Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Bulletin: Gerard Richardson: (Bite mark case); Fully exonerated as prosecutors file a motion dismissing the murder indictment against him - after he had served 19 years; Initial reaction from Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck - including his call for reforms which would give states such as New Jersey access to a federal DNA database which could help them identify the perpetrators of the crime.


COMMENTS:  "Gerard Richardson exonerated" by Barry Scheck, published by the Innocence Project on December 17, 2013.

GIST: "Just a few hours ago, I was in a courthouse in New Jersey where Somerset County Prosecutors filed a motion dismissing the indictment against Gerard Richardson, fully exonerating him of murder for which he served 19 years.  Gerard’s exoneration comes nearly two months after a court overturned his conviction and ordered his release from prison. Gerard was convicted of the 1994 murder based largely on the testimony of a forensic dentist who claimed that a bite mark on the victim’s body matched to him.  Gerard always maintained his innocence and although several rounds of testing were inconclusive, he held out hope that DNA would one day exonerate him.  In the most recent round of testing, the lab was able to detect a complete male DNA profile from a swab taken from the bite mark that excluded Gerard. Gerard has already begun to put his life back together after his long wrongful imprisonment, starting work at FedEx just days after his release.  But FBI regulations have prevented officials in New Jersey from entering the DNA profile from the bite mark into the CODIS DNA database, which contains over ten million profiles of convicted offenders and could identify the person responsible for the 1994 murder.  For the sake of the many victims in this case, we will be urging state lawmakers to amend the law to end the unnecessary hurdles to accessing the database."

The entire story can be found at:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#all/1430293ca454d36c

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/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

I look forward to hearing from readers at:
  
hlevy15@gmail.com;