PUBLISHER'S NOTE: One of the most important sections of the annual Death Penalty Information Center Report is the one that deals with exonerations from death row. In themselves, these exonerations point out - amongst many other reasons - why the death penalty, wherever it exists, must be abolished. Rodricus Crawford, of Louisiana - a case in which there was no murder -which this Blog followed very closely was one of the four men exonerated from Death Row in 2017. (Because of my experience in studying and reporting the Charles Smith cases, in which, similarly the deceased children had died from natural causes, I was invited to assist Rodricus Crawford's incredibly devoted lawyers with some aspects of the defence.) "As the Report notes: "Rodricus Crawford was exonerated in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, in a case of highly suspect forensics that drew national attention because of the racially-biased practices and inflammatory remarks made by lead prosecutor. Dale Cox. Crawford had been sentenced to death in 2012 for the alleged murder of his one-year-old son, despite compelling evidence that the baby had died from natural causes. An internal memorandum by Cox said that Crawford deserves as much physical suffering as it is humanly possible to endure before he dies.” The Louisiana Supreme Court granted Crawford a new trial because Cox had unconstitutionally excluded black jurors on the basis of race. A new prosecutorial administration then reviewed the evidence in the case and dropped the charges against Crawford. "
POST: "There were four more exonerations from death row in the United States in 2017, bringing the total to 160 men and women exonerated since 1973, and the sentences of four condemned men were commuted to life imprisonment. In January, Isaiah McCoy was acquitted of murder, five years after having been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in Delaware as a result of what the state’s supreme court called “ pervasive unprofessional conduct ” by the trial prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General R. David Favata. Favata was temporarily suspended from practice after belittling McCoy for choosing to represent himself, making intimidating comments during a break in proceedings, then lying to the judge about making the comments. No physical evidence linked McCoy to the murder and his two alleged accomplices—one of whom received a sentence reduction for his testimony—gave contradictory testimony against him. Rodricus Crawford was exonerated in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, in a case of highly suspect forensics that drew national attention because of the racially-biased practices and inflammatory remarks made by lead prosecutor. Dale Cox .Crawford had been sentenced to death in 2012 for the alleged murder of his one-year-old son, despite compelling evidence that the baby had died from natural causes. An internal memorandum by Cox said that Crawford deserves as much physical suffering as it is humanly possible to endure before he dies.” The Louisiana Supreme Court granted Crawford a new trial because Cox had unconstitutionally excluded black jurors on the basis of race. A new prosecutorial administration then reviewed the evidence in the case and dropped the charges against Crawford. Ralph Daniel Wright, Jr. who was sentenced to death by a 7–5 jury vote under a Florida sentencing law that has since been declared unconstitutional, was exonerated in May when the state supreme court found that the “purely circumstantial” evidence in the case was insufficient to convict. DNA tests on a glove allegedly worn by the perpetrator excluded Wright as the source of the DNA, and no tests had been done to compare the DNA to that of an alternative suspect. Nineteen of the 21 death-row exonerations from Florida in which the jury vote is known involved non-unanimous jury recommendations of a death sentence or judicial override of a jury recommendation of life. Rickey Dale Newman was exonerated in Arkansas nearly 16 years after he was convicted. Despite major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and an IQ that placed him in the intellectually disabled range, Newman was found competent to stand trial and represent himself. In 2005, his execution was stayed just four days before it was to be carried out. Prosecutors had withheld evidence that contradicted details from Newman’s confession, and DNA testing of hair found on Newman’s clothes disproved prosecutors’ claims that it had come from the victim. After learning that the state doctor had made significant errors in administering and scoring the psychological tests on which he based his competency opinion, the Arkansas Supreme Court overturned Newman’s conviction and barred the use of his false confession. Prosecutors then dropped the charges against him. Four death-row prisoners received commutations in 2017. On January 17, President Barack Obama commuted the death sentences of Abelardo Arboleda Ortiz, an intellectually disabled federal death-row prisoner, and Dwight Loving, a prisoner on the U.S. military death row. On April 20, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe commuted the death sentence of Ivan Teleguz whose sentence was obtained through false testimony that he had been implicated in a second murder, when in fact the supposed second murder had never occurred. Jason McGehee was granted clemency by Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson in October. Hutchinson cited a variety of reasons for the commutation, including the disproportionality of McGehee’s sentence compared to those of his co-defendants."
The entire report can be found at:
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/2017YrEnd.pdf
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
