August 29: "Sue Neill-Fraser: Tasmania: (Australia): Major (Welcome) Development: Gag Removed. ABC (Reporter Scout Wallen) reports that she can now claim her innocence publicly, thanks to a ruling obtained by the Human Rights Law Centre, noting that: The new condition prevented her from communicating "directly or indirectly — including through third parties, written statements, electronic communications, social media platforms, television, radio, podcasts, streaming services, online video-sharing platforms, or any other public or broadcast media — to assert claims regarding your alleged innocence, wrongful conviction, or dispute the legitimacy of your conviction or sentencing". On her behalf, the Human Rights Law Centre challenged this new condition in the Supreme Court of Tasmania last year, arguing it was unreasonable and breached her freedom of political communication>"

BACKGROUND: (From a previous post of this Blog.)..."Rotten to its core’: No saying sorry in Tasmanian justice," by Hugh Selby," March 18, 2026:  ("The abominable list of serious errors blossoming into a complete cover-up continues): "Most recently they have made a mockery of “Right to Information” by using far-fetched excuses to refuse to release documents. They have even claimed in writing that sharing scientific information obtained from an interstate laboratory would damage relations among the States and so must be kept secret. Go figure! Their dirty tricks department has resorted to threats of defamation against publishers to have articles exposing the errors taken down, threats of contempt of court proceedings to keep misconduct under wraps, interference in court processes to delay the handing down of a decision and change the composition of a hearing bench.  People with nothing to hide don’t play those sorts of games."............"The paper also sets out serious shortcomings in the police investigation, not only in 2009 and 2010, but also up to and beyond Ms Neill-Fraser’s 2021 appeal. These shortcomings include the failure to carry out some basic investigations into the movements of people who should have been suspects because of their criminal history and associates, coupled with a failure to disclose relevant material to the prosecution. This in turn meant that Ms Neill-Fraser’s lawyers were short changed on information to which they were entitled. Worse, important scientific material that pointed to a young woman being on the yacht that Australia Day afternoon was not put before the 2021 appeal judges, despite it being in the papers prepared for that appeal."

https://draft.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/2208801372188162250

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

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Sarah Schwartz, legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the removal of the condition was an important vindication of Neill-Fraser's rights. "Freedom of expression is a fundamental right, and we are pleased that Susan is no longer subject to a restriction that prevented her from being able to participate in public debate," Ms Schwartz said. "People who have experienced incarceration are often among the most important voices in discussions about the criminal legal system, and protecting their ability to speak out and advocate for change is an important safeguard against injustice."

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

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "On her behalf, the Human Rights Law Centre challenged this new condition in the Supreme Court of Tasmania last year, arguing it was unreasonable and breached her freedom of political communication. In a statement, the law centre said the parole board agreed to remove that condition on Tuesday.

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

STORY: "Convicted murderer Sue Neill-Fraser can now talk to media after parole condition challenged, law centre says," by Scout Wallen, published by ABC, on August 25, 2026.

In short:

The Human Rights Law Centre says a restrictive parole condition that stopped Sue Neill-Fraser from being able to claim her innocence in the media has been removed after a court challenge.

Neill-Fraser was found guilty of murdering her partner Bob Chappell on their yacht in Hobart in 2009. She served 13 years in jail and was released on parole in 2022.

What's next?

The Parole Board would not confirm the removal of the condition. The case will return to the Supreme Court on Monday.

Convicted murderer Sue Neill-Fraser will be allowed to speak to the media after a gag order that was part of her parole conditions was removed, the Human Rights Law Centre says.

Neill-Fraser was found guilty of murdering her partner Bob Chappell aboard his yacht in Hobart in 2009.

She served 13 years in prison and was released on parole in 2022.

In December 2024, the Tasmanian Parole Board added a condition that she not speak "directly or indirectly with any media outlet to claim [her] alleged innocence and/or wrongful conviction".

This was replaced by a new parole condition in May 2025, which the Human Rights Law Centre said was more restrictive.

The new condition prevented her from communicating "directly or indirectly — including through third parties, written statements, electronic communications, social media platforms, television, radio, podcasts, streaming services, online video-sharing platforms, or any other public or broadcast media — to assert claims regarding your alleged innocence, wrongful conviction, or dispute the legitimacy of your conviction or sentencing".

On her behalf, the Human Rights Law Centre challenged this new condition in the Supreme Court of Tasmania last year, arguing it was unreasonable and breached her freedom of political communication.

In a statement, the law centre said the parole board agreed to remove that condition on Tuesday.


The Parole Board refused to confirm the condition's removal, telling the ABC it was unable to comment on individual matters or matters currently before the court.

In a statement, a spokesperson said the Tasmanian government had been "advised that the Parole Board has made a decision to withdraw a parole condition it had previously placed on Susan Neill-Fraser".

"The Parole Board makes its decisions entirely independent of government," the spokesperson said.
Neill-Fraser maintains innocence

Sarah Schwartz, legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the removal of the condition was an important vindication of Neill-Fraser's rights.

"Freedom of expression is a fundamental right, and we are pleased that Susan is no longer subject to a restriction that prevented her from being able to participate in public debate," Ms Schwartz said.

"People who have experienced incarceration are often among the most important voices in discussions about the criminal legal system, and protecting their ability to speak out and advocate for change is an important safeguard against injustice."

Neill-Fraser was arrested in August 2009, about seven months after Mr Chappell disappeared, and was convicted of murder by a jury.

She has always maintained her innocence and has gained a loyal following of supporters over the years.

The parole conditions case returns to court on Monday."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-25/murderer-sue-neill-fraser-can-now-talk-to-media-parole-change/107075266

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;

August 28: Robin (Rocky) Myers: Death Row, Alabama: Major (Unwelcome) Development: From our 'Enough to make one weep' - and 'How low can they go - departments: He has been a denied a new trial - in spite of evidence that his attorney at his first trial had ties to the Ku Klux Clan, The Alabama Reflector (Reporter Ralph Chapoco) reports, noting that: “No court has ever heard evidence or ruled on the central claim in this petition: that the lawyer appointed to defend Rocky Myers, a Black man on trial for his life, had spent the previous decade as the corporate counsel, public spokesman, and ideological champion for the United Klans of America,” said J. Mitchell McGuire, counsel for Myers. “That question has never been ‘tested.’ It has been avoided.”

QUOTE  OF THE DAY: "No murder weapon was ever found, and Myers maintains he never entered her home. No physical evidence connected Myers to the scene, and witnesses gave different descriptions of the potential assailant. A jury recommended sentencing Myers to life in prison, but the trial judge imposed the death penalty. Gov. Kay Ivey granted Myers clemency petition last year, saying she harbored doubts about his involvement in Tucker’s murder. “I am not convinced that Mr. Myers is innocent, but I am not so convinced of his guilt as to approve of his execution,” Ivey said in the news release when she announced that his clemency petition had been granted. “I therefore must respect both the jury’s decision to convict him and its recommendation that he be sentenced to life without parole.”

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

PASSAGE  OF THE DAY: "Myers filed his most recent request in September for a hearing to receive a new trial after members of his legal team learned that his attorney, John Mays, spoke at nine KKK rallies between 1977 and 1981 and defended Robert Shelton, an imperial wizard of the KKK, in a lawsuit filed against the FBI in 1977. According to a newspaper account, Mays used a racial epithet when he spoke at a 1977 KKK rally in Suffolk, Virginia before 200 people. The court filing from Myers also states that Mays spoke at KKK rallies in Alabama, Florida, Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. At one rally in Tennessee in 1981, Mays “exhorted caucasians to band together in the face of an oncoming race war,”according to a newspaper article published in 1981.

