habitual offender. When the sheriff shared details about the murders, “I changed some words to the way the sheriff said he thought it happened,” Jordan said. “The sheriff was satisfied.”

At trial, jailhouse informant Frank Parker testified that Manning talked to his cellmate about selling a gun, but that cellmate, Henry Richardson, denied that Manning ever spoke to him about a gun. “All we did was play cards,” he said.

In a sworn statement, Parker’s uncle, former law enforcement officer Chester Blanchard, called his nephew a thief and a liar. “I would not take his word for anything,” he said.

In other statements, two men described seeing Manning at the 2500 Club close to midnight on the same night the murders took place. One said Manning asked him for a ride home, which he declined to do.

In another statement, a woman described parking at the apartments besides Miller’s sports car at 1 a.m.

Manning’s lawyers said this narrow timeframe, combined with his lack of a car, made it impossible for him to have carried out the murders more than 3 miles away.

The lone potential link between the burglary of Wise’s car and the murders was the token found at the murder scene.

Manning’s lawyers questioned whether the token came from Wise’s car since he testified his token was “dirty” while the sheriff described it as “a bright shiny gold colored coin.” A photograph of that token mirrors the sheriff’s description.

These tokens were produced for two service station restrooms in Mississippi as well as other restrooms across the U.S.

Hathorn said the sheriff gave her a much different reason for the murders. She said he drove her out to the gravel road where the killings took place and told her, “It was a drug deal gone bad.”

Manning’s lawyers have wondered if the killings might have been carried out by someone she knew. Miller was shot twice in the face at close range, which might suggest a personal killing. Her sports car was double-parked at an apartment complex not far from her trailer, and her missing ring was found between that trailer and her car.

One woman told police that on the night of the murders, she heard a man yelling after midnight from the direction of Miller’s trailer. Defense lawyers obtained statements from two people who said they heard what sounded like a white man yelling, followed by two gunshots.

Dashed hopes

In 2004, Manning learned he was getting a new trial.

It was the first good news he had heard in years. He had two different lawyers appointed to handle his post-conviction relief in Mississippi. They failed to file anything, and the statute of limitations for filing expired in federal court.

After the state Legislature created the Capital Post-Conviction Relief office in 2000, Voisin and Mink both took on the case and filed Manning’s first post-conviction relief request.

That filing led the Mississippi Supreme Court to conclude that prosecutors at Manning’s trial had been guilty of reversible error because they tried to enhance Jordan’s credibility as a witness by asking him if he had volunteered to take a lie detector test. 

Justices had recently reversed a criminal case for the exact same reason. Now they reversed Manning’s conviction.

Lawyers for the attorney general’s office asked the high court to reconsider its ruling. They called the evidence against Manning “overwhelming” and suggested that the court adopt the U.S. Supreme Court’s limited retroactive standard.

In 2006, the justices followed the attorney general’s advice, reversed their original decision, took away Manning’s hope for a new trial and sent him back to death row.

Voisin called the ruling baffling. “Prosecutors improperly bolstered his [Jordan’s] credibility,” he said, “and we can’t get a hearing.”

Reprieve with four hours to spare

On the morning of May 7, 2013, Manning prepared to be executed. Tonight would be his final meal when he could dine on steak, shrimp or anything else he fancied. He found it strange that they would feed him so well just before they killed him.


TFour hours before the 6 p.m. execution, word came that the Mississippi Supreme Court had issued a stay in an 8-1 vote.

Days earlier, the state had received letters from Justice Department officials, who said the ballistics tests were in “error” and that an FBI examiner had overstated conclusions about hair analysis by saying the hair came from an African American.

After halting the execution, justices reversed their denial of a defense request to reexamine a rape kit, fingernail scrapings, hairs and fingerprint evidence in the case. The rape kit again yielded no DNA.

Authorities identified 33 fingerprints inside Miller’s Toyota MR2. Sixteen belonged to Miller or Steckler, but none of them matched Manning.

In hopes of finding other matches, defense lawyers ran the fingerprints through a database known as the Automated Fingerprint Identification System. None was found.

DNA tests on the rape kit provided no additional clues, either.

After raising money to pay for a lab to test the hair from Miller’s car, the hair fragments proved too small and degraded to obtain a DNA profile. 

A specialized lab told defense lawyers that it could do the testing, but Circuit Judge Lee J. Howard IV rejected that request because it had taken longer than three years and because “identifying the mitochondrial DNA of seven hair samples obtained from vacuum sweeping and debris from the car will not call into question [Manning’s] conviction as it is irrelevant to the issue of guilt.”

The Mississippi Supreme Court backed that rejection, saying even if another DNA profile was “discovered from the crime scene evidence, no proof has been shown that it would change the outcome of Manning’s case,” Justice Robert Chamberlin wrote.

After avoiding execution, Manning returned to his death row cell and resumed what he had been doing for decades. Waiting.

He penned a poem:

How many times have I shed tears?

