Friday, January 31, 2020

BULLETIN: Ledell Lee: Arkansas: Major (welcome) Development: DNA testing to be allowed: Jacksonville Arkansas City Council.." "Jacksonville city council members unanimously voted to allow new DNA testing for a man who was executed in 2017. The council voted in favor of allowing the new DNA testing in the Ledell Lee case after his family filed a lawsuit requesting the testing. The family believes evidence could posthumously exonerate Ledell Lee."



 Background: (Wikipedia): "Ledell T. Lee was executed for the 1993 murder of his neighbor, Debra Reese. He was convicted in 1995 and the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the conviction in 1997, but numerous questions have been raised about the justice of his trial and post-conviction representation."

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QUOTE ONE  OF THE DAY: "Mayor Bob Johnson wants to be completely transparent with the public in the process. He feels this is the right thing to do. "If we didn't do justice when the conviction happened, then we need to look for justice now," he said. Lee was executed in April 2017 by the state of Arkansas for the 1993 murder of Debra Reese. He was denied DNA testing shortly before his execution."

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 QUOTE TWO OF THE DAY: "Innocence Project Senior Litigation Counsel Nina Morrison stated: “We are grateful that the City of Jacksonville has agreed to release the evidence needed to proceed with critical DNA and fingerprint analysis in the case of Ledell Lee. The search to uncover the truth about Debra Reese’s murder is in the interest of justice for all parties and for the public at large. We look forward to working with the City to conduct this new testing as soon as possible.

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 PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Stephanie Friedman, Jacksonville's city attorney, initially disagreed with the family's request, citing that state law prevented the city from releasing it and said there was a possibility of the evidence being destroying, "further violating evidence retention laws." The new request allows the City of Jacksonville to "maintain physical custody of all evidence" and the testing would be done at a neutral site agreed upon by both parties."

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STORY: "Jacksonville city council to allow DNA testing in Ledell Lee," published by thv11.com  on January 31, 2020.

SUB-HEADING:  The council has voted in favor of allowing the new DNA testing in the Ledell Lee case after his family filed a lawsuit requesting the testing.

GIST: "Jacksonville city council members unanimously voted to allow new DNA testing for a man who was executed in 2017. The council voted in favor of allowing the new DNA testing in the Ledell Lee case after his family filed a lawsuit requesting the testing. The family believes evidence could posthumously exonerate Ledell Lee. “While nothing can undo the injustice of Ledell Lee’s execution, tonight’s vote is a positive and long-overdue step that could well identify the real perpetrator of the crime. We thank Jacksonville city leaders for standing on the side of openness and hope to receive the court’s approval. Arkansans deserve the truth,” said Holly Dickson, interim executive director and legal director of the ACLU of Arkansas. Stephanie Friedman, Jacksonville's city attorney, initially disagreed with the family's request, citing that state law prevented the city from releasing it and said there was a possibility of the evidence being destroying, "further violating evidence retention laws." The new request allows the City of Jacksonville to "maintain physical custody of all evidence" and the testing would be done at a neutral site agreed upon by both parties. Innocence Project Senior Litigation Counsel Nina Morrison stated: 
“We are grateful that the City of Jacksonville has agreed to release the evidence needed to proceed with critical DNA and fingerprint analysis in the case of Ledell Lee. The search to uncover the truth about Debra Reese’s murder is in the interest of justice for all parties and for the public at large. We look forward to working with the City to conduct this new testing as soon as possible.

Mayor Bob Johnson wants to be completely transparent with the public in the process. He feels this is the right thing to do. "If we didn't do justice when the conviction happened, then we need to look for justice now," he said. Lee was executed in April 2017 by the state of Arkansas for the 1993 murder of Debra Reese. He was denied DNA testing shortly before his execution."

The entire story can be read at:
https://www.thv11.com/article/life/jacksonville-city-council-to-allow-dna-testing-in-ledell-lee-case/91-d744220d-f2ab-4534-a32d-38453bd75843

 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;

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FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.""
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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Lee Arthur Hester: Chicago: A nightmarish policing and forensic slaughter - with an extraordinary twist - which belongs in our 'Enough to make one weep' department..."On May 1, 2019, 72-year-old Lee Arthur Hester was exonerated of the 1961 murder of a Chicago elementary school teacher when he was 14 years old. The dismissal of the charges came nearly 58 years after he was convicted based on faulty forensics and a false confession coerced by Chicago police. The exoneration was the result of several years of investigation by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law and a review by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit. On January 10, 2020, Hester, who was released from prison on parole in 1972, was granted a certificate of innocence in Cook County Circuit Court, paving the way for him to seek compensation from the state of Illinois."


"PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: The confession: (Interrogation of a 14-year-old without his mother); "Hester’s lawyers presented evidence that the police never advised Hester of his right to an attorney and that no parent was with him during the interrogation. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring police to advise suspects—Miranda v. Arizona—would not come until five years later in 1966. Hester testified that two white detectives, John Killackey and William Keating, screamed at him, called him a liar, and were so close to him that their spit landed on his face. Sessions with them were alternated with sessions with two black detectives, Robert Perkins and Harold Thomas, who told him that they would protect him from the white detectives who were ready to shove his head through a wall. Hester said these officers told him he could go home if he admitted to the crime. They told Hester, who was still in the white gown, that they would go home and return with his mother and another set of clothes to wear. Perkins and Thomas also told Hester falsely that his blood was found on Keane’s clothing, and that one of her hairs was found on his sweater—also untrue. Killackey and Keating told Hester falsely that his fingerprints were on a refrigerator in the book room. Hester said that during the interrogation, he was shown crime scene photographs and that ultimately, he made up a story that seemed to fit the crime scene. Hester testified that he rehearsed his statement several times before sitting down with the court reporter and a prosecutor. Hester also asserted that he asked to see his mother at least three times, but his requests were denied. The detectives testified that they did not verbally or physically abuse Hester, and that he quickly confessed after they confronted him with the crime lab findings. They admitted showing Hester crime scene photos, but not until after he confessed. The officers said they went to Hester’s mother’s home at about 2:45 p.m., but there was no testimony about what they said to her. Judge Napoli denied the motion to suppress the confession. Although Hester was only 14 and was learning disabled, Napoli found that the confession was voluntary and not a product of coercion."

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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: The forensics: "A pathologist who conducted the autopsy testified that Keane was killed sometime between 8 a.m. and noon. She had been stabbed seven times. During cross-examination, he said he found no semen stains on her body or her clothing. Claude Hazen, a microanalyst for the crime lab, testified that he compared a hair found on Hester’s coat with a hair removed from Keane’s head. He said that the reddish brown material on the hair on Hester’s jacket “could be blood.” He also said that medullary structures of the two hairs were “similar” and that the fissures were “consistent.” The density of the two hairs was “identical” and the refractive index—the measure of how fast light passed through them—also was identical. During cross-examination, Hazen was asked if it was possible that the hair on Hester’s jacket came from a male. “It is very remote,” he said. “It is very, very remote, in my opinion, that the hairs compared could have come from different sources of origin.” Asked if it was possible to “individualize” hair, he said, “Only to a degree.” Pressed further, Hazen said, “I cannot say that the hair removed from the jacket came from the deceased to the exclusion of all other people. But there is, on the basis of the tests made, a great degree of possibility that it came from the same source (Keane).” Andrew Principe, a chemist in the crime lab, testified that Keane’s blood was type A. He said that the reddish substance on the hair found on Hester’s jacket was blood, but he could not determine its type because there was an insufficient amount to test. He said that he found type A blood on the cuff and crotch of Hester’s pants and on the left leg of his underwear. Hester had type O blood, Principe said. Principe said he microscopically compared the smear on Hester’s jacket with smears made on paper with the six lipsticks found in Keane’s purse. He said the smear on the jacket was “similar” in fluorescence and color reflectance with a blue lipstick found in Keane’s purse.Principe also testified that he compared a metal fragment found in Keane’s underwear with metal particles found in a pocket of Hester’s jacket. He said the refractive indexes of the particle from Keane’s underwear and from the jacket pocket were “identical.” He said the particles both had the same number of layers, the same approximate thickness, and were similar in color. “It is my opinion that these particles are of the same origin,” Principe testified.

