THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG AWARD: (March 4, 2019): I am pleased to present this international award to Tim Bousquet, publisher of the Halifax Examiner, (the first Canadian to receive the award in its 10 year history) for the outstanding investigative journalism which resulted in this week's exoneration of Glen Assoun in Nova Scotia. Mr. Bousquet published a series of articles called "Dead Wrong" - the first three which exposed the wrongful prosecution of Glen Assoun - which played a major role in Glen Assoun's exoneration. Bravo: (As per the Examiner's website: "The Halifax Examiner was founded by investigative reporter Tim Bousquet. Before starting the Examiner, Bousquet exposed corruption and misspending in Halifax for seven years as the news editor of The Coast altweekly. He uncovered the waste of millions of dollars in the Commonwealth Games bid fiasco. He revealed the dirty details of Halifax’s concert scandal. When no one would say what had happened to the sewage plant in 2009, he explained how it had broken. Bousquet’s 2012 article “A trust betrayed,” about Mayor Peter Kelly’s impropriety in handling the estate of a family friend, was named the best investigative news reporting of that year in the country by the Canadian Association of Journalists; as a result of the article, Kelly declined to run for reelection. In 2013, Bousquet investigated the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of a promising young woman in 2010; after “Holly Bartlett’s unlikely journey” was published, the police department announced it was reviewing its investigation. Bousquet is responsible for fearless investigative reporting that makes a difference, and the Halifax Examiner continues that tradition. It is an independent, adversarial news site devoted to holding the powerful accountable.)
The cover page for the series with links to each of the three articles in the series can be found at:
https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/featured/dead-wrong-collector-page/
In Bousquet's own words from the introduction to 'Dead Wrong'..."The investigation details, in a word, injustice. It reveals how Glen Assoun was likely wrongfully convicted. But additionally, the investigation shows that the likely now-unsolved murder of Brenda Way is not a unique event. Indeed, over the past decades, dozens of women and girls have been murdered in the Halifax area, and due in part to botched and incompetent police investigations, many of those murders remain unsolved. And Assoun’s conviction raises a disturbing question: Has anyone else been wrongfully convicted? This investigation will show that, yes, more wrongful convictions may have occurred. Lastly, the investigation sheds light on the desperation and violence that characterize life for those on the margins of society, and shows how indifference to the fate of murdered women and girls is the ultimate injustice, leading to still more death."
Bravo Tim Bousquet!
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
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ORIGIN OF THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG AWARD: Origin of the Charles Smith Blog Award: I launched the award in 2009 as a forum in which I could honour those individuals who help expose and remedy miscarriages of Justice caused anywhere in the world by flawed pathology, flawed pathologists, junk science, pseudo-experts or a combination of the above.
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UNUSUAL NATURE: This award is entirely virtual. There is no ceremony; There is no prize; There is no certificate. It is a pure and unadulterated honour bestowed by myself as publisher in recognition of contributions to this important facet of criminal justice.-------------------------------------------------------------
RECIPIENTS TO DATE;
0: Kevin Morgan (AUSTRALIA): author of "Gun Alley: Murder, Lies and Failure of Justice, who single-handedly fought for and obtained the forensic materials which led to Colin Ross's pardon almost ninety years after he was executed.
0: Michael Hall (U.S.A.): For his excellent work in Texas Monthly exposing the miscarriages of justice that have occurred as a result of scent-lineups and the "experts" who conduct them, and
0: Sun-Sentinel reporter Paula McMahon (U.S.A.) for her ground-breaking reporting over a nine year period which led to the freeing and exoneration of Anthony Caravella.
O: Journalist Stewart Cockburn (AUSTRALIA) for his ground-breaking work in "The Advertiser" which exposed the miscarriage of justice suffered by Ted Splatt and triggered the Royal Commission which led to Splatt's exoneration.
0: Australian scientist Tom Mann (AUSTRALIA) for his sterling efforts to publicize the injustice perpetrated on Ted Splatt in the courts including the publication of "Flawed Forensics: The Ted Splatt case and Stewart Cockburn," a monumental book which demonstrates the tragic consequences which can unfold when science gets twisted out of proportion in the courts and those entrusted with the task of protecting our criminal justice system abdicate their responsibilities.
0: New Yorker staff writer David Grann (U.S.A.)for his awesome exposee of the faulty arson "science" that resulted in the wrongful conviction and execution in Texas of Cameron Todd Willingham. (Photo: David Grann);
0: Pamela Colloff (U.S.A) for her Texas Monthly stories which resulted in the freeing of Anthony Graves within 30 days of the appearance of her first story. Anthony Graves was convicted and sentenced to die in 1994 for six horrific murders in the Central Texas town of Somerville.
0: Spencer Hsu (U.S.A) for his revelations in the Washington Post that for years, the U.S. Department of Justice has known that flawed forensic work by FBI experts may have led to the convictions of innocent people, but prosecutors rarely told defendants or their attorneys. Hsu discovered that Justice Department officials began reviewing cases after defense attorneys pointed out problems with evidence coming out of FBI labs. But the review was limited. "As a result," Hsu wrote, "hundreds of defendants nationwide remain in prison or on parole for crimes that might merit exoneration, a retrial or a retesting of evidence using DNA because FBI hair and fiber experts may have misidentified them as suspects."
O: Robert Moles and Bibi Sangha. (AUSTRALIA) for their monumental campaign to persuade South Australia to establish a statutory right of appeal - and the impact this will have on remedying miscarriages of justice caused by flawed forensic science.
0: Journalist Mike White: (NEW ZEALAND) for his investigation of the Mark Lundy case - and his exposure to the public of the many factors which made clear that Lundy could not have committed the terrible crimes.
O: Dr. Waney Squier (UK) and Meryl and Susan Goldsmith (USA) respectively for their courage and fearlessness in challenging the validity of the 'shaken baby syndrome' - in spite of the threat posed to their professional status, their reputations and their ability to perform and display their work by the Syndrome's zealous proponents in the medical profession and prosecutor's offices."
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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/
