the charles smith blog: July 2011

Sunday, July 31, 2011

AMANDA KNOX; NEW FORENSIC EVIDENCE EXPOSES "GLARING ERRORS" IN POLICE INVESTIGATION: THE DAILY MAIL;

"An appeal hearing in the hillside town of Perugia was told that key evidence was unreliable and possibly contaminated.

During Knox's trial, prosecutors said her DNA was found on a kitchen knife while that of Miss Kercher was discovered on the blade of the alleged murder weapon.

But the independent experts - appointed by the court to review the evidence and the procedures used to obtain it - said the knife had not been properly sealed after it was found at Sollecito's house, opening the way to possible contamination.

Meanwhile, the genetic material on the blade could not be attributed with certainty to Miss Kercher, they claimed.

The amount available was below the minimum required for tests to be considered reliable, the court was told.

Carla Vecchiotti, a forensic specialist from La Sapienza university in Rome, said it was impossible to say whether the British student's DNA was found on the knife."

THE DAILY MAIL;

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"The mother of Amanda Knox, jailed for murdering her British flatmate in Italy, said new forensic evidence presented in court today exposed ‘glaring errors’ in the investigation which led to her daughter's conviction," the Daily Mail story published earlier today under the heading, "New forensic evidence exposed ‘glaring errors’ in Amanda Knox case, court hears," begins.

"Experts identified more than 50 alleged mistakes in the probe into Meredith Kercher's death and said police working on the case handled vital material wearing dirty gloves." the story continues.

"Their findings have bolstered hopes for Knox's relatives who believe her release from prison is now ‘more and more’ likely.

An appeal hearing in the hillside town of Perugia was told that key evidence was unreliable and possibly contaminated.

During Knox's trial, prosecutors said her DNA was found on a kitchen knife while that of Miss Kercher was discovered on the blade of the alleged murder weapon.

But the independent experts - appointed by the court to review the evidence and the procedures used to obtain it - said the knife had not been properly sealed after it was found at Sollecito's house, opening the way to possible contamination.

Meanwhile, the genetic material on the blade could not be attributed with certainty to Miss Kercher, they claimed.

The amount available was below the minimum required for tests to be considered reliable, the court was told.

Carla Vecchiotti, a forensic specialist from La Sapienza university in Rome, said it was impossible to say whether the British student's DNA was found on the knife.

‘There is a complete genetic profile, but it's not reliable,’ she said.

‘We don't know if Meredith's DNA was on it or not.’

Knox's mother Edda Mellas said relatives were increasingly convinced that the 24-year-old would be freed on the conclusion of her appeal.

‘We are feeling more and more that that's going to happen,’ she told Sky News.

‘I think the appeal overall has been going great.

‘They've been showing all the glaring errors that were made and no matter how hard today the prosecution tries to muddy the waters, the fact that the simplest question was, “can you say that this was Meredith's DNA?” and the expert said, “absolutely not, you cannot say that”.’

Knox, who appeared weary as she arrived in court wearing a pink jumper, has continuously protested her innocence.

‘It's really hard for Amanda,’ Mrs Mellas said.

‘She's innocent, she's locked up and to have all these delays, it's horrible for her.

‘The hardest part is watching her suffer.’

The American student was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering Miss Kercher from Coulsdon, in Surrey, at the apartment the two shared in Perugia in 2007.

She was later handed a 26-year prison term while her ex-boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, 27, was convicted of the same charges and sentenced to 25 years."

Both deny wrongdoing."

The story can be found at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2020570/Amanda-Knox-latest-news-New-forensic-evidence-exposed-glaring-errors.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;

SHERRY SHERRET RETROSPECTIVE; (PART FIVE): HARD TO IMAGINE A SCENARIO THAT COULD BE ANY MORE INHUMANE - BUT THERE'S MORE; JOHN KASTNER; SUN;

"IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE A SCENARIO THAT COULD BE ANY MORE INHUMANE "BUT THERE'S MORE."

"THIS WEEK'S ACQUITTAL IS ONE THING AND, BY SHERRET-ROBINSON'S OWN ADMISSION, IT MEANS A LOT, BUT SOMEHOW, GIVEN THE VICIOUSNESS AND THE RAMIFICATIONS OF THAT DOCTOR'S CAVALIER TESTIMONY, ONE FEELS THAT IT FALLS WELL SHORT OF WHAT COULD BE CONSIDERED FAIR AND REASONABLE."

JOHN KASTNER; THE TORONTO SUN; THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG: DECEMBER 16, 2009;

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Saturday, July 30, 2011

AMANDA KNOX APPEAL; FINAL HEARING IS UNDER WAY; LETTER CONSIDERED BY JUDGE SAYS LATEST FORENSIC WORK DAMAGING TO POLICE; WEST SEATTLE HERALD;

"Currently (11:30 a.m. Perugia time) Prosecutor Manuela Comodi is challenging the forensics experts by questioning their experience. However, Judge Hellmann told her to stick to the report, and not to other cases in the forensics experts' past.

As the West Seattle Herald reported here following last Sunday's hearing, the two forensics experts spent hours reading protocol for collecting evidence for DNA testing from Europe to America that contradicted methods the prosecutors' DNA team originally used in the (first) murder trial of Meredith Kercher, Knox's college roommate in Perugia. Also, a video projected in court showed DNA collectors dropping and mishandling evidence wearing dirty gloves."

REPORTER STEVE SHAY; WEST SEATTLE HERALD;

(CONNECT WITH SITE BELOW FOR UPDATES OF TODAY'S HEARING);

http://www.westseattleherald.com/2011/07/30/news/final-hearing-amanda-knox-has-begun-her-appeal-le

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"The final hearing for West Seattle-raised Amanda Knox has just began, at about 10:00 a.m. in Perugia Italy, nine hours ahead of Seattle time, (PST)," the West Seattle Herald story by reporter Steve Shay published earlier today begins.

"The judge, Claudio Pratillo Hellmann, read a letter from a section of new forensic crime report. In the letter a manager for the judge defends the scientific work of the expertise of the two court-appointed independent forensic experts, and calls the findings by professors Stefano Conti and Carla Vecchiotti "damaging" to the image of the police," the story continues.

"Currently (11:30 a.m. Perugia time) Prosecutor Manuela Comodi is challenging the forensics experts by questioning their experience. However, Judge Hellmann told her to stick to the report, and not to other cases in the forensics experts' past.

As the West Seattle Herald reported here following last Sunday's hearing, the two forensics experts spent hours reading protocol for collecting evidence for DNA testing from Europe to America that contradicted methods the prosecutors' DNA team originally used in the (first) murder trial of Meredith Kercher, Knox's college roommate in Perugia. Also, a video projected in court showed DNA collectors dropping and mishandling evidence wearing dirty gloves.

During the current hearing it is expected that at least one DNA scientist in charge of the original collection of DNA evidence will cross-examine the experts. Legal experts in Italy and America have been telling media since last week's hearing that the video embarrassed the prosecution and that Knox's case for her innocence has been strengthened as a result.

After today's hearing, a four week summer recess takes place, and then all return to court Aug. 27 for closing arguments before the verdict is read.

We will update."

The story can be found at:

http://www.westseattleherald.com/2011/07/30/news/final-hearing-amanda-knox-has-begun-her-appeal-le

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;

SHERRY SHERRET RETROSPECTIVE; PART FOUR; JUSTICE STEPHEN GOUDGE'S FINDINGS; NOVEMBER 24, 2009;

"Justice Goudge reports that Dr. Smith also misinterpreted artifact's in Joshua's case - Just as he had in Valin's case and Nicholas' case.

In Joshua's case, for example, Dr. Smith performed the post-mortem examination and found a microscopic hemorrhage in the connective tissues of Joshua's neck.

Dr. Smith concluded that the cause of death was asphyxia,and testified at the preliminary hearing in the case that the hemorrhage was a "worrying" finding, suggesting that Joshua was suffocated.

