PUBLISHER'S VIEW: (EDITORIAL). The FBI admission that its laboratory hair analysis reports and related testimony are flawed cannot be ignored by the Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant as every second brings Willie Manning closer to execution. The FBI's agreement to do further testing may provide certainty in a case which, as the Justice for Willie web-site points out has been tainted in many other ways. The message to Governor Bryant and Attorney General Jim Hood is that no civilized state can rush Willie Manning to death in these circumstances. (Leaving the thought that no civilized state can justify retaining the death penalty for another day). Do they dare take the risk that subsequent testing will take the life of an innocent man - when there is a chance that science may remove all doubts? Or, in their eyes, is science only to be used to convict people and place them on death row - as opposed to exonerating them? All eyes are on Missississipi.
STORY: "Tomorrow, Willie Manning is scheduled to die. Shouldn't Mississippi find out if he's innocent first?," by reporter Cassandra Stubbs, published by the ACLU Blog of Rights on May 6, 2013.
GIST: "Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant alone has the power to save Willie Manning, who is scheduled to die tomorrow, May 7, 2013. Mississippi is steamrolling toward execution even though there is compelling evidence that Willie Manning may be an innocent man. Manning's case has many of the hallmarks of those of other innocent death row exonerees: false snitch testimony, junk science, and racial bias. The prosecutors in Manning's case, like in all too many cases, stacked the deck by systematically removing African-American jurors from Manning's trial. Manning, an African-American man, was convicted of the murders of two white college students. Much of the key evidence that led to Manning's murder convictions and sentence of death has turned out to be a sham. One witness has admitted that he lied in his testimony, and another confessed that she never revealed what she was promised for her words against Manning. The FBI has conceded that it wrongly testified about a "match" between a hair found in the victim's car and Manning when science supported no such thing. The FBI has gone further and offered to perform new DNA testing. Since 1994, Manning has been requesting DNA testing that would prove one way or the other the truth about the murders.........Executions are not the place to act first and ask questions later. These grave questions of innocence should be answered before it is too late."
http://www.aclu.org/blog/capital-punishment-racial-justice/tomorrow-willie-manning-scheduled-die-shouldnt-mississippi
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
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/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
