QUOTE OF THE DAY: (National Registry of Exonerations): "In an affidavit, Lentini said the experts “bundled (arson) myths together” and concluded the blaze was intentionally set. “In light of modern fire science, there is simply not one shred of credible evidence that the fire…was intentionally set,” Lentini said.
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: (From the National Registry of Exonerations): "At about 9 p.m. on March 9, 1985, 26-year-old David Lee Gavitt and his wife, Angela, went into their bedroom to have sex, leaving the television on and candles burning in the living room of their home in Ionia, Michigan. About an hour later, they heard their dog scratching on the bedroom door. Gavitt pulled on a pair of jeans and opened the door to discover the living room on fire. He later told police that he told his wife to rouse their daughters, three-year-old Katrina and 11-month-old Tracy and then went to a back bedroom where he smashed open a window, severely cutting his arm, so the family could escape. He then headed toward the children’s bedroom, but flames and smoke forced him to crawl. His calls to his wife went unanswered and he could not see. When his hair began to singe and he felt his back burning, he backed up and crawled out the broken window. Meanwhile, neighbors spotted the fire and called the fire department. Gavitt and a neighbor kicked in the kitchen door, but were forced back by dense black smoke. When Gavitt kept trying to get inside, neighbors forced him to lie in a snow bank, wrapped a cloth around his bleeding arm and covered him with a blanket. Fire fighters arrived within minutes, but the blaze, described later as “a rolling inferno,” was out of control. By the time firefighters gained entrance, Gavitt’s wife and daughters were dead of carbon monoxide poisoning. Gavitt was taken for medical treatment of burns on the bottom of his feet, his left arm, his back and his face, as well as lacerations of his arm. By the end of the following day, fire investigators said the blaze had been intentionally set, ignited after as much as two gallons of gasoline were poured on the living room carpet and first floor of the home. When police interviewed him at the hospital and suggested he had set the blaze, he denied the accusation. Several weeks later, when Gavitt was discharged from the hospital, he was charged with arson and three counts of first-degree murder."
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STORY: "Michigan OKs $1.3M compensation for man exonerated of murder," reported by The Associated Press, published by The Detroit Free Press on August 15, 2019.
PHOTO CAPTION: "In 2012, David Gavitt was released from a
Michigan prison after 26 years when experts concluded that he didn't
commit arson. His wife and two daughters died in a house fire in Ionia,
Mich., in 1985. STORY:
"Michigan's attorney general has approved $1.3 million in compensation
for a 61-year-old man who spent nearly three decades in prison before
being exonerated in the arson-related deaths of his wife and two young
daughters. Dana Nessel's office says
the award was approved Thursday following a review of David Gavitt's
claim under the state's Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act.
Compensation is calculated based on $50,000 for each year a person is in
prison. Gavitt, of Ionia, was sentenced in 1986 to
life without parole and spent 26 years in prison before an Ionia County
prosecutor agreed the arson evidence behind his conviction no longer
was credible. The case helped inspire the compensation act. Thirty-two
states and the District of Columbia provide money to people rebuilding
their lives after being wrongly convicted."
The entire story can be read at:
Read National Registry of Exonerations entry by Maurice Possley at the link below:
"At about 9 p.m. on March 9, 1985, 26-year-old David Lee Gavitt and
his wife, Angela, went into their bedroom to have sex, leaving the
television on and candles burning in the living room of their home in
Ionia, Michigan. About an hour later, they heard their dog scratching on the bedroom
door. Gavitt pulled on a pair of jeans and opened the door to discover
the living room on fire. He later told police that he told his wife to rouse their
daughters, three-year-old Katrina and 11-month-old Tracy and then went
to a back bedroom where he smashed open a window, severely cutting his
arm, so the family could escape. He then headed toward the children’s bedroom, but flames and smoke
forced him to crawl. His calls to his wife went unanswered and he could
not see. When his hair began to singe and he felt his back burning, he
backed up and crawled out the broken window. Meanwhile, neighbors spotted the fire and called the fire
department. Gavitt and a neighbor kicked in the kitchen door, but were
forced back by dense black smoke. When Gavitt kept trying to get inside,
neighbors forced him to lie in a snow bank, wrapped a cloth around his
bleeding arm and covered him with a blanket. Fire fighters arrived within minutes, but the blaze, described
later as “a rolling inferno,” was out of control. By the time
firefighters gained entrance, Gavitt’s wife and daughters were dead of
carbon monoxide poisoning. Gavitt was taken for medical treatment of burns on the bottom of
his feet, his left arm, his back and his face, as well as lacerations of
