Friday, March 15, 2024

Garrett Coughlin: Colorado: Beleaguered Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and DNA analyst Yvonne "Missy" Woods: News9 (Reporter Kelly Reinke) reports that his murder trial has been postponed due to investigation into DNA analyst


PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Coughlin was found guilty in 2019, but the conviction was tossed out in 2020 due to misconduct by two jurors.  Court documents say during an internal affairs investigation into Woods at CBI in late 2023, prosecutors in Boulder County learned there were anomalies in her work on Coughlin's case. A judge on Wednesday said a representative from CBI has retested the evidence. The prosecution said the reported anomalies did not impact the findings.  Defense attorneys for Coughlin don't trust that and expressed interest in doing more testing, which could take two months to complete.  A defense attorney also told the judge they want time to review CBI's 94-page report on the internal affairs investigation. Prosecutors are getting a copy of the report too. It is not available to the public."


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STORY: "Murder retrial postponed due to investigation into  the DNA analyst," by Reporter Kelly Reinke, published by 9News, on March 13, 2024.

GIST: Garrett Coughlin was accused of shooting and killing three people in Coal Creek Canyon. He was found guilty in 2019, but the conviction was tossed out in 2020.


GIST: "A retrial in a 2017 triple homicide in Boulder County has been pushed back several months because the DNA analyst on the case is under investigation. 


A review at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation found scientist Yvonne "Missy" Woods manipulated data in more than 650 cases. This triple homicide is one of them. 


The trial against Garrett Coughlin, now 31 years old, was supposed to start in April. A judge rescheduled it for July. 


Coughlin was 24 years old when he was arrested in 2017 for shooting and killing three people in Coal Creek Canyon. The victims were Wallace White, his wife Kelly Sloat-White, and his brother Emory Fraker. 


Coughlin was found guilty in 2019, but the conviction was tossed out in 2020 due to misconduct by two jurors. 


Court documents say during an internal affairs investigation into Woods at CBI in late 2023, prosecutors in Boulder County learned there were anomalies in her work on Coughlin's case.


A judge on Wednesday said a representative from CBI has retested the evidence.


The prosecution said the reported anomalies did not impact the findings. 


Defense attorneys for Coughlin don't trust that and expressed interest in doing more testing, which could take two months to complete. 


A defense attorney also told the judge they want time to review CBI's 94-page report on the internal affairs investigation. Prosecutors are getting a copy of the report too. It is not available to the public. 


Attorneys had to fight for this report. In a rare move, the district attorney's office subpoenaed CBI to hand over the report."


The entire story can be read at: 

https://www.9news.com/article/news/crime/murder-trial-in-boulder-county-postponed-investigation-into-dna-analyst-cbi/73-fa4330d6-594a-4ec8-9d37-781145f9341a


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.
-----------------------------------------------

Beleaguered Queensland DNA lab fiasco: Networked Knowledge Media Report: 'The Australian' story by reporters David Murray and Hedley Thomas reveals how a document described as a “fact sheet” misled dozens of scientists and Queensland Health on the eve of the launch of a DNA testing system that was doomed to fail and became, what is described in the story as 'the world’s biggest forensics disaster.'…"This key document, discovered as part of investigations by the second commission of inquiry into Queensland’s DNA fiasco, was not the subject of any findings by the inquiry’s commissioner, Annabelle Bennett SC, and barely featured during public hearings in which scientists were questioned. The “fact sheet” sent to staff by then-managing scientist Vanessa Ientile just days before the new robotic system was launched in October 2007 falsely claimed it generated “higher yields” of DNA than the manual method in use. The lab was rushing to launch the automated system to deal with testing backlogs that were causing the state government to come under fire from the courts, the opposition and the public."


PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Scientists responsible for implementing the system knew at the time that it was failing to recover DNA, and there had been warnings internally that it was not ready to go live because yields were too low.  Independent forensic biologist Kirsty Wright said reporting scientists in the lab who were sent the document were deceived by its claims that the new system was exceptional at recovering DNA. Those scientists had gone on to provide false and misleading information to courts in criminal cases, Dr Wright said. “I believe this is the most crucial document in the inquiry.  It shows fake data was presented to the lab in a ‘fact sheet’. It shows deception,” she said. “This document proves it was introduced by lies.”

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STORY: Networked Knowledge Media Report: "2023 DNA lab’s fake facts key 'proof of its lies," by David Murray and Hedley Thomas: The Australian; Published on November 24, 2024." (From Networked Knowledge DNA Inquiry Homepage);

GIST: "A document described as a “fact sheet” misled dozens of scientists and Queensland Health on the eve of the launch of a DNA testing system that was doomed to fail and became the world’s biggest forensics disaster.

