the charles smith blog: November 2019

Saturday, November 30, 2019

Rodney Reed: Death Row: Part Six: Major Development: Amanda Knox puts herself firmly in Rodney Reed's corner, The Wellston Journal reports..."Knox was infamously convicted of murdering her along with her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito but she was freed in 2011. She has since appeared in documentaries and has written an autobiography. Now, she says she wants to help free wrongfully convicted people like her. "

GIST: "Amanda Knox has opened up to about how she feels compelled to help wrongfully convicted people after spending four years in Italian prison for a murder she was later acquitted of. The 32-year-old will appear on Dr. Phil‘s show on Tuesday to relive being blamed for the murder of Meredith Kercher, her British foreign exchange roommate who was brutally murdered while the pair were studying abroad in Perugia in 2007. Knox was infamously convicted of murdering her along with her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito but she was freed in 2011. She has since appeared in documentaries and has written an autobiography. Now, she says she wants to help free wrongfully convicted people like her. In her interview with Dr. Phil, she gives the example of Rodney Reed, a death row inmate who was granted a stay of execution this weekend after an onslaught of support from celebrities and politicians, as a proof of the kind of people who need her help. ‘For me, I spent four years in prison and that was horrible. I‘ll never get those years back. Knox was convicted and then acquitted of murdering Meredith Kercher in 2007 ‘But there are people in prison right now who have been inside longer than I have been alive. ‘Rodney has spent 22 years in prison. Think about this. ‘This is a lifetime that people are losing because someone decides they didn‘t want to bother to test the evidence?‘ she said. Knox, who recently got married, also recalled being told she had been found guilty f murder. ‘I was Foxy Knoxy the monster. ‘When they pronounced guilty, the world crumbled beneath me,‘ she said. She added that she was ‘hit‘ and ‘beat up‘ in prison but that she never let it break her spirit. ‘They took my freedom. They couldn‘t take who I was,‘ she said. Rodney Reed was convicted of murder in 1998. He was accused of killing Stacey Stites, a white woman in Bastrop, Texas. She had been found strangled by the side of the road and there was proof she had been raped. Reed was convicted because police found his DNA on her body. His explanation for it is that they were having an affair and had been intimate the day before she died. He was nonetheless convicted and has spent decades fighting for his freedom. Earlier this year, Dr. Phil shed light on the case and the new evidence Reed‘s attorneys say they have. It includes witness testimony that it was Stites‘ fiance, Jimmy Fennell, who killed her in a fit of rage after learning she was having an affair. The case caught the attention of Kim Kardashian West and politicians on both sides of the aisle who made pleas to Texas Governor Greg Abbott to reconsider Reed‘s death sentence. Now, he has been given an indefinite stay of execution and his attorneys are to return to court. "

The entire story can be read at:

https://wellstonjournal.com/amanda-knox-tells-dr-phil-she-is-devoted-to-helping-wrongfully-convicted-inmates.html

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;

Preservation of evidence: Growing scandal sweeping the Orange County Evidence Department threatens to alter the criminal justice landscape, The Sacramental Bee (Reporter Darrell Smith) reports..."The ramifications are real: Orange County’s guilty could go free; the innocent wrongly jailed on convictions built on tainted evidence – or evidence that was never filed at all. Thousands of criminal cases in this Southern California megalopolis of more than 3.2 million people are now potentially tainted after a week of back-to-back bombshells: internal reports revealing that hundreds of sheriff’s deputies sat on evidence and dozens of others lied about filing it."

PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "Now Orange County Sheriff’s officials are blasting assertions by the county’s assistant public defender, Scott Sanders, that deputies failed to book evidence in as many as 9,000 cases and are fielding terse demands from the county’s district attorney for more information in the wake of the audits that showed two years of nearly department-wide evidence mishandling. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department in 2018 undertook a pair of evidence audits. The first one looked at almost 99,000 police reports over a two-year period. It showed evidence in 30 percent of the reports was mishandled in some way, and the department did not retain evidence in nearly 72,000 cases. The Sacramento Bee on Wednesday obtained a copy of the department’s secondary audit — handed to sheriff’s brass in February but not disclosed to district attorney’s officials until last week."

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The misconduct behind the scandal poses a genuine problem for Spitzer’s office, said Daniel Feldman, a criminal justice professor teaching oversight and ethics at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, from expensive court challenges to navigating the tense relationship with leaders of a department he said appears to have a “substantial subculture of bad ethics.” “The defense relied on these statements that were not true,” he said. “Under these circumstances, courts would reverse convictions. Some courts would have to see whether the evidence was material, but others might say it’s so outrageous, we have to deter others from doing it again. “Either way,” Feldman concluded, “anybody convicted by this would have a heck of a civil suit."

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STORY: "Thousands of cases tainted by evidence mishandling by California deputies, attorney says," by reporter Darryl Smith, published by The Sacramental Bee on November 28, 2019.

PHOTO CAPTION: "The department run by Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes owned up to “systematic problems” with evidence handling, according to a statement released by the department this week. Barnes was undersheriff during the time a two-year internal audit took place. "

