PUBLISHER'S VIEW: (EDITORIAL):
After running so many editorials in the aftermath of Ken Anderson's guilty plea arrangement, it is now my turn to rant! One perspective that has been largely ignored in the aftermath of the notional sentence given to Ken Anderson is that he deliberately withheld crucial exculpatory evidence from the defence - in spite of a court order requiring full disclosure. The problem I have with the sentence is that unless Michael Morton had been able to mount an extraordinary battle against a powerful judicial figure with the assistance of the Innocence Project, Anderson would likely still be a judge, and Morton, an innocent man would likely still be in prison. It's nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Do what you have to do to put the bad guys away - just don't get caught. On this side of the border, it was like that with the notorious pathologist Charles Smith who was adored by the police, prosecutors, and his superiors in the Chief Coroner's Office - as long as his mere presence on a case almost guaranteed a conviction or at the very least a guilty plea. Of course, there were signs popping up from time to time that Smith was dishonestly stacking the deck against the people charged as a result of his opinions. But, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, they looked the other way. Until it all blew up in their faces, and every suspicious death case that Smith had worked on came under scrutiny. So it was with Annie Dookhan. An extraordinarily productive crime lab chemist. She, too was held in the highest regard until someone finally took a closer look, and now the Massachusett's criminal justice system has to deal with the innocent people sent to prison because of her deliberate assault on the criminal justice - and some guilty one's may be taking advantage of her downfall. Yet Annie Dookhan will likely be sentenced to five years in prison and serve much less than that behind bars. These grossly inadequate sentences in high profile cases tell me that there is little appetite for deterring deliberate misconduct such as withholding evidence, tampering with evidence, framing innocent people and lying under oath as committed all too often by judges, prosecutors, police, crime lab technicians and other trusted officials in the American criminal justice system. If there was, Ken Anderson would not have been sentenced to a mere ten days in jail.
Harold Levy; Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog.
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.
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com
