DNA series: (5) Disturbing story published by 'The Trace' says New York City is ramping up its efforts to collect genetic material - but the absence of oversight alarms forensic and legal experts."Forensic and legal experts agree that DNA evidence is a powerful crime-solving tool. But some have voiced alarm at the way New York City has built its database — with no oversight or scrutiny. State and federal DNA databases, by contrast, are subject to legislative oversight and strictly limit whose DNA can be stored, in most cases, to people who have been convicted of crimes. Experts are also concerned that there appears to be no clear mechanism to scrub the database of DNA from people who give samples voluntarily, or whose DNA is taken without their knowledge. “It always is extremely troubling when bureaucracies spiral out of control and start invading areas that the state legislature did not authorize, and which are impinging upon privacy concerns,” said Barry Scheck, co-founder of the exoneration group the Innocence Project. Scheck said he complained many times about New York City’s unregulated “rogue” database during his years on the New York State Commission on Forensic Science."..."Gun Cases Fuel Growing, Unregulated DNA Database."..."Scheck, the Innocence Project co-founder, said that in his two decades on an accrediting panel for the state he grew increasingly concerned about the New York City medical examiner’s reluctance to put database rules in writing. He would ask the office, for example, if it put rape victims’ DNA in the database. He was told no, he said. “I said ‘Well great! You shouldn’t! But where’s that written down? Where’s your set of rules and regulations?’” “I personally never saw them,” Scheck said. DNA science isn’t perfect. Experts say as police use it more in investigations, they will get more legitimate hits. They will also have more mix ups and false positives."

COUNTDOWN  TO WRONGFUL CONVICTION DAY: 2 DAYS;

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I don’t trust them to do the right thing with it, ” Dwyer said of governments that employ police officers and would store their DNA. “Are we now in this Orwellian future where everyone’s going to have a bar code? Your DNA should only be in a database if you’re convicted of a crime.”

Lawyer Terrence Dwyer;

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This post is part of a series I am running on DNA related issues.  The issues in the series include flawed DNA tests (false positives really happen); opposition by prosecutors and appeal courts to post conviction testing (even after setting a date for execution); access to the source code for New York City’s proprietary DNA software, which some scientists and defense lawyers contend may be inaccurate in matching a defendant to a complex sample of genetic material; New York City's  vast,  ever-growing,  unregulated DNA database that police are already using to connect suspects to evidence from crime scenes across the five boroughs; Untested rape kits. (Bad for victims; bad for innocent accused persons who could be exonerated by the DNA tests); Lots of grist for our mill.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

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STORY: "The city is ramping up its efforts to collect genetic material. But the absence of oversight alarms forensic and legal experts," by Ann Givens and Robert Lewis, published by The Trace on September 25, 2107. (The Trace describes itself as "an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to expanding coverage of guns in the United States. We believe that our country’s epidemic rates of firearm-related violence are coupled with a second problem: a shortage of information about the issue at large.")

GIST: "New York City is building a vast, unregulated DNA database that police are already using to connect suspects to evidence from crime scenes across the five boroughs. In the last five years, the number of DNA profiles in New York’s local database has grown dramatically, and by an ever-increasing rate, driven in part by a push to collect DNA in every gun case. As of July, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner was storing about 64,000 genetic profiles, The Trace and WNYC have learned. Details about the size of the database and its rapid growth have not been previously reported. The DNA in the database comes largely from crime scenes and suspects at a time when it is increasingly easy to obtain a profile from just a few cells left on a water bottle or doorknob. Lawyers say there are people in it who have never been convicted of a crime, and have no idea that their genetic profiles are routinely checked against evidence collected in criminal investigations. New York police say database hits generate thousands of solid investigative leads a year, and are a major way they nab dangerous criminals. “DNA is probably the most powerful scientific tool available to us,” said Emanuel Katranakis, commanding officer of the NYPD’s forensic investigations division.   Forensic and legal experts agree that DNA evidence is a powerful crime-solving tool. But some have voiced alarm at the way New York City has built its database — with no oversight or scrutiny. State and federal DNA databases, by contrast, are subject to legislative oversight and strictly limit whose DNA can be stored, in most cases, to people who have been convicted of crimes. Experts are also concerned that there appears to be no clear mechanism to scrub the database of DNA from people who give samples voluntarily, or whose DNA is taken without their knowledge. “It always is extremely troubling when bureaucracies spiral out of control and start invading areas that the state legislature did not authorize, and which are impinging upon privacy concerns,” said Barry Scheck, co-founder of the exoneration group the Innocence Project. Scheck said he complained many times about New York City’s unregulated “rogue” database during his years on the New York State Commission on Forensic Science.   Last year, police investigating the killing of a Howard Beach jogger, Karina ­Vetrano, collected DNA from more than 150 people to compare with material found under the victim’s fingernails, and on her neck and cellphone, court records show. One of those people was later charged with the murder. The DNA from many of the others was labeled “suitable for entry” into the city’s database — meaning that, although those people were never charged, their DNA can remain on file indefinitely and be run thousands of times a year against biological material found on victims and evidence. Police wouldn’t say how they identified the people whose DNA was collected. The Medical Examiner’s Office declined to comment. One important group has stayed out of New York’s growing database: rank-and-file police officers. Though some forensic experts say it would be best to keep all officer profiles on file to eliminate their DNA when it winds up at crime scenes, only crime scene specialists, police lab employees, and bomb squad officers provide DNA. “Contractually police officers are not required to give DNA samples,” an NYPD spokesman said in an e-mail. Experts say it’s essential that local governments protect their citizens by making clear rules about how biological evidence should be collected, stored, used, and discarded. “I think DNA is a powerful tool for law enforcement and crime solving,” said Erin Murphy, a New York University law professor and author of Inside the Cell: The Dark Side of Forensic DNA. “[But] the standards governing who has to give DNA, and what happens to that DNA once they’ve given it should really be very particularly determined in law — not at the whim of a prosecutor or a police investigator.” New York’s medical examiner has maintained a DNA database since the late 1990s. Initially, DNA could only be collected if a substantial amount of genetic material was found, like blood at a crime scene. It was typically used to investigate violent crimes. More recently, scientists learned to pull a DNA profile from just a few cells on something a person touched. The ability to make DNA matches from tiny amounts of genetic material has proved a boon to authorities trying to address a particularly vexing problem: stubbornly low conviction rates in gun-possession cases. As The Trace and WNYC reported in July, the NYPD is the first major police department in the country to swab virtually every gun that officers recover for DNA. This push is a big reason for the rapid growth of the city’s DNA database. Last year, the medical examiner’s office performed DNA tests on 1,682 guns — four times as many as two years before. Police matched 309 firearms to suspects — six times as many hits as two years before. Prosecutors credit the program with helping them secure convictions in 56 percent of the gun-possession cases in the first half of this year, a higher percentage than at any time in the last decade. David Kennedy, a policing expert at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that collecting DNA from everyone who has touched an illegal gun in New York could be a powerful tool for police, since there is overlap between that group and people likely  to be involved with other crimes. “It’s going to build on itself, and be more and more useful over time,” Kennedy said. State and federal officials are also building out DNA databases, but there are strict rules about what genetic material can be entered. Convicts, people awaiting trial, and detained immigrants are required to submit a DNA sample to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which maintains the federal database. Before new collection practices are adopted, Congress holds hearings and there is a public debate. State guidelines vary, but are also openly debated and approved by elected officials. In New York, lawmakers approve the parameters for the state database.  Many local databases have only self-imposed rules for whose DNA can be entered. A spokeswoman for New York’s medical examiner said her office has created guidelines for the database “developed in accordance with state and national laws,” but they are not publicly available. She would not share them with The Trace and WNYC. New York police said it isn’t their aim to sweep innocent people into the database.   “We’re not looking to collect DNA from all persons,” Katranakis said. “We’re very keen on making certain we’re always respecting the constitutional rights of New Yorkers, that’s paramount.” Scheck, the Innocence Project co-founder, said that in his two decades on an accrediting panel for the state he grew increasingly concerned about the New York City medical examiner’s reluctance to put database rules in writing. He would ask the office, for example, if it put rape victims’ DNA in the database. He was told no, he said. “I said ‘Well great! You shouldn’t! But where’s that written down? Where’s your set of rules and regulations?’” “I personally never saw them,” Scheck said.   DNA science isn’t perfect. Experts say as police use it more in investigations, they will get more legitimate hits. They will also have more mix ups and false positives. ........ The New York medical examiner’s office has also been criticized for pushing the limits of science too far. A coalition of defense lawyers recently asked the state inspector general’s office to investigate two testing methods that the medical examiner stopped using in January. Experts say we may not yet have imagined all the ways our genetic material might be misused. Government employers might use it to predict future illnesses and diseases. They might use it to track down a whistleblower. Some of the tactics law enforcement officers use to get DNA samples have also been questioned. In New York, defense lawyers regularly fight cases in which  police take their clients’ DNA without them knowing — for example, by collecting it from a glass of water accepted while being questioned in a precinct. Under the law, that DNA is considered abandoned property, similar to items a person throws in the garbage. Defense lawyers argue that their clients didn’t abandon their genetic material. They don’t have the option of taking it with them. ........ Lawyers in New York now routinely ask judges to grant protective orders to keep a client’s DNA out of the database until a case concludes, or if the client is found not guilty or the charges are dropped. Some judges agree, others don’t. But when police take people’s DNA without their knowledge, there is no clear legal path for the subjects to get their DNA removed — or even to find out it is in there in the first place. There is also no set protocol for getting a person’s DNA out of the database when they give it to police voluntarily. In New York and most other large cities, police officers are not required to provide DNA samples unless a judge orders them to. Terrence Dwyer, a lawyer who represents police officers and writes about legal issues and law enforcement for the policing news website PoliceOne.com, said he doesn’t think officers should have to give samples to the database. But nor does he think anyone else should, unless they’ve been convicted of a crime. “I don’t trust them to do the right thing with it,” Dwyer said of governments that employ police officers and would store their DNA. “Are we now in this Orwellian future where everyone’s going to have a bar code? Your DNA should only be in a database if you’re convicted of a crime.”

