Louisiana Justice: (Death penalty); Syndicated columnist Jim Brown says, in a great column, 'Bad justice is good reason to hang up the Louisiana death penalty.'..."For years, the Bayou State has held the title of having the highest incarceration rate in the world. It now has taken on the dubious title of having case after case of death row inmates being convicted based on the withholding of evidence that would prove their innocence."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: My experience in helping Rodricus Crawford get off of Louisiana's Death Row was an eye-opener. Louisiana's justice system is brutal, racist,  stacked terribly against the usually black Death Row accused, and hungry to kill, kill, kill kill. That's why I was so thrilled to read Jim Brown's syndicated column with the blunt message,  "Bad justice is good reason to hang up the Louisiana death penalty, " I am singling out a few paragraphs that deal with the outrageous John Thompson case -    and invite our readers to read the entire column at:

https://www.bayoubuzz.com/issues/item/1063519-bad-justice-is-good-reason-to-hang-up-the-louisiana-death-penalty (Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.. Jim Brown is a Louisiana legislator, Secretary of State and Insurance Commissioner.)

COMMENTARY: "Bad justice is good reason to hang up the Louisiana death penalty," by syndicated columnist Jim Brown, published by The Bayoo Buzz on July 26, 2018.)

GIST: "For years, the Bayou State has held the title of having the highest incarceration rate in the world. It now has taken on the dubious title of having case after case of death row inmates being convicted based on the withholding of evidence that would prove their innocence. New Orleans has become the cesspool for the innocent being convicted of capital crimes and sentenced to death. One of the most egregious is the case of New Orleanian John Thompson, who was convicted back in 1982 of first-degree murder and given the death sentence.  He came within days of being executed after spending 14 years on death row and 18 years total in prison.  Five different prosecutors were involved in the case and all knew that a blood test, and other key evidence that showed Thompson was innocent, had been withheld by the prosecution. On his deathbed and dying of cancer, one of the prosecutors confessed to a colleague that he had hidden the exculpatory blood sample.  The colleague waited five more years before admitting that he too knew of the hidden evidence.  Thompson, after 18 years, received a new trial, and his lawyers were finally able to produce ten difference pieces of evidence that had been kept from Thompson’s defense attorneys, that overwhelming showed he was innocent.  The new jury took less than 35 minutes to find him not guilty. Hiding evidence that can find the accused innocent is nothing new for prosecutors in New Orleans, both in state and federal court as well as with the FBI. The Innocence Project of New Orleans reviewed a number of convictions over the past 25 years in the city and concluded that prosecutors have a “legacy” of suppressing evidence.

The entire column can be found at the link below:
https://www.bayoubuzz.com/issues/item/1063519-bad-justice-is-good-reason-to-hang-up-the-louisiana-death-penalty

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.

Book Review Series: (Part 19): Kerry Max Cook: David Barron writes about "Chasing Justice': Kerry Max Cook's book on how the Texas justice system nearly did him in..."It is one of the most notoriously ill-managed cases in Texas history, described by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals as "tainted from the outset" by prosecutorial and police misconduct. It began at a time when police could, and did, tell jurors with a straight face that it was possible to determine the age of a fingerprint lifted from a victim's apartment. Its resolution came in the days of DNA testing, when an examination of the clothing Edwards was wearing at the time she was killed found semen deposits left by another man."..

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In the roughly 10 years since I began publishing The Charles Smith Blog some of the issues I have explored - as well as some of the cases I have been following - have become the subject matter of books. This prompted me recently - as I searched anxiously for ways of keeping me occupied during the languid summer hours - other than sitting on the patio, drinking a cool glass of white wine, and reading the latest Steven King - it occurred to me that a book review series based in my previous posts from the outset of the Blog would be just what the pathologist ordered. I would invite my readers to offer me their own suggestions  for inclusion by email to hlevy15@gmail.com. Have a great summer.

Harold Levy: Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog.

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "It also is one of the best-documented Texas capital cases. David Hanners, then of the Dallas Morning News, inherited the groundwork laid by others and eventually wrote more than 50 stories detailing the astonishing degree to which Smith County prosecutors and Tyler police lied, cheated, withheld evidence and suborned perjury in an effort to convict Cook. Cook's case had other advocates, including Houston attorneys Paul Nugent, Chris Flood and Steve "Rocket" Rosen, who represented him in his retrials, and investigator Jim McCloskey of Centurion Ministries, which funded the investigations to support Cook's defense throughout the 1990s. But his most consistent advocate, as this book makes clear, was Cook himself. "This is my story," he says in the book's closing chapter. "I wrote every word of it.""

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "One day," Cook said that night, "I'll prove I didn't do it. If it takes me 10 years, 20 years, I'll prove I didn't do it." Cook's journey toward that end is the subject of Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn't Commit. His case holds a unique place in Texas jurisprudence. It wound through a guilty verdict in 1978, a hung jury in a 1992 retrial after an appeals court overturned the first verdict, a second conviction in 1994, and after the second guilty verdict also was overturned, an aborted fourth trial in 1999 that ended when Cook agreed to a no-contest plea."

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STORY: "Chasing Justice" by Kerry Max Cook," by David Barron, published by the Houston Chronicle on March 11, 2018. (David Barron covered Kerry Max Cook's first capital murder trial in 1978 for the Tyler Courier-Times Telegraph and his second trial in 1992 for the Houston Chronicle, where he has been employed since 1990 as a sports reporter.);

SUB-HEADING:  "Death Row: living to tell Kerry... Max Cook's account of how Texas justice nearly did him in."

PHOTO CAPTION: "In a 1999 photo, Kerry Max Cook holds Texas Death Row, a book by Suzanne Donovan. Cook served 20 years there."

BOOK REVIEW:  "On the evening of June 29, 1978, I took an elevator to the top floor of the Smith County Jail in Tyler, my hometown, to interview Kerry Max Cook, who had just been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die for the 1977 killing of Linda Jo Edwards, a secretary at what is now the University of Texas at Tyler. "One day," Cook said that night, "I'll prove I didn't do it. If it takes me 10 years, 20 years, I'll prove I didn't do it." Cook's journey toward that end is the subject of Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn't Commit. His case holds a unique place in Texas jurisprudence. It wound through a guilty verdict in 1978, a hung jury in a 1992 retrial after an appeals court overturned the first verdict, a second conviction in 1994, and after the second guilty verdict also was overturned, an aborted fourth trial in 1999 that ended when Cook agreed to a no-contest plea. It is one of the most notoriously ill-managed cases in Texas history, described by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals as "tainted from the outset" by prosecutorial and police misconduct. It began at a time when police could, and did, tell jurors with a straight face that it was possible to determine the age of a fingerprint lifted from a victim's apartment. Its resolution came in the days of DNA testing, when an examination of the clothing Edwards was wearing at the time she was killed found semen deposits left by another man. It also is one of the best-documented Texas capital cases. David Hanners, then of the Dallas Morning News, inherited the groundwork laid by others and eventually wrote more than 50 stories detailing the astonishing degree to which Smith County prosecutors and Tyler police lied, cheated, withheld evidence and suborned perjury in an effort to convict Cook. Cook's case had other advocates, including Houston attorneys Paul Nugent, Chris Flood and Steve "Rocket" Rosen, who represented him in his retrials, and investigator Jim McCloskey of Centurion Ministries, which funded the investigations to support Cook's defense throughout the 1990s. But his most consistent advocate, as this book makes clear, was Cook himself. "This is my story," he says in the book's closing chapter. "I wrote every word of it." Obviously, he had a lot of story to tell. His original manuscript, in fact, contained 1,200 pages worth of memories, from passages of courtroom testimony to graphic scenes of the rape, sodomy and attempted suicides of his 20 years on death row. His finished product is 342 pages, beginning with the day of his arrest in 1977, continuing through his days on death row, the shooting death of his brother and its impact on a shattered family, and his winding road through the justice system. It concludes with his release from custody, the birth of his son, Kerry Justice Cook ("The only Justice I've gotten in Texas," Cook said during a recent Houston appearance), and his own rebirth as something of a media celebrity; his story was included in a play titled The Exonerated, and he has been portrayed on stage by, among others, Chad Lowe, Aidan Quinn, Robin Williams, Richard Dreyfuss, Eric Roberts and, oddly enough, himself. His accounts are clear, concise and descriptive, and his words never cease to astound, even for a reader who thought he knew much of the story. His remarkable story gives stark warning to anybody, be they 25 or 53, inclined to accept the word of authority at face value. Like Ishmael, Kerry Max Cook has lived to tell the tale. But it is a story written, and lived, at great cost. He still carries the physical scars imposed by death row inmates and, when the despair overcame him, from his attempts at suicide. As for the financial cost, Nugent, who began as Cook's attorney but now counts himself a friend, estimates that the state spent $5 million to $7 million over two decades in an effort to execute Cook. The goal, theoretically, was justice for all. But the value of what we received for our money, unfortunately, calls to mind the words of the great fight manager Joe Jacobs: In the chase for justice in the State of Texas vs. Kerry Max Cook, we (and he) wuz robbed."

