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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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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
Nagee Green, 440 Motion by Thomas Pudney on Scribd
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
