September 23: Chris Payne: Prison; Japan: CBS (Reporter Megan De Mar) reports that this Indiana man, still in jail awaiting trial in Japan despite his overturned sexual assault conviction, is breaking his silence," noting that: " Chris Payne, in his own handwriting, sent a letter to CBS News Chicago from his prison cell in Chiba, east of Tokyo. "I am Japan's best-kept dirty secret," he wrote."

QUOTE ONE OF THE DAY:  "Payne shared a statement from the Polish Institute of Human Rights and Media calling on Japan's legal system to complete a "prompt, fair and transparent retrial" and to explain the massive DNA issues in this case.  Chris writes that prosecutors are reluctant to let him go because doing so could raise questions about other DNA cases handled by the forensic specialist involved in his case — a highly decorated scientist who has worked on more than 1,000 other cases. "If you're reading this, please, help me. I'm not sure how much I have left in me. Don't let them keep me a secret," he wrote." 

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

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The Crown Point native, who moved to Japan more than a decade ago, has been held in solitary confinement for nearly five years. He was arrested for the 2018 sexual assault of a woman, which he has adamantly claimed from the beginning that he had nothing to do with.  Payne didn't even fit the suspect description, but police claimed they had DNA evidence that tied him to the crime.  That evidence was heavily edited, manipulated and tested repeatedly, according to forensic DNA consultant Simon Ford with Lexigen Science and Law Consultants.  "What he did was he tested it over and over again, trying to hit the right value," he said. He said the DNA evidence would not have met admissibility standards here in the United States. "I think that this evidence really should just be disregarded," he said."

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STORY: "Northwest Indiana man jailed in Japan despite overturned sexual assault conviction breaks silence," by Reporter Megan De Mar, published by CBS Chicago, on September 22, 2026. Megan De Mar is a member of the CBS News Chicago Investigator team, focusing on topical investigative stories. De Mar came to CBS News Chicago in October, 2018 from ABC7 Eyewitness News. Prior to Chicago, she worked at WEWS-TV in Cleveland and WNDU-TV in South Bend, Indiana. De Mar won a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award in 2015 for her investigative reporting on a woman who was severely burned when her car's fuel tank caught fire. De Mar also won a Regional Emmy Award in 2017 for her reporting on a now-convicted serial killer who confessed his crimes to De Mar in a series of letters from prison.

GIST: "A Northwest Indiana native trapped in a Japanese prison, caught in the cruelty of a judicial system that refuses to let him go, even after overturning his conviction, is breaking his silence.

Chris Payne, in his own handwriting, sent a letter to CBS News Chicago from his prison cell in Chiba, east of Tokyo.

"I am Japan's best-kept dirty secret," he wrote.

The Crown Point native, who moved to Japan more than a decade ago, has been held in solitary confinement for nearly five years. He was arrested for the 2018 sexual assault of a woman, which he has adamantly claimed from the beginning that he had nothing to do with.

Payne didn't even fit the suspect description, but police claimed they had DNA evidence that tied him to the crime.

That evidence was heavily edited, manipulated and tested repeatedly, according to forensic DNA consultant Simon Ford with Lexigen Science and Law Consultants.

"What he did was he tested it over and over again, trying to hit the right value," he said.

He said the DNA evidence would not have met admissibility standards here in the United States.

"I think that this evidence really should just be disregarded," he said.

Chris' conviction was overturned, but the court in Japan wouldn't let him out of isolation while waiting for a new trial, which probably won't come until sometime next spring.

Chris, in a letter to CBS News Chicago, wrote, "I have been fighting for my life in solitary confinement for almost five years because the implications of my innocence could shame a nation averse to shame."

Chris' mom, Ronda Payne, says she's been in more torment than anyone and is fighting for answers from her home in Northwest Indiana.

"These people do not care and my concern is that America is just as quiet as Japan is," she said.

And since Chris' story was first covered, it has gained more traction.

Payne shared a statement from the Polish Institute of Human Rights and Media calling on Japan's legal system to complete a "prompt, fair and transparent retrial" and to explain the massive DNA issues in this case.

Chris writes that prosecutors are reluctant to let him go because doing so could raise questions about other DNA cases handled by the forensic specialist involved in his case — a highly decorated scientist who has worked on more than 1,000 other cases.

"If you're reading this, please, help me. I'm not sure how much I have left in me. Don't let them keep me a secret," he wrote.

Chris has been plagued with health problems in prison. In his letter, he wrote about unexplained chronic bleeding from his nose and mouth. His family has raised questions about whether he is getting proper medical treatment while he awaits trial.

The U.S. Department of State confirmed with CBS News Chicago that they are aware of Payne's detention, has visited him several times and is providing consular assistance to him. They had no further comment."

The entire story can be read at: 

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/chris-payne-jailed-japan-breaks-silence/t

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. 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. 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;

.

September 23: Charles McCrory: Alabama: Major (Welcome) Development: Hopefully, yet another nail in bite mark 'junk science.'...This Alabama man who spent more than four decades in prison could be set free as a judge slams" bite mark junk science evidence," The Daily Mail (US Reporter Vincent Heller) reports, noting that: "The case rested predominantly on two small marks on Julie's arm which the state and its expert said were bite marks that Charles made in a rageful, brutal attack. Today, the technique of matching bite marks to a person's teeth is considered junk science. And the dentist who long ago testified against him has recanted, saying he can't even be sure the mark was made by teeth at all. Chief US District Judge Austin Huffaker Jr wrote in a Monday order: 'The bitemark evidence clearly prejudiced the outcome of McCrory's trial, especially in light of the other evidence presented at trial. 'The non-bitemark evidence from which the jury could convict McCrory was thin."

