PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "As a reporter roaming the halls of that courthouse back then, I thought that nickname basically implied: Want justice? Git a rope. We got your justice right here. And did the public mind that Hangin' Harry was also the most reversed judge in Florida? Apparently not, since they went on to make him state attorney twice. Fast forward two decades. Current Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren is making good on what sounded like a pie-in-the-sky campaign promise by a candidate we barely knew to put a little more integrity in the system. Warren is starting a new Conviction Review Unit to look at post-conviction cases to make sure the right person went to prison. Or even death row. So much for the idea that a prosecutor's singular purpose - or a judge's, for that matter - is to put people in jail. This kind of responsible self-policing is currently happening in places like Jacksonville, Houston and Chicago."
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COMMENTARY: "Carlton: After the bad old days in Hillsborough courthouse, progress," by Sue Carlton, published by The Tampa Bay Times on November 23, 2018. (Hillsborough County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. In the 2010 census, the population was 1,229,226, making it the fourth-most populous county in Florida and the most populous county outside the Miami Metropolitan Area.)
GIST: Something remarkable is happening at a courthouse once home to a judge known as Hangin' Harry. Hillsborough Judge Harry Lee Coe, also known as Hang 'Em High Harry, was renowned for handing down jaw-dropping 99-year and triple-digit prison sentences. He even sent a man to death row after a jury had just unanimously recommended life in prison. As a reporter roaming the halls of that courthouse back then, I thought that nickname basically implied: Want justice? Git a rope. We got your justice right here. And did the public mind that Hangin' Harry was also the most reversed judge in Florida? Apparently not, since they went on to make him state attorney twice. Fast forward two decades. Current Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren is making good on what sounded like a pie-in-the-sky campaign promise by a candidate we barely knew to put a little more integrity in the system. Warren is starting a new Conviction Review Unit to look at post-conviction cases to make sure the right person went to prison. Or even death row. So much for the idea that a prosecutor's singular purpose - or a judge's, for that matter - is to put people in jail. This kind of responsible self-policing is currently happening in places like Jacksonville, Houston and Chicago. How it works: Concerned parties like lawyers and defendants' families can apply to have cases reviewed and vetted. The unit will focus on violent crimes and people still sitting in jail to see if there's a plausible claim of innocence. They will look at common glitches that pop up when it turns out they got the wrong guy: false accusations, jailhouse snitches, discredited forensic science and eyewitness misidentification. Let's talk review boards here a minute. By now we all know that such creations - particularly the kind governments are reluctantly pushed into forming, like the ones that look at whether police officers acted correctly - end up being little more than lip service, the place where real conflicts and serious questions go to die. You know, like those organizations that are supposed to monitor politicians and their ethics. Clearly, this is not that, given that it was at Warren's own initiative and includes a pretty impressive brain trust. At the helm is Teresa Hall, who has experience as a prosecutor, defense lawyer and magistrate judge. Retiring Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy Quince and former appeals court judges E.J. Salcines and Chris Altenbernd - people who spent years poring over cases - will act as an independent review panel. The idea of someone wrongfully convicted is particularly chilling in death penalty cases - for the defendant, obviously, but also for victims and their families who got only the illusion of justice. This week, the Tampa Bay Times' Dan Sullivan wrote about Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin, now 38, who was convicted in the 2004 stabbing deaths of two women in Altamonte Springs. "Welcome to hell," they told him when he got to death row. He would spend a decade pacing his cell, knowing they planned to kill him one day, until lawyers and the Innocence Project found new evidence. This included DNA - not his - and confessions - also not his - which cast substantial doubt on his guilt. This month, he was a free man "God sends you angels," he told the Times. If we're going to rightly send people to prison and even kill them in the name of justice, we need more than the possibility of angels. We need to get it right, and then we need to look hard when there's credible evidence something went wrong. An added system of checks and balances - initiated by the prosecution side, no less - sounds like progress at the old courthouse to me."
