Friday, June 13, 2014

Adrian Thomas; New York State; "Scenes of a Crime" - the movie which captures the ten-hour interrogation of Adrian Thomas - acquitted earlier this week of murdering his 4-month-old baby - as reviewed by Scott Greenfield, criminal defence lawyer and consummate blogger, on "Simple Justice." (Must Read HL);


PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The jury returned its not guilty verdict earlier this week in just seven hours after hearing Patrick Barnes and other defence experts on the  cause of death  - without being sidetracked by  the alleged confession issue. (The jury at the initial trial was out  for almost four times as long.) One can all too easily imagine the psychological effect of ten hours of intensive, manipulative interrogation  on an innocent,  grieving parent.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;

POST: "Movie review: Scenes of a crime," by  "Simple Justice" blogger, criminal defence lawyer Scott H. Greenfield, published on July 27, 2013.

GIST: "The movie centers around the creation of a case against Adrian Thomas, whose 4 month old baby was initially, and it would appear mistakenly, diagnosed as having a skull fracture caused by abuse that would inevitably lead to his death. Thomas was subject to ten hours of interrogation based upon this assumption, that his child would die from his crime, all caught on video. And that’s where this movie offers a level of insight that every criminal defense lawyer needs to see. We know about the Reid Technique, the evil manipulation of suspects to get them to confess to crimes and make their prosecution a slam dunk. But have you ever really seen it in action? The movie intersperses Thomas’ interrogation with bits from a police training film on the Reid Technique and commentary from the Albany police sergeant who led his questioning and not only feels no remorse whatsoever about how he psychologically manipulated Thomas through lies and button-pressing into adopting his version of events, but believes he nailed the bad guy. The film goes on with commentary by the unquestionably top expert in false confessions, Richard Ofshe, whose testimony was not allowed at trial, explaining how the manipulation produced a false confession,  as well as the prosecution and defense lawyers who explain their views along the way. This isn’t a movie to watch with the family. There are no costumed superheroes with magical powers, no car crashes and not a single funny moment. But it is monumentally insightful into how false confessions happen, and the failure of police, prosecution and judge in comprehending how a noncrime gets turned into a crime, and a noncriminal into a confessed killer."

The entire post can be found at:
http://blog.simplejustice.us/2013/07/27/movie-review-scenes-of-a-crime/

See CBS interview  on the acquittal with legal analyst Paul Derohannesian.

 http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/features/top-story/stories/legal-analyst-weighs-adrian-thomas-case-16899.shtml

See previous post of this blog in which Joseph P. Buckley,  President of Reid and Associates,  responds to criticism of the Reid Technique:

 http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2014/02/the-reid-technique-joseph-buckley.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/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.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
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