"Thomas
Daniel Rhodes, 57, has spent the last 18 years in prison for the
first-degree murder of his wife, Jane, in Spicer, Minn., in August 1996 Authorities
say he struck her in the face and pushed her overboard on Green Lake,
when they were out on a boat ride during a vacation in August 1996. Her
body was found the next day. “Based on
what I’ve seen there is compelling evidence of his actual innocence,”
said Mark Bradford, Rhodes’ pro bono attorney, who is collaborating with
the Innocence Project of Minnesota. Rhodes is now in the Oak Park
Heights prison. On Oct.
17, Bradford and the Innocence Project asked the Eighth U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals for approval to file a petition in U.S. District Court
in Minnesota, alleging Rhodes’ conviction was the product of false
testimony.........When
Rhodes went on trial for his wife’s death, Bradford said, medical
examiner Dr. Michael McGee testified that the interior bruising of Jane
Rhodes’ neck could not be caused by drowning and suggested she was
choked before the drowning. “We have
seven pathologists who all agree that he was wrong,” said Bradford. “We
have new medical literature that demonstrates that the bruising that
Jane Rhodes exhibited is completely consistent with accidental
drowning.” In 2014,
McGee, chief Ramsey County medical examiner, stated in an affidavit that
he still believed his opinions and conclusions were correct. He said
pathologists who disagreed with him had looked at each of his “findings
in isolation and misinterpreted both the nature and cause of each
finding.” Another
point of contention: Jane Rhodes’ body was found a mile from where her
husband said she drowned. At trial, Bradford said, prosecutors tried to
show that Thomas Rhodes misled investigators, and presented testimony
that her body could not have floated that far. But Bradford says the
Innocence Project showed it could have floated and some of that
testimony was false. The
Minnesota Supreme Court reaffirmed Rhodes’ conviction in February 2016.
Justice Wilhelmina Wright wrote that the new evidence “would fail to
establish by a clear and convincing standard that Rhodes is innocent.”
She wrote that recent petitions to the Supreme Court were filed after
the statute of limitations ran out. Justice G.
Barry Anderson dissented, writing that “the newly discovered evidence,
if proven to be true and considered in the light most favorable to
Rhodes, would establish by clear-and-convincing standard that no
reasonable jury would have convicted Rhodes of first-degree premeditated
murder beyond a reasonable doubt had the newly discovered evidence been
presented at trial.” Justice David Lillehaug joined in the dissent."
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Thomas Daniel Rhodes: Minnesota: Bulletin: Innocence Project questions Thomas Rhodes' murder conviction in wife's death. Authorities say he struck her in the face and pushed her overboard when they were out on a boat ride during a vacation in August 1996. Her body was found the next day..."...“Based on what I’ve seen there is compelling evidence of his actual innocence,” said Mark Bradford, Rhodes’ pro bono attorney, who is collaborating with the Innocence Project of Minnesota. Rhodes is now in the Oak Park Heights prison. On Oct. 17, Bradford and the Innocence Project asked the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for approval to file a petition in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, alleging Rhodes’ conviction was the product of false testimony."...".When Rhodes went on trial for his wife’s death, Bradford said, medical examiner Dr. Michael McGee testified that the interior bruising of Jane Rhodes’ neck could not be caused by drowning and suggested she was choked before the drowning. “We have seven pathologists who all agree that he was wrong,” said Bradford. “We have new medical literature that demonstrates that the bruising that Jane Rhodes exhibited is completely consistent with accidental drowning.” Randy Furst; Star Tribune; November 2, 2016.