The entire review can be read at:

 https://www.chron.com/life/books/article/Chasing-Justice-by-Kerry-Max-Cook-1674983.php

 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.

Book Review Series: (Part 18): Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton and and Michael Chamberlain: Australia; (The dingo case); 'Aussie Reviews' take on "Heart of Stone," by Michael Chamberlain. (Reviewed by Sally Murphy)..."Misreporting and manipulation by the media aided the swell of public opinion against the Chamberlains, and mishandling by investigators and the legal system meant that this was a case which even 32 years later is still both raw and incomplete."

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In the roughly 10 years since I began publishing The Charles Smith Blog some of the issues I have explored - as well as some of the cases I have been following - have become the subject matter of books. This prompted me recently - as I searched anxiously for ways of keeping me occupied during the languid summer hours - other than sitting on the patio, drinking a cool glass of white wine, and reading the latest Steven King - it occurred to me that a book review series based in my previous posts from the outset of the Blog would be just what the pathologist ordered. I would invite my readers to offer me their own suggestions  for inclusion by email to hlevy15@gmail.com. Have a great summer.

Harold Levy: Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog.

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

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In August 1980, nine week old Azaria disappeared from the tent where she slept at Ayers Rock (now known by its traditional name, Uluru). Azaria’s mother, Lindy, saw a dingo near the tent before discovering her absence and campers, trackers and searchers all saw evidence of dingo footprints and drag marks. Yet Lindy Chamberlain was eventually charged, found guilty and imprisoned for the alleged murder of her daughter, and Michael Chamberlain, her husband, was found guilty of being an accessory to this fact. The evidence used to convict them was both flimsy and flawed, seemingly based more on people’s liking of dingoes and misunderstanding of the Chamberlain’s Seventh Day Adventist religion, than on any scientific fact."

BOOK: "Heart of Stone, by Michael Chamberlain," reviewed  by Sally Murphy in Aussie Reviews on November 28, 2012.

GIST:  "It was obvious to us, and our fellow campers, that Azaria had been taken by a dingo. Aboriginal trackers confirmed this, as did the finding of the Coroner Denis Barritt at the inquest. How then did my wife Lindy come to be convicted of murder and to be sentenced to life imprisonment at a trial in Darwin two years later? And why did it take another six years for that verdict to be quashed by a Federal Royal Commission and a Federal Appeals Court? As the author says in his preface, few adult Australians would not have heard of the Azaria Chamberlain case. In August 1980, nine week old Azaria disappeared from the tent where she slept at Ayers Rock (now known by its traditional name, Uluru). Azaria’s mother, Lindy, saw a dingo near the tent before discovering her absence and campers, trackers and searchers all saw evidence of dingo footprints and drag marks. Yet Lindy Chamberlain was eventually charged, found guilty and imprisoned for the alleged murder of her daughter, and Michael Chamberlain, her husband, was found guilty of being an accessory to this fact. The evidence used to convict them was both flimsy and flawed, seemingly based more on people’s liking of dingoes and misunderstanding of the Chamberlain’s Seventh Day Adventist religion, than on any scientific fact. Misreporting and manipulation by the media aided the swell of public opinion against the Chamberlains, and mishandling by investigators and the legal system meant that this was a case which even 32 years later is still both raw and incomplete. In Heart of Stone Michael Chamberlain shares his heartbreaking and courageous journey from proud new father, to grieving father, to victim and on to a strong campaigner for justice. He gives an intimate insight into his life and that of his family and supporters through the troubled years since Azaria’s death, and explains both how and why he sought – and continues to seek – justice. It is doubtful that any other legal case has ever or will ever, arouse as much public interest and speculation as this case did and Heart of Stone provides readers with a chance to explore the case intimately, as well as to question how and why the Chamberlain family became victims of a terrible miscarriage of justice as well as of a powerful groundswell of public judgement. For those who remember the case and perhaps formed their own judgements at the time, Heart of Stone may also cause a rethink.

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PUBLISHING INFORMATION:  Heart of Stone: Justice for Azaria , by Michael Chamberlain

New Holland, 2012, ISBN 9781742572895.

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The entire review can be read at the link below: 
 http://aussiereviews.com/2012/11/heart-of-stone-by-michael-chamberlain/

Read the Wikipedia  entry on the Chamberlain case at the link below: "Alice Lynne "Lindy" Chamberlain-Creighton (née Murchison; born 4 March 1948) is a New Zealand-born woman who was wrongfully convicted in one of Australia's most publicised murder trials. Accused of killing her nine-week-old daughter, Azaria, while camping at Uluru (then usually known as Ayers Rock) in 1980, she maintained that she saw a dingo leave the tent where Azaria was sleeping. The prosecution case was circumstantial and depended on forensic evidence. Chamberlain was convicted on 29 October 1982,^[1] and her appeals to the Federal Court of Australia,^[2] and High Court of Australia,^[3] were dismissed. On 7 February 1986, after the discovery of new evidence, Chamberlain was released from prison on remission. Both accused were officially pardoned in 1987,^[1] and their convictions were quashed by the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in 1988.^[4] In 1992, the Australian government paid Chamberlain $1.3 million in compensation.^[5] In 2012, a fourth coronial inquest found that Azaria died "as a result of being attacked and taken by a dingo."^........Subsequent life: Chamberlain published Through My Eyes: an autobiography in 1990. The Chamberlains divorced in 1991. On 20 December 1992, she married American publisher and fellow member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Rick Creighton. She is now known as Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton.^[5] She and Creighton live in Australia.^[7] In 2007, Chamberlain-Creighton spoke out in support of the parents of Madeleine McCann, and said she would be willing to talk to the McCanns.^[27] In August 2010, on the 30th anniversary of the death of Azaria, Chamberlain-Creighton appealed on her website to have the cause of death amended on Azaria's death record.^[19][28] In 2012, the coroner's final report identified that a dingo was the cause of death.........Film and other adaptations: In the 1983 Australian TV movie about the case, Who Killed Baby Azaria?, Chamberlain was played by Elaine Hudson; the movie aired on Network Ten. In the 1988 film Evil Angels (released as A Cry in the Dark outside of Australia and New Zealand)^[30] the role was played by Meryl Streep, whose performance received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in 1989. Miranda Otto played Chamberlain in the 2004 Australian TV mini-series Through My Eyes: The Lindy Chamberlain Story, which aired on the Seven Network. Australian composer Moya Henderson wrote the opera Lindy to a libretto by Judith Rodriguez.^[31] In 1990, the Rank Strangers' recording of their song "Uluru", which supported the Chamberlains and called for compensation to be paid to them, finished in the final five of the Australian Country Music Awards in Tamworth, New South Wales."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_Chamberlain-Creighton

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. 

Up-date: Toronto Hospital for Sick Children 'Another black mark on Sick Kids'...Dr. Frederick Tisdall: Hospital for Sick Children bows to public pressure: Suspends controversial web page on nutritional researcher who was lead researcher for federal government sponsered gruesome, unspeakable, unethical secret experiments performed on aboriginal children in Northern communities, pending revision.

