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"Reformers have for years recommended that all forensic labs be independent from law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies' and this is a key reform promoted by The Justice Project (2008). But fixing these problems is only half the answer' because half of the wrongful convictions attributed to misleading forensic evidence involved deliberate forensic fraud' evidence tampering' and/or perjury.
From "The Elephant in the Crime Lab," by co-authored by Sheila Berry and Larry Ytuarte; Forensic Examiner; Spring, 2009; http://www.t-mlaw.com/blog/
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:“Mr. Williams has waited over 20 years for justice. ” said his “We filed this suit today because Mr. Williams should not be forced to wait a moment longer.”
Lawyer, Victor Hou.
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STORY: "Inmate Seeks New Trial in 1993 Killing, Saying Ex-Detective Pressured Witness," bu reporter Alan Feuerdec, published by The New York Times on December 29, 2016.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Louis Scarcella, a former police detective, has been accused of multiple instances of misconduct. The sole eyewitness against Shawn Williams in a 1993 killing says Mr. Scarcella coerced her to say she saw Mr. Williams with a gun at the murder scene."
GIST: "Lawyers
for a Brooklyn man imprisoned for more than 20 years in a fatal
shooting asked a judge on Thursday to grant him a new trial, saying that
the sole eyewitness against him now says she was pressured to identify
him by a former detective who has been accused of falsifying evidence in
several other cases. The
imprisoned man, Shawn Williams, was convicted of murder in August 1994
in the shooting of a neighbor in the lobby of a building in the Crown
Heights neighborhood. In
her affidavit, Ms. Smith said she had originally identified Mr.
Williams not because he was there, but because she “felt pressured to do
what I believed the detectives wanted me to do.”.........Although
Mr. Williams’s lawyers have had Ms. Smith’s new statement for more than
two years, they delayed filing their motion for a new trial in favor of
working initially with the Conviction Review Unit, hoping that its
prosecutors would support their effort to reverse Mr. Williams’s
conviction. So
far, the prosecutors have not taken action, court papers say, despite
the private investigation’s having turned up further indications of
misconduct in the case. Among other things, the papers say, there are
suggestions that Mr. Scarcella only cursorily considered evidence that
Mr. Williams might have been in Pennsylvania when Mr. Mason was killed. Joel
Cohen, one of Mr. Scarcella’s lawyers, said in a statement on Thursday
that Mr. Williams’s motion for a new trial relied “principally on press
reports that are factually inaccurate.” The district attorney’s office said in a statement that its review of Mr. Williams’s conviction was continuing. “Mr.
Williams has waited over 20 years for justice,” said his lawyer, Victor
Hou. “We filed this suit today because Mr. Williams should not be
forced to wait a moment longer.”"
The entire story can be found at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/
