Ledell Lee: RIP: Arkansas: "The family of executed murderer Ledell Lee on Friday filed suit in Pulaski County Circuit Court, saying their own inquiry into his case has undermined most of the evidence, both witness testimony and forensic findings, that was used at his trial, The Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette trial (Reporter John Lynch) reports.

BACKGROUND:"Lee’s case drew national attention in 2017 as one of eight executions Arkansas sought to carry out hastily, before the drugs used for lethal injection expired. Arkansas succeeded in killing only four of the condemned men, Ledell Lee first among them. Had the DNA testing he requested not been denied in the State’s rush to push its drugs, Lee might very well have been found innocent during his lifetime. The 1993 bludgeoning death of Debra Reese, a 26-year-old White woman, in Jacksonville, Arkansas got sparse investigation. Within hours, Lee, a 28-year-old Black man, was picked up walking in his own neighborhood, and charged with the crime. The ensuing trials included such egregious errors as an alleged judge/prosecutor love affair, racist references to the defendant as a “predator,” flawed eyewitness testimony based on shoddy cross-race identification protocol, failure of counsel to introduce an alibi defense, and a drunk appellate attorney.  The jury never heard evidence of Lee’s intellectual disability. The almost all-White jury took three hours to convict him of first-degree murder, and another three to condemn him to death. Later, the courts rejected Lee’s request for DNA testing of hair and blood evidence. He maintained his innocence throughout.  Now, with ACLU and Innocence Project backing, Lee’s surviving family members have filed a lawsuit requesting the DNA testing denied just prior to the execution, plus more sophisticated testing of other evidence."

Prof. Lauri Umansky: Arkansas State University.

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In the months since his execution, undersigned counsel have finally conducted some of the basic investigation into the State's case that Mr. Lee's court-appointed lawyers neglected to undertake while he was still alive," family attorney Willard Proctor wrote in the complaint. "The results of this initial re-investigation are deeply troubling. Some of the nation's leading forensic experts have reviewed the trial evidence and -- to the limited extent possible without a court order -- independently reanalyzed that evidence. Their findings point to the troubling likelihood that Mr. Lee was, in fact, innocent of Debra Reese's murder -- and provide powerful new grounds for this Court to allow the advanced DNA and fingerprint analysis that Mr. Lee was denied while he was alive."

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PASSAGE TWO O(OF THE DAY: "The suit accuses Johnson and Smiley of deliberately using improper identification tactics to get witnesses to misidentify Lee as the killer, to the point of misleading prosecutors about how the witnesses identified Lee. The suit further asserts that Monroe deliberately hid evidence about Lee's shoes and shoe prints at the crime scene that could have helped clear Lee. Monroe also misled prosecutors about the shoe print evidence, the lawsuit claims."

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STORY: "Family of executed man files suit in Palaski County after evidence review, by Reporter John Lynch, published by The Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette on April 18, 2020.

GIST: "The family of executed murderer Ledell Lee on Friday filed suit in Pulaski County Circuit Court, saying their own inquiry into his case has undermined most of the evidence, both witness testimony and forensic findings, that was used at his trial. "In the months since his execution, undersigned counsel have finally conducted some of the basic investigation into the State's case that Mr. Lee's court-appointed lawyers neglected to undertake while he was still alive," family attorney Willard Proctor wrote in the complaint. "The results of this initial re-investigation are deeply troubling. Some of the nation's leading forensic experts have reviewed the trial evidence and -- to the limited extent possible without a court order -- independently reanalyzed that evidence. Their findings point to the troubling likelihood that Mr. Lee was, in fact, innocent of Debra Reese's murder -- and provide powerful new grounds for this Court to allow the advanced DNA and fingerprint analysis that Mr. Lee was denied while he was alive." The 62-page lawsuit by Lee's sister, Patricia Young, and daughter, Breshana Lee of Houston, comes three days before the third anniversary of Ledell Lee's April 2017 execution. Lee, 51, who maintained his innocence to the end, was put to death for the February 1993 bludgeoning and strangling death of 26-year-old Debra Reese during a robbery in her Jacksonville home. Lee was the first man to be executed in Arkansas in 11 years. Three other convicted killers followed him to the death chamber within a week. The suit has been assigned to Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mackie Pierce. Defendants are the two Jacksonville police officers who headed the investigation, Jerry Johnson and Kelley Smiley; Berwin Monroe, the chief firearms and tool marks examiner for the state Crime Laboratory in 1994; and William Straughn, a deputy director for the Arkansas Department of Corrections who was the Cummins prison warden when Lee was put to death. The suit accuses Johnson and Smiley of deliberately using improper identification tactics to get witnesses to misidentify Lee as the killer, to the point of misleading prosecutors about how the witnesses identified Lee. The suit further asserts that Monroe deliberately hid evidence about Lee's shoes and shoe prints at the crime scene that could have helped clear Lee. Monroe also misled prosecutors about the shoe print evidence, the lawsuit claims. Lee's family seeks compensatory damages for Lee's death, funeral expenses and his pain and suffering as well as their own, plus punitive damages.

Young, Lee's sister, settled in February an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against Jacksonville with an agreement that the Police Department would conduct DNA testing on some evidence and upload fingerprints collected from the scene into the FBI's database. That testing is underway.""

The entire story can be read at:
https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2020/apr/18/family-of-executed-man-sues-after-evide/

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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