The entire story can be found at: 

https://www.thetrace.org/2017/09/new-york-city-gun-crime-dna-database/

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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

Nagee Green: New York; Bulletin: On-going trial: Major development: False confession case: USA Network reports he has been found guilty of murder in the Cornell stabbing retrial: Reporter Matt Steecker; The Ithica Journal. September 28, 2017..."

COUNTDOWN: THREE DAYS TO WRONGFUL CONVICTION DAY:

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GIST: "Months after a jury failed to reach a unanimous decision on the charge, a second panel found Nagee Green guilty of murder in the stabbing of a 19-year-old Ithaca College student. 

Green, of Freeville, who was 23 at the time of his arrest, was accused of fatally stabbing Anthony Nazaire during a fight after a party on the Cornell University campus in the early hours of Aug. 28, 2016. Nazaire died of stab wounds at Cayuga Medical Center. The jury began deliberations Wednesday afternoon and announced just after 3:30 p.m. Thursday its members had reached a unanimous verdict.  Green was convicted of second-degree assault at an initial trial in June, but jurors could not reach a unanimous decision on a second-degree murder charge and a first-degree manslaughter charge after four days of deliberation. Green's sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 6.

http://www.ithacajournal.com/story/news/2017/09/28/nagee-green-guilty-cornell-stabbing/699720001/

See 'The Ithican' story at the link below: "During closing arguments, the defense stressed the detail that none of the witnesses said they saw Green stab Nazaire. Joch said he wants someone to be charged with the death of Nazaire but that he thinks Green does not fit into the theory the prosecution is pushing. None of the seven witnesses who were brought to testify said they explicitly saw Green stab Nazaire. Carrie McGinnis, a forensic scientist and DNA analyst with the New York State Police Crime Laboratory, testified that neither handle of the two knives contained a major contributor of DNA, meaning no one strand of a person’s DNA was present more than others. Also, no video shown in the court shows Green clearly attacking Nazaire and the other student who was injured. He said that the videos the prosecution is pushing lead to the assumption, not fact, that Green is the killer because he can not be seen clearly attacking anyone. He also said the alleged confession the police received from Green was coerced. According to court documents, Green consistently denied stabbing Nazaire in the video of his confession when being interrogated by New York State Police officers. Later in the video, he said it could have been accidental if Nazaire fell on the knife; Green then confessed to stabbing Nazaire."

 https://theithacan.org/news/nagee-green-found-guilty-for-murder-of-anthony-nazaire/

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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

DNA Series: (4): Jens Soering, Virginia: Sheriff, Forensic Experts Say Convicted Murderer is Innocent, Based on DNA Analysis, reports Forensic Magazine senior science writer Seth Augustine..."He’s absolutely excluded,” said J.E. “Chip” Harding, the sheriff of Albemarle County, in a press conference Wednesday announcing their findings. “I am convinced Mr. Soering did not kill Derek and Nancy Haysom and was not present at the scene when the murders took place.” Instead, two unknown strangers left trails of their own blood through the crime scene, the Bedford County home of the Haysoms, sometime on the evening of March 30, 1985."

COUNTDOWN: FOUR DAYS TO WRONGFUL CONVICTION DAY;

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STORY: "Forensic Experts Say Convicted Murderer is Innocent, Based on DNA Analysis," by senior science writer Seth Augenstein, published by The Forensic Magazine on September 28, 2017.
 