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PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "On May 1, 2019, Hester’s legal team presented a motion seeking to vacate Hester’s conviction to Cook County Chief Circuit Court Judge Leroy Martin Jr. The motion said the Conviction Integrity Unit had concluded that Hester’s confession “was not a reliable piece of evidence....The statement was taken under circumstances that, if they arose today, almost certainly would have resulted in the suppression of the statement and its exclusion from evidence. Mr. Hester was not advised about his fundamental Constitutional rights, and he was not permitted to have contact with his mother before making the statement.” Moreover, the review showed the confession was contradicted “in almost every material respect by the physical evidence in the case,” the motion said. In addition, the prosecution concluded that the expert testimony about blood, hair, and other materials “is no longer considered to be scientifically reliable” and was “inaccurate, misleading or based on flawed methodologies.” Judge Martin granted a motion to reinstate the case, vacated the conviction, and the prosecution dismissed the case."

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ENTRY: The National Registry of Exonerations entry for  Lee Arthur Hester  - masterfully written by  Maurice Possley - was published on January 23, 2020, and can be read at the link below.  The Registry notes that at the tie of publication it had recorded 2,549 exonerations amounting to more than 22,540 years lost.

GIST: On May 1, 2019, 72-year-old Lee Arthur Hester was exonerated of the 1961 murder of a Chicago elementary school teacher when he was 14 years old. The dismissal of the charges came nearly 58 years after he was convicted based on faulty forensics and a false confession coerced by Chicago police. The exoneration was the result of several years of investigation by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law and a review by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit. On January 10, 2020, Hester, who was released from prison on parole in 1972, was granted a certificate of innocence in Cook County Circuit Court, paving the way for him to seek compensation from the state of Illinois. He was convicted of the murder of Josephine Keane, a 45-year-old master teacher at Lewis-Champlin Elementary School in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Keane frequently tutored children with behavioral or learning disabilities in one-on-one sessions in a book room located near the cafeteria on the first floor of the school. On April 20, 1961, she got the key to the room from the school office first thing in the morning. When she did not show up in the parking lot at the end of the day to join her carpool group, a search of the school was organized. Ultimately, the only room left to search was the book room. Because Keane had taken the only key, a school engineer was summoned to open the door with a master key. Keane was found on the floor, stabbed to death and with her undergarments torn off. Her body was partially covered by her overcoat. The shocking nature of the crime—the sexual assault and murder of a teacher in a school—resulted in extensive coverage by the media. The following day, two detectives went to the school office and asked if any of the students had ever been accused of sexually inappropriate behavior. A white gym teacher said that Hester, who was black, once had been—although the accusation had not been proven and no charges were ever filed—and that Hester had been tutored by Keane. Hester had an IQ of 82, and at 14 was in the fifth grade (three grades behind) because he was a slow learner. He was known to frequently disrupt his classes. The detectives went to the third-floor classroom and asked the teacher, Jean Webster, to allow them to speak with Hester. Hester later said one of the detectives kicked him in the shin. The detectives said that was not true, and that they decided to take him to the police station for questioning because they saw blood spots on Hester’s clothing. He was allowed to go back into the classroom to get his jacket. When asked what was going on, he said, “They think I killed Mrs. Keane,” and the students erupted in laughter. At the police station, detectives noticed what they believed was a lipstick smudge on Hester’s jacket so they took him to the Cook County Juvenile Center. He was given a gown and his clothing was confiscated for examination at the Chicago Police crime laboratory. Police said that when they informed Hester that forensic evidence linked him to the crime, he confessed. Later that day, he gave a confession recorded by a court reporter in which he said that he and a classmate, Sherman Baker, were on their way back to class after dropping off empty milk cartons from their morning milk break when he saw Keane in the book room. Hester said that as he approached Keane, he tripped. He had a knife up his sleeve connected to his wrist by a rubber band. As he fell forward, the knife came out and landed in his hand, and he ended up stabbing Keane in the back. While trying to get up, he tripped on some books and fell, stabbing her again. He said that when he turned Keane over, he stabbed her twice more in her breast, then pulled up her dress, and cut her garter belt off with his knife. He said he pulled out his penis and “squirted a little bit,” but never penetrated her. At that point, he leaned over her to listen for a heartbeat and in the process got lipstick on his coat. According to the confession, Hester found the key to the room on the floor and locked the door when he left. He said he then returned to class with Baker, who was waiting for him. The key and a knife were never recovered. He was charged as an adult with murder. A case that seemed highly improbable on its face took an even more bizarre turn in July. Hester’s defense lawyers, Jerome Feldman and twin brothers Marshall and Edward Kaplan, sent a psychiatrist into the juvenile facility where Hester was being held. A guard, hearing a scream, rushed into the room and found Hester in a drowsy state. A nurse was summoned and retrieved an empty vial of sodium amytal—commonly known as “truth serum”—in a trash can. The psychiatrist was escorted out and the lawyers were reprimanded. In September 1961, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Alexander Napoli conducted a hearing on a defense motion to suppress the confession. Hester’s lawyers presented evidence that the police never advised Hester of his right to an attorney and that no parent was with him during the interrogation. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring police to advise suspects—Miranda v. Arizona—would not come until five years later in 1966. Hester testified that two white detectives, John Killackey and William Keating, screamed at him, called him a liar, and were so close to him that their spit landed on his face. Sessions with them were alternated with sessions with two black detectives, Robert Perkins and Harold Thomas, who told him that they would protect him from the white detectives who were ready to shove his head through a wall. Hester said these officers told him he could go home if he admitted to the crime. They told Hester, who was still in the white gown, that they would go home and return with his mother and another set of clothes to wear. Perkins and Thomas also told Hester falsely that his blood was found on Keane’s clothing, and that one of her hairs was found on his sweater—also untrue. Killackey and Keating told Hester falsely that his fingerprints were on a refrigerator in the book room. Hester said that during the interrogation, he was shown crime scene photographs and that ultimately, he made up a story that seemed to fit the crime scene. Hester testified that he rehearsed his statement several times before sitting down with the court reporter and a prosecutor. Hester also asserted that he asked to see his mother at least three times, but his requests were denied. The detectives testified that they did not verbally or physically abuse Hester, and that he quickly confessed after they confronted him with the crime lab findings. They admitted showing Hester crime scene photos, but not until after he confessed. The officers said they went to Hester’s mother’s home at about 2:45 p.m., but there was no testimony about what they said to her. Judge Napoli denied the motion to suppress the confession. Although Hester was only 14 and was learning disabled, Napoli found that the confession was voluntary and not a product of coercion.
Steven Drizin, a Northwestern law professor and expert on false confessions who led the re-investigation of Hester’s case, published a detailed account of the case in 2011 in the Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy. The article described Hester’s trial as “a highly contested affair which involved a battle of the experts with regard to the physical and scientific evidence in the case and a swearing contest between Hester and the interrogating officers with regard to the confession.”
Drizin also noted that the case was a “cauldron of racial tension which boiled over at times. On one occasion, Hester exploded, breaking away from his guards, and high-jumping over a bench so that he could talk with his sister, who was sitting in the gallery. He was eventually restrained by prosecutors and detectives, but he managed to get in his licks first, kicking one prosecutor, punching Sergeant William Keating in the face and kicking Detective Sheldon Teller, before being held under control. In the midst of this fury, Hester threatened to kill everyone and blow up the building.” A jury was selected and the first witness was called on September 26, 1961. Bessie McCaster, who was in Hester’s fifth grade classroom, told the jury that they had their morning milk break around 10 a.m. on the day of the crime. Afterward, Hester and Sherman Baker collected the empty cartons and took them to the cafeteria to place them in the garbage. Rosetta Harden, another classmate, testified that Baker came back to the classroom alone. She also testified that when Hester left the classroom, he was not wearing his coat. Another classmate, James Daniel, testified that Baker and Hester left with the empty cartons and came back together. Classmate Theresa Cooper testified that before class that day, she saw Hester by the cloak room with “something that looked like a knife.” Ruth Becker, the assistant principal, testified that she had a conversation with Keane in the book room about 9:30 a.m. A pathologist who conducted the autopsy testified that Keane was killed sometime between 8 a.m. and noon. She had been stabbed seven times. During cross-examination, he said he found no semen stains on her body or her clothing. Claude Hazen, a microanalyst for the crime lab, testified that he compared a hair found on Hester’s coat with a hair removed from Keane’s head. He said that the reddish brown material on the hair on Hester’s jacket “could be blood.” He also said that medullary structures of the two hairs were “similar” and that the fissures were “consistent.” The density of the two hairs was “identical” and the refractive index—the measure of how fast light passed through them—also was identical. During cross-examination, Hazen was asked if it was possible that the hair on Hester’s jacket came from a male. “It is very remote,” he said. “It is very, very remote, in my opinion, that the hairs compared could have come from different sources of origin.” Asked if it was possible to “individualize” hair, he said, “Only to a degree.” Pressed further, Hazen said, “I cannot say that the hair removed from the jacket came from the deceased to the exclusion of all other people. But there is, on the basis of the tests made, a great degree of possibility that it came from the same source (Keane).” Andrew Principe, a chemist in the crime lab, testified that Keane’s blood was type A. He said that the reddish substance on the hair found on Hester’s jacket was blood, but he could not determine its type because there was an insufficient amount to test. He said that he found type A blood on the cuff and crotch of Hester’s pants and on the left leg of his underwear. Hester had type O blood, Principe said. Principe said he microscopically compared the smear on Hester’s jacket with smears made on paper with the six lipsticks found in Keane’s purse. He said the smear on the jacket was “similar” in fluorescence and color reflectance with a blue lipstick found in Keane’s purse.
Principe also testified that he compared a metal fragment found in Keane’s underwear with metal particles found in a pocket of Hester’s jacket. He said the refractive indexes of the particle from Keane’s underwear and from the jacket pocket were “identical.” He said the particles both had the same number of layers, the same approximate thickness, and were similar in color. “It is my opinion that these particles are of the same origin,” Principe testified. The detectives testified and denied showing crime scene photos to Hester before he confessed and denied that Hester had asked to see his mother. The detective who initially took Hester from his classroom denied that he kicked Hester in the shins. Hester testified as he had at the pretrial hearing about the circumstances of his confession and denied that he committed the crime. He denied taking cartons down to the cafeteria that day and said he did not leave the classroom at all. Hester’s mother testified that she did not learn her son was in police custody until 6 p.m. after he had confessed. Jean Webster, the teacher in the classroom that day, testified for the defense that the class was given a 15-minute bathroom break at 9:45 a.m., and that Hester was in the classroom from 10 a.m. to noon when she sent him home early because he was being disruptive. Webster said Hester did not take the empty cartons to the cafeteria. Baker testified and said he took the empty cartons to the cafeteria not with Hester, but with another classmate named Lorenzo Walker. On October 9, 1961, the jury convicted Hester of murder. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison. On March 28, 1969, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld Hester’s conviction and sentence, although Justice Walter Schaefer dissented, particularly over the majority’s finding that the officers who went to Hester’s mother’s home “apparently” told her that he was in police custody. In fact, Schaefer noted, the prosecution “persistently objected” to questions about what the officers told her. “Testimony as to that conversation was totally excluded,” Schaefer said. “What the record shows is that the prosecution consistently and successfully resisted every attempt to find out whether the police officers told the defendant's mother where he was, and what efforts she made to see him.”
Hester was released on parole on August 8, 1972. In his 2011 article, Drizin said the re-investigation of Hester’s case was “in full swing.” This included an interview with Jerome Feldman, one of Hester’s trial lawyers. Feldman reported that after Hester was arrested, a psychologist at the Psychiatric Institute of the Municipal Court of Chicago called him and told him “in confidence” that a white man who was a janitor at the school at the time of Keane’s murder tried to commit suicide shortly after the crime. “The psychologist told Feldman that when the janitor was brought to the Institute to be evaluated, he had confessed to raping and killing Mrs. Keane and said that someone else had been charged with the crime.” Feldman said that at the time he believed—but had no proof—that the man in question was an engineer at the school who was a World War II veteran with a history of mental health issues and who had been the subject “of several complaints by female teachers at the school.” In 2018, Drizin, along with Northwestern lawyers Laura Nirider, Tom Geraghty, and Maria Hawilo as well as Hester’s other lawyers, Patrick Fitzgerald, Brian Wallach, and Daniel Scime, requested the Conviction Integrity Unit examine their findings and re-investigate Hester’s case. On May 1, 2019, Hester’s legal team presented a motion seeking to vacate Hester’s conviction to Cook County Chief Circuit Court Judge Leroy Martin Jr. The motion said the Conviction Integrity Unit had concluded that Hester’s confession “was not a reliable piece of evidence....The statement was taken under circumstances that, if they arose today, almost certainly would have resulted in the suppression of the statement and its exclusion from evidence. Mr. Hester was not advised about his fundamental Constitutional rights, and he was not permitted to have contact with his mother before making the statement.” Moreover, the review showed the confession was contradicted “in almost every material respect by the physical evidence in the case,” the motion said. In addition, the prosecution concluded that the expert testimony about blood, hair, and other materials “is no longer considered to be scientifically reliable” and was “inaccurate, misleading or based on flawed methodologies.” Judge Martin granted a motion to reinstate the case, vacated the conviction, and the prosecution dismissed the case.


