ANTHONY GRAVES; (TEXAS); GOV. PERRY SIGNS BILL THAT ENABLES PREVIOUSLY DENIED COMPENSATION. ABOUT 1.5 M. FOR 18 YEARS. KHOU; (ABOUT TIME!)

"Texas Comptroller Susan Combs previously refused to hand over the money because of a technicality.

Graves was wrongly convicted of murdering a family in Somerville and he was released from prison last year."

KHOU;

MARK CALENDER NOW: IMPORTANT JOINT NPR, FRONTLINE, PROPUBLICA INVESTIGATION OF CHILD DEATH CASES INVOLVING ABUSE, ASSAULT AND "SHAKEN-BABY SYNDROME." ASKS IF DEATH INVESTIGATORS ARE BEING PROPERLY TRAINED FOR CHILD CASES; FIRST OF THREE SEGMENTS ON "THE CHILD CASES" AIRS ON JUNE 28 AT 9.00 PM:

When a child dies under suspicious circumstances, abuse is often suspected. That's what happened in the case of six-month-old Isis Vas, whose death was deemed "a clear-cut and classic" case of child abuse, sending a man named Ernie Lopez to prison for 60 years. But now a Texas judge has moved to overturn Lopez's conviction, and new questions are being asked about the quality of expert testimony in this and many other similar cases. In this joint investigation with ProPublica and NPR, FRONTLINE correspondent A.C. Thompson unearths more than 20 child death cases in which people were jailed on medical evidence -- involving abuse, assault and "shaken-baby syndrome" -- that was later found unreliable or flat-out wrong. Are death investigators being properly trained for child cases? The Child Cases is the first of three magazine segments airing June 28 at 9 p.m. (check local listings);

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-child-cases/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BACKGROUND: Wikipedia informs us that: "Anthony Graves was convicted of the 1992 mass murder of six people. His conviction was overturned in 2006 and he waited for years for a retrial. On Oct. 27, 2010, he was released after the Washington-Burleson County District Attorney concluded, "He’s an innocent man. There is nothing that connects Anthony Graves to this crime." Houston Chronicle reporter Harvey Rice previously reported that: "The letter from the comptroller’s office said the court order must indicate "on its face" that it was granted "on the claimant’s actual innocence." Comptroller’s office spokesman R.J. Silva said the law did not allow for special consideration of the facts in Graves’ case. Kelly Siegler, the special prosecutor who recommended dropping the charges against Graves, said that the words "actual innocence" are not commonly used in the courtroom. She said the compensation law likely was designed for cases involving innocence proven through DNA, not a case thrown out by prosecutors after a reexamination of the evidence. "Who would have envisioned this kind of situation happening?" Siegler said."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"HOUSTON -- A man who spent 18 years in prison for crimes he did not commit is about to get compensation from the state of Texas," the KHOU report published earlier today under the heading, "Exonerated inmate to receive previously denied compensation," begins.

"Gov. Rick Perry signed a bill Tuesday that will give Anthony Graves almost $1.5 million," the report continues.

"Texas Comptroller Susan Combs previously refused to hand over the money because of a technicality.

Graves was wrongly convicted of murdering a family in Somerville and he was released from prison last year."

The report can be found at:

http://www.khou.com/news/Exonerated-inmate-to-receive-previously-denied-compensation-124332794.html

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 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

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;