GIST: The criminal accusations were sensational, the stuff made for TV. The son of a diplomat stood accused of slaughtering his girlfriend’s parents in their blood-streaked Virginia home because they disapproved of him. Together, the young lovers went on the lam internationally for almost a year before they were caught. Indeed, the trial of Jens Soering was the first to take place in front of live TV cameras in the U.S., and the proceedings were seen by millions. Since his 1990 conviction on two first-degree counts of murder, Soering has been behind bars, while his erstwhile girlfriend Elizabeth Haysom has been serving time since her 1987 guilty plea to two counts of being an accessory to murder before the fact. But now a sitting Virginia sheriff and a group of forensic experts argue Soering could not have committed the crime, based on new considerations of old evidence “discovered” right in the 1980s investigative file. They are publicly pushing for a full pardon for the now 51-year-old man, and for his deportation back to Germany. “He’s absolutely excluded,” said J.E. “Chip” Harding, the sheriff of Albemarle County, in a press conference Wednesday announcing their findings. “I am convinced Mr. Soering did not kill Derek and Nancy Haysom and was not present at the scene when the murders took place.” Instead, two unknown strangers left trails of their own blood through the crime scene, the Bedford County home of the Haysoms, sometime on the evening of March 30, 1985. (Read the entire story at the link below to discover how the reevaluation of the case—and the push for a pardon of the man convicted of the killings—began with a surprising discovery, right in the investigative case file.)
 https://www.forensicmag.com/news/2017/09/sheriff-forensic-experts-say-convicted-murderer-innocent-based-dna-analysis

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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

Fourth Annual Wrongful Conviction Day; Bulletin: Canadian and International Innocence Groups unite for Wrongful Comvictions Day around the world. (Innocence Canada release)..."The Wrongful Conviction Day campaign is designed to encourage the participation of the public and organizations. Faith communities, representatives of all levels of government and educational institutes are encouraged to set aside time to focus on the causes and remedies concerning wrongful convictions, an issue that affects and devastates individuals and societies worldwide. This can be achieved through media releases, book signings, magazine articles, opinion pieces for daily newspapers, interviews, phone-in talk shows, educational forums, presentations by exonerees, faith community services, vigils, film festivals, Twitter, Facebook and You Tube videos. Frank and open discussion about the causes of wrongful convictions can lead to positive change in our criminal justice systems and help reduce future wrongful convictions."

COUNTDOWN TO WRONGFUL CONVICTION DAY:  4 DAYS;

"Innocence Canada has worked with innocence organizations from around the globe as well as individuals, businesses, schools, and other members of the public at large to recognize this important day for the past three years. In 2016, 44 of the then 66 innocence organizations participated in WCD events. We will be increasing our efforts worldwide as a number of cities across Canada and the world will be illuminating landmark buildings, stadiums or bridges in their cities and signing proclamations to acknowledge the wrongly convicted, explained Ron Dalton, Exoneree and Co-President of Innocence Canada. What started as a trickle three years ago, is turning into a global movement! Background on Innocence Movement: Since its inception in 1993, Innocence Canada has helped in the exonerations of 21 Canadians. These innocent individuals combined spent more than 190 years in prison. Innocence Canada has 86 cases currently under review and is undertaking a major project over the coming year to cut into this backlog. In the United States, the National Registry of Exonerations recorded 168 exonerations in 2016 alone. This represented 25 states, the District of Columbia, federal courts and Puerto Rico. The National Registry has recorded 1,994 known exonerations since 1989. Since 2011, the annual number of exonerations has doubled."
For information contact: Win Wahrer; Innocence Canada; Toll free: 1-800-249-1329 x 227; In Toronto: 416-504-7500 x 227;  Cell: 416-459-2065

https://www.aidwyc.org/media-alert-on-october-2nd-innocence-groups-will-unite-for-wrongful-conviction-day/

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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

DNA series (3): Kevin Johnson; Forensic Statistical Tool; "ProPublica Seeks Source Code for New York City’s Disputed DNA Software..."ProPublica is asking a federal court for access to the source code for New York City’s proprietary DNA software, which some scientists and defense lawyers contend may be inaccurate in matching a defendant to a complex sample of genetic material. Known as a pioneer in analyzing the most difficult evidence from crime scenes, the New York City medical examiner’s office has processed DNA samples supplied not only by local police, but also by about 50 jurisdictions nationwide. Employees developed the disputed software — known as the Forensic Statistical Tool, or FST — to analyze evidence consisting of multiple people’s DNA and determine the likelihood that a suspect’s DNA was present. According to the medical examiner’s office, FST was used in about 1,350 criminal cases from 2011 until this year, when it was phased out. The office has long kept the source code secret, successfully opposing requests in court by defense attorneys to examine it. A motion ProPublica filed today in the Southern District of New York asks Judge Valerie Caproni to lift a protective order she had issued in a recent case, U.S. v. Kevin Johnson. While she became the first judge to require the lab to turn over the source code to the defense, her order barred parties in the case from sharing or discussing it."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This post is part of a series I am running on DNA related issues.  The issues in the series include flawed DNA tests (false positives really happen); opposition by prosecutors and appeal courts to post conviction testing (even after setting a date for execution); access to the source code for New York City’s proprietary DNA software, which some scientists and defense lawyers contend may be inaccurate in matching a defendant to a complex sample of genetic material; New York City's  vast,  ever-growing,  unregulated DNA database that police are already using to connect suspects to evidence from crime scenes across the five boroughs; Untested rape kits. (Bad for victims; bad for innocent accused persons who could be exonerated by the DNA tests); Lots of grist for our mill.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: “DNA is the magic word. If you throw it into a trial, they eat it up. For me, it’s not magic at all.”

Mayer Herskovic: Brooklyn, New York;

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This post is part of a series I am running on DNA related issues.  The issues in the series include flawed DNA tests (false positives really happen); opposition by prosecutors and appeal courts to post conviction testing (even after setting a date for execution); access to the source code for New York City’s proprietary DNA software, which some scientists and defense lawyers contend may be inaccurate in matching a defendant to a complex sample of genetic material; New York City's  vast,  ever-growing,  unregulated DNA database that police are already using to connect suspects to evidence from crime scenes across the five boroughs; Untested rape kits. (Bad for victims; bad for innocent accused persons who could be exonerated by the DNA tests); Lots of grist for our mill.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

-----------------------------------------------------------

STORY:  "ProPublica Seeks Source Code for New York City’s Disputed DNA Software," by reporter Lauren Kirchner,  published by ProPublica on September 25, 2017.

SUB-HEADING: "We’re asking a federal court for the code behind a technique that critics say may have put innocent people in prison."

SUB-HEADING: "New York City’s crime lab has been a pioneer nationally in analyzing especially difficult DNA samples. But the recent disclosure of the source code for its proprietary software is raising new questions about accuracy."

