STORY: "Man wrongly convicted of fatal arson granted certificate of innocence," by reporter Steve Schmadeke, published by the Chicago Tribune on August 5, 2013.
GIST: "James Kluppelberg, shown in January, received a certificate of innocence from a Cook County judge on Monday. Kluppelberg spent nearly 25 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a 1984 arson in which six people were killed......... Kluppelberg was convicted of setting a 1984 fire that killed a woman and her five children in their Back of the Yards home. Fire investigators originally labeled the cause undetermined and said it appeared to have been an accident. But the case was reopened more than four years later when a man arrested on burglary charges told police that Kluppelberg had set the fire. The man's girlfriend had left him for Kluppelberg a few weeks after the fire, Kluppelberg's attorney told the Tribune after his conviction. Kluppelberg was arrested and later confessed to the arson murders of Elva Lupercio, 28, and her five children, ages 3 to 10, who died in their home in the 4400 block of South Hermitage Avenue. The building was destroyed. Testing did not find any signs of accelerants. A federal lawsuit filed by Kluppelberg in May alleged that he confessed only after being beaten so badly by Chicago police officers working under the disgraced former Cmdr. Jon Burge that he urinated blood. Doctors found signs of trauma to his back and kidneys, and a trial judge later threw out Kluppelberg's confession but not the underlying charges. It wasn't until last year that prosecutors dismissed the case, saying they no longer could meet their burden of proof. A spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney's office declined to comment on Monday's ruling. Kluppelberg's attorneys at Winston & Strawn and the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School had argued that the fire was not intentionally set, citing their expert, who found that it might have been accidental."The entire story can be found at:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-08-05/news/ct-met-kluppelberg-innocence-certificate-20130806_1_elva-lupercio-arson-james-kluppelberg
See previous post of this Blog: (May 31, 2012); "Kluppelberg maintained his innocence from the beginning. On appeal, his attorneys argued that the blaze was not even an arson, saying that advances in science after Kluppelberg's conviction changed how officials investigated fires. Among those advances: Indicators that investigators long believed meant a fire had been intentionally set simply were signs of a blaze that burned especially hot or went to flashover and exploded. A 2004 Tribune series, "Forensics Under the Microscope," examined the advances in fire science and how the use of debunked arson indicators had led to possible wrongful convictions of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. In a follow-up story, the Tribune reported on the execution of a Texas man, Cameron Todd Willingham, even though fire investigators used the same debunked theories to win his conviction. The friend who implicated Kluppelberg later admitted he had lied because he was facing his own criminal charges. Defense attorneys also claimed prosecutors had failed to turn over information about a woman who had set a fire a block from the Lupercio home on the same night. That woman confessed to the other fire and told police she was too drunk to remember if she had set the Lupercio fire as well."
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2012/05/back-in-action-james-kluppelberg-arson.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
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.
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Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