PUBLISHERS NOTE: This terse note appears on the Sick Kids Tisdall  web page: "This page is currently being revised. The Frederick Tisdall webpage and other references on our website are being revised to ensure an accurate reflection of Dr. Tisdall’s contributions to children’s health along with the recognition of the unethical research involving Indigenous communities and residential schools in the 1940’s. SickKids has been working with Indigenous partners to be a culturally safe organization for Indigenous children and families. Guided by principles of Truth and Reconciliation, we are committed to acknowledging harmful aspects of our history with Indigenous peoples, including Dr. Tisdall’s work."

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On July 26, I posted a commentary by George Brown  College Prof. Peggy McKenzie headed "Sick Kids website must reflect immoral research on Indigenous children." Prof. McKenzie had taught her ethics research students about Tisdall's horrific research experiments  on aboriginal students which, in a glaring omission, had not been included in a post  glorifying Tisdall on The Hospital for Sick Children's   web site at the time I wrote the post. Her students, to their credit, asked Sick Kids to take down the misleading post until the site could be revised to reflect the the full picture of Tisdall's research. In a response to the student's letter, the Hospital replied:  "While we have been aware of this history since the outset of recent efforts, our delay in communicating about it has been due to our commitment to not only acknowledge truths, but to also ensure acknowledgments are accompanied by tangible actions on the path of reconciliation. We are confident that our ongoing work will alleviate the concerns voiced by your students."

  I editorialized on Prof. McKenzie's commentary as follows on July 26.

"The hospital's failure to take down it's web-site (As of 11.15 AM on Thursday July 26, 2018),  until this glaring, ugly, omission is addressed sends out a terrible, uncaring message: a  troubling message from the Hospital that brought us Dr. Charles Smith and Motherisk, Lisa Shore, Sanchia Bulgin, and all too many more black spots.  This Leopard clearly has not changed its spots. Bravo to Prof. MacKenzie and her conscientious students. Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
 http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2018/07/toronto-hospital-for-sick-children.html

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For the record, Prof McKenzie's Toronto Star commentary read as follows:   "A Department of National Health and Welfare nurse supervises the taking of saliva samples from boys at the Indian School in Port Alberni, B.C. as part of a decade-long series of nutritional experiments conducted on Indigenous children in the 1940s by the Canadian government. (Library and Archives Canada. In late May, students in the Introduction to Research class at George Brown College studied research ethics — their importance when conducting research studies, and how all academic research in Canada must follow the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans or TCPS2. They also studied egregious cases when ethics — and humanity — went missing. To illustrate why there is a specific section on the TCPS2 website dealing with "Research Involving Aboriginal Peoples in Canada," we discussed the explosive research findings by food historian, Dr. Ian Mosby in 2013. Mosby uncovered nutrition experiments from 1942-1952 that spread from involuntary test subjects on reserves in northern Manitoba and James Bay to vulnerable children warehoused in six residential schools across Canada. Indigenous children were deliberately starved, milk rations were halved, essential vitamins and dental services were withheld. The government-run experiment spanned the entire country and involved at least 1,300 Indigenous people, most of them children. Tisdall was the lead researcher for the secretive nutritional experiments conducted in the northern communities. Dozens of media outlets interviewed Mosby in 2013 and Canadians learned about one of the worst breaches of medical ethics in Canadian history. Imagine my students' surprise when they took my lecture a step further and googled Tisdall. They found the glowing Sick Kids' webpage dedicated to the role he played in nutrition science. No mention is made of his well-known experiments on an unsuspecting and beleaguered population. A followup article by three physicians in the journal Pediatrics and Child Health in 2014 further argued Mosby's assertion that Tisdall should have known his actions were unconscionable in 1942, and definitely by 1947 with the publication of the Nuremberg Code that covers medical research. The code resulted from the Nuremberg trial for 23 defendants — 20 of them physicians — who had used prisoners from Nazi concentration camps for medical experimentation. The article, "Canada's shameful history of nutrition research on residential schoolchildren: The need for strong medical ethics in Aboriginal health research," compared the research on the Indigenous community to the "medical atrocities performed in the name of science," by the Nazi physicians put on trial. With the consent of my students, I emailed a letter to Sick Kids stating the students' concerns and asked why the webpage did not reflect the five-year-old research by Mosby. A reply by Janice Nicholson, Director of Communications  and  Digital Media, stated that the hospital was aware of Mosby's research: "While we have been aware of this history since the outset of recent efforts, our delay in communicating about it has been due to our commitment to not only acknowledge truths, but to also ensure acknowledgments are accompanied by tangible actions on the path of reconciliation. We are confident that our ongoing work will alleviate the concerns voiced by your students." While the class agreed that words are meaningless without actions, they were confused about the time frame. Why not take down the webpage until Sick Kids figured out the path of reconciliation? Or add a paragraph acknowledging the suffering Tisdall foisted on a vulnerable population and state their intention going forward as a research hospital is to promote healing and then enumerate what that means? In the meantime, the webpage still stands as a testimony to Tisdall's great achievements but none of his failures to humanity."

https://www-thestar-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.thestar.com/amp/opinion/contributors/2018/07/22/sick-kids-website-must-reflect-immortal-research-on-indigenous-children.html?amp_js_v=0.1&usqp=mq331AQGCAEoATgA#origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.ca&prerenderSize=1&visibilityState=prerender&paddingTop=54&p2r=0&horizontalScrolling=0&csi=1&aoh=15326098028738&viewerUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.ca%2Famp%2Fs%2Fwww.thestar.com%2Famp%2Fopinion%2Fcontributors%2F2018%2F07%2F22%2Fsick-kids-website-must-reflect-immortal-research-on-indigenous-children.html&history=1&storage=1&cid=1&cap=swipe%2CnavigateTo%2Ccid%2Cfragment%2CreplaceUrl

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Here's how the Hospital for Sick Chikdren's post on Tisdall read before it was yanked from the site called: "Hospital; About SickKids; History and Milestones"..."Frederick Tisdall."..."When a young doctor named Frederick Tisdall first came to The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in 1921 no one could have imagined what accomplishments would follow. In late 1929, Dr. Tisdall came into prominence when he became director of the Nutritional Research Laboratories. He was described as 'dynamic', a 'wheeler-dealer', a 'cleaver business man', and a 'publicity genius'. The most pressing problem facing the hard working staff of the laboratory was preparing good nutritious food for babies. At that time, infants were being fed cereal and biscuits consisting mostly of wheat, oats or corn meal. All the bran and germ had to be removed because whole grain cereal was difficult for a baby to digest. Dr. Tisdall, along with Dr. Theodore Drake, made the production of a perfect infant food their main goal. They intensified and expanded their experiments with animals, and tested foods on groups of children in the hospital and in orphanages. All the hard work paid off when the doctors discovered how to make a mixture that contained all the essential vitamins and minerals that babies needed, yet wouldn't cause undue constipation or diarrhea. They added ingredients such as honey to make it more palatable and baked it into a biscuit, which they arranged to have manufactured by a prominent biscuit company under the name "Sunwheat." But they weren't done yet! They realized that tiny babies can't eat biscuits. A cereal was needed that could be mixed with milk and spoon fed. So they produced a cereal that had many of the same ingredients as the biscuits. For three months, babies and older children in the hospital were fed the mixture. They liked it, they didn't become constipated, and their health improved. But the cereal had one serious drawback -- it required lengthy cooking. At that time, the practice of drying milk by letting it drip on a red-hot revolving drum and immediately scraping it off was coming into use. The researchers tried this technique with their cooked cereal and it worked. The mixture came off the drum as a bone-dry, flaky powder. Now they had a baby food that filled their requirements and would keep indefinitely. They called it "Pablum". Tisdall recognized he had the perfect product and was determined to find the best way to market it to benefit children everywhere. This is where his keen business sense came into play. He got in touch with the executives of the Mead Johnson Company in Chicago and arranged to meet with them. After much discussion, an arrangement was worked out. In return for the permission to manufacture Pablum, SickKids would receive a royalty on every box sold. It turned out to be an excellent deal for many years. Pablum largely financed further research for the hospital. During his time at SickKids, Tisdall was the author of The Home Care of the Infant and Child and co-author with Alan Brown of the textbook Common Procedures in the Practice of Paediatrics . He also published more than 125 scientific articles, most on the subject of nutrition. He was chairman of committees on nutrition for the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Red Cross, a member of the Canadian Council on Nutrition, the Food and Nutrition Board, National Research Council, Washington, and a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada. One day after assisting in the laying of the cornerstone of the new hospital on University Avenue, Frederick Tisdall died suddenly at the age of 56. At the time of his death, Tisdall was associate professor of Paediatrics, University of Toronto, a physician at SickKids, and director of Research Laboratories, Department of Paediatrics, at SickKids.
http://www.sickkids.ca/aboutsickkids/history-and-milestones/our-history/frederick-tisdall.html

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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.