GIST "ProPublica is asking a federal court for access to the source code for New York City’s proprietary DNA software, which some scientists and defense lawyers contend may be inaccurate in matching a defendant to a complex sample of genetic material. Known as a pioneer in analyzing the most difficult evidence from crime scenes, the New York City medical examiner’s office has processed DNA samples supplied not only by local police, but also by about 50 jurisdictions nationwide. Employees developed the disputed software — known as the Forensic Statistical Tool, or FST — to analyze evidence consisting of multiple people’s DNA and determine the likelihood that a suspect’s DNA was present. According to the medical examiner’s office, FST was used in about 1,350 criminal cases from 2011 until this year, when it was phased out. The office has long kept the source code secret, successfully opposing requests in court by defense attorneys to examine it. A motion ProPublica filed today in the Southern District of New York asks Judge Valerie Caproni to lift a protective order she had issued in a recent case, U.S. v. Kevin Johnson. While she became the first judge to require the lab to turn over the source code to the defense, her order barred parties in the case from sharing or discussing it. As reported earlier this month by ProPublica and The New York Times, defense expert Nathaniel Adams, a computer scientist and an engineer at a private forensics consulting firm in Ohio, reviewed the code and found that “the correctness of the behavior of the FST software should be seriously questioned.” However, the versions of Adams’ affidavits available to the public were heavily redacted and the code itself remains shielded by the judge’s order. The medical examiner’s office characterized Adams’ criticisms as stylistic rather than substantive and said FST’s calculations were reliable. FST played a key role in Johnson’s case. He was arrested after a police search found two guns in his ex-girlfriend’s apartment, where he sometimes stayed. The DNA lab in the medical examiner’s office found two people’s DNA on one gun; by FST’s calculation, it was 156 times more likely than not to contain Johnson’s DNA. The second gun had three people’s DNA and a formidable likelihood of 66 million. Johnson pleaded guilty to illegal gun possession and Caproni sentenced him last month to 28 months in prison, most of which he has already served. ProPublica filed a public-records request for the FST source code in July. The medical examiner’s office denied the request, citing its “sensitive nature” and writing that “source code consists of information that, ‘if disclosed, would jeopardize the capacity of [OCME] to guarantee the security of its information technology assets.’” The office’s special counsel denied ProPublica’s appeal in August. ProPublica is seeking to intervene in U.S. v. Johnson with the assistance of the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School, which offers pro bono services to news organizations. Richard Tofel, president of ProPublica, said, “We are seeking disclosure of this code because of the considerable public interest in the accuracy of its predictions, and to further scrutiny of its impact. If we prevail on our motion, we would envision publishing the code alongside an analysis of its likely effectiveness.” Other nonprofit organizations are also seeking to open proprietary source codes for DNA analysis to wider scrutiny......... On Sept. 13, the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation filed briefs in California’s appeals court, supporting efforts by a man convicted of sexual assault and burglary to gain access to the algorithm behind a widely used software program called TrueAllele.  The DNA evidence in his case was so small and mixed that initial analysis was inconclusive, but prosecutors say TrueAllele linked him to three crime scenes in east Bakersfield. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The developer of TrueAllele contends that its code is a trade secret. Kevin Johnson’s attorneys, Sylvie Levine and Christopher Flood of the Federal Defenders of New York, said they also plan to submit a motion to make the FST source code public. Flood told Caproni in Johnson’s sentencing hearing last month that Adams’ critique of FST “affects every result that has ever been produced by that software,” so there is a public interest in allowing him to discuss it freely. “It’s hard to imagine a justification for a public lab to be so opaque, when science demands transparency,” Flood told ProPublica after the hearing. A coalition of defense attorneys, including Flood, sent a letter to New York state’s inspector general, Catherine Leahy Scott, on Sept. 1, asking her to investigate the DNA lab and the thousands of past criminal cases that relied on the results of either FST or a second controversial technique called “high-sensitivity testing.”
Because the lab has kept problems with its “unreliable” testing and “unsound statistical evidence” secret from the public and the courts, the attorneys wrote, “innocent people may be wrongly convicted, and people guilty of serious crimes may go free.” Following the ProPublica/New York Times article, several elected officials have expressed concern about New York’s DNA testing methods.  Three members of the New York City Council — Rory Lancman, Carlos Menchaca and Rafael Espinal — called for further investigation. ........The medical examiner’s office says it switched from FST to a new program, STRmix, because of changing FBI standards and not because of any deficiencies with FST. Dr. Barbara Sampson, New York City’s chief medical examiner, defended the lab’s DNA testing methods in a Medium post she wrote in response to the ProPublica/New York Times article. In addition to the Johnson case, attorneys in other ongoing criminal proceedings are citing FST’s perceived unreliability as a basis for defenses and appeals. Mayer Herskovic, a Hasidic Jew and Brooklyn father of two who was sentenced to four years in prison for gang assault after the lab said that his genetic material matched a complex sample of DNA found on the victim’s sneaker, is now appealing his conviction. His lawyer plans to argue that FST was never tested on a population as insulated as the Hasidic Jews of Williamsburg, who very likely share many of the same ancestors, and therefore much of the same DNA. “DNA is the magic word,” Herskovic told ProPublica. “If you throw it into a trial, they eat it up. For me, it’s not magic at all.”

The entire story can be found at:
https://www.propublica.org/article/propublica-seeks-source-code-for-new-york-city-disputed-dna-software

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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

DNA Series (2): Larry Swearingen: Reporter Jordan Smith reports that Texas has scheduled his execution (November 16, 2017) but refuses DNA tests that could prove his innocence..."To date, Texas’s highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, has sided with the state, concluding that the “mountain” of circumstantial evidence against Swearingen outweighs the potentially probative value of DNA evidence. The court has denied his request for testing four times — highlighting a confounding, if not obstructionist, approach to requests made for post-conviction DNA testing under state law."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This post is part of a series I am running on DNA related issues.  The issues in the series include flawed DNA tests (false positives really happen); opposition by prosecutors and appeal courts to post conviction testing (even after setting a date for execution); access to the source code for New York City’s proprietary DNA software, which some scientists and defense lawyers contend may be inaccurate in matching a defendant to a complex sample of genetic material; New York City's  vast,  ever-growing,  unregulated DNA database that police are already using to connect suspects to evidence from crime scenes across the five boroughs; Untested rape kits. (Bad for victims; bad for innocent accused persons who could be exonerated by the DNA tests); Lots of grist for our mill.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I found myself getting angrier and angrier as I read about the manner in which Texas prosecutors, backed up time after time by the state's highest criminal court,  have obstructed further DNA tests in circumstances that cry  out for testing - especially when the evidence points towards innocence and a man's life is at stake. This is a horrible,  disturbing case. Bravo to reporter Jordan Smith for bringing it to public attention  once again - before November 16, 2017, when Larry Swearingen  is now scheduled to be executed.

Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;

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STORY: "Texas Schedules Execution but Refuses DNA Tests That Could Prove a Man’s Innocence,"  by reporter Jordan Smith, published by The Intercept on September 25, 2017.

