PASSAGE OF THE DAY: ""In his lawsuit, Schand said Springfield police were troubled at the time by groups of young men from Hartford traveling to Springfield and becoming involved in altercations with local men. Information from a variety of sources suggested that, on the night of the shooting, a group from Hartford decided to rob a Springfield drug dealer and his associates after someone stole a gold chain from one of the Hartford men. The suit said Springfield detectives obtained multiple photographs of Schand, as well as dozens of other young men from Hartford. Perhaps because he was photographed by Hartford police wearing a then-popular style of sunglasses, a style that witnesses said might have been worn by the killer, the suit said that Springfield police began presenting Schand’s photographs to potential witnesses in ways that suggested his guilt. At one point, the suit claimed, Springfield detectives showed a photograph of Schand wearing the sunglasses to one of the drug dealers and told him that Schand “had shot Ms. Seymour.” The detectives then inserted the Schand photograph into a stack of photos, handed the stack to the drug dealer and asked him to see if he recognized the gunman. The drug dealer chose a photograph of Schand. Two decades later, amid efforts by Schand to overturn his conviction, several witnesses against him recanted their testimony, claiming that they were induced to lie by Springfield detectives."
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STORY: "$27M by federal jury in wrongful imprisonment lawsuit," by reporter Josh Kovner, published by The Hartford Courant on Sept 23, 2019. (Josh Kovner covers child protection and social justice. He was part of the Pulitzer-winning team coverage of the Lottery shootings, and of the Pulitzer-finalist team coverage of the Sandy Hook school shootings. A story on a boy with autism, "Saving Evan," won a national award. Kovner is an adjunct faculty member at the University of New Haven.)
GIST: "A
federal jury in Massachusetts has awarded $27 million to New Britain
business owner Mark Schand, who spent 27 years in prison for a killing
in Springfield he maintains he didn’t commit.
Schand
had spent many of those years behind bars trying to prove his
innocence. His case caught the attention of a New-Jersey based ministry,
which worked with his lawyers to free him from prison five years ago. The
verdict came down Friday in federal court in Springfield in favor of
Schand, now 55, who has said he was hurt most by the lost opportunity to
watch his three children grow up. He was released from prison in 2013
after prosecutors dropped the charges. Schand,
who runs Sweetwater Juice and Deli, a popular smoothie shop in downtown
New Britain, had sued several now-retired Springfield police officers
he says framed him for the 1986 killing of a woman outside a city club.
Police have defended the integrity of their investigation. The city of
Springfield will appeal the verdict on behalf of the defendants,
officials said. A
former Hartford resident, Schand was convicted and sentenced to life
without parole for killing Victoria Seymour, a 25-year-old innocent
bystander who was hit by an errant bullet during the robbery of a drug
dealer in September 1986. He was 21 at the time. In his lawsuit, Schand said police hid evidence, induced witnesses to lie and manipulated photographic displays of suspects. “The
judge Friday apologized - that was the first time in the halls of
justice that it was acknowledged someone did something wrong,” Schand
said Monday at Sweetwater. As he made wraps, paninis and smoothies, Schand reflected on what the verdict might mean.“Nothing
is going to change much. It’s only money, I don’t have it yet and I
don’t know if I ever will," Schand said, noting that Springfield has
said it will appeal. Schand said anyone who envies him for the award isn’t familiar with prison life. “I
can tell you, if you had offered me a deal to spend 27 years in prison
and get $27 million, I wouldn’t have taken it - not even if I was
homeless,” he said. But Schand emphasized that he won’t let feelings about injustice and lost years ruin his remaining time. “People
say ‘Why aren’t you angry, why are you always smiling?’ Anger is
another prison and I’m not going to put myself in a prison,” Schand
said. “And I’m not going to be just an angry black ex-con. “My
family stayed with me all through this, so I’m lucky - I knew guys who
hadn’t even been convicted yet and their families had left them. And
this business is something personal," he said, looking around his shop.
"I get to give nice, clean food. I get to know people personally. It’s
nothing I can retire off, but it keeps me busy.” Several
customers on Monday afternoon stopped to congratulate Schand, including
at least one New Britain police officer and several other city workers.
Schand is convinced the Springfield officers he sued deliberately
framed him, but said he has a good relationship with most police. “SWAT
officers come in here to get something, some other come in. If you set
up 100 police, I bet 95 of them are decent people and some of the other
five have situations going on,” he said. In
January 2018, five years after his release from prison, dozens of
relatives, friends, downtown workers and city politicians jammed into
his tiny new shop on West Main Street to celebrate the grand opening of
the business he’d dreamed about in prison. “When
I went to prison I had two little sons and one unborn child — by the
time I came out, they were 28, 29 and 30. I lost that time of being a
father,” Schand said. “Nothing can pay me back for that.” He is now pursuing a goal that he had nurtured since early in his imprisonment. “This
is part of the dream," Schand’s wife, Mia, said during the grand
opening. “Mark is an entrepreneur, he wanted to have a business, and he
talked about that in prison all those years.” In
his lawsuit, Schand said Springfield police were troubled at the time
by groups of young men from Hartford traveling to Springfield and
becoming involved in altercations with local men. Information from a
variety of sources suggested that, on the night of the shooting, a group
from Hartford decided to rob a Springfield drug dealer and his
associates after someone stole a gold chain from one of the Hartford
men. The
suit said Springfield detectives obtained multiple photographs of
Schand, as well as dozens of other young men from Hartford. Perhaps
because he was photographed by Hartford police wearing a then-popular
style of sunglasses, a style that witnesses said might have been worn by
the killer, the suit said that Springfield police began presenting
Schand’s photographs to potential witnesses in ways that suggested his
guilt. At
one point, the suit claimed, Springfield detectives showed a photograph
of Schand wearing the sunglasses to one of the drug dealers and told
him that Schand “had shot Ms. Seymour.” The detectives then inserted the
Schand photograph into a stack of photos, handed the stack to the drug
dealer and asked him to see if he recognized the gunman. The drug dealer
chose a photograph of Schand. Two
decades later, amid efforts by Schand to overturn his conviction,
several witnesses against him recanted their testimony, claiming that
they were induced to lie by Springfield detectives. Schand was released
from custody on Oct. 4, 2013, after years of argument by his attorneys,
John and Linda Thompson, and investigators and lawyers with nonprofit,
New Jersey-based Centurion Ministries. In 2015, Centurion won the release from a life sentence in Connecticut of Richard Lapointe. Lapointe,
who has a mental handicap, was determined by the state Supreme Court to
have been wrongly convicted of the murder of his wife’s 88-year-old
grandmother more than two decades earlier. Schand has helped Lapointe
transition to life outside of prison."
The entire story can be read at:
The entire story can be read at:
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;
