UP-DATED PUBLISHER'S VIEW: PUBLISHER'S VIEW: (EDITORIAL): Efforts by Mississippi prosecutors to
shut up Jeffrey Havard's lawyer and seal the court file from the public
send out an ugly message: Mississippi should be allowed to kill Jeffrey
Havard without regard to the mounting evidence that he is innocent - in
fact, that no crime took place. This is the case where pathologist
Steven Hayne has repudiated his testimony at trial that the baby's death
was a homicide consistent with shaken baby syndrome. Hayne now points
to the research of biochemical engineers who believe that shaking alone
cannot produce enough force to kill. This is the case where Hayne
testified that the baby had a 1-inch anal bruise "consistent with
penetration of the rectum with an object." He has since told the
Clarion-Ledger that such a bruise can be caused by nothing more than
"a hard stool." This is the case where pathologist Michael Baden has
concluded that there was no evidence of sexual abuse or homicide - and
that the injuries described in the autopsy were consistent with "the
baby being accidentally dropped and striking her head on the toilet tank
as the father described." Jeffrey Havard's prosecutors would like to
shut up those people who dare write letters urging the government to put
the brakes on the death and re-examine the case with an unjaundiced
eye. They would like to shut up his lawyer for doing his job. They
would presumably like to shut up the press for exposing the vulgar
spectacle of a state so hungry to kill, in a case which cries out for
reconsideration before it is too late. This is all the more reason for
ordinary people in Mississippi and wherever else in the word where
people value justice to inundate the prosecutors with letters sending a
clear message that their actions are being closely scrutinized - as is
the entire administration of justice in Mississippi. In retrospect the prosecution's ill-advised motion may prove to be a good thing for Jeffrey Havard. I have had many more visits to this Blog's post on the state's attempted suppression of facts and comment relating to the case than on any other post I have published in recent weeks. I suspect it is because people are troubled by the unwillingness of prosecutors to reconsider the conviction in the face of compelling new evidence when the convicted person is on death row. Why would they want to take the risk of executing an innocent man?
Harold Levy; Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog;
POST: "Jeffrey Havard speaks out about recent motion requesting that his case be sealed," by Jeffrey Havard, originally posted on freejeffreyhavard.org on September 7, 2013.
CONTEXT: (Provided by Bruce Fischer); "The State of Mississippi filed a motion on August 26, requesting that the Jeffrey Havard case be sealed. You can read more about the motion here. The State’s motion was baseless and was rightfully denied by Federal Judge Kieth Starrett. You can view Judge Starrett’s denial here. Jeffrey Havard has now written a new blog post discussing his concerns with the State’s recent attempt to seal his case."
GIST: "After more than a decade, it seems that now more than ever, the truth is finally coming to light in my case; so I was very disappointed when I learned that the state had had filed a motion to seal the record of my case. My initial thought was, “why seal it and seal it from whom?” It felt like they were trying to shut me up. My freedom has been taken, and my name has been irrevocably slandered; now they were trying to take the only thing I have left. My voice. Now that I finally have scientific and medical explanations for what caused the dilation, they want to silence that. During my trial, prosecutors told the jury not to try to understand what caused the dilation and that because I couldn’t explain it, I must be guilty. They also told the jury there was no other explanation but that I had caused it, there was NO other way to explain it. Simply put, my freedom or execution rests on what caused the dilation. That’s it. There were several things about the state’s Motion to Seal that disturbed me; 1. They claimed that they needed to “protect the victim and her family from informal slander”, etc. However, this didn’t seem to be their stance 11 years ago when this tragedy happened, since it was reported to the media, and then by the media, that a rape and murder had occurred before the autopsy was even started, much less completed. Members of law enforcement and the coroner’s office plainly told the media that the autopsy had confirmed that the child had been sex ass; in that her “private parts” had been “violated.” In fact, if you read the autopsy report, you will see that all of that is absolutely false; the autopsy says no such thing. The autopsy report does not include ONE WORD about sexual battery, even though the state medical examiner, Dr. Steven Hayne, was specifically told. What the autopsy report does say is that the child’s “external genitalia is unremarkable,” and that the although a sexual assault kit was performed, the results showed As a matter of fact, when Dr. Hayne was deposed in 2010, he was asked why he didn’t say anything about sexual battery in his autopsy and his response was that he didn’t see any objective evidence of sexual battery. I am simply imploring all of you to just read the documents of record in my case.........The state’s Motion to Seal was prompted by a comment on the personal facebook page of one of my attorneys, Graham Carner. After the Motion was filed, he wanted to let me know that he was sorry about this comment and the reaction it caused. he thought that I might be upset or disappointed, however, I felt the exact opposite. I was pleased and proud of him. Even more so, I am relieved and glad that I have a man like Graham as my attorney.........And finally, I’d like to say that, with the exception the dissenting Justices on my post-conviction petition, there has been very little fairness in the presentation of the facts of this case. However, that appears to be changing with the recent order allowing Dr. Hayne to be deposed, so that all parties can clearly understand exactly what it is that Dr. Hayne found during the 2002 autopsy, and more importantly, what he didn’t find. You know, the very same facts and information that should have been discovered before my trial, so that I wouldn’t have to be here now, writing this blog."
