"Three weeks before potential jurors were to come court for Davey's trial, the jury pool list was handed over to the Crown, in breach of the Juries Act.
The jury list was given to police and officers to evaluate the "suitability" of potential jurors, or whether the juror would be favourable to the Crown.
Officers noted "good," "yes," "OK" or "no" on their lists based on their personal knowledge of the potential jurors. The lists and the notations were never handed over to the defence.
It is that issue which is at the heart of Davey and two other cases the Supreme Court has decided to hear."
REPORTER JORDAN PRESS; THE GAZETTE;
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: In a previous post I asked: "Why didn't Ontario prosecutors examine Dr. Charles Smith's qualifications a bit more closely over the years, pay more attention to court decisions suggesting he was biased towards the Crown and that that his opinions were seriously flawed - or at least share the existence of these decisions with the defence?" My answer was that some prosecutors cared more about winning the case than the possibility that an innocent person might be convicted; I buttressed my response with the story recently broken by the National Post that prosecutors in several parts of Ontario have been asking police to do secret background checks on jurors. This controversy has lead to numerous requests for mistrials and could result in a bids to open numerous cases where accused persons have been convicted in the shadow of the illegal practice which taints a criminal jury trial from the outset. The Charles Smith Blog is very much concerned with the question as to how far prosecutors will go to win the case and is therefore monitoring developments on a regular basis;
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"OTTAWA — A convicted cop-killer will have one more chance to appeal his conviction," the Gazette story by reporter Jordan Press published earlier today under the heading "Supreme Court to probe jury-vetting in cop-killer's appeal," begins.
"But his case — and two others — will also give Canada's highest court a chance to weigh in on the controversial practice of jury vetting by the Crown and police," the story continues.
"The Supreme Court of Canada announced Thursday it would hear the appeal of Troy Davey, who was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2004 death of Const. Chris Garrett of Cobourg, Ont.
The court traditionally does not provide reasons for agreeing or disagreeing to hear an appeal, and it provided no explanation in this case.
Davey was 18 when he lured Garrett with a fake 911 call and then slashed his throat.
As Garrett was bleeding to death, he hit the fleeing Davey with the last of the 17 bullets he fired. That wound forced Davey to seek medical attention and led to his arrest.
The incident has actually been credited for preventing more police officers in Cobourg, from being attacked because, the court heard, Davey had planned to kill more officers in the small town.
A jury took only 12 hours to deliberate and deliver a guilty verdict. Davey is serving a life sentence.
Davey has argued his conviction should be overturned because the Crown asked local police to vet potential jurors.
Three weeks before potential jurors were to come court for Davey's trial, the jury pool list was handed over to the Crown, in breach of the Juries Act.
The jury list was given to police and officers to evaluate the "suitability" of potential jurors, or whether the juror would be favourable to the Crown.
Officers noted "good," "yes," "OK" or "no" on their lists based on their personal knowledge of the potential jurors. The lists and the notations were never handed over to the defence.
It is that issue which is at the heart of Davey and two other cases the Supreme Court has decided to hear.
Ibrahim Yumnu and Vinicio Cardoso made the same arguments about improper jury vetting when they appealed their first-degree murder convictions in 2010. The two were convicted by a jury in 2005 in the execution-style killing of a former associate and his wife in a dispute over drug-trafficking.
The Supreme Court announced Thursday it would hear their appeals as well.
The background checks were first revealed in a 2009 investigative series by the National Post. The Ontario Privacy Commissioner found that one in three Crown offices in the province had engaged in improper jury vetting.
The provincial government halted the practice following the report, and amended the Juries Act to protect the privacy of potential jurors."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The story can be found at:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada/Supreme+Court+probe+jury+vetting+killer+appeal/4993809/story.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;