Book review series: Part 17) David Szach case: Australia: Another book by author Tom Mann: 'The body in the freezer,' reviewed by legal scholar and champion of the innocent, Dr. Bob Moles. It's headed: "'Disguised assassin' rallies for innocence.'..."Remarkably, the pathologist who is assigned to the case subsequently claims to be able to determine a reasonably precise time of death, which just happens to coincide with a witness who saw Stevenson’s young boyfriend at the premises around that time. As the prosecutor said, ‘the objective and scientific evidence means that he was dead by 6.40, and the accused was there.’ If true, there can be only one explanation. The jury accepted that explanation and convicted David Szach of the murder. However, once Tom Mann begins to set out the detailed evidence surrounding the case, the clarity and confidence in the verdict cannot be maintained. It is now clear that the forensic evidence relating to the time of death was unreliable. It is also clear that the person who gave that evidence, Dr Colin Manock, has been discredited. His evidence in the case of Henry Keogh was recently determined by the Court of Appeal to amount to no more than unwarranted and prejudicial speculation."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In the roughly 10 years since I began publishing The Charles Smith Blog some of the issues I have explored - as well as some of the cases I have been following - have become the subject matter of books. This prompted me recently - as I searched anxiously for ways of keeping me occupied during the languid summer hours - other than sitting on the patio, drinking a cool glass of white wine, and reading the latest Steven King - it occurred to me that a book review series based in my previous posts from the outset of the Blog would be just what the pathologist ordered. I would invite my readers to offer me their own suggestions  for inclusion by email to hlevy15@gmail.com. Have a great summer.

Harold Levy: Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog.

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "It is interesting to note that the prosecutor in the Szach case, many years later, sat as the judge in the trial of Lloyd Rayney, the barrister in Western Australia accused of the murder of his wife. The judge said that a careful analysis of the time line of the known occurrences on the evening Mrs Rayney died was not consistent with the Crown case. In Tom Mann’s analysis of the Stevenson case, he makes out a very similar argument concerning the time line of the various actions which had taken place on the evening Stevenson was killed. In retrospect, it seems that Szach, without any training, would have had to combine the skills of a trained assassin, a master of disguise and a highly skilled rally driver to achieve what on Mann’s view would still have been impossible."

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BOOK REVIEW: Dr. Bob Moles reviews "The body in the freezer" by writer Tom Mann, in  a CLA ASN publication  dated January 13, 2016 - 'Disguised assassin’ rallies for innocence." Dr Bob Moles ACII (UK) LLB (Hons) (Belfast), PhD (Edinburgh), Networked Knowledge, was previously Associate Professor in Law at Adelaide University, Senior Lecturer in Law at the Australian National University and Lecturer in Law and Jurisprudence at Queen’s University, Belfast.  Dr Moles was prime mover in the campaign which produced the new ‘Right To Appeal’ ;aw in South Australia in 2013 which is permitting the new appeals shining light into the dark crevises of a state’s ‘justice’ system gone feral."

SUB-HEADING: "Body in the Freezer, Tom Mann: David Szach stayed locked up for murder, refusing to admit guilt, Now, 40 years later, he still fights to secure justice." 
 

GIST: This is the second book by Tom Mann on serious wrongful convictions in South Australia. The first was the story of Edward Splatt, convicted of murder and subsequently granted a pardon after a Royal Commission found that all of the forensic evidence in the case was substantially flawed. In this book, Mann deals with an even more intriguing case. It involves the assassination of a high profile criminal lawyer, and the alleged wrongful conviction of his young partner for the murder. It is set against a background of drugs, sex and the homophobia which was undoubtedly part of the reaction to gay relationships in the 1970s. Adelaide was the town in which a young law lecturer had been drowned a few years earlier after he was thrown into the river near the law faculty at which he worked. Although it was thought that police officers had been involved in the incident, subsequent attempts to convict them were unsuccessful. So, one day in 1979, Derrance Stevenson failed to turn up to court. The police are asked to investigate and a short time later they find his body in the freezer at his home-office. He had been killed by a single shot to the back of the head. It had all the signs of a professional hit. Cold, calculated…and with everything done to confuse the investigation. Remarkably, the pathologist who is assigned to the case subsequently claims to be able to determine a reasonably precise time of death, which just happens to coincide with a witness who saw Stevenson’s young boyfriend at the premises around that time. As the prosecutor said, ‘the objective and scientific evidence means that he was dead by 6.40, and the accused was there.’ If true, there can be only one explanation. The jury accepted that explanation and convicted David Szach of the murder. However, once Tom Mann begins to set out the detailed evidence surrounding the case, the clarity and confidence in the verdict cannot be maintained. It is now clear that the forensic evidence relating to the time of death was unreliable. It is also clear that the person who gave that evidence, Dr Colin Manock, has been discredited. His evidence in the case of Henry Keogh was recently determined by the Court of Appeal to amount to no more than unwarranted and prejudicial speculation. David Szach has professed his innocence in this matter for over 35 years. He refused to apply for parole. Eventually the government of South Australia passed special legislation to allow the head of the parole board to make the application on his behalf. It was hardly surprising then that the board granted his parole and David was unceremoniously bundled out of the Adelaide prison in an attempt to avoid further embarrassment. The timing of the publication of this book has been well-planned. It comes after South Australia introduced new laws in 2013 to grant a person claiming to have been wrongly convicted a right of direct access to the courts for a further appeal. When Szach applied for legal aid to exercise that right, he was refused. It seems that such funding is only available for those at risk of going to prison. David had long since finished his sentence. Determined to find justice: However, David is nothing if not determined. Despite the fact that he has been suffering from motor-neurone disease, he has been a skilled and persistent advocate in his own cause. He has collated materials, and worked with media outlets in his attempt to inform the public, not just of his own case but of the serious systemic errors which have occurred in the criminal justice system in South Australia. Anyone reading this book by Tom Mann will marvel that it has not as yet been made into a feature film. Perhaps, after the next few months, it will be. David has now secured the assistance of Australia’s largest class-action law firm – Maurice Blackburn – to present his case for a further appeal. I would encourage any journalist, or other interested people, who will be covering or following the appeal to obtain a copy of Mann’s book. It will provide essential reading for what is to come. The Crown’s case is that David, with no history of violence or criminality of any description, spontaneously and without reason decided to murder the one person who had shown him some love and kindness. Whatever you may think of a lawyer in his forties developing an intimate relationship with a young boy in his teens, the two of them had been in a stable relationship for some years.

