"THE 'SO-CALLED CSI EFFECT'.
IS THAT ALL?
COULD THERE BE SOMETHING DIFFERENT ABOUT MR JAMA, WHO MOVED TO AUSTRALIA FROM SOMALIA AS A CHILD, THAT CAUSED JUDGE LACAVA AND THE JURY TO BLITHELY ACCEPT SCIENTIFIC 'PROOF' WITHOUT ANY OTHER EVIDENCE TO WRONGLY CONVICT HIM OF A CRIME THAT NEVER TOOK PLACE?
WHAT IS IT ABOUT MR JAMA THAT CAUSED JUDGE LACAVA AND THE JURY TO OVERLOOK CORROBORATING TESTIMONY GIVEN BY MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY?
WHAT IS IT ABOUT MR JAMA THAT JUDGE LACAVA AND THE JURY COULD SEE WITH THEIR OWN EYES THAT CONVINCED THEM HE WAS SO IMPROBABLY GUILTY BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT?
I WONDER."
BLOGGER JOE WALL: "THE PARRAMATTA YANKEE." Joe Wall is a freelance writer who lives in Melbourne, Australia. "Wikipedia informs us that "Parramatta is a suburb in the west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia);
PHOTO; FARAH JAMA (RIGHT);
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BACKGROUND: According to the Australian, Farah Jama was found guilty of raping a 40-year-old woman at a nightclub in Melbourne's outer-eastern suburbs after the victim was found unconscious. She had no memory of the crime but Mr Jama's DNA was later found on the victim. The then 20-year-old denied ever being near the nightclub on that night, saying he was reading the Koran to his critically ill father at his bedside in their home in the northern suburbs. The only evidence police had was the DNA sample of Mr Jama, which was coincidentally taken 24 hours before the alleged crime after he was investigated over another unrelated matter but not charged. Prosecutors told the Victoria Court of Appeal earlier this week that it had since been discovered that the same forensic medical officer who took the first DNA sample of Mr Jama had coincidently taken the DNA sample from the 40-year-old rape complainant 24 hours later. They said it had emerged that the officer had not adhered to strict procedure when taking the sample and therefore they could not “exclude the possibility” of contamination. Therefore they argued the guilty verdict was unsafe and satisfactory and should be quashed. His lawyer Kimani Adil Boden hailed a “momentous” day for Mr Jama, whose case he described as “tragic”. “He's been in custody for close to one-and-a-half years on charges he didn't commit. “Justice has finally been done, however, at a price.” Victoria's police chief responded to Mr. Jama's release by banning all forensic officers from submitting DNA evidence or providing statements to the courts until further notice.
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"While sentencing 21-year-old Farah Jama (left) to 6 years in prison for the rape of a 48-year-old woman, Judge Paul Lacava said the attack was offensive, repugnant and intolerable in this society," Joe Wall's May 7, 2010 post begins, under the heading, "Blinded by science."
""You raped her when she was in a most vulnerable state," he said at the trial's conclusion in July 2008. "You obviously saw her and sized up the situation. Instead of assisting her ... you raped her for your own immediately and short-lived sexual gratification." The judge went on to say he was guarded about Mr Jama's chances of rehabilitation despite his youth because he had shown no remorse," the post continues.
"Farah Jama showed no remorse because he was innocent.
As he and his family testified in court, the young man was praying at his dying father's bedside on the night the woman claimed to have been raped in a locked toilet cubicle at an over-28s nightclub.
Yesterday, 'bad science' was the topic du jour as Mr Jama and a variety of legal types assembled to comment on the release of a report that:
... slammed Victoria Police, the Office of Public Prosecutions, and forensic medical officers over the case and the authorities' failure to consider any other evidence connecting Mr Jama to a crime that not only he was innocent of, but one that never occurred.
The report, written by a former Supreme Court judge named Frank Vincent, tore everyone in the state of Victoria involved in the collection and analysis of DNA evidence a new asshole.
Mr Jama had his conviction overturned last December. The prosecutor admitted the DNA evidence -- the only thing linking Mr Jama to the crime -- was contaminated, resulting in a 'substantial miscarriage of justice'.
Vincent's report stated:
The DNA evidence appears to have been viewed as possessing an almost mystical infallibility. The outcome was, in the circumstances, patently absurd.
Victoria's Attorney-General Rob Hulls had this to say yesterday:
I'm very sorry. This case is a wake-up call for everyone involved in the criminal justice system not to be blinded by science and the so-called CSI effect.
The 'so-called CSI effect'.
Is that all?
Could there be something different about Mr Jama, who moved to Australia from Somalia as a child, that caused Judge Lacava and the jury to blithely accept scientific 'proof' without any other evidence to wrongly convict him of a crime that never took place?
What is it about Mr Jama that caused Judge Lacava and the jury to overlook corroborating testimony given by members of his family?
What is it about Mr Jama that Judge Lacava and the jury could SEE with their own eyes that convinced them he was so improbably guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?
I wonder.""
The post can be found at:
http://parramattayankee.blogspot.com/2010/05/blinded-by-science.html
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
