COMMENTARY: "Wrongly convicted of 1982 murder, Idaho exoneree deserves compensation," by Greg Hampikian, published by The Idaho Statesman, on January 7, 2017. (Greg Hampikian, Ph.D., is professor of biology and criminal justice at Boise State University. He is also director of the Idaho Innocence Project.)
PHOTO CAPTION: In this file photo taken after Charles Fain was released from prison in 2001 after wrongly serving 18 years for the murder and sexual assault of a 9-year-old Nampa girl in 1982, Fain was doing his job at one of the employers who offered him work following his release when new DNA evidence refuted earlier physical evidence used in his conviction. Greg Hampikian, who directs the Idaho Innocence Project, argues that Fain should be compensated by the State of Idaho for his time served.
GIST: "It is a packed hall at the College of Western Idaho in
Nampa, where I am speaking about DNA exonerations. My hosts did an
excellent job advertising, and the room is filled with extra chairs —
people siting in the aisles and standing in the back. As
the executive director of the Idaho Innocence Project, I was invited by
a criminal justice professor to speak about innocent people in prison.
On the way to the lecture, I called Charles Fain, who spent 19 years on
Idaho’s death row. He was just getting off work at the box company. He
sounded tired but said he would see what he could do. Fain is an
innocent man who spent two decades waiting to be executed for the
kidnapping, rape and killing of a 9-year-old girl in Nampa.........Charles
should never have been charged with the crime, and certainly not
convicted. The “science” of his case rested on FBI comparative visual
hair analysis: a type of forensics once championed by the FBI and
responsible for thousands of convictions. Their experts trained
countless local investigators all over the country to examine hairs
side-by-side in a dual-image comparison microscope. Unfortunately, it
was pseudo-science with no experimental basis at the core of its damning
certainty. While hair comparison is something we all legitimately do
(blond, curly, straight), the FBI analysts and their academy graduates
ascribed nearly magical features to it. They testified to seeing “unique
characteristics” and swore under oath to matches that were a
“scientific certainty.” Juries across America were fooled into thinking
it was a trustworthy science, and for many on trial this type of
evidence, presented by the FBI, was unassailable. Recently,
however, the FBI has admitted its widespread error, and started working
with Innocence Network organizations to partially undo some of the
damage that its visual hair analysis has done. It was too late for
Charles Fain. By the time the FBI realized its mistake, post-conviction
DNA testing had shown that the hairs recovered from the young victim,
which FBI experts had linked to Fain, could not have come from him. DNA
saved him from execution and prison but could not restore 19 years on
our death row. The reason I am writing this piece is not
to extol the work of the organization I head. We were not involved with
Fain’s exoneration — though I have no shame using him to explain the
problems of junk science and wrongful convictions. I am writing to ask
my fellow Idahoans to consider doing something decent for this
hardworking taxpayer. While many states have compensation laws for the
wrongfully convicted, and federal prisoners can receive $100,000 for
every year on death row, Idaho has no such law. Fain’s compensation for
19 years on Idaho’s death row was to get a jacket and dungarees from the
prison laundry on his way out. The county insurers then spent perhaps
hundreds of thousands of dollars successfully fighting his right to sue,
and as an exoneree Charles was not even eligible for the training and
benefits given to parolees. Death row provided him no job or technology
training (he was to be killed after all), but to his credit he emerged
from a cage to a series of temp jobs, and finally the position he has
held for over a decade in an assembly plant. He got married, faithfully
attends church and pays taxes like the rest of us, to keep the system
working. I admire Charles because he found the strength
to pick up a life that was frozen for nearly two decades, while the man
himself aged in a small concrete cell. Every time I see him, we talk
about work — not just what we do, but the redemptive nature of
productive labor. He has never asked me for anything — quite the
opposite, he always assists me when I call. Charles is a quiet man, and
now a bit hard of hearing: He asks students to speak up when they ask
questions. So I am speaking up for him. I am not a lobbyist or
politically active, but I can write. I have written to state officials,
the county insurers and now you. Those of you who know how to get things
done, can you find a way for Mr. Fain to be compensated for the
mistakes that sent an innocent man to our death row? This was done in
our name, after all. It was the state of Idaho against Charles Fain, the
people against the man. Isn’t it time we made amends?"
The entire commentary can be found at:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article125260294.html
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/
The entire commentary 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/