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

PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "The DA’s Office for Morgan County opposed Myers’ request for a hearing because the accounts of Mays’ presence at rallies were already available and could have been presented at trial. Myers plans to appeal."

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

STORY: "Judge denies new trial for Alabama inmate who cited defense attorney’s ties to KKK," by Reporter Ralph Chapoco, published by The Alabama Reflector, on August 28, 2026. (Ralph Chapoco covers state politics as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. His main responsibility is the criminal justice system in Alabama. Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.:

PHOTO CAPTION: "A Morgan County Circuit Judge Friday denied former death row inmate Robin "Rocky" Myers a new trial over his conviction for the 1991 murder of Ludie Mae Tucker in Decatur. Myers, who maintains his innocence, cited evidence that his defense attorney at his first trial had ties to the Ku Klux Klan.)

GIST: "A Morgan County judge Friday denied a new trial for a former Alabama death row inmate who cited evidence that his attorney at his first trial had ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

Morgan County Circuit Court Judge Charles Elliott denied the motion from Robin “Rocky” Myers, who is currently serving a life sentence for his alleged role in the death of Ludie Mae Tucker in Decatur in 1991. Myers, who maintains his innocence, was originally sentenced to death, but Gov. Kay Ivey commuted it to life in prison last year.

Elliott wrote that the Rule 32 appeals process, which allows people convicted of a crime the opportunity to present arguments for a new trial, “establishes a bright line rule on when a claim for ineffective assistance of counsel claim can be made.”

‘“In no event can relief be granted on a claim of ineffective assistance of trial or appellate counsel raised in a successive petition,’” Elliott wrote. “The only exception to this bright line rule is when a petition is filed to be able to obtain an out-of-time appeal.”

Messages seeking comment were sent Friday to John Mays, the attorney who represented Myers at his first trial, and the Morgan County District Attorney’s Office.

“No court has ever heard evidence or ruled on the central claim in this petition: that the lawyer appointed to defend Rocky Myers, a Black man on trial for his life, had spent the previous decade as the corporate counsel, public spokesman, and ideological champion for the United Klans of America,” said J. Mitchell McGuire, counsel for Myers. “That question has never been ‘tested.’ It has been avoided.”

Myers, who lived across the street from Tucker, was accused of entering her home in October 1991 to use the phone, getting into an argument with her cousin and husband, and stabbing Tucker, who died in the hospital a few hours later.

No murder weapon was ever found, and Myers maintains he never entered her home. No physical evidence connected Myers to the scene, and witnesses gave different descriptions of the potential assailant. A jury recommended sentencing Myers to life in prison, but the trial judge imposed the death penalty.

Gov. Kay Ivey granted Myers’ clemency petition last year, saying she harbored doubts about his involvement in Tucker’s murder.

“I am not convinced that Mr. Myers is innocent, but I am not so convinced of his guilt as to approve of his execution,” Ivey said in the news release when she announced that his clemency petition had been granted. “I therefore must respect both the jury’s decision to convict him and its recommendation that he be sentenced to life without parole.”

Myers filed his most recent request in September for a hearing to receive a new trial after members of his legal team learned that his attorney, John Mays, spoke at nine KKK rallies between 1977 and 1981 and defended Robert Shelton, an imperial wizard of the KKK, in a lawsuit filed against the FBI in 1977.

According to a newspaper account, Mays used a racial epithet when he spoke at a 1977 KKK rally in Suffolk, Virginia before 200 people.

The court filing from Myers also states that Mays spoke at KKK rallies in Alabama, Florida, Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. At one rally in Tennessee in 1981, Mays “exhorted caucasians to band together in the face of an oncoming race war,” according to a newspaper article published in 1981.

The DA’s Office for Morgan County opposed Myers’ request for a hearing because the accounts of Mays’ presence at rallies were already available and could have been presented at trial.

Myers plans to appeal."

The entire story can be read at:

https://alabamareflector.com/2026/08/28/judge-denies-new-trial-for-alabama-inmate-who-cited-defense-attorneys-ties-to-kkk/

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;

August 28, 2026: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed; Tossed Confessions; Guantánamo; Major Development: A judge has excluded a key confession in a September 11 case, published by The New York Times (Reporter Carol Rosenberg) reports, noting that: "In a major blow to the U.S. case against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks, a military judge ruled on Friday that the prisoner’s confessions to F.B.I. agents were not voluntary and cannot be used against him at trial. Prosecutors have described Mr. Mohammed’s interrogations in 2007 at the U.S. Navy base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as the government’s most crucial evidence in the long-running death-penalty case."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects are to widely used interrogation methods such as the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’ As all too many of this Blog's post have shown, I also recognize that pressure for false confessions can take many forms, up to and including physical violence, even physical and mental torture.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:

————————————————---

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: " Mr. Mohammed is accused of being the mastermind of the hijacking attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon. He was brutally interrogated by the C.I.A. in secret overseas prisons after his capture in 2003 and held incommunicado until his transfer to Guantánamo in 2006. Prosecutors excluded statements from those interrogations from the case. But the trial judge, Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, went further, concluding that Mr. Mohammed’s subsequent interrogations in 2007 at Guantánamo were also inadmissible."

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

PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "“The prosecution has failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Mohammad’s statements to the F.B.I. were voluntarily given,” Colonel Schrama wrote in the conclusion of his 45-page ruling, which was not immediately released to the public but whose unclassified contents were confirmed by several lawyers who had seen it. Colonel Schrama cited several factors, including an “unbroken continuation of the C.I.A.’s psychological conditioning and severe coercion” at the time of Mr. Mohammed’s questioning at Guantánamo in 2007. He also found that F.B.I. agents intentionally failed to explicitly tell Mr. Mohammed that he had a right to be silent and to consult a lawyer, and that what he told them could be used against him at a trial."

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

PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "Defense lawyers had argued that Mr. Mohammed was essentially conditioned by the C.I.A. through torture coupled with years of isolation and solitary confinement to later tell the F.B.I. what they wanted to hear. He was not allowed to consult a lawyer until long after he had confessed and was charged."

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

STORY: "Judge Excludes Key Confession in Sept. 11 Case," by Reporter Carol Rosenberg, published by The New York Times, on August 28, 2026. 

SUB-HEADING: "Prosecutors argued the statements by the defendant, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, were crucial evidence for the eventual death-penalty trial." (Carol Rosenberg: "I report on national security related topics, including the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay with a focus on the wartime prison, policies and legal proceedings for The New York Times. I work for the Washington, D.C., bureau and I frequently report from Guantánamo Bay."..."Carol Rosenberg has been covering the Sept. 11 case at Guantánamo Bay for more than two decades."

GIST: "In a major blow to the U.S. case against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks, a military judge ruled on Friday that the prisoner’s confessions to F.B.I. agents were not voluntary and cannot be used against him at trial.

Prosecutors have described Mr. Mohammed’s interrogations in 2007 at the U.S. Navy base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as the government’s most crucial evidence in the long-running death-penalty case.

The ruling, just before the 25th anniversary of the attacks, could further delay the start of a trial if prosecutors decide to appeal to reinstate it. Aging survivors and families of victims have said they worry they may never see a final resolution to the case.

Just this week, the judge set a trial date of June 5, 2028.

Mr. Mohammed is accused of being the mastermind of the hijacking attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon.

He was brutally interrogated by the C.I.A. in secret overseas prisons after his capture in 2003 and held incommunicado until his transfer to Guantánamo in 2006. Prosecutors excluded statements from those interrogations from the case.

But the trial judge, Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, went further, concluding that Mr. Mohammed’s subsequent interrogations in 2007 at Guantánamo were also inadmissible.