According to the Crown case, the young David shot Stevenson in the back of his head using a pillow to muffle the sound. He then, without assistance, folded the body up and placed it in a freezer. He remembered to put super-glue around the lid of the freezer before closing it. He then cleaned up the scene. Later that evening he called a taxi to the premises, and then left in the taxi wearing a raincoat and glasses somewhat similar to those sometimes worn by Derrance. The Crown says that later that evening he left town in Derrance’s sports car and drove hundreds of kilometres, during the night, to Coober Pedy. In those days, in the late 1970s, parts of the road were no more than a rough and winding dirt track. He apparently covered the distance in a time which would have exceeded the abilities of skilled rally drivers. Mystery man seeks help, disappears: The following morning a young man turned up at the legal advice centre in Adelaide. He was looking for a lawyer to help him. In speaking to the receptionist, he mentioned that Derrance Stevenson had helped him in the past but, he intimated, when he left him the previous evening ‘he was in no condition to act for anyone’. The young man was never seen or heard of again. There is a clear possibility that the young man may have been the victim of what became known as the ‘family murders’ in Adelaide.  The killers of Stevenson may have got to him before he could tell what he’d seen. The family murders were a series of killings involving young men, homosexuals, and the bizarre mutilations of bodies which involved some degree of surgical skills or medical knowledge. Murders, which to this day, remain largely unsolved. They took place within a short time after the Stevenson murder. The history of wrongful convictions is littered with cases involving tunnel vision. Police and prosecutors are sometimes keen to reassure the public that things are under control, especially when particularly horrific murders have occurred. Sometimes, the most obvious suspect turns out to be the wrong suspect. It is interesting to note that the prosecutor in the Szach case, many years later, sat as the judge in the trial of Lloyd Rayney, the barrister in Western Australia accused of the murder of his wife. The judge said that a careful analysis of the time line of the known occurrences on the evening Mrs Rayney died was not consistent with the Crown case. In Tom Mann’s analysis of the Stevenson case, he makes out a very similar argument concerning the time line of the various actions which had taken place on the evening Stevenson was killed. In retrospect, it seems that Szach, without any training, would have had to combine the skills of a trained assassin, a master of disguise and a highly skilled rally driver to achieve what on Mann’s view would still have been impossible. Fortunately for us, the deficiencies in this case will not be left hanging for much longer. Following hard on the 2015-16 heels of the overturning of the Keogh conviction after 20 years imprisonment will be the further appeals in another two notorious South Australian cases: Frits Van Beelen convicted of the murder of a young girl in the early 1970s, and Derek Bromley, convicted in 1984 of the murder of a young man by throwing him into the River Torrens. This was the same river where law lecturer Dr George Duncan had been killed by being thrown in some 12 years earlier. Along with those cases will be the appeal for David Szach. Having read Tom Mann’s book, I would be very surprised if it is not determined that Mr Szach has been the victim of a ‘substantial miscarriage of justice’. Hopefully, that will re-awaken some desire on the part of the police in South Australia to identify and apprehend those who were truly responsible for this horrific and audacious crime."

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PURCHASING INFORMATION: Body in the Freezer: the case of David Szach, by Tom Mann, Griffin Press (2015) ISBN: 978-0-9944162-0-9 – $25. Available from http://booksupport.net.au/ – or contact tom.mann1@bigpond.com   $25, including postage, direct from the author."

The entire review can be found at the link below:

https://www.cla.asn.au/News/disguised-assassin-rallies-for-his-innocence/

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;

Book Review Series: (Part 16): Edward Splatt: Australia: 'Flawed Forensics: The Splatt Case and Stewart Cockburn' by Tom Mann...'A classic tale in the genre of real crime, dealing with one of the most important cases in the legal history of Australia ... on a par with the Lindy Chamberlain case.' Dr Bob Moles, leading campaigner and advocate in cases of miscarriages of justice."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In the roughly 10 years since I began publishing The Charles Smith Blog some of the issues I have explored - as well as some of the cases I have been following - have become the subject matter of books. This prompted me recently - as I searched anxiously for ways of keeping me occupied during the languid summer hours - other than sitting on the patio, drinking a cool glass of white wine, and reading the latest Steven King - it occurred to me that a book review series based in my previous posts from the outset of the Blog would be just what the pathologist ordered. I would invite my readers to offer me their own suggestions  for inclusion by email to hlevy15@gmail.com. Have a great summer.

Harold Levy: Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog.

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY:  "Having exhausted the usual legal avenues, Splatt took extraordinary measures to write about his case and capture the interest of award winning journalist Stewart Cockburn of The Advertiser. Cockburn managed to galvanise public opinion, which forced the Government of South Australia to examine the claims made by Cockburn and others of mishandled forensic evidence. Finally, after a lengthy Royal Commission, Splatt was released and compensated for the miscarriage of justice. As a result, the forensic system in Australia has changed for the better. Tom Mann is first and foremost a scientist. Understanding the issues involved, he has been able to reduce the scientific complexity of the case to a level which is accessible to the average reader, yet without losing any of its accuracy."

BOOK: "Flawed Forensics: The Splatt Case and Stewart Cockburn," by Tom Mann  published by DoctorZ Publishing.

GIST: (From Google page at the link below: "In 1978, Edward Splatt was wrongfully convicted of the murder of an elderly woman. Having exhausted the usual legal avenues, Splatt took extraordinary measures to write about his case and capture the interest of award winning journalist Stewart Cockburn of The Advertiser. Cockburn managed to galvanise public opinion, which forced the Government of South Australia to examine the claims made by Cockburn and others of mishandled forensic evidence. Finally, after a lengthy Royal Commission, Splatt was released and compensated for the miscarriage of justice. As a result, the forensic system in Australia has changed for the better. Tom Mann is first and foremost a scientist. Understanding the issues involved, he has been able to reduce the scientific complexity of the case to a level which is accessible to the average reader, yet without losing any of its accuracy. 'A classic tale in the genre of real crime, dealing with one of the most important cases in the legal history of Australia ... on a par with the Lindy Chamberlain case.'Dr Bob Moles, leading campaigner and advocate in cases of miscarriages of justice."
https://books.google.ca/books/about/Flawed_Forensics.html?id=5EOghfKw3PgC&redir_esc=y

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;

Rebecca Shaw: Florida: Bad field drug tests: FOX 13 reveals how a mistake sent her to jail for months..."FOX 13 previously conducted a yearlong investigation on the unreliability of field drug test kits and how they often get it wrong. Scientists showed us how household items like oregano, chocolate, and cough medicine tested positive for drugs, and how lives were turned upside down. Despite all of that, law enforcement continues to use these faulty drug test kits and innocent people continue to pay the price. "They’re putting innocent people in jail and ruining people’s lives," Rebecca added."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "A Pasco County Sheriff’s Office deputy pulled up behind her, but instead of helping her, he asked if he could search her car. “[He] said, 'What are these?' Rebecca recalled. She told him they were vitamins, but he apparently didn’t believe her. “He said, 'They don't look like vitamins. They look like oxycodone,’” Rebecca continued. The deputy pulled out a field drug test kit -- kits used by law enforcement all over the country to detect illegal drugs.  To Rebecca's shock, the presumptive kit produced a positive hit for oxycodone. Rebecca insisted the pills were vitamins, not oxy.  But it didn't help.  "My heart just sank. I said, ‘That’s wrong!" Rebecca was arrested, booked, and charged with trafficking oxycodone. With no way to pay a $5,000 bond she sat in jail. "It was scary being in there and having a public defender that didn't believe me," she continued. After her husband was able to come up with the bail money, Rebecca waited another seven months for the state crime lab to confirm the pills were, in fact, vitamins. The case was dropped but the damage had already been done, explained her new attorney Patrick LeDuc.  "He does the field drug test and because it tests positive, nothing else mattered. It didn't matter she had no prior record, it didn't matter she was out of gas."

STORY: "Another field drug test mistake sends woman to jail -- for months," by  reporter Gloria Gomez, published by FOX News on March 9, 2018.

GIST: "Rebecca Shaw is not a criminal, but for months, she was treated like one. The mother of four -- who didn't break the law or do anything wrong -- sat in jail for five long, agonizing months. “It felt like my whole life was over. It was terrible," Rebecca exclaimed.  "My kids were devastated. I was away for five months. I cried constantly.” Rebecca's perfect storm of hell started when she ran out of gas on the road. A Pasco County Sheriff’s Office deputy pulled up behind her, but instead of helping her, he asked if he could search her car. “[He] said, 'What are these?' Rebecca recalled. She told him they were vitamins, but he apparently didn’t believe her. “He said, 'They don't look like vitamins. They look like oxycodone,’” Rebecca continued. The deputy pulled out a field drug test kit -- kits used by law enforcement all over the country to detect illegal drugs.  To Rebecca's shock, the presumptive kit produced a positive hit for oxycodone. Rebecca insisted the pills were vitamins, not oxy.  But it didn't help.  "My heart just sank. I said, ‘That’s wrong!" Rebecca was arrested, booked, and charged with trafficking oxycodone. With no way to pay a $5,000 bond she sat in jail. "It was scary being in there and having a public defender that didn't believe me," she continued. After her husband was able to come up with the bail money, Rebecca waited another seven months for the state crime lab to confirm the pills were, in fact, vitamins. The case was dropped but the damage had already been done, explained her new attorney Patrick LeDuc.  "He does the field drug test and because it tests positive, nothing else mattered. It didn't matter she had no prior record, it didn't matter she was out of gas.” FOX 13 previously conducted a yearlong investigation on the unreliability of field drug test kits and how they often get it wrong.  Scientists showed us how household items like oregano, chocolate, and cough medicine tested positive for drugs, and how lives were turned upside down. Despite all of that, law enforcement continues to use these faulty drug test kits and innocent people continue to pay the price. "They’re putting innocent people in jail and ruining people’s lives," Rebecca added. Rebecca is considering her legal options, but so far, no lawsuit has been filed."