Harold Levy; Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog;
POST: "Jeffrey Havard speaks out about recent motion requesting that his case be sealed," by Jeffrey Havard, originally posted on freejeffreyhavard.org on September 7, 2013.
CONTEXT: (Provided by Bruce Fischer); "The State of Mississippi filed a motion on August 26, requesting that the Jeffrey Havard case be sealed. You can read more about the motion here. The State’s motion was baseless and was rightfully denied by Federal Judge Kieth Starrett. You can view Judge Starrett’s denial here. Jeffrey Havard has now written a new blog post discussing his concerns with the State’s recent attempt to seal his case."
GIST: "After more than a decade, it seems that now more than ever, the truth is finally coming to light in my case; so I was very disappointed when I learned that the state had had filed a motion to seal the record of my case. My initial thought was, “why seal it and seal it from whom?” It felt like they were trying to shut me up. My freedom has been taken, and my name has been irrevocably slandered; now they were trying to take the only thing I have left. My voice. Now that I finally have scientific and medical explanations for what caused the dilation, they want to silence that. During my trial, prosecutors told the jury not to try to understand what caused the dilation and that because I couldn’t explain it, I must be guilty. They also told the jury there was no other explanation but that I had caused it, there was NO other way to explain it. Simply put, my freedom or execution rests on what caused the dilation. That’s it. There were several things about the state’s Motion to Seal that disturbed me; 1. They claimed that they needed to “protect the victim and her family from informal slander”, etc. However, this didn’t seem to be their stance 11 years ago when this tragedy happened, since it was reported to the media, and then by the media, that a rape and murder had occurred before the autopsy was even started, much less completed. Members of law enforcement and the coroner’s office plainly told the media that the autopsy had confirmed that the child had been sex ass; in that her “private parts” had been “violated.” In fact, if you read the autopsy report, you will see that all of that is absolutely false; the autopsy says no such thing. The autopsy report does not include ONE WORD about sexual battery, even though the state medical examiner, Dr. Steven Hayne, was specifically told. What the autopsy report does say is that the child’s “external genitalia is unremarkable,” and that the although a sexual assault kit was performed, the results showed As a matter of fact, when Dr. Hayne was deposed in 2010, he was asked why he didn’t say anything about sexual battery in his autopsy and his response was that he didn’t see any objective evidence of sexual battery. I am simply imploring all of you to just read the documents of record in my case.........The state’s Motion to Seal was prompted by a comment on the personal facebook page of one of my attorneys, Graham Carner. After the Motion was filed, he wanted to let me know that he was sorry about this comment and the reaction it caused. he thought that I might be upset or disappointed, however, I felt the exact opposite. I was pleased and proud of him. Even more so, I am relieved and glad that I have a man like Graham as my attorney.........And finally, I’d like to say that, with the exception the dissenting Justices on my post-conviction petition, there has been very little fairness in the presentation of the facts of this case. However, that appears to be changing with the recent order allowing Dr. Hayne to be deposed, so that all parties can clearly understand exactly what it is that Dr. Hayne found during the 2002 autopsy, and more importantly, what he didn’t find. You know, the very same facts and information that should have been discovered before my trial, so that I wouldn’t have to be here now, writing this blog."
The entire post can be found at:
http://wrongfulconvictionnews.com/jeffrey-havard-speaks-out-about-recent-motion-requesting-that-his-case-be-sealed/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.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