GIST: Disastrous. That’s what one attorney is calling the rapidly growing evidence scandal that has swept the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and that threatens to alter the criminal justice landscape in one of California’s largest counties. The ramifications are real: Orange County’s guilty could go free; the innocent wrongly jailed on convictions built on tainted evidence – or evidence that was never filed at all. Thousands of criminal cases in this Southern California megalopolis of more than 3.2 million people are now potentially tainted after a week of back-to-back bombshells: internal reports revealing that hundreds of sheriff’s deputies sat on evidence and dozens of others lied about filing it. Now Orange County Sheriff’s officials are blasting assertions by the county’s assistant public defender, Scott Sanders, that deputies failed to book evidence in as many as 9,000 cases and are fielding terse demands from the county’s district attorney for more information in the wake of the audits that showed two years of nearly department-wide evidence mishandling. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department in 2018 undertook a pair of evidence audits. The first one looked at almost 99,000 police reports over a two-year period. It showed evidence in 30 percent of the reports was mishandled in some way, and the department did not retain evidence in nearly 72,000 cases. The Sacramento Bee on Wednesday obtained a copy of the department’s secondary audit — handed to sheriff’s brass in February but not disclosed to district attorney’s officials until last week. The internal audit randomly sampled 450 reports out of the nearly 72,000 cases flagged in the first report. Of those, deputies filed 121 reports stating they collected and booked evidence. The auditor’s findings: no evidence was booked in nearly half of the sampled reports — 57 — in which deputies said they had, or about 13 percent of the 450 cases reviewed, according to the audit. Sanders’ projection that 9,000 cases were mishandled over two years stems from the numbers in the second audit. The Sheriff’s Department argues Sanders is exaggerating. “To take that (data) and extrapolate that out is incredibly disingenuous,” Carrie Braun, Orange County Sheriff’s spokeswoman, said Friday. Sanders last week stood by his office’s projections of potentially mishandled cases. “The department should forever be prohibited from using the word ‘disingenuous.’ Their exact figures are the figures to use. We’re looking at 450 cases out of 72,000. We’re going to stand by their numbers: it’s more likely to be 9,000 than 57,” Sanders said on Nov. 22. “We do the calibrations and they call us ‘disingenuous.’ That’s absurd.” Sanders, who has loudly criticized sheriff’s officials for failing to disclose the internal reports with their implications for criminal defendants, calls the developments “disastrous.” “We’ve been ripped off on thousands of cases. We had no idea,” Sanders said. “This is the sixth-largest county in the nation. There’s an enormous amount of cases they touch here.” But a week after the uncovering of a sweeping audit that exposed evidence mishandling rampant throughout one of the nation’s largest sheriff’s offices, the disclosure of the February audit and the scathing letter District Attorney Todd Spitzer fired off demanding answers, Sheriff Don Barnes has been largely silent. That changed little on Wednesday. In a four-paragraph statement, Barnes said his office’s “corrective measures” have “addressed any continuing evidence booking issues” and said lead staff from both offices should work together to identify reports that resulted in criminal filings. Barnes said sheriff’s officials would contact the DA’s office to set dates. Braun, the sheriff’s spokeswoman, said it was not clear when meetings to sort out the cases would occur. Wednesday’s memo came after a strongly-worded follow-up by Spitzer’s office Monday suggesting Barnes was slow-walking the audits and demands by Spitzer’s office for the names of defendants or the cases where Barnes’ deputies failed to book — or lied about — the evidence collected. “As of yet, we still do not have the audit nor have we received a response to the (Nov. 21) letter we sent to the Sheriff’s Department requesting additional information about cases where evidence was not properly booked,” Orange County Chief Assistant District Attorney Shawn Nelson said in a Monday statement. “This is not a dispute between departments. This is a sheriff’s issue,” Nelson’s statement began. “Now our office is fully apprised of the scope, we know what our duty is and it is unquestionable,” he said, calling the sheriff’s department’s failure to turn over or disclose the audits “mystifying.” The misconduct behind the scandal poses a genuine problem for Spitzer’s office, said Daniel Feldman, a criminal justice professor teaching oversight and ethics at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, from expensive court challenges to navigating the tense relationship with leaders of a department he said appears to have a “substantial subculture of bad ethics.” “The defense relied on these statements that were not true,” he said. “Under these circumstances, courts would reverse convictions. Some courts would have to see whether the evidence was material, but others might say it’s so outrageous, we have to deter others from doing it again. “Either way,” Feldman concluded, “anybody convicted by this would have a heck of a civil suit.""

The entire story can be read at:

Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article237862684.html#storylink=cpy

https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article237862684.html

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;

Rodney Reed: Death Row Texas: Aftermath: (Part Four): Good News: Young American students are showing concern about their country's criminal justice system - as evidenced by the following story written by a student in a class on Web Journalism offered by their Rye, New York, high school. It's headed: "The Plight of Rodney Reed and the Failure of the Justice System."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In the south, the allegation of a black man raping a white woman is the same as a sentence. Through slavery, antebellum, reconstruction, Jim Crow, and even now, the prejudices and quick assumptions associated with this particular crime has cost many black men their lives. Like real life Emmett Till, or Harper Lee’s Tom Robinson, just the rumor of impropriety can kill innocent men. This trend continues in the long and terrible story of Rodney Reed, and his delay of justice."

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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "The overwhelming evidence, and Reed’s record of involvement in such cases, easily won over the all-white jury, who sentenced him to death. Reed’s defense team claims that the trial was flawed, incomplete, and hastily done in order to convict a man everyone assumed was guilty. The belt, for example, which was used to strangle Stites was never tested for DNA evidence, despite numerous requests by the defense and the Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to overturning false convictions. Forensic scientists working with Reed’s legal team also proposed that Stites could have been killed two hours before the police were notified, which would change the accepted timeline of the crime and make her time of death so that she was still at home when she was killed. Forensic scientists from the original 1996 trial have since retracted their statements about the accepted timeline of the crime, meaning that Reed’s team could be right in their new sequence of events. In 2007, Stite’s fiancée, Jimmy Fennell, was accused of rape by a woman he detained as a police officer in Georgetown, Texas. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of kidnapping and improper sexual misconduct, and was sentenced to ten years in prison. Fennell was released in March of 2018. It was during his time in prison where Fennell is alleged to have admitted to killing Stites. Arthur Snow, a prisoner and member of the Aryan Brotherhood, signed an affidavit saying he heard Fennell say, “I had to kill my n****r-loving fiance.”

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STORY: "The Plight of Rodney Reed and the Failure of the Justice System," by Claire Killian, published by The Garnet Mine on November 26, 2019. (The Garnet Mine is the authentic assessment product of the Rye High School class called Web Journalism. The class deals first hand with issues of media, communications, and digital literacy while maintaining a much needed community communications resource. The information on “The Mine” is generated, edited, published, and researched by the students in the class and is updated daily during the first class period.)

