(March 1): Stephen 'Shorty" Jamieson; Australia: Nota Bene: March 4: Details below: In person/zoom symposium on the wrongful rape and murder conviction that has already kept him in prison for decades, presented by the Research Hub for Language in Forensic Evidence, The University of Melbourne. As described by Andrew L. Urban, on his 'Wrongful Convictions Report': "Stephen ‘Shorty’ Jamieson was a homeless 22-year-old when – on the basis of his nickname – he was charged with the brutal 1988 abduction, rape, and murder of Janine Balding. Two years later, he was sentenced to life in prison, where he remains to this day. Yet the major evidence against him was an apparent confession transcribed by detectives as a ‘record of interview’ – under conditions that have now been acknowledged at the highest levels to pose a significant risk of ‘verballing’ (presenting a confession that was never really made)."

FREE SYMPOSIUM: On the wrongful rape & murder conviction of Stephen 'Shorty' Jamieson' Posted on the Wrongful Conviction Report. Link near bottom of this page.

Room 407, Babel Building, Parkville Campus, The University of Melbourne
OR ON ZOOM; Mar 4 from 4:30pm to 6:30pm GMT+11;

Register here:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/stephen-shorty-jamieson-37-years-in-prison-for-a-crime-he-didnt-commit-tickets-1982848283593?aff=oddtdtcreator

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

BACKGROUND: FROM A PREVIOUS POST OF THIS BLOG: (November 7, 2025); "Back In Action: New South Wales: Australia; Stephen “Shorty” Jamieson; False statements and 'verballing'; 'The Conversation' reveals "new linguistic research" which casts doubt on his decades-old murder conviction, noting that: "The detectives, under oath, told the jury the transcript captured the confession “exactly as Jamieson said it." Our research really questions whether that claim can possibly be true. Many assume Jamieson’s signature proves the confession was genuine, if not exact. However, flaws in this assumption were clear as far back as 1987. According to the Australian Law Reform Commission: just as oppressive conduct can cause a suspect to make false admissions, so it can cause a suspect to sign a document containing those admissions. This was one reason behind 1995 legislation introducing compulsory electronic recording of interviews. By then, it had been officially acknowledged at the highest levels that admitting an unverified transcript risks verballing. Jamieson’s interview was completely unverified. He was alone with the detectives until a Justice of the Peace came to read the record of interview back to him (he couldn’t read at the time), and witness him signing his “voluntary” confession (which he withdrew as soon as the interview was over)."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In a nutshell,  the term 'verballing' refers to the police practice of fabricating or misrepresenting a suspect's statements to make it appear as if a confession was made, even if it never occurred. HL;

https://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2025/11/back-in-action-new-south-wales.html

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

BACKGROUND: (Wrongful Convictions Report):  "Stephen ‘Shorty’ Jamieson was a homeless 22-year-old when – on the basis of his nickname – he was charged with the brutal 1988 abduction, rape, and murder of Janine Balding. Two years later, he was sentenced to life in prison, where he remains to this day. Yet the major evidence against him was an apparent confession transcribed by detectives as a ‘record of interview’ – under conditions that have now been acknowledged at the highest levels to pose a significant risk of ‘verballing’ (presenting a confession that was never really made).

Wrongful Convictions Report: 

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

A brief account of the story: https://theconversation.com/new-linguistics-research-casts-doubt-on-decades-old-murder-conviction-267425

Preview a 60 Minutes episode about the case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz9dU9XLdLQ

The Panel:
Peter Breen
Solicitor, former politician, long-time supporter of Stephen Jamieson.

Author of Shorty: Mistaken Identity or Stitch-Up (Wilkinson Publishing) https://www.wilkinsonpublishing.com.au/product/shorty/

Recent guest on podcast Australian True Crime episode ‘Never to be released?’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iomc4Yl1ydY

Professor Michele Ruyters
Director of Bridge of Hope Innocence Initiative (BOHII) https://bohii.net/

Currently investigating Stephen Jamieson’s case https://bohii.net/stephen-jamieson

Associate Professor Rod Gardner
Linguistics expert, University of Queensland https://languages-cultures.uq.edu.au/profile/1079/rod-gardner

Provided compelling evidence in Stephen Jamieson’s 2001 application to have his conviction reviewed – rejected by the reviewing judge for very unsatisfactory reasons.

Professor Helen Fraser
Director of the Research Hub for Language in Forensic Evidence https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/school-of-languages-and-linguistics/our-research/research-centres-hubs-and-units/research-hub-for-language-in-forensic-evidence

Author of ‘You’ve got the wrong Shorty!’: Further insights into the legal misconceptions that cause transcript injustice in forensic contexts. Australian Journal of Linguistics https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07268602.2025.2548998

Also see Did he say I shot the prick or I can’t breathe

The symposium: Stephen ‘Shorty’ Jamieson: 37 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit?