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Six years ago, the state offered McCrory to walk out of prison if he admitted to killing his wife - which he declined: 'What am I going to do, make up a story? 'I kind of chuckled... I'm not going to plead guilty to something I didn't do,' he told AL.com."

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

PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Prosecutors from the Alabama Attorney General's Office argued in 2021 that jurors could have simply looked at pictures of Julie's body and matched the markings themselves - to which the Alabama Criminal Court of Appeals agreed. Huffaker commented on the suggestion: 'This finding blinks reality in light of the evidence. If an expert could not testify about bitemark identification because it is junk science, a jury should not have been allowed to consider it either.' 'It makes little sense that a lay jury could permissibly form a conclusion that no forensic expert could.' Charles McCrory's lawyers cited 39 known wrongful convictions and indictments made on the basis of bite mark forensics - two of which were made on testimonies by Souviron."

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STORY: "An Alabama man who spent more than four decades in prison for killing his wife will be getting a new trial, The Daily Mail (US Reporter Victor Heller reports, published on September 22, 2026.

GIST: "An Alabama man who spent more than four decades in prison for killing his wife will be getting a new trial.

Charles McCrory was convicted and sentenced to life over the death of his wife, Julie Bonds McCrory, in May 1985, but could soon be free after a federal judge ordered that he get a re-trial for the murder or be released from prison.

The case rested predominantly on two small marks on Julie's arm which the state and its expert said were bite marks that Charles made in a rageful, brutal attack.

Today, the technique of matching bite marks to a person's teeth is considered junk science. And the dentist who long ago testified against him has recanted, saying he can't even be sure the mark was made by teeth at all.

Chief US District Judge Austin Huffaker Jr wrote in a Monday order: 'The bitemark evidence clearly prejudiced the outcome of McCrory's trial, especially in light of the other evidence presented at trial.

'The non-bitemark evidence from which the jury could convict McCrory was thin.' 

Six years ago, the state offered McCrory to walk out of prison if he admitted to killing his wife - which he declined: 'What am I going to do, make up a story?

'I kind of chuckled... I'm not going to plead guilty to something I didn't do,' he told AL.com.


Judge Huffaker's order said the Alabama Attorney General's Office has 180 days to begin a new trial for McCrory or release him from prison.

McCrory was 26 years old and worked as a tech worker and volunteer paramedic when he went to prison. 

Despite no DNA, confessions or clear motive suggesting his guilt, he was always the main suspect in his wife's killing. 

There was also no blood found on his clothes or in his apartment.

Dr Richard Souviron, a forensic dentist in Florida who previously matched a victim's wounds to Ted Bundy's teeth in his 1979 trial, testified at McCrory's trial that the two marks on Julie's arm matched her husband's teeth.

The court ruled on Souviron's testimony as the sole physical evidence - a move which Huffaker criticized to have 'resulted in a fundamentally unfair trial.'

Huffaker added that the state court's decision in 2022 to deny Charles's request for a new trial was 'both an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law and was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts.'

Charles lived in a small apartment down the street from his wife and toddler son in Andalusia, Covington County, when the two were going through a divorce.

The two went to couple's therapy, spent time with their son, and had sex before Charles went back to his apartment on the night of May 30, 1985, he said.

The two were often together and Julie's date book showed the possibility of her husband moving back in, AL.com reported.

Charles claimed he heard about the murder the next morning, when his paramedic radio signaled a call for help at his wife's home.

Julie was found lying in the front doorway of her home - severely beaten with five 'chop' wounds to her head, 11 puncture wounds to her chest, fractured jaw bones, bruises and two small marks on her upper right arm.

The cause of the puncture marks was never confirmed.

At trial in October 1985, the case hinged on circumstantial evidence like McCrory's behavior and disputed witness statements as to cars at the family home.

The two small marks that Souviron said were made by McCrory's upper teeth were the only physical evidence.

McCrory was convicted and sent to prison for the rest of his life, despite the lack of evidence.

In recent years, the technique of bite mark evidence was questioned and considered 'junk science' by national groups saying that this type of analysis lacks data.

Souviron took back his testimony in a 2019 affidavit: 'I no longer believe the individualized teeth marks comparison testimony I offered in his case was reliable or proper.'

He said he 'would not' give the same testimony today in Charles McCrory's case, adding that he never actually examined Julie's body and relied on photos instead.

Despite the dentist's new statements, Alabama state courts denied a request from Charles's team of lawyers for a new trial.

Prosecutors from the Alabama Attorney General's Office argued in 2021 that jurors could have simply looked at pictures of Julie's body and matched the markings themselves - to which the Alabama Criminal Court of Appeals agreed.

Huffaker commented on the suggestion: 'This finding blinks reality in light of the evidence.

'If an expert could not testify about bitemark identification because it is junk science, a jury should not have been allowed to consider it either.'

'It makes little sense that a lay jury could permissibly form a conclusion that no forensic expert could.'

Charles McCrory's lawyers cited 39 known wrongful convictions and indictments made on the basis of bite mark forensics - two of which were made on testimonies by Souviron.

The Daily Mail contacted the Alabama Attorney General's Office and McCrory for comment. "

Alabama-man-four-decades-prison-junk-science.html

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. 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. 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!

