RELEASE: "Harry Gleeson: Posthumous pardon for man wrongly hanged of murder – landmark action in the history of the Irish State," by Gemma Deery, released by the Irish Innocence Project on February 8, 2015.
SUB-HEADING: "Posthumous pardon for man wrongly hanged of murder – landmark action in the history of the Irish State American relatives relieved; Massachusetts pathologist helped establish time of death that supported alibi;
GIST: "The confirmation that Harry Gleeson, who was hanged in 1941 and will be given the first posthumous pardon by the Irish State, was welcomed by the Irish Innocence Project at Griffith College, the Justice for Harry Gleeson group, and the American pathologist who helped prove his alibi – as his American relatives express relief and gratitude.........Having reviewed the trial transcripts and exhibits, which they obtained from the National Archives, as well as information provided by the Justice for Harry Gleeson Group, the Irish Innocence Project sought the pardon under the Criminal Procedure Act 1993 Section 9 and under a created posthumous pardon procedure. Among the information presented in securing the pardon for Mr. Gleeson was evidence that: The prosecution attempted, and indeed succeeded, in withholding information that showed a discrepancy in the prosecution case in particular a gun register, (t)hat arms of the State, namely the Gardai, encouraged witnesses to submit falsified statements and that the Gardai beat a witness during questioning. The project procured forensic evidence from a US pathologist Dr. Peter Cummings which demonstrated that the real time of death Harry Gleeson had an alibi. Dr. Peter Cummings, a forensic pathologist who lives in Beverly, Mass. and is one of only a select few who have had access to President Kennedy’s original autopsy materials and the slain president’s clothing, was a key to proving Harry Gleeson’s innocence. The Irish Innocence Project asked Dr. Cummings who is Director of Forensic Neuropathology at the Boston Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Massachusetts, went to medical school at the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland’s oldest and most esteemed medical school and testifies as an forensic at trials around the country, to examine the autopsy and he established that the victim’s body temperature supported Gleeson’s alibi and innocence."
The entire release can be found at:
http://www.innocenceproject.ie/cases/harry-gleeson/
See Irish Independent story on the new evidence that could exonerate Harry Gleeson: "The firearms register, a log book recording when ammunition was bought, was not produced at Gleeson's trial, despite a request by the trial judge.
The
register typically included the date, quantity and type of ammunition
sold as well as the name, address and firearm certificate number of the
buyer. It was the prosecution's case that Mary McCarthy was shot with a no 5 shot or cartridge.
The
prosecution did not produce the register but relied on a receipt from
Feehan's hardware store to prove that Gleeson's uncle, John Caesar,
bought cartridges on October 3, 1940 – weeks before Ms McCarthy's death. However,
the firearms register – discovered by the Justice for Harry Gleeson
group (JfHG) – shows no record of Gleeson's uncle buying cartridges on
October 3, raising doubts about the authenticity of the receipt. When
the firearms register was recovered, it showed that Mr Caesar had
bought no 4 cartridges in July 1940, undermining the prosecutions claims
that Gleeson killed Ms McCarthy with a no 5 cartridge. Q Time of death: Ms McCarthy's body temperature was recorded at the scene, four hours after Gleeson reported to gardai, at 96F. The
warmth of the body suggested that the mum of seven had been killed that
morning as opposed to the previous evening when the prosecution claimed
Gleeson murdered her. A new pathologist's report has been ordered in
relation to Ms McCarthy's body temperature. Q Dying Declaration Last
year, a nurse who worked at a Dublin hospital between 1988 and 1990
signed an affidavit (court statement) recalling a conversation she had
with the murdered woman's daughter. In the affidavit, the nurse said
Mary McCarthy Jnr told her: "I saw my own mother shot on the kitchen
floor and an innocent man died."Q the Alibi: A DVD recording of a man who lived on the same farm as Harry Gleeson has been handed to the Department of Justice. According
to the JfHG, the recording provides Gleeson with an alibi for the time
the prosecution claimed the fatal shots were fired."
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/the-new-evidence-that-could-exonerate-harry-gleeson-29563251.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