“The prosecution has failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Mohammad’s statements to the F.B.I. were voluntarily given,” Colonel Schrama wrote in the conclusion of his 45-page ruling, which was not immediately released to the public but whose unclassified contents were confirmed by several lawyers who had seen it.

Colonel Schrama cited several factors, including an “unbroken continuation of the C.I.A.’s psychological conditioning and severe coercion” at the time of Mr. Mohammed’s questioning at Guantánamo in 2007.

He also found that F.B.I. agents intentionally failed to explicitly tell Mr. Mohammed that he had a right to be silent and to consult a lawyer, and that what he told them could be used against him at a trial.

The chief prosecutor, Rear Adm. Aaron C. Rugh, said his team would review the ruling “and will make a decision on whether to appeal in the near future.”

The judge gave prosecutors five days to decide but said they could request an additional five days.

The question of the taint of torture has hung over the case for years.

Defense lawyers had argued that Mr. Mohammed was essentially conditioned by the C.I.A. through torture coupled with years of isolation and solitary confinement to later tell the F.B.I. what they wanted to hear. He was not allowed to consult a lawyer until long after he had confessed and was charged.

Colonel Schrama has yet to rule on the confessions of two other defendants in the Sept. 11 case, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. An earlier judge, Col. Matthew McCall, threw out the confessions of Mr. Mohammed’s nephew, Ammar al-Baluchi, who is accused of helping some of the 19 hijackers with finances and travel arrangements.

A different judge, Col. Lanny Acosta, suppressed the confession of the defendant in the U.S.S. Cole bombing case, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, in an explicit finding that he had been tortured by the C.I.A. His death-penalty trial in the 2000 attack, which killed 17 U.S. sailors, is scheduled to start in October.

The Sept. 11 case has been mired in pretrial proceedings since arraignment in 2012. Over the years, four other judges gathered evidence on the question Colonel Schrama decided on Friday. An earlier judge found a fifth man, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, mentally incompetent to stand trial, a condition the defendant’s lawyer

The Secretive World of Guantánamo Bay

Sept. 11 Torture Case: The trial for four men accused of conspiring in the terrorist attacks could begin in June 2028, according to an order issued by the military judge. Prosecutors had asked for an earlier start.


Prisoner With No Lawyer in Death Penalty Case: The episode at the war court alarmed death penalty lawyers, who argued that the judge had a duty to suspend the proceedings to protect the rights of the defendant.


U.S.S. Cole: The Army judge in the bombing case ordered the prosecution to do its “due diligence” in providing defense lawyers with any evidence the U.S. government might have “regarding Iran’s role” in the attack off Yemen 25 years ago. President Trump has said Iran was “probably involved.”


Cuban Deportees: The long, circuitous journey of dozens of Cuban men who were designated for deportation from the United States last year but instead taken to a prison at the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay ended when they were repatriated to Cuba.


A Curious Collaboration: An unlikely collection of portraits has given the public its only glimpse inside the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay.""

The entire story can be read at:

september11-confession-trial.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;

August 28: Katie Smith: Georgia; Shaken baby syndrome junk science: Major (Welcome) Development: Her nightmare is finally over, WABE reports, (Reporter Chamian Cruz) noting that the Augusta, Georgia woman at the center of the 'shaken baby' case has been freed from prison, and that: "An Augusta woman who spent more than a decade in prison is back home after prosecutors heard testimony this week that she was convicted of a crime that never occurred, highlighting how Georgia courts are continuing to catch up on what’s increasingly seen as junk science: shaken baby syndrome."

BACKGROUND: From a previous post of this Blog: (August 23):  "Katie’s attorneys with the Southern Center for Human Rights say their investigation has revealed that she was convicted of a crime that never occurred.  Experts retained by her legal team — a neurologist and a forensic pathologist — have concluded that Tucker died of undiagnosed epilepsy, which was caused by an undetected arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in his brain. AVM is a life-threatening condition that typically develops in utero, in which a person has abnormally tangled blood vessels that disrupt blood flow, deprive tissue of oxygen, and face risk of rupture. Forty-four people have been exonerated in SBS/AHT cases, according to the National Registry of Exonerations."

https://draft.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/8956136750479845189

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

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "In another Georgia case this summer, a Gwinnett County judge vacated the murder conviction of a man who has spent more than two decades in prison tied to his son, noting that shaken baby syndrome, also known as abusive head trauma, is no longer treated as an automatic or presumptive proof of child abuse in modern medical and legal evaluations and that other possible explanations must be ruled out first.  Lucio-Maymon (Southern Center for Human Rights Attorney Paulina Lucio-Maymon). worked on that case, too, and said these outcomes are a step in the right direction. “I hope these cases are just signaling that we all have a responsibility to revisit these convictions that are based on science that has undisputedly changed,” she said."

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

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Mary Katherine Smith, who goes by Katie, was seeking a new trial, arguing that advances in medical science have produced new evidence in the shaken-baby death of her 2-year-old son, Tucker. Several medical experts testified over two days that Tucker’s 2014 death is now understood to have resulted from undiagnosed epilepsy. Prosecutors then offered Smith a time-served Alford plea, allowing her to plead guilty but maintain her innocence to second-degree murder, said Southern Center for Human Rights Attorney Paulina Lucio-Maymon. “It was the fastest way home, which is what she wants,” Lucio-Maymon said. “She wants to go back home, and so I would say it was a compromise for both parties.”

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

PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jared Williams told WABE that even if Smith was retried and convicted a second time, “the question would remain whether the result was just” and that he “did not get into this work to be uncertain about justice. “The job of a prosecutor is to find the truth and seek justice, not to ‘win,’ not to get the max sentence,” Williams said. “The job is simply to find the truth and pursue the just result. In the course of fighting to preserve the conviction and sentence against Mary Katherine Smith, we heard testimony and received evidence that removed our previous certainty that her conviction should stand."

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

STORY: "'Nightmare is finally over': Augusta woman at center of 'shaken baby' case is freed from prison, by Criminal Justice Reporter Chamian Cruz, published by WABE, on August 27 2026. (I cover criminal justice for WABE, meaning you can often find me reading through court documents, sitting in a courtroom, or covering a protest or press conference. I follow that by speaking with people directly impacted by an incident or policy to help explain the big picture. My job is not to just recount the biggest crime story of the day. I also take great pride in being a Spanish-speaker, because it allows me to connect and tell stories of the Latino community in Georgia.)

GIST: An Augusta woman who spent more than a decade in prison is back home after prosecutors heard testimony this week that she was convicted of a crime that never occurred, highlighting how Georgia courts are continuing to catch up on what’s increasingly seen as junk science: shaken baby syndrome.

Mary Katherine Smith, who goes by Katie, was seeking a new trial, arguing that advances in medical science have produced new evidence in the shaken-baby death of her 2-year-old son, Tucker. Several medical experts testified over two days that Tucker’s 2014 death is now understood to have resulted from undiagnosed epilepsy.

Prosecutors then offered Smith a time-served Alford plea, allowing her to plead guilty but maintain her innocence to second-degree murder, said Southern Center for Human Rights Attorney Paulina Lucio-Maymon.

“It was the fastest way home, which is what she wants,” Lucio-Maymon said. “She wants to go back home, and so I would say it was a compromise for both parties.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Smith was released from north Georgia’s McRae Women’s Facility surrounded by her family and attorneys. Lucio-Maymon said she’s looking forward to attending her older son’s wedding in a couple of weeks.

“It was just such a happy and, honestly, unexpected moment,” she said. “We did not think that it was going to happen […] as fast, so we are very happy that she’s finally back home. She served 12 years and 27 days, and the nightmare is finally over.”