September 23: Christa Pike: Tennessee: "Tennessee is days away from executing a sexual assault victim, Truthout in collaboration with The Appeal (Reporter Renée Feltz) reports, noting that her lethal injection is booked for September 30. She may be the first woman Tennessee executes in 200 years: "In a new approach, the state’s Supreme Court appointed Shelby County Senior Judge Mark Ward as a “special master” to hear the arguments by Pike’s defense team, including that lethal injection would be cruel and unusual because it could trigger traumatic memories, among other reasons. “We’ve all heard of flashbacks,” said clinical psychologist Dr. Bethany Brand, who testified that such memories can “intrude so intensively that the person loses all awareness of where they actually are, and what’s happening, and they instead are reliving what they lived through already.” Brand interviewed Pike in 2023 and found the “level of trauma she was subjected to … is almost impossible to grasp because it is so severe.” Experts in the field of trauma and sexual violence filed an amicus brief in the case arguing there is “substantial risk” that the execution would cause Pike to re-experience what she endured as a girl and teenager and “it will be as horrific for her now as it was then.” “Once she is restrained and immobilized, a man will try to find a vein in Ms. Pike’s arm through which he will inject the poison that will kill her,” notes the brief. “If he cannot find a vein in her arm, the expectation is that he will attempt to inject the poison near her groin.” But a week after the hearing, Ward concluded Pike’s team had “failed” to prove she would face “needless suffering,” or could “avoid mental suffering” if the state used any other method besides lethal injection."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  Shame on Tennessee for still having the death penalty. (It's barbaric and has no  place in civilized society.) Shame on Tennessee for insisting on putting to death  a woman (a sexual assault victim)  and possibly torturing  her in the process) for the first time in 200 years;   Shame on Tennessee, a state where an office lawyer in the  Attorney General's office lawyer said,  everybody wishes "she was not on death row." Where's your your humanity Tennessee? For Shame.

Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog. 

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

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Pike’s clemency petition, which asks Governor Lee to commute her sentence even if the state Supreme Court does not, features the comment made by the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office lawyer — that everybody wishes “she was not on death row.” “There’s a reason it’s on the cover of the petition,” Kelly Gleason, a member of Pike’s post-conviction defense team, told Truthout."

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

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: “There is an inability to hold simultaneously in our minds that this person not only inflicted suffering but is someone who is herself suffering, and that is what we really need to do to understand this case,” Sandra Babcock, faculty director and founder of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, told Truthout. “It’s not to erase the suffering of either Colleen Slemmer or Christa Pike. It is to recognize that Christa, in addition to being a perpetrator, was herself a victim.”

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

STORY: "Tennessee Is Days Away From Executing a Sexual Assault Victim," by  Reporter 
 Renée Feltz, published by Truthout/The Appeal. on September 22, 2026. (Renée Feltz is an award-winning investigative journalist whose coverage of immigration, mass incarceration, environmental justice, and more spans 25 years. She is a former news co-director at Democracy Now!.)

SUB-HEADING: "Christa Pike’s lethal injection is booked for September 30. She may be the first woman Tennessee executes in 200 years.

Note: This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse and violence.

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

GIST: "Christa Pike was sexually abused and raped from the time when she was a toddler until almost a year to the day before she was arrested in 1995 at age 18 for murdering fellow teenager Colleen Slemmer when the two attended a job training program for troubled youth in Knoxville.

Tennessee officials do not dispute these facts. “I think everybody in this courtroom wishes that those things had never happened to Ms. Pike,” Tennessee Attorney General’s Office lawyer Will Ayers acknowledged in his closing argument to a grueling three-day hearing last month about challenges to Pike’s execution scheduled for September 30. “I think we all wish that we were not here today and that she was not on death row.”

In a new approach, the state’s Supreme Court appointed Shelby County Senior Judge Mark Ward as a “special master” to hear the arguments by Pike’s defense team, including that lethal injection would be cruel and unusual because it could trigger traumatic memories, among other reasons.

“We’ve all heard of flashbacks,” said clinical psychologist Dr. Bethany Brand, who testified that such memories can “intrude so intensively that the person loses all awareness of where they actually are, and what’s happening, and they instead are reliving what they lived through already.” Brand interviewed Pike in 2023 and found the “level of trauma she was subjected to … is almost impossible to grasp because it is so severe.”

Experts in the field of trauma and sexual violence filed an amicus brief in the case arguing there is “substantial risk” that the execution would cause Pike to re-experience what she endured as a girl and teenager and “it will be as horrific for her now as it was then.”

“Once she is restrained and immobilized, a man will try to find a vein in Ms. Pike’s arm through which he will inject the poison that will kill her,” notes the brief. “If he cannot find a vein in her arm, the expectation is that he will attempt to inject the poison near her groin.”

But a week after the hearing, Ward concluded Pike’s team had “failed” to prove she would face “needless suffering,” or could “avoid mental suffering” if the state used any other method besides lethal injection.

If the justices agree with Ward’s “findings,” then Pike’s lawyers say they will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. They have also submitted a clemency petition to Republican Gov. Bill Lee, asking him to commute her sentence to life in prison without parole, noting that Pike’s life of abuse went unad­dressed by the adults and state sys­tems meant to pro­tect her, and she has accepted responsibility for her crime and expressed deep remorse. Otherwise, she will be the first woman Tennessee executes in over 200 years, and the last person sentenced to death in the state for a crime committed at such a young age, the petition states.

