STORY: "A murder, a conviction and a never-ending case," by reporter Alan Feuer, published by The New York Times on February 21, 2018.
SUB-HEADING: "Fifteen years after a college student was found shot five times in a quiet Brooklyn neighborhood, the circumstances of his death remain muddled. And a man convicted in the killing remains in limbo:
PHOTO CAPTION. (The photo captions tell much of the story);"A court recently through out the conviction of John Giuca. The Brooklyn District Attorney has vowed to retry him.
PHOTO CAPTION: "The murder victim Mark Fisher, who was a sophomore at Fairfield University in Connecticut."
PHOTO CAPTION: "Frustrated at the pace of the investigation into Mark Fisher’s murder, members of the Fisher family hold a vigil on Argyle Road, where his body was found."
PHOTO CAPTION: "Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney at the time of the murder, was facing a difficult re-election and was under pressure to solve the case."
PHOTO CAPTION: "Nancy and Michael Fisher leaving Brooklyn State Supreme Court after the other defendant in the murder case, Antonio Russo, was found guilty."
PHOTO CAPTION: "Mr. Guica at court during the murder trial, with his mother, Doreen Giuliano, and a lawyer, James Kilduff."
PHOTO CAPTION: "Doreen Giuliano posing as “Dee Quinn,” an alias she used to get close to Jason Allo, who was on the jury at her son’s murder trial."
PHOTO CAPTION: "A decade after Mr. Guica was convicted, John Avitto tearfully recanted what he said was false testimony he gave at the murder trial."
PHOTO CAPTION: "Ms. Giuliano at the recent hearing in Brooklyn after her son’s conviction was thrown out, with the actor Holt McCallany, one of her supporters."
GIST: "Just before sunrise, on Oct. 12, 2003, the residents of Argyle Road in Brooklyn were woken by gunfire. Then, as now, such a thing was virtually unheard-of. The quiet street is in Prospect Park South, an architectural enclave of hundred-year-old trees, landmark homes and an urban gentry of lawyers, chefs and jewelry designers. With its air of Victorian charm, the neighborhood looks nothing like the rest of New York City. It seems like a nice Connecticut suburb, not the heart of Brooklyn. But that morning, as the police arrived on Argyle Road — not coincidentally, in minutes — the worst came to pass: the body of a young man was discovered in a driveway just outside a Queen Anne house toward the end of the block. He was lying facedown on a bloody yellow blanket. In the dawning daylight, it soon became apparent that he had been shot five times. Fifteen years later, the circumstances of how that man, Mark S. Fisher, a 19-year-old college student from New Jersey, wound up dead in the driveway remain the subject of a simmering debate in spite of nearly every fact-finding method the criminal-justice system has at its disposal. There was a two-week trial. There were several state appeals. There was a federal appeal. There were countless legal hearings. There was even an exhaustive inquiry by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office. But all of them have so far failed to silence the stubborn whispers questioning the case that have long been heard in the circles that surround the Brooklyn courts. Earlier this month, an appeals court addressed some of those whispers when it abruptly threw out the conviction of a man found guilty of killing Mr. Fisher, ruling that the prosecutors at his trial withheld evidence from his lawyers and relied on testimony from a witness who had lied in sending him to prison. Just a few days ago, at yet another hearing that raised more questions than it answered, the prosecutors suddenly announced that they were going to challenge the ruling that threw out the conviction, and if that failed they were prepared to retry the man, John Giuca. Many murder cases are built on science — fingerprints, ballistics, DNA — but Mr. Giuca’s case was built from the start on something much more tenuous: the shifting stories of a group of privileged young people who were partying with him and Mr. Fisher on the late-night-into-morning when Mr. Fisher died. From the outset, the prosecution’s presentation was a kind of collegiate Rashomon: people lied, changed their statements and often contradicted one another. “This wasn’t really a forensic case,” said Mark Hale, the prosecutor who oversaw the probe by the district attorney’s office. “This was a case of who said what to whom, when.” (Publishers note: This excellent article on a very troublesome case cannot be reduced. It is a reminder of the curious void which can exist when forensic evidence is lacking. Read on. HL);
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/nyregion/john-giuca-murder-trial-never-ending.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
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
