Monday, March 18, 2024

Nota Bene: Karen Read; Massachusetts: Publisher's note. I have begun to follow this case as it may turn out to be of interest to the reader's of this Blog. She is charged in connection with the death of a Boston police officer. CNN (Reporters Faith Karimi and Zenebou Sylla) reports that a state trooper investigating the death of a Boston police officer is now under investigation himself, adding another layer of complexity to a case that has sharply divided a Massachusetts suburb. Hmmmmmm! Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog. "Investigators allege O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Karen Read, hit him with her SUV in the Boston suburb of Canton in January 2022 and left him outside in the snow to die. But Read’s defense team alleges that he was fatally beaten in the Canton home of a fellow Boston police officer, and that Read is the victim of a coverup to protect those inside the home that night. Read has said she dropped O’Keefe outside the home shortly after midnight — after they left a bar — then drove off to his house to sleep because she was not feeling well. O’Keefe’s body was found about six hours later outside the home. Read has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY:  "The Massachusetts State Police did not specify whether Proctor’s alleged violation is related to Read’s case. “Trooper Proctor remains on full duty,” a State Police spokesperson said in a statement to CNN on Thursday. “Please note that we are not stating whether the potential violation relates to a specific case, nor are we specifying the nature of the alleged violation.”

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STORY: "A state trooper is investigating the death of a Boston police officer. Now, he’s accused of policy violations," by Senior Writer (CNN Digital) Faith Karimi and  News Assistant Zenebou Sylla, published by CNN on March 16, 2024.

PHOTO CAPTION:"Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe was found unresponsive in January 2022 outside this residence in Canton, Massachusetts. 


GIST: "A state trooper investigating the death of a Boston police officer is now under investigation himself, authorities said Thursday, adding another layer of complexity to a case that has sharply divided a Massachusetts suburb.

The Massachusetts State Police said it has opened an internal investigation into a “potential violation of department policy” against Trooper Michael Proctor, one of the lead investigators in the death of Officer John O’Keefe. It did not elaborate on what he is being investigated for.

Investigators allege O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Karen Read, hit him with her SUV in the Boston suburb of Canton in January 2022 and left him outside in the snow to die.

But Read’s defense team alleges that he was fatally beaten in the Canton home of a fellow Boston police officer, and that Read is the victim of a coverup to protect those inside the home that night. Read has said she dropped O’Keefe outside the home shortly after midnight  — after they left a bar — then drove off to his house to sleep because she was not feeling well.

O’Keefe’s body was found about six hours later outside the home. Read has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision.

The Massachusetts State Police did not specify whether Proctor’s alleged violation is related to Read’s case. “Trooper Proctor remains on full duty,” a State Police spokesperson said in a statement to CNN on Thursday.

“Please note that we are not stating whether the potential violation relates to a specific case, nor are we specifying the nature of the alleged violation.”

David Traub, a spokesperson for the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting Read’s case, told CNN they’re aware of the investigation. Proctor remains “on full duty and his responsibilities within our office have not changed,” he said.

The investigation comes the same week Read’s defense team alleged that Proctor did not fully disclose his relationship with key witnesses in the case. During a hearing Tuesday, attorney Alan Jackson alleged that text messages revealed Proctor has close ties with the family of the homeowner, and has communicated with them before and after O’Keefe’s death.

“We’ve been saying since September 2022 motions that we filed before this court and filed with the Commonwealth that there is a conflict. You’re not investigating the conflict. That conflict was never described to the grand jurors. And we’ve been rebuffed at every single turn,” Jackson said in court on Tuesday.

Proctor’s attorney, Michael DiStefano, said his client is cooperating with the investigation.

“Trooper Proctor remains steadfast in the integrity of the work he performed investigating the death of Mr. John O’Keefe,” he said in a statement obtained by CNN. “To the extent that Trooper Proctor’s personal text messages are alluded to in court proceedings regarding Ms. Read, he respectfully submits that the objective investigative steps he and members of his unit took are in no way undermined by the content of the personal messages.”

Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally has said the defense is using the relationships to distract from Read’s alleged guilt, CNN affiliate WFXT reported.

“It’s a three-card Monte trick. You know, card trick. On the corner, on the side. Look at all of this. Look at this relationship. Look at that relationship,” Lally said.

Read’s trial is scheduled to start next month."

The entire story can be read at:


https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/16/us/state-trooper-investigating-killing-canton-boston-police-officer-policy-violations-cec/index.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. The Star has a "topic"  section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;


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


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


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


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

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;


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

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;

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

YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:


David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.


https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801

————————————————————————————————


MORE VALUABLE WORDS: "As a former public defender, Texas' refusal to delay Ivan Cantu's execution to evaluate new evidence is deeply worrying for the state of our legal system. There should be no room for doubt in a death penalty case. The facts surrounding Cantu's execution should haunt all of us."

Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett; X March 1, 2024.
---------------------------------------------

Jessie Dotson: Tennessee: (From our 'read this and weep,' department: False confession, witness intimidation and so much more. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that he has filed a petition asking a judge to vacate his conviction and death sentence…"The petition details that “Over the course of the evening, Lt. Armstrong threat­ened to arrest Jessie’s moth­er, Priscilla Shaw, and sis­ter, Nicole Dotson. He threat­ened to kill Jessie. He threat­ened to put Jessie in gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion with the Gangster Disciples in the jail at 201 Poplar and let them kill him. He lied to Jessie and told him that they had Jessie’s foot­prints in blood at the [crime] scene. He made promis­es to Jessie, but told him he had to hur­ry or else Lt. Armstrong couldn’t help him. And then, he repeat­ed­ly played the tape of C.J. [Dotson], say­ing that Jessie did it. Jessie broke. He confessed.”


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:

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in  false eye-witness identification issues because  wrongful identifications are at the heart of so many DNA-related exonerations in the USA and elsewhere - and because so much scientific research is being conducted with a goal to making the identification process more   transparent and reliable- and less subject to deliberate manipulation.  I have also reported far too many cases over the years - mainly cases lacking DNA evidence (or other forensic evidence pointing to the suspect - where the police have somehow  rigged the identification process in order to make an identification inevitable. 
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Three additional children survived the attacks despite sustaining injuries. One of the three survivors, Mr. Dotson’s 9-year-old nephew, C. J. Dotson, identified him as the attacker, providing critical eyewitness testimony that defense counsel now say was unreliable."

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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: " Prosecutors relied heavily on the testimony of C.J. Dotson, who was stabbed in the head during the killings but survived his wounds. He would eventually name Mr. Dotson as the person responsible for the killings, but Mr. Dotson’s new filings argue that C.J.’s memory had been “tampered” with by police officers and that he was not in the right state of mind to identify anyone. The petition also points to C.J.’s medical records indicating he was on “mind-altering medications” when he was interviewed, including morphine, propofol, and hydrocodone and fentanyl.  During C.J.’s first interview with a trained forensic child advocate, he named two separate people as suspects and repeated what he heard the suspects say.  That interview was not completed because the advocate believed that C.J. was too distressed to continue.  In violation of established protocol, police Sergeant Caroline Mason then questioned C.J., and the petition alleges the Sgt. Mason told C.J. about gifts he would receive if he named a suspect.  Linda Steele, an FBI expert, interviewed C.J. four days after he spoke with Sgt. Mason, yet her report was never disclosed to the defense.  Prosecutors also failed to disclose to Mr. Dotson’s trial attorneys that C.J.’s psychologist said the child’s memory was unreliable."

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ENTRY: "Tennessee Death Row Prisoner’s New Appeal Alleges Innocence, Prosecutorial Misconduct, and Ineffective Counsel," published by The Death Penalty Information Center, on  March 13, 2024.


GIST: "Jessie Dotson, a man sentenced to death for killing six people in 2008 in the Binghampton neighborhood of Memphis, Tennessee, has filed a petition for a writ of a habeas corpus asking a judge to vacate his conviction and death sentence. 