“There is an inability to hold simultaneously in our minds that this person not only inflicted suffering but is someone who is herself suffering, and that is what we really need to do to understand this case,” Sandra Babcock, faculty director and founder of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, told Truthout. “It’s not to erase the suffering of either Colleen Slemmer or Christa Pike. It is to recognize that Christa, in addition to being a perpetrator, was herself a victim.”

Authorities in West Virginia first failed to help Pike after being alerted to her suffering as an elementary school student when a teacher called her parents but failed to alert authorities when she drew a man with a “huge penis and demon face.” At age 11, she was raped by a man who pled “no contest” to a reduced charge, then faced abuse from her mother’s boyfriends in her own home. After lashing out and abusing drugs, she was sent to juvenile detention centers in North Carolina where her former attorney Matthew Martin, now a judge, testified he and others “failed her” when she should have instead “had services wrapped around her.” Not long after she returned home, she was raped at age 17.

To find a new start, Pike attended a job training program in Knoxville, Tennessee, but she fell into a relationship with 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp, who had a history of violence and abusive behavior. Pike thought Slemmer was trying to “steal” her boyfriend, and they lured her to the woods and brutally murdered her. It was Shipp who later testified he carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest, but given his youth, he was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and received a life sentence with the possibility of parole. Pike’s attorneys, on the other hand, failed to advise her to avoid a salacious trial in Knox County by accepting a last-minute offer of life without parole. They also failed to present her youth or her history of traumatic sexual assaults as mitigating factors that could have reduced her punishment, and she was sentenced to death. 

In her study of the 48 cis women on death row in the United States between 1990 and 2022, Babcock found almost all were “sentenced to a large extent, if not directly, because of their gender and experiences of gender oppression that affected their lives and shaped their behavior.”

Pike was 19 years old when she was convicted in 1996 and became the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. She spent the next nearly three decades in a cell the size of a parking space for 22-23 hours a day.

“She was not doing well at all when we first started our representation in 2021,” recalled Angie Bergman, an attorney with Bass, Berry & Sims, who helped challenge Pike’s prolonged solitary confinement. In 2024, they won a settlement for Pike to receive the same opportunities as men on death row to work and eat with others within her pod. By then, the state had set Pike’s execution date.

Bergman counseled Pike during the August hearing when she had to listen to detailed testimony about her abuse and how tortuous her potential execution would be. “It is difficult for me to understand as a person that this is a choice that we have made as a society to take pain and to multiply it,” Bergman told Truthout. “Being able to walk through this with Christa has really brought that home.”

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, none of the 18 women executed since 1972, when the death penalty was reinstated, were under 21 years old at the time of their offense. No women have been sentenced to death for offenses committed under the age of 21 since 2005, when the U.S. Supreme Court banned death sentences for people under age 18.

Tennessee resumed executions last year after Governor Lee paused them in 2022 over concerns the state was using expired lethal injection drugs. Byron Black, one of the first men to be killed with the revised protocol in 2025, exclaimed, “Oh, it’s hurting so bad” during his execution. In May 2026, the attending physician who killed Black struggled for more than an hour to find a vein as he attempted to execute Tony Carruthers. Maria DeLiberato, a senior counsel with the ACLU’s capital punishment project, called what she witnessed “barbaric.” While Governor Lee granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve, his defense team wants the governor to pause executions again.

The attending physician for the troubled executions is Dr. Mark Walton Fowler, whose essays are frequently featured on the right-wing website The Patriot Post. He said in a statement that people “condemned to die are treated with utmost courtesy, respect and professionalism by staff.” This same doctor confirmed he will oversee Pike’s execution.

As the days until her death date dwindle, Pike’s case has drawn increasing attention. A new true crime series Sinclair Broadcast Group launched recently called Dead Woman Walking: Pike vs. Tennessee includes an interview with Pike in which she asks Tennessee “to allow me to live out the rest of my natural life inside of their penal facilities” where she has become a mentor to others.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights urged the United States to refrain from executing Pike, echoing a panel of experts who reviewed the case.

On September 18, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights urged the United States to refrain from executing Pike, echoing a panel of experts who reviewed the case and urged them to act. “Viewed cumulatively and in light of her individual vulnerabilities, Pike’s proposed execution violates the absolute prohibition of torture and other forms of ill-treatment,” the experts wrote.

Babcock lamented to Truthout that “cruelty and violence are increasingly seen as normal.” She also recalled a wave of executions during the final days of the first Trump administration that included the only woman on federal death row, Lisa Montgomery, who committed her crime “while in the grip of a psychotic episode” after enduring relentless torture, rape, and sex trafficking.

“In Lisa’s case, as in Christa’s case, the mitigating circumstances were so powerful. But the president disregarded them,” said Babcock. “I’m hopeful that Christa’s case will have a different outcome.”

Pike’s clemency petition, which asks Governor Lee to commute her sentence even if the state Supreme Court does not, features the comment made by the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office lawyer — that everybody wishes “she was not on death row.”

“There’s a reason it’s on the cover of the petition,” Kelly Gleason, a member of Pike’s post-conviction defense team, told Truthout."

The entire story can be read at: 

https://truthout.org/articles/tennessee-is-days-away-from-executing-a-sexual-assault-victim/

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. 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. 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;

September 23: Forensic Failure: Beleaguered 'University of Illinois Chicago Analytical Forensic Testing Laboratory': Injustice Watch (Reporter Maya Dukmasova) reports that: "Winnebago County prosecutors called former UIC (University of Illinois Chicago) lab manager Jennifer Bash to testify in a pair of fatal driving-while-high cases earlier this year despite being informed in 2024 that her now-shuttered forensic toxicology lab had produced unreliable test results."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY:  "In response to recent Injustice Watch inquiries about Bash’s testimony, Winnebago County State’s Attorney J. Hanley said his office had dropped some charges in one of the cases and would launch a review of all convictions based on the University of Illinois Chicago Analytical Forensic Testing Laboratory’s controversial and discredited urine testing. But Hanley said his office is continuing to pursue charges based on the lab’s blood testing, despite known flaws."

