PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Choi was a guest on WCCO Sunday Morning at 10:30a.m. and said: "There was a judge in Douglas County who had come to the conclusion that, in an infant death case, his conclusions were false or misleading. So because of that we did a very narrow review around infant death cases and we found a number of things. We found that Dr. McGee hadn't been connected to the latest research on that topic, and he wasn't participating in the Association of Medical Examiners." McGee's work has stretched far beyond Washington County. He regularly performed autopsies for other Minnesota counties that did not have their own medical examiner. He also performed autopsies in Wisconsin counties."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
STORY: "Talking Points: Medical examiner's 34 years of work now under question, by Reporter Esme Murphy, published by CBS Minnesota on January 29, 2023. (Esme Murphy, a reporter and Sunday morning anchor for WCCO-TV, has been a member of the WCCO-TV staff since December 1990. Born and raised in New York City, Esme ventured into reporting after graduating from Harvard University. She has won numerous awards during her career, including Associated Press First Place Awards for non-spot news reporting, feature reporting and investigative reporting.)
GIST: It's a scenario that seems out of a movie -- 71 autopsies in murder cases are under review because the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's work has come under question.
Dr. Michael McGee served in that position for 34 years, from 1985 to 2019.
Earlier this month, Attorney General Keith Ellison vacated the conviction of Thomas Rhodes, who had served 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife. Ellison cited the findings by McGee.
This followed the 2021 scathing rebuke of McGee's work in the Alfonso Rodriguez case. Rodriguez was convicted in the 2003 murder of college student Dru Sjodin.
A federal judge blasted McGee's work in that case saying McGee was "guessing" on the stand and his testimony was "unreliable, misleading and inaccurate." As a result the death sentence in that case was overturned. Rodriguez's murder conviction, though, still stands.
It was after that ruling by Judge Ralph Erickson that Ramsey County Attorney John Choi began looking at McGee's other cases. Choi looked at 270 cases, eliminated those where the death was clear-cut.
He was left with 71 cases where the verdict depended on McGee's analysis, which they're now reviewing. Serious questions about McGee's work had surfaced back in 2011.
Choi was a guest on WCCO Sunday Morning at 10:30a.m. and said: "There was a judge in Douglas County who had come to the conclusion that, in an infant death case, his conclusions were false or misleading. So because of that we did a very narrow review around infant death cases and we found a number of things. We found that Dr. McGee hadn't been connected to the latest research on that topic, and he wasn't participating in the Association of Medical Examiners."
McGee's work has stretched far beyond Washington County. He regularly performed autopsies for other Minnesota counties that did not have their own medical examiner. He also performed autopsies in Wisconsin counties.
Over more than three decades, McGee has performed thousands of local autopsies and now there are questions about how many other cases should be reviewed.
WCCO could not reach McGee for comment."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/medical-examiners-34-years-of-work-under-question/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------
READ ALSO: STORY: "Testimony of former coroner cited in decision to free man, also witness in Alfonso Rodriguez case," by Reporter Ryan Janke, published by KFGO, on January 13, 2023.
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: " A federal judge recently noted that Dr. McGee “has a well-documented history of providing false or inaccurate testimony in court,” and that his testimony in the case (against Rodriguez) was “so unmoored from a scientific basis that it should not have been received at all.” After that judge’s opinion was released, the Conviction Review Unit decided to look at the Rhodes case."
GIST: "A man who spent nearly 25 years in prison for murder is the first person in Minnesota to have his conviction reversed after an investigation by the state’s Conviction Review Unit – a division of the State’s Attorney General’s Office. Thomas Rhodes was convicted in 1998 after a jury found him guilty of 1st- and 2nd-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of his wife Jane who fell overboard and ultimately drowned during a nighttime boat ride on Green Lake in Spicer, Minnesota. Rhodes said Jane fell by accident. The conviction was based largely on the testimony of former Hennepin County Medical Examiner Dr. Michael McGee. McGee’s credibility has been called into question over the past two decades, including in the trial of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. Rodriguez was convicted of the 2003 kidnapping and murder of University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, 22. Sjodin was kidnapped from Columbia Mall in Grand Forks. Rodriguez was convicted in 2006 and sentenced to death, but the judge in the case has ruled he should be resentenced. A federal judge recently noted that Dr. McGee “has a well-documented history of providing false or inaccurate testimony in court,” and that his testimony in the case (against Rodriguez) was “so unmoored from a scientific basis that it should not have been received at all.” After that judge’s opinion was released, the Conviction Review Unit decided to look at the Rhodes case. In the Rhodes’ case, McGee testified that the death could not have been accidental and, based on that, the State argued Thomas grabbed Jane by the neck, pushed her overboard, and drove over her multiple times. An independent pathologist and former president of the National Association of Medical Examiners was asked to give an opinion on the Rhodes case and found that Jane Rhodes could have fallen by accident. The Conviction Review Unit, based on the independent review, found McGee’s testimony to be flawed and reversed the 1st- and 2nd-degree convictions, but not manslaughter since evidence shows that Rhodes’ negligence led to Jane’s death. The Conviction Review Unit said Rhodes drove a small, unstable boat, late at night, at top speed and knew Jane could not swim. Jane was not wearing a life jacket, there were no life jackets within reach. There were also no flashlights on the boat, and no way to quickly call for help. The nearly 25 years that Rhodes spent at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Moose Lake is nearly double the maximum sentence for his manslaughter conviction.
Rhodes was released on Friday.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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;
------------------------------------------------------------