Lucio-Maymon said Tucker was always described as “a very happy kid, very chill and calm,” including by the staff at his day care facilities, but that’s partly because he was having seizures, causing him to become limp and lethargic. Medical records show he had at least six documented seizures, but because they weren’t looked at like they would be today, he never got the help he needed.

“The teachers knew that he had these ‘breath-holding episodes,’ so [they] were always making sure that he was fine,” Lucio-Maymon said. “I think that’s why the testimony was so impactful. Now we know that he was sick and that he was too young to be able to tell the adults around him what was going on. He was just a toddler.”

Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jared Williams told WABE that even if Smith was retried and convicted a second time, “the question would remain whether the result was just” and that he “did not get into this work to be uncertain about justice.”

“The job of a prosecutor is to find the truth and seek justice, not to ‘win,’ not to get the max sentence,” Williams said. “The job is simply to find the truth and pursue the just result. In the course of fighting to preserve the conviction and sentence against Mary Katherine Smith, we heard testimony and received evidence that removed our previous certainty that her conviction should stand.”

In another Georgia case this summer, a Gwinnett County judge vacated the murder conviction of a man who has spent more than two decades in prison tied to his son, noting that shaken baby syndrome, also known as abusive head trauma, is no longer treated as an automatic or presumptive proof of child abuse in modern medical and legal evaluations and that other possible explanations must be ruled out first.

Lucio-Maymon worked on that case, too, and said these outcomes are a step in the right direction.

“I hope these cases are just signaling that we all have a responsibility to revisit these convictions that are based on science that has undisputedly changed,” she said.

The Augusta district attorney said while his office is open to evaluating the integrity of past convictions, he does not believe Smith’s case “necessarily affects other convictions” there.""The entire story can be read at:

https://www.wabe.org/nightmare-is-finally-over-augusta-woman-at-center-of-shaken-baby-case-is-freed-from-prison/

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;

August 28: Andrew Azevedo: Seclusion; Waypoint; Penetanguishene; Ontario: Extraordinary development: For nearly five years, he has spent every day living in isolation at Ontario’s only maximum-security psychiatric hospital. Now, thanks to top-notch reporting by Toronto Star Courts and Justice Reporter Jacques Gallant, he is suddenly set to be released from seclusion, amid calls for an independent review of Ontario's mental health system.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: " “I don’t believe in coincidences,”  (Anita( Szigeti (his lawyer)  told the Star after the ORB hearing." “My own view is that the intense public scrutiny that resulted from the media coverage, coupled with the wide-ranging nature and depth of this report, have caused the institution to focus an enormous amount of attention and care on Andrew Azevedo.”

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

QUOTE TWO OF THE DAY: "His parents wrote that they are left to wonder what their son’s condition or quality of life might have been like over the past five years had he received the level of attention he’s getting now. “What we can do is make sure that what happened does not simply become forgotten because things are beginning to improve,” Jorge and Maria wrote, asking that the board continue questioning whether everything reasonably possible is being done to reduce Azevedo’s time in seclusion.  “Most importantly, please do not allow years of seclusion to become normal again.”

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

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Azevedo’s imminent release from seclusion could represent a major breakthrough at Waypoint, located on Georgian Bay in Penetanguishene; the hospital’s practice of keeping patients in isolation for years — and in at least one case, decades — has been the subject of an ongoing Toronto Star investigation, including a story in April focusing on Azevedo. Leading experts have described the hospital’s use of prolonged seclusion as “egregious,” “abusive” and unlike anything seen in other North American facilities."

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

STORY: "The Star exposed his five years in isolation at this Ontario psychiatric hospital. He’s suddenly set to be released from seclusion," by Jacques Gallant, published by The Toronto Star, on August 27, 2026.  (Jacques Gallant is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering legal affairs and courts, after previously covering federal politics. He has been part of reporting teams nominated for a National Newspaper Award and the Michener Award for public service journalism.)

SUB-HEADING: "Andrew Azevedo’s doctor at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care attributes his improvement to a change in medication — not the public attention."

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

This story is part of 20 Years in Isolation, the Star’s ongoing investigation into the use of psychiatric seclusion at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care. The Star’s initial four-part series on the hospital’s practices has been met with calls foran independent review of Ontario’s mental health system.

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

GIST: "For nearly five years, Andrew Azevedo has spent every day living in isolation at Ontario’s only maximum-security psychiatric hospital.

Over the course of those five years, Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care tried almost every antipsychotic medication on the 39-year-old man with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, but with little improvement noted. Waypoint continued to hold him in seclusion, citing persistent aggressive behaviour caused by his hallucinations.

And so his family was caught off guard last week when Azevedo’s psychiatrist declared that, after years without much progress, his patient is now suddenly so much better that he’s on the verge of being released from seclusion.

“Definitely in the next few days,” Dr. Achal Mishra testified before the Ontario Review Board (ORB). “Or a week or two weeks, provided the current progress is maintained.”

Azevedo’s imminent release from seclusion could represent a major breakthrough at Waypoint, located on Georgian Bay in Penetanguishene; the hospital’s practice of keeping patients in isolation for years — and in at least one case, decades — has been the subject of an ongoing Toronto Star investigation, including a story in April focusing on Azevedo.


Leading experts have described the hospital’s use of prolonged seclusion as “egregious,” “abusive” and unlike anything seen in other North American facilities.


Mishra was adamant that the significant improvement in Azevedo’s condition was entirely related to gradual increases in the dosage of one of his medications, a drug he had taken before without such positive effect being noted.


But Azevedo’s family and lawyer point to other significant changes made to his care plan by Waypoint on the heels of the Star’s investigation and a damning independent assessment prepared for the ORB: more effort has been made to establish a routine for showering, exercise and spending time outdoors. He’s met with a physiotherapist for an assessment, and a dietitian provided a nutritional review. The soccer-loving Azevedo has also been spending more time kicking a ball around outside, and he watched some games on TV during the World Cup.


“We have seen Andrew smiling again,” Azevedo’s parents, Jorge and Maria, told the ORB in a letter this month.


Already, Azevedo is being let out of his room for longer periods of time without restraints, including when he briefly attended the ORB hearing wearing a Cristiano Ronaldo jersey.


“I want to go home,” he said in a soft-spoken voice, mentioning he just wants to visit Portugal and play soccer. “All those good things.”


The proceedings were to determine whether Azevedo remains unfit to stand trial for allegedly assaulting a psychiatrist in 2022, and whether he should remain detained at Waypoint. All parties agree on those points.


“I want to go home,” Andrew Azevedo said before his lawyer Anita Szigeti, on the monitor, and the ORB panel.Alexandra Newbould illustration

But the board must also determine whether to order Waypoint to adopt any of the recommendations made in an independent assessment prepared by Andrea Monteiro in the most detailed public look inside Waypoint since the Star first reported Azevedo’s story.


Monteiro, who previously served in senior roles in the correctional system, concluded that Waypoint is violating its own seclusion policy, and that patients are being kept in conditions that the United Nations has “deemed to constitute torture” in similar settings.


She recommended gradually releasing Azevedo from seclusion, but in restraints, a comprehensive review of staffing levels on Azevedo’s unit, providing more recreational supports on the unit, hospital-specific training on seclusion mandatory for everyone from executives to front-line staff, and working with an expert to develop clearer rules for when someone is to be secluded.


Mishra said his patient's improvement had nothing to do with the Star’s investigation, when asked directly by Azevedo’s lawyer, Anita Szigeti, if the coverage had been the “impetus” for focusing more attention on getting her client out of seclusion.


“I mean, of course it impacted Waypoint; it was not something we would ignore,” he said of the stories. “But I don’t think it impacted on Mr. Azevedo’s treatment.”


Nor is Azevedo’s improvement connected to Monteiro’s report, Mishra said, which he described as “good reading,” but said she had made some very broad conclusions.


