POST: "Darlie Routier: Our featured case: "How long must she sit behind the prison bars of injustice," published by "investigating innocence"
GIST: "Like the case of
David Camm
who was finally exonerated after serving 13 years in prison, Darlie
Routier was accused and convicted of the brutal murders of her two
precious children--based solely on controversial forensic evidence known
as bloodstain pattern analysis. She suffered the trauma of having been awakened by an intruder who slit
her throat. This unknown assailant also stabbed her two boys sleeping
next to her. Darlie's 911 call is chilling and horrific. Stricken with
panic, fear, and the shock of having to watch the life drain out of the
bodies of her two small boys, she nearly bled to death waiting for help
to arrive. And to make matters worse, she was tried, convicted and
sentenced to death based on the testimony of Tom Bevel, a hired
bloodstain pattern expert. Bevel testified that he magnified small
patterns of stains on the mother's nightshirt that he interpreted as
cast-off patterns, which to him suggested that it was the mother who
wielded the knife that killed her two children. Bevel was the same bloodstain expert who was responsible for the
wrongful conviction of David Camm. Camm, a ten year veteran of the
Indiana State Police, was acquitted and set free on Oct. 24, 2013, after
spending 13 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. ........Bloodstain scientists Terry Laber and Bart Epstein, who assisted with
the defense of David Camm, were hired by Darlie Routier’s public
defenders. They analyzed the bloodstain interpretations of Bevel and
came to a different conclusion about these patterns. They provided a
favorable report to her defense attorneys. However, the testimony of
the prosecution’s bloodstain expert, Tom Bevel, went unchallenged. A
private attorney was hired by Darlie’s family a month before trial and
failed to call Laber or Epstein. He told the family he thought he could
handle this through his cross-examination of Bevel. The attorney kept
the retainer for himself, and spared the family the expense of flying
the experts to Dallas.........Darlie Routier, however, remains on death row in Texas, awaiting
execution based on the same bloodstain interpretation evidence that
convicted Julie Rea. Private investigator Gary Dunn commented after the
release of his client, David Camm: “Bloodstain evidence is mostly
subjective. One bloodstain expert said it’s like looking at the clouds,
they all see something different”......... With this much uncertainty and doubt about the reliability of the
interpretations of bloodstain experts like Tom Bevel, can we tolerate
the execution of a woman who has always maintained her innocence. Can
we tolerate the execution of Darlie Routier, who by all appearance, was a
crime victim, along with her children who died that night?
The entire post can be found at:
http://investigatinginnocence.org/Our_Featured_Case.html
See the Wikipedia entry: "In 2008 Routier was granted the right to new DNA tests. Her appeals
have been remanded to the state level for improved DNA testing. Once all
state-level testing has been completed, the testing ordered by the
federal courts will begin. Routier remains incarcerated on death row
located in
Gatesville, Texas at the
Mountain View Unit of the
Texas Department Of Criminal Justice. She is assigned Department of Criminal Justice Identification Number 00999220. In 2013 Routier was featured in one episode of
Werner Herzog's television show
Death Row.
[7] In December 2013 it was announced that recent exoneree
David Camm had been hired as a case coordinator for
Investigating Innocence, a national nonprofit that provides criminal-defense investigations for inmates, and that Routier would be his first case.
[8]
The cases are linked by the testimony of blood spatter expert, Tom
Bevel. Supporters point to several cases where Bevel's testimony has
been questioned, such as Jason Payne
[9], Warren Horinek
[10],
David Camm,
Timothy Masters,
Ron Williamson, and
Dennis Fritz."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlie_Routier
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.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com;