The entire  story can be read at:
https://www.fox13news.com/news/fox-13-investigates/another-field-drug-test-mistake-sends-woman-to-jail-for-months

Read 'FOX 13 investigation shines new light on bad drug tests August 11, 2015,  also by  reporter Gloria Gomez, at the link below: "Hillsborough Circuit Judge Gregory Holder sat down with Fox 13 to explain a recent field trip by local leader: "Myself, Judge Pomponio, State Attorney Mark Ober, Assistant State Attorney Mike Sinacor and Public Defender Julie Holt.” All these Tampa Bay leaders went on a very important field trip. "Whether its additional funding for FDLE or whether it’s our own crime lab this is something that needs to happen now, " said Judge Holder. Judge Holder says the goal was to figure out why our state crime lab is so backlogged. “We have men and women sitting in jail languishing if they cannot make bond awaiting that scientific testing that should be performed immediately," said Holder. But it's not -- often it takes months. Back in February we told you about a military officer falsely arrested on the results of a field drug test. It showed the pill in his pocket was meth. But it turns out the nark 2, got it wrong. It took FDLE nearly five months to clear his name, turning his life upside down. "Injustice pretty much sums it up perfectly," Judge Holder says that should have never happened. "We can’t turn our law enforcement officers into scientists there not scientists there law enforcement officers, Holder added, and to submit the sample and if turns blue it’s this if it turns purple it’s this that’s just unacceptable especially if there is no evidence to support its reliability and no testing to support its reliability." In fact, our 6-month investigation has shown repeatedly, how unreliable these tests are. We even went inside a forensics research lab where top researchers tested the kits. We watched as aspirin, cough medicine, coffee and spices like oregano and, even  air tested positive for illegal drugs. These are the same kits used by law enforcement all over the country to make drug arrests. Judge holder says he’s appalled. "We're dealing with the fundamental rights of men and women we're incarcerating them and there just has to be a better way, " he explained. Holder says FDLE just doesn't have enough  lab techs to handle the load of confirmatory drug testing. But that could change he says public defender Julie Holt and State Attorney Mark Ober are joining forces to fix the problem. "Ms. Holt and Mr. Ober have committed their resources with their respective organizations to push for additional funding to allow more timely testing of these substances,” Holder added. “Your viewers sit out there well it won’t affect me or it won’t affect my family members but if it affects any human being then it affects us all.""

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.

Book Review Series: (Part 15): The Central Park Jogger Case Revisited: 'The Central Park Five: A chronicle of a city wilding' - By Sarah Burns - The New York Times..." "In the wake of the 1989 rape and near-fatal beating of a 28-year-old white woman named Trisha Meili (known to many as the Central Park jogger), and after the arrests, confessions and eventual convictions of one Latino and four African-­American teenagers for the crime, the media relentlessly asked: How did this happen? In her slim but ambitious book, "The Central Park Five: A Chronicle of a City Wilding," Sarah Burns tackles this same question, but with a changed referent. "This," rather than signifying a horrific gang rape in New York City's bucolic backyard, here signifies a preventable miscarriage of justice that put five Harlem teenagers behind bars for a crime they didn't commit."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In the roughly 10 years since I began publishing The Charles Smith Blog some of the issues I have explored - as well as some of the cases I have been following - have become the subject matter of books. This prompted me recently - as I searched anxiously for ways of keeping me occupied during the languid summer hours - other than sitting on the patio, drinking a cool glass of white wine, and reading the latest Steven King - it occurred to me that a book review series based in my previous posts from the outset of the Blog would be just what the pathologist ordered. I would invite my readers to offer me their own suggestions  for inclusion by email to hlevy15@gmail.com. Have a great summer.

Harold Levy: Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog.

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

PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "Burns's book joins a crowded field. Not only did the jogger case dominate headlines in 1989-90, but Joan Didion's 1991 essay on the subject, "Sentimental Journeys," provides an indelible portrait of New York at that time; scholars including Patricia J. Williams and Susan Fraiman have parsed the case's fraught nexus of race, class and gender; Meili herself published a best-­selling book, "I Am the Central Park Jogger," in 2003; coarser pundits like Ann Coulter continue to exploit the case whenever possible; and its legal twists and turns still garner headlines. Burns's book is novel in that it is the first sustained consideration of the case since the young men's convictions were vacated. This redirection alone — along with Burns's exhaustive synthesizing of trial transcripts, interviews and articles — makes "The Central Park Five" an important cultural document, and unquestionably worth reading."

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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "The most useful aspect of "The Central Park Five" may not be its analysis of racism, but rather of false confessions. The videotaped statements made by four of the five boys were undoubtedly the most damning evidence used against them at trial. The question of how and why they offered such inventive, graphic testimony about their involvement in the rape remains, for many, a baffle­ment. Burns labors hard to explain how intense interrogation can bring a suspect, especially a young one, to the irrational conclusion that falsely confessing "will improve a dreadful situation. The crucial word here is "irrational." In one of the book's most heart­breaking moments, Wise — the oldest but "least developed emotionally and intellectually" of the five, Burns writes — is cross-examined by an assistant district attorney, Elizabeth Lederer. Referring to the part of Wise's confession in which he demonstrates how the other boys supposedly punched Meili, Lederer asks, "Did the police make you do what you did on the videotape, punching with both fists?" Wise answers: "Somehow." His response speaks to his bewilderment, but by this point we've learned that Wise has it exactly right. In the shadow of the "war on terror," which has sharply amplified the ethical and legal problems posed by presumptive guilt and "harsh" interrogations, and after rulings like the Supreme Court's 2009 decision denying inmates a constitutional right to post-­conviction analyses of DNA samples, Burns's gripping tale may serve as an allegory for some of the most pressing criminal justice issues of our time."

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BOOK REVIEW: Maggie Nelson reviews  "The Central Park Five: A chronicle of a city wilding," by Sarah Burns,  in "The Central Park Jogger Case Revisited", published by The New York Times on June 17, 2011.