GIST: "When hunters walking in the piney woods of Sam Houston National Forest in East Texas found the body of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter on January 2, 1999, her jeans were torn and her shirt was pulled up. There was tissue damage on her face from scavenging animals and a length of pantyhose, which had been used to strangle her, was tied around her neck. Trotter had been missing since December 8, 1998, when she disappeared from the Montgomery County community college where she was a first-year student. Three days later, on unrelated warrants, the police arrested Larry Swearingen, a 27-year-old unemployed electrician with a young family and a history of run-ins with the law. Police suspected Swearingen was Trotter’s killer. He had been seen talking with Trotter two days before her disappearance outside a local store near Lake Conroe, which abuts the national forest. On the day she went missing, he was seen chatting with her in the college library. After the body was found some three weeks later, Swearingen was charged with Trotter’s kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder. There was little in the way of hard evidence to back up the charges. In addition to the two times he was seen talking to Trotter prior to her disappearance, the state pointed to a lie he told, claiming he didn’t know who Trotter was, and to a letter he wrote while jailed in which he pretended to be someone else and claimed knowledge about the murder that officials said only the killer would know. In 2000, Swearingen was tried for the crime and sentenced to death. Nearly 20 years after the murder, he maintains his innocence, and for more than a decade he has been fighting to clear his name, in part by repeatedly requesting that key crime scene evidence be subjected to DNA testing. While the state’s case against him was built on circumstantial evidence, there was also a trove of physical evidence that prosecutors seemingly either ignored or dismissed. Trotter’s clothes were never tested for DNA, nor were the swabs contained in the rape kit collected from her body. There were cigarette butts found at the scene that could have been swabbed for saliva. Even the length of pantyhose — the murder weapon — was never subjected to DNA testing. The state insisted that the length of hose matched a second piece of hosiery retrieved from the trailer home Swearingen shared with his wife, Terry. But the hose from the trailer wasn’t found until weeks after Trotter’s body was discovered, after police had conducted two exhaustive searches of the Swearingen property. And instead of submitting either piece for DNA testing, the state had a forensic analyst line them up side by side to determine visually whether they came from the same pair of hosiery — the kind of subjective forensic pattern analysis that raises serious concerns about scientific validity and reliability. At Swearingen’s trial, the analyst testified that the two lengths of hose matched “to the exclusion of all other pantyhose.” According to court filings, evidence that was tested pointed away from Swearingen. DNA collected from a cigarette butt found in Swearingen’s trailer that prosecutors claimed belonged to Trotter excluded her as the donor. And DNA developed from blood found in fingernail scrapings taken from Trotter’s body at autopsy excluded Swearingen, revealing instead the profile of an unknown male. To explain that away, the state offered several theories — one of the cops present at the autopsy might have cut himself shaving that morning and the blood somehow wound up under Trotter’s nails; or maybe the blood of an investigator was blown under her nails by the whirring blades of a helicopter searching the forest for her body. To date, Texas’s highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, has sided with the state, concluding that the “mountain” of circumstantial evidence against Swearingen outweighs the potentially probative value of DNA evidence. The court has denied his request for testing four times — highlighting a confounding, if not obstructionist, approach to requests made for post-conviction DNA testing under state law."

Jordan Smith is one the finest reporters on the Texas criminal justice system that I have ever encountered. Read her  entire story at the link below:

https://theintercept.com/2017/09/25/texas-dna-testing-larry-swearingen-execution/

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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

Bulletin: Brendan Dassey: Milwaukee; False confessions: Making a murderer; Reporter Tom Kertscher; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; USA Network..."The chief appeals judge, Diane Wood, repeated a number of troubling things about Dassey's confession, including being told by an investigator that telling the truth would set him free. Judge Ann Williams recalled that an investigator at one point told Dassey he was speaking to him as a father. The two investigators 'made my skin crawl,' " Wood said."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number  of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of  scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects    (especially juveniles)  are to widely used interrogation methods  such as  the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’

Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.

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"In a hearing that could determine whether Brendan Dassey, one of the two men convicted in the case depicted in the “Making a Murderer” documentary, goes free, the chief judge of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and one her colleagues repeatedly made statements indicating that they question whether Dassey's confession was voluntary. At the same time, two other judges, including former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Diane Sykes, made remarks that were more favorable to the State of Wisconsin, which is aiming to reinstate Dassey's conviction. Ultimately, how the seven judges who participated in Tuesday's session will rule won't be known until they issue a written decision. There is no timetable for that. Dassey, who has a borderline low IQ, was 16 when 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach was murdered in 2005. Her charred remains were found outside the Manitowoc County home of Dassey's uncle, Steven Avery. In 2007, juries in separate trials found both men guilty. DNA evidence was pivotal in Avery's trial, but Dassey was convicted primarily based on his confession. In June, a three-member panel of the federal appeals court ruled that Dassey's confession was involuntary, upholding the decision of a federal magistrate in Milwaukee that Dassey's constitutional rights were violated based on the way he had been interrogated. The magistrate's decision overturned Dassey’s conviction, though Dassey has remained in prison during the appeals process. The full appeals court held Tuesday's hearing to review the three-judge panel's decision.  Dassey, now 27, was not in court. The chief appeals judge, Diane Wood, repeated a number of troubling things about Dassey's confession, including being told by an investigator that telling the truth would set him free. Judge Ann Williams recalled that an investigator at one point told Dassey he was speaking to him as a father. The two investigators 'made my skin crawl,' " Wood said..........In August 2016, William Duffin, the federal magistrate judge in Milwaukee, concluded that investigators for the prosecution made “repeated false promises” that, “when considered in conjunction with all relevant factors, most especially Dassey’s age, intellectual deficits and the absence of a supportive adult, rendered Dassey’s confession involuntary.” The questioning was marked by the two investigators alternately telling Dassey they were on his side, and pressing him to provide more details of the crime that they insisted they already knew."

http://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/crime/2017/09/26/u-s-appeals-court-today-weigh-brendan-dassey-conviction-making-murderer-case/702392001/

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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

DNA Series: (1): Flawed DNA testing: (False positives do happen); Chen Long-Qi, Taiwon; Writer Kristen Brown describes how bad DNA tests can lead to false convictions - and provides a very good example, in Gizmodo..."The thing is, it’s not always that simple. Most people think of DNA testing as a monolithic, infallible technique. But there are many different kinds of tests—and many different ways of interpreting them. Sometimes, somewhere between the process of collecting evidence at the scene and processing it in the lab, something goes awry."..."Michael Coble, a forensic scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology told Gizmodo that closer examination might have allowed the forensic scientists in Taiwan to tell whether the DNA mixture seemed to be largely from one suspect, but otherwise there are limits from the information to be gleaned. “Often times any DNA evidence gets the seal of approval, but it’s really the interpretation that matters,” he said. In a 2013 survey the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which Coble works for, asked 108 labs to interpret a made-up DNA sample with four people in it. They also provided the DNA profile of a fake suspect who wasn’t included in the sample. Seventy percent of the labs found the fake suspect to be a match."..."In forensic science, DNA evidence is gradually attracting more skepticism, and scrutiny to ensure that the conditions under which it was collected and processed were sound. In one 2008 study, researchers wrote that there is “a mystical aura of definitiveness often surrounds the value of DNA evidence,” but all DNA evidence is not created equal. DNA evidence can be conclusive, but only when good DNA samples are tested correctly using the appropriate test."

STORY:  "When Bad DNA Tests Lead to False Convictions by reporter Kristen V.  Brown. published by Gizmodo on September 25, 2017." (Kristen Brown is a senior writer at Gizmodo. Gizmodo is   a design, technology, science and science fiction website that also writes articles on politics.)