“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Szigeti told the Star after the ORB hearing.


“My own view is that the intense public scrutiny that resulted from the media coverage, coupled with the wide-ranging nature and depth of this report, have caused the institution to focus an enormous amount of attention and care on Andrew Azevedo.”

Read the 20 Years in Isolation seriesPart 1: The story of Camelott Hamblett and why he's spent two decades locked in a room alone at this Ontario psychiatric hospital
Part 2: This Ontario psychiatric hospital keeps some patients in isolation for years at a time. Why Waypoint is being called an ‘abusive’ outlier
Part 3: Why the Ontario Review Board kept Camelott Hamblett in seclusion for 20 years, without asking the right questions
Part 4: Their son has been ‘caged’ in this Ontario psychiatric hospital for nearly five years. Why public ‘shock and horror’ may mean new hope

From Wednesday: He was locked up — alone — for years. Now the hospital's use of isolation has been deemed akin to 'torture'
Your questions answered: Inside the 20 Years in Isolation series

Family concerned Waypoint is moving too fast

Shocked at what they heard during Mishra’s testimony, Azevedo’s family expressed concern to the ORB that the hospital is moving too quickly.


Out of seclusion and out of restraints imminently “feels like quite a leap,” his sister-in-law, Susan Azevedo, told the five-member panel via Zoom. “It feels like it’s going to set him up for failure.”


The family suggested a gradual release, which would first see Azevedo spending more time out of his room and out of restraints, but only with staff and not other patients — a trigger in the past for some of his aggressive behaviour.

It was “hurtful,” Susan told the Star afterward, that the hospital hadn’t given the family a heads-up about its plan. Especially because she said the family has been working hard to collaborate with Waypoint and do what’s best for Azevedo.


She described Azevedo’s imminent de-seclusion as a “manipulation of the board” and a way for the hospital to show the ORB that there was no need for it to order Waypoint to do anything further.


“That led me to believe that their goal is not necessarily what’s best for Andrew at this time,” she said. “Their goal is to tell the board, ‘Hey, there’s nothing to see here, we’ve got this taken care of, he’s out of restraints, he’s out of seclusion, so let’s talk next year.’”


The creators of the internationally recognized best practices to reduce the use of seclusion, known as the six core strategies, told the Star that immediate release after years in confinement can be difficult and even scary for an individual. Doctors Kevin Ann Huckshorn and Janice LeBel endorsed a slow and gradual release.

We have seen Andrew smiling again.

Waypoint has said it’s been working to implement the six core strategies since 2023, but the hospital’s CEO, Dr. Nadiya Sunderji, has appeared to run afoul of the very first strategy: daily involvement by the CEO in seclusion decisions. Sunderji has said it would be inappropriate for her to do so under provincial health care legislation.


“I hope the preferences of this poor man are heard, responded to, and his comfort and needs guide the pace to basic humane care,” said LeBel. “That said, there is nothing about multi-year confinement that would ever pass muster with correct knowledge/implementation of the six core strategies.”


Huckshorn questioned the hospital’s motivation in de-secluding Azevedo, given that it’s only happening after the hospital’s seclusion practices have come under public scrutiny.


“It is very hard to know what the agenda is here, and I feel worried and sorry about this gentleman’s path,” she said.


Andrew Azevedo’s ‘miraculous recovery’


Azevedo’s family conveyed in their letters to the board ahead of the hearing that after years of raising concerns to the hospital about Azevedo’s deteriorating health, they only began to notice significant improvements in his behaviour following a June meeting with hospital staff, including Mishra.


Susan Azevedo said the Star investigation was the “elephant in the room” at that meeting, saying the family assumed that both the stories and Monteiro’s report were a “major factor” in the hospital putting together a new plan for Azevedo’s care.


In her letter to the board, she said the family was concerned with the suggestion that medication alone is the primary reason for Azevedo’s improvement, given his long history of poor response to many different drugs.


She said that the contribution of improved basic care, more activities and human engagement — all of which have been provided to Azevedo with greater frequency since June — cannot be discounted.


If these things can help Azevedo maintain his functioning and quality of life, “those things should not be treated as optional additions to his psychiatric treatment,” Susan wrote. “They are basic components of humane care.”


She wrote there is now “genuine public interest” in prolonged seclusion at Waypoint and “the systems responsible” for overseeing it.

“Andrew’s circumstances have been publicly reported, along with broader questions about long-term seclusion and oversight,” she wrote. “We believe transparency and independent scrutiny are important, not because our family seeks publicity, but because vulnerable patients such as Andrew are often unable to advocate for themselves.”


Jorge and Maria, who visit their son at Waypoint on a weekly basis, felt that for years, their concerns were ignored and no one at the hospital was seriously questioning how to get him out of seclusion.


“Before Andrew had the legal advocacy and outside attention he has now, his continued seclusion seemed to simply become accepted as normal,” they wrote in their letter to the ORB.


Waypoint said in a statement to the Star it can’t comment on individual cases due to patient confidentiality requirements; the hospital told the board in a report that where possible, it has tried to integrate Monteiro’s recommendations into Azevedo’s care plan.


Mishra attributed his patient’s significant improvement to gradual increases in the antipsychotic medication Haldol over the past few months; Azevedo had previously taken the drug but suffered from some of the side effects, which has not been the case this time, Mishra said.


Why he’s now doing so much better on Haldol compared to the last time isn’t clear, Mishra testified, saying his patient’s case is very complex.


“What is very clear is that he is now able to exercise control of his actions,” Mishra said.


As a result of the medication, Mishra said Azevedo has spent more time on “seclusion relief,” which means being escorted out of his room by staff to participate in activities like watching TV, listening to music, and visiting family.


He said the plan is to soon have him out of seclusion for good, “under constant observation” by one or two staff members.


“We are at that inflection point,” Mishra said.


At this, Szigeti was incredulous. She pointed out that at Azevedo’s previous ORB hearing just this past February, Mishra had conceded that Azevedo was in a “dire situation” and had not “held out much for hope” for an improvement.


Mishra replied that there had been some failed attempts with other medications — “We were going back to the drawing board and we had just restarted the Haldol.”


Fast forward to this summer, Szigeti said, and Azevedo is now suddenly so much better that he’s about to be released from isolation— “That’s a pretty miraculous recovery, wouldn’t you say?”


One psychiatrist who found himself agreeing that it was more than just the Haldol that helped Azevedo was Dr. Yedishtra Naidoo of St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, who had been tasked by Waypoint with conducting an external review of Azevedo’s seclusion status.


Initially, Naidoo believed that the medication was solely responsible for the “significant improvement” in Azevedo’s condition.


But when Naidoo came to testify before the ORB last Thursday, he said his conclusion had “expanded”: that while the medication had been effective, spending an increasing amount of time on seclusion relief had also had a positive effect on Azevedo’s behaviour by reducing stress and distress from being around other people.


“Both are important to ultimately getting this man back out of seclusion.”

Family want ‘meaningful safeguards’


Azevedo’s family knows that he’s very ill and needs to remain at Waypoint for now. They’re grateful that he’s doing much better, and are hoping that the changes the hospital has made will be permanent.


Being able to kick a soccer ball, visit the canteen, and listen to music “may appear insignificant,” Susan Azevedo wrote in her letter to the ORB.


“To our family, they are anything but insignificant. They are pieces of a life — and perhaps, with continued progress, pieces of a larger world that Andrew may someday be able to reconnect with.”


She wrote that the family recognizes there are very real safety considerations involved in Azevedo’s care, and they are not asking the ORB or the hospital to ignore those risks.


What they want, she said, is for the board to put “meaningful safeguards in place” to ensure that these “hard-won pieces of Andrew’s life” are protected and cannot be taken away again.