Presented by the Research Hub for Language in Forensic Evidence, The University of Melbourne.

Major (Welcome) Development: FREE symposium on the wrongful rape & murder conviction of Stephen ‘Shorty’ Jamieson | Wrongful Convictions Report

Expert panel to hear the facts of Stephen’s case and consider its ongoing relevance in 2026. Followed by Q and A."

The entire Wrongful Convictions Report post can be read at:

https://wrongfulconvictionsreport.org/2026/02/22/free-symposium-on-the-wrongful-rape-murder-conviction-of-stephen-shorty-jamieson/

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!

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;

Neonatal nurse Lucy Letby: talented Journalist Amanda Knox, the subject of many posts on this Blog over the years, uses her horrific first-hand experience of a notorious prosecution and wrongful conviction in Italy - to explore the Lucy Letby case, in a podcast produced by iHeart, called, "The Case Everyone Thinks Is Closed..."Doubt: The Case of Lucy Letby." In this substack entry she explains her motivation, noting that: "The trial, conviction, and unprecedented sentencing ignited a national firestorm. Headlines branded Letby a monster. Public anger was swift and fierce. The story seemed to resolve into certainty. But I know personally how fragile that kind of certainty can be, and how factors beyond the evidence can distort our thinking and incentivize people to look for scapegoats instead of the truth", and that, Doubt examines a difficult and essential question: is this case truly as clear-cut as public consensus suggests? Or are there unresolved issues that merit deeper examination?

Listen to the Trailer and Episode 1 here

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

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

SUBSTACK: "The Case Everyone Thinks Is Closed"...Doubt: The Case of Lucy Letby, published byAmanda Knox, on February 24, 2026.

GIST:"Hi everyone! I'm excited to share with you something I've been working on for two years now. My new podcast series, Doubt,  takes an unflinching look at a case that stunned the United Kingdom and the world: the conviction of neonatal nurse Lucy Letby for the murder of seven premature babies and the attempted murder of seven more. When I saw how Letby was being cast as evil by the British press, I felt that uncomfortable shock of recognition.

GIST: "The trial, conviction, and unprecedented sentencing ignited a national firestorm. Headlines branded Letby a monster. Public anger was swift and fierce. The story seemed to resolve into certainty. But I know personally how fragile that kind of certainty can be, and how factors beyond the evidence can distort our thinking and incentivize people to look for scapegoats instead of the truth.

Doubt examines a difficult and essential question: is this case truly as clear-cut as public consensus suggests? Or are there unresolved issues that merit deeper examination?

The entire substack can be read at: 

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!

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;

February 28: Colorado Bureau of Investigation DNA Testing Crisis; (Part 2): Dragged down by the Discredited Forensic Scientist Yvonne (Missy) Wood, The bureau is still struggling to make a dent in its rape kit testing backlog, as reported by the Denver Post, in a story curiously headed, "CBI slashes rape kit testing backlog, but lag time still 6 months."..."The 190-day testing lag is well outside the 60-day goal set by the legislature in state law, and it’s more than twice as long as the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s internal goal of three months. But the reduced backlog also represents a significant improvement from last June’s lag time of 450 days, officials from the state auditor’s office told lawmakers Wednesday morning. Both auditors and CBI officials said the agency should be able to hit 90 days before the end of the year."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "State lawmakers learned of the scale of the issue last year, when a survivor of sexual assault testified during a routine oversight hearing. The backlog was sharply exacerbated by the alleged misconduct of a lab analyst, Yvonne “Missy” Woods, who was found to have manipulated results for more than 1,000 DNA tests."

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

STORY: "CBI slashes rape kit testing backlog, but lag time still 6 months,"  by Reporter Seth Klamath, published on February 25, 2026. (Seth Klamann covers politics, immigration and the state house for The Denver Post. A proud Kansas City native and University of Missouri grad, he previously worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Casper Star-Tribune and the Omaha World-Herald."

GIST: "Colorado forensic officials have slashed the turnaround time for sexual assault kit testing, but it still takes analysts more than six months to process and complete a test, a new state audit found.

The 190-day testing lag is well outside the 60-day goal set by the legislature in state law, and it’s more than twice as long as the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s internal goal of three months.

But the reduced backlog also represents a significant improvement from last June’s lag time of 450 days, officials from the state auditor’s office told lawmakers Wednesday morning. Both auditors and CBI officials said the agency should be able to hit 90 days before the end of the year.

