"In the Fox case, authorities were slow to avail themselves of DNA testing. In the Hobbs case, they were reluctant to accept what it told them. It's important to note that the key break in the Hobbs case — a DNA match that points to a different suspect — came only because Virginia law requires DNA testing following an arrest. If the arrest had happened in Illinois, which requires DNA testing after a felony conviction, the connection likely wouldn't have been made."
EDITORIALL CHICAGO TRIBUNE;
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BACKGROUND: The northern Illinois man jailed on first-degree murder charges in the 2005 stabbing deaths of his daughter and another young girl was freed early in August, 2010, after prosecutors dropped charges because DNA evidence from the crime scene matched that of another man. Hobbs, 39, had pleaded not guilty in the stabbing deaths of his 8-year-old daughter, Laura, and her friend, 9-year-old Krystal Tobias in Zion, about 50 miles north of Chicago. Prosecutors in Lake County had several months earlier that DNA from the crime scene matched another man who once lived in Zion but was in custody in Virginia after being charged in two attacks on women. The DNA match came on June 25 from a national database, where the man's DNA had been recently entered, according to Lake County Deputy State's Attorney Jeffrey Pavletic. Prosecutors then relaunched their investigation. The man in custody in Virginia has not been charged in the 2005 Zion deaths. In May 2005, Jerry Hobbs reported finding the girls' bodies near their homes in Zion. Both had been stabbed numerous times. Prosecutors alleged Hobbs killed them because he was angry his daughter was outside when she was supposed to be home. Police said Hobbs confessed to the slayings, but his attorneys said the confession was coerced. Both defense attorneys and prosecutors have acknowledged there was no physical evidence linking Hobbs to the killings.
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"Two troubling cases," the Chicago Tribune editorial published on August 7, 2010, begins, under the heading, "Wrongful Prosecutions: Still getting it wrong:
Wrongful prosecutions of Jerry Hobbs, Kevin Fox show Illinois' justice system is broken."
"Two men charged — threatened with execution — in the beastly murders of their own daughters. Both say their confessions were coerced by police. Both were cleared after DNA linked someone else to the crime," the story continues.
"The cases follow a familiar story line: In their haste to make an arrest, police zeroed in on the fathers. They narrowed their searches too soon, ignoring evidence or forgoing investigative avenues that might have taken them elsewhere. Their cases eventually fell apart, and both men were freed.
For 15 years, Illinois has struggled to overcome the failings that undermine its criminal justice system. Wrongful prosecutions, whether the result of human error or overzealous police work, are rare — but monumental. They destroy the trust on which the system stands.
In 2000, then-Gov. George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions in Illinois. The release of 18 Death Row inmates in 30 years raised serious doubts that the system worked when it mattered most. A series of reforms followed: mandatory taping of murder confessions, broader use of DNA analysis, restrictions on the use of jailhouse "snitches." It's not enough.
Jerry Hobbs spent five years in jail, awaiting trial in the killings of his daughter Laura, 8, and her friend Krystal Tobias, 9, in a Zion park in May 2005. The charges were dropped Wednesday after a DNA sample linked another man, formerly of Zion, to the crime.
Prosecutors had known since 2008 that the semen collected from one girl's body didn't match Hobbs. They attempted to reconcile that inconvenient fact by suggesting that someone else had assaulted her before Hobbs killed her. Or that she'd gotten it on her while playing in the nearby woods, where couples sometimes have sex. They continued to push for the death penalty.
In June, they learned that the sample matched the DNA of a former neighbor who was tested after an arrest in Virginia, where he's now charged with rape, abduction and robbery. He has not been charged in Lake County.
Kevin Fox was jailed in Will County for eight months, charged with killing his 3-year-old daughter, Riley, who disappeared from the family's Wilmington home in June 2004. She had been sexually assaulted and drowned in a nearby creek.
Fox confessed after a 14-hour interrogation, then quickly recanted, to deaf ears. He was released when DNA evidence excluded him. Scott Eby, in prison since 2006 for sexual assault, confessed to Riley's murder earlier this year. At the time of Riley's death, he was living with his mother, less than a mile from the Fox home.
What went wrong?
Both men say they gave confessions after being questioned relentlessly, their judgment further compromised by the shock of their daughters' violent deaths. Their attempts to retract those statements strain credulity — why would an innocent man confess to such a heinous crime? — but the truth is that false confessions are a well-documented and much-studied phenomenon. They don't happen every day, but plenty often enough that a recanted statement shouldn't be dismissed lightly, especially if there's little else on which to base charges.
Illinois law now requires both interrogations and confessions in murder cases to be videotaped so that courts can judge how a confession was obtained if a suspect later claims it was coerced.
In the Fox case, authorities were slow to avail themselves of DNA testing. In the Hobbs case, they were reluctant to accept what it told them. It's important to note that the key break in the Hobbs case — a DNA match that points to a different suspect — came only because Virginia law requires DNA testing following an arrest. If the arrest had happened in Illinois, which requires DNA testing after a felony conviction, the connection likely wouldn't have been made.
Lawmakers in Washington are pushing a measure to require DNA sampling of people arrested on suspicion of violent crime. In Illinois, a bill that would mandate testing after an arrest failed last year, but sponsors plan to try again. Hobbs' story ought to help them make their case.
Prosecutors in both counties say they acted in good faith. You can accept that argument or not. What's clear is that even when the stakes are at their highest, we still can't be confident that our criminal justice system will get it right."
The story can be found at:
http://www.poten.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=10568054">http://www.poten.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=10568054
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: 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 accessed at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-feature-cases-issues-and.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
Is The Age of Progressive Prosecutors Over?
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