Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Innocence Files: Netflix: (Part One): Get out your calendar: Tomorrow: Wednesday April 15: Innocence Files documentary series - featuring many of the cases I have been following on this Blog (six out of nine) - composed mainly of cases I have been following on this Blog - drops on Netflix on April 15...UK paper The Sun lists the nine cases, asks what is it all about - and responds, "The nine-episode series will share the stories of eight people who were charged with crimes they didn't commit. Here's all you need to know."


STORY: "When is The Innocence Files on Netflix and what's it about," published by The Sun.

SUB-HEADING: "The nine-episode series will share the stories of eight people who were charged with crimes they didn't commit. Here's all you need to know."


SUB-HEADING: "The Innocence Files on Netflix will reveal the process to help get the wrongly convicted out of prison."

GIST: "This nine-episode series takes a behind-the-scenes look at how eight innocent people were wrongly convicted of crimes they didn't commit.
The documentary follows the process that the The Innocence Project battled to help get them out of prison.
The Netflix synopsis reads: "The Innocence Project unravels missteps and deceit in a series on wrongful convictions, exposing the injustice inflicted on victims and the accused.
"These stories expose difficult truths about the state of America’s deeply flawed criminal justice system, while showing when the innocent are convicted, it is not just one life that is irreparably damaged forever: families, victims of crime and trust in the system are also broken in the process."
Split into three different segments - The Evidence, The Witness and The Prosecution - the show looks at the causes of wrongful convictions like misidentification, misconduct from the prosecution and unreliable forensic science."
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Who's cases will the show examine?:

  • Chester Hollman III - accused of being one of two men in the botched robbery-turned-murder of Tae-Jung Ho, a University of Pennsylvania student, on 20 August 1991.

  • Kenneth Wyniemko - matched a police composite sketch of a sexual assault case, and was identified by the victim as her attacker, he was sentenced to 40-60 years in prison.

  • Alfred Dewayne Brown - convicted for the capital murder of Houston Police Officer Charles Clark during a November 2003 botched robbery.

  • Thomas Haynesworth - arrested at age 18 and convicted of four violent rapes, sentenced to a total of 84 years in prison.

  • Franky Carrillo - convicted of murder despite the fact that he was in a different city at the time, as six eyewitnesses told police they had seen him shoot the gun.

  • Levon Brooks - accused of sexually assaulting and murdering a 3-year-old girl in Mississippi in the early 90s, sentenced to life in prison due to bite marks on the girl that seem to match his.

  • Kennedy Brewer - accused of killing his girlfriend’s three-year-old daughter and then convicted of capital murder and sent to death row.

  • Keith Harward - convicted for the murder and rape of a couple in their home in 1982, despite a dentist saying his teeth didn’t match the bite marks in the forensics report.
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The entire story can be read at:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/11349686/when-is-the-innocence-files-on-netflix-and-whats-it-about/

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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