Bulletin: Susan Neill-Fraser: Australia: Her second appeal hearing has been set to start on May 25, The Advocate reports..."The Hobart Supreme Court on Friday heard Neill-Fraser's counsel had met with the prosecution's office and both had agreed to a timetable which would allow the appeal to begin before the Court of Criminal Appeal on May 25. Neill-Fraser is serving 23-years' jail for the murder of her partner Bob Chappell who was last seen on the couple's yacht the Four Winds on Australia Day 2009. She maintains her innocence and in March successfully gained leave to appeal her conviction a second time provided she can induce "fresh and compelling" evidence.. Neill-Fraser's counsel Paul Galbally suggested the court spend 10 days hearing evidence on ground one of the appeal, that key witness Meaghan Vass had been on the Four Winds when Mr Chappell had been attacked, and make a ruling on that single ground."


BACKGROUND: "Sue Neill-Fraser was convicted of murdering her partner Bob Chappell on Australia Day 2009, on board their yacht, Four Winds. She has maintained her innocence. She has been granted leave to appeal (in March 2019) after a three year process in which then homeless 15 year old Meaghan Vass admitted she was a witness to the murder and Neill-Fraser was not involved. Vass’ DNA was found on the deck." As per Yahoo News: 2020: "Ten years after being found guilty of murdering her partner Bob Chappell, Hobart grandmother Susan Neill-Fraser's second appeal against her conviction will be heard. Neill-Fraser is serving 23 years' jail for killing Mr Chappell on Australia Day 2009 on the couple's yacht in Hobart. Her legal team argues there is "fresh and compelling" evidence that places then-homeless teenager Meaghan Vass on board the boat the night in question. The Supreme Court is likely to hear the appeal in May."

STORY: "Susan Neill-Fraser's second appeal hearing set to start on May 25," published by The Advocate on January 31, 2020.





PHOTO CAPTION: "Susan Neill-Fraser aboard the yacht where her partner Bob Chappell was last seen."
 