GIST: "If you’ve ever watched a prime-time crime drama like CSI, you know that DNA evidence is often the linchpin that makes a case. Match a suspect’s DNA to DNA found at the scene of a crime and it’s certain they’re the culprit. The thing is, it’s not always that simple. Most people think of DNA testing as a monolithic, infallible technique. But there are many different kinds of tests—and many different ways of interpreting them. Sometimes, somewhere between the process of collecting evidence at the scene and processing it in the lab, something goes awry. For Chen Long-Qi, a bad DNA test derailed his life. It was early in the morning on May 25th, 2009 and Chen was hanging out in a Taiwan warehouse he rented for work, drinking with friends. At around three in the morning, they were joined by two women. According to Chen and his lawyers, Chen left shortly after to pick up his wife from work, and sometime between 4 and 6 a.m., the two women were raped. While the victims had not accused Chen of rape and no one had placed Chen at the scene when the assaults took place, he was ultimately convicted and sentenced to four years in prison. DNA evidence had linked him to the crime. Five years later, Chen was exonerated when a second DNA test that found he was not a match after all. In the years he lived as a convicted rapist, he had lost his wife, his business and most of his life. He refused to go to prison, living instead a lonely life as a fugitive, overcome by depression and shame. Chen was what’s known as a coincidental match. Investigators originally tested 17 genetic markers on the Y-chromosome from a mixture of several people’s DNA found at the crime scene, and his DNA was a match. But when they tested a larger number of markers, the match didn’t hold up. Chen’s DNA, it turned out, was not evidence of a crime, but instead evidence of a statistical anomaly that we rarely consider when assessing DNA evidence: that false positives do happen. “All DNA [evidence] is not the same and that’s very hard to explain people,” said Greg Hampikian, a Boise State University professor and director of the Idaho Innocence Project who assisted with exonerating Chen. “Even the experts don’t understand all the time.”......... DNA can be incontrovertible proof that a crime has been committed—or in the case of the many exonerated thanks to DNA testing, proof that it wasn’t. But in Chen’s case, the DNA evidence that mistakenly matched him to the crime was weighted more heavily the testimonies suggesting he was innocent. To understand how that happened, it’s important to understand a bit more about how, exactly, labs match DNA samples. Forensic analysts don’t examine a suspect’s entire genome, but rather a few key places on it where populations are typically diverse, referred to as “markers.” In Chen’s case, the lab examined 17 different Y-chromosome markers. However, this particular Y-chromosome test is not as specific as the most common forensic DNA testing, autosomal short tandem repeat testing, or STR. Both tests look at what’s known as short tandem repeats, genetic locations on a person’s genome that contain a snippet of DNA that is repeated multiple times. The number of those repeats at any location can vary greatly from person-to-person. But whereas the Y-chromosome test looks only at 17 positions on one chromosome, the 13 marker test looks at 13 sites across multiple chromosomes, greatly diminishing the odds of an accidental match. The odds that any two people (except identical twins) will match at all 13 markers in an autosomal STR test is somewhere around 1 in a billion. According to Hampikian, many crime labs still use the test that mistakenly implicated Chen, though he said some labs are gradually gravitating towards the 23-marker Y-chromosome test that eventually exonerated him. In another case that illustrates the powerful effect of DNA evidence, Hampikian used DNA evidence to help exonerate Christopher Tapp, a man who until this spring had been in prison since 1998 serving a 25-years-to-life sentence for murder, though his DNA did not match the crime scene sample...........According to calculations later done by Hampikian and his team, there was a 1 in 741 chance that Chen would match the DNA in question—meaning the DNA on that underwear could hypothetically match thousands of different people in a city of 23 million. The crime lab that ran the test concluded that Chen “or men who share the same paternal line cannot be excluded” as suspects. On this evidence, Chen was convicted of gang rape and sentenced to prison in 2012. The two other men were also a match, and were convicted.  Chen refused to go to prison, telling his attorneys that he would not “voluntarily walk into jail for something I did not do.” He also contacted the Taiwan Association for Innocence, which immediately began working on an appeal, seeing obvious flaws in Chen’s conviction. They argued for the DNA to be retested, this time using a test that looks at 23 genetic markers instead of 17. Of those six new genetic markers included in the new test, Chen was only a match for four. The new evidence excluded him as a possible source for DNA found in the mixed sample. What’s more, all of the genetic markers in the sample could be explained by the other two men who were convicted. On that evidence, the court granted a new trial and overturned his conviction. Dan Krane, an expert in DNA evidence at Wright State University, told Gizmodo that in his opinion, the DNA evidence from Chen’s case should have never been used in the first place, because it was a mixture of several people’s DNA. “There is no accepted, reliable way of attaching a statistical weight to a mixed YSTR DNA test,” he said. “As soon as you see it’s mixed, you have to throw up your hands and say, ‘Well, that’s too bad.’ That would have solved the problem right out of the gate here.” Michael Coble, a forensic scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology told Gizmodo that closer examination might have allowed the forensic scientists in Taiwan to tell whether the DNA mixture seemed to be largely from one suspect, but otherwise there are limits from the information to be gleaned. “Often times any DNA evidence gets the seal of approval, but it’s really the interpretation that matters,” he said. In a 2013 survey the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which Coble works for, asked 108 labs to interpret a made-up DNA sample with four people in it. They also provided the DNA profile of a fake suspect who wasn’t included in the sample. Seventy percent of the labs found the fake suspect to be a match. When Gizmodo reached out to the FBI, the agency said that while it does rely on DNA mixtures as evidence, it only does so if a crime lab can pick out one primary person who contributed to a sample. (The FBI also confirmed that its labs still use the 17-marker Y-STR test used in the case against Chen.) In a new case study of Chen’s case published in the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics, Hampikian argues that such evidence should only be used to exclude suspects, not to charge or convict them. Krane said it should be thrown out altogether. “DNA profiling should be binary,” Krane said. “There shouldn’t be a gray area.” Especially when it’s someone’s life on the line. “I think there are maybe a hundred experts who get it and thousands who don’t,” said Krane. “And there [are] prosecutors who don’t want to understand. And I think there’s an awful lot of defense attorneys whose eyes glaze over when DNA is mentioned. It’s hard enough to teach this in a classroom.” Ballistics, fingerprinting, and arson analysis were all once considered solid scientific evidence designed to extract the potential for human bias in investigation. Today, it is well-established that the results of those methodologies are not always sound. In forensic science, DNA evidence is gradually attracting more skepticism, and scrutiny to ensure that the conditions under which it was collected and processed were sound. In one 2008 study, researchers wrote that there is “a mystical aura of definitiveness often surrounds the value of DNA evidence,” but all DNA evidence is not created equal. DNA evidence can be conclusive, but only when good DNA samples are tested correctly using the appropriate test. DNA’s mystical hold over public imagination, Hampikian said, should make all of us very uncomfortable. Chen, Hampikian said, is one of the few cases that caught the attention of experts like him looking to right the wrongs of DNA testing. “The way that we rely on tests has to be reevaluated constantly,” he said. “We are making mistakes today and we won’t know about them for a long time.”