"That diagnosis was wrong" says Justice Goudge.

"The experts who examined the microscopic slides determined that the hemorrhage was likely caused during dissection at the autopsy.

It likely was a post-mortem artifact and was therefore unrelated to Joshua's cause of death.""

THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG; NOVEMBER 24, 2009;

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I recently reported that Sherry Sherret has received a $450,000 settlement for the nightmare she was put through by by the former Doctor Charles Smith, the police, prosecutors and the Court - and I indicated that I find the settlement grossly inadequate. To help our readers make up their own minds I am running a retrospective of posts previously published on this Blog on Sherry Sherret's case. Our readers are invited to send their comments on the settlement to me at: hlevy15@gmail.com for possible inclusion on the site.

HAROLD LEVY; PUBLISHER; THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG.

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The post ran as follows:

"Over the past eighteen months I have used this Blog to intensively report on developments relating to Dr. Charles Smith culminating with the recently concluded Goudge Inquiry.

I am now winding up this phase of the Blog - to be replaced eventually by periodic reporting of developments relating to Dr. Smith and related issues as they occur - with an examination of Justice Goudge's findings in the cases reviewed by the Inquiry.

I think it is important to take this closer look at the report in this Blog, because the mainstream media, which has done an admirable job in reporting the inquiry, have gone on to other stories.

Justice Goudge's findings relating to the various cases have been scattered throughout the report.

My approach is to weave together the findings relating to all of the principal actors - so we can get a fuller picture of Justice Goudge's findings as to their conduct;

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Failure to disregard irrelevant and prejudicial information;

"It is equally clear that the pathologist must disregard irrelevant and prejudicial information," says Justice Goudge. "Good science demands no less."

In Joshua's case, Justice Goudge faults Dr. Smith for recording in the final autopsy report that Joshua's mother was married, but did not officially live with her husband so she could continue to collect welfare.

"None of this information is at all relevant to pathology," he says..."None of the information set out above should have been included in a final autopsy report because it leaves the impression that it somehow played a part in Dr. Smith's thinking."

Preserving autopsy records:

Justice Goudge was extremely troubled by Dr. Smith's loss of exhibits in criminal case.

This is also true of Joshua's case, where he finds that Smith was asked to provide for the defence the microscopic slides and X-Rays relating to the case before the preliminary hearing.

"D. Smith failed to deliver the material requested," he says.

"In fact he lost the slides for some time, although he eventually found them.

The X-Rays, however, were lost and never found."

Misinterpreting artifact's:

Justice Goudge reports that Dr. Smith also misinterpreted artifact's in Joshua's case - Just as he had in Valin's case and Nicholas' case.

In Joshua's case, for example, Dr. Smith performed the post-mortem examination and found a microscopic hemorrhage in the connective tissues of Joshua's neck.

Dr. Smith concluded that the cause of death was asphyxia,and testified at the preliminary hearing in the case that the hemorrhage was a "worrying" finding, suggesting that Joshua was suffocated.

"That diagnosis was wrong" says Justice Goudge.

"The experts who examined the microscopic slides determined that the hemorrhage was likely caused during dissection at the autopsy.

It likely was a post-mortem artifact and was therefore unrelated to Joshua's cause of death."

Delay:

Charles Smith got caught in a lie relating to delay in the context of Joshua's case;

In March 1996, he told a police officer that he had completed his final post-mortem report, was waiting for it to be typed, but was typing the report himself at home at night because he had no administrative assistant and was the only pathologist on schedule for the next few days.

"This was untrue," says Goudge.

"Dr. Smith had access to an administrative assistant, and the 1996 schedule for pathologists showed that Dr. Smith was not the only pathologist on rotation for the few days following his conversation Sergeant MacLellan,

Despite this, when Sergeant MacLellan advised that he needed the report by the following Tuesday because court proceedings were scheduled for Wednesday, Dr. Smith responded that he did not think the report would be ready y then."

Ongoing communication with the police;

Justice Goudge heard evidence that at a meeting with police on February 8, 1996, Dr. Smith, when asked, said that he believed Sherry Sherret had killed Joshua.

"He said that mothers who kill their babies share certain characteristics," said Goudge.

"For example, they usually talk about it ahead of time, or they might be involved in relationship fights or custody battles, as a result of which they may be trying to get back at the baby's father."

But Justice Goudge concluded that Smith's remarks about the characteristics of mothers who kill their children were also inappropriate, since they were beyond his expertise.

"To say that he believed that Ms. Sherret killed her son on the basis of "hallmark characteristics" was inappropriate," said Goudge.

"He had no expertise to say so."

The speculating expert:

Justice Goudge ruled that Dr. Smith should not have offered opinions that were "speculative, unsubstantiated, and not based on the pathology findings" as he did in his evidence at the preliminary hearing in Joshua's case when he said he was "highly suspicious" that Joshua had been suffocated - even though there was no pathological evidence to support the opinion."

"I find it hard to accept Dr. Smith's explanation that he did not know that he ought not speculate," said Goudge. Pathologists provide pathology opinions. I do not see how pathologists can believe that, when there is no pathology evidence, it is open to them to speculate on what could have happened."

This humble Bloggist is quite confident that Dr. Smith was well aware that he should not give speculative evidence in court.

Whether it was based on pathological evidence or not, it certainly was an excellent way to make sure the accused parent or caregiver was convicted.

The expert and casual language;

Dr. Smith's propensity from time to time to use language that was loose and unscientific shone through in Joshua's case where he testified that, if he were a "betting man" he would say that Joshua's death was non-accidental.

It sounds like another sure-fire trick to get a conviction to me - and reinforces my belief that one has to stretch and contrive in order to convict an Innocent person.

What else would you expect from a supposedly neutral person who saw himself as a member of the prosecution team?

Cooperating with other experts:

Justice Goudge notes that court proceedings had to be postponed because Smith did to requests to locate and forward autopsy materials from Joshua's case to another pathologist for review.

This was typical of Smith.

The last thing he would ever have wanted was to have his work reviewed by another set of eyes (a truly expert set of eyes) - especially someone hired by the defence who may not have bought into his mystique.

Indeed, virtually all of his delays, could be interpreted as efforts to avoid countability - rather than the lack of training that he claimed."

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The post can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2009/11/sherry-sherrett-justice-goudges.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 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;

Friday, July 29, 2011

AMANDA KNOX; NBC CORRESPONDENT KEITH MILLER ASKS IF SHE IS THE VICTIM OF A CRAZY COURT SYSTEM; HOLES IN DNA EVIDENCE;

"Holes in DNA evidence
There was not a single piece of DNA from Knox or her former boyfriend found at the crime scene. The prosecution claimed they cleaned up any trace of being there, but were clever enough to leave behind the clues leading to Guede.

Two 20-somethings, admittedly stoned from marijuana, buzzed from too much booze and in the grip of a supposed sadistic sexual fever decided, "Oh dear, let's mop up the blood, extract the hairs and wipe away any bodily fluids before we make our getaway."

I don't buy it. Never did.

Then this week the prosecution’s case took a hit.

Independent forensic experts appointed by the court took the stand on Monday and attacked key pieces of the evidence used to convict them.

The two court-appointed experts presented findings from a 145-page report they wrote after studying the DNA evidence.

The experts testified that a series of police blunders like not wearing protective caps and masks and allowing people to tramp in and out of the crime scene contaminated potential DNA evidence.

They also raised questions about evidence concerning the murder weapon, a large, black-handled kitchen knife found at Knox's boyfriend’s apartment. Prosecutors had insisted that Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of the knife and that Kercher’s DNA material was found on the blade. The forensic experts testified Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of the knife, but said there was no DNA from the victim.

Another crucial piece of evidence – a bloody bra clasp belonging to the victim that allegedly had DNA from Knox's boyfriend on it – was so badly handled that it was impossible to test, according to the forensic experts."