GIST: "A date has been set for Susan Neill-Fraser's second appeal against her murder conviction.
The Hobart Supreme Court on Friday heard Neill-Fraser's counsel had met with the prosecution's office and both had agreed to a timetable which would allow the appeal to begin before the Court of Criminal Appeal on May 25. Neill-Fraser is serving 23-years' jail for the murder of her partner Bob Chappell who was last seen on the couple's yacht the Four Winds on Australia Day 2009. She maintains her innocence and in March successfully gained leave to appeal her conviction a second time provided she can induce "fresh and compelling" evidence. Neill-Fraser's counsel Paul Galbally suggested the court spend 10 days hearing evidence on ground one of the appeal, that key witness Meaghan Vass had been on the Four Winds when Mr Chappell had been attacked, and make a ruling on that single ground. "If required, the matter can proceed on the balance of the grounds," Mr Galbally said. Mr Galbally said he would indicate to the prosecutor's office if the appellant was going to continue with ground three of the appeal, that the dingy seen near the Four Winds around the time Mr Chappell was attacked was not the Four Winds' tender, by March 16. Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates raised questions about evidence which applied to multiple grounds in the appeal notice. "Some of the evidence induced in respect of ground one could be relevant to ground two," Mr Coates said. Justice Helen Wood said the court would work through these matters and accepted the proposed timeline. A further directions hearing may be held at the request of counsel. Outside the court, supporters of Neill-Fraser said they were happy to finally have a date for the appeal. Supporter Jennie Herrera said Neill-Fraser was positive about the appeal. "I think she is really happy with her legal team and full of hope," Ms Herrera said. "Once you've got a definite date you've got something to work toward." Supporter Rosie Crumpton-Crook said she realised Friday, January 31, marked exactly four years since Neill-Fraser first submitted her application for the appeal. "It seems pretty tragic to us that this is how long this has taken and there's still a few months until it starts," Ms Crumpton-Crook said. "It's sad for Sue and her family this is taking so long. One can't really imagine the toll it takes on them.""
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/6607795/date-set-for-susan-neill-frasers-second-appeal/

 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;

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FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.""

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

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Bulletin: Cristhian Bahena Rivera: Iowa: Trial indefinately postponed: (High profile politicized false confession case): Trial postponed indefinately pending an appeal he has filed to the Iowa Supreme Court seeking a review of evidence the defence says is inadmissable which has been ruled admissible at trial in a pre-trial motion.



PUBLISHER'S NOTE: "The Cristhian Bahena Rivera case has become heavily politicized, as reporter Luke Nozicka reports in The Des Moines Register, in a story headed 'Mollie Tibbett's father says daughter would not want to be face of immigration debate, published on September 1, 2018, which can be read at the link below: "After his daughter’s body was found and a man authorities say is an undocumented immigrant was charged with murder, some politicians immediately used Mollie's killing as a rallying cry for tougher immigration laws.........."After he read a guest column in the Register from Donald Trump Jr., the eldest child of President Donald Trump, Rob Tibbetts said he had to respond.  Trump Jr.'s column criticized Democrats' response to Mollie Tibbetts' killing and said the party seemed more concerned with "protecting their radical open-borders agenda than the lives of innocent Americans."  In a response published in the Register, Rob Tibbetts said his family was grateful to the politicians who heard his appeal and stopped using his daughter's death to promote agendas. But others did not, instead choosing to "callously distort and corrupt Mollie's tragic death," he said. Quoting Trump Jr.'s column, Tibbetts said it's "heartless" and "despicable."  President Trump and other politicians — including Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and both of Iowa’s Republican U.S. senators — have referenced the University of Iowa student's death to promote increased border security measures."
 https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2018/09/01/mollie-tibbetts-search-father-rob-tibbetts-illegal-immigration-cristhian-bahena-rivera-trump-jr/1171714002/

Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.

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STORY: "Trial for Cristhian Bahena Rivera will not take place in February," by Reporter Mario Rossi, published by weareiowa,com on January 28, 2020.


SUB-HEADING: "Bahena Rivera allegedly told investigators he "blocked out his memory" after getting out of his car and coming alongside Mollie Tibbetts in 2018."
GIST: "The trial for the man accused of killing 20-year-old University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts will not happen in February, a state courts official has confirmed to Local 5.
25-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera is charged with Murder in the First Degree in Tibbetts’ death, with investigators saying he led them to her body in August 2018. “The [Cristhian Bahena Rivera] trial scheduled to begin February 4 in the Woodbury County Courthouse will not take place in February,” Steve Davis with the Iowa Judicial Branch said in a statement. Bahena Rivera’s attorneys had filed an appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court in order to review evidence they say was inadmissible, but a district court had ruled was admissible at trial. “The District Court hereby stays these proceedings until such time as the Iowa Supreme Court resolves the Defendant’s Application for Discretionary Review of Interlocutory Order,” Judge Joel Yates wrote in a ruling last week.
https://www.weareiowa.com/news/local-news/cristhian-bahena-rivera-trial-delayed-until-after-february/

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;

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FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

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John Cox; Sadie Dobrozsi: Wisconsin: Child abuse pediatricians: Author Lenore Skenazy reacts to NBC Reporter Mike Hixenbaugh's remarkable investigative story about this couple which is being put through hell..."Mom was completely baffled. She had no idea where that bruise came from, until she obtained her baby's medical records. It turned out the hospital itself had pricked the child's heel for a blood test. The mom didn't know this because she had not been allowed in the room when it happened. At this point, the baby is still in foster care. The couple's other two kids are terrified that they may be taken, too. (One keeps his favorite toys in a backpack in case he's suddenly taken away). Now the father faces a possible six years in jail on felony charges of child abuse." The comentary is headed: 'Taking Our Baby to the Hospital Was the Single Most Harmful Decision We Made'... Child services falsely labeled this dad an abuser and took his adopted newborn.'


PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In part, the problem can be traced to the advent of the child abuse pediatrician, who claims to be able to tell adult-inflicted injuries from innocent ones. "Child abuse pediatricians very often operate under secret contracts with police, child protection, and prosecution offices—never disclosed to the parents bringing their children in for emergency treatment," Diane Redleaf, the legal consultant at Let Grow, tells Reason. "These individuals have been billed as having special superhuman powers to tell abuse from accidents and rare diseases, superior to the powers of other doctors because they 'know child abuse when they see it.'"

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COMMENTARY: "'Taking Our Baby to the Hospital Was the Single Most Harmful Decision We Made,'  by Lenore Skenazy, published by 'Reason' on January 30, 2020. (Lenore Skenazy is founder of the book and blog Free-Range Kids, and president of the nonprofit Let Grow.)
SUB-HEADING: "Child services falsely labeled this dad an abuser and took his adopted newborn."