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

PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: " An Injustice Watch investigation last year showed the lab had for years used discredited scientific methods in its urine testing and appeared to conceal unreliability in its blood testing. The lab purported to be able to tell whether someone was over the legal limit for THC while driving based on urine analysis, even though THC doesn’t show up in urine. The lab’s blood testing was compromised by equipment that was not set up to differentiate between legal and illegal forms of THC.UIC’s Analytical Forensic Testing Laboratory was at 2242 W. Harrison St. Maggie Sivit Meanwhile, the Illinois Forensic Science Commission released a new report this month calling on the university to identify and disclose every case in which the lab used deficient testing methods and in which Bash had testified using misleading language."

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

STORY: "Forensic failures: Discredited UIC lab manager Jennifer Bash is back on the witness stand," by Maya Dukmasova, published by 'Injustice Watch', on September 21, 2026. (Maya Dukmasova reports on judges and other key players in the court system. Before joining Injustice Watch in 2021, Maya was a senior writer at the Chicago Reader, where she produced award-winning long-form features and investigative stories, as well as profiles, film reviews, and essays on a wide range of topics. Maya was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and spent much of her childhood in Appalachia. She moved to Chicago after completing a master’s degree in art history at the University of Cambridge and now lives on the Far North Side.)

SUB-HEADING:"Winnebago County prosecutors were informed of serious problems at the lab in 2024. They called Bash to testify in a pair of driving-while-high cases anyway."

GIST: "Winnebago County prosecutors called former UIC lab manager Jennifer Bash to testify in a pair of fatal driving-while-high cases earlier this year despite being informed in 2024 that her now-shuttered forensic toxicology lab had produced unreliable test results.

In response to recent Injustice Watch inquiries about Bash’s testimony, Winnebago County State’s Attorney J. Hanley said his office had dropped some charges in one of the cases and would launch a review of all convictions based on the University of Illinois Chicago Analytical Forensic Testing Laboratory’s controversial and discredited urine testing. But Hanley said his office is continuing to pursue charges based on the lab’s blood testing, despite known flaws.

Meanwhile, the Illinois Forensic Science Commission released a new report this month calling on the university to identify and disclose every case in which the lab used deficient testing methods and in which Bash had testified using misleading language.

Earlier this year, Winnebago County Assistant State’s Attorney Joe Lesner called Bash to testify in two cases stemming from fatal car crashes in which the lab said the surviving driver was over the legal limit for THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis.

In one, Rockford firefighter Miguel Holland was charged with reckless homicide and aggravated DUI causing death, which is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

According to a 2023 Rockford Police Department crash report, Holland was driving a fire engine when a woman ran a red light in her Ford Focus, collided with the fire engine, and subsequently died. Her husband, who survived the crash, sued Holland and the city of Rockford, claiming Holland ran the red light.

Illinois law requires all drivers involved in fatal car crashes to submit to drug and alcohol testing. Holland’s blood sample was tested by the UIC lab, which reported he was over the legal limit for THC.

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In the second case, Blas Serrano IV was charged with aggravated DUI causing death, driving over the legal limit for THC, and reckless homicide after a 2021 crash that left a woman dead. According to a Rockford Police Department crash report, the woman was driving the wrong way down a one-way street at the time of the collision. Prosecutors charged Serrano based on the UIC lab’s analysis of his urine.

An Injustice Watch investigation last year showed the lab had for years used discredited scientific methods in its urine testing and appeared to conceal unreliability in its blood testing. The lab purported to be able to tell whether someone was over the legal limit for THC while driving based on urine analysis, even though THC doesn’t show up in urine. The lab’s blood testing was compromised by equipment that was not set up to differentiate between legal and illegal forms of THC.UIC’s Analytical Forensic Testing Laboratory was at 2242 W. Harrison St. Maggie Sivit

In her Winnebago County testimony in February and July, Bash defended the integrity of her lab’s analysis and denied the widely documented problems with its urine and blood testing methodologies.

“I have seen some of the articles and news things,” Bash said, according to a court transcript. “A lot of the facts in that are incorrect.”

She also dismissed the findings of a 2024 report issued by the lab’s accrediting agency, ANAB, which had investigated complaints about Bash and found she had given “inaccurate and unqualified testimony” in at least one case.

Bash defended her practice of estimating the time of a person’s last use of cannabis based on urine analysis — something forensic scientists are not supposed to do. Forensic toxicologist Marilyn Huestis, one of the world’s leading experts on the impact of THC on driving, told Injustice Watch the approach was “dead wrong.”

Bash resigned from the lab in 2024 and has since worked as an independent forensic consultant. Later that year, state’s attorneys in Cook and DuPage counties issued public disclosures to defense attorneys alerting them of ANAB’s findings about the problems with her testimony.

In addition, the lab’s former director, A. Karl Larsen, sent a letter that year to all Illinois state’s attorney’s offices that had worked with the lab informing them that the lab may have been unable to differentiate between legal and illegal forms of THC in its testing.

