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;
“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."
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/c