GIST: Last May, John Cox was worried he had accidentally hurt his newly adopted infant by rolling into her when they both dozed off. Erring on the side of caution, he brought her to Children's Wisconsin hospital—where he worked, coincidentally, as a pediatric emergency doctor—just to make absolutely sure she was fine. It turned out she had suffered a minor fracture that is common in babies and heals on its own. Two weeks later, child protective services declared him a child abuser and took the baby from him and his wife. The child has been in foster care now for eight months. She is only nine months old. What happened? According to a remarkable investigative story by NBC's Mike Hixenbaugh, it's possible for the authorities to interpret almost any bump or bruise as evidence of evil intent:
What followed, according to more than 15 medical experts who later reviewed Cox's case, was a series of medical mistakes and misstatements by hospital staff members that has devastated Cox's family and derailed his career. A nurse practitioner on the hospital's child abuse team confused the baby's birthmarks for bruises, according to seven dermatologists who have reviewed the case. A child abuse pediatrician misinterpreted a crucial blood test, four hematologists later said. Then, two weeks after the incident, armed with those disputed medical reports, Child Protective Services took the child.
Those misjudgments—and a deep suspicion of all parents with injured kids—led to the child being taken. "In hindsight," Cox said in a recent interview, "taking her to our own hospital was the single most harmful decision that we made for our baby." Children's Wisconsin, like many hospitals, has bought into the theory of "sentinel injuries"—the idea that minor bruises can be warning signs of future abuse, so each bruise must be treated as suspicious. But as Hixenbaugh writes:
Several emergency room doctors described an "out of control" child abuse team that is too quick to report minor injuries to authorities and that is too closely aligned with state child welfare investigators. …
Five doctors told a reporter they're even afraid to bring their own children to their hospital after accidental injuries, fearing that a misdiagnosis or miscommunication might lead Child Protective Services to break their family apart.
"This is a disease in our hospital," one physician said. "The way John's case has been mishandled has opened all of our eyes to how big the problem is."
In part, the problem can be traced to the advent of the child abuse pediatrician, who claims to be able to tell adult-inflicted injuries from innocent ones. "Child abuse pediatricians very often operate under secret contracts with police, child protection, and prosecution offices—never disclosed to the parents bringing their children in for emergency treatment," Diane Redleaf, the legal consultant at Let Grow, tells Reason. "These individuals have been billed as having special superhuman powers to tell abuse from accidents and rare diseases, superior to the powers of other doctors because they 'know child abuse when they see it.'" Added NBC, which joined The Houston Chronicle in an investigation of this new pediatric specialty:
Some of the doctors have at times overstated the certainty of their conclusions, the investigation found. Child welfare agencies and law enforcement officials often rely on their reports as the sole basis for removing children and filing criminal charges, sometimes in spite of contradictory opinions from other medical specialists.
In Cox's case, the family could afford to get outside doctors to review the records, and many were shaken by what they saw. They pointed out not just several stone-cold mistakes, but how eager the authorities seemed to be to find abuse. A police detective who grilled both Cox and his wife—Sadie Dobrozsi, also a pediatric doctor—said he didn't understand how the hospital could have concluded they did something wrong. That didn't stop child protective services, though: The authorities insisted on a safety plan for the baby, involving supervised visits monitored by grandparents.
Eventually, child services removed the baby from the home, anyway:
As the caseworker was leaving with the child, Dobrozsi asked what was making them so certain that she and her husband were abusive? The caseworker mentioned a new bruise on the baby's foot.
Mom was completely baffled. She had no idea where that bruise came from, until she obtained her baby's medical records. It turned out the hospital itself had pricked the child's heel for a blood test. The mom didn't know this because she had not been allowed in the room when it happened. At this point, the baby is still in foster care. The couple's other two kids are terrified that they may be taken, too. (One keeps his favorite toys in a backpack in case he's suddenly taken away). Now the father faces a possible six years in jail on felony charges of child abuse. The prosecutor is bolstering his case with a report prepared by a yet another child abuse pediatrician, this one in nearby Minnesota, whom he hired to look over the files. "In summary," this child abuse pediatrician wrote, "there is no explanation for [the baby's] injuries other than trauma." And yet the trauma of separating an infant baby from her loving parents for months does not seem to concern the authorities."

The entire commentary can be read at:
https://reason.com/2020/01/30/child-services-medical-abuse-wisconsin/

 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;

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FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

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Fotis Dulos: Connecticut: His attorney confirms Dulos is dead, says ‘family adamant that his name be cleared, and announces a most unusual motion (in the face of what, on the surface appeared to be a pile of circumstantial and forensic evidence against him) "to have Dulos replaced as a defendant by his estate to make the state show its hand in the case."...“It’ll be a difficult challenge,” Pattis said of the motion. “We intend to proceed on as if he were alive to vindicate him.” Pattis claimed the state’s evidence in the case amounts to nothing more than “innuendo."... Although the subject matter of this case was initially not of direct interest to this Blog, my instinct was that it could take some interesting twists that are of interest - and it looks like the twists have begun. (I was also wanted to separate myself from the commentators around the globe who had already convicted Dulos before a shred of evidence had been introduced against him in a court of law. Stay tuned! HL);


QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Mr. Dulos was tried and convicted in the court of public opinion,” Pattis said in a statement later Thursday. “Now he has been executed. We remain committed to demonstrating he did not murder Jennifer.”

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STORY: "Attorney: Fotis Dulos is dead, ‘family adamant that his name be cleared,’  by reporters Humberto J. Rocha and Tara O'Neill, published by the Stamford Advocate on January 31, 2020.
GIST: "Fotis Dulos clung to life for more than 48 hours after his apparent suicide attempt before he died late Thursday afternoon, according to his attorney. Attorney Norm Pattis said his client died at 5:32 p.m. Thursday at Jacobi Medical Center in New York, where he had been on life support and surrounded by family, friends and his legal team. A source close to him confirmed earlier on Thursday that Dulos left a note proclaiming his innocence in the death and disappearance of his estranged wife, Jennifer Dulos. Pattis said Dulos’ family decided to donate his organs, and wants to have him cleared of the charges against him. “The family is adamant that his name be cleared,” Pattis said. Pattis said he plans to file an “unusual motion” to have Dulos replaced as a defendant by his estate to make the state show its hand in the case. “It’ll be a difficult challenge,” Pattis said of the motion. “We intend to proceed on as if he were alive to vindicate him.” Pattis claimed the state’s evidence in the case amounts to nothing more than “innuendo.” He did not take any questions following his statement. “Mr. Dulos was tried and convicted in the court of public opinion,” Pattis said in a statement later Thursday. “Now he has been executed. We remain committed to demonstrating he did not murder Jennifer.” Carrie Luft, a spokeswoman for the family of Jennifer Dulos said in a statement later Thursday, “This is a horrific tragedy all around. Please respect the privacy of the families and loved ones involved.” The news came after more than two days of media crews crowding Pelham Parkway South in the Bronx, N.Y., near Jacobi Medical Center, where Dulos was flown late Tuesday afternoon. Dulos had been transferred to the New York hospital from UConn Health in Farmington, where he was initially brought after Farmington police responded to his home on a welfare check and found him unresponsive in his garage. Dulos had been on house arrest on $6 million bond after being charged this month with murder, felony murder and first-degree kidnapping charges in the May 24 death and disappearance of his estranged wife. After being notified of an emergency bond hearing where a judge could have sent him back to jail, Dulos attempted an apparent suicide Tuesday in his garage. When he didn’t show up for the hearing, Farmington police conducted a welfare check and said they found him inside his running Chevy Suburban. Dulos was initially considered dead after police and medics administered CPR for 30 minutes before a faint pulse was detected. He was taken to the UConn Health center before being flown in critical condition to Jacobi Medical Center. Last week, Judge Gary White ordered Dulos to be on strict home confinement after State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo said he removed items from a memorial for his estranged wife that was set up near his home. White threatened to double the bond amount if Dulos violated the terms of his release again, pointing out he was previously warned about the battery running too low on the electronic device that is monitoring his movements. This month, 469 pages of search warrants in the case were unsealed for the first time since the investigation began eight months ago. The documents outline how police believe Fotis Dulos and his former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, 45, and his close friend and former lawyer, Kent Mawhinney, 54, allegedly conspired to kill Jennifer Dulos and cover up the crime. Fotis Dulos and Troconis were charged last year with two counts of tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. On the same day Fotis Dulos was charged with murder this month, Troconis and Mawhinney were charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Troconis has been released on house arrest on $1.5 million bond, while Mawhinney remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bond. According to arrest warrants, Jennifer Dulos was last seen on a neighbor’s security camera at 8:05 a.m. May 24, returning to her Welles Lane home after dropping off her children at a nearby school. Police believe Fotis Dulos was “lying in wait” and attacked her in the garage, the warrants indicate. Dulos and Troconis were caught on video that night in Hartford dumping bags that were later determined to contain Jennifer Dulos’ blood and clothing, according to arrest warrants. Jennifer Dulos’ blood was also found on the seat of a pickup truck belonging to an employee of Fotis Dulos, according to arrest warrants. Police say Fotis Dulos used the truck on the day his wife was killed, arrest warrants said."