GIST: "In the south, the allegation of a black man raping a white woman is the same as a sentence. Through slavery, antebellum, reconstruction, Jim Crow, and even now, the prejudices and quick assumptions associated with this particular crime has cost many black men their lives. Like real life Emmett Till, or Harper Lee’s Tom Robinson, just the rumor of impropriety can kill innocent men.
This trend continues in the long and terrible story of Rodney Reed, and his delay of justice. In 1996 Reed was convicted of abducting, raping and strangling, 19-year old Stacey Stites in Bastrop, Texas. Reed, who is black, was convicted by an all white jury. On April 22nd, 1996, Stites left her home, and fiancée Jimmy Fennell, to head to work at a grocery store 30 miles away, her shift was set to begin at 3:30 a.m. When Stites didn’t show up, her coworker called the cops, who later found her body on the side of the road, with the telltale signs of rape and strangling. The original suspect was Stites fiancée, Fennell, but his DNA did not match that of the hair found on the body. The police determined that it did match Reeds. Reed did not become a person of interest in the investigation until about a year after the actual crime was committed, and by that time he was tied up in another court case. Reed was also charged in the abduction, beating, and kidnapping of Linda Schlueter, this attack happened around six months after Stites was found. Due to the similarity in the cases, the police began to pursue Reed as a suspect. His DNA was already on file from another rape he was alleged to have committed. The DNA on file matched that of the hair found on Stites body, drawing Reed into the case even further. Reed has been considered a suspect in six different cases of rape (not including Stites), and he was only charged in one (Schlueter’s) , where he was acquitted shortly after.
Then began the trial, where the prosecution provided their infallible DNA evidence, and the story of Fennell and Stites as a happy couple. The defense pleaded desperately that other suspects, like Fennell, could have just as easily committed the crime, and argued that the hair found on Stites’ body did not match Reed’s. Reed did admit that he an Stites were having a consensual, on-going affair, a statement which was not confirmed at the time but has since been corroborated by friends and family of the victim. The overwhelming evidence, and Reed’s record of involvement in such cases, easily won over the all-white jury, who sentenced him to death. Reed’s defense team claims that the trial was flawed, incomplete, and hastily done in order to convict a man everyone assumed was guilty. The belt, for example, which was used to strangle Stites was never tested for DNA evidence, despite numerous requests by the defense and the Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to overturning false convictions. Forensic scientists working with Reed’s legal team also proposed that Stites could have been killed two hours before the police were notified, which would change the accepted timeline of the crime and make her time of death so that she was still at home when she was killed. Forensic scientists from the original 1996 trial have since retracted their statements about the accepted timeline of the crime, meaning that Reed’s team could be right in their new sequence of events. In 2007, Stite’s fiancée, Jimmy Fennell, was accused of rape by a woman he detained as a police officer in Georgetown, Texas. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of kidnapping and improper sexual misconduct, and was sentenced to ten years in prison. Fennell was released in March of 2018. It was during his time in prison where Fennell is alleged to have admitted to killing Stites. Arthur Snow, a prisoner and member of the Aryan Brotherhood, signed an affidavit saying he heard Fennell say, “I had to kill my n****r-loving fiance.” In prison, rapists are at the bottom of the pecking order. Often, they are targeted and even killed, Snow claims that Fennell came to him and said this as a way of building trust so as to get the protection of the Aryan Brotherhood. Other witnesses have come forward, such as deputy sheriff Jim Clampit, who attended Stite’s funeral and heard Fennel say “you got what you deserved” over her casket. The prosecution has been dismissive of new witnesses, questioning why they are coming forward now, and not then at the actual trial. They are also skeptical of why sworn statements have since been taken back. While their doubt is warranted, the seismic cultural shift in terms of how black people are perceived and treated must be taken into account. Since 1996, movements such as Black Lives Matter, and the organizations like the Innocence Project have been making waves in the legal attitudes towards black people, and changing the inherent biases towards them. It has taken celebrities and senators alike to tweet, write to, and call out the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) for Reed to finally be recognized. The TCCA ordered an indefinite stay of execution for Reed, meaning he’s still technically on death row, he just doesn’t have a set execution date. This is to give his case time to be reviewed in court, and for new evidence to be examined, which has only recently come to light after being covered up by the prosecution.
Reed, who has maintained his innocence during his trial and sentence, has expressed hesitant positivity about the review. In an interview with NBC he said, “I am innocent in this case. Absolutely innocent. I am cautiously optimistic that something good has got to happen.” This case has been plagued with lies, racial profiling, and injustice, but now there is an opportunity to review it. The hopeful eyes of a nation are on this retrial."

The entire story can be read at:
https://thegarnetmine.com/staff/

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;

Friday, November 29, 2019

Sedley Alley: Tennessee: Deceased: Part two: Moving USA Today (Commercial Appeal Service) commentary by Memphis Commercial Appeal scribe Tonyaa Weathersbee notes a Mephis judge's ruling that Sedley Alley's daughter had no standing to request that his DNA be tested - adding that "that must change." Her cogent observation: 'DNA proof can't save Sedley Alley. But the truth can set his daughter free.'

WORDS TO HEED: FROM OUR POST ON KEVIN COOPER'S APPLICATION FOR POST-CONVICTION DNA TESTING (CALIFORNIA):
 
"Blogger/extraordinaire Jeff Gamso's blunt, unequivocal, unforgettable message to the powers that be in California: "JUST TEST THE FUCKING DNA." (Oh yes, Gamso raises, as he does in many of his posts, an important philosophical question: This post is headed: "What is truth, said jesting Pilate.")..."So what's the harm? What, exactly, are they scared of? Don't we want the truth?"
https://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2018/06/kevin-cooper-2-california-application.html
 
https://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2018/06/kevin-cooper-2-california-application.html

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 PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination (as well as false identification and jailhouse informants) – and because of the growing body of scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects (especially juveniles) are to widely used interrogation methods such as the controversial ‘Reid Technique.’"   Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;

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COMMENTARY: "DNA proof can't save Sedley Alley. But the truth can set his daughter free," by
Tonyaa Weathersbee, published by The Memphis Commercial Appeal on November 23, 2019.

SUB-HEADING: "A Memphis judge ruled that the daughter of executed killer and rapist Sedley Alley, had no standing to request that his DNA be tested. That must change.

GIST: "If Sedley Alley raped and murdered Lance Cpl. Suzanne Collins more than 30 years ago, DNA evidence won’t free him from prison He was executed for that crime 13 years ago. But if that evidence proves Alley did not commit that heinous crime, it would free his daughter, April, from the tortuous thought that her father was a monster. And if DNA proves he did it, then it will free her to move on with her life. Seems that kind of freedom would be easy to grant. But not in Tennessee. Judge Paula Shakan recently rejected a petition requesting DNA testing for Alley. The Memphis judge said that Alley’s estate didn’t have standing to file a petition for DNA analysis under the Post-Conviction DNA Analysis Act. Under that act, she wrote, the relative of a deceased inmate had no standing to bring a post-DNA conviction claim. The good news, though, is that Shakan allowed the DNA evidence that April Alley’s attorneys collected to be preserved – which means they get to fight another day. But who to fight? Do April Alley’s lawyers fight Shakan’s interpretation of state law? Or do they fight for the law to be changed? “You can do both at the same time,” said William Massey, a Memphis attorney who is working with the Innocence Project on the Alley case. “The judge’s decision hinged on the definition of a person as a representation of an estate. “I believe it will end up in the [Tennessee] Supreme Court.” That would be the same court that admitted it made a mistake by denying Alley’s request for DNA testing in 2006 shortly before he was executed. “So, they owe us one,” Massey said. On top of that Alley, who didn’t remember the crime, said that his confession was coerced. That’s not far-fetched – considering that of the more than 360 prisoners that the Innocence Project helped to exonerate through the use of DNA since 1989, more than a quarter of them had falsely confessed. Intimidation, either real or perceived, or the threat of bodily harm by interrogators contributes to false confessions, as does the suspect’s physical and mental state. “To me, there’s been a problem with those kind of interrogations around the country,” Massey said, citing the Reid Technique, an interrogation method that has been linked to an increasing number of false confessions. “It doesn’t leave bruises, but the psychological effect is devastating.” What’s more is that Tennessee has no law requiring recorded interrogations – which might have helped in Alley’s case – and which it can use now. Nonetheless, April Alley is a brave woman. If she isn’t afraid of possibly uncovering an awful truth, why should anyone else? “That’s what I thought since becoming involved with this case,” Massey said. “He [Alley] even told April: ‘If I did this, then I deserve what I get. But I don’t remember it.’” Unfortunately, people like Alley, an alcoholic and drug user, too easily fit the stereotype of someone who doesn’t deserve a chance at fairness. Alley’s shortcomings already had him vilified in society’s mind eye as someone who was worthless and viewed as undeserving of opportunity or mercy. It’s hard to ignore the hypocrisy here; of how the criminal justice is built on people paying for their mistakes, but, at least in Alley’s case, it won’t allow the DNA testing that could possibly reveal its mistake. Bottom line: If the science exists to prove innocence or guilt, the state must find a way to use it. If prison, and subsequently execution, denied April Alley a life with her father for a crime he may not have committed, she needs to know. And if the wrong man was executed for Collins’ death, her family needs to know. This shouldn’t be about prosecutors solidifying a win, but about a daughter solidifying the truth. Especially since Alley has already paid the ultimate price – either for his heinous deed or for the system’s heinous mistake."