Bash has not been certified to perform forensic toxicological testing in the state since March 2025, according to the Illinois State Police. She remains certified by the American Board of Forensic Toxicology. The association, which launched an investigation into Bash in 2025 in response to Injustice Watch questions about her status, recently found there was insufficient evidence to conclude Bash had violated its codes of ethics or professional conduct.

Bash did not respond to a request for comment.

Injustice Watch first reached out to Winnebago County prosecutors about Bash’s testimony on Sept. 8. Two days later, Hanley responded in an emailed statement, saying his office had dropped the DUI charges against Serrano and was launching a review of all cases going back to January 2018 “to determine whether individuals were convicted based solely upon” the UIC lab’s urine testing for THC.

Hanley said his office was continuing to pursue DUI charges against Holland. He did not explain why the prosecution was moving forward when his office had been informed about the problems with the UIC lab’s blood testing more than two years prior.

“Both of these cases completely rise and fall on these labs — [there’s] no evidence of impairment of any kind,” said defense attorney Christopher DeRango, who is representing both Holland and Serrano. “So we’re looking for a dismissal.”

Lake County prosecutors earlier this year dropped another casehinging on evidence provided by the UIC lab, and 18 people have been exonerated in DuPage County from convictions built on its urine testing. The lab ceased testing human samples in February 2024 and shut down entirely last May, according to UIC’s website. However, the university has not issued amended lab reports to indicate which cases might have been affected by faulty testing or Bash’s misleading testimony.

In 2025, a team of attorneys hired by the university issued a report of their investigation into the lab. Though the report stated the lab failed to differentiate between legal and illegal THC and “should have altered its methodologies,” it did not address the university’s oversight failures.

In a statement to Injustice Watch, a UIC spokesperson wrote that the university was aware of the Illinois Forensic Science Commission’s latest recommendations but that it “has already made public its investigative report.”

At its most recent meeting on Sept. 9, members of the commission announced their intention to continue a review of records related to the UIC lab; despite its closure, they noted, the university still bears responsibility for what happened. Under state law, the commission is not empowered to independently investigate allegations of forensic science misconduct or sanction labs and analysts, but it can issue recommendations.

Though UIC representatives told the commission they had no way of identifying cases in which Bash had testified, an Injustice Watch Freedom of Information Act request to the university earlier this year revealed a log of at least 41 such cases between 2017 and 2024."


The entire story can be read at:

https://www.injusticewatch.org/project/forensic-failures/2026/discredited-uic-forensic-scientist-called-to-testify/

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. 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. 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!

SEPTEMBER 22: Former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby: A doctor who has accused Lucy Letby of murder now fears that "there may not have been deliberate harm," the Telegraph Science Reporter Sarah Knapton, noting that: "Dr John Gibbs was one of a number of consultants who first noticed that the nurse was present at some of the collapses and deaths of infants at the Countess of Chester hospital in 2015 and 2016. Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more. She is serving 15 whole life sentences in jail, meaning she will never be released. Dr Gibbs told The Sun newspaper that it would be “appalling” if Letby had been jailed for crimes she had not committed, and said that a retrial might be “the most appropriate thing for everyone”. “If it wasn’t Letby, do I think someone else was harming them? No, I don’t,” he said. “I hold a very small concern there may not have been any deliberate harm done.”

QUOTES OF THE DAY: "Dr Gibbs, who has since left the medical profession and is now being ordained in the Church of England, said that he did not believe the new evidence, but thought it should be “carefully considered”. “It is appropriate given all the concerns being raised by various neonatal specialists, some infectious disease specialists, statisticians that those concerns need to be looked at, but I won’t take their concerns at face value,” he said.

 “There is criticism that could be made of the claims that they have made and that needs to be carefully considered, which presumably the CCRC will look at. “If it ever comes to the appeal court or a retrial, all the claims put forward by the various neonatal specialists, infectious disease specialists, statisticians are very likely to be highly challenged. “They are not being at the moment, which gives the impression that what the specialists are saying, the statisticians, must be true. I don’t believe it is.”

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "A new documentary by The Sun and Channel 5, which aired this week, challenged claims that Letby injected babies with air, causing fatal collapses. Dr Colin Ferguson, a retired vascular surgeon who was the director of professional affairs in Wales for the Royal College of Surgeons, said air should have been found in the hearts of babies if they had died from embolism. But none was discovered during post mortems. In the new film, Dr Ferguson said that the method of death put forward by the prosecution at Letby’s trial “didn’t fit quite properly together”. Dr Dewi Evans, the chief prosecution medical witness, told the documentary that air would have dissipated, or leaked into other tissues. But Dr Ferguson challenged Dr Evans, saying: “No it won’t, it just stays where it is.” Dr Evans said that it was impossible to be sure whether air would be present because there were no published cases in the scientific literature of premature babies dying of air embolism."

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STORY: "Doctor who accused Letby of murder now fears harm was not deliberate," by Science Editor Sarah Knapton, published by The Telegraph  on September 22,  2067. Sarah  Knapton has previously been named Science Journalist of the Year and was Highly Commended at the Society of Editors Press Awards. She is known for her coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Lucy Letby case."

SUB-HEADING: "Dr John Gibbs says a retrial might be ‘the most appropriate thing for everyone."

PHOTO CAPTION: "Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven others at the Countess of Chester hospital between 2015 and 2016."

A doctor who accused Lucy Letby of killing babies has admitted “there may not have been deliberate harm”.

Dr John Gibbs was one of a number of consultants who first noticed that the nurse was present at some of the collapses and deaths of infants at the Countess of Chester hospital in 2015 and 2016.

Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more. She is serving 15 whole life sentences in jail, meaning she will never be released.

Dr Gibbs told The Sun newspaper that it would be “appalling” if Letby had been jailed for crimes she had not committed, and said that a retrial might be “the most appropriate thing for everyone”.

“If it wasn’t Letby, do I think someone else was harming them? No, I don’t,” he said.

“I hold a very small concern there may not have been any deliberate harm done.”

Last year in a Netflix documentary, Dr Gibbs said that he had a “tiny tiny guilt; Did we get the wrong person?”

Since the convictions, leading scientists, medics, senior police officers and politicians have come forward to criticise the investigation and trial, while new scientific evidence has emerged suggesting natural explanations for the deaths and collapses of infants.

Dr John Gibbs said the new evidence should be ‘carefully considered’

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is considering whether to send the case back to the Court of Appeal, with a decision expected before Christmas.

Dr Gibbs, who has since left the medical profession and is now being ordained in the Church of England, said that he did not believe the new evidence, but thought it should be “carefully considered”.

“It is appropriate given all the concerns being raised by various neonatal specialists, some infectious disease specialists, statisticians that those concerns need to be looked at, but I won’t take their concerns at face value,” he said.

“There is criticism that could be made of the claims that they have made and that needs to be carefully considered, which presumably the CCRC will look at.

“If it ever comes to the appeal court or a retrial, all the claims put forward by the various neonatal specialists, infectious disease specialists, statisticians are very likely to be highly challenged.

“They are not being at the moment, which gives the impression that what the specialists are saying, the statisticians, must be true. I don’t believe it is.”

A new documentary by The Sun and Channel 5, which aired this week, challenged claims that Letby injected babies with air, causing fatal collapses.

Dr Colin Ferguson, a retired vascular surgeon who was the director of professional affairs in Wales for the Royal College of Surgeons, said air should have been found in the hearts of babies if they had died from embolism. But none was discovered during post mortems.

In the new film, Dr Ferguson said that the method of death put forward by the prosecution at Letby’s trial “didn’t fit quite properly together”.

Dr Dewi Evans, the chief prosecution medical witness, told the documentary that air would have dissipated, or leaked into other tissues.

But Dr Ferguson challenged Dr Evans, saying: “No it won’t, it just stays where it is.”

Dr Evans said that it was impossible to be sure whether air would be present because there were no published cases in the scientific literature of premature babies dying of air embolism.

PHOTO CAPTION: "New scientific evidence suggests natural explanations for the deaths at the Countess of Chester hospital Credit: Jacob King."

Dr Ferguson said he had found eight cases of air embolism in preterms, adding: “In every single case there is air in the right side of the heart or the proximal large veins or the pulmonary arteries.

“The real world data says in order to die from venous air embolism, you have to have these features.

“There isn’t any evidence that it happened. These babies have not died from air embolism.”

Cheshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service maintain that Letby was fairly convicted at two trials and the Court of Appeal has turned down her leave to appeal on two occasions."

The documentary Lucy Letby: Scapegoat? is available now on Channel 5.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/s/sa-se/sarah-knapton/

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. 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. 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!

September 22: Jimmy "Chris" Duncan: Louisiana: His legal team responds to a troubling DNA warrant served by his prosecutors, noting that: "While we anticipated that District Attorney Robert S. Tew would pursue new charges against Jimmie “Chris” Duncan and were aware that the state had obtained a warrant for his DNA as part of its reinvestigation, we are deeply troubled by the decision to seek DNA from Haley Oliveaux’s family and, most shockingly, to seek the exhumation of Haley’s body. In response to the warrant targeting Mr. Duncan, we have filed an emergency motion to stay enforcement and requested an expedited hearing."

BACKGROUND: 1:  From 'Forensic: Link Below: " Last week, Jimmie “Chris” Duncan was released on bail after 27 years on Louisiana’s death row following a wrongful conviction for the murder of his girlfriend’s toddler. The initial charge was based on bite mark analysis—now considered junk science—proffered by discredited forensic analysts Michael West and Steven Hayne, who are responsible for at least nine other wrongful convictions.  Until last week, Duncan was the only known person still on death row as a result of the flawed testimony of Hayne and West. Together, the nine men and women wrongfully convicted by the “experts” spent more than a century wrongfully imprisoned, according to the Innocence Project." Additionally, in the time since Duncan’s trial, bite mark matching and analysis—even the non-fraudulent kind—has been exposed as junk science and discredited in the court of law."

https://www.forensicmag.com/3594-All-News/623083-Man-Released-After-27-Years-on-Death-Row-Due-to-Now-disgraced-Expert-s-Bite-Mark-Evidence/

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BACKGROUND 2: : From a previous post of this Blog(December 3, 2025 ): Last week, Jimmie “Chris” Duncan was released on bail after 27 years on Louisiana’s death row following a wrongful conviction for the murder of his girlfriend’s toddler. The initial charge was based on bite mark analysis—now considered junk science—proffered by discredited forensic analysts Michael West and Steven Hayne, who are responsible for at least nine other wrongful convictions.  Until last week, Duncan was the only known person still on death row as a result of the flawed testimony of Hayne and West. Together, the nine men and women wrongfully convicted by the “experts” spent more than a century wrongfully imprisoned, according to the Innocence Project. Additionally, in the time since Duncan’s trial, bite mark matching and analysis—even the non-fraudulent kind—has been exposed as junk science and discredited in the court of law.