The entire story can be read at:
https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Family-friends-attorneys-visit-Fotis-Dulos-at-15016364.php

 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;

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FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

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Nagee Green: Ithaca: New York State.) 'False confession' among many grounds favouring his release...His supporters make their case in a letter publiched hy The Ithaca Voice..."An appeals lawyer has taken the highly unusual step of submitting a request to dismiss the judgment against Nagee Green for the 2016 murder of Ithaca College student Anthony Nazaire and the non-fatal stabbing of Raheim Williams. The motion gives extensive evidence that a young Afro-Latino (Puerto Rican) man has been wrongfully convicted of a serious crime. Having reviewed the extensive evidence pointing to a wrongful conviction, we, the undersigned writers who share the appeals lawyer’s sense of urgency, assert that it is critically important that the public be awakened to the disturbing realities of the case and join us in calling for the judgment against Mr. Green to be vacated. Nagee Green did not receive a fair trial. He suffers, already in prison for two years, from the complicated injustice of a racialized national and local prosecution system. Only the most astute defense team has any hope of saving an Afro-Latino defendant from a wrongful murder charge."..."The defense allowed a coerced, involuntary confession containing multiple confirmed lies by the police to be presented to the jury as legitimate without qualification. Indeed, the psychological manipulation of a young Afro-Latino man by two white Ithaca police interrogators reads in this publicly available transcript as more outrageous than the most convincing racist police procedurals on TV or in the movies. (A transcript of the interrogation is provided. - as well as a link to the motion; See transcript of Nagee Green’s police interview below.)


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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 – and because of the growing body of  scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects are to widely used interrogation methods  such as  the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’ As  all too many of this Blog's post have shown, I also recognize that pressure for false confessions can take many forms, up to and including physical violence, even physical and mental torture.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  Kudos to The Ithaca Voice for publishing this articulate letter from Nagee Green's supporters. I am following this complex case.

Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "After the first trial of Nagee Green ended in a hung jury, the defendant’s conviction on murder charges at the second trial was based on police lies leading to a coerced confession, the withholding of critical evidence representing reasonable doubt, a complete lack of material evidence including the absence of any traces of blood or DNA transfers, a jury led by a man who expressed doubts about his own ability to be unbiased, and a prosecution that switched to a contradictory story “Painting a false picture” for its own leverage during trial. This was all based on one white police interrogator’s self-described personal theory of the case which he freely described on record as possibly wrong—against Nagee Green, an Afro-Latino defendant."

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LETTER TO EDITOR: From Free Nagee Green Committee to editor of the Ithica News, published on January  9, 2020: As per the Ithaca Voice : "The Ithaca Voice is a nonprofit digital news site with a mission to improve civic and political understanding in Ithaca and Tompkins County by publishing and sustaining in-depth, educational, rigorous, timely and ethical journalism that all residents can access free of charge online."

GIST: "An appeals lawyer has taken the highly unusual step of submitting a request to dismiss the judgment against Nagee Green for the 2016 murder of Ithaca College student Anthony Nazaire and the non-fatal stabbing of Raheim Williams. The motion gives extensive evidence that a young Afro-Latino (Puerto Rican) man has been wrongfully convicted of a serious crime. Having reviewed the extensive evidence pointing to a wrongful conviction, we, the undersigned writers who share the appeals lawyer’s sense of urgency, assert that it is critically important that the public be awakened to the disturbing realities of the case and join us in calling for the judgment against Mr. Green to be vacated. Nagee Green did not receive a fair trial. He suffers, already in prison for two years, from the complicated injustice of a racialized national and local prosecution system. Only the most astute defense team has any hope of saving an Afro-Latino defendant from a wrongful murder charge. In Mr. Green’s case that defense was lacking on three important counts:1) The defense attorneys allowed a juror who openly expressed his bias in favor of District Attorney Matt Van Houten to become jury foreman. Jack Myers explained on record that a Matt Van Houten had been his and his family’s lawyer for a long time, and that this would remain in the back of his mind as he weighed the merits of the DA’s representation of the murder case against Mr. Green. Indeed, when the defense attorney failed to note this obvious conflict of interest, the DA, Matt Van Houten had the legal duty to strike this juror from the case.  Instead, this juror who admitted his own doubt about his ability to remain unbiased served as the jury’s leader.  2) The defense allowed a coerced, involuntary confession containing multiple confirmed lies by the police to be presented to the jury as legitimate without qualification. Indeed, the psychological manipulation of a young Afro-Latino man by two white Ithaca police interrogators reads in this publicly available transcript as more outrageous than the most convincing racist police procedurals on TV or in the movies.  See transcript of Nagee Green’s police interview below.) 3) The defense failed to call a direct witness to the stabbing, who in a police statement described the assailant wearing very different clothes than Nagee Green wore on the night of the incident. This witness could have easily presented reasonable doubt that Mr. Green was the assailant. In this case, such reasonable doubt would have been especially critical as no DNA evidence linking Mr. Green to the two victims was ever found and no witness stated that they saw Mr. Green interacting with Nazaire and/or Williams. We have arrived at a critical moment in history where white people are becoming aware that our often unconscious belief in white supremacy pervades every aspect of our social lives including the operation of the law—even in this supposedly enlightened town. We have recent evidence in the disturbing yet less tragic cases of Cadji Ferguson and Rose DeGroat of the local criminal justice system’s slow process of waking up to its own complicity with dishonest reporting of police behavior and motivations, and DA Matt Van Houten’s willingness to repeatedly misrepresent the facts of the case. Yet Ithaca City Judge Scott Miller remained undistracted by either police or DA dishonest manipulation (for which neither has taken responsibility nor been officially censured) when he absolved Mr. Ferguson of all charges. TC Judge John Rowley ultimately exercised both integrity and courage in dropping the charges against Rose DeGroat.    After the first trial of Nagee Green ended in a hung jury, the defendant’s conviction on murder charges at the second trial was based on police lies leading to a coerced confession, the withholding of critical evidence representing reasonable doubt, a complete lack of material evidence including the absence of any traces of blood or DNA transfers, a jury led by a man who expressed doubts about his own ability to be unbiased, and a prosecution that switched to a contradictory story
“Painting a false picture” for its own leverage during trial. This was all based on one white police interrogator’s self-described personal theory of the case which he freely described on record as possibly wrong—against Nagee Green, an Afro-Latino defendant. We, the undersigned plead with Judge Rowley to exercise the same integrity and courage he did in the recent case of Rose DeGroat and vacate the judgment against Nagee Green, a wrongfully convicted young Afro-Latino man with no previous criminal record and a loving family and community attesting to his upstanding character. Readers will find all documents related to this case in the appeals lawyer’s 440 motion and police interrogation transcript attached. Respectfully submitted by Dr. Barbara Regenspan on behalf of the Free Nagee Green Committee:   
Martha Lasley
Dr. Patricia Rodriguez
Elan Shapiro
John Suter
Rabbi David Regenspan
Dr. Paula Ioanide
Dr. Zillah Eisenstein
Shari Korthuis
Stephanie Heslop
Ed Kopko
Ruth Mike Yarrow

The entire letter  to the editor can be read at:
https://ithacavoice.com/2020/01/letter-to-the-editor-justice-for-nagee-green/

 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;

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FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.""

