Ryan Mays: California: Court-Marshall Hearing: The young sailor who has been accused by the U.S. Navy of aggravated arson and wilfully hazarding a vessel (against the advice of a military judge) in connection with a blaze on the 'USS Bonhomme Richard' which was docked for maintenance. Megan Rose, author of this stunning account, notes in Propublica that starting this week, Mays is being court-martialed in a military trial in San Diego. (Stay tuned for developments. HL)

STORY: "After the 'USS Bonhomme Richard' fire, investigators found missing fire hoses, a broken sprinkler system and other systemic failures. The Navy is still accusing a sailor of arson, against the advice of a military judge," by Megan Rose, published by ProPublica on September 22, 2022.  (Megan Rose, formerly Megan McCloskey, has investigated criminal justice and the military for ProPublica since 2013. She won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting with two colleagues for a series examining how Navy and Marine Corps leadership failed to heed warnings and implement reforms leading up to several fatal accidents.)

SUB-HEADING: "Subject: The Navy accused him of arson. Its own investigation showed widespread safety failures."

GIST: (Author Megan Rose has written a superb account of the U.S. Navy's prosecution a a young sailor  for arson - against the advice of a military judge. The lengthy story can be read in its entirety at the link below. Here is but a snippet:

 "The command investigation traced the problems back to when the Bonhomme Richard docked for maintenance and Navy leaders throughout the ranks abandoned responsibility for the ship’s safety. Risks mounted, and nobody paid attention. All told, investigators determined that the actions of 17 sailors and officers directly led to the loss of the ship, and those of 17 more, including five admirals, contributed. The long list was a staggering indictment of everyone from sailors to top admirals who had failed in their jobs. The NCIS investigation, however, laid the blame at the feet of a single young sailor. The true culprit, the one who bore responsibility for the billion-dollar loss, the Navy said, was then-20-year-old Ryan Mays. And for that, he should face life in prison. The Navy continued its pursuit of Mays, even as a military judge recommended against it, bluntly calling out the lack of evidence and citing the findings of the Navy’s own command investigation. Starting this week, Mays is being court-martialed in a military trial in San Diego for aggravated arson and willfully hazarding a vessel."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.propublica.org/article/bonhomme-richard-fire-safety-lapses?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resurce. 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;

SEE BREAKDOWN OF  SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG,  AT THE LINK BELOW:  HL:

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985

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;

—————————————————————————————————

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