PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The jury recommended a life sentence, but the judge, Harry Coe, overruled and gave Duboise the death penalty. A few years later, DuBoise appealed and his sentence was reduced back to life in prison. DNA evidence that was thought to be “lost” was found during an 11 month review of DuBoise’s case. It found that he was not a match for forensic evidence collected from the murder investigation, according to a spokesperson from the state attorney’s office. The Innocence Project is representing DuBoise and is trying to get him released from the Hardee Correctional Institution as soon as possible."
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GIST: "A Tampa man who was serving a life sentence after being accused of committing a murder and rape he wasn’t guilty of has been cleared by DNA evidence, according to the Innocence Project and the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office.
Robert DuBoise spent 37 years in Florida State Prison for the death of Barbara Grams, a 19-year-old Tampa woman people found beaten to death behind a dental practice in 1983, NBC affiliate WFLA reported.
Articles from the time reported that hair, saliva, and blood samples from the scene were inclusive. However, a jury convicted DuBoise based on reconstructed bite marks that the prosecution argued matched his teeth, and the testimony of another state inmate.
The jury recommended a life sentence, but the judge, Harry Coe, overruled and gave Duboise the death penalty. A few years later, DuBoise appealed and his sentence was reduced back to life in prison.
DNA evidence that was thought to be “lost” was found during an 11 month review of DuBoise’s case. It found that he was not a match for forensic evidence collected from the murder investigation, according to a spokesperson from the state attorney’s office.
The Innocence Project is representing DuBoise and is trying to get him released from the Hardee Correctional Institution as soon as possible.
State Attorney Andrew Warren called a press conference for Wednesday afternoon to announce the developments."
The entire story can be read at:
https://nbc-2.com/news/state/2020/08/26/florida-man-serving-life-sentence-for-murder-rape-cleared-by-dna-evidence-over-30-years-later/
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See 'Reason' commentary by Scott Shackford at the link below: "
At the same time that the DOJ is relaunching executions, we're seeing examples of the potential for the criminal justice system to go awry and harm innocent people, depriving them of their liberty and potentially their lives, in part due to overzealous prosecution. Today, in Florida, DNA evidence revealed that a man incarcerated for 37 years is innocent of a 1983 rape and murder in the Tampa area. Robert Duboise was convicted partly on the strength of bite-mark evidence from a forensic dentist who matched marks on the victim's face with Duboise's teeth. The accuracy of this type of forensics science has long since been shown to be completely unreliable. At one point Duboise was sentenced to death, but fortunately, it was later reduced by a judge to life in prison. This gave the Innocence Project, a nonprofit that works to exonerate people who have been wrongly convicted, a chance to work with the case and gave Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren's office a chance to find new DNA evidence in a stored rape kit. The evidence exonerated Duboise, and he may be freed as early as Thursday." https://reason.com/2020/08/26/the-trump-administration-executes-its-fourth-federal-prisoner-in-two-months/
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Read following excerpt from Tampa Bay Times story by reporter Dan Sullivan for a real example of an expert witness's lament years later when his opinion turned out to be terribly wrong - indeed, today recognised as 'junk science.'..."The state’s theory was that Duboise, his brother and another man spotted Grams while she was walking, abducted her, then raped and killed her behind the office. The other two were never charged. Duboise was arrested a few months after the crime. His conviction relied heavily on the testimony of Dr. Richard Souviron, a forensic dentist. Souviron told a jury that a bite mark on the victim’s cheek matched Duboise’ teeth, “to a reasonable degree of dental certainty.” Bite-mark evidence in recent years has come to be regarded as unreliable. A different dentist recently examined the evidence and found that the mark on Grams’ face was not from a bite after all. “Today, I would never say what I said 37 years ago,” Souviron said Wednesday when reached by phone. “Today, I would say I could not eliminate him. There could have been a million other people whose teeth fit.” Souviron added that he eliminated a handful of other suspects in the case before identifying the bite as coming from Duboise. “From a human point of view, of course, I feel terrible,” he said. “I played a part in his conviction. There’s no question I feel terrible.” The case also hinged on testimony from a jailhouse informant, who claimed Duboise confessed that he raped Grams while two other men beat her to death. Often referred to pejoratively as “snitch testimony,” the words of jailhouse informants also have been scrutinized in recent years as a factor in many wrongful conviction cases."
https://www.tampabay.com/news/hillsborough/2020/08/26/state-attorney-dna-exonerates-man-in-1983-tampa-murder/
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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; -----------------------------------------------------------------
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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