Read the entire story at:

https://gizmodo.com/when-bad-dna-tests-lead-to-false-convictions-1797915655

 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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

False Confessions: (Part 5): "Commentary: "Rachel Cooke in The New Statesman: "At best, The Confession Tapes makes you feel unease. At worst, despair."..."Director Kelly Loudenberg tells six stories over the course of seven episodes. Each involves a brutal murder (or murders) for which a perpetrator (or perpetrators) has (have) since been safely (unsafely) convicted. All are linked by one factor: the conviction was secured primarily thanks to a confession extracted by the police under extreme circumstances. Lawyers were not present; mind games were played; interviewees were exhausted, unstable, traumatised. In one instance, the authorities took what’s known as the “Mr Big” approach: undercover officers, playing their roles with all the gusto of a local am-dram society, pretended to be gangsters whose criminal networks could save the accused from death row if only they (the accused) would provide them with all the facts. Why did juries believe these confessions, unaccompanied as they were by forensic evidence? Here, we go back to where we began. “No,” they told themselves. “I would not admit to a crime I had not committed.” Either such citizens have no softer inner voice – or, more likely, the idea of listening to it is simply too terrifying."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number  of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of  scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects    (especially juveniles)  are to widely used interrogation methods  such as  the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’

Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.

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COMMENTARY: "At best, The Confession Tapes makes you feel unease. At worst, despair," by Rachel Cooke, published by The Statesman. (Rachel Cooke trained as a reporter on The Sunday Times. She is now a writer at The Observer. In the 2006 British Press Awards, she was named Interviewer of the Year.")

SUB-HEADING: "Netflix billed the show as a true-crime binge-watch – but its narrative arc is the opposite of cathartic."

GIST" Would you confess to a crime you hadn’t committed? For some days now, I’ve been asking myself this question. Furious and punchy, my gut tells me immediately that I wouldn’t, not in a million years. But then comes a quieter, less certain voice. Isn’t guilt, for some of us, a near-permanent state? Apt to apologise even when I’m not in the wrong, I cannot believe I’m the only woman alive who tortures herself in the small hours by thinking she has unknowingly done something very bad indeed. All this was provoked by The Confession Tapes, billed on social media as “our” next Netflix true-crime binge-watch. In this instance, however, the breathless excitement is misplaced: binge-watching would seem to me to amount to a form of self-harm. Yes, it’s compulsive. Stoked by bloody police photographs, the atmosphere can be suspenseful to a queasy-making degree. But like Making a Murderer and The Keepers before it, its prime concern is not with crimes committed so much as with the American justice system, for which reason its narrative arc is the opposite of cathartic. At best, it will leave you feeling uneasy. At worst, you may find yourself sinking down into something akin to despair. Director Kelly Loudenberg tells six stories over the course of seven episodes. Each involves a brutal murder (or murders) for which a perpetrator (or perpetrators) has (have) since been safely (unsafely) convicted. All are linked by one factor: the conviction was secured primarily thanks to a confession extracted by the police under extreme circumstances. Lawyers were not present; mind games were played; interviewees were exhausted, unstable, traumatised. In one instance, the authorities took what’s known as the “Mr Big” approach: undercover officers, playing their roles with all the gusto of a local am-dram society, pretended to be gangsters whose criminal networks could save the accused from death row if only they (the accused) would provide them with all the facts. Why did juries believe these confessions, unaccompanied as they were by forensic evidence? Here, we go back to where we began. “No,” they told themselves. “I would not admit to a crime I had not committed.” Either such citizens have no softer inner voice – or, more likely, the idea of listening to it is simply too terrifying."

The entire commentary can be found at:

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv-radio/2017/09/best-confession-tapes-makes-you-feel-unease-worst-despair

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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

Davontae Sanford: Michigan: (False confession case): Wrongfully convicted; (Released in 2016 after nearly 10 years in prison) he has been shot in Detroit - but the injuries are not life-threatening U.S.A. Today reports..." In June 2016 a judge released Sanford from prison and vacated his conviction. The then 23-year-old had spent, at that point, nearly a decade in prison for a quadruple homicide he had been alleged to have committed when he was 15-years-old. The exoneration was the result of an 11-month re-investigation by Michigan State Police into the four homicides. Investigators found that former Detroit police officer James Tolbert — an ex-Flint police chief — allegedly lied during sworn testimony. Tolbert had said Sanford drew a scene of the crime when it was, in fact, the police officer that drew the sketch. Following the investigation, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, with Sanford’s attorneys, moved to dismiss charges against him."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of  scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects    (especially juveniles, like Davontae Sanford)  are to widely used interrogation methods  such as  the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

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STORY: "Wrongfully convicted man, Davontae Sanford shot in Detroit," by reporter Allie Gross, published by USA Today on September 24, 2017.

PHOTO CAPTION: "In this photo...Davontae Sanford who pleaded guilty at 15 to killing four people  at a Detroit drug house;

GIST: Exoneree Davontae Sanford, who was released from prison in June 2016, was shot last night.
“He was shot in the leg,” Detroit Police Chief James Craig told the Detroit News Sunday. “The injury is not life-threatening According to a DPD crime report, which does not identify Sanford by name, on Saturday evening around 9 PM, a 24-year-old black male suffered a gunshot wound to the right hamstring while at the MLK Homes on Chene Street.  The aftermath of the incident was witnessed by a 23-year-old black female who said she heard several gunshots. When she looked out the window, she said she saw the victim running from the housing unit that is situated near Eastern Market.  A police report on the incident continued to say the victim was "very uncooperative with arriving units, so therefore factual information about the shooting is still unknown at the time."   The victim was taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital by medics. He is currently listed in stable condition. "My mind is in a thousand places,Thank you for you're prayers!!!" Sanford's mother Taminko Sanford-Timon posted to Facebook early Sunday morning......... In June 2016 a judge released Sanford from prison and vacated his conviction. The then 23-year-old had spent, at that point, nearly a decade in prison for a quadruple homicide he had been alleged to have committed when he was 15-years-old.  The exoneration was the result of an 11-month re-investigation by Michigan State Police into the four homicides. Investigators found that former Detroit police officer James Tolbert — an ex-Flint police chief — allegedly lied during sworn testimony. Tolbert had said Sanford drew a scene of the crime when it was, in fact, the police officer that drew the sketch. Following the investigation, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, with Sanford’s attorneys, moved to dismiss charges against him.  Last week Sanford's attorney Bill Goodman filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Detroit against the city and two officers involved in his case. The suit seeks punitive and compensatory damages." 