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
 https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20191210/da-drops-murder-charge-against-taunton-man-who-served-35-years-for-1979-slaying


Thursday, January 30, 2020

Amy Klobuchar: Myon Burrell: California: Did Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar's put an innocent 17-year-old black teen behind life for murder: Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) - in collaboration with APM and The Associated Press - reports on an extensive investigation - which uncovers new evidence and myriad inconsistencies, raising questions about whether the teen was wrongfully convicted. (The issues in this case - including the frailties of eyewitness testimony and the dangers inherent in the use of jailhouse informants - will be familiar to the readers of this Blog. HL);


PUBLISHER'S NOTE:Why could a case about a black teenager jailed for life  for the murder of  a little girl was killed by a stray bullet while doing homework at her dining room table in 2002? The answer becomes apparent in the report of an investigation conducted by MPR in collaboration with  APM Reports  and The Associated Press which asks a very fundamental question: Is he innocent? The story, by A.P. reporter Robin McDowell is headed,  is headed: "In Klobuchar's past, questions linger about a teen jailed for life." It's another outstanding piece of U.S. investigative journalism.  Read on:

(PS: Former prosecutors are bound to bring some to bring some controversy with them when they vie for important political positions. Consider, for example,  headnotes for the following two previous posts of this Blog:

September 8, 2018: Deborah Madden: California: Why has the case of a long-time San Francisco Police Department crime lab technician who was accused of stealing cocaine from her unit (followed by this Blog) come to haunt Democratic Presidential aspirer Kamala Harris? The answer lies in this story by Washington Examiner reporter Alana Goodman, headed: " 'Clear causal link': Lawyers accuse Kamala Harris of defying Supreme Court by hiding evidence from defense attorneys."
https://smithforensic.blogspot.com/search?q=kamala+harris

December 3, 2019: Annie Doukhan: Sonja Ferak: Massachusetts: The disgraced former state lab lab chemist makes now Presidential Candidate Oatrick Duval's list of "forgotten catastrophic coverups, in James Bovard's USA Today commentary: "Will Deval Patrick be president? Not if his past scandals have anything to say about it."
https://smithforensic.blogspot.com/search?q=%22patrick+duval%22)

 Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.

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STORY: "In Klobuchar's past, questions linger about a teen jailed for life," by reporter Robin McDowell, published by MPR on January 28, 2020. (Robin McDowell is an investigative reporter with The Associated Press. This project is a collaboration with APM Reports and the Associated Press. The radio story was produced by Sasha Aslanian of APM Reports. MPR News and APM Reports are both part of American Public Media Group. APM Reports is the investigative and documentary group for American Public Media.




SUB-HEADING: "Myon Burrell has always maintained his innocence in the shooting that killed Tyesha Edwards, 11."
PHOTO CAPTION: "Myon Burrell, seen here at the Stillwater Correctional Facility in October, was convicted in the killing of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards. An investigation has uncovered new evidence and myriad inconsistencies, raising questions about whether he was wrongfully convicted."


GIST: "It was a prime-time moment for Amy Klobuchar. Standing in the glare of television lights at a Democratic presidential debate last fall, she was asked about her years as a top Minnesota prosecutor and allegations she was not committed to racial justice. “That’s not my record,” she said, staring into the camera.  Yes, she was tough on crime, Klobuchar said, but the African American community was angry about losing kids to gun violence. And she responded. She told a story that she has cited throughout her political career, including during her 2006 campaign for the Senate: A little girl was killed by a stray bullet while doing homework at her dining room table in 2002. And it was Klobuchar’s office that put Tyesha Edwards’ killer — a black teen — behind bars for life. But what if Myon Burrell is innocent? An Associated Press investigation into the 17-year-old case uncovered new evidence and myriad inconsistencies, raising questions about whether the teen was wrongfully convicted. The AP reviewed more than a thousand pages of police records, court transcripts and interrogation tapes, and interviewed dozens of inmates, witnesses, family members, former gang leaders, lawyers and criminal justice experts. The case relied heavily on a teen rival of Burrell’s who gave conflicting accounts when identifying the shooter, who was largely obscured behind a wall 120 feet away. With no other eyewitnesses, police turned to multiple jailhouse informants. Some have since recanted, saying they were coached or coerced. Others were given reduced time, raising questions about their credibility. And the lead homicide detective offered “major dollars” for names, even if it was hearsay. There was no gun, fingerprints or DNA. Alibis were never seriously pursued. Key evidence has gone missing or was never obtained, including a convenience store surveillance tape that Burrell and others say would have cleared him. Burrell, now 33, has maintained his innocence, rejecting all plea deals. His co-defendants, meanwhile, have admitted their part in Tyesha’s death. Burrell, they say, was not even there. For years, one of them — Ike Tyson — has insisted he was actually the gunman. Police and prosecutors refused to believe him, pointing to the contradictory accounts in the early days of the investigation. Now, he swears he was just trying to get police off his back.

 “I already shot an innocent girl,” said Tyson, who is serving a 45-year sentence. “Now an innocent guy — at the time he was a kid — is locked up for something he didn’t do. So, it’s like I’m carrying two burdens.”

Asked for comment on the case, a Klobuchar campaign spokesperson said Burrell was tried and convicted of Tyesha’s murder twice, and the second trial occurred when Klobuchar was no longer the Hennepin County attorney. If there was new evidence, she said, it should be immediately reviewed by the court. Minneapolis police declined to comment for this story. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman’s office said it’s confident the correct person was convicted but it’s always open to reviewing new evidence. Questions about the case come at a difficult time, as Klobuchar and other presidential hopefuls, including Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg, face scrutiny for their records on racial justice in the 1990s and early 2000s. Black and brown communities were being decimated by the war on drugs, and the since-discredited “super-predator” theory prevailed, predicting that droves of poor, fatherless young men devoid of moral conscience would wreak havoc in their neighborhoods. Democrats joined Republicans in supporting harsher policing and tougher sentencing, leading to the highest incarceration rates in the nation’s history. Some politicians have tried to distance themselves from the period’s perceived excesses. In January, for instance, Klobuchar returned a $1,000 campaign donation from Linda Fairstein, who prosecuted New York’s infamous Central Park Five, four black teens and one Hispanic who were later exonerated in the rape of a white jogger in 1989. While campaigning to be the top prosecutor in Minnesota’s most populous county in 1998, Klobuchar advocated for harsher penalties for juvenile offenders. In Minnesota, allegations of gang affiliation or motive played on the fears of mostly white jurors and led to harsher sentences. “If you were young and black, and your case was tied to gangs or drugs, it was an especially scary time,” said Mary Moriarty, a public defender in Hennepin County for nearly three decades. “I do firmly believe that there were people convicted of crimes that they did not do.” She said that the murder Burrell went down for was problematic from the start. “In the case of Myon Burrell — where you had a really high-profile shooting of an innocent girl and you put a lot of pressure on the system to get someone to be responsible for that — I think a lot of corners were probably cut.” In Minneapolis, soaring homicides had briefly earned the city the grim nickname “Murderapolis.” By the time Klobuchar took office in 1999, crime rates had started to drop. But tensions remained high. Tyesha’s death set off an uproar. Police pulled out all stops, deploying more than 40 officers and gang task force members. Despite the lack of physical evidence, they all but wrapped up their case against Burrell in four days. Ike Tyson, 21, and Hans Williams, 23, were easy. Several people saw them roll by in their car minutes before the attack, and a 911 tip from one of their girlfriends helped seal the deal. Burrell, then 16, was arrested only after a tip from an often-used jailhouse informant. During his lengthy legal process, Burrell hired and fired six attorneys as they failed to cross-examine witnesses, pursue alibis or challenge glaring irregularities in the investigation.
In the end, his sentence stuck: Natural life in prison. Assistant County Attorney Jean Burdorf, the only prosecutor left who was directly involved in the case, insists that Burrell received justice. “I’ll tell you what I’ve told a lot of people over the years. I have a lot of confidence in Minnesota's justice system,” she said. “Certainly, he's been through the court process, and his conviction has remained intact.”

