"A DISCREDITED FORENSIC DENTIST, MICHAEL WEST, TESTIFIED AT BOTH TRIALS THAT MARKS ON THE VICTIM’S BODIES PROVED THAT BROOKS AND BREWER BIT THE VICTIMS – USING ONLY THEIR TOP TWO TEETH. IN NEW STATEMENTS PUBLISHED TODAY BY ABC NEWS, INNOCENCE PROJECT CO-DIRECTOR PETER NEUFELD SAYS THAT WEST’S ACTIONS IN THESE CASES WAS “CRIMINAL.”"
INNOCENCE PROJECT;
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The Jackson News reports that Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks have filed federal the federal lawsuits in a story that appeared on April 3, 2009, under the heading, "Exonerated Miss. Men Sue Over Bite Mark Testimony."
"JACKSON, Miss. -- Two Mississippi men wrongfully sent to prison have filed federal lawsuits against the medical experts whose testimony led to their murder convictions," the story begins;
"Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks have filed suit in U.S. District Court in Jackson against dentist Dr. Michael West and Dr. Steven Hayne, a former state pathologist," the story continues;
"The suits seek unspecified damages and contend the actions of Hayne and West were committed with malice and reckless disregard for the plaintiffs' constitutional rights.
Hayne's attorney Dale Danks filed a response in federal court on Friday asking that the suits against Hayne be dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired. Danks also said Hayne has immunity under a state law that protects state employees from legal action. West has not filed a response."
The lawsuits were filed shortly after the two wrongly convicted men learned that they would receive compensation.
As Lindsay Brown reported on WTOK-TV on April 1, 2009, under the heading: "Brewer, Brooks Reflect and Look Forward, "Two Noxubee County men who were cleared of murder convictions in 2008 have received news that is certain to change their lives."
"Levon Brooks is a different man today than he was a year ago. He's all smiles after learning that he and Kennedy Brewer are set to receive $500,000 each after spending 16 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit. Brewer spent several of those years on death row," Brown's story continued;
"Parchman didn't prepare these men for life on the other side. Both have found getting and keeping decent paying jobs difficult. But this week's news has dramatically lifted their spirits.
Brewer and Brooks say getting the money isn't just about buying material items; it's about helping their families. Both men have sick mothers who they will now be able to financially support.
But they say the hardest part this last year has been letting go of what they experienced behind bars.
At Newscenter 11's interview Wednesday, Brooks was wearing an Innocence Project T-shirt, honoring the group that fought to see him released from prison, fought for a new law requiring the state to keep DNA evidence in felony investigations, and finally made the case for compensation.
"It really didn't involve a lot of debate," said Tucker Carrington, director of The Innocence Project. "Many thought it was the right thing to do."
But for Brooks and Brewer say this will soon all be behind them. Kennedy is set to get married in coming weeks, while Brooks spends his days fishing, hunting and drawing."
By way of background, the Innocence Project issued a release on February 20, under the heading, "Fallout continues after Mississippi exoneration," which noted that:
"Days after Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks were cleared in Mississippi, new questions are being raised about the forensic analysts and prosecutor who secured their convictions. Both men were wrongfully convicted of killing three-year-old girls in the early 1990s served 15 years behind bars before they were cleared. Brewer served several years on death row.
A discredited forensic dentist, Michael West, testified at both trials that marks on the victim’s bodies proved that Brooks and Brewer bit the victims – using only their top two teeth. In new statements published today by ABC News, Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld says that West’s actions in these cases was “criminal.”
West "deliberately fabricated evidence and conclusions which were not supported by the evidence, the data or the rules of science but … because they were consistent with the prosecutor's theory,'' said Peter Neufeld, co-director of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal organization that examines questionable convictions and has won the exoneration of more than 200 inmates.
"If you fabricate evidence in a capital murder case, where you know that if the person's convicted they are going to be executed — as far as I'm concerned that's the crime of attempted murder.''"He's a criminal," Neufeld said of West.
The two cases were investigated by the same Noxubee County, Mississippi detective and prosecuted by the same attorney, and the same medical examiner and forensic dentist appeared in each case.
This is the first time that Neufeld or his colleagues at the Innocence Project have ever called for the criminal prosecution of a scientist, Neufeld said.
"These are not cases of sloppy forensic science,'' Neufeld said on Monday. "This is intentional misconduct. It's fabricated evidence to send people to death row.''
ABC News also spoke to Noxubee County Forrest Allgood, who brought West into the case as a witness. Allgood prosecuted both Brewer and Brooks in the 1990s, and he fought Brewer’s exoneration for the last seven years.
Allgood said that during the trials of Brewer and Brooks in the early 1990s, West's reputation was intact.
"At the time he was sitting on top of the world,'' Allgood said. "He was lecturing in China. He was lecturing in England."
"Nobody wants to put the wrong guy in jail,'' Allgood concluded, though adding that he still believes that Brewer "had a hand'' in Jackson's abduction.
In fact, West had already been widely discrdited – and his membership in professional associations had been revoked – when Allgood called him to testify in Brewer’s trial.
There is also no evidence that Brewer “had a hand” in the kidnapping, rape or murder of the three-year-old victim; instead, there is solid, irrefutable scientific evidence that he was not involved in the crime at all. "
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com