“At this time last year, we were at over 500 days, maybe it was in the 560s,” said Rep. Jenny Willford, a Northglenn Democrat. “So I do want to acknowledge that there has been significant progress made, and there are a lot of audit recommendations to implement still, and I look forward to working with you on that.”

State lawmakers learned of the scale of the issue last year, when a survivor of sexual assault testified during a routine oversight hearing. The backlog was sharply exacerbated by the alleged misconduct of a lab analyst, Yvonne “Missy” Woods, who was found to have manipulated results for more than 1,000 DNA tests.

After the scale of the problem became public last year, the legislature directed more money to the CBI and set a goal to drastically reduce the wait time.

The state has signed contracts worth about $2.8 million to outsource 1,400 cases — at a cost of roughly $2,000 per case. The CBI also expects to have money to farm out another 500 cases. But the agency likely can’t hit the 60-day target set by the legislature without additional resources, the auditor’s office said.

Lance Allen, the CBI’s deputy director for forensic services, told lawmakers that Connecticut has roughly the same number of DNA scientists as Colorado, even though its lab receives about half as many cases as the CBI’s team.

RTo cut the response time further, he said, the department would have to significantly increase its staffing levels.

“We’ve come a long way in the last year — we really have — and we have a lot longer to go. I personally am interested in understanding with specificity what the resourcing would look like to truly get to and promise 60 days,” said Sen. Mike Weissman, an Aurora Democrat.

But he acknowledged the barriers to hitting that target: “Maybe it’s not achievable in the current fiscal environment.”

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.denverpost.com/2026/02/25/colorado-rape-kit-backlog-testing-audit/

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!

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;

Hiromu Sakahara: Japan: Wrongful Confession case: He died of illness at age 75 while serving a life sentence, while serving a term of life imprisonment. (His son has fought incessantly for a posthumous retrial. On February 24, that retrial was granted, reported by The Mainichi to be the first such retrial in postwar history for a case involving a sentence of life imprisonment or death, noting that: "In a decision finalized by the Supreme Court in 2000, Sakahara was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on charges of killing Hatsu Ikemoto, a liquor store manager in Hino, Shiga Prefecture, and stealing her cash box. Sakahara argued in an initial plea for a retrial that his original confession during the investigation was made under coercion, but the Otsu District Court dismissed it in 2006. Sakahara was appealing the ruling at the Osaka High Court when he died. Following a second plea, the district court ordered a retrial in July 2018 for Sakahara, questioning the credibility of his confession about guiding investigators to the scene. The ruling was upheld by the Osaka High Court when he died."

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:

—————————————————————————————

BACKGROUND: Japan Times: "Known as the Hino town incident, the robbery-murder took place in December 1984 in Shiga Prefecture where a 69-year-old woman who ran a local liquor shop had gone missing. Her body was found in the same town a month later, with an opened portable safe belonging to the woman also found four months after her initial disappearance. Police questioned Hiromu Sakahara, who was a regular at the store, but he denied involvement in the crime. He was released after his wife provided an alibi for him for the night before the woman’s disappearance. However, as the investigation stalled, police went back to Sakahara and questioned him intensely. He allegedly confessed to the crime and was arrested in March 1988, more than three years after the murder. Despite pleading not guilty, the Otsu District Court sentenced Sakahara to life in prison in 1995. The court said that although his confession contained inconsistencies, there was enough circumstantial evidence to prove his guilt. The Osaka High Court, meanwhile, said that the indirect evidence used in the first trial as the basis for his conviction was not enough. But unlike the lower court, it ruled in 1997 that his confession was enough to find him guilty. Despite the lack of concrete evidence that suggested Sakahara’s involvement in the crime, the ruling was finalized by the Supreme Court in 2000."

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/02/25/japan/crime-legal/retrial-murder-deceased-defendant/

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

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "More than seven years have passed since the Otsu District Court initially approved reopening the trial in July 2018 as sought by Sakahara's family. Prosecutors had filed two objections during the process, prolonging it before the decision was finalized. The latest development comes as the Justice Ministry works to review Japan's criminal retrial system, amid criticism that the process of overturning wrongful convictions is excessively prolonged, largely due to inadequate legal provisions. Discussions at the ministry have so far indicated that the reform will not include a provision prohibiting prosecutors from filing objections against starting a retrial, but Sakahara's case could bring renewed attention to the issue."

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

STORY: "Posthumous retrial set for 1984 murder, 1st for serious Japan postwar case," published by The Mainichi Japan, on February 26, 2026

PHOTO CAPTION: "Koji Sakahara smiles during a gathering in Tokyo on Feb. 25, 2026, a day after the Supreme Court granted a posthumous retrial for his deceased father Hiromu Sakahara."