NBC CORRESPONDENT KEITH MILLER; NBC NEWS;

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"PERUGIA, Italy – You reach the ancient hill top town of Perugia by a series of winding roads through the rolling hills of Umbria, traveling past huge poplar trees planted like giant windbreaks. To call it picture-perfect would be an injustice. This is what every American exchange student probably imagines Italy to be like," the NBC News story by reporter Keith Miller published earlier today under the heading, "Amanda Knox: Victim of a crazy court system?," begins.

"The favorable impression is reinforced by the warm-colored and weathered stones that make up the walls surrounding the town," the story continues.

"But those walls also envelop a place where history has on many occasions been cruel. And its modern judicial system is giving those ancient injustices a new twist, embodied in the form of American student Amanda Knox, who has done even more to put Perugia on the map than the local chocolate factory, Perugina, known for its silver wrapped “Baci” (kisses).

There is little affection here for Knox, who has created a far greater stir than the annual international chocolate festival.

Portrayed in the Italian press as a spoiled and sexually promiscuous man eater, Knox, her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede, an Ivorian resident of Perugia, were convicted and jailed in 2009 for the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, a British student and Knox’s roommate. Judges concluded that the killing came during a frenzied sex game that spiraled out of control.

People often ask if I think Knox is guilty of the murder she was convicted of committing. After three years of reporting on the crime, Knox’s trial and her punishment for the TODAY show, the answer is always the same: "I don't know if she is guilty, but I do know that the prosecution didn't prove it in court."

Circus-like trial
You can put that down to the inordinately inept Italian court system. As I responded when a reputable Italian newspaper reporter recently asked me my opinion on the proceedings: “I would rather be on trial in Cuba."

Add to that a plethora of lawyers, often working at cross-purposes. In this case, four legal teams, representing four different parties, were all taking a swing at Knox. On a given day the prosecutors’ table during the trial was more crowded than a popular pizza parlor
There were lawyers for the state, the victim’s family, an attorney representing a man accusing Knox of slander and an attorney for the convicted murderer Guede. Each had his say, and what they mostly said was conjuncture punctuated by sexual innuendo that would make Mae West blush.

And I must not leave out the chief prosecutor in the case, Giuliano Mignini, a great barrel of a man with a full head of gray hair swept back in the fashionable style of the Italian middle aged male. He cut a formidable figure in court. But as he was prosecuting Knox for murder, he himself was on trial in Florence for abuse of prosecutorial power in a previous murder trial.

As Knox was writing in her journal to pass the time in prison, Mignini was shuttling back and forth to Florence to defend himself in court. He was found guilty and given a suspended sentence.

This blatant breech of ethics was greeted by silence in Perugia. Mignini carried on his prosecution of Knox with the zeal of an evangelical preacher.

A sex game gone wrong?
Throughout the case, this prosecution was all about sex. Mignini formed a motive for the murder of 21-year-old Kercher early and stayed with it till the end. It was, he said, "a satanic ritualistic sex orgy that led to murder."

The Italian and British tabloids went positively feverish. They went straight to Knox’s Facebook page, uncovering the lurid that supposedly simmered in the fresh-faced girl. And the nickname she was given at the age of 8, when she played a crafty game of soccer. “Foxy Knoxy” just about sealed her fate.

On air I reduced the prosecution’s claim to "a sex game gone wrong." But at no time during the trial were there any facts presented to back up the claim.

Despite the complete lack of evidence to support his theory, Mignini conducted an imaginary dialogue between Knox and the victim as part of his closing arguments. Speaking for Knox, he imagined her saying to Kercher, "You’re behaving like a little saint. Now we will show you, now we will make you have sex."

The trial judge dismissing the sex game theory came up with his own motive suggesting Knox and her former boyfriend joined in attacking Kercher after they heard her screams as she was being molested by Guede. Not sex, but jealousy guided Knox, he said.

There was no evidence backing up this theory and no rationale, either. In the history of criminal prosecution, I doubt there is a single case where a person jumped at the chance to help a relatively unknown intruder in the dark of night, sexually assault and then stab a roommate to death. Never mind that the testimony delivered in court painted the relationship between Knox and Kercher as friendly.

So the trial in the absence of a rational motive came down to the DNA

Imagine for a moment a murder scene in a cramped student’s bedroom. A body on the floor, blood everywhere. There were bloodied hand prints on the headboard, cupboard and bloody foot prints on the floor.

All connected back to the man first convicted of the crime: Rudy Guede.

Holes in DNA evidence
There was not a single piece of DNA from Knox or her former boyfriend found at the crime scene. The prosecution claimed they cleaned up any trace of being there, but were clever enough to leave behind the clues leading to Guede.

Two 20-somethings, admittedly stoned from marijuana, buzzed from too much booze and in the grip of a supposed sadistic sexual fever decided, "Oh dear, let's mop up the blood, extract the hairs and wipe away any bodily fluids before we make our getaway."

I don't buy it. Never did.

Then this week the prosecution’s case took a hit.

Independent forensic experts appointed by the court took the stand on Monday and attacked key pieces of the evidence used to convict them.

The two court-appointed experts presented findings from a 145-page report they wrote after studying the DNA evidence.

The experts testified that a series of police blunders like not wearing protective caps and masks and allowing people to tramp in and out of the crime scene contaminated potential DNA evidence.

They also raised questions about evidence concerning the murder weapon, a large, black-handled kitchen knife found at Knox's boyfriend’s apartment. Prosecutors had insisted that Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of the knife and that Kercher’s DNA material was found on the blade. The forensic experts testified Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of the knife, but said there was no DNA from the victim.

Another crucial piece of evidence – a bloody bra clasp belonging to the victim that allegedly had DNA from Knox's boyfriend on it – was so badly handled that it was impossible to test, according to the forensic experts.

Stay tuned…
Knox's mother Edda Mellas, a school teacher from Seattle, was in tears at the conclusion of testimony. The legal fees and cost of maintaining a transatlantic connection to her daughter has nearly bankrupted the family, but they stand by Knox's insistence that she is innocent.

Appealing a murder conviction in Italy can be tricky. The judge could impose an even harsher sentence, but Knox has two things going for her. When the appeals judge agreed to examine the evidence presented in the first trial, it was an admission that the evidence could be flawed.

It wouldn't be the first time. Around 50 percent of appeals in major criminal cases in Italy end with the conviction being over turned.

The next hearing is scheduled for Saturday when the experts face cross-examination. Stay tuned…."

The story can be found at:

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/07/29/7195714-amanda-knox-victim-of-a-crazy-court-system

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;

CAROLYN BELLAMY; OREGON; JUDGE REJECTS ACCIDENTAL FALL DEFENCE BUT FINDS GRANDMOTHER GUILTY OF A LESSER OFFENCE; THE OREGONIAN;

"The judge said discrepancies in Bellamy's testimony and other evidence led her to conclude that the toddler didn't die from an accidental fall and that Bellamy caused her death. However, the judge said she didn't believe that Bellamy intended to cause serious injury or death to her granddaughter."

REPORTER HELEN JUNG; THE OREGONIAN;

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BACKGROUND; The prosecutor says evidence from doctors will show that Magathan's injuries could not have been caused by falling 22 inches from the bed down to the carpeted floor. He adds that Bellamy, who had been on the phone to try to get a rebate from Cricket Wireless, was frustrated because the toddler was getting into her papers that were spread on the bed where she sat with the child. He also charges that Bellamy's own words at times suggest she had shaken the child. But her attorney says Bellamy, 60, has never shown signs of a temper or lashing out against her granddaughter -- or anyone else, for that matter. He says a child-abuse expert that is expected to testify for the prosecution has "an agenda" and lacks the qualifications to back up his findings. "Everything he can't explain is child abuse," the defence lawyer says, adding that the grandmother could not physically have committed the injury to the 35-pound toddler that investigators accuse her of doing. He says the girl had had numerous falls previously and had several times indicated pain in her head, which was written off by others as teething. But he says there may have been some other defect or injury that caused the bleeding and swelling in her brain." (Adapted from the Oregonian);

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"A Multnomah County Circuit judge found a Gresham grandmother guilty of the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide in the October 2009 death of her granddaughter," the Oregonian story by reporter Helen Jung published earlier today under the heading, "Judge convicts Carolyn Bellamy of Gresham of criminally negligent homicide in death of granddaughter," begins.

