Roy Verret: Louisiana: Crime lab secrecy: (Keeping the existence of crucial forensic documentation from the defence): Another great story for our 'when you thought you heard everything' department....Published by The New York Times, it's headed, "A DNA Mix-Up Involving a Washing Machine Kept a Man in Jail for 3 years...The Louisiana case highlights how prosecutors and crime labs withhold key documents from defense lawyers - keeping some defendants in custody for months or years."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  As this is a lengthy article I can only provide you with a taste - and the hope that you will be able to access the entire article at the link below. Kudos to the New York Times for highlighting a serious problem in many North American criminal  justice systems: crime labs: "the way the criminal justice system permits people to be held in jail for months — or even years — ahead of trial because prosecutors and crime labs fail to turn over the documentation that defense lawyers require to understand what put them there."

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PASSAGE ONE  OF THE DAY: "This month prosecutors dismissed the first-degree murder and armed robbery charges against Mr. Verret. This followed an evidence admissibility hearing in which his lawyer offered an explanation: A crime lab analyst had mixed up two DNA samples, one from the lid of Mr. Verret’s washing machine and the other from the knife that was used to kill Mr. Poche. This theory was supported by an expert, hired by the defense to retest the material swabbed off the machine. She testified not only that the sample did not match the victim, but also that she could not confirm the presence of human blood."

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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "This may sound like an easy catch. But proving what had happened took much longer than it should have because the crime lab was slow to turn over the documentation to the defense, said Steve Singer, a longtime public defender who took on Mr. Verret’s case. Such a wait is not unusual, he said. Amid a national reckoning over racism and police brutality, Mr. Singer and other public defenders said they hoped Mr. Verret’s case would draw attention to the way the criminal justice system permits people to be held in jail for months — or even years — ahead of trial because prosecutors and crime labs fail to turn over the documentation that defense lawyers require to understand what put them there."

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PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "Mr. Verret is white. But people of color who rely on public defenders are disproportionately affected, said Jonathan Rapping, the founder of  “When you look at the protests happening, these are people realizing that when it comes to interactions with police, some lives are valueless,” he said. “That same story plays out in the courts, without cameras or a spotlight by prosecutors who are more focused on processing people to conviction than they are ensuring that their constitutional rights are respected.”

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STORY: "A DNA Mix-Up Involving a Washing Machine Kept a Man in Jail for 3 Years," by Reporter Heather Murphy,   published by The New York Times on June 26, 2020. "Heather Murphy is a general assignment reporter at The New York Times who often writes about advances in DNA technology."

SUB-HEADING: :The Louisiana case highlights how prosecutors and crime labs withhold key documents from defense lawyers, keeping some defendants in custody for months or years."

GIST: "As washing machines go, the one that contributed to Roy Verret’s capital murder charge was pretty average. White, Whirlpool, reliable. When detectives investigating a murder in Jeanerette, La., swabbed a dark spot on the lid in January 2017, he thought they were wasting their time. “I wasn’t stressing,” Mr. Verret said in an interview. “I knew it wasn’t anything to do with Howard.” But on April 19, 2017, detectives from the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested Mr. Verret. He recalls being told that DNA testing had identified the stain on his washing machine as the blood of Howard Poche, 75, who was stabbed to death 16 months earlier. It was “99.9 percent certain” that the DNA came from Mr. Poche, according to a police report. A judge later cited this “undisputed evidence” when setting Mr. Verret’s bail at $500,000. Mr. Verret, a 54-year-old mechanic, could not remember when he had last seen Mr. Poche, with whom he had a passing acquaintance. And so, for the next three years, as he awaited trial, Mr. Verret considered the ways Mr. Poche’s DNA might have found its way to his washing machine lid. Most of his theories involved the police or the killers planting it. "I was in jail 37 and a half months," he said. "Other than when I was sleeping, all I could think about was this." This month prosecutors dismissed the first-degree murder and armed robbery charges against Mr. Verret. This followed an evidence admissibility hearing in which his lawyer offered an explanation: A crime lab analyst had mixed up two DNA samples, one from the lid of Mr. Verret’s washing machine and the other from the knife that was used to kill Mr. Poche. This theory was supported by an expert, hired by the defense to retest the material swabbed off the machine. She testified not only that the sample did not match the victim, but also that she could not confirm the presence of human blood. This may sound like an easy catch. But proving what had happened took much longer than it should have because the crime lab was slow to turn over the documentation to the defense, said Steve Singer, a longtime public defender who took on Mr. Verret’s case. Such a wait is not unusual, he said. Amid a national reckoning over racism and police brutality, Mr. Singer and other public defenders said they hoped Mr. Verret’s case would draw attention to the way the criminal justice system permits people to be held in jail for months — or even years — ahead of trial because prosecutors and crime labs fail to turn over the documentation that defense lawyers require to understand what put them there. Mr. Verret is white. But people of color who rely on public defenders are disproportionately affected, said Jonathan Rapping, the founder of  “When you look at the protests happening, these are people realizing that when it comes to interactions with police, some lives are valueless,” he said. “That same story plays out in the courts, without cameras or a spotlight by prosecutors who are more focused on processing people to conviction than they are ensuring that their constitutional rights are respected.”

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The entire story can be (hopefully)  read at : 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/us/louisiana-dna-washing-machine.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic"  section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;

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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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