The entire commentary can be read at the link below:
https://www.tbo.com/opinion/columns/carlton-after-the-bad-old-days-in-hillsborough-courthouse-progress-20181123/
Read Innocence Project backgrounder on Clemente Aguirre at the link below: After more than 14 years behind
bars—including a decade on Florida’s death row—Clemente Javier Aguirre
was exonerated of all charges today in the 2004 stabbing deaths of his
former neighbors Cheryl Williams and Carole Bareis. In a Seminole County courtroom, Circuit Judge John D. Galluzzo
dismissed all charges against Aguirre after prosecutors announced today,
in the middle of jury selection, that they will not proceed with the
retrial. Aguirre, who is now 38 years old, maintained his innocence from the
time of his arrest at age 24 in June 2004. He was originally convicted
of the murders and sentenced to death in 2006. In 2016, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously overturned Aguirre’s
conviction and death sentence based on new evidence of innocence that
his original jury never heard. The new evidence included DNA testing of
multiple pieces of crime scene evidence that exculpated Aguirre and
implicated another suspect—the victims’ daughter and granddaughter,
Samantha Williams. The state Supreme Court also learned of evidence
that, in the years after Aguirre’s trial, Samantha Williams confessed
that she committed the murders to numerous friends and acquaintances who
had no connection to Aguirre. Despite the new evidence, however, State Attorney Phil Archer had
announced that the state would not only retry Aguirre, but also seek the
death penalty a second time. Today’s decision by prosecutors not to
proceed came after additional evidence undermining Williams’ alibi and
further implicating her emerged in recent pretrial proceedings. “Mr. Aguirre was nearly executed for a crime he didn’t commit,” said
Joshua Dubin, one of Aguirre’s lead trial attorneys. “While we are
overjoyed that his ordeal is finally over, the case of Clemente Aguirre
should serve as a chilling cautionary tale about how dangerous it is
when there is a rush to judgment in a capital case. Mr. Aguirre pleaded
for the blood to be tested and thankfully his post-conviction attorneys
got that done. So when the results of those tests revealed that Samantha
Williams’ blood was found within inches of the victim’s blood, and that
she repeatedly confessed that she committed the crime to multiple
witnesses, it boggles the mind that Mr. Aguirre even faced the prospect
of being sent back to death row a second time.” Aguirre was wrongly convicted at his first trial after receiving
woefully inadequate representation from his court-appointed trial
attorney, who, among other critical missteps, failed to request DNA
testing of crime scene evidence that could have proven Aguirre’s
innocence and prevented him from facing execution. Nor did his original
trial counsel conduct any investigation into Samantha Williams, even
though counsel had records showing that while under psychiatric
hospitalization, she had previously threatened to “kill” her mother. On the morning of June 17, 2004, Aguirre found the bodies of Cheryl
Williams and her mother Carol Bareis in their trailer home. They had
been stabbed dozens of times. Distressed by the violent scene, Aguirre
checked the victims to see if they were still breathing, at which point
he got the victims’ blood on his clothing. Realizing they were dead,
Aguirre picked up a knife that was near Williams’ body, fearful that the
perpetrator was still present, but then panicked, throwing the knife
into the yard and returning to his neighboring trailer. When questioned by the police, Aguirre initially reported that he
knew nothing about the murders; at that time, Aguirre was an immigrant
from Honduras with no criminal history, but feared deportation from the
United States. Later that same day, however, he asked to speak to police
again, and voluntarily disclosed that he’d been in the trailer earlier
that morning and discovered the bodies. The officers arrested him that
day and charged him with evidence tampering. He remained a person of
interest and was held without bond until he was charged 10 days later
with the double murders. Aguirre had no previous criminal history. At the 2006 trial, the prosecution’s case was circumstantial and
weak. They presented limited DNA evidence that Cheryl Williams’ blood
was on Aguirre’s clothes (which he voluntarily turned over to the
police) and shoes, and that he had handled the knife. And although there
were more than 150 bloodstains that were photographed and swabbed from
the crime scene, neither the prosecution nor Aguirre’s own defense
attorney sought to have any of them tested for DNA. Those untested
bloodstains—when finally subjected to advanced DNA analysis during
Aguirre’s appeals—ultimately excluded Aguirre, and repeatedly pointed to
Samantha Williams as the source, including eight bloodstains found in
high-traffic areas and within inches of the victims’ blood. Nor did Aguirre’s original trial lawyer conduct any other forensic
investigation. He failed to hire forensic experts, conduct a single DNA
test, or even to examine any of the 197 items of evidence that were
collected in the case. When asked in Aguirre’s post-conviction hearings