This key document, discovered as part of investigations by the second commission of inquiry into Queensland’s DNA fiasco, was not the subject of any findings by the inquiry’s commissioner, Annabelle Bennett SC, and barely featured during public hearings in which scientists were questioned.


The “fact sheet” sent to staff by then-managing scientist Vanessa Ientile just days before the new robotic system was launched in October 2007 falsely claimed it generated “higher yields” of DNA than the manual method in use. 


The lab was rushing to launch the automated system to deal with testing backlogs that were causing the state government to come under fire from the courts, the opposition and the public.


An accompanying graph in the document purported to present proof that the new automated system was vastly superior at recovering DNA from samples. The document used different data that presented a factually wrong but seemingly superior set of results.


Scientists responsible for implementing the system knew at the time that it was failing to recover DNA, and there had been warnings internally that it was not ready to go live because yields were too low. 


Independent forensic biologist Kirsty Wright said reporting scientists in

the lab who were sent the document were deceived by its claims that the new system was exceptional at recovering DNA.


Those scientists had gone on to provide false and misleading information to courts in criminal cases, Dr Wright said. “I believe this is the most crucial document in the inquiry.


 It shows fake data was presented to the lab in a ‘fact sheet’. It shows deception,” she said. “This document proves it was introduced by lies.”


The document and associated emails were provided to retired Federal Court judge Dr Bennett as part of her $2.5m six-week inquiry into the failed testing system but were not mentioned in her final report this week. 


Criminals may have evaded justice in nine years of cases that the “fatally flawed” system was in use, in a devastating blow to victims of crime, the inquiry

found.


No one was held responsible, with Dr Bennett blaming governance failures in the lab and finding there was no evidence that scientists engaged in deliberate misconduct. 

The second commission of inquiry followed retired judge Walter Sofronoff KC’s original inquiry into the lab last year.


The inquiries were launched as a result of Dr Wright’s investigations with The Australian’s podcasts Shandee’s Story and Shandee’s Legacy. 


What scientists in the lab were seeing in the “fact sheet” were results from the manual DNA IQ method, not the automated method that was about to be launched. 

While the manual method had been found to work well, the

automated method was failing to recover DNA in the hands of the lab.


The senior scientist leading the automation project, Tom Nurthen, told the inquiry he was concerned in 2007 that the new robotic system was not ready to go live because yields were too low. 


He said he raised these concerns with Ms Ientile in project update meetings on October 9 and October 16, 2007.


Minutes of the second meeting record a decision to implement the system and then

“optimise”, or fix it, later.


On October 24, 2007, Ms Ientile emailed staff the “fact sheet” that

falsely claimed the new automated system generated “higher yields” of DNA.


One member of the automation group, scientist Vojtech Hlinka, emailed Ms Ientile just eight minutes later, telling her it was “slightly misleading” because the yields presented were from a manual method not the automated method. 


“This data has not been shown and it may arouse some questions when we do start getting results that are not significantly better in yield,” Mr Hlinka wrote.


Ms Ientile forwarded the reply to Mr Nurthen the same day. “For you to deal with please,” she wrote.


The new system was launched on October 27, 2007.


There was no evidence the problems it had recovering DNA were ever resolved before it ceased being used in 2016, Dr Bennett found. Dr Wright said she expected the document to be a key line of questioning at the inquiry but that did not eventuate.


“This is not consistent with the conclusions of the commission of inquiry report, that the scientists involved were doing the best they could at the time, and the method was only introduced because there was lack of quality assurance,” Dr Wright said.


If reporting scientists had been shown the system’s real results “there is no way they would take them to court or let the method be introduced”, Dr Wright said. 


Iman Muharam, Ms. (sic) Ientile and  Mr Nurthen are named on the fact sheet as authors. They deny any wrongdoing."


The entire story can be read at:


http://netk.net.au/DNA/DNA54.pdf



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.
-----------------------------------------------

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Jacques Deslisle: Quebec: (Major Development): Bulletin: The former Quebec Court of Appeal Judge pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of his wife, The CBC (Reporter Rachel Watts) reports, noting that Delisle and his prosecutors "disagreed" on the facts."…The prosecutors took the position that manslaughter was the appropriate charge to plead to because, "an assisted suicide did not happen." The former judge's lawyers contended that a plea to "assisting suicide" was more appropriate. In the end, the prosecutors prevailed, and Delisle was given a sentence which amounted to one day in jail, of which only a few hours were served…"Delisle wants everything to end today," said his lawyer, Jacques Larochelle. Larochelle said while they agreed to the plea, parties disagreed on the facts, as the Crown maintained that Delisle took an active part in the death of his wife. Taking into consideration that Delisle served eight years and 310 days in prison, his lawyers have agreed to the Crown's request that Delisle spend one more day incarcerated.


PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Of particular interest to this Blog: "After spending nearly nine years in prison, he was then awarded another trial when the federal justice minister, David Lametti, said that a "miscarriage of justice likely occurred" in part because one of the Crown's experts made serious mistakes in the original pathology report that led to Delisle's conviction."

QUOTE  OF THE DAY: Criminal defence lawyer Rénald Beaudry:  who was at the court house on Thursday. "He was pleased to witness the end of what has been a long legal battle. "Even members of the public were starting to say 'leave him alone, he's 88 years old, [he spent] nine years in prison, so we can move on.' So I suppose that also weighed on the prosecution," said Beaudry.  "There's no winner, not the family, not the prosecution. The only winner is the legal system, which has finally found a solution after 15 years. It's been very long, it's been very costly."

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STORY: "Former Quebec judge pleads guilty to manslaughter in the death of his wife," by Reporter Rachel Watts, published by CBC News, on March 14, 2023. (Rachel Watts is a journalist with CBC News in Quebec City.)

SUB-HEADING: "Delisle handcuffed and sentenced to 1 additional day in jail."

GIST: "After nearly 15 years of legal battles, Jacques Delisle, a former judge on the Quebec Court of Appeal, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of his wife.

Appearing in a Quebec City court room on Thursday wearing a mask, Delisle approached the stand and accepted the plea.

"Delisle wants everything to end today," said his lawyer, Jacques Larochelle.

Larochelle said while they agreed to the plea, parties disagreed on the facts, as the Crown maintained that Delisle took an active part in the death of his wife.

Taking into consideration that Delisle served eight years and 310 days in prison, his lawyers have agreed to the Crown's request that Delisle spend one more day incarcerated. 

Following a pause, the judge sentenced Delisle to one day in jail, saying that it ensures that the time he already served can be taken into consideration in his sentence. 

Delisle hobbled out of the room and muttered "oh no" as he was handcuffed by police.

Speaking with reporters, Larochelle clarified that although Delisle is sentenced to one day in jail, he will only serve a few hours and will be released later today.

'This case, somewhere, sometime, has to come to an end': Crown 

Larochelle said he initially suggested a charge of assisting suicide, which he thought was more appropriate, but he says it was not accepted "for reasons that are beyond my comprehension." 

"In the end, it comes to the same result," said Larochelle. 

"There is not this cloud over him anymore, that's certainly a relief."

Noah Weisbord, associate professor of criminal law at McGill University, says aiding someone to commit suicide is illegal in Canada but "doesn't have the moral opprobrium that manslaughter does."

"Assisted suicide has less of a stigma, so it looks like you're doing something that's somewhat justifiable ... If the person really was in pain, for example," said Weisbord.  

Crown prosecutor François Godin said he accepted the manslaughter plea but would not accept the plea of assisted suicide because he says "that's not what happened." 

"We still believe Mr. Delisle would have been found of first-degree murder if he would have stood trial," said Godin.  

"This case, somewhere, sometime, has to come to an end. It's been 15 years, he spent almost nine years in prison, 88 years old. We do not believe he would have been able to stand trial." 

'There's no winner,' says criminal defence lawyer

Criminal defence lawyer Rénald Beaudry, who was at the court house on Thursday, agrees. He was pleased to witness the end of what has been a long legal battle.

"Even members of the public were starting to say 'leave him alone, he's 88 years old, [he spent] nine years in prison, so we can move on.' So I suppose that also weighed on the prosecution," said Beaudry. 

"There's no winner, not the family, not the prosecution. The only winner is the legal system, which has finally found a solution after 15 years. It's been very long, it's been very costly."

Delisle was ordered new trial after nearly 9 years in prison 

In his first trial in 2012, he was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, 71-year-old Marie Nicole Rainville, who died in 2009.

Rainville, who had been partially paralyzed due to a stroke, died of a gunshot to the head. Delisle's first trial hinged on detailed forensic analysis over whether she had taken her own life or he had killed her.

Delisle, now 88, said he gave her the gun, but he denied shooting her. Delisle had maintained his innocence.

After spending nearly nine years in prison, he was then awarded another trial when the federal justice minister, David Lametti, said that a "miscarriage of justice likely occurred" in part because one of the Crown's experts made serious mistakes in the original pathology report that led to Delisle's conviction.

Delisle's second trial was also plagued by delays. He was first awarded a stay of proceedings in 2022 by a Quebec Superior Court judge, but then ordered to go ahead with the trial when the Quebec Court of Appeal overturned that decision. He has been walking free awaiting a decision on the second trial.

The Supreme Court of Canada was slated to announce whether it would hear the case on Thursday, but on Wednesday, the supreme court withdrew the case following a discontinuance notice by Delisle's team.

The entire story can be read at:

delisle-judge-wife-death-guilty-plea-manslaughter-1.7143502

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.
-----------------------------------------------