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. 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 convict people and place them on death row - as opposed to exonerating them? All eyes are on Missississipi.
Harold Levy: Publisher of the Charles Smith Blog.
STORY: "Suit filed to preserve evidence in Mississippi death row case of Willie Jerome Manning," published by the Associated Press on May 5, 2013.
GIST: "An advocacy group and the brother of an inmate scheduled for execution Tuesday have filed a lawsuit to preserve evidence in the case for additional testing. The lawsuit was filed after the FBI said there were flaws in the "microscopic hair comparison analysis testimony or laboratory report" and offered DNA testing in the case of Willie Jerome Manning.........The Innocence Project of Mississippi and Manning's brother filed a lawsuit Friday in Oktibbeha County Chancery Court to prevent the destruction of evidence in the case, whether he's executed or not."
The entire story can be found at:
See New York Times story: May 3, 2013: "There have been many instances when seemingly strong cases — even some
where defendants themselves confessed — fell apart after DNA testing,
said lawyers for the Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to
exonerating wrongfully convicted prisoners that filed a
friend-of-the-court brief in Mr. Manning’s case. More than a dozen exonerations have involved evidence from a rape kit
that had initially tested negative, said Peter J. Neufeld, a founder of
the Innocence Project. Nationally, 306 prisoners have been exonerated by DNA testing since
1989, six of them in Mississippi. Two of those, including a former death
row inmate, Kennedy Brewer, were prosecuted by Forrest Allgood, the
district attorney who also led the case against Mr. Manning. Mr. Allgood said his involvement in Mr. Manning’s case was so long ago
that he could not comment on particulars. But like other Mississippi
officials, he said the push for a DNA test was probably a stalling
tactic. “There will be something else after that,” he said. “I think there has to be an end sometime.”"
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/04/us/dna-tests-rejected-for-inmate-facing-tuesday-execution.html
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.