Judge Janice Wilson found Carolyn Bellamy, 60, not guilty of murder and manslaughter in the death. Bellamy dabbed at her eyes throughout the judge's explanation of what led her to the verdict," the story continues.

""My heart goes out to every single one of you in this courtroom," Wilson said.

Bellamy had been charged in the death of 23-month-old Ariana Magathan, who died four days after she was rushed to the hospital from her grandmother’s home.

Bellamy had been watching the toddler and making a phone call to Cricket Wireless customer service when she said the girl fell off the bed. Bellamy said the girl cried, had some convulsions and then went limp in her arms.

But the state argued that Bellamy’s story contradicted medical experts’ opinion that the girl died from abusive head trauma. The symptoms — including bleeding in her brain and swelling in her head — were consistent with being violently shaken, said Multnomah County deputy district attorney John Casalino.

Bellamy’s claims that the toddler fell off the bed — which 22 inches off the ground — would not have killed the girl, he argued.

Bellamy’s attorney, Russell Barnett, maintained that Bellamy was not physically able to shake the 30-plus pound toddler to death, noting Bellamy's short stature and health problems. He also argued that the doctors conceded that short falls can, in rare cases, be fatal.

The judge said discrepancies in Bellamy's testimony and other evidence led her to conclude that the toddler didn't die from an accidental fall and that Bellamy caused her death. However, the judge said she didn't believe that Bellamy intended to cause serious injury or death to her granddaughter.

Wilson referred to the testimony of a doctor who said injury to the brain stem could result from a smaller amount of force other than a sustained violent shaking.

This post will be updated with additional details."

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The story can be found at:

http://www.oregonlive.com/gresham/index.ssf/2011/07/verdict_in_carolyn_bellamy_mur.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 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;

DOG-SCENT EVIDENCE; GOOD NEWS! TEXAS APPEAL COURT UPHOLDS EXCLUSION IN A PIKETT CASE; BEGINNING OF END FOR THIS JUNK SCIENCE? GRITS FOR BREAKFAST;

"What does this mean for the 2,000 or so past cases where Texas courts already allowed this now-deemed unreliable testimony? On that the jury is out. For now we know for sure the evidence won't be allowed in criminal trials henceforth in Texas' First District, and especially since Deputy Pikett has retired and no one else in the state performs the procedure, possibly this may be the beginning of the end for the use of dog-scent lineups in Texas."

GRITS FOR BREAKFAST; "Grits for Breakfast says it "looks at the Texas criminal justice system, with a little politics and whatever else suits the author's (Scott Henson) fancy thrown in. All opinions are my own. The facts belong to everybody." Its motto: "Welcome to Texas justice: You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride."

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"Good news for opponents of junk science in the courtroom: Brandon Barnett at Liberty and Justice for Y'all brings word that the First Court of Appeals in Houston has once again benchslapped testimonial evidence in a capital murder case from Fort Bend Sheriff Deputy Keith Pikett's bloodhounds, when yesterday they issued an opinion in another case involving the Fort Bend County dog handler," the Grits for Breakfast post published earlier today under the heading, "Appellate court upholds exclusion of dog-scent lineup evidence," begins.

"Much like the last case I posted about, the dog handler was used to match a murder suspect's scent with the scent of certain evidence from the crime scene," the post continues.

"This time, however, the scent lineup evidence did not even make it to the trier of fact. After hearing the views of competing experts, the trial judge ruled that the evidence was inadmissible as unreliable. Some of the flaws in the dog handler's methodology that the court noted were:

* He carries around his "blind" non-supect scent samples (called foil samples) in ziplock bags;
* His foil samples are old samples, while the scent sample of the suspect is fresh;
* He does not do negative runs where the sample of the suspect is excluded;
* He uses multiple dogs during each test rather than allowing the dogs to work alone; and
* He is mostly self-taught and his methodology is something he created.

On appeal, the State argued that the trial judge abused his discretion in refusing to admit the evidence. The First District upheld the trial judge's ruling, holding that it was reasonable for the trial court of conclude that the scent lineup evidence was unreliable.

The trial court had excluded dog scent evidence as unreliable - good for District Judge Clifford Vacek - and and the First Court of Appeals upheld his ruling. The trial court also made the following conclusions of law:

1. The science of human scent identification and/or comparison is not sufficiently reliable to be admitted in evidence in a criminal trial. See Kelly v. State, 824 S.W.2d 568, 573 (Tex. Crim. App. 1992).

2. Human scent identification by a canine is not sufficiently reliable to be admitted in evidence in a criminal trial. See Nenno v. State, 970 S.W.2d 549, 561 (Tex. Crim. App. 1992).

However, the First Court ruling (pdf) stops short of issuing those words from Justice Jane Bland's own pen, but she agrees that the record supports the trial court's findings of fact and upholds decision to suppress dog-scent evidence. Regular readers will recall that dog scent lineups had already been discredited at the Court of Criminal Appeals, which may soon be asked to rule on suppressing dog-scent evidence altogether if the state (as I hope) chooses to appeal the First Court's ruling to the state's highest criminal court.

What does this mean for the 2,000 or so past cases where Texas courts already allowed this now-deemed unreliable testimony? On that the jury is out. For now we know for sure the evidence won't be allowed in criminal trials henceforth in Texas' First District, and especially since Deputy Pikett has retired and no one else in the state performs the procedure, possibly this may be the beginning of the end for the use of dog-scent lineups in Texas.

For more background on dog scent lineups see this public policy report (pdf) from my employers at the Innocence Project of Texas, published while I was furloughed from the group for reasons of fiscal austerity."

The post can be found at:

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2011/07/appellate-court-upholds-exclusion-of.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;

CAMERON TODD WILLINGHAM: IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT. TEXAS AG SAYS BELEAGUERED SCIENCE COMMISSION CANNOT PROBE CONDUCT OF CASE'S ARSON INVESTIGATORS;

"Three years after the group began its investigation into the Willingham arson case, it published findings that made significant recommendations to improve future arson investigations. However, the commission did not decide whether or not the Willingham arson investigators were negligent.

They declined to rule on that until the AG made gave its opinion on the matter.

Attorney General Greg Abbott’s Office Friday said, "Although the Forensic Science Commission may conduct investigations of incidents that occurred before September 1, 2005, the law that created the Commission prohibits the FSC from considering evidence that was tested or offered into evidence prior to that date."

Abbott said the panel’s investigative authority is limited to those laboratories, facilities, or entities that were accredited by the Department of Public Safety at the time the forensic analyses took place."

