STORY: "Year ender 2017: Joys and sorrows; judgements that left a mark this year," published by The Deccan Chronicle on December 27, 2018.
GIST: "2017 has been a noteworthy year with SC of India and other subordinate courts passing landmark decisions having a strong impact on people....Remarkable verdicts that were welcomed heartily by people included making privacy a fundamental right, upholding death sentences of Nirbhaya rapists, special court convicting six accused in Mumbai bomb blast case to pronouncing Gurmeet Ram Rahim to be guilty of rape while decisions like releasing Rajesh and Nupur Talwar in Aarushi murder case, due to lack of evidence and acquitting all the accused in 2G scam were a few instances that left people disheartened....The story: "Aarushi Talwar murder case: Dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar were acquitted of all charges in the murder of their daughter Aarushi by the Allahabad High Court on October 12, 2017. They walked out free from the Ghaziabad Dasna Jail after spending four years in jail. This murder mystery made news across the country as the parents, who were allegedly the main convicts in the murder were held not guilty by the court." (I feel privileged to have been able to assist the couple by helping locate an expert with a most uncommon expertise. As Nupur Talwar's cousin, Toronto Star columnist Shree Parakdar - who fought so hard for the Talwars, put it in the Toronto Star, I was one of several Canadians who helped out. "I won’t rehash the story as you can read it at thestar.com/aarushi or read the best-selling book titled Aarushi, or watch the film Talvar on Netflix or listen to the podcast Trial By Error. But it now has visible Canadian markings on it. When I first wrote it, I expected it to have the distant appeal of a foreign news story, but I had underestimated the cultural linkages between India and Canada. I had also overlooked the universality of human connection. My editor, Lynn McAuley, had not, though, and she guided my work, helped sew it up and play it big, as we say in the newsroom. My inbox was flooded for months. Photographer Spencer Wynn, who came with me to India to capture the story visually, told me working on it was a highlight of his career. A couple of years later, quite by coincidence, Cameron Bailey, the artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival, went movie spotting with an eye out for strong independent work by women and brought Talvar to premiere at the festival. The indomitable Win Wahrer of Innocence Canada, formerly the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, once introduced me to John Artis, the man who spent 14 years in a U.S. prison with boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter for murders they did not commit. “Dream, hope, never give up,” Artis told me. Another time when I was looking for an independent forensic expert, Harold Levy, a retired investigative Star reporter and former defence lawyer, swung into action and used his unique skills to identify and track a man down — while he was on vacation in Romania."
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/10/13/my-cousin-acquitted-in-murder-of-her-daughter-aarushi-talwar-needs-space-to-grieve-paradkar.html
The entire list of stories 'Joys and sorrows; judgements that left a mark this year,' can be found at the following link
https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/in-other-news/261217/year-ender-2017-joys-and-sorrows-judgements-that-left-a-mark-this-year.html
BONUS 2017 YEAR ENDER: DALLAS NEWS: (1): Dallas News reported that Texas had sent just 4 killers to death row as
Texans lost their taste for eye-for-an-eye justice. "In
March, the U.S.
Supreme Court ordered Texas to use modern medical standards to determine
whether death row inmates are fit to be executed. The state had
used medical standards from 1992. Nationwide,
four death row inmates were exonerated in 2017 because of flawed forensics,
poor defense and prosecutorial misconduct, the national year-end report showed. The
report also showed that less than 1 percent of counties sentenced anyone to
death, and 85 percent of counties have never executed anyone. "Across
the political spectrum, more people are coming to the view that there are
better ways to keep us safe than executing a handful of offenders selected from
a random death-penalty lottery," Robert Dunham, executive director of the
Death Penalty Information Center, said in the nonprofit's year-end report.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2017/12/30/state-sends-just-4-killers-death-row-texans-lose-taste-eye-eye-justice
BONUS 2017 YEAR ENDER (2): POST-REGISTER: IDAHO: Chris Tapp: Freed! After 7,353 days behind bars, Chris Tapp was released from prison in March. Tapp was first jailed in 1996 just before he was charged with the rape and murder of Angie Dodge. But a slew of experts, and Angie’s mother, Carol Dodge, have been adamant that Tapp was wrongfully convicted after being coerced into a false confession. Tapp’s DNA was never found at a crime scene where many samples were left, including semen and hair. All of the samples taken to date point to a single, unknown killer. An outside investigator hired by prosecutors found that virtually all the details in Tapp’s confession were fed to him during the course of his long interrogation and polygraph sessions. Tapp’s release came in a resentencing deal with prosecutors. Under the terms of the deal, the murder conviction remains on Tapp’s record (though he maintains that he is innocent). The rape charge was dismissed. He was released from prison 10 years before his first scheduled parole date. In the wake of his release, wrongful conviction experts suggested that Idaho examine creating a conviction review board, a set of investigators and lawyers who would look into suspected wrongful convictions to determine whether there is enough evidence against a convicted person to keep them in prison. Experts also recommended the press examine its pre-trial coverage practices, especially in high-profile cases."