His petition alleges that he is innocent, that police coerced him to falsely confess, and that a number of prosecutorial and defense errors occurred at trial. 


Mr. Dotson has been on death row since 2008, when he was sentenced to death for the murders of four adults, including his brother, and two children.


 Three additional children survived the attacks despite sustaining injuries. One of the three survivors, Mr. Dotson’s 9-year-old nephew, C. J. Dotson, identified him as the attacker, providing critical eyewitness testimony that defense counsel now say was unreliable.


Mr. Dotson’s appeal identifies several trial errors in addition to the ineffective assistance of his counsel. 


Defense counsel now argue that the killings occurred as part of a gang retaliation, noting that some of the victims were armed and that Mr. Dotson’s brother had crossed gang members from the Gangster Disciples.


 The petition alleges that the crime scene was characteristic of a “total blackout order,” which is an order to kill a target’s entire family. 


With this evidence pointing away from Mr. Dotson, the petition also alleges that police intentionally ignored and did not share information with the defense that supported this theory.


Of the 468 exhibits introduced at trial, none were linked to Mr. Dotson through DNA testing. 


 Prosecutors relied heavily on the testimony of C.J. Dotson, who was stabbed in the head during the killings but survived his wounds. 


He would eventually name Mr. Dotson as the person responsible for the killings, but Mr. Dotson’s new filings argue that C.J.’s memory had been “tampered” with by police officers and that he was not in the right state of mind to identify anyone.


The petition also points to C.J.’s medical records indicating he was on “mind-altering medications” when he was interviewed, including morphine, propofol, and hydrocodone and fentanyl. 


During C.J.’s first interview with a trained forensic child advocate, he named two separate people as suspects and repeated what he heard the suspects say. 


That interview was not completed because the advocate believed that C.J. was too distressed to continue. 


In violation of established protocol, police Sergeant Caroline Mason then questioned C.J., and the petition alleges the Sgt. Mason told C.J. about gifts he would receive if he named a suspect. 


Linda Steele, an FBI expert, interviewed C.J. four days after he spoke with Sgt. Mason, yet her report was never disclosed to the defense. 


Prosecutors also failed to disclose to Mr. Dotson’s trial attorneys that C.J.’s psychologist said the child’s memory was unreliable.


Mr. Dotson’s petition also describes the seven-hour-interrogation he endured while being “sleep deprived and psychologically manipulated,” all the while maintaining his innocence.


 At several points, Mr. Dotson invoked his right to remain silent and asked for an attorney, which the police repeatedly ignored as they continued the interrogation. 


The petition details that “Over the course of the evening, Lt. Armstrong threat­ened to arrest Jessie’s moth­er, Priscilla Shaw, and sis­ter, Nicole Dotson. He threat­ened to kill Jessie. He threat­ened to put Jessie in gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion with the Gangster Disciples in the jail at 201 Poplar and let them kill him. He lied to Jessie and told him that they had Jessie’s foot­prints in blood at the [crime] scene. He made promis­es to Jessie, but told him he had to hur­ry or else Lt. Armstrong couldn’t help him. And then, he repeat­ed­ly played the tape of C.J. [Dotson], say­ing that Jessie did it. Jessie broke. He confessed.”


Despite this confession, much of Mr. Dotson’s statements do not align with the crime scene evidence. The information elicited in Mr. Dotson’s confession came from information provided to him by police.


 Defense counsel further allege that Mr. Dotson was not made aware of his Miranda rights before he signed his “confession.”


The entire story can be read at:

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/tennessee-death-row-prisoners-new-appeal-alleges-innocence-prosecutorial-misconduct-and-ineffective-counsel

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic"  section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;


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


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


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


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

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;


—————————————————————————————————

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

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;

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

YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:


David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.


https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801

————————————————————————————————


MORE VALUABLE WORDS: "As a former public defender, Texas' refusal to delay Ivan Cantu's execution to evaluate new evidence is deeply worrying for the state of our legal system. There should be no room for doubt in a death penalty case. The facts surrounding Cantu's execution should haunt all of us."

Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett; X March 1, 2024.
---------------------------------------------

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Clayton Hood: Colorado: Yvonne (Missy) Woods?): (Misleading evidence relating to DNA): A new trial has been ordered after a judge let prosecutors present misleading DNA evidence of sex assault, 'Colorado Politics' (Politics Reporter Michael Karlik) reports, under the sub-heading: "Judge Patricia Herron allowed jurors to believe there was a reasonable explanation why no DNA from the defendant was on the victim, while suppressing the fact that DNA from other people was present."… "A Douglas County judge allowed prosecutors to mislead the jury into thinking they should still convict a man of sexual assault despite the absence of his DNA, Colorado's second-highest court ruled on Thursday in overturning the convictions of Clayton Angus Hood. Jurors found Hood guilty of raping a teenage girl who lived in his household. They heard at trial that Hood's DNA was not found on or inside the alleged victim's genitalia. But the prosecution minimized that fact, suggesting the victim could have shed or showered off Hood's DNA, still rendering him guilty. However, jurors did not know then-District Court Judge Patricia Herron blocked them from hearing how DNA from three people, including one male, was instead found on the outside of the victim's genitalia. Writing for a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals, Judge Jaclyn Casey Brown explained Herron's decision meant jurors were left to believe the absence of any DNA was not a barrier to convicting Hood. "That impression was false," Brown wrote in the March 14 opinion. "The presence of the other DNA undermined the prosecution’s theory that Hood’s DNA was not present because (the victim) showered or expelled it naturally."


PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Herron acknowledged the DNA evidence addressed Hood's potential innocence. But then she decided Colorado's "rape shield" law, which generally shields a victim's sexual history from being explored at trial, similarly prevented the jury from hearing about the DNA evidence. "I am directing that you not leave the impression that there was another source" of DNA, Herron told the defense. Prosecutors Nathaniel Marsh and Zoe Laird ended up arguing to the jury that it should not worry about the absence of Hood's DNA from K.H. because "every woman's body will handle DNA differently."

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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "While his DNA was absent from the swab of K.H.’s external genitalia, three other DNA profiles were found. Presenting that evidence was not an invasion of (K.H.’s) privacy. It was the truth," wrote public defender Casey Mark Klekas. "The State doesn’t have a right to mislead the jury so it can get a conviction."

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PASSAGE THREE  OF THE DAY: "Days before the appellate panel's decision, news broke that a former Colorado Bureau of Investigation DNA scientist, Yvonne "Missy" Woods, tampered with DNA results and called into question the evidence in more than 1,000 criminal convictions. Although a bureau analyst testified at Hood's trial, it was unclear if the witness was Woods or if she had any connection to the case. The 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office did not immediately know about any effect Woods' misconduct had on Hood's prosecution."

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STORY: "Douglas County judge let prosecutors present misleading evidence of sex assault, appeals court rules," by Politics Reporter Michael Karlik, published by 'Colorado Politics,' pn March 15, 2024/

SUB-HEADING: "Judge Patricia Herron allowed jurors to believe there was a reasonable explanation why no DNA from the defendant was on the victim, while suppressing the fact that DNA from other people was present."

GIST: A Douglas County judge allowed prosecutors to mislead the jury into thinking they should still convict a man of sexual assault despite the absence of his DNA, Colorado's second-highest court ruled on Thursday in overturning the convictions of Clayton Angus Hood.

Jurors found Hood guilty of raping a teenage girl who lived in his household. They heard at trial that Hood's DNA was not found on or inside the alleged victim's genitalia. But the prosecution minimized that fact, suggesting the victim could have shed or showered off Hood's DNA, still rendering him guilty.

However, jurors did not know then-District Court Judge Patricia Herron blocked them from hearing how DNA from three people, including one male, was instead found on the outside of the victim's genitalia. Writing for a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals, Judge Jaclyn Casey Brown explained Herron's decision meant jurors were left to believe the absence of any DNA was not a barrier to convicting Hood.