GIST: "In the wake of the 1989 rape and near-fatal beating of a 28-year-old white woman named Trisha Meili (known to many as the Central Park jogger), and after the arrests, confessions and eventual convictions of one Latino and four African-­American teenagers for the crime, the media relentlessly asked: How did this happen? In her slim but ambitious book, "The Central Park Five: A Chronicle of a City Wilding," Sarah Burns tackles this same question, but with a changed referent. "This," rather than signifying a horrific gang rape in New York City's bucolic backyard, here signifies a preventable miscarriage of justice that put five Harlem teenagers behind bars for a crime they didn't commit. Each of the boys — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Korey Wise and Raymond Santana Jr. — served between 7 and 13 years. Their convictions were vacated in 2002 by the New York State Supreme Court, after a confession and DNA analysis linked a serial rapist, Matias Reyes, to the crime. Burns's book joins a crowded field. Not only did the jogger case dominate headlines in 1989-90, but Joan Didion's 1991 essay on the subject, "Sentimental Journeys," provides an indelible portrait of New York at that time; scholars including Patricia J. Williams and Susan Fraiman have parsed the case's fraught nexus of race, class and gender; Meili herself published a best-­selling book, "I Am the Central Park Jogger," in 2003; coarser pundits like Ann Coulter continue to exploit the case whenever possible; and its legal twists and turns still garner headlines. Burns's book is novel in that it is the first sustained consideration of the case since the young men's convictions were vacated. This redirection alone — along with Burns's exhaustive synthesizing of trial transcripts, interviews and articles — makes "The Central Park Five" an important cultural document, and unquestionably worth reading. This is Burns's first book, and she proves herself an energetic researcher and gatherer, as well as a writer with a fine sense of organization and pacing. Her narrative is riveting, even (or perhaps, one must say, especially) in light of its horrors. Here I refer not only to the grisly details of the many brutal crimes the book recounts, but also to its swift tour through America's violently racist past and present, in which the criminal justice system so often plays a starring role. Especially impressive is Burns's tracking of the accused from the evening of the assault to the present in just over 200 pages, a feat she accomplishes by moving briskly between a tight focus on the case and much broader strokes. Alas, these broad strokes keep her from offering the kind of incisive social analysis the story so desperately needs. Burns's acknowledgments indicate that she interviewed everyone from Ed Koch to Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project to Matias Reyes to the families of the five. Yet she often erases specific speakers and sources, opting instead for washes of impersonal, sometimes platitudinous generalizations, many of which rely on grammatical obfuscations to soften insights that could have been razor sharp. When Burns tells us, for example, that the "myth of the black man as bestial and sexual . . . was used as a justification for much of the heinous violence, including lynchings, that was perpetrated on blacks in the wake of emancipation," or that "the belief that confessing to a serious crime will lead to being released, however irrational, is commonly cited as a reason for falsely confessing," I found myself increasingly anxious to hear her name who used the justification, who commonly cites such a belief, and so on. This imprecision also makes the author seem occasionally unmindful of the political implications embedded in her more sweeping statements. She writes, for instance, that the rape "exposed the deepest fears of New Yorkers in the 1980s, and also in the country at large," and that the case shows us "who and what we fear." Burns's intentions are firmly antiracist, but this "we" troubles, as it presumes the reader to share in certain white racist fears and, by extension, in whiteness itself. Further, now that we are in the midst of an even more pronounced financial crisis than that of the 1980s — one that has provided yet another alibi for those perennially committed to slashing services for the neediest of citizens — Burns's loose suggestions that cuts in the late '70s in New York were "needed to keep the city from going bankrupt," or that many poor AIDS patients somehow "found themselves" without homes or hospital beds, or that working-class ethnic whites were "pushed to enclaves along the outer edges of the city by the growing minority population," seem strangely at odds with her express desire to ferret out root causes of inequities and injustices. Two other problems linger. The first is that in its fervent desire to protest the wrongful convictions of the teenagers for the rape of Meili, the book is blurry on the question of what role they may (or may not) have played in the attacks on several others in the park that evening, including John Loughlin, another jogger. Directly confronting the complexity of the situation would not have diminished Burns's critique; it would have helped us imagine forms of justice that don't rely on oversimplified narratives of innocence.  The second problem lies in Burns's repetitive indictment of the media's use of animal terminology (like "wolfpack" and "wilding") to describe the boys charged with Meili's assault. Her insights on this account are spot on, and her historical unpacking of such racist terminology constitutes some of the book's best writing. Unfortunately, her reliance on this theme over any sustained analysis of the socioeconomic power structures that have depended on the subjugation of African-­Americans for nearly four centuries renders her argument tinnier than it need be. The book's closing assess­ment is astonishingly disappointing: "The Central Park jogger case and the fear of crime from the 1980s still haunts the memories of many New Yorkers, and the use of animal terms to describe disorderly minority teenagers continues without reflection or remorse." If only such a haunting, or such terminology, were the bulk of the problem. Such a finale sent me straight to Angela Davis for a reminder of what a pull-no-punches analysis of systemic racism sounds like. The most useful aspect of "The Central Park Five" may not be its analysis of racism, but rather of false confessions. The videotaped statements made by four of the five boys were undoubtedly the most damning evidence used against them at trial. The question of how and why they offered such inventive, graphic testimony about their involvement in the rape remains, for many, a baffle­ment. Burns labors hard to explain how intense interrogation can bring a suspect, especially a young one, to the irrational conclusion that falsely confessing "will improve a dreadful situation. The crucial word here is "irrational." In one of the book's most heart­breaking moments, Wise — the oldest but "least developed emotionally and intellectually" of the five, Burns writes — is cross-examined by an assistant district attorney, Elizabeth Lederer. Referring to the part of Wise's confession in which he demonstrates how the other boys supposedly punched Meili, Lederer asks, "Did the police make you do what you did on the videotape, punching with both fists?" Wise answers: "Somehow." His response speaks to his bewilderment, but by this point we've learned that Wise has it exactly right. In the shadow of the "war on terror," which has sharply amplified the ethical and legal problems posed by presumptive guilt and "harsh" interrogations, and after rulings like the Supreme Court's 2009 decision denying inmates a constitutional right to post-­conviction analyses of DNA samples, Burns's gripping tale may serve as an allegory for some of the most pressing criminal justice issues of our time."
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The entire review can be read at the link below:

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/books/review/book-review-the-central-park-five-by-sarah-burns.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;

Toronto Hospital For Sick Children: Another black mark on Sick Kids: The Hospital's website still glorifies still a nutritional reseacher named Dr. Frederick Tisdall his nutritional research - but does not mention infamous secret nutritional experimentation he conducted on aboriginal children - and has still (as of 11.15 A.M. on July 26, 2018) not corrected its highly misleading tribute to Tisdall on the Hospital's web page. As Prof. Peggy MacKenzie notes in her commentary: "Imagine my students' surprise when they took my lecture a step further and googled Tisdall. They found the glowing Sick Kids' webpage dedicated to the role he played in nutrition science. No mention is made of his well-known experiments on an unsuspecting and beleaguered population."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: "The hospital's failure to take down it's web-site (As of 11.15 AM on Thursday July 26, 2018),  until this glaring, ugly, omission is addressed sends out a terrible, uncaring message: a  troubling message from the Hospital that brought us Dr. Charles Smith and Motherisk, Lisa Shore, Sanchia Bulgin, and all too many more black spots.  This Leopard clearly has not changed its spots. Bravo to Prof. MacKenzie and her conscientious students.

Harold Levy: Publisher. The Toronto Star.

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PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "A reply by Janice Nicholson, Director of Communications & Digital Media, stated that the hospital was aware of Mosby's research: "While we have been aware of this history since the outset of recent efforts, our delay in communicating about it has been due to our commitment to not only acknowledge truths, but to also ensure acknowledgments are accompanied by tangible actions on the path of reconciliation. We are confident that our ongoing work will alleviate the concerns voiced by your students."

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PASSAGE TWO  OF THE DAY: "(Food historian) Mosby uncovered nutrition experiments from 1942-1952 that spread from involuntary test subjects on reserves in northern Manitoba and James Bay to vulnerable children warehoused in six residential schools across Canada. Indigenous children were deliberately starved, milk rations were halved, essential vitamins and dental services were withheld. The government-run experiment spanned the entire country and involved at least 1,300 Indigenous people, most of them children. Tisdall was the lead researcher for the secretive nutritional experiments conducted in the northern communities. Dozens of media outlets interviewed Mosby in 2013 and Canadians learned about one of the worst breaches of medical ethics in Canadian history. Imagine my students' surprise when they took my lecture a step further and googled Tisdall. They found the glowing Sick Kids' webpage dedicated to the role he played in nutrition science. No mention is made of his well-known experiments on an unsuspecting and beleaguered population. A followup article by three physicians in the journal Pediatrics & Child Health in 2014 further argued Mosby's assertion that Tisdall should have known his actions were unconscionable in 1942,\ and definitely by 1947 with the publication of the Nuremberg Code that covers medical research. The code resulted from the Nuremberg trial for 23 defendants — 20 of them physicians — who had used prisoners from Nazi concentration camps for medical experimentation. The article, "Canada's shameful history of nutrition research on residential schoolchildren: The need for strong medical ethics in Aboriginal health research," compared the research on the Indigenous community to the "medical atrocities performed in the name of science," by the Nazi physicians put on trial."