 

The entire story can be found at;

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/wrongfully-convicted-man-davontae-sanford-shot-in-detroit/ar-AAspwVf

See recent Detroit News story on the police corruption law suit Sanford has launched at the link below: "Davontae Sanford spent nine years in prison for four murder convictions that were later dismissed. Now, he's filed a lawsuit against the city of Detroit, as well as two former investigators -- Homicide Unit Commander James Tolbert and Detective Sgt. Michael Russell -- who are accused of railroading Sanford into falsely admitting to crimes he never committed. Sanford, now 24, was an illiterate, learning-disabled 14-year-old at the time of his confession.  Now 23, Davontae Sanford of Detroit was 14 in 2007 when Detroit police and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's Office accused him of a quadruple murder. The 46-page lawsuit was filed Monday in Detroit federal court and claims Sanford walked out of his home early on Sept. 18, 2007, and asked Detroit police what was happening when they arrived to investigate a quadruple homicide on Runyon Street in Detroit that occurred the prior night. Sanford was quickly identified as a possible suspect and taken in for "relentless" questioning that lasted two days, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit alleges Sanford was presented with a false confession written by Detroit police that contained details only known to the killers or investigators. The purpose was to offer an authentic confession that would surely lead to the teen's conviction, attorneys claim. Tolbert later testified that Sanford drew and signed a diagram of the murder scene, but years later confessed the diagram was actually drawn by police. "The facts that have emerged since his wrongful conviction for these crimes have now proven that these officers ginned up evidence against Davontae, plain and simple," says a statement issued by the law firms representing Sanford in the lawsuit, Detroit-based Goodman Hurwitz & James and New York-based Neufeld, Scheck & Brustin. Detroit police "dictated a confession to him, typed it out, and then had Davontae sign the statements, even though he was unable to read." Sanford, early in his trial, pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree murders as part of an agreement to avoid a possible life prison sentence -- the mandatory sentence had be been convicted of first-degree murder. He received a sentence of between 39 and 40 years. A week after Sanford's sentencing, a hit man named Vincent Smothers admitted he and an accomplice actually committed the Runyon Street killings. Smothers was ultimately convicted of eight other murders, but the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office never charged him with any crimes stemming from Runyon Street. Despite Sanford being cleared more than a year ago, there is an ongoing state police investigation into the case. Police "either deliberately failed to investigate details that incriminated Smothers and undermined Davontae's conviction, or did investigate such details and deliberately suppressed information that exculpated Davontae," the lawsuit says.  Sanford's appellate attorney sought a court ruling to overturn his conviction based on Smothers' admission. "However, these efforts to prove Davontae's innocence were repeatedly stymied by continued misrepresentations by (Detroit police and Wayne County prosecutors), who continued to assert Davontae's guilt and fight his release in reliance on ... misrepresentations that Davontae had voluntarily confessed and voluntarily reported non-public information" about the murders, a statement issued by Sanford's attorneys on Tuesday said. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy requested state police conduct another investigation in 2016. The findings included revelations that Tolbert potentially lied under oath about key evidence -- specifically, the diagram supposedly drawn by Sanford. Wayne County Circuit Judge Brian Sullivan vacated Sanford's 2008 sentence in June 2016. Worthy hasn't indicated she believes Sanford was innocent -- in fact, she reiterated evidence that pointed toward his possible guilt in a 2016 statement -- but said she would no longer pursue charges against Sanford. After leaving the Detroit Police Department, where he rose to the position of deputy chief, Tolbert worked as the police chief in Flint. The lawsuit claims the Detroit Police Department was well aware of a pattern of unscrupulous behavior and alleged crimes committed by Tolbert, but chose to ignore them........."Because of these actions by the Detroit Police Department, Davontae Sanford, an innocent child, spent the next almost 9 years in adult prison, often alone in solitary confinement, and there he lost his childhood in a living hell," Julie Hurwitz, one of Sanford's attorneys, said in a statement issued Tuesday.
  http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2017/09/wrongly_convicted_teen_sues_de.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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;

U.S. Supreme Court Melendez-Diaz case (Massachusetts): Fascinating Slate post headed 'Black Robes and Crystal Balls' shows how some U.S. Supreme Court justices have been tempted to predict the future - and wonders how often do they get it right. One of their examples is relevant to this Blog..."In 2009’s Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, the Supreme Court ruled that forensic analysts who create laboratory reports for criminal trials must testify if called by the defense. Scalia’s majority opinion reasoned that these reports are “testimonial” evidence and that their authors are thus “witnesses” under the Confrontation Clause. In a dissent, a deeply irked Kennedy wrote that such analysts will “now bear a crushing burden” and would often be unavailable to testify. As a result, myriad “guilty defendant[s]” will “[go] free on a technicality.” (Did Kennedy get it right? (HL);

STORY: "Supreme Court justices like to predict the future. They aren’t very good at it," by Mark Joseph Stern, published by Slate on September 19, 2017.

 

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This clever post by Slate writer Mark Phillip Stern examines the temptation of U.S. Supreme Court justices to "play oracle" - and the accuracy of their prophesies. Among these prognostications is Justice Anthony Kennedy's prediction that requiring forensic analysts to testify at criminal trials  as in the decisive Melendez-Diaz  case will let innumerable guilty people off the hook.  Right or wrong? Read on! (P.S. The other examples in the  post - found at the link below - may not deal with forensics but are certainly well worth the read. HL);

Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

 

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GIST: "The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are given lifetime appointments to decide paramount questions of law that affect almost every aspect of American life. It is therefore unsurprising that from time to time these extraordinarily powerful secular jurists attempt to play oracle. Justices prefer to lob prophecies when they are writing in dissent—usually, though not always, to forecast some calamitous consequences that will inevitably flow from the majority’s ruling. But how often do these supreme prognosticators actually get it right? Here’s a roundup of the justices’ most famous predictions and a status update on whether they have yet come to pass.........In 2009’s Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, the Supreme Court ruled that forensic analysts who create laboratory reports for criminal trials must testify if called by the defense. Scalia’s majority opinion reasoned that these reports are “testimonial” evidence and that their authors are thus “witnesses” under the Confrontation Clause. In a dissent, a deeply irked Kennedy wrote that such analysts will “now bear a crushing burden” and would often be unavailable to testify. As a result, myriad “guilty defendant[s]” will “[go] free on a technicality.” History has, in this instance, smiled kindly upon Scalia. In September, SCOTUSblog’s Andrew Hamm reviewed two empirical studies evaluating the real-world effects of Melendez-Diaz. One found that the impact of the decision on lab analysts was “none to minimal.” The ruling did trigger a small increase in subpoenas, but this “initial impact … subsequently waned.” The other study found that many defendants waive their right to make analysts testify and that forensic labs “have not found the burden intolerable.” Scalia had posited in his opinion that “the sky will not fall after today’s decision”; he appears to have been correct, Kennedy’s dire warnings notwithstanding. In fact, intervening events have only proved the wisdom of his judgment. Recent crime lab scandals have revealed that tens of thousands of people have been sentenced to prison on the basis of falsified forensic reports. In Massachusetts, the misdeeds of analysts Annie Dookhan and Sonja Farak alone resulted in as many as 42,000 wrongful convictions. Defendants’ constitutional right to interrogate such analysts at trial to evaluate their candor and competence has never been more vital. "

The entire post can be found at:

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/09/supreme_court_justices_try_to_predict_the_future.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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.