REPORTER SHANE ALLEN; NBC DFW;

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BACKGROUND: (Wikipedia); Cameron Todd Willingham (January 9, 1968 – February 17, 2004), born in Carter County, Oklahoma, was sentenced to death by the state of Texas for murdering his three daughters—two year old Amber Louise Kuykendall, and one year old twins Karmon Diane Willingham and Kameron Marie Willingham— by setting his house on fire. The fire occurred on December 23, 1991 in Corsicana, Texas. Lighter fluid was kept on the front porch of Willingham’s house as evidenced by a melted container found there. Some of this fluid may have entered the front doorway of the house carried along by fire hose water. It was alleged this fluid was deliberately poured to start the fire and that Willingham chose this entrance way so as to impede rescue attempts. The prosecution also used other arson theories that have since been brought into question. In addition to the arson evidence, a jailhouse informant claimed Willingham confessed that he set the fire to hide his wife's physical abuse of the girls, although the girls showed no other injuries besides those caused by the fire. Neighbors also testified that Willingham did not try hard enough to save his children. They allege he "crouched down" in his front yard and watched the house burn for a period of time without attempting to enter the home or go to neighbors for help or request they call firefighters. He claimed that he tried to go back into the house but it was "too hot". As firefighters arrived, however, he rushed towards the garage and pushed his car away from the burning building, requesting firefighters do the same rather than put out the fire. After the fire, Willingham showed no emotion at the death of his children and spent the next day sorting through the debris, laughing and playing music. He expressed anger after finding his dartboard burned in the fire. Firefighters and other witnesses were suspicious of how he reacted during and after the fire. Willingham was charged with murder on January 8, 1992. During his trial in August 1992, he was offered a life term in exchange for a guilty plea, which he turned down insisting he was innocent. After his conviction, he and his wife divorced. She later stated that she believed that Willingham was guilty. Prosecutors alleged this was part of a pattern of behavior intended to rid himself of his children. Willingham had a history of committing crimes, including burglary, grand larceny and car theft. There was also an incident when he beat his pregnant wife over the stomach with a telephone to induce a miscarriage. When asked if he had a final statement, Willingham said: "Yeah. The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man - convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do. From God's dust I came and to dust I will return - so the earth shall become my throne. I gotta go, road dog. I love you Gabby." However, his final words were directed at his ex-wife, Stacy Willingham. He turned to her and said "I hope you rot in hell, bitch" several times while attempting to extend his middle finger in an obscene gesture. His ex-wife did not show any reaction to this. He was executed by lethal injection on February 17, 2004. Subsequent to that date, persistent questions have been raised as to the accuracy of the forensic evidence used in the conviction, specifically, whether it can be proven that an accelerant (such as the lighter fluid mentioned above) was used to start the fatal fire. Fire investigator Gerald L. Hurst reviewed the case documents including the trial transcriptions and an hour-long videotape of the aftermath of the fire scene. Hurst said, "There's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire. Legendary "Innocence" lawyer Barry Scheck asked participants at a conference of the National Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers held in Toronto in August, 2010, how Willingham, who had lost his family to the fire, must have felt to hear the horrific allegations made against him on the basis of the bogus evidence, "and nobody pays any attention to it as he gets executed." "It's the Dreyfus Affair, and you all know what that is," Scheck continued. "It's the Dreyfus AffaIr of the United States. Luke Power's music video "Texas Death Row Blues," can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2010/09/cameron-todd-willingham-texas-death-row_02.html

For an important critique of the devastating state of arson investigation in America with particular reference to the Willingham and Willis cases, go to:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/01/fire-investigation-great-read-veteran.html

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"A decision by the Texas Attorney General Friday says the embattled Forensic Science Commission does not have jurisdiction to investigate the controversial Cameron Todd Willingham arson case that occurred before the panel’s creation in 2005," the NBC DFW story by reporter Shane Allen published earlier today under the heading, "AG: Commission Cannot Rule on Willingham Arson Case," begins.

"Willingham was executed in 2004. Critics have said new science standards suggest the 1991 blaze that killed his children was not arson and that he was wrongly executed," the story continues.

"Former leader of the commission, Williams County District Attorney John Bradley, slowed down the panel's work and pushed members to find no misconduct by investigators.

Three years after the group began its investigation into the Willingham arson case, it published findings that made significant recommendations to improve future arson investigations. However, the commission did not decide whether or not the Willingham arson investigators were negligent.

They declined to rule on that until the AG made gave its opinion on the matter.

Attorney General Greg Abbott’s Office Friday said, "Although the Forensic Science Commission may conduct investigations of incidents that occurred before September 1, 2005, the law that created the Commission prohibits the FSC from considering evidence that was tested or offered into evidence prior to that date."

Abbott said the panel’s investigative authority is limited to those laboratories, facilities, or entities that were accredited by the Department of Public Safety at the time the forensic analyses took place.

Bradley had his term expire in May. He was appointed in 2009 just as the panel was set to undertake the report critical of the arson evidence used to convict the father sent to death row.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed Nizam Peerwani the new chairman. Peerwani is the chief medical examiner for Tarrant, Denton, Johnson and Parker counties."

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The post can be found at:

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/AG-Commission-Cannot-Rule-on-Willingham-Arson-Case-126402918.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 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;

Thursday, July 28, 2011

AMANDA KNOX; CHLOE SCHAMA REVIEWS "THE FATAL GIFT OF BEAUTY: THE TRIALS OF AMANDA KNOX; BY NINA BURLEIGH; FOR THE DAILY BEAST;

"This book should be read for its detail and analysis. It will probably by read with a more general and direct objective—to find out what, exactly, happened. This is a timely question. In June, in an early phase of Knox’s ongoing appeal, a court-appointed panel of experts deemed crucial pieces of the forensic evidence used to convict Knox and Sollecito inconclusive. During the trial, prosecutors had claimed that the alleged murder weapon—a knife found in Sollecito’s apartment—carried traces of Knox’s DNA on the handle and Kercher’s on the blade, and that a detached bra clasp belonging to Kercher carried traces of Sollecito’s DNA. Recently, experts concluded that investigators may have contaminated the evidence when they collected it.

Fatal Gift, for its part, stresses media misinterpretations and offers explanations for apparently damning evidence. To explain Knox’s fingering of a local nightclub owner as Kercher’s killer and another statement (issued by Knox) that put her at the house when the murder took place, Burleigh points out that her translators were a “subjective sieve” through which her words were filtered. She also summons exculpatory evidence whenever possible: “Police found Amanda Knox’s prints in one place only, on a water glass in the kitchen.” In her assessment of Knox and Sollecito’s past, Burleigh finds nothing that “indicated a predisposition to aggression, let alone murder.” In her final chapter Burleigh plausibly conjures an alternate murderer."

CHLOE SCHAMA; THE DAILY BEAST; Chloë Schama is the Assistant Managing Editor of The New Republic and the author of Wild Romance: A Victorian Story of a Marriage, a Trial, and a Self-Made Woman.

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"By now, the story is familiar," the Daily Beast post by Chloe Schama published earlier today under the heading "the Amanda Knox mystery" begins.

"On November 2, 2007, Meredith Kercher, a 20-year-old British student, was found dead in a house in the Italian city of Perugia, her throat slit and her semi-naked body wrapped in a duvet," the post continues.

"In the days that followed, Kercher’s roommate, Amanda Knox, a 20-year-old American college student in the midst of a semester abroad, and her then-boyfriend, a 23-year-old Italian student named Raffaele Sollecito, became the prime suspects, along with an Ivorian man, Rudy Guede, whose DNA was found in Kercher’s vagina.

When the trial began in 2009, the prosecution put forth a theory that the three suspects had participated in a twisted sex game gone awry. The story was eventually—in one way or another—accepted by the jury, and Guede was sentence to 30 years in prison (his sentence has since been reduced); Knox and Sollecito were sentenced to 26 and 25 years, respectively. In the years since the investigation of Kercher’s murder began, there have been countless articles, numerous websites devoted to the victim and the accused, several books, and a Lifetime movie. A new book, Nina Burleigh’s The Fatal Gift of Beauty: The Trials of Amanda Knox, is a well-written and exhaustive addition to the growing genre.

Why, among all the horrible things that happen every day, has this particular case captivated such a large audience? For me, its eerie familiarities with my own life created part of the pull. When the story broke, I was an American student studying in England and could not help but feel (gruesome details aside) a certain degree of fleeting kinship with Knox. I had friends who, like Knox, had taken rooms in out-of-the-way student houses, hoping to move beyond clingy American expat circles. I knew foreign students who, like Knox, had begun relationships with locals, aware that foreigner-appeal played a part in their attraction. (The parallels pretty much stop there.)