GIST: "TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's top court has granted a posthumous retrial for a man convicted of robbing and murdering a 69-year-old woman in 1984, in the first such retrial in postwar history for a case involving a sentence of life imprisonment or death.

The decision dated Tuesday by the Supreme Court's Second Petty Bench granted a retrial of Hiromu Sakahara, who died of illness aged 75 in 2011 while serving a life term, dismissing the prosecution's appeal. The move indicates a high possibility of his acquittal in retrial proceedings at the Otsu District Court in Shiga Prefecture.

"It has taken an incredibly long time. Something this tragic must never happen again," his 64-year-old son Koji said at a gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.

He also called for a "swift start of the trial and finalization" of a sentence later at a press conference in Osaka.

More than seven years have passed since the Otsu District Court initially approved reopening the trial in July 2018 as sought by Sakahara's family. Prosecutors had filed two objections during the process, prolonging it before the decision was finalized.

The latest development comes as the Justice Ministry works to review Japan's criminal retrial system, amid criticism that the process of overturning wrongful convictions is excessively prolonged, largely due to inadequate legal provisions.

Discussions at the ministry have so far indicated that the reform will not include a provision prohibiting prosecutors from filing objections against starting a retrial, but Sakahara's case could bring renewed attention to the issue.

In a decision finalized by the Supreme Court in 2000, Sakahara was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on charges of killing Hatsu Ikemoto, a liquor store manager in Hino, Shiga Prefecture, and stealing her cash box.

Sakahara argued in an initial plea for a retrial that his original confession during the investigation was made under coercion, but the Otsu District Court dismissed it in 2006. Sakahara was appealing the ruling at the Osaka High Court when he died.

Following a second plea, the district court ordered a retrial in July 2018 for Sakahara, questioning the credibility of his confession about guiding investigators to the scene. The ruling was upheld by the Osaka High Court in 2023, with prosecutors appealing it.

Japan's Code of Criminal Procedure allows a retrial to be held even after the death of a person whose guilty sentence is finalized when there is a clear reason to believe the individual may be innocent.

Courts have so far approved only a handful of posthumous retrials sought by bereaved families, including over the so-called Yokohama Incident, often described as Japan's worst case of repression of free speech during World War II.

The first posthumous retrial held in the postwar period was in connection with a murder case involving a woman who was sentenced to 13 years in prison. She was acquitted by the Tokushima District Court in 1985." 

The entire story can be read at: 

008000c 

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!

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;

February 27: Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) DNA Testing Crisis: (Part 1): Discredited Forensic scientist Yvonne (Missy) Woods: Michael Clark; Garrett Coughlin; Major Development: A judge has ordered the CBI to provide access to thousands of cases where past DNA analysis could be in question or show a pattern, The Denver Gazette (Reporter Jenny Deam) reports, noting that: "Woods, who goes by Missy, is at the heart of an unprecedented scandal at the state forensic lab where she is accused of altering, deleting or otherwise compromising DNA results in criminal cases dating back decades. CBI has acknowledged finding problems in 1,045 cases over the course of her 29-year career at the lab, or roughly 1-in-10 of the more than 10,780 cases she worked. The Clark case is not included in identified problem cases by CBI and the prosecution Monday argued that Woods had followed lab policy in her analysis at the time. The defense, however, has indicated that is precisely why it is seeking the documents — to reveal patterns in Woods’ work that allegedly strayed beyond accepted scientific protocol but that were accepted at CBI."

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Defense attorney Adam Frank argued for the massive trove of documents to bolster his claim “that the DNA-related conduct Ms. Woods committed in Mr. Clark’s case is part of a pattern that was authorized by CBI, not an outlier.”

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

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Earlier this month, Woods pleaded not guilty in Jefferson County to 102 felonies including cybercrime, perjury, forgery and attempting to influence a public servant.  She was arrested in January 2025 and is out on bond as she awaits a trial scheduled for late September."

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

STORY: "Judge: CBI ordered to provide access to thousands of DNA cases," by Senior Investigative Reporter Jenny Deam, published by The Gazette, on February 24, 2026.

PHOTO CAPTION: "Michael Clark hugs his family outside the Boulder County Jail on Monday, April 14, 2025. A judge overturned his conviction in a 1994 Boulder murder case on Friday because of flawed DNA testing. 

GIST: "Boulder County District Judge Nancy W. Salomone on Monday ordered the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to provide access to thousands of cases where past DNA analysis could be in question or show a pattern.