why he had failed to do so, trial counsel scoffed at the notion of
hiring a “CSI Las Vegas blood whisperer”—even though not doing so meant
that he had no evidence to corroborate Aguirre’s claim of innocence. The
lawyer also failed to investigate whether there were alternative
suspects. Consequently, although the evidence presented at trial was
consistent with Aguirre’s version of events, he was convicted. He was
then sentenced to death, even though the jury was not unanimous in its
recommendation in either case. “Today is the culmination of years of hard work to help free an
innocent man from death row,” said Lindsey Boney, an attorney with
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP who argued Aguirre’s successful appeal
before the Florida Supreme Court and led his retrial team. “In addition
to the new DNA testing, the courage of everyday people who came
forward—even in the last month—with critical pieces of new information
played a significant role in revealing the truth of Aguirre’s
innocence. This case is a stark reminder that everyone should be deeply
concerned that people like Aguirre must receive adequate legal
representation, especially when the ultimate punishment is at stake.” The Innocence Project began working on Aguirre’s case in 2011 when
Capital Collateral Regional Counsel—Middle Region asked for assistance
in seeking DNA testing of more than 84 pieces of previously-untested
evidence. Results excluded Aguirre unequivocally. At an evidentiary hearing in May 2013, Aguirre’s lawyers presented
additional evidence inculpating Samantha Williams, including evidence
that she’d made multiple statements—one of which was captured on police
video—suggesting her own culpability for the murders and revealing that
she and her mother had a troubled relationship and a heated argument the
night of the murders. In 2016, after Aguirre’s lawyers presented additional evidence in
court, Aguirre’s conviction and death row sentence were finally
overturned. The Florida Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the new DNA
evidence coupled with confessions from Samantha Williams that she
committed the murders so “substantially weaken[ed] the case against
Aguirre” that the only “result is reasonable doubt as to Aguirre’s
culpability.” Fourteen attorneys who had previously served as prosecutors or
government appellate attorneys in death penalty cases in Florida and
nationally filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the
successful appeal. However, despite the state Supreme Court’s ruling, and the new
evidence that overwhelmingly demonstrated that Aguirre did not commit
the crimes, the state decided to once again try Aguirre and pursue the
death penalty. The week before his retrial was to begin, retired
Seminole County Judge O.H. Eaton—the judge who originally sentenced
Aguirre to death—came forward and told the Orlando Sentinel that the new
evidence of Aguirre’s innocence was troubling and compelling—and that
if he had known of that evidence in 2006, he would in all likelihood
have overruled the jury’s verdict. At his exoneration hearing today, Aguirre was surrounded by family,
friends and legal advocates—including his two sisters (both Florida
residents and U.S. citizens) and more than a dozen lawyers who had
worked on his case over the last decade. Aguirre’s retrial team included an array of dedicated counsel, many of whom donated their time pro bono to
secure his exoneration. These included Joshua Dubin of Dubin Research
& Consulting, who also serves as the Innocence Ambassador Advisor to
the Innocence Project; Lindsey Boney, Dylan Black and Brooks Proctor of
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Birmingham, AL; Marie Parmer, Esq.
of the Samuels Parmer Law Firm in Tampa; and Jeffrey Horowitz of Arnold
& Porter LLP in New York. Numerous other attorneys and paralegals
on the staffs of the above offices also worked on the case, and Frank
Bankowitz of Bankowitz PA served as local counsel. Additionally, for
two years leading up to Aguirre’s anticipated retrial, Michael Banks,
David Dziengowski, Alison Tanchyk and Michael DiGiovanni of Morgan Lewis
& Bockius LLP worked with the trial team on an exhaustive
reinvestigation of the case and preparation for trial. During the post-conviction proceedings and appeal following his 2006
death sentence, Maria DeLiberato of Capital Collateral Regional
Counsel-Middle and Lindsey Boney of the Bradley firm served as lead
counsel, with Boney arguing the appeal in the Florida Supreme Court.
Nina Morrison, Senior Staff Attorney at the Innocence Project which is
affiliated with the Cardozo School of Law; Marie Parmer of the
Samuels-Parmer firm; Ashley Burkett, now with Arnold & Porter LLP;
and Julissa Fontan of CCRC-Middle all served as co-counsel for Aguirre,
with DeLiberato and Morrison continuing to actively consult with and
assist the trial team before today’s exoneration."
https://www.innocenceproject.org/clemente-aguirre-exonerated/?utm_source=Main+IP+Email+List&utm_campaign=b49961f833-EMAIL_FY19+November+newsletter_20181120&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_016cb74fd6-b49961f833-350264629&mc_cid=b49961f833&mc_eid=8b36d51157
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/
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/
