Monday, July 12, 2021

Johnny Briscoe: Missouri: (Flawed hair matching testimony): Released after spending more than two decades in prison for a rape he did not commit, he waited 15 years to ask for payback. To its eternal discredit the Attorney General's Department says 'no - you missed the filing deadline.'... Now the good news: The St. Louis County's Office supports Briscoe in court, and now compensation must be paid..."The first $36,000 check is to be paid to Briscoe immediately, and Briscoe will receive another in the same amount every year for the next 20 years for a grand total of more than $800,000. Briscoe will be 90 years old when the last check is paid. “I think the court got it right,” St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell said. “We talked to you about that just a few weeks ago — this is not only the legally correct ruling, but I think from a common sense standpoint it’s the correct ruling.”DNA testing on cigarette butts from the crime scene proved that Briscoe didn’t commit the rape for which he was incarcerated."


PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "On October 21, 1982, a man broke into a woman’s home in suburban St. Louis and raped her. The attacker and the victim smoked cigarettes. Before leaving, the man told the woman his name was John Briscoe. When the man left, the victim called police, and while they were in the apartment a man called multiple times, identifying himself as John Briscoe. The call was later traced to a pay phone not far from Briscoe’s apartment. The victim later identified Briscoe in a photo lineup. The victim also identified Briscoe as her attacker at the trial, where a forensic expert also testified that Briscoe’s hair shared similarities to hair found at the crime scene. At 29 years old, Briscoe was sentenced to 45 years in prison. 


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PASSAGE TWO OF THEDAY: "He maintained his innocence and in 2000 and 2001, Centurion Ministries, a Princeton, N.J.-based nonprofit, sought to help Briscoe, but St. Louis officials claimed evidence in his case could not be found and was presumed destroyed. In 2004, a laboratory turned up evidence of the cigarette butts and DNA testing was performed in 2004. The testing showed the DNA on the cigarette butts matched the profile of another man serving time in the Missouri prison system. The man knew Briscoe and used his name when committing the crime. Just days after learning the cigarettes had been discovered, Briscoe walked free."


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STORY: 'I think I got it right': Black Missouri man who wrongly spent 23 years in prison nearly missed out on restitution after the AG (Attorney General) claimed he filed to late," by Reporter Niara Savage, published by 'The Atlanta Black Star' on July 8, 2021.


GIST: "A St. Louis County Circuit Court judge ruled last week that a Missouri man must be awarded restitution after he spent decades wrongfully imprisoned.


Johnny Briscoe spent more than two decades in prison for a rape he did not commit. He was convicted in 1983 and released in 2006, but waited 15 years to ask for payback.


Briscoe’s delay in pursuing compensation became a sticking point between the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and the St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Office. 


The attorney general argued that Briscoe has waited too long, while the prosecutor’s office said the law doesn’t place limits on when he had to request restitution. In a five-page ruling, Judge Michael Burton agreed with the prosecutor’s office.


“The court finds there is no explicit statute of limitation in the statutory cause of action under 650.058 RSMo. within which to file a petition for restitution,” he wrote, according to Fox 2.


The first $36,000 check is to be paid to Briscoe immediately, and Briscoe will receive another in the same amount every year for the next 20 years for a grand total of more than $800,000. Briscoe will be 90 years old when the last check is paid.


“I think the court got it right,” St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell said. “We talked to you about that just a few weeks ago — this is not only the legally correct ruling, but I think from a common sense standpoint it’s the correct ruling.”


DNA testing on cigarette butts from the crime scene proved that Briscoe didn’t commit the rape for which he was incarcerated.


On October 21, 1982, a man broke into a woman’s home in suburban St. Louis and raped her. The attacker and the victim smoked cigarettes. Before leaving, the man told the woman his name was John Briscoe. When the man left, the victim called police, and while they were in the apartment a man called multiple times, identifying himself as John Briscoe. The call was later traced to a pay phone not far from Briscoe’s apartment. The victim later identified Briscoe in a photo lineup.


The victim also identified Briscoe as her attacker at the trial, where a forensic expert also testified that Briscoe’s hair shared similarities to hair found at the crime scene. At 29 years old, Briscoe was sentenced to 45 years in prison. 


He maintained his innocence and in 2000 and 2001, Centurion Ministries, a Princeton, N.J.-based nonprofit, sought to help Briscoe, but St. Louis officials claimed evidence in his case could not be found and was presumed destroyed.