The entire commentary can be read at:

https://www.commercialappeal.com/in-depth/news/columnists/tonyaa-weathersbee/2019/11/23/dna-cant-save-sedley-alley-but-truth-can-set-his-daughter-free-weathersbee/4261262002/

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;

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew Stewart: Baltimore: Extraordinary exoneration: Washinton Post (Reporter Tom Jackman) tells the story of the three men who were exonerated this week after 36 years behind bars for their wrongful murder conviction: It's enough to make one weep: As city prosecutor Marilyn Mosby put it - after visiting each man in prison to give them the news she was asking for their freedom: "She said she told the men: “I’m sorry. The system failed them. They should have never had to see the inside of a jail cell. We will do everything in our power not only to release them, but to support them as they re-acclimate into society.” It's a story of coached young witnesses and crucial exculpatory evidence concealed from the defence - a story of police misconduct (polite words for obstruction of justice) that destroyed the lives of three young men and their families - while the killer went free. Of particular interest to this Blog, it is also the story of a staged identification process. HL.

STORY: "Arrested as teens, three men exonerated after 36 years behind bars for wrongful murder conviction," by reporter Tom Jackman, published by The Washington Post on November 25, 2019. (The Post notes that Tom Jackman has been covering crime and courts for The Washington Post since 1998, after handling similar beats at the Kansas City Star. Jackman helped lead the coverage of

the D.C. sniper trials in 2003 and was the lead writer on The Post’s breaking news coverage of the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, which won the Pulitzer Prize. More recently he focused on the police killing of an unarmed man in Fairfax County, Va., which ended with the officer convicted of manslaughter and serving jail time. In 2016, Jackman launched the True Crime blog, which looks at criminal justice issues and important cases locally and nationally.)

SUB-HEADING: "Baltimore prosecutor’s Conviction Integrity Unit finds men are innocent in 1983 slaying of 14-year-old, shot in school hallway for his jacket."

PHOTO CAPTION: "After 36 years in prison, Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew Stewart were exonerated of murder and released from a Baltimore prison on Nov. 25."

GIST: (This superb article defies reduction - and should be read word for word. Here is just a taste. HL.) "Police reports produced soon after the killing revealed that numerous witnesses had told Baltimore investigators that Michael Willis, then 18, was the shooter, prosecutors now say. One student identified him immediately, one saw him run and discard a handgun as police pulled up to Harlem Park Junior High School, one heard him confess to the shooting, and one saw him wearing a Georgetown jacket that night. But police, including Kincaid, focused on Chestnut and Watkins and Stewart, all 16, the Conviction Integrity Unit concluded............................The teens were kicked out around 12:45 p.m. by a security guard who testified at trial he lectured the boys about staying in school, watched them walk up the street away from the school, and then locked the school doors well before the 1:15 p.m. shooting of Duckett. Prosecutors at the time said the trio must have sneaked back in. Defense attorneys pressed for evidence that cast doubt on their clients’ guilt. In 1984, then-Assistant State’s Attorney Jonathan Shoup told the court the state had no such reports, despite the fact there were police documents showing that the trial witnesses had twice failed to identify the three defendants in photo lineups as well as statements implicating Willis. A judge sealed the reports. Then, when Chestnut made a public records request to the Maryland attorney general last year, the office turned them over. “It made me angry,” Chestnut said. “Just the fact that everything was concealed all those years. I knew that they didn’t want to reveal those things." ........................... Mosby said the case raised a number of problems she intends to address. The teen witnesses were repeatedly questioned without their parents present, she said, and they felt pressured to falsely identify Chestnut, Watkins and Stewart. Mosby is seeking laws to prohibit such questioning by police without a parent, guardian or lawyer...................................... Duckett was headed to lunch with two friends when someone came up and demanded his Georgetown Starter jacket at 1:15 p.m. His two friends ran. As Duckett was struggling to get the jacket off, he was shot. He ran to the cafeteria and collapsed, conscious but unable to speak, and died two hours later. “Two individuals called in saying Michael Willis was the shooter,” Lipscomb said. One witness picked Willis out of a photo array as the shooter. Another student saw Willis run from the school and throw away a handgun. The reports on all of this were not given to the defense by the prosecutor Shoup. “You cannot make this up,” Lipscomb said. “It is just outrageous. Detective Kincaid showed photos of Chestnut, Watkins and Stewart to three witnesses. Twice, all three witnesses did not identify any of them, the newly released reports show. But the witnesses were repeatedly pulled from school over subsequent months and coached to identify the three teens, Lipscomb said. Kincaid flatly denied this. At trial, with the defense unaware they had not identified the teens initially, their testimony was devastating. All three have now recanted their testimony, Lipscomb said. “The detective didn’t care,” Watkins said. “When we told the truth, he didn’t care. When police arrived at each of the teen’s houses at 1 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day 1983, they had a search warrant for Chestnut and found a Georgetown Starter jacket in his closet. His mother had the receipt for the jacket and showed it to police, Chestnut said. No blood or physical evidence tied the coat to Duckett or the shooting. But Shoup told the jury the victim’s jacket was in the defendant’s closet, another powerful piece of evidence that prosecutors now say was false..................we didn’t do it, and a lot of other people know we didn’t do it.” The men became eligible for parole in recent years, but all three declined to accept responsibility for the slaying, and so even when parole commissioners recommended them for release, the Maryland governor refused. “I can’t sit up there and tell somebody I killed somebody when I didn’t,” Watkins said. Watkins expressed sorrow for Duckett’s family, for having to revisit their loss and for knowing that justice wasn’t done. Lipscomb said that she met with the family and that they were unsurprised by the exoneration. She said one of Duckett’s brothers had always felt Willis was the killer."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2019/11/25/arrested-teens-three-men-are-expected-be-exonerated-after-years-behind-bars-wrongful-murder-conviction

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Read excellent commentary by Andrew L. Urban on his Wrongful Convictions Report at the link below: "Three men from Baltimore, US, who were sent to prison as teenagers for a murder they did not commit have been released after 36 years. And after overturning the convictions on November 26, 2019, “On behalf of the criminal justice system,” judge Charles Peters said, “I’m going to apologise.” As The Australian reports, the three men, Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew Stewart, were convicted of the murder of a 14-year-old boy, DeWitt Duckett, who was shot in the neck in the corridor of a Baltimore middle school one afternoon in November 1983. He was murdered for his Georgetown University jacket, detectives said. Mr Chestnut, who was 16 at the time, was later seen wearing a Georgetown jacket but his mother produced a receipt for it.
Police identified them as suspects and pressed for convictions, even though witnesses later recanted the testimony that implicated them, and another man, Michael Willis, was seen wearing what appeared to be the victim’s jacket. Georgetown University was popular because of its basketball team. Willis, who was 18, later confessed to the murder. He died in a shooting in 2002. Despite being minors, Chestnut, Watkins and Stewart were tried as adults. They have maintained their innocence and Chestnut never ceased to try to overturn the case. This year his plea was picked up by the city’s criminal conviction unit. Prosecutors found that crucial evidence that might have cleared them, including anonymous calls identifying Willis as the gunman, and misconduct in interviewing witnesses, were kept from the lawyers working on the case. More than 2200 prisoners who were wrongfully convicted have been freed since 1989, when US courts began using DNA evidence in murder cases. “Everyone involved in this case, school officials, police, prosecutors, jurors, the media, and the community rushed to judgment and allowed their tunnel vision to obscure obvious problems with the evidence,” said Shawn Armbrust, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, which represents Watkins. Armbrust added that the case should be a lesson to everyone that the search for quick answers can lead to tragic results. Chestnut said: “It’s a lot of guys that I left behind that are in the same situation that I’m in. They need a voice. I had an opportunity, by the grace of God, to have someone who heard me.""
https://wrongfulconvictionsreport.org/2019/11/28/judge-sorry-for-justice-system/

