Santae Tribble: RIP: “Santae Tribble was a warm, funny, deeply honorable man who was an unflinching advocate for his innocence,” said Levick, now legal director of the George C. Cochran Innocence Project at the University of Mississippi School of Law. “At a terrible personal price, he made a huge difference. His efforts to clear his name ultimately proved that the problems at the FBI lab were not confined to a single analyst; they were systemic.," Reporter Spencer S. Hsu, The Washington Post.
The findings led the Justice Department to offer new DNA testing in cases with errors and launch a partnership with independent scientists to raise forensic science standards. The findings also led to a review of other forensic disciplines for similar “testimonial overstatement,” although the Trump administration suspended the latter efforts.
PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Court-ordered DNA testing obtained by the public defender service confirmed that none of the 13 hairs retrieved from the crime scene stocking shared Tribble’s genetic profile or that of his alleged accomplice. Rather, the DNA testing found, the hairs came from three other human sources, except for one — which came from a dog — facts that FBI-trained examiners disputed or missed.Tribble’s “journey of injustice subjected [him] to all the horror, degradation, and threats to personal security and privacy inherent in prison life, each heightened by his youth, actual innocence, and life sentence,” D.C. Superior Court Judge John M. Mott wrote in 2016."
STORY: "Santae Tribble, whose wrongful conviction revealed FBI forensic hair match flaws dies at 59," by Reporter Spencer S. Hsu, published by The Washington Post on July 5, 2020. (Spencer S. Hsu is an investigative reporter, two-time Pulitzer finalist and national Emmy Award nominee. Hsu has covered homeland security, immigration, Virginia politics and Congress). PHOTO CAPTION: 'Santae Tribble was convicted of murdering John McCormick in 1978. In 2012, DNA retesting proved none of the hair recovered could have come from Tribble.'
GIST: Santae A. Tribble, whose wrongful conviction for a 1978 murder in Southeast Washington exposed decades of exaggerated claims about the reliability of FBI forensic hair matches, has died, his family said.
Tribble, 59, died June 24 in Washington after a lengthy illness attributed to his incarceration, said his son, Santae Tribble Jr.
Santae Tribble was exonerated in 2012 after serving 28 years in prison for the killing of a D.C. taxi driver, who died when Tribble was 17.
DNA testing revealed that Tribble could not have contributed hairs found in what police said was a stocking mask worn by the attacker and left near the crime scene — even though at trial, the FBI declared the hairs microscopically matched Tribble’s, and prosecutors suggested the odds of a mismatch were “one . . . in 10 million.”
The findings led the Justice Department to offer new DNA testing in cases with errors and launch a partnership with independent scientists to raise forensic science standards. The findings also led to a review of other forensic disciplines for similar “testimonial overstatement,” although the Trump administration suspended the latter efforts.
Legal experts said Tribble’s case and other wrongful convictions identified by Sandra K. Levick, then the head of the public defender service’s special litigation division, forced authorities to abandon blame of rogue FBI examiners or bad apples for systemic human error repeated over decades.
“Santae Tribble was a warm, funny, deeply honorable man who was an unflinching advocate for his innocence,” said Levick, now legal director of the George C. Cochran Innocence Project at the University of Mississippi School of Law. “At a terrible personal price, he made a huge difference. His efforts to clear his name ultimately proved that the problems at the FBI lab were not confined to a single analyst; they were systemic.”
The exoneration “freed” Tribble of the burden of knowing he was innocent, the lifetime threat of reimprisonment for minor parole violations and the lurking suspicion of guilt among even supportive relatives, his son said.
“It stopped him from answering to people who he should never have had to answer to,” said Tribble Jr., 37, of Maryland. “These [people] jacked up cases for years. They owned us. They didn’t care. How crazy was it for them to get away with it for so long?”
Tribble Jr. grew up sending care packages and wearing new sneakers to trade for his father’s beat-up ones when visiting the former Lorton prison. He drove with his uncle to see his father in prisons around the country once D.C. inmates were moved after 1997, he said.
Every birthday and holiday, his father wrote notes, signed “True love.” He was 21 before they hugged outside prison.
“It’s memories of hoping and praying, wishing and waiting, and counting down the days for him to come home,” the younger Tribble said.
After his father’s “vindication,” he spent most of his time with his son and being a “Pop-Pop” to two grandsons, now ages 23 and 10, Tribble Jr. said.
“It’s what I missed out on every day,” and a sign that if his father “was home in the 1980s, he would have done the same thing for me,” he said.
“He had his emotions. But the thing that kept me going when I was younger, he never showed that to me,” Tribble Jr. said. “He never let you see he was dealing with a mountain on his back because he was sitting there for nothing — screaming he was innocent, and nobody was listening.”
The daughter of John McCormick, the slain cabdriver whom Tribble was convicted of killing, supported the exoneration.
Court-ordered DNA testing obtained by the public defender service confirmed that none of the 13 hairs retrieved from the crime scene stocking shared Tribble’s genetic profile or that of his alleged accomplice. Rather, the DNA testing found, the hairs came from three other human sources, except for one — which came from a dog — facts that FBI-trained examiners disputed or missed.
Tribble’s “journey of injustice subjected [him] to all the horror, degradation, and threats to personal security and privacy inherent in prison life, each heightened by his youth, actual innocence, and life sentence,” D.C. Superior Court Judge John M. Mott wrote in 2016.
His wrongful imprisonment deprived Tribble not just of liberty, Mott said, but “it ruined his life, leaving him broken in body and spirit and, quite literally, dying.”
By 2019, medical experts testified, Tribble was expected to die of advanced diseases the court attributed to his incarceration.
Tribble’s brother and son remembered his forbearance and generosity — for “just being able to walk around with his head up and be a man, and take things as they come,” Tribble Jr. said.
“These cases let you know, this happens way more than people think it does,” said Tribble’s brother, James Tribble Jr., a civilian Army worker from Woodbridge.
He said he would remember his brother’s joy, before his health declined, at family cookouts and on fishing trips on the Chesapeake Bay, off the Outer Banks in North Carolina and Martha’s Vineyard.
“He’s a better man than I was,” he said. “I couldn’t have done it.”
A viewing and service is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday for immediate family at Strickland Funeral Services in Maryland, with a private burial afterward. Others are invited to attend via live stream because of the state’s coronavirus restrictions. The entire story can be read at:
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.htmlPlease 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;
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;
Add toGIST: Santae A. Tribble, whose wrongful conviction for a 1978 murder in Southeast Washington exposed decades of exaggerated claims about the reliability of FBI forensic hair matches, has died, his family said.Trbble, 59, died June 24 in Washington after a lengthy illness attributed to his incarceration, said his son, Santae Tribble Jr.
Two Blogs Now: The Charles Smith Blog; The Selfless Warriors Blog: I created the Charles Smith Blog in 2007 after I retired from The Toronto Star to permit me to keep digging into the story of the flawed pathologist and the harm he had done to so many innocent parents and caregivers, and to Ontario’s criminal justice system. Since then it has taken new directions, including examinations of other flawed pathologists, flawed pathology, and flawed science and technology which has marred the quality of justice in courtrooms around the world. The heart of the Blog is my approach to following cases which raise issues in all of these areas - especially those involving the death penalty. I have dedicated 'The Selfless Warrior Blog’ (soon to appear) to those exceptional individuals who have been ripped out of their ordinary lives by their inability to stand by in the face of a glaring miscarriage of justice. They are my ’Selfless Warriors.’ Enjoy!
