(Thanks to Forensic Magazine for drawing our attention to this case. HL); "A
Detroit man who spent four decades in prison was freed on Thursday
after prosecutors agreed that his 1976 murder conviction hinged on the
flimsiest of evidence: a single hair. Ledura Watkins, 61, walked out of the Wayne County Jail in downtown
Detroit after a court hearing in which his conviction was overturned. "It's really surreal ... kind of unbelievable," he told reporters.
"But I'm feeling great. I expected this to happen. I didn't think it
would take 41 years." Watkins was 20 years old when he was convicted of first-degree murder
in the 1975 shooting death of 25-year-old Yvette Ingram during a
robbery at her home. Police lab analysts tied Watkins to the crime based
on a single hair found at the scene, according to the Innocence Project
at the Western Michigan University-Cooley Law School, which took up
Watkins' case and asked a court in January to set aside the conviction. The Wayne County prosecutor's office agreed that the evidence was
flawed under the new FBI standard for hair comparison, Maria Miller, a
spokeswoman for the office, said in a statement. Marla Mitchell-Cichon, the law school's Innocence Project director, said hair comparison is not based on science. "It is simply a lab analyst's subjective opinion and has no place in
our criminal justice system. This is why a state-wide review of hair
comparison cases is critical," she said.........He is the second Michigan inmate to be released in recent weeks after having a decades-old conviction thrown out. Desmond Ricks was freed in late May after having served 25 years for
the killing of a friend outside a Detroit restaurant. An analysis of two
bullets taken from the victim showed they didn't match the gun that
prosecutors offered as the murder weapon at Ricks' 1992 trial. Ricks was aided by lawyers and students from the Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan's law school."
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/c