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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/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;

Greg Kelley; Texas: Botched sexual assault investigation: Major (Welcome) Development: Former high school football star officially exonerated at last on wrongful conviction in 2014 of sexual assault of 4-year-old boy at a day care which left him sentenced to 25 years in prison...."Kelley said for six years he has had to fight the justice system to prove he did not commit the crime, but that he also had to fight to prove to the victim he did not do it."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "He also said he still wants to see Cedar Park Police Chief Sean Mannix and Sgt. Chris Dailey fired. The Police Department declined to comment Wednesday. Dailey testified in a hearing in 2017 that he did not visit the day care facility, take photographs, question other people who had access to the boy who made the accusation against Kelley, collect evidence or consider other suspects. Since then, the city of Cedar Park — following recommendations from an independent review — has created a special victims unit dedicated to the investigation of sexual assault, child abuse and elderly abuse, and also added detectives as well as management and supervisory staff. Kelley said he would never have been declared innocent without King and Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick interceding in his case. Kelley said after he was convicted that his attorney presented evidence of his innocence to then-Williamson County Attorney Jana Duty, now deceased, but she said there was nothing that would ever get him out of prison. Dick reopened the investigation after he took office in 2017. Dick said after the court hearing Wednesday that “we were able at least to get to the truth of whether or not Greg Kelley should have been convicted and whether or not the trial was held appropriately.” “Unfortunately,” Dick said, “we were unable to get to the ultimate answer of what happened to the child.”"

STORY:"Greg Kelley smiled Wednesday after District Judge Donna King formally proclaimed his innocence. He then shook the hand of his attorney, Keith Hampton, and got a tissue to blow his nose and wipe away tears. Kelley then turned to the packed courtroom and addressed his supporters, who moments earlier had erupted with applause when King said he was “fully exonerated.” “God is good,” he said. “Amen.” Kelley then praised his family, his fiancee, his attorney, the judge and his friends. He said women like his fiancee, Gaebri Anderson, whom he will marry Jan. 19, only exist in movies. “You carried the burden of being attached to me when the whole world was calling me a monster,” he said. “You kept me alive. Kelley, 24, was convicted in 2014 of the super aggravated sexual assault of a 4-year-old boy at a Cedar Park day care and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was released in 2017 on appeal after prosecutors said new evidence showed there were two other viable suspects. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals exonerated Kelley in early November. As part of the process, his case was sent back to district court to get his indictment dismissed. King declared his innocence at Wednesday’s hearing, a necessary step for Kelley to qualify for compensation under the state’s Wrongful Incarceration Act for the three years he spent in prison. Kelley could receive as much as $250,000, his attorney said. Kelley thanked Hampton in court Wednesday for “believing in me when I was the most broken. “Thank you for taking this on when you had no idea what you were getting into,” Kelley said. “You are a superhero.” He also praised Jake Brydon, a former Cedar Park resident who paid for Hampton to defend Kelley and helped organize hundreds of people to rally in Kelley’s defense. “You had no idea who I was after my conviction,” Kelley said. “But you called my broken mother and promised her you would do everything you could to fight for me.” He also spoke about the boy who had accused Kelley of sexually assaulting him. “For the victim, I am sorry you have to go through this,” Kelley said. “Believe me, your opinion matters. Kelley said for six years he has had to fight the justice system to prove he did not commit the crime, but that he also had to fight to prove to the victim he did not do it. Kelley said he was “absolutely terrified” in prison but that his faith in Jesus helped him survive. “I fell in love with getting to know Jesus because he was the place I could find peace in the middle of hate. Judge King told the court that declaring Kelley innocent was the most she could do to “undo the damage done.” She said she could not reclaim the years Kelley had lost, or restore his life to what it was when he was a senior in high school. Kelley was a Leander High School football star when he was arrested. After the hearing, he said he still wants to play football and has been in training for two years. He also said he still wants to see Cedar Park Police Chief Sean Mannix and Sgt. Chris Dailey fired. The Police Department declined to comment Wednesday. Dailey testified in a hearing in 2017 that he did not visit the day care facility, take photographs, question other people who had access to the boy who made the accusation against Kelley, collect evidence or consider other suspects. Since then, the city of Cedar Park — following recommendations from an independent review — has created a special victims unit dedicated to the investigation of sexual assault, child abuse and elderly abuse, and also added detectives as well as management and supervisory staff. Kelley said he would never have been declared innocent without King and Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick interceding in his case. Kelley said after he was convicted that his attorney presented evidence of his innocence to then-Williamson County Attorney Jana Duty, now deceased, but she said there was nothing that would ever get him out of prison. Dick reopened the investigation after he took office in 2017. Dick said after the court hearing Wednesday that “we were able at least to get to the truth of whether or not Greg Kelley should have been convicted and whether or not the trial was held appropriately.” “Unfortunately,” Dick said, “we were unable to get to the ultimate answer of what happened to the child.""

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.statesman.com/news/20191127/kelley-declared-innocent-of-assault-charges

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;

Sedley Alley. (Deceased): Tennessee: Part One: 'Reason' story (by Zuri Davis) captures the ultimate absurdity (and cruelty) of denying DNA that could prove an executed man was innocent - in what is also a false confession case. "The Innocence Project has called for testing physical evidence from the case, which includes red underwear believed to be owned by the assailant and stains on Collins' shirt and bra. The group received information about another possible suspect: a man who attended the same training school as Collins. They believe that this man, most recently indicted for homicide and rape in St. Louis, is a serial offender. In May, April Alley and the Innocence Project filed a petition with the Criminal Court for Shelby County in Memphis, asking the state to DNA test the evidence in her father's case. The petition also asked Gov. Bill Lee (R) to use executive authority to order testing. On Monday, Judge Paula Skahan dismissed the petition. Skahan's opinion says that April Alley "does not have standing" as Alley's estate to file a petition for post-conviction DNA testing of evidence held by the state."