How many people have to die

Before this nation starts to realize

That this system’s all a lie?


Another death penalty, more witnesses recant

In 1996, Manning went on trial for the murders of Jordan and Jimmerson. 

Kevin Lucious said that he and his girlfriend, Likeesha Harris, and their baby lived in the same apartment complex as the victims.

Lucious told jurors that he saw Manning push himself into the victims’ apartment and later tell him if he had known “they” only had $12, he would not have done anything to them.

The jury convicted Manning, and he was sentenced to death.

In a 2011 evidentiary hearing, Lucious, who was serving three life sentences in Missouri, recanted his testimony against Manning, saying he was afraid he would be charged with the murders.

The apartment where Lucious testified that he lived with his girlfriend was actually vacant at the time the killings took place. The Starkville police knew this, but concealed the information from both prosecutors and defense lawyers.

The girlfriend, Harris, testified that as soon as she read in the local newspaper about Lucious’ testimony, she knew it wasn’t the truth. “Kevin was trying to get himself off by any means necessary,” she said. “He lied.”

In a 7-2 vote in 2015, the Mississippi Supreme Court granted Manning a new trial because the state withheld critical information.

“Any attorney worth his salt would salivate at impeaching the State’s key witness using evidence obtained by the Starkville Police Department,” Justice Michael K. Randolph wrote.

Manning’s attorneys never got a chance. Prosecutors dismissed his charges before a new trial ever began.

That dismissal marked the sixth exoneration in the same judicial district, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. All the cases came under longtime district attorney, Allgood, featured in Netflix’s documentary series on cases of wrongful convictions, “The Innocence Files.”

“These numerous wrongful convictions stemming from the same judicial district and prosecutor fit a template: flawed and false forensics and-or official misconduct,” Manning’s defense team wrote. “Manning’s current case follows that template.”

All but one of those exonerated were Black.

Sheriff Bryan denied in testimony that race played any role in the investigation, but he acknowledged creating a list of 13 possible suspects in the murder. All of them were Black.

Black Americans are seven times more likely than white Americans to be wrongly convicted of serious crimes in the U.S., according to a report by the National Registry of Exonerations. 

Of the 29 Mississippians exonerated since 1989, 83% were Black. In fact, Black Americans convicted of murder are about 80% more likely to be innocent than other Americans convicted of murder.

As for false testimony, evidence shows it can often lead to wrongful convictions. Studies show that nearly two-thirds of wrongful murder convictions since 1989 have resulted from false testimony, and nearly half of wrongful capital convictions have resulted from the false testimony of informants.

“The witness intimidation and false testimony in the Jordan-Jimmerson case was an intended feature, not a ‘flaw,’” lawyers Ayanna Hill and Thomas M. Fortner wrote in a friend of the court brief for the ACLU, the NAACP and the Mississippi Office of State Public Defender. “When law enforcement is willing to frame a man twice for murder, it is almost beyond question that more aspects of Mr. Manning’s trial would fall far short of what he was constitutionally entitled to.”

What is justice?

Manning, now 56, sits on death row. Unless a court intervenes, he will be strapped down and injected with a drug to stop his heart.

The same Mississippi Supreme Court that tossed out his conviction in one case is denying him a new hearing in the other. In a 5-4 decision, the chief justice called the evidence against Manning “overwhelming,” saying even Jordan’s recanted testimony “would not have changed the verdict.”

Manning “has had more than a full measure of justice,” he wrote. “Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler have not. Their families have not. The citizens of Mississippi have not.”

In his dissenting opinion, Presiding Justice Jim Kitchens wrote, “Today the Court perverts its function as an appeal court and makes factual determinations that belong squarely within the purview of the circuit court judge.”

Without Jordan, the case against Manning is circumstantial, and this is why a circuit judge needs to hold a hearing on the truthfulness and timeliness of the recanted testimony, he wrote.

Mississippi’s attorney general said it’s time for Manning to face justice and called on the high court to set an execution date. 

His “fruitless trip to the circuit court for DNA testing brought the litigation of this case to an end,” Fitch wrote. “Manning’s pending motion is a blatant attempt to delay his lawful execution.”

Former District Attorney Allgood agreed. “There are a lot of deserving individuals for the death penalty,” he said. “[Manning is] certainly one of them.”

Former Sheriff Bryan could not be reached for comment.

Manning’s defense team said if the state of Mississippi goes forward with his lethal injection, it will execute an innocent man.

“What measure of justice is served if the wrong man is put to death?” the lawyers asked. “Will Mississippi allow a man to be executed when it has been proven that corruption, coercion, and false forensics lie at the core of his conviction and death sentence?""

The entire story can be read at:

https://mississippitoday.org/2024/11/14/willie-manning-faces-execution-despite-a-crumbling-case/


PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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.

  • SEE BREAKDOWN OF  SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG,  AT THE LINK BELOW:  HL:


    https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985

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    FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
    Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
    Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

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    FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions.   They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!


    Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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