POST: "On death row for the wrong hair," by Kate Briquelet, published by the Daily Beast on April 25, 2015.
GIST: "Hair analysis helped to send Willie Jerome Manning to death row 21 years ago. The science proved to be wrong but not before hundreds of men had been convicted or even executed. For 21 years, death row inmate Willie Jerome Manning has waited for a DNA test to prove his innocence. In 1994, he was convicted in the murder of two white Mississippi State University students, who were kidnapped outside a frat house and later found shot in the head. Manning was a black man facing an all-white Southern jury, and the cards were already stacked against him. The prosecutor’s case relied on testimony from a jailhouse snitch and a woman who wanted to see her own criminal charges disappear—and an FBI expert who said a hair sample linked Manning to the crime. Manning was convicted and sentenced to death. But on May 7, 2013, he got an 11th-hour stay of his execution. The reprieve came days after the Department of Justice delivered letters calling the Federal Bureau of Investigation's microscopic hair comparison analysis flawed. “We have determined that the microscopic hair comparison analysis ... included statements that exceeded the limits of science and was, therefore, invalid,” read one DOJ letter to Oktibbeha County District Attorney Deforest Allgood. While there wasn't a positive match, the FBI expert “stated or implied ... that a questioned hair could be associated with a specific individual to the exclusion of all others.” Rob Mink, an attorney for Manning, told The Daily Beast that the FBI’s hair analysis was drilled into jurors during closing arguments. “The hair testimony was emphasized repeatedly by the prosecutor who tried the case,” said Mink, a trial attorney in Jackson, Mississippi. The DA echoed the FBI’s claim that the sample likely belonged to a black man. “We should all be very concerned and frightened that this sort of thing can happen,” Mink added. “A person can be convicted and sentenced to death, and science later shows the conviction is invalid and not reliable.”......... Manning’s case is only one among thousands from the 1980s and ’90s that used the FBI’s pseudoscientific analysis—which may have resulted in death sentences or decades-long imprisonment for innocent people."
GIST: "Hair analysis helped to send Willie Jerome Manning to death row 21 years ago. The science proved to be wrong but not before hundreds of men had been convicted or even executed. For 21 years, death row inmate Willie Jerome Manning has waited for a DNA test to prove his innocence. In 1994, he was convicted in the murder of two white Mississippi State University students, who were kidnapped outside a frat house and later found shot in the head. Manning was a black man facing an all-white Southern jury, and the cards were already stacked against him. The prosecutor’s case relied on testimony from a jailhouse snitch and a woman who wanted to see her own criminal charges disappear—and an FBI expert who said a hair sample linked Manning to the crime. Manning was convicted and sentenced to death. But on May 7, 2013, he got an 11th-hour stay of his execution. The reprieve came days after the Department of Justice delivered letters calling the Federal Bureau of Investigation's microscopic hair comparison analysis flawed. “We have determined that the microscopic hair comparison analysis ... included statements that exceeded the limits of science and was, therefore, invalid,” read one DOJ letter to Oktibbeha County District Attorney Deforest Allgood. While there wasn't a positive match, the FBI expert “stated or implied ... that a questioned hair could be associated with a specific individual to the exclusion of all others.” Rob Mink, an attorney for Manning, told The Daily Beast that the FBI’s hair analysis was drilled into jurors during closing arguments. “The hair testimony was emphasized repeatedly by the prosecutor who tried the case,” said Mink, a trial attorney in Jackson, Mississippi. The DA echoed the FBI’s claim that the sample likely belonged to a black man. “We should all be very concerned and frightened that this sort of thing can happen,” Mink added. “A person can be convicted and sentenced to death, and science later shows the conviction is invalid and not reliable.”......... Manning’s case is only one among thousands from the 1980s and ’90s that used the FBI’s pseudoscientific analysis—which may have resulted in death sentences or decades-long imprisonment for innocent people."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/24/on-death-row-for-the-wrong-hair.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/
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;