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PASSAGE THREE  OF THE DAY:  "With the consent of my students, I emailed a letter to Sick Kids stating the students' concerns and asked why the webpage did not reflect the five-year-old research by Mosby. A reply by Janice Nicholson, Director of Communications & Digital Media, stated that the hospital was aware of Mosby's research: "While we have been aware of this history since the outset of recent efforts, our delay in communicating about it has been due to our commitment to not only acknowledge truths, but to also ensure acknowledgments are accompanied by tangible actions on the path of reconciliation. We are confident that our ongoing work will alleviate the concerns voiced by your students."  While the class agreed that words are meaningless without actions, they were confused about the time frame. Why not take down the webpage until Sick Kids figured out the path of reconciliation? Or add a paragraph acknowledging the suffering Tisdall foisted on a vulnerable population and state their intention going forward as a research hospital is to promote healing and then enumerate what that means? In the meantime, the webpage still stands as a testimony to Tisdall's great achievements but none of his failures to humanity. "

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STORY:  "Sick Kids website must reflect immoral research on Indigenous children," by Peggy McKenzie, published by The Toronto Star on July 26, 2018. (Peggy Mackenzie is a professor in the Department of English and Communication and School of Liberal Arts  Sciences at George Brown College.)

GIST: "A Department of National Health and Welfare nurse supervises the taking of saliva samples from boys at the Indian School in Port Alberni, B.C. as part of a decade-long series of nutritional experiments conducted on Indigenous children in the 1940s by the Canadian government. (Library and Archives Canada. In late May, students in the Introduction to Research class at George Brown College studied research ethics — their importance when conducting research studies, and how all academic research in Canada must follow the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans or TCPS2. They also studied egregious cases when ethics — and humanity — went missing. To illustrate why there is a specific section on the TCPS2 website dealing with "Research Involving Aboriginal Peoples in Canada," we discussed the explosive research findings by food historian, Dr. Ian Mosby in 2013. Mosby uncovered nutrition experiments from 1942-1952 that spread from involuntary test subjects on reserves in northern Manitoba and James Bay to vulnerable children warehoused in six residential schools across Canada. Indigenous children were deliberately starved, milk rations were halved, essential vitamins and dental services were withheld. The government-run experiment spanned the entire country and involved at least 1,300 Indigenous people, most of them children. Tisdall was the lead researcher for the secretive nutritional experiments conducted in the northern communities. Dozens of media outlets interviewed Mosby in 2013 and Canadians learned about one of the worst breaches of medical ethics in Canadian history. Imagine my students' surprise when they took my lecture a step further and googled Tisdall. They found the glowing Sick Kids' webpage dedicated to the role he played in nutrition science. No mention is made of his well-known experiments on an unsuspecting and beleaguered population. A followup article by three physicians in the journal Pediatrics and Child Health in 2014 further argued Mosby's assertion that Tisdall should have known his actions were unconscionable in 1942, and definitely by 1947 with the publication of the Nuremberg Code that covers medical research. The code resulted from the Nuremberg trial for 23 defendants — 20 of them physicians — who had used prisoners from Nazi concentration camps for medical experimentation. The article, "Canada's shameful history of nutrition research on residential schoolchildren: The need for strong medical ethics in Aboriginal health research," compared the research on the Indigenous community to the "medical atrocities performed in the name of science," by the Nazi physicians put on trial. With the consent of my students, I emailed a letter to Sick Kids stating the students' concerns and asked why the webpage did not reflect the five-year-old research by Mosby. A reply by Janice Nicholson, Director of Communications  and  Digital Media, stated that the hospital was aware of Mosby's research: "While we have been aware of this history since the outset of recent efforts, our delay in communicating about it has been due to our commitment to not only acknowledge truths, but to also ensure acknowledgments are accompanied by tangible actions on the path of reconciliation. We are confident that our ongoing work will alleviate the concerns voiced by your students." While the class agreed that words are meaningless without actions, they were confused about the time frame. Why not take down the webpage until Sick Kids figured out the path of reconciliation? Or add a paragraph acknowledging the suffering Tisdall foisted on a vulnerable population and state their intention going forward as a research hospital is to promote healing and then enumerate what that means? In the meantime, the webpage still stands as a testimony to Tisdall's great achievements but none of his failures to humanity. "

The entire commentary can be read at:

https://www-thestar-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.thestar.com/amp/opinion/contributors/2018/07/22/sick-kids-website-must-reflect-immortal-research-on-indigenous-children.html?amp_js_v=0.1&usqp=mq331AQGCAEoATgA#origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.ca&prerenderSize=1&visibilityState=prerender&paddingTop=54&p2r=0&horizontalScrolling=0&csi=1&aoh=15326098028738&viewerUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.ca%2Famp%2Fs%2Fwww.thestar.com%2Famp%2Fopinion%2Fcontributors%2F2018%2F07%2F22%2Fsick-kids-website-must-reflect-immortal-research-on-indigenous-children.html&history=1&storage=1&cid=1&cap=swipe%2CnavigateTo%2Ccid%2Cfragment%2CreplaceUrl

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To access the Hospital For Sick Children website - which at 10.15 AM this morning  (Thursday July 26, 2018) still made no reference to the late Dr. Tisdall's infamous experiments conducted on  indigenous infants  as is the subject of the above commentary - go to the link below: (The hospital's article on Dr. Tisdall is in a section of SickKids website  called "Hospital; About SickKids; History and Milestones"..."Frederick Tisdall."..."When a young doctor named Frederick Tisdall first came to The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in 1921 no one could have imagined what accomplishments would follow. In late 1929, Dr. Tisdall came into prominence when he became director of the Nutritional Research Laboratories. He was described as 'dynamic', a 'wheeler-dealer', a 'cleaver business man', and a 'publicity genius'. The most pressing problem facing the hard working staff of the laboratory was preparing good nutritious food for babies. At that time, infants were being fed cereal and biscuits consisting mostly of wheat, oats or corn meal. All the bran and germ had to be removed because whole grain cereal was difficult for a baby to digest. Dr. Tisdall, along with Dr. Theodore Drake, made the production of a perfect infant food their main goal. They intensified and expanded their experiments with animals, and tested foods on groups of children in the hospital and in orphanages. All the hard work paid off when the doctors discovered how to make a mixture that contained all the essential vitamins and minerals that babies needed, yet wouldn't cause undue constipation or diarrhea. They added ingredients such as honey to make it more palatable and baked it into a biscuit, which they arranged to have manufactured by a prominent biscuit company under the name "Sunwheat." But they weren't done yet! They realized that tiny babies can't eat biscuits. A cereal was needed that could be mixed with milk and spoon fed. So they produced a cereal that had many of the same ingredients as the biscuits. For three months, babies and older children in the hospital were fed the mixture. They liked it, they didn't become constipated, and their health improved. But the cereal had one serious drawback -- it required lengthy cooking. At that time, the practice of drying milk by letting it drip on a red-hot revolving drum and immediately scraping it off was coming into use. The researchers tried this technique with their cooked cereal and it worked. The mixture came off the drum as a bone-dry, flaky powder. Now they had a baby food that filled their requirements and would keep indefinitely. They called it "Pablum". Tisdall recognized he had the perfect product and was determined to find the best way to market it to benefit children everywhere. This is where his keen business sense came into play. He got in touch with the executives of the Mead Johnson Company in Chicago and arranged to meet with them. After much discussion, an arrangement was worked out. In return for the permission to manufacture Pablum, SickKids would receive a royalty on every box sold. It turned out to be an excellent deal for many years. Pablum largely financed further research for the hospital. During his time at SickKids, Tisdall was the author of The Home Care of the Infant and Child and co-author with Alan Brown of the textbook Common Procedures in the Practice of Paediatrics . He also published more than 125 scientific articles, most on the subject of nutrition. He was chairman of committees on nutrition for the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Red Cross, a member of the Canadian Council on Nutrition, the Food and Nutrition Board, National Research Council, Washington, and a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada. One day after assisting in the laying of the cornerstone of the new hospital on University Avenue, Frederick Tisdall died suddenly at the age of 56. At the time of his death, Tisdall was associate professor of Paediatrics, University of Toronto, a physician at SickKids, and director of Research Laboratories, Department of Paediatrics, at SickKids."

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http://www.sickkids.ca/aboutsickkids/history-and-milestones/our-history/frederick-tisdall.html

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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.