"Tullio told his tale: He’d caught some of a Paula Zahn cable-news report about a Florida man who had been wrongfully imprisoned for 27 years, had received no compensation from the state upon his release and now wanted to record the songs he’d been writing. Tullio was so moved that he reached this man, Dillon, and offered to fly him to Chicago to record his album for free.
Not only did Dillon take him up on the offer, but, Tullio said with wonder, “he’s really good.”"
REPORTER MARK CARO; THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE;
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Background: Bill Dillon, was 22 when he was sentenced to life in prison in 1981, for killing a man in Canova Beach on the eastern coast of the state. During the trial, Dillon was adamant that he had not committed the crime. But a man named John Preston testified in court that he and his scent-tracking German-Shepherd connected Dillon to the killer’s bloody t-shirt. Preston, who billed himself as a "scent-tracking expert", said his dog, “Harrass 2,” even tracked Dillon’s scent repeatedly in later tests. Nearly three decades later, in 2007, DNA testing proved that Dillon’s DNA did not match the DNA on the killer’s shirt. The dog was wrong. Just eight months ago, after 26 years behind bars, Bill Dillon walked out of prison a free man. Preston was exposed by a Florida judge in 1984, who became suspicious of Preston and set up his own test for Harrass 2. The dog failed terribly. CNN unearthed documents which demonstrated that Harrass 2 could not even follow a scent for one-hundred feet. The judge determined the dog could only track successfully when his handler had advance knowledge of the case. Preston and his four-legged so-called expert were discredited in 1987 - but according to CNN, "the state of Florida never reviewed cases on which he’d testified . And nobody ever told Bill Dillon – who sat in prison another 20 years before he ever knew a thing about it. It wasn’t until 2006 that he heard Preston was a fake." The Dillon case is now attracting massive media attention in response to the Florida’s Innocence Project's well publicized concerns that dozens of inmates around the country may have been wrongly convicted as a result of John Preston and his dog. The focus now shifts to Florida's response to the Innocence Project's call for an investigation of those cases. Meanwhile, CNN informs us that Preston, the dog’s handler, died last year. He was never charged with perjury or convicted of a crime."
See the CNN video here:
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/30/fake-scent-tracking-dog-sends-man-to-prison-for-life/
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"My story about William Dillon, who’s trying to launch a recording career after a 27-year wrongful imprisonment for murder, was one of those domino-effect situations," the Chicago Tribune story by reporter Mark Caro, published on October 7, 2010 begins, under the heading, "Behind a redemption song."
"I’d written about the Evanston nightclub Space, and one of its owners, Craig Golden, told me I had to meet somebody," the story continues.
"He took me to a recording studio in an old Evanston storefront where Jim Tullio, its owner, was sitting at the mixing board working on a new project.
Tullio told his tale: He’d caught some of a Paula Zahn cable-news report about a Florida man who had been wrongfully imprisoned for 27 years, had received no compensation from the state upon his release and now wanted to record the songs he’d been writing. Tullio was so moved that he reached this man, Dillon, and offered to fly him to Chicago to record his album for free.
Not only did Dillon take him up on the offer, but, Tullio said with wonder, “he’s really good.”
Tullio pushed a button and played one of the songs, “Black Robes and Lawyers,” in which the deep-voiced Dillon tells his captivating story in a six tense minutes. About a month later Dillon was back in town to continue recording and to make his non-prison stage debut at Space.
Dillon exudes a sense of inner peace, of having put his nightmare behind him, even as the emotions well up as he recounts what was done to him—deliberately, he thinks. He’s lived through what we all fear—an innocent person plunged into hell for no good reason—and now he’s writing and singing about it.
Can a 51-year-old exonerated non-murderer become a successful singer-songwriter? Many people already are rooting for him."
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The story can be found at:
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/tribnation/2010/10/behind-a-redemption-song.html
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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://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=120008354894645705&postID=8369513443994476774
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