"That impression was false," Brown wrote in the March 14 opinion. "The presence of the other DNA undermined the prosecution’s theory that Hood’s DNA was not present because (the victim) showered or expelled it naturally."

On the night of the alleged assault, Hood went out drinking with the victim's father. When he returned to their Castle Rock home, the victim, identified as K.H., later testified Hood entered her bedroom and had sex with her for an hour while she cried. K.H. then showered, went to school and disclosed she had been raped.

K.H.'s father picked her up from school and they went to the police station. There, the father made a call to Hood in which he confronted Hood about the alleged rape. He added there was "a camera in her room," which was not true.

"If that's what she said happened, then it happened," Hood responded. When police went to the house afterward, they found Hood had unsuccessfully attempted suicide and they resuscitated him.

The prosecution charged Hood with two sex assault-related counts. Jurors convicted him and he is serving eight years to life in prison.

Prior to trial, the prosecution attempted to exclude evidence of the DNA found on the outside of K.H.'s genitals, which did not belong to Hood. The defense countered the DNA was important: If the government's theory was that K.H.'s shower helped "gid rid" of Hood's DNA from the rape, the presence of others' DNA made it less likely her alleged rapist's DNA would be gone altogether.



Herron acknowledged the DNA evidence addressed Hood's potential innocence. But then she decided Colorado's "rape shield" law, which generally shields a victim's sexual history from being explored at trial, similarly prevented the jury from hearing about the DNA evidence.

"I am directing that you not leave the impression that there was another source" of DNA, Herron told the defense.

Prosecutors Nathaniel Marsh and Zoe Laird ended up arguing to the jury that it should not worry about the absence of Hood's DNA from K.H. because "every woman's body will handle DNA differently."

On appeal, Hood maintained jurors should have heard the whole story.

"While his DNA was absent from the swab of K.H.’s external genitalia, three other DNA profiles were found. Presenting that evidence was not an invasion of (K.H.’s) privacy. It was the truth," wrote public defender Casey Mark Klekas. "The State doesn’t have a right to mislead the jury so it can get a conviction."

The Court of Appeals panel agreed with him. Brown observed Herron's primary justification for excluding the DNA evidence — the rape shield law — was wrong. That K.H. had DNA on her from three other sources did not necessarily mean someone else had sex with her. The point, Brown wrote, was that the absence of Hood's DNA was not as meaningless as prosecutors suggested to the jury. 

"That someone else’s DNA was still present on K.H.’s body undermined the prosecution’s theory that the only reason Hood’s DNA was not detected there was because K.H. showered or her body otherwise naturally expelled it," she explained.

The excluded information likely affected the outcome, the panel concluded, because there was virtually no physical evidence linking Hood to the alleged assault.

The Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for Hood.


Days before the appellate panel's decision, news broke that a former Colorado Bureau of Investigation DNA scientist, Yvonne "Missy" Woods, tampered with DNA results and called into question the evidence in more than 1,000 criminal convictions. Although a bureau analyst testified at Hood's trial, it was unclear if the witness was Woods or if she had any connection to the case.

The 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office did not immediately know about any effect Woods' misconduct had on Hood's prosecution.

The case is People v. Hood."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/courts/douglas-county-judge-let-prosecutors-present-misleading-evidence-of-sex-assault-appeals-court-rules/article_25b7a10c-e30b-11ee-8e1d-27774cf0f899.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. The Star has a "topic"  section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;


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


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


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


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

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;


—————————————————————————————————

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

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;

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

YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:


David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.


https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801

————————————————————————————————


MORE VALUABLE WORDS: "As a former public defender, Texas' refusal to delay Ivan Cantu's execution to evaluate new evidence is deeply worrying for the state of our legal system. There should be no room for doubt in a death penalty case. The facts surrounding Cantu's execution should haunt all of us."

Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett; X March 1, 2024.
---------------------------------------------