The ruling came in a pre-trial hearing for Michael Clark who is standing trial for a second time in a 1994 Boulder murder case.

Clark, 50, was previously convicted largely on the strength of DNA analysis and testimony by now discredited CBI forensic scientist Yvonne Woods. That conviction was vacated when independent DNA testing revealed inconsistencies with Woods’ original findings.

Woods, who goes by Missy, is at the heart of an unprecedented scandal at the state forensic lab where she is accused of altering, deleting or otherwise compromising DNA results in criminal cases dating back decades.

CBI has acknowledged finding problems in 1,045 cases over the course of her 29-year career at the lab, or roughly 1-in-10 of the more than 10,780 cases she worked.

The Clark case is not included in identified problem cases by CBI and the prosecution Monday argued that Woods had followed lab policy in her analysis at the time.

The defense, however, has indicated that is precisely why it is seeking the documents — to reveal patterns in Woods’ work that allegedly strayed beyond accepted scientific protocol but that were accepted at CBI.

Defense attorney Adam Frank argued for the massive trove of documents to bolster his claim “that the DNA-related conduct Ms. Woods committed in Mr. Clark’s case is part of a pattern that was authorized by CBI, not an outlier.”

Prosecutors called the request overly broad and irrelevant, as it sought to block the subpoena.

The Colorado Attorney General’s office, which represents CBI, also called the request irrelevant to the Clark case, as well as unduly burdensome, estimating it would take nearly 2,200 hours to sort through the cases to see if they matched the criteria the defense was seeking.

Frank offered, instead, that CBI move the 5,900 documents already identified by CBI as cases where Woods conducted DNA testing into a separate file that could then be searchable by keywords, including certain classifications and terms, to avoid the tedious work of going through them manually.

The judge, while initially questioning why the defense needed all of the files, in the end backed that alternative plan of a keyword search and gave CBI two weeks to comply. She did not rule on the question of relevancy.

Lisa McCarty, senior assistant attorney general representing CBI, indicated at the hearing her office would challenge the judge’s ruling.

The legal wrangling is part of the run-up to an anticipated motion by the defense to ask that the case against Clark be dismissed due to “outrageous governmental conduct” in light of the scandal at CBI.

The deadline for that argument is due May 1, Salomone said Monday.

Clark was released on bond in April 2025 after spending 12 years in prison. In September, Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty announced he was retrying Clark for the now 31-year-old murder of Marty Grisham.

Grisham was shot to death Nov. 1, 1994, as he answered the door at his Boulder apartment. Clark, 19 at the time, was an immediate suspect because he admitted to stealing checks from the victim and forging them for a total of about $4,000.

For more than three decades, Clark has maintained his innocence. In the immediate aftermath of the murder, Boulder authorities acknowledged they did not have a solid enough case to bring charges against him.

The case found new life when Woods said in 2011 that Clark’s DNA was a major contributor to the profile she had developed from inside a container of Carmex lip balm recovered from the murder scene.

 The following year, Clark was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole, largely on the strength of Wood’s conclusions and testimony.

But then in 2023, the scandal at the CBI lab broke sending shock waves through the state’s judicial system.

Dougherty agreed to have the DNA in the Clark case retested. The new analysis by Bode Technology in Virginia “statistically excluded” Clark in a retest.

Frank argued in his court filing that his client had been wrongfully imprisoned “not simply because Ms. Woods was a bad actor, but because CBI itself was a bad actor as well.”

CBI Director Armando Saldate III told The Denver Gazette last year that he had been assured that no other staff were involved in wrongdoing in the lab.

Earlier this month, Woods pleaded not guilty in Jefferson County to 102 felonies including cybercrime, perjury, forgery and attempting to influence a public servant. 

She was arrested in January 2025 and is out on bond as she awaits a trial scheduled for late September.

Boulder attorney Mary Claire Mulligan joined the defense team last year. She previously defended Garrett Coughlin, accused of triple homicide and whose case also involved DNA analysis by Woods.

In a June 2024 agreement, Coughlin pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of three counts of second-degree murder and agreed to serve 42 years in prison with credit for time already served rather than face a life sentence.

Coughlin’s first conviction in 2019 was overturned because of juror misconduct. The prosecution offered the plea deal rather than risk a second trial in light of the CBI scandal."

Earlier this month, Woods pleaded not guilty in Jefferson County to 102 felonies including cybercrime, perjury, forgery and attempting to influence a public servant. 

She was arrested in January 2025 and is out on bond as she awaits a trial scheduled for late September.The entire story can be read at: 

https://gazette.com/2026/02/23/judge-cbi-ordered-to-provide-access-to-thousands-of-dna-cases/

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!

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;