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The district attorney’s aggressive and rushed actions bear the hallmarks of a coordinated effort to harass Mr. Duncan, inflict additional pain on Haley’s family, and create unnecessary emotional distress for everyone connected to this case. Haley deserves to rest in peace. Mr. Duncan deserves to enjoy his freedom after spending more than 30 years on death row for a crime that never occurred.'

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STATEMENT: Jimmie “Chris” Duncan’s Legal Team Responds to Troubling DNA Warrant, published by The Innocence Project, on September 21, 2026.

GIST: "While we anticipated that District Attorney Robert S. Tew would pursue new charges against Jimmie “Chris” Duncan and were aware that the state had obtained a warrant for his DNA as part of its reinvestigation, we are deeply troubled by the decision to seek DNA from Haley Oliveaux’s family and, most shockingly, to seek the exhumation of Haley’s body.

In response to the warrant targeting Mr. Duncan, we have filed an emergency motion to stay enforcement and requested an expedited hearing.

The district attorney’s aggressive and rushed actions bear the hallmarks of a coordinated effort to harass Mr. Duncan, inflict additional pain on Haley’s family, and create unnecessary emotional distress for everyone connected to this case.

Haley deserves to rest in peace. Mr. Duncan deserves to enjoy his freedom after spending more than 30 years on death row for a crime that never occurred.

As we await the court’s decision on our emergency motion, we felt compelled to express our profound disappointment with the district attorney’s actions and remain hopeful that reason and restraint will ultimately prevail."

The entire statement can be read at:

https://innocenceproject.org/news/statement-jimmie-chris-duncans-legal-team-responds-to-troubling-dna-warrant/

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. 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. 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!

September 21: Former Neonatal Nurse Lucy Letby: New 'The Sun' documentary asks the question of the day: "Was there a fatal flaw in the Letby Trial, noting that, "A top doctor tells The Sun why evidence used to convict her of murder MUST be reviewed: Anyone who dies from the condition – known as air embolism – will have air visible in the heart, where bubbles create a lock and stop it pumping, experts claim. However, an exclusive Sun documentary being aired on 5 tonight will reveal NONE of the murder indictment babies had air found where researchers would expect. The evidence has been reviewed by a team made-up of a vascular surgeon, neonatologist, and diving medics. It raises the serious possibility no known method of murder now exists for all the babies Lucy Letby is behind bars for the killing."

WATCH & STREAM on 5 Lucy Letby: Scapegoat? Monday, September 21 at 10pm

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY:  "Also in The Sun’s documentary…"A whistleblower says Lucy Letby may have been ‘scapegoat’ to cover up failures at the unit: A mum says she believes her boy died of a sewage-linked bug that came from the taps months after Letby was removed from the unit Evidence that could have helped Letby’s defence ‘wasn’t heard in court’ An unseen bombshell email sent by a doctor who was the only Letby eyewitness CONTRADICTS his evidence to jury.""

STORY: "Was there a fatal flaw in Letby trial? Top doctor tells The Sun why evidence used to convict murderer MUST be reviewed," by Investigations Editor  Rob Pattison, published by 'The Sun' on September 20, 2026.

SUB-HEADING: "It's IMPOSSIBLE Letby's "victims" died that way' - top surgeon's damning verdict undermines prosecution star witness.

GIST: "NONE of the babies died from the method of murder used in court to convict Lucy Letby, an exclusive Sun documentary will reveal.

Leading experts have raised serious doubt over the theory the nurseinjected the six or seven victims with air – put forward by prosecution medical advisor Dewi Evans.

Vascular Dr Colin Ferguson started examining the case after Letby’s trialCredit: Dan Charity

Anyone who dies from the condition – known as air embolism – will have air visible in the heart, where bubbles create a lock and stop it pumping, experts claim.

However, an exclusive Sun documentary being aired on 5 tonight will reveal NONE of the murder indictment babies had air found where researchers would expect.

The evidence has been reviewed by a team made-up of a vascular surgeon, neonatologist, and diving medics.

It raises the serious possibility no known method of murder now exists for all the babies Lucy Letby is behind bars for killing.

Dr Ferguson disputes the prosecution explanation that air responsible for a fatal embolism could subsequently have been absorbed

Vascular Dr Colin Ferguson, who spent his career treating blood vessels and blood flow, began examining the case after following Letby’s ten-month trial.

The former director of professional affairs for the Royal College of Surgeons said: “These babies have not died from air embolism.

“The fact that six, if not seven, babies are meant to have died from air embolism and in none of these cases was air found in the heart at post-mortem means that this is just not true.

“There isn’t any evidence that it’s happened and somehow they have managed to convince a whole range of people that there’s a possibility that it did.”

Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

A major part of the prosecution case was that she deliberately injected air into the bloodstream of babies, causing potentially fatal air embolisms.

The Crown’s medical expert Dr Dewi Evans described injected air travelling through the veins to the right side of the heart.

He and neontologist Sandie Bohin, who peer reviewed his reports for the court, agreed a sufficiently large volume could obstruct circulation in the heart and cause rapid death.

Also in The Sun’s documentary…"A whistleblower says Lucy Letby may have been ‘scapegoat’ to cover up failures at the unit: A mum says she believes her boy died of a sewage-linked bug that came from the taps months after Letby was removed from the unit Evidence that could have helped Letby’s defence ‘wasn’t heard in court’ An unseen bombshell email sent by a doctor who was the only Letby eyewitness CONTRADICTS his evidence to jury.""

The entire story can be read at:

letby-victims-died-impossible-surgeons-verdict

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. 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. 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;