Now, reading The Fatal Gift of Beauty, I’ve come to think that the overlap between Knox’s experience and my own stems not from actual similarities but from a broader preoccupation; Knox’s story, in many ways, is that of an American ingénue in Europe—Henry James’ Daisy Miller, the “eternally green” protagonist of the bestselling 1950s novel The Dud Avocado, or Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw in Paris—a fresh-faced American girl, blithely fumbling through the staid ways of the Old World. Knox herself knew this to a certain extent: “How young women experience the world and how the world experiences young women … It’s an age-old question, isn’t it?” she wrote to Burleigh just 13 days after her conviction. She was self-aware, even, of the role her prettiness played in earning her admirers. “If I were ugly,” she wondered, in her prison diary, “would they be writing to me, wishing me encouragement”?

Burleigh’s book asks a similar question: Was Knox a naïve American, indicted for a crime she had little to do with and made to navigate a foreign legal system without much help? Knox’s childhood—divorced parents, but a generally happy family, good grades, soccer—was banal rather than sinister. A chapter titled “American Girl," beginning with a quote from Tom Petty—“Well she was an American girl/ Raised on promises/ She couldn’t help thinkin’/ That there was a little more to life somewhere else”—further depicts Knox as an adventurous American ingénue. Predatory, drug-filled Perugia stands in contrast; a nightclub, for example, is filled with sleazy Don Juans and docile Daisys: “the Italian boys, emboldened by the growing disorientation of the English-speaking girls … rub up against girls in the dark, grinding against them ... Stunned, flattered, and titillated, there is nothing to do but submit.” Burleigh doesn’t completely shy away from an alternate interpretation, pointing out that the prosecutors of the case perceived Knox as an amalgam of wilier feminine flaws: “beautiful, sexual, manipulative, narcissistic to the point of fame-loving, and jealous to the point of murder”? But Burleigh’s instincts seem to lie elsewhere.

Ultimately, however, the deep and lingering fascination with this story lies less in contemplations of American innocence than specific horrors: the slashed throat, the splayed body—naked from the waist down—the bloody footprint found on the bathroom mat. And, in the relation of such detail, Burleigh is excellent, reporting with vibrant but sober diligence that also extends to less morbid matters: the history of Perugia, including the town-gown conflicts between the foreign-heavy student population and well-to-do Perugians; a legal system that allowed Knox and Sollecito to be detained for a year before being charged; the tumultuous childhood of Guede, born in Ivory Coast, brought to Perugia by his father, and later adopted by one of the richest families in Perugia. Burleigh is also thorough on matters of interpretation: The half-covered body, Burleigh writes, was “a sign, the prosecutor felt, of feminine pietà—sympathy. Later, Italian criminologists would bolster this notion and say publicly that killers who cover their victims with blankets are usually female. American criminologists say that gender has nothing to do with it.” Only occasionally does her investigation take her too far, eliciting some extremely banal statements: “Shutters are an important aspect of Italian life.”

This book should be read for its detail and analysis. It will probably by read with a more general and direct objective—to find out what, exactly, happened. This is a timely question. In June, in an early phase of Knox’s ongoing appeal, a court-appointed panel of experts deemed crucial pieces of the forensic evidence used to convict Knox and Sollecito inconclusive. During the trial, prosecutors had claimed that the alleged murder weapon—a knife found in Sollecito’s apartment—carried traces of Knox’s DNA on the handle and Kercher’s on the blade, and that a detached bra clasp belonging to Kercher carried traces of Sollecito’s DNA. Recently, experts concluded that investigators may have contaminated the evidence when they collected it.

Fatal Gift, for its part, stresses media misinterpretations and offers explanations for apparently damning evidence. To explain Knox’s fingering of a local nightclub owner as Kercher’s killer and another statement (issued by Knox) that put her at the house when the murder took place, Burleigh points out that her translators were a “subjective sieve” through which her words were filtered. She also summons exculpatory evidence whenever possible: “Police found Amanda Knox’s prints in one place only, on a water glass in the kitchen.” In her assessment of Knox and Sollecito’s past, Burleigh finds nothing that “indicated a predisposition to aggression, let alone murder.” In her final chapter Burleigh plausibly conjures an alternate murderer.

Burleigh’s book might shift public opinion. It did mine. However well researched and written, it seems unlikely it will affect the fate of Knox’s appeal or accelerate the process. And so, for the time being, Amanda Knox remains in prison, exposed to a very different slice of life than the one she anticipated when this appealing and eager American girl set out for her European adventure."

The story can be found at:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/28/amanda-knox-a-new-book-offers-new-clues-in-the-gruesome-murder.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;

AMANDA KNOX; FORMER FBI AGENT STEVE MOORE CALLS ITALIAN POLICE FORENSICS "TERRIBLE." SALEM NEWS;

"They were doing unsound forensic techniques that lead to cross contamination. Their techniques were ... horrible," he said. "If you showed that video tape in an American court you would have lost most of your evidence."

1. Poor evidence collection procedures: dirty gloves, not changing footwear between rooms, loose hair, not using tweezers consistently, failure to process crime scene effectively and efficiently. Not only was the bra clasp not collected until 47 days later, it was then passed between agents with dirty gloves and placed back on the floor to be photographed.

2. Failure to collect half of the victim’s clothes that were physically removed from her body. It wasn’t only the bra clasp that was collected 47 days later. Meredith Kercher’s blue Adidas jacket with sleeves turned inside out from being pulled off of her, her socks with blood on the cuffs from being removed by her killer, bra clasp which had been photographed early on, shoes, tote bag the killer may have looked through and a brown leather purse with blood near the zipper had also not been collected. All of these items were left behind for 6 weeks uncollected until the Forensic Police went back to the cottage on Dec 18, 2007. Rudy Guede's DNA was later found on the purse and jacket."

SALEM NEWS; Wikipeda informs us that: "The Salem News (formerly the Salem Evening News) is a six-day (Monday through Saturday) afternoon daily newspaper serving southern Essex County, Massachusetts, USA. Although the paper is historically connected with the city of Salem, its offices are in nearby Beverly, Massachusetts. The newspaper is published by Eagle-Tribune Publishing Company, a subsidiary of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc."

SEE ILLUMINATING EARLIER ABC NEWS STORY: SEPTEMBER 2, 2010; FOLLOWING THE SALEM NEWS PIECE;

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"(ROME) - Retired FBI agent Steve Moore has spent hours watching the Amanda Knox crime scene video," the Salem News story published earlier today under the heading, "Retired FBI Agent Steve Moore calls Amanda Knox Forensics 'Horrible,' begins.

"His experience and expertise lead him to say this. ""They were doing unsound forensic techniques that lead to cross contamination. Their techniques were ... horrible," he said. "If you showed that video tape in an American court you would have lost most of your evidence," the story continues.

"1. Poor evidence collection procedures: dirty gloves, not changing footwear between rooms, loose hair, not using tweezers consistently, failure to process crime scene effectively and efficiently. Not only was the bra clasp not collected until 47 days later, it was then passed between agents with dirty gloves and placed back on the floor to be photographed.

2. Failure to collect half of the victim’s clothes that were physically removed from her body. It wasn’t only the bra clasp that was collected 47 days later. Meredith Kercher’s blue Adidas jacket with sleeves turned inside out from being pulled off of her, her socks with blood on the cuffs from being removed by her killer, bra clasp which had been photographed early on, shoes, tote bag the killer may have looked through and a brown leather purse with blood near the zipper had also not been collected. All of these items were left behind for 6 weeks uncollected until the Forensic Police went back to the cottage on Dec 18, 2007. Rudy Guede's DNA was later found on the purse and jacket.

3. Hazmat outfits. The Forensic Police were wearing the wrong gear. In Hazmat outfits the footwear cannot be changed between rooms as required.