Before Andrew had the legal advocacy and outside attention he has now, his continued seclusion seemed to simply become accepted as normal.


“We are asking that safety not become the sole measure of whether Andrew is being adequately cared for,” she wrote. “After almost five years in seclusion, Andrew is finally getting back small pieces of a life outside the four walls of his room.”


His parents wrote that they are left to wonder what their son’s condition or quality of life might have been like over the past five years had he received the level of attention he’s getting now.


“What we can do is make sure that what happened does not simply become forgotten because things are beginning to improve,” Jorge and Maria wrote, asking that the board continue questioning whether everything reasonably possible is being done to reduce Azevedo’s time in seclusion.


“Most importantly, please do not allow years of seclusion to become normal again.""

The entire story can be read at: '

https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/the-star-exposed-his-five-years-in-isolation-at-this-ontario-psychiatric-hospital-hes-suddenly-set-to-be-released-from-seclusion/article_ed998341-7818-4d16-9883-8d5b892883ce.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;

August 28): Disgraced former Colorado Bureau of Investigation forensic scientist Yvonne "Missy" Woods (Sentencing hearing: September 8): From our 'Tip of the iceberg' department: Digital Editor Jessica Giles reports on '5280' that re-tested Missy Woods sexual assault kits have revealed links to new suspects, noting that: "Although the trial of former Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) forensic scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods is winding down, with her sentencing scheduled for September 8, the fallout from her misconduct is just beginning to be revealed."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "This past June, Woods pleaded guilty to four felony charges stemming from her criminal misconduct at CBI: cybercrime, perjury in the first degree, attempt to influence a public servant, and forgery. She’ll receive a minimum of eight years in prison and up to 16 during her sentencing hearing on September 8. The revelation of Woods’ malpractice has cast doubt on every case she touched. CBI says it conducted an extensive forensic review of her work and identified 1,045 casesimpacted by her data manipulation. But all that time spent re-examining Woods’ work exacerbated another growing issue at CBI: an unprecedented rape kit backlog."

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

STORY: "Breaking: Re-Tested Missy Woods Sexual Assault Kits Reveal Links to New Suspects, Investigations," by 5280's digital editor Jessica Giles, published  by '5280' on August 27, 2026. (The name 5280 comes from Denver's elevation of 5,280 feet (or one mile) above sea level, which is why Denver is famously known as the "Mile High City".  The monthly regional publication—officially known as 5280—was founded in 1993 and uses the number to celebrate its deep local connection to the Colorado capital.)

SUB-HEADING: "The Colorado Bureau of Investigation rated only three of its former forensic investigator’s cases as “high-risk” and worth re-testing. The Denver Crime Laboratory dug deeper."

GIST: "Although the trial of former Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) forensic scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods is winding down, with her sentencing scheduled for September 8, the fallout from her misconduct is just beginning to be revealed.

In April 2025, the Denver Crime Laboratory (DCL), the Denver Police Department’s forensic science division, initiated a review of 422 Denver sexual assault cases handled by Woods throughout her career. (The department later expanded the review to just over 1,300 cases.) Initially, CBI recommended that DCL re-test only three Woods cases it deemed “high-risk,” wrote Denver Police Department spokesperson Doug Schepman in an email to 5280. The laboratory chose to test 10 additional cases.

On August 27, the Denver Police Department disclosed to 5280 that of those 13 cases, 11 returned DNA profiles eligible to be entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a national database that law enforcement agencies use to compare DNA profiles. Six of those 11 matched to potential suspects or other criminal investigations, Schepman wrote—evidence that could now be used to pursue prosecutions. (The Denver Police Department declined to share details about the cases because they remain active criminal investigations.)

In January 2025, Woods was charged with 102 counts related to 58 instances of alleged criminal misconduct from 2008 to 2023. (Woods worked at CBI from 1994 to 2023.) There’s no evidence that Woods falsified DNA matches during her tenure at CBI. Rather, Woods admitted to an internal affairs investigator in 2023 that she took shortcuts during testing—including deleting data that showed low levels of male DNA that would require further testing. In more than 30 sexual assault cases, Woods reported that there was “No Male DNA Found” when, in fact, there were small amounts present or there was possible contamination, according to the internal affairs investigation.

This past June, Woods pleaded guilty to four felony charges stemming from her criminal misconduct at CBI: cybercrime, perjury in the first degree, attempt to influence a public servant, and forgery. She’ll receive a minimum of eight years in prison and up to 16 during her sentencing hearing on September 8.

The revelation of Woods’ malpractice has cast doubt on every case she touched. CBI says it conducted an extensive forensic review of her work and identified 1,045 casesimpacted by her data manipulation. But all that time spent re-examining Woods’ work exacerbated another growing issue at CBI: an unprecedented rape kit backlog.

At the height of the backlog, in February 2025, there were 1,462 kits awaiting testing. Sexual assault survivors waited more than 500 days on average to receive results. The bureau has been chipping away at the queue, but as of this month, the average turnaround time is still 186 days. (CBI’s goal is 90 days.) CBI has made clearing the backlog an “operational priority” and reports that it’s on track to hit its 90-day turnaround target in November—but that doesn’t take into consideration any additional re-testing of Woods’ work.

Given the findings of these 13 cases, the Denver Crime Lab could choose to re-test more of the 1,300 kits under its review. “The DCL will continue to independently evaluate additional Denver sexual assault cases for re-testing and will coordinate with CBI to ensure accurate scientific results throughout the process,” Schepman wrote.

Kelsey Harbert, a sexual assault survivor and co-organizer of a GoFundMe to help clear Colorado’s rape kit backlog, hopes that these findings will lead to the re-testing of every sexual assault case Woods handled during her career.

“How are we having any other conversation than, CBI needs to stop everything it’s doing and retest all of her work?” Harbert says. “Every victim’s case, whether it’s a conviction or it’s an ongoing case—[Woods’ misconduct] puts all of them at jeopardy because you can’t say definitively how many cases she deleted evidence for and she cut corners on that should have turned out differently.”

In a statement to 5280, CBI says it welcomes any new leads in sexual assault cases but argued that DCL’s findings don’t necessarily indicate misconduct. Instead, the agency claims the original DNA testing for these 13 cases took place an average of 10 years ago and advancements in forensic science could be the reason DCL scientists were able to pull a DNA profile now: “While the existence of a new DNA profile does not, by itself, indicate misconduct, analytical failure, or an incorrect conclusion in the original examination, any opportunity to crack down on perpetrators of sexual assault is important.”

Harbert took issue with the implication that these new findings are a result of technological advancements rather than a consequence of Woods’ misconduct. “That’s embarrassing, and it’s insulting for survivors and taxpayers for you to say something like that,” Harbert says, adding that she believes CBI has yet to fully reckon with Woods’ offenses, which only perpetuates their consequences. “Every day that goes by, another person is at risk of being assaulted, another case is at risk of being dismissed, and another conviction is at risk of being overturned.”"

The entire story can be read at:

https://share.google/9GyQ2uS4IReh12tsf

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;

August 28: Nathaniel Nasrud; Illinois: Wrongful Confession: From our 'enough to make one weep" department: (See for yourself. HL) Why do police, prosecutors and judges - all too often have so much trouble stopping patently unjust, unfair, abusive cases tainted by police and prosecutorial abuse and flawed science (or scientists). as if the justice system was that proverbial train racing down a steep hill: Author Ken Otterbourg gets to the anguished heart of this case of the now exonerated father in his "National Registry of Exonerations' entry (link below) noting that, "On November 25, 2008, Judge Charles “Casey” Stengel denied Onsrud’s motion to withdraw his plea and sentenced him to 60 years in prison. “I’ve no remorse for you,” Judge Stengel said.."

