STORY: "Man gets new trial after bloody print doesn’t match," by reporter George Hunter, published by The Detroit News on January 30, 2017.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Delores Monson cries as she reacts to a judge’s decision to grant her son, Lamarr Monson, a new trial after more than 20 years in prison. His attorneys insist he didn’t do it."
GIST: "A 44-year-old Detroit man who has spent more than 20 years in prison for a 1996 killing was granted a new trial Monday by a Wayne County judge after a bloody thumb print on the murder weapon was found to belong to someone else..........The judge said the thumb print on the toilet tank lid used to bludgeon Brown in the Jan. 20, 1996, killing in a west-side apartment — which sat for years in a Detroit police evidence storage room, and was not presented during Monson’s trial — prompted her decision..........“After carefully reviewing the evidence ... from the toilet tank lid ... this evidence, in the court’s opinion, meets the threshold for a new trial,” the judge said. Monson’s case involves drug dealing, allegations of prosecutors withholding evidence and police coercing a false confession, and a woman claiming she’d been kidnapped and held for months by a different man she believes is the killer......... Monson told police he didn’t do it, although the next day, he signed a confession stating he was the killer. David Moran, head of the University of Michigan Innocence Clinic, which took up the case and discovered the bloody print, said he was “elated” at the judge’s decision. “We’ve been on this case for 5 years, and it’s the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of people,” said Moran, who claims police and prosecutors suppressed the toilet tank evidence, a charge prosecutors have denied.......... Bill Proctor, a former television news reporter whose agency Proving Innocence also worked on the case, said the crucial evidence should have been presented during the trial. “This is a great day for justice,” he said. “This is a family that’s had an empty seat at the Thanksgiving table for more than 20 years. This wrongful conviction should have never happened, since police and prosecutors have had this evidence from day one. They sat on it.” Hours after Brown’s body was found lying in a pool of blood on her apartment’s bathroom floor, Monson told police he didn’t do it, although the next day, he signed a confession stating he was the killer. The Innocence Clinic has argued Monson didn’t know what he was signing."........ Monson, who was 23 at the time of the murder and claims Brown told him she was 17, sought a new trial after it was discovered the fingerprints on the toilet lid belonged to Robert Lewis, who lived in the apartment building where the killing happened, after they were matched by Michigan State Police. Lewis’ prints were discovered in 2015, after his ex-girlfriend, Shellena Bentley, walked into a police precinct three years earlier and claimed he was Brown’s killer. Lewis has not been charged with the crime, and prosecutors through the years insisted Monson’s conviction is solid. After Bentley’s claim, Innocence Clinic attorneys had the toilet lid re-examined. During earlier hearings, a fingerprint expert testified the bloody thumbprint did not belong to Monson."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2017/01/30/lamarr-monson-new-trial-detroit/97248444/
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/
