Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Back in action: Catch-up; Dr. Henry Lee; Part Three: What happens now? Commentary uses Lee cases in arguing that Connecticut should establish an independent board to review the integrity of criminal convictions - noting that "Too many criminal convictions are wrong."..."Recently, as The Courant has covered, the Connecticut Supreme Court reversed the convictions of two men who were incarcerated for 33 years, citing inaccurate testimony given by Dr. Henry C. Lee, the renowned former state criminologist and director of the Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory. In another case, there was testimony that blood was found on a sneaker alleged to belong to the accused; later testing showed that not only was the substance not blood, but the DNA was not connected to the victim of the crime. DNA testing was not available at the time the accused in these Dr. Lee cases were convicted. Even so, both cases also included mistakes in analyzing the evidence. These cases reflect what might be expected: some of the worst situations arise where multiple factors of wrongful conviction exist in combination."