ENTRY: Nathaniel Onsrud: National Registry of Exonerations: By Author  Ken Otterbourg; Contributing factors to wrongful murder conviction: False confession: False or misleading forensic evidence. Uploaded to the Registry on August 17, 2026. 

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of  scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects are to widely used interrogation methods  such as  the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’ As  all too many of this Blog's post have shown, I also recognize that pressure for false confessions can take many forms, up to and including physical violence, even physical and mental torture.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:

————————————————---

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Judge to innocent man later exonerated because (among other abuses which tainted the case)  police extorted a confession from him to the murder of his son:"On November 25, 2008, Judge Charles “Casey” Stengel denied Onsrud’s motion to withdraw his plea and sentenced him to 60 years in prison. “I’ve no remorse for you,” Judge Stengel said. "

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

SECOND QUOTE OF THE DAY: "“It is hard to put into words the suffering that is at the heart of this case,” IIP Legal Director Lauren Kaeseberg said. “Nate was a young father who lost his infant son. Instead of being able to grieve this horrible tragedy, he found himself wrongfully accused of murder. For 19 years he was labeled a monster and for 13 years he suffered behind bars. Nothing can ever heal those wounds, but we are so glad Nate can finally move forward—exonerated—and without the constant threat of unfair prosecution.”

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

 PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Onsrud waived his Miranda rights and agreed to speak to the investigators.  Onsrud told the investigators that Dax had been wearing his apnea monitor during the afternoon, prior to the device’s alarm going off. The investigators said that wasn’t possible. They had the readouts of the device, which indicated that the monitor hadn’t been connected to the child between 4:57 a.m. and 6:19 p.m. They said Onsrud’s answer suggested deception.  “The whole thing is that it makes us question your credibility when the whole time you’re trying to maintain the fact that this child was on, on its monitor when it truly wasn’t and like I said, there is no law that you’re violating that because Dax wasn’t on it because they were going to take it off him anyhow, but you know it makes me wonder about the other things that you were telling us when you can’t be truthful about whether the monitor was on or not when you very well knew that we were going to download that monitor and get the information off of it,” an investigator said."

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

PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "The investigators kept pushing, telling Onsrud he was a good father but that sometimes people just snap. “Just between dads,” one investigator said, “Just explain to me what, what went on that day to maybe cause that knee jerk reaction that you had.”  Onsrud said that at times he would black out when he got angry and that it was possible that Dax’s head hit something when Onsrud was lowering him after playing airplane with him.  Onsrud said, “I can see myself throw him down a little too hard, I mean, with my past and everything—it’s, it’s it’s …”  An investigator filled in the missing words. “It’s possible.”  Onsrud said. “It is very possible.”  Onsrud was arrested on August 3, 2007, and charged with aggravated battery. Four days later, he was also charged with first-degree murder in Dax’s death. "

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

PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "Nine years passed.  The Illinois Innocence Project (IIP) began representing Onsrud in 2020 and asked to review the case files in the office of the Rock Island County State’s Attorney.   In a motion for a new trial filed on June 22, 2020, Onsrud’s attorneys said they had learned that there was material in the prosecutor’s file that had not been disclosed to Onsrud at the time of his plea and that constituted new evidence of innocence. The filing did not identify this material or evidence.  Rock Island County State’s Attorney Dora Villarreal joined in the motion to grant Onsrud a new trial. In a press release, she said that after the files were retrieved from storage, “it quickly became apparent that many documents were missing from such a very complex and serious case.” She said, “It was and still is our belief that several material documents belonging to this investigation were not disclosed by the assigned prosecutor to the defense.” The release did not describe the missing or non-disclosed material.   Osborn had been terminated from the state’s attorney’s office in 2013 for failing to disclose evidence in another case, and Villarreal said she would conduct an audit of Osborn’s work."

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PASSAGE FOUR  OF THE DAY: "Onsrud moved to dismiss the indictment on January 24, 2024. The motion said the state had failed to save the microscopic sectioning slides and tissue cuttings from Dax’s brain. In addition, the state had no records related to the identity of the neuropathologist who assisted Kalelkar and had said there was no evidence of trauma.  “Without these items, Mr. Onsrud is unable to confront the State’s evidence, and his most fundamental constitutional rights are violated,” the motion said. “It is worth noting that this is not a strategic or tactical ploy; to the contrary, counsel for Mr. Onsrud has looked everywhere for these items of evidence because they are not only needed to defend this case, but they go to the heart of the matter and can affirmatively prove that Mr. Onsrud is actually innocent.” 

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GIST: "At 6:21 p.m. on May 15, 2007, 20- year-old Nathaniel Onsrud called his girlfriend, Elizabeth Lancial, and said that their infant son, Dax Lancial, was bleeding from the nose and having trouble breathing. Elizabeth Lancial called 911, and EMS workers were sent to the couple’s house in Coal Valley, Illinois.

When EMS workers arrived, Dax was not breathing, and he died later that night at a local hospital.

Dax had been born 10 weeks premature, on January 2, 2007, with significant health impairments, including apnea and chronic lung disease. He wore a monitor to track the apnea and had to be fed through a nasogastric tube.

Sharon Anderson, the coroner for Rock Island County, authorized Dr. Jose Acosta, a local pathologist, to perform an autopsy, which took place on May 16.

According to Anderson, Acosta said he found two subdural hematomas, a subgaleal petechia (bleeding between the scalp and the skull), and diffuse bleeding on the crown of the skull. But his autopsy report, dated July 25, 2007, did not mention any of these specific injuries. Instead, the report said Dax showed “blood and red soft blood clots” in the “subdural spaces over the parietal lobes.” (The parietal lobes are on the back of the brain.)

In the time between the autopsy and the report, Anderson had sought out other experts. Her notes said she talked with an unnamed doctor on May 17, who told her that “in premature babies, sometimes things are found that may not be from trauma.”

Anderson requested a second autopsy, retaining Dr. Mitra Kalelkar, a forensic pathologist with the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. Kalelkar performed her autopsy on May 18. Kalelkar’s initial findings said that there were no “initial signs of caused death,” although she said that she was still awaiting the results of several tests.

On May 22, Anderson emailed Kalelkar, stating that Anderson was “not comfortable with this case” and that “something doesn’t feel right.” She offered to send Kalelkar some articles she found online about subdural hemorrhages in infants.

Kalelkar quickly responded and said that a neuropathologist (whom she did not name) had cut into Dax’s brain and interpreted the findings to conclude that the hematomas were unrelated to trauma or abuse.

Kalelkar wrote: “I understand your concerns about the father’s story. Even if he played aeroplane with the infant, he did not grip the baby hard enough to cause any grip bruises. Given the lack of any serious injuries on the child, I would be hesitant to call this a homicide.”

On July 15, 2007, Kalelkar emailed Anderson and said that she had observed fibrin—a blood-clotting protein—in the subdural hematomas, which she said indicated that the bruising occurred while Dax was alive. She also wrote that the hemorrhages could be accidental or non-accidental.

On July 19, Kalelkar provided Anderson with a draft of her autopsy report. It said Dax had bruising and bleeding around his brain and noted the child’s premature birth, pneumonia, and chronic lung disease. Kalelkar said it was her opinion that Dax “died as a result of subdural hemorrhage due to blunt head trauma.”

Lieutenant Edward Hinderliter with the Coal Valley Police Department and Investigator Eric Holton with the Rock Island County Sheriff’s Department had previously interviewed Onsrud, and they brought him back for a second interview on August 2, 2007. Onsrud waived his Miranda rights and agreed to speak to the investigators.

