Bulletin: Han Tak Lee: Pennsylvania; (Arson murder); Philly Voice reports that, "at a hearing in Philadelphia, the three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals expressed skepticism about Monroe County Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bernal's arguments that Lee should be sent back to prison."..." Peter Goldberger, who has been Lee’s court-appointed lawyer for 15 years, told the court that nearly everything that was believed about arson when Lee was tried in 1990 has since been debunked. The turning point came in the 1990s, he said, when scientists studied 50 homes destroyed by a California wildfire and found in their ruins the same sort of indicators that for years had been used to prove arson. In the aftermath, there have been more than 50 arson exonerations in the United State, Goldberger said."

"A Pennsylvania prosecutor argued on Thursday that an 80-year-old Korean-American businessman should resume serving a life sentence for the 1989 arson murder of his mentally ill daughter. Han Tak Lee had served nearly 25 years in a Pennsylvania prison for the death of his daughter, Ji Yun Lee, 20, at a religious retreat in the Pocono Mountains, when a federal magistrate in Harrisburg last year ordered him freed. The magistrate concluded that nearly all the technical evidence used to convict Lee was based on beliefs about arson fires that had since been discredited. Lee was serving a life sentence after a jury in 1990 convicted him of murder by arson. At a hearing in Philadelphia, the three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals expressed skepticism about Monroe County Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bernal's arguments that Lee should be sent back to prison. “If you take out the scientific evidence in total, is there still enough evidence to support the jury verdict?” asked Judge Julio Fuentes. Bernal insisted that there was “ample” other evidence, including Lee’s stoic demeanor in the hours after his daughter’s death. Senior Judge Morton Greenberg expressed doubt that Lee’s reported demeanor was sufficient. “Different people act in different ways,” Greenberg said. “Different cultures act in different ways.” Peter Goldberger, who has been Lee’s court-appointed lawyer for 15 years, told the court that nearly everything that was believed about arson when Lee was tried in 1990 has since been debunked. The turning point came in the 1990s, he said, when scientists studied 50 homes destroyed by a California wildfire and found in their ruins the same sort of indicators that for years had been used to prove arson. In the aftermath, there have been more than 50 arson exonerations in the United State, Goldberger said."

http://www.phillyvoice.com/pennsylvania-court-return-dad-prison-arson-murder/