In 2004, a laboratory turned up evidence of the cigarette butts and DNA testing was performed in 2004. The testing showed the DNA on the cigarette butts matched the profile of another man serving time in the Missouri prison system. The man knew Briscoe and used his name when committing the crime. Just days after learning the cigarettes had been discovered, Briscoe walked free.


“It’s been a long struggle, hard struggle, but I held strong,” he told Fox 2 at the time."


The entire story can be read at:

i-think-the-court-got-it-right-black-missouri-man-who-wrongly-spent-23-years-in-prison-nearly-missed-out-on-restitution-after-the-ag-claimed-he-filed-too-late

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: National  Registry of Exonerations: "A forensic chemist from the St. Louis County Crime Laboratory testified that semen was present on swabs from the victim's rape kit as well as on pantyhose, a towel and the victim’s bed sheets. A forensic hair expert testified that a head hair found on the victim’s bed sheet showed characteristics similar to Briscoe's head hair. Because there is not adequate empirical data on the frequency of various class characteristics in human hair, an analyst’s assertion that hairs are consistent or similar is inherently prejudicial and lacks probative value. A jury took less than two hours to convict Briscoe and he was sentenced to 45 years in state prison. Briscoe was 29 years old.

Read The National Registry of Exonerations entry (provided by The Innocence Project) at the link below: (Causes of the wrongful exoneration include 'false or misleading forensic evidence' and 'mistaken witness ID.')

GIST: "Johnny Briscoe was released from a Missouri prison on July 19, 2006 after DNA testing on cigarette butts from the crime scene proved that he did not commit the rape for which he had been incarcerated for 23 years.
 
Briscoe and his lawyers had been told since 2000 that evidence in his case had been lost or destroyed. In 2006, it was located and tested, proving his innocence.
 
The Crime:
In the early morning hours of October 21, 1982, a man broke into a woman’s apartment in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. The victim said that the man threatened her with a knife, stole her jewelry and then brutally raped her. After the rape, the man stayed with the victim for an hour, smoking a cigarette while the victim smoked two cigarettes. The two were together in a brightly lit room and the man told the victim that his name was John Briscoe.
 
Eventually, the man left the apartment and the victim called police. While police were still in the apartment, a man called the victim several times and identified himself as John Briscoe. The call was traced by police to a payphone near Briscoe's apartment.
 
On the morning of the incident, the victim was taken to the hospital for a rape examination. A rape kit including biological samples was collected from her.
 
The victim would later identify Briscoe in a photo lineup as well as a live lineup. Briscoe was the only man in the live lineup wearing an orange jumpsuit.
 
The Trial:
At Briscoe's 1983 trial for forcible rape, sodomy, burglary, robbery, stealing and armed criminal action, the victim identified Briscoe as the man who had attacked her. Briscoe's lawyer presented an alibi defense on his behalf.
 
A forensic chemist from the St. Louis County Crime Laboratory testified that semen was present on swabs from the victim's rape kit as well as on pantyhose, a towel and the victim’s bed sheets. A forensic hair expert testified that a head hair found on the victim’s bed sheet showed characteristics similar to Briscoe's head hair. Because there is not adequate empirical data on the frequency of various class characteristics in human hair, an analyst’s assertion that hairs are consistent or similar is inherently prejudicial and lacks probative value.
 
A jury took less than two hours to convict Briscoe and he was sentenced to 45 years in state prison. Briscoe was 29 years old.
 
Post-conviction:
After his conviction, Briscoe maintained his innocence and sought DNA testing on the biological evidence collected at the crime scene. In 1997, Briscoe's motion to compel the St. Louis District Attorney's Office to search for evidence was denied.
 
In 2000, Centurion Ministries, a Princeton, N.J.-based non-profit organization that seeks to overturn wrongful convictions, began working on Briscoe's case. In 2000 and again in 2001, Briscoe's attorneys requested that the St. Louis Crime Laboratory search for evidence in his case. Laboratory officials said that evidence could not be found and was presumed destroyed.
 
In 2004, a laboratory inventory turned up the cigarette butts from Briscoe's case in a freezer, but the district attorney said his office was not informed of the existence of the cigarettes until July 6, 2006. DNA testing on one of the cigarette butts showed the profile of a man other than Briscoe. This foreign profile matched a man currently serving time in the Missouri prison system. This man was known to Briscoe and may have used Briscoe’s name in the crime.
 
Briscoe, 52, walked out of a Charleston, Missouri, prison on July 19, 2006, just days after being told that the evidence had been found and tested. He later filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, but it was dismissed.
 

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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;

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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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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions.   They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;