GIST: "A technicality in the law stands in the way of a daughter's attempt to prove that the state of Tennessee put her innocent father to death. Sedley Alley was convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of Marine Cpl. Suzanne M. Collins. Collins was jogging in a park near a naval base in Millington when she was abducted. Three witnesses said her abductor was driving a brown station wagon. Alley drove a similar vehicle. He was pulled over and told naval security that he was driving around town and drinking beer the night of the abduction. Alley was brought in for questioning on the naval base. When the questioning was completed, Alley started his vehicle so he could leave. The witnesses, who happened to be present, said the sound of his car matched the sound of the perpetrator's vehicle.
Collins' mutilated body was discovered the next day and law enforcement arrested Alley. The Commercial Appeal has more details on Alley's case. Alley confessed to the murder and led police to the crime scene. However, there are several problems with the state's case. The Innocence Project, a civil liberties group, now believes Alley was coerced into making a false confession by the police. An expert would later testify that police tainted Alley's confession by telling him non-public details about the crime. The group also notes inconsistencies with the evidence used to convict Alley. The witness description of the suspect did not match Alley's features. Alley's supposed recollection of the crime also did not match up with the details uncovered by investigators. In fact, he repeatedly said that he did not remember committing the crime. Alley was executed by lethal injection in June 2006. April Alley, his daughter, is now working with the Innocence Project to clear her father's name posthumously. Skahan's decision rests on Tennessee's Post-Conviction DNA Analysis Act of 2001, which merely allows "a person convicted of and sentenced for the commission of first-degree murder" to file a petition of this nature. The cruel irony of this legal predicament is that Alley, who is deceased because of the state's actions, is the only person who has the authority to file a petition asking the state to test the evidence that could exonerate him. Worse, as the Innocence Project petition explains, Alley previously sought post-conviction testing under the act and was denied due to "a now-reversed and clearly incorrect interpretation" of the 2001 law, which was not cleared up by the Tennessee Supreme Court until 2011. "I'm heartbroken. Frankly, I'm numb. I'm very grateful for all who have supported me in this effort to find the truth. We will see this through to the end, no matter what it takes," April Alley said in response to the ruling. The Innocence Project wrote in a statement that it has "already filed a notice of appeal." The group criticized Skahan's ruling, saying, "The petition simply asks for testing of available DNA evidence, which could be done within 30 to 60 days. It will now take months, if not years, to go through the courts to finally get to the truth in this matter.""

The entire story can be read at:

https://reason.com/2019/11/20/tennessee-court-refuses-to-test-dna-evidence-that-could-exonerate-a-man-the-state-already-executed/

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;

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Clayton Allison: Alaska: Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Also a false confession case. His murder conviction and thirty year prison sentence in death of his 15-month-old daughter has been overturned, The Welston Journal reports..."The Alaska Court of Appeals on Friday overturned the murder conviction of a Wasilla man who was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the death of his toddler daughter, saying information about a potentially fatal medical condition the child could have had was wrongly forbidden from trial."

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "It’s like a new death every morning,” she said Friday, speaking about her 10-year separation from her husband. “It’s indescribably difficult, but we have soldiered through and we have fought hard."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "During the trial, the court forbade Allison’s witnesses from discussing a particular genetic condition she might have had that could have made her prone to the internal bleeding that caused her death. If that information had been allowed at trial, Allison’s attorney’s argued on appeal, the jury might have reached a different verdict. Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, as it’s called, is a group of nervous system disorders affecting the body’s connective tissues. It can cause those who have it to bleed and bruise more easily, and in its most severe form, it can cause blood vessel and organ walls to rupture. Those complications have sometimes been mistaken for child abuse, according to one of Allison’s physician witnesses. Christiane “CJ” Allison, Clayton Allison’s wife and the child’s mother, was diagnosed with a form of the disorder after her daughter’s death. But during the trial, Palmer Superior Court Judge Vanessa White sided with prosecutors, who argued the potential diagnosis was too speculative to allow as evidence, according to the appeals court’s opinion. White also threw out a 2009 admission of abuse from Allison, finding it coerced. The information about Ehlers-Danlos syndrome would only be admissible if the defense could produce experts in the condition who could explain Christiane Allison’s diagnosis and also diagnose Jocelyn “to a reasonable degree of medical certainty,” White ruled. The appeals court found that standard wrongly placed the burden of proof on Allison to prove his innocence. Additionally, barring evidence that might have cast doubt on Allison’s guilt restricted his ability to defend himself, the appeals court said in its opinion. “Evidence that there were other possible medical explanations for her excessive bleeding was something that the jury should have heard,” wrote Chief Judge Marjorie K. Allard."

PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: If prosecutors don’t appeal the decision, Allison’s case will be remanded back to state Superior Court, where the state can choose whether or not to retry him."

STORY: "Murder conviction overturned for Wasilla man charged with killing 15-month-old daughter," published by The Wellston Journal on November 26, 2019.

GIST: "The Alaska Court of Appeals on Friday overturned the murder conviction of a Wasilla man who was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the death of his toddler daughter, saying information about a potentially fatal medical condition the child could have had was wrongly forbidden from trial. Clayton Allison, 36, was in the 2008 death of his daughter, Jocelyn, who died of traumatic brain injuries that Allison claimed happened when she fell down the stairs. Prosecutors argued the 15-month-old’s injuries — old and new bleeding in the brain, rib and leg bruises, and dislocated neck vertebrae, among others — were the result of abuse. Physicians also hadn’t identified any other medical condition that could have caused her injuries, they argued. According to the appeals court’s opinion, though, Jocelyn had multiple unexplained health problems that her family was seeking genetic testing for. During the trial, the court forbade Allison’s witnesses from discussing a particular genetic condition she might have had that could have made her prone to the internal bleeding that caused her death. If that information had been allowed at trial, Allison’s attorney’s argued on appeal, the jury might have reached a different verdict. Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, as it’s called, is a group of nervous system disorders affecting the body’s connective tissues. It can cause those who have it to bleed and bruise more easily, and in its most severe form, it can cause blood vessel and organ walls to rupture. Those complications have sometimes been mistaken for child abuse, according to one of Allison’s physician witnesses. Christiane “CJ” Allison, Clayton Allison’s wife and the child’s mother, was diagnosed with a form of the disorder after her daughter’s death. But during the trial, Palmer Superior Court Judge Vanessa White sided with prosecutors, who argued the potential diagnosis was too speculative to allow as evidence, according to the appeals court’s opinion. White also threw out a 2009 admission of abuse from Allison, finding it coerced. The information about Ehlers-Danlos syndrome would only be admissible if the defense could produce experts in the condition who could explain Christiane Allison’s diagnosis and also diagnose Jocelyn “to a reasonable degree of medical certainty,” White ruled. The appeals court found that standard wrongly placed the burden of proof on Allison to prove his innocence. Additionally, barring evidence that might have cast doubt on Allison’s guilt restricted his ability to defend himself, the appeals court said in its opinion. “Evidence that there were other possible medical explanations for her excessive bleeding was something that the jury should have heard,” wrote Chief Judge Marjorie K. Allard. If prosecutors don’t appeal the decision, Allison’s case will be remanded back to state Superior Court, where the state can choose whether or not to retry him. For Christiane Allison, who maintained her husband’s innocence throughout his trial, the decision comes as a long-awaited relief. “It’s like a new death every morning,” she said Friday, speaking about her 10-year separation from her husband. “It’s indescribably difficult, but we have soldiered through and we have fought hard. Christiane, who maintains a website ( ) sic has spent that time advocating for prisoners’ rights and improved prison conditions. When she called her husband at Goose Creek Correctional Center to tell him about the decision, “he sounded like he was going to fall over,” she said. “We’re over the moon excited.""