4. Patrizia Stefanoni obfuscated the truth when she said she didn’t do a blood test on luminol footprints. She actually had performed a TMB test that got negative results. The FBI uses TMB and a negative result excludes the presence of blood.

5. Officer Gioia Brocci used collection swabs in the bathroom with wide wipes that would mix any DNA. She also incorrectly used both sides of the collection swabs.

6. Failure to test a potential semen stain found on the pillow underneath the victim’s hips."

The story can be found at:

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july282011/knox-forensics-sw.php

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EARLIER ABC NEWS STORY; 2 SEPTEMBER, 2010;

Amanda Knox is Innocent of Brutal Murder, Retired FBI Agent Claims

FBI Agent Says Amanda Knox Is Innocent

By NIKKI BATTISTE and SARAH NETTER
Sept. 2, 2010

A former FBI agent who once believed Amanda Knox was guilty of murder now says he has no doubt that she is innocent.

"When Amanda Knox gets out, if she needs a roommate, I'll send my daughter over," retired FBI Special Agent Steve Moore told "Good Morning America." "The evidence is completely conclusive."

Moore, a 25-year FBI veteran who investigated murders around the world before retiring two years ago, has independently researched and analyzed her case for the past year while Knox waited for her appeal.

Knox, 22, has spent nearly three years in an Italian prison since her November 2007 arrest for the murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher. Kercher was found sexually assaulted and her throat slashed, her half naked body under a duvet in her bedroom.

Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted of murder last December after a nearly a year long trial. A third person, Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Guede, whose DNA was found at the crime scene ,was convicted of taking part in the homicide in an earlier trial.

At first, Moore said, he firmly believed Knox was guilty as charged.

"The police said she is. She was arrested," he said. "It just seemed that's the way it was."

Moore, who has never spoken to Knox's family or lawyers, said it was his wife who urged him to look into Knox's case, convinced she was innocent. In November, Moore obtained the crime scene video, autopsy photos and legal documents. He spent weeks poring through them.

His opinion, he said, quickly changed.

"I couldn't figure out why Amanda and Raffaele weren't eliminated on day one as suspects," he said. "I kept thinking the smoking gun would pop up -- and it didn't come. I didn't know why they were in jail."

Initially, Knox said she was at her boyfriend's house the night of the murder. She was arrested days later after an overnight interrogation in which she said she had a vision she was in the kitchen of the cottage she shared with Kercher the night of the murder and heard screams. She has claimed that she became confused and scared because she was bullied, even struck by her interrogators, and recanted the remarks soon after.

The investigation found none of Knox's DNA -- no hair, blood or fingerprints -- in the bedroom where Kercher was murdered.

Prosecutors allege that the murder weapon is a knife found at Sollecito's apartment with Knox's DNA on the handle and Kercher's on the blade.

Moore dismissed the knife evidence, pointing out that Knox often used it to cook. He also said Italian prosecutors were grasping at straws by pointing to what they say is evidence that Knox tried to wash off Kercher's blood in her own bathroom.

"There is no DNA evidence. What they're saying is that whoever killed Meredith cleaned up in Amanda's bathroom. That's all they say," Moore said. "They found Amanda's DNA in her own bathroom? Astounding."

Amanda Knox Awaits Appeal, Hopes for Freedom

Moore said he spent hours watching video of Italian police officials combing through the crime scene and was shocked at what he saw.

"They were doing unsound forensic techniques that lead to cross contamination. Their techniques were horrible," he said. "If you showed that video tape in American court you would have lost more of your evidence."

He also slammed Italian authorities for their initial interrogation of Knox, which he likened to tactics used by "third-world intelligence agencies."

He pointed to her being questioned for hours, from about 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. when she was exhausted.

"No food, no coffee, no bathroom breaks -- nothing," Moore said, adding that she was interrogated in Italian, which Knox did not speak fluently at the time. "She gave them a confused indictment of someone else … which she recanted after she got some food."

Knox's appeal is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 24. A new panel of two judges and six jurors from Perugia will reexamine Knox's case. A decision is expected by March.

Moore said he has no reason to believe he would be allowed to testify at the appeal or that Italian courts would be interested in anything an American had to say in her defense. But he's hoping Italian forensic experts convinced of Knox's evidence will pick up where he left off.

"The final court of appeal is going to be the press, the public," Moore said, charging that the public knows very little about how questionable the evidence against Knox really is.

In March, prosecutors filed an appeal seeking an even harsher sentence for Knox, who was ordered to serve 26 years in prison. The prosecutor is asking that she be sentenced to a life term. Knox's lawyers responded with an appeal in March, which asked for her conviction to be overturned.

Knox's appeal also called for an independent review of the DNA evidence, a request denied by a judge during her trial.

Knox's Third Birthday in Prison Marked By Singing, Crab Cakes

Knox has celebrated three birthdays, missed her college graduation and cut short her famous long locks while in prison. She passes time playing guitar at the prison mass, studying Italian and German and exercising during the one hour she can leave her cell.

"Amanda and I have now spent, her birthday and mine are a day apart, so we've spent the last three birthdays together," Knox's mother, Edda Mellas, told "Good Morning America." "We sing happy birthday for her. This year she got a lot of people. The guards and other inmates were singing to her."

But Mellas said the waiting is taking a toll on her daughter.

"The summer was hard, it's so hot [in the prison]. We tend to talk a lot about what she's doing to cope, but being locked up for a crime you didn't commit is devastating, it's almost unbearable, and she's having a tough time. But you know she's doing what she needs to do," she said.

Italian parliamentarian, Ricco Girlanda, who has said he is trying to soothe the diplomatic tensions that erupted during Knox's case, has visited Amanda in prison.

In more than 20 jailhouse conversations, Girland says Knox told him she one day hopes to adopt children and work as a writer. While Girlanda has not weighed in on Knox's guilt or innocence, he has penned a book about Knox to be released in October."

The ABC News story can be found at:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/amanda-knox-innocent-retired-fbi-agent-steve-moore/story?id=11541334

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;

LARRY SWEARINGEN: IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT; EXECUTION STAYED BY TEXAS COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS; THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE;

"The theory was that Swearingen killed Trotter on Dec. 8, after she rebuffed his sexual advances, and he then dumped her body, that same day, in the forest.

But much of the evidence linking Swearingen to the case was circumstantial and since his conviction in 2000, science has stepped in: scientists now agree that Trotter was not in the woods for three weeks; moreover, they argue that biological evidence demonstrates that she wasn't killed until after Swearingen was arrested – meaning that Swearingen could not have been Trotter's killer.

Swearingen's latest appeal, based on new microscopic tissue evidence, was granted by the CCA today and his execution, scheduled for August 18, was stayed."

REPORTER JORDAN SMITH; THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE;

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BACKGROUND: Larry Swearingen was sentenced to death in 2000 for the murder of Melissa Trotter in 1998. Melissa Trotter went missing on 8 December 1998. Larry Swearingen was arrested three days later, and has been incarcerated ever since. The body of Melissa Trotter was found in a forest on 2 January 1999. Larry Swearingen was tried for her murder, and sentenced to death. He maintains his innocence of the murder. Several forensic experts have provided statements and testimony that support his claim. One of these experts, Dr Joyce Carter, is the former Chief Medical Examiner of Harris County in Texas who performed the autopsy of Melissa Trotter and testified at Larry Swearingen’s trial that in her opinion, Melissa Trotter had died 25 days before her body was found. In an affidavit signed in 2007, Dr Carter stated that she had looked again at the case and changed her opinion. She concluded that Melissa Trotter’s body had been left in the forest within two weeks of it being found. If accurate, this would mean that the body was dumped at a time when Larry Swearingen was already in custody.

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"The Court of Criminal Appeals today stayed the execution of Larry Swearingen, sending the case back to the trial court for further review," the Houston Chronicle story by reporter Jordan Smith published earlier today under the heading, "Execution Stayed," begins.