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/cBONUS 2017 YEAR ENDER (2): POST-REGISTER: IDAHO: Chris Tapp: Freed! After 7,353 days behind bars, Chris Tapp was released from prison in March. Tapp was first jailed in 1996 just before he was charged with the rape and murder of Angie Dodge. But a slew of experts, and Angie’s mother, Carol Dodge, have been adamant that Tapp was wrongfully convicted after being coerced into a false confession. Tapp’s DNA was never found at a crime scene where many samples were left, including semen and hair. All of the samples taken to date point to a single, unknown killer. An outside investigator hired by prosecutors found that virtually all the details in Tapp’s confession were fed to him during the course of his long interrogation and polygraph sessions. Tapp’s release came in a resentencing deal with prosecutors. Under the terms of the deal, the murder conviction remains on Tapp’s record (though he maintains that he is innocent). The rape charge was dismissed. He was released from prison 10 years before his first scheduled parole date. In the wake of his release, wrongful conviction experts suggested that Idaho examine creating a conviction review board, a set of investigators and lawyers who would look into suspected wrongful convictions to determine whether there is enough evidence against a convicted person to keep them in prison. Experts also recommended the press examine its pre-trial coverage practices, especially in high-profile cases."
BONUS 2017 YEAR ENDER; (3): HERALD-WHIG: ILLINOIS: "Lovelace situation still commands attention." The case involving former Quincy attorney Curtis Lovelace continued to capture the region's attention. Lovelace, a former Adams County assistant
state's attorney and Quincy School Board president, was found not guilty
by a Sangamon County jury March 10 in connection with the Feb. 14,
2006, death of his first wife, Cory Lovelace. It was the second time he
was tried in the case. An Adams County jury was unable to reach a
verdict after two days of deliberations in February 2016, and a mistrial
was declared. Lovelace subsequently filed an 11-count civil
rights lawsuit against the city of Quincy, multiple officers with the
Quincy Police Department, Adams County and two county officials. The
trial is set to start Oct. 15, 2019. Lovelace's claims included that
evidence was withheld and fabricated by the Quincy Police Department in
the two murder trials. his case attracted national attention on a number of fronts, including NBC "Dateline" and CBS "48 Hours" specials. Lovelace and his current wife, Christine, have relocated to the Champaign area."
BONUS 2017 YEAR ENDER (4): CORSICANA DAILY SUN: (TEXAS): No. 7: Jury rules in Jackson's favor in civil judicial- misconduct trial; Jurors in the civil judicial-misconduct trial of John Jackson ruled 11 to 1 in his favor Wednesday, May 10, at the Navarro County Courthouse. Jackson helped send Cameron Todd Willingham to death row, but the jury had to decide if he hid evidence that could have spared Willingham. The civil judicial-misconduct trial took place in the Navarro County Courthouse where Jackson, then an assistant district attorney, in 1992 persuaded jurors to find Willingham guilty of capital murder for torching the Corsicana home in which his three young daughters died. The adequacy of the arson evidence in Willingham’s high-profile trial was the subject of several critical investigations after the conviction. But it’s the circumstances surrounding a purported jailhouse confession that prompted the New York-based Innocence Project to file a grievance against Jackson with the state bar association’s Commission for Lawyer Discipline.
BONUS 2017 YEAR ENDER (4): CORSICANA DAILY SUN: (TEXAS): No. 7: Jury rules in Jackson's favor in civil judicial- misconduct trial; Jurors in the civil judicial-misconduct trial of John Jackson ruled 11 to 1 in his favor Wednesday, May 10, at the Navarro County Courthouse. Jackson helped send Cameron Todd Willingham to death row, but the jury had to decide if he hid evidence that could have spared Willingham. The civil judicial-misconduct trial took place in the Navarro County Courthouse where Jackson, then an assistant district attorney, in 1992 persuaded jurors to find Willingham guilty of capital murder for torching the Corsicana home in which his three young daughters died. The adequacy of the arson evidence in Willingham’s high-profile trial was the subject of several critical investigations after the conviction. But it’s the circumstances surrounding a purported jailhouse confession that prompted the New York-based Innocence Project to file a grievance against Jackson with the state bar association’s Commission for Lawyer Discipline.