For years, many caught up in Burrell’s case have insisted police got the wrong person. Some say they initially lied to protect themselves or their friends. Others say they told police what they wanted to hear to get deals on their own sentences or to punish a rival. Even though some have changed their stories more than once, they insist they are now telling the truth because they have nothing to gain. They say it’s the system that refuses to listen. Burrell’s co-defendants were members of the Tyson Mob and the Vice Lords. They say drugs and guns were a way of life in their rough neighborhood. But the shooting wasn’t gang warfare as police claimed, they insisted — it was personal. Tyson said he and Williams were driving in south Minneapolis when they spotted a group of guys hanging out. Among them was 17-year-old Timmy Oliver, a member of the rival Gangster Disciples, who had menacingly waved a gun at them weeks earlier. The pair slowed down, scowled at Oliver, then continued on. They picked up an unidentified acquaintance, got a gun and headed back. Tyson said it was his idea, and the intention was to scare Oliver, not to kill him. The three parked a block away, with Williams waiting in the driver’s seat for a quick getaway. Tyson and the third man jumped out, cutting through an alley and ducking between houses. Shielded by a wall, Tyson said he could clearly see Oliver standing in the yard across the street with his back turned. He said he fired off eight rounds, the last few as he was running backward toward the car. It wasn’t until later that evening that he learned one of his bullets killed Tyesha in the house next door. “There was only one weapon, one set of shells,” said Tyson. “I’m the one that did this. I did this.” Soon after the shooting, he was telling friends, his attorney, fellow inmates and even a prison guard that Burrell was not at the scene, court records show. But he said his lawyer told him he’d never see the outside of a prison unless he implicated the youth. Eventually he buckled, but only after being promised his plea would not be used against Burrell. Tyson doesn’t want to name the other man who was with him, saying he doesn’t want to pull in a person who was only peripherally involved. The getaway driver, Hans Williams, did identify a third man — by his full name and in a photo lineup. Police initially said they didn’t want to “muddy up the case” with an unverified name, later that they didn’t believe him. They made no real effort to follow up. After getting a denial from the suspect in 2005, the chief homicide detective “permanently checked out” their recorded conversation and gave it to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. It has since gone missing. The gun was never recovered and officers said prints on the magazine and the car were not sufficient for identification. Ballistic tests on Tyson’s jacket were not carried out to verify claims that he was the gunman. The killing of Tyesha Edwards topped television news that night. That’s how a prison inmate first heard about it. Desperate to get money or time cut off his own sentence, he quickly reached out to Oliver, a friend and fellow gang member. Minutes later, the often-used informant gave the cops Burrell’s name, helping steer their investigation, the AP found. Oliver, who had his own troubles with the law, didn’t go to police that day, as he promised. He said one of the bullets had pierced his pants, so he threw them away and went to buy a new pair. But three days later, he was picked up by officers following another, unrelated shooting. Police now had their sole eyewitness in custody, interviewing him for more than eight hours. Though recordings are mandated by law, the interrogation was not recorded. Police later said they “made a mistake.” Well after midnight, Oliver signed a statement saying he saw Burrell standing across the street in an open lot between two houses, shooting until he emptied his weapon. Later, Oliver’s story would change. He said his diminutive, 5-foot-3 rival was firing from behind a 5-foot wall, 120 feet away, but that his hooded face was still clearly recognizable. Oliver’s best friend, Antoine Williams, said when the gunfire stopped, he ran to his side.
“I asked Timmy at the time, ‘Who, who did the shooting?’” Antoine Williams recalled in a recorded interview with a private investigator hired by one of Burrell’s attorneys. “He said, ‘I couldn’t see where it was coming from.’” He later asked Oliver — who died in a shooting in 2003 — why he’d lie to police. Antoine Williams said Oliver told him police threatened him. “[They] kinda put it like, ‘It was your fault because you were there. You were the intended target.’” With a new trial date approaching and their key witness, Oliver, gone to the grave, the police turned to informants in the jails and prisons. Some were offered generous sentence reductions, cash and other deals for those willing to come forward with a story about what happened in the shooting, even if it wasn’t true, inmates said. There were at least seven jailhouse informants, two of whom had coughed up information in more than a dozen other cases. Another went by 29 different aliases.
Terry Arrington, a member of a rival gang, was among those who talked. He said he was approached by four officers and the prosecutor at a federal correctional facility where he faced 19 years in prison and was told he could knock that down to three if he was willing to cooperate. He said he knew nothing about the case: “They basically brought me through what to say. Before I went before the grand jury, they brought me in a room and said … ‘when you get in, hit on this, hit on this.’ I was still young and I had fresh kids that I was trying to get home to, so I did what they asked.” He got his deal, but now lives with that burden. “Like, I don’t wish jail on nobody,” he said, now back in prison at Rush City correctional facility on other charges. “Even though we was enemies ... that’s still a man. ... So it really bothers me right now.” He says at least three other men who were locked up with him in the same unit also cut deals with police. One other has recanted. As far as Arrington knows, “everybody told a lie to get time cut.”



Like many young black men in his neighborhood, Burrell’s distrust of police came early. He was 12 when a drug addict drew a switchblade, slashing his sister in the hand and drawing blood. His mom called the police, but they assumed the boy was the assailant, threw him up against a sharp fence before hauling him to the station in cuffs. Only then did they realize they had the wrong person.
Soon after, he was caught selling drugs and hanging out with the wrong crowd. Worried he might end up in jail, like his dad and oldest brother, his mother packed up the family and moved to Bemidji, a small city 3 1/2 hours away. But the 13-year-old struggled to fit in and found himself coming back to the Twin Cities often. In 2002, the family traveled to Minneapolis to spend Thanksgiving with his grandmother. Less than 24 hours later, Tyesha was dead and police were desperate to find her killer.
They decided early on it was Burrell, though he had not had any serious brushes with the law.In a video taken by police hours before his arrest, the chief homicide detective, Sgt. Richard Zimmerman, is seen talking to man brought to the station following another shooting. The officer says he is ready to pay “major dollars” for information about Tyesha’s murder — even if it’s just street chatter.
“Hearsay is still worth something to me,” Zimmerman tells the man, offering $500 a name. “Sometimes ... you get hearsay here, hearsay there. Sometimes it’s like a jigsaw puzzle, things come together, you know what I mean?” The man gave up three names, but Zimmerman paid for just one: Burrell’s. The afternoon of the shooting, Burrell said, he was playing video games with a group at his friend’s house. Hungry, they decided to walk to Portland Market on 38th Street. When they didn’t see anything they liked, they continued on to Cup Foods, just a few hundred yards from Tyesha’s house. During his nearly three-hour interrogation, Burrell identified two people he saw at Cup Foods — Latosha Evans and his friend, Donnell Jones. Police never followed up. But Evans and Jones told the AP they were with Burrell at Cup Foods, either as shots were fired or immediately after, when sirens were blaring. Though the store itself was under police surveillance because of allegations of drug dealing and weapons sales, it appears officers never recovered video surveillance tapes. Evans remembers worrying that Burrell would get caught up in a police sweep and told him he better leave.
“I’d hate to you get blamed for this,’” she remembers telling him. “I hugged him and he went his way.” Burrell was picked up four days later. He was not in a gang database, and had never been tied to a serious crime. During the interrogation, he never asked for an attorney, but he did ask for his mother 13 times. Each time he was told, “no, not now,” though she was in a room next door. A police officer told him that he was a huge disappointment to his mother, and that she had told officers she thought he was capable of the shooting. “Are you kidding?” Burrell responded. “That’s a lie. ... That’s not truthful. ... I don’t believe that.” Meanwhile, officers told his mother, falsely, that they had several eyewitnesses saying Burrell was the one and only shooter. Sinking into tears, she asked again and again to see him. “Not yet,” they said. One month later, the day before Burrell’s indictment, his mother was driving back to Bemidji after a prison visit. She swerved off the road, crashing into a tree. The car burst into flames, killing her. Klobuchar denied Burrell’s request to go to his mother’s funeral. He was, she said, a threat to society. Burrell has spent most of his life in prison. He says he believes authorities knew that he was innocent all along: “They just didn’t feel like my life was worth living.” If he had told police he was there, but had been an unwilling participant, as officers seemed to want, his nightmare might have been over by now. But he says he wants justice not just for himself, but for Tyesha. He could never admit to a crime he didn’t commit, he says. “That’s something I struggle with to this day, you know. I could (have) been home,” said Burrell. “At least I can look in the mirror and I can still be proud of who I see looking back.""

The entire story can be read at:
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/01/28/in-klobuchars-past-questions-linger-about-a-teen-jailed-for-life

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;

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FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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