"Swearingen was convicted of the 1998 kidnap-rape-murder of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter in Montgomery County. Prosecutors have said – and the CCA has previously agreed – that a "mountain" of evidence links Swearingen to the college student's death," the story continues.

"Trotter disappeared on December 8, 1998 from the Montgomery College campus; Swearingen was seen with her at the college shortly before she disappeared. He was arrested, on outstanding warrants, three days later and has remained behind bars since then. Trotter's body was not found until January 2, 1999, off a dirt road near Lake Conroe in the Sam Houston National Forest. The theory was that Swearingen killed Trotter on Dec. 8, after she rebuffed his sexual advances, and he then dumped her body, that same day, in the forest.

But much of the evidence linking Swearingen to the case was circumstantial and since his conviction in 2000, science has stepped in: scientists now agree that Trotter was not in the woods for three weeks; moreover, they argue that biological evidence demonstrates that she wasn't killed until after Swearingen was arrested – meaning that Swearingen could not have been Trotter's killer.

Swearingen's latest appeal, based on new microscopic tissue evidence, was granted by the CCA today and his execution, scheduled for August 18, was stayed."

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THE STORY CAN BE FOUND AT:

http://www.austinchronicle.com/blogs/news/2011-07-28/execution-stayed/

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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 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;

SHERRY SHERRET RETROSPECTIVE; PART THREE; "SOME CASES COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU AND THIS IS ONE OF THEM."

"We are now aware that Dr. Smith's opinion was terribly flawed.

There was no ashphyxia.

There was no skull fracture.

There was just an innocent grieving mother who had lost her son due to a natural but unexplained death; (One possibility is that Joshua accidentally suffocated during his sleep.)"

THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG; NOVEMBER 20, 2007;

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I recently reported that Sherry Sherret has received a $450,000 settlement for the nightmare she was put through by by the former Doctor Charles Smith, the police, prosecutors and the Court - and I indicated that I find the settlement grossly inadequate. To help our readers make up their own minds I am running a retrospective of posts previously published on this Blog on Sherry Sherret's case. Our readers are invited to send their comments on the settlement to me at: hlevy15@gmail.com for possible inclusion on the site.

HAROLD LEVY; PUBLISHER; THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG.

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Tuesday, November 20, 2007:

Goudge Inquiry: Joshua's Case: Part Three; Aftermath Of A Flawed Opinion;
"SOME CASES COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU AND THIS IS ONE OF THEM;"

LAWYER BRUCE HILLIER;

On January 4, 1999, something happened that should never happen in Canada's criminal justice system.

Sherry Sherret not guilty to infanticide but was found guilty based on the evidence from Dr Charles Smith.

Dr. Smith's opinion was at the heart of the Agreed Statement of Facts read into the court record;

The Agreed Statement reads:

"Dr. Charles Smith performed an autopsy on the baby at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children.

He determined the cause of death to be asphyxia.

He ruled out mould or disease as a cause of death.

Pinpoint hemorrhages in the tissue of the eyelids, sometimes present in non-accidental asphyxia were not found in the case.

Dr. Smith was highly suspicion that the death as non-accidental, but there were no overt signs of violence upon which to make a conclusive finding."

"A microscopic skull fracture was discovered months after the original post mortem," the Agreed Statement of Facts continued.

"It was not initially visible to the pathologist."

Dr. Smith testified at the preliminary hearing that this skull fracture could have been caused on either an accidental or non-accidental basis and was not the cause of death.'

One can only imagine what Sherret felt when she heard Justice Byers utter the fallowing words before sentencing her to one year in jail followed by two years probation.

"To this day, I do not understand why she did it," he began.

"There is no doubt that looking after Joshua was very stressful for her; and it would seem that there were warning signs that were there to be seen

But at the end of the day only she knows what she did, and shy she did it.

And she is not telling." denies her guilt and shows no remorse," Byers continued.

"Her support system in the community - her family, her friends - reinforce that position.

Joshua did not die because his mother was suffering from some sort of post-partem depression.

His death, perhaps, is connected the fact that Sherry suffers from what the doctors have called a mixed personality disorder.

Or perhaps not.

No doubt, though, her attitude towards this tragedy is connected to that diagnosis."

We are now aware that Dr. Smith's opinion was terribly flawed.

There was no ashphyxia.

There was no skull fracture.

There was just an innocent grieving mother who had lost her son due to a natural but unexplained death; (One possibility is that Joshua accidentally suffocated during his sleep.)

I sometimes wonder how judges feel on learning that they have passed sentence on an innocent person - and the words they have said on passing sentence are seen in a different light.

In fairness, the judge usually has no information on the case except that which is provided by the parties at the particular time.

The one year prison term -sentencing was left in the hands of the judge - was not the only punishment meted on Ms. Sherret in the aftermath of Dr. Charles Randal Smith's flawed opinion.

Byers also placed her on probation for two years, saying:

"You are not to be in a parental position towards infant children; and,

"If you get pregnant, you must immediately report that to a probation officer."

We learn from an Overview Report on the case prepared by Commission staff that Sherret had a third child in September, 2005 - and that on the basis of her conviction for infanticide the local Children's Aid Society applied for an order removing her from the family home in order to prevent her from living with her new child.

The Report includes a letter "To whom it may concern" drafted by Bruce Hillier, Sherret's lawyer, to assist her with the family court proceedings;

"Faced with the prospect of a conviction and all that flows from that, I vigorously represented Ms. Sherret and at the 11th hour, the Crown's office, no doubt for good reasons, elected to resolve the matter by way of a plea for the rarely used charge of infanticide, the basis at the time, Sherry was suffering from post-partem depression," Hillier wrote;

"The compromise between the Crown and the defence was seen as a way out for both sides - the Crown fearing they couldn't get a conviction of any kind and the defence fearing that a conviction for murder, while not justified, would result in a lengthy period of incarceration."

Sherret then turned to the Association In Defence of the Wrongly Accused for assistance.

Lawyer James Lockyer wrote former Chief Coroner Dr. Barry McLellan, that a review by his office of Joshua's death "acquires huge importance" because Sherret, having lost one child to adoption, now faced loss of her daughter.

"Ms. Sherret has two other children," Lockyer wrote.

"Her first born...was taken away from her at the age of eighteen months after her arrest in March 196 for Josh's murder.

(He) was subsequently put up for adoption, and now lives with his adoptive parents in Cobourg;

Ms. Sherret has written contact with him every year at Christmas and his birthday,

(He) is now 12 years old.

Her third born...is now five-months old.

Ms. Sherret, (the child's father and (the child) herself live together at their home in Belleville.

By Court order, Ms. Sherret has not been allowed to be alone at any time with her daughter since her birth;"

Lockyer stressed that a review was imperative because, "if Joshua died of natural causes, as AIDWYC believes he likely did, (and the Chief Coroner's review confirmed: HL) Ms. Sherret may be about to become the victim of a third miscarriage of justice."

"(Her daughter) will become one too."

Finally, on April 5, 2007, the Children's Aid Society applied in Court for an order terminating the existing supervision order.

A child protection worked candidly noted in an affidavit filed with the Court that, "Following the completion of the parenting Capacity Assessment, it was noted that (Sherry's) denial of any wrongdoing was concerning and further, made it impossible to treat her."

(See previous posting: Mullins-Johnson: Dilemma of the innocent;)

"However, it is now believed that (Sherry) may not have done anything wrong.

AIDWYC is now pursuing quashing of the infanticide conviction and an acquittal for Ms. Sherret in the Ontario Court of Appeal;

Lawyer Hillier cogently summed up this case in his letter "to whom it may concern" referred to above.

"Some cases come back to haunt you and this is one of them," he said.

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The post can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2007/11/goudge-inquiry-joshuas-case-part-three.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 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;