The entire story can be read at:

https://wellstonjournal.com/murder-conviction-overturned-for-wasilla-man-charged-with-killing-15-month-old-daughter.html

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A news report (July 16, 2015) on Clayton Allison's conviction for killing his daughter published by The Frontiersman is fascinating in light of his exoneration by the appeal court. It reads in part: "We love you Clayton!” several people in the gallery called out, as bailiffs escorted Allison out of the courtroom. When Allison appeared in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs, several members of the audience also rose to their feet in support. (Trial judge) White’s remarks zeroed in on the contents of the confidential pre-sentencing report, a document defense attorneys said would follow Allison as he begins long-term residency with the Alaska Department of Corrections. Numerous objections raised by defense attorneys would not alter the report, White said. “The defendant has made a number of objections to the factual assertions in the pre-sentence report,” she said. “Most of those factual assertions are not material to the court’s sentencing decision and will not be relevant to the parole board.” For example, at one point the report refers to the Allisons’ home as “cluttered,” which White said would likely not be material to either the sentence or the parole board. A reference to a healed leg fracture being “discovered” on the body of Jocelynn Allison following her death on Sept. 24, 2008, was also immaterial, the judge said. Nor did the word “discovered” suggest “this is evidence of a hidden, untreated, or undisclosed injury to the child,” White said. White also said any evidence of the injuries coming about as a result of repeated child abuse was unfounded, adding that the court did not agree with one possible implication in the report. White said the parole officer’s interpretation of events “is not sufficiently supported by the evidence for the court to agree with that inference,” White said. “The court shall not strike what is an accurate factual summary, but declines to adopt the inference just mentioned.” White also agreed with a psychological evaluation labeling Allison “passive,” as compared to his wife, CJ Allison. “The court is of a similar opinion to Dr. Turner,” White said. “Something happened to cause this otherwise passive and patient man to kill his daughter. Dr. Turner has no idea what occurred, and neither does the court.” White said she focused on community condemnation as the central sentencing criterion in fashioning her sentence. Defense attorneys, some of whom said they had been litigating Jocelynn Allison’s death for almost half a decade, said they had not expected a sentence as steep as the one imposed Wednesday. “We’ve been living and breathing this case, it seems like, forever,” said Hannah Thorssin-Bahri who began representing the family in 2009. Defense attorney Ariel Toft has been working the case for almost two years. Unlike numerous other criminal defense cases, the attorneys have developed a personal relationship with the family and friends of the accused, Thorssin-Bahri said. The attorneys say they believe absolutely in Allison’s innocence. “Sending an innocent man to jail for 30 years is hard to take,” Thorssin-Bahri said. Family members said what they believed happened was not a murder, but a miscarriage of justice. Clayton Allison’s brother-in-law Steven Vaughn compared the experience of some family members, repeatedly submitted to autopsy photos of a 15-month-old girl, to torture. “We don’t torture terrorists, but we force a mother to look at pictures of her chopped up kid,” he said. “It makes me nauseous.” Prosecutor Mike Perry said the photos in question were clearly announced beforehand, and that they were not used as part of a calculated strategy to manipulate the jury. “To argue that the jury should not see the evidence because it is hard to look at is to argue against our system of justice and ask jurors to convict on hearsay and opinion only, and is less likely to lead to a correct outcome,” he wrote. Perry said the sentence was reasonable. “The sentencing range was 20-99, so a sentence of 30 years for murder is not at all on the harsh side and takes into account the factors that the family wanted considered,” he wrote in an email. The state had also funded the defense of Clayton Allison at roughly four times the budget afforded the prosecution, Perry said. Despite the family’s objections, justice had been done, Perry said. “I understand that the family is frustrated and blames the prosecution and the court, just as they also blamed the medical personnel and the troopers who investigated the case,” he wrote. “All parties have tried to perform their jobs and the process is still ongoing.” Supporters filled the rows of courtroom seats, sporting green T-shirts with the slogan “Show your stripes for Clayton,” and green-and-black zebra-pattern stripes and hearts. The stripes were a reference to a genetic disorder known as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome which effects as many as 1 in 10,000 people, according to the National Institutes of Health. Family members say CJ was diagnosed with the disorder by doctors at the Mayo Clinic, and the uncommon diagnosis contributed to what they are certain is Jocelynn’s accidental death. White barred testimony on the syndrome from the courtroom."
https://www.frontiersman.com/news/allison-sentenced-to--year-term-in-daughter-s-death/article_46946750-2b6a-11e5-b95a-bfe88b9b40bb.html

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;

Michael Kearney: New York: False drug tests on American prisoners. (Part Two): Also a false confession case): "After false drug test, he was in solitary confinement for 120 days, The New York Times reports. (Reporter Jan Ransom)..."Mr. Kearney is one of hundreds of New York State prisoners who say they were punished after tests falsely determined they had used drugs, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed on Wednesday."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: "I have become increasingly concerned about the prevalence of false tests in recent years - especially in light of revelations from the FBI and Motherisk scandals. Revelations of alleged false positives in drug tests in American prisons raise serious questions about the reliability of the testing equipment used - and how many other inmates have been adversely affected,

Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.

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STORY: "After False Drug Test, He Was in Solitary Confinement for 120 Days," by reporter Jan Ransom, published by The New York Times, on November 20, 2019.

SUB-HEADING: "Hundreds of New York State prisoners were locked in cells, denied release or removed from programs when tests erroneously showed they had used narcotics, according to a lawsuit."

PHOTO CAPTION: "

GIST: (This is section of the entire article which appears below - and is well worth the read. HL): "Michael Kearney could not understand how he had tested positive for drugs. He stared in disbelief at the corrections officers in an upstate New York prison where he was serving time. Though he had once been addicted to crack cocaine, he had been clean for two years. Yet the corrections officers had arrived with handcuffs, saying a urine test showed that Mr. Kearney had used a prescription painkiller. Prison officials gave him 120 days in solitary confinement just a week before he was supposed to be released. It took officials seven months to realize the test results were wrong, he said. “I think about it every day,” Mr. Kearney, 50, said in a phone interview this week. “Where I could have been.” Mr. Kearney is one of hundreds of New York State prisoners who say they were punished after tests falsely determined they had used drugs, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed on Wednesday.Continue reading the main story Many of the inmates spent months in solitary confinement or locked in cells. Others were denied release on parole, removed from programs, or held beyond their scheduled release dates after testing positive for narcotics, according to the complaint filed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The plaintiffs, who include former and current inmates, claim that the manufacturer of the drug-testing equipment used in the prisons — Microgenics Corporation and its parent company, Thermo Fisher Scientific — failed to ensure that its devices produced accurate results. State prison officials and the state inspector general are investigating the matter. The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has begun reviewing tests taken this year that came back positive for the opioids Suboxone and buprenorphine, according to the lawsuit. Thomas Mailey, a spokesman for the department, said the prisons had stopped using the Microgenics equipment after learning that results were inaccurate."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/nyregion/prison-inmate-drug-testing-lawsuit.html

Nadezda Steele-Warrick said she was stunned in April when a sergeant and 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;

 an officer arrested her in her private cell at the Albion Correctional Facility, about 45 minutes west of Rochester. It was her day off from teaching classes in the gym. She had been in bed reading “Small Great Things” by Jodi Picoult.