Onsrud told the investigators that Dax had been wearing his apnea monitor during the afternoon, prior to the device’s alarm going off. The investigators said that wasn’t possible. They had the readouts of the device, which indicated that the monitor hadn’t been connected to the child between 4:57 a.m. and 6:19 p.m. They said Onsrud’s answer suggested deception.

“The whole thing is that it makes us question your credibility when the whole time you’re trying to maintain the fact that this child was on, on its monitor when it truly wasn’t and like I said, there is no law that you’re violating that because Dax wasn’t on it because they were going to take it off him anyhow, but you know it makes me wonder about the other things that you were telling us when you can’t be truthful about whether the monitor was on or not when you very well knew that we were going to download that monitor and get the information off of it,” an investigator said.

The investigators kept pushing, telling Onsrud he was a good father but that sometimes people just snap. “Just between dads,” one investigator said, “Just explain to me what, what went on that day to maybe cause that knee jerk reaction that you had.”

Onsrud said that at times he would black out when he got angry and that it was possible that Dax’s head hit something when Onsrud was lowering him after playing airplane with him.

Onsrud said, “I can see myself throw him down a little too hard, I mean, with my past and everything—it’s, it’s it’s …”

An investigator filled in the missing words. “It’s possible.”

Onsrud said. “It is very possible.”

Onsrud was arrested on August 3, 2007, and charged with aggravated battery. Four days later, he was also charged with first-degree murder in Dax’s death.

The state initially said it might seek the death penalty but later filed a notice declining that option.

Onsrud was represented by Matthew Durbin, an assistant public defender, and Margaret Osborn, an assistant state’s attorney, represented the state.

On September 23, 2008, two weeks before his trial was to begin in Rock Island County Circuit Court, Onsrud entered a guilty plea to first-degree murder. Osborn said that as part of the plea agreement, the state had agreed not to seek a sentence of life in prison and would also dismiss the battery charge.

Osborn said that Onsrud had admitted “that he shoved the baby onto the couch where the baby hit his head on the couch arm.”

She also said that an autopsy “revealed” that Dax died of blunt force trauma to the head and that a pathologist would have testified that the injury would require “momentum and velocity such as throwing of a baby.”

On November 21, 2008, Onsrud moved to withdraw his plea. Durbin said in the motion that Onsrud had been depressed at the time he pled guilty and had been taking Seroquel, an anti-psychotic medication that Onsrud believed might have interfered with his judgment. In addition, Onsrud said that “evidence he recently reviewed and had previously misinterpreted or overlooked has led him to believe that his plea of guilty was not based upon a solid understanding of the evidence against him.”

On November 25, 2008, Judge Charles “Casey” Stengel denied Onsrud’s motion to withdraw his plea and sentenced him to 60 years in prison. “I’ve no remorse for you,” Judge Stengel said.

The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the conviction on June 27, 2011.

Nine years passed.

The Illinois Innocence Project (IIP) began representing Onsrud in 2020 and asked to review the case files in the office of the Rock Island County State’s Attorney.

In a motion for a new trial filed on June 22, 2020, Onsrud’s attorneys said they had learned that there was material in the prosecutor’s file that had not been disclosed to Onsrud at the time of his plea and that constituted new evidence of innocence. The filing did not identify this material or evidence.

Rock Island County State’s Attorney Dora Villarreal joined in the motion to grant Onsrud a new trial. In a press release, she said that after the files were retrieved from storage, “it quickly became apparent that many documents were missing from such a very complex and serious case.” She said, “It was and still is our belief that several material documents belonging to this investigation were not disclosed by the assigned prosecutor to the defense.” The release did not describe the missing or non-disclosed material.

Osborn had been terminated from the state’s attorney’s office in 2013 for failing to disclose evidence in another case, and Villarreal said she would conduct an audit of Osborn’s work.

Judge Frank Fuhr granted the new trial motion on June 23, and Onsrud was released from prison. Villarreal noted that the charges against Onsrud had not been dismissed.

Separately, Villarreal filed an ethics complaint against Osborn with the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission, overseen by the Illinois Supreme Court. (The outcome of that complaint isn’t available.)

On February 8, 2023, the state filed an amended complaint against Onsrud, now charging him with felony child endangerment.

Onsrud moved to dismiss the indictment on January 24, 2024. The motion said the state had failed to save the microscopic sectioning slides and tissue cuttings from Dax’s brain. In addition, the state had no records related to the identity of the neuropathologist who assisted Kalelkar and had said there was no evidence of trauma.

“Without these items, Mr. Onsrud is unable to confront the State’s evidence, and his most fundamental constitutional rights are violated,” the motion said. “It is worth noting that this is not a strategic or tactical ploy; to the contrary, counsel for Mr. Onsrud has looked everywhere for these items of evidence because they are not only needed to defend this case, but they go to the heart of the matter and can affirmatively prove that Mr. Onsrud is actually innocent.”

The motion also included two new forensic reports, by Dr. Chandani DeZure, a pediatrician at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and by Dr. Michael Baden, the former chief medical examiner for New York City.

DeZure said in her report that the small hematomas found during Dax’s autopsy were not associated with his death. She also said that Onsrud’s statements about how he might have caused Dax’s injuries were not consistent with the autopsy findings.

Although Onsrud had given inconsistent statements to investigators about the use of the apnea monitor, DeZure said the lack of monitoring was a red herring. At the time of Dax’s death, her report noted, the child’s pediatrician had recommended that Onsrud and Lancial use the device less frequently.

Baden said in his report that Dax died of natural causes tied to lung disease, infection, and premature birth. He said that Kalelkar’s finding of fibrin streams was evidence that clots had developed days before Dax’s death and could not have started after the activities that Onsrud described during his interview. “The autopsy evidence shows that Mr. Onsrud confessed to a homicide that had not occurred,” he wrote.

On May 6, 2025, Judge Fuhr denied Onsrud’s motion to dismiss. He said that there was no evidence of bad faith on the part of prosecutors, but that the state had the duty to preserve the tissue samples and brain sections. As a result, he granted a defense motion to exclude any evidence or testimony about subdural hematomas.

A month later, on June 17, 2025, the state moved to amend the indictment, seeking to replace “subdural hemorrhaging” with “head trauma.” Judge Fuhr denied the motion on November 19, 2025, calling it an “attempt to evade the substance of the court’s earlier ruling.”

In January 2026, the state said it was no longer pursuing a charge of felony child endangerment. Instead, prosecutors said they would charge Onsrud with misdemeanor child endangerment and misdemeanor battery, which they said were lesser included charges.

Onsrud again moved to dismiss the case. His attorneys said the statute of limitations had expired for these offenses and that the state could not specify how Onsrud endangered his son without using any evidence related to subdural hemorrhaging.

Judge Fuhr denied the second motion to dismiss on March 18, 2026.

Onsrud’s attorneys filed a motion to reconsider on April 15, 2026, asserting that Judge Fuhr had erred when ruling that the statute of limitations had not expired. The motion said that the nine years that Onsrud spent in prison between the appellate decision in 2011 and the granting of his new trial should have been included in the calculation, and it was far greater than the 18-month statute of limitations for misdemeanor child endangerment.

Judge Fuhr agreed with the motion and dismissed the case on June 23, 2026.

“It is hard to put into words the suffering that is at the heart of this case,” IIP Legal Director Lauren Kaeseberg said. “Nate was a young father who lost his infant son. Instead of being able to grieve this horrible tragedy, he found himself wrongfully accused of murder. For 19 years he was labeled a monster and for 13 years he suffered behind bars. Nothing can ever heal those wounds, but we are so glad Nate can finally move forward—exonerated—and without the constant threat of unfair prosecution.”

The entire entry can be read at:

https://exonerationregistry.org/cases/20142

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;