his arm. By the end of the following day, fire investigators said the blaze
had been intentionally set, ignited after as much as two gallons of
gasoline were poured on the living room carpet and first floor of the
home. When police interviewed him at the hospital and suggested he had set the blaze, he denied the accusation. Several weeks later, when Gavitt was discharged from the hospital,
he was charged with arson and three counts of first-degree murder. He went on trial before a jury in Ionia County Circuit Court in February 1986. John Fatchett, a detective sergeant in the Michigan State Police
Fire Marshal’s Division, testified that he concluded that the fire was
intentionally set using a flammable liquid because of “indicators” of
arson that were present after the blaze was extinguished. He said these
included “pour patterns” that proved a flammable liquid had been dumped
on the floor. He said the fire was too hot and burned too fast to have
been started with anything but an ignitable liquid. And he said that
burn patterns as well as the depth of the burning of the floor were
evidence the fire was set. Dr. Ronald Edwards, a consultant retained by the prosecution, also
testified that the fire was set with a flammable liquid based on his
discovery of three separate points of origin, pour patterns in the
living room and down the hallway to the doorway of the children’s
bedroom as well as “alligatoring” of the wood—a charring of the wood
that leaves marks that resemble the skin of an alligator. John DeVries, a laboratory technician at the Michigan State Police
Crime Laboratory, testified that he analyzed 17 samples of debris with
gas chromatography, a technique used to detect the presence of
chemicals. He testified that he detected the presence of gasoline in two
samples. He also told the jury that he conducted “flame tests” on
carpet that survived the fire and determined that the carpet would not
burn without the presence of gasoline. The prosecution presented no evidence that Gavitt had a motive to burn down his house and kill his family. The defense did not consult a fire expert, seemingly accepting the
evidence that the fire was arson. Instead, the defense relied upon on
Gavitt’s account of what happened, that there was no proof that Gavitt
set the fire and the testimony of neighbors who saw him trying to get
back into the house to rescue his wife and daughters. Despite that testimony, in closing argument the prosecutor argued
that Gavitt “really didn’t seem too bent out of shape about saving his
family. Yes, he was crying. Yes, he was carrying on, but he sure as heck
wasn’t doing anything.” Gavitt was convicted of arson and three counts of first-degree
murder on February 14, 1986. Judge James L. Banks sentenced him to life
in prison without parole on April 18, 1986.
Gavitt’s appeal was denied by the Michigan Court of Appeals on
September 21, 1988 and the Michigan Supreme Court denied leave to appeal
on May 31, 1989. In the fall of 2010, David Moran and Bridget McCormack at the
Michigan Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School,
assisted by Michael McKenzie of Cozen O'Connor in Atlanta, Georgia,
began reinvestigating Gavitt’s case. Several arson experts, including
John Lentini, one of the nation’s leading arson scientists, began
examining the testimony and evidence in the case. On September 14, 2011, a post-conviction petition was filed seeking
a new trial for Gavitt contending that all of the evidence that the
prosecution witnesses had used to conclude the fire was intentionally
set was wrong. The fire started in the living room, the experts concluded, and
flashover occurred. Flashover—a phenomenon where a fire reaches a point
where it explodes and totally envelops a room—had not yet been
discovered in the mid-1980’s when the blaze occurred at the Gavitt home. Every single “indicator” that Fatchett and Edwards cited as
evidence of arson has since been disproved by scientific experiment, the
experts said. Moreover, the assertion that gasoline was found in two of the
samples of evidence was wrong—the lab technician had misread the reports
of the tests he performed. Lentini and Craig Balliet, another fire
expert, both determined that DeVries had botched the examination of the
evidence. In an affidavit, Lentini said the experts “bundled (arson) myths
together” and concluded the blaze was intentionally set. “In light of
modern fire science, there is simply not one shred of credible evidence
that the fire…was intentionally set,” Lentini said. After the petition was filed, Ionia County Prosecuting Attorney Ron
Schafer requested that the chemical analysis be examined by another
expert, who concurred with the defense findings. On June 5, 2012, Ionia County Circuit Court Judge Suzanne
Hoseth-Kreeger, at the joint request of Schafer and Gavitt’s attorneys,
vacated his conviction and the charges were dismissed. On June 6, Gavitt was released. His first stop was the cemetery where his wife and daughters were buried. In June 2014, Gavitt filed a lawsuit against Ionia County police
and prosecutors seeking compensation for his wrongful incarceration. The
lawsuit was subsequently dismissed, with the courts rulings that the
defendants had immunity. In 2019, Gavitt was awarded $1.3 million in
compensation from the state of Michigan."
| https://www.law.umich.edu/ | ||||
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/ | ||||