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At first, she said, she thought the corrections officers were playing a bad joke. But they were not. When they accused her of using drugs, she told them she had never taken illicit drugs before.

Ms. Steele-Warrick, 36, had been a model prisoner since her conviction in 2015 on an assault charge, and prison officials had let her spend the weekend with her husband and 7-year-old son in April under a family reunification program. But she had to take drug tests before and after the visit. One of the tests came back positive.

Her husband testified on her behalf at a disciplinary hearing that he had not seen her use drugs during his visit with her. But she was sentenced to confinement in general population for 11 days. She was only allowed to leave her cell for 10 minutes each to day to shower.

“All I was doing was crying,” she said. “The turmoil I went through and the mental anguish — I wouldn’t want it to happen to anyone again.”

Four months after Ms. Steele-Warrick was released from prison in May, the result of the hearing was overturned. The drug test was faulty, the lawsuit said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/nyregion/prison-inmate-drug-testing-lawsuit.html

Nadezda Steele-Warrick said she was stunned in April when a sergeant and an officer arrested her in her private cell at the Albion Correctional Facility, about 45 minutes west of Rochester. It was her day off from teaching classes in the gym. She had been in bed reading “Small Great Things” by Jodi Picoult.

Continue reading the main story

At first, she said, she thought the corrections officers were playing a bad joke. But they were not. When they accused her of using drugs, she told them she had never taken illicit drugs before.

“All I was doing was crying,” she said. “The turmoil I went through and the mental anguish — I wouldn’t want it to happen to anyone again.”

Four months after Ms. Steele-Warrick was released from prison in May, the result of the hearing was overturned. The drug test was faulty, the lawsuit said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/nyregion/prison-inmate-drug-testing-lawsuit.html

GIST: Michael Kearney could not understand how he had tested positive for drugs. He stared in disbelief at the corrections officers in an upstate New York prison where he was serving time. Though he had once been addicted to crack cocaine, he had been clean for two years.

Yet the corrections officers had arrived with handcuffs, saying a urine test showed that Mr. Kearney had used a prescription painkiller. Prison officials gave him 120 days in solitary confinement just a week before he was supposed to be released. It took officials seven months to realize the test results were wrong, he said. “I think about it every day,” Mr. Kearney, 50, said in a phone interview this week. “Where I could have been.” Mr. Kearney is one of hundreds of New York State prisoners who say they were punished after tests falsely determined they had used drugs, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed on Wednesday.Continue reading the main story Many of the inmates spent months in solitary confinement or locked in cells. Others were denied release on parole, removed from programs, or held beyond their scheduled release dates after testing positive for narcotics, according to the complaint filed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The plaintiffs, who include former and current inmates, claim that the manufacturer of the drug-testing equipment used in the prisons — Microgenics Corporation and its parent company, Thermo Fisher Scientific — failed to ensure that its devices produced accurate results.

State prison officials and the state inspector general are investigating the matter.

The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has begun reviewing tests taken this year that came back positive for the opioids Suboxone and buprenorphine, according to the lawsuit.

Thomas Mailey, a spokesman for the department, said the prisons had stopped using the Microgenics equipment after learning that results were inaccurate. They “immediately reversed any actions taken as a result of these tests, and restored privileges to any potentially affected inmates,” he said, adding that prison officials were preparing a lawsuit against the manufacturer.

Prisoner advocates said the prison system had reversed some guilty findings, reinstated educational and recreational programming for inmates who had been removed from it, and released some people who were being held longer because of faulty tests. Mr. Mailey declined to say how many findings were reversed, when the state stopped using the equipment, or how officials learned the tests were faulty.

Continue reading the main stThe Inspector General’s Office began investigating Microgenics’s drug-testing system two months ago, a spokesman, Lee Park, said.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the company that built and marketed the devices should be held accountable.

“If you’re producing these machines and selling this product, you know about the serious consequences that flow from a mistake on your part,” said Matthew D. Brinckerhoff, a lawyer with Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady who is representing the plaintiffs. “You have an obligation to ensure they don’t happen.”

Microgenics did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The prison system has been using the Microgenics devices since 2018, when the state entered into a five-year, $1.6 million contract with the company to supply 52 prisons with its Indiko Plus “urinalysis analyzers,” according to the lawsuit and public records. In brochures, Microgenics says its products “provide true operational reliability.”

Inmates began to complain almost immediately. Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, a nonprofit that assists prisoners, received letters from 158 inmates with the same grievance: They had tested positive for drugs when they had not used any, and received harsh punishments. Many of the letters came from people with no disciplinary history.

Under state law, prisoners who are caught taking prohibited drugs can be sentenced to extra time, can be placed in isolation and can face other punishments after a hearing.

One inmate said she was handcuffed while visiting with her family and sentenced to 60 days in solitary confinement after a positive drug test, the lawsuit said.

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“It’s a civil rights issue. It’s a justice issue,” said Karen Murtagh, executive director of the Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, which is also representing the plaintiffs. Even though the corrections department is “doing what it can to make people whole, it is not completely undoing or remediating the harm caused by putting someone in solitary confinement for weeks or months.”

Mr. Kearney, who had been convicted on a burglary charge, had violated his parole and was sent back to prison in 2016 because he missed a curfew and took drugs. But he maintains he did not use drugs while incarcerated.

But after the test suggested that Mr. Kearney had used an opioid, he was held in prison beyond his release date of March 6. At his disciplinary hearing, prison officials dismissed his claims of innocence. He said he explained to them that he would have never used drugs knowing he was set to be released in a week. He also pointed out he had taken at least four other random tests in prison with negative findings.

He was not freed until October, a month after prison officials learned that the results were inaccurate, he said. Mr. Kearney had served about a third of his 120 days of extra time in solitary confinement, he said.

“If you’re going to arrest somebody and put them in the box and treat them like a locked-up dog, get the right results,” Mr. Kearney said, adding that he had lost a construction job that he had waiting for him in March.

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At first, she said, she thought the corrections officers were playing a bad joke. But they were not. When they accused her of using drugs, she told them she had never taken illicit drugs before.

“All I was doing was crying,” she said. “The turmoil I went through and the mental anguish — I wouldn’t want it to happen to anyone again.”

Four months after Ms. Steele-Warrick was released from prison in May, the result of the hearing was overturned. The drug test was faulty, the lawsuit said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/nyregion/prison-inmate-drug-testing-lawsuit.html