QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Kelley, the defense lawyer for Hawkins, said she hasn’t been told any evidence in that case was deleted. She filed a motion before trial demanding prosecutors say on the record whether his case was impacted by digital storage problems. At the time, they said the case was not affected. “I don’t believe the DA’s office knew about this,” Kelley told The News. “I believe this is a DPD issue that they need to address.”
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The revelation came amid Dallas police’s widespread issue preserving video evidence in violent crime cases. Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot sat in the courtroom gallery. Moments earlier he attended a hearing in another court in which his prosecutors sought to get state District Judge Amber Givens recused from three murder cases. Givens previously criticized prosecutors’ handling of one of the cases where video evidence was deleted. In January, Givens delayed the high-profile murder trial against Nina Marano after revelations that the lead detective failed to share hundreds of videos with lawyers. Some of the videos were permanently deleted because the detective did not save them properly.
After that trial was delayed, and as a result of other police digital storage issues reported by The Dallas Morning News, Creuzot asked police Feb. 17 to review all homicide cases filed with his office. By Feb. 25, prosecutors learned that evidence was deleted in 14 homicide cases, Creuzot said. One case was actively in trial at that time. The defense lawyers in that case said prosecutors did not tell them evidence was gone."
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STORY: "Mistrial declared in capital murder case after Dallas police failed to turn over evidence," by Staff Writer Krista M. Torralva, published by The Dallas Morning News, on March 29, 2023. (Staff writer. Krista Torralva first joined The Dallas Morning News as an intern on the business desk in 2013. She returned to The Morning News in 2021 as a reporter covering primarily Dallas County criminal courts. Krista graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a major in journalism and a minor in criminal justice.)
SUB-HEADING: "More than 200 videos, including surveillance footage from the apartment complex where Christion Washington was found dead, were not turned over to lawyers."
GIST: A judge declared a mistrial in a capital murder case Tuesday after lawyers discovered a Dallas police detective failed to turn over more than 200 videos of evidence prior to trial.
Lacorius Hawkins was on trial for the 2021 shooting death of Christion Washington in his West Dallas apartment.
Camera surveillance footage from the apartment complex was among the 212 videos the lead detective didn’t share with lawyers, defense attorney Erin Kelley said.
Detective Josue Rodriguez testified outside the presence of the jury that he didn’t know how the videos weren’t transferred to prosecutors. His testimony came after visiting Judge Mike Snipes declared a mistrial.
Another detective downloaded the videos from the surveillance system and uploaded them onto the detectives’ case system. When not all the evidence transferred to the DA’s system, Rodriguez said he put it onto an external hard drive provided to him by a prosecutor.
“That’s what we haven’t been able to figure out,” Rodriguez said when asked why the videos weren’t shared. “I transferred everything onto the hard drive.”
Rodriguez did not go item-by-item to make sure each file was transferred, he said.
The revelation came amid Dallas police’s widespread issue preserving video evidence in violent crime cases.
Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot sat in the courtroom gallery.
Moments earlier he attended a hearing in another court in which his prosecutors sought to get state District Judge Amber Givens recused from three murder cases.
Givens previously criticized prosecutors’ handling of one of the cases where video evidence was deleted.
In January, Givens delayed the high-profile murder trial against Nina Marano after revelations that the lead detective failed to share hundreds of videos with lawyers.
Some of the videos were permanently deleted because the detective did not save them properly.
After that trial was delayed, and as a result of other police digital storage issues reported by The Dallas Morning News, Creuzot asked police Feb. 17 to review all homicide cases filed with his office.
Related:What’s known about the 21 cases reviewed for missing, deleted Dallas police evidence
"
By Feb. 25, prosecutors learned that evidence was deleted in 14 homicide cases, Creuzot said. One case was actively in trial at that time. The defense lawyers in that case said prosecutors did not tell them evidence was gone.
Kelley, the defense lawyer for Hawkins, said she hasn’t been told any evidence in that case was deleted.
She filed a motion before trial demanding prosecutors say on the record whether his case was impacted by digital storage problems. At the time, they said the case was not affected.
“I don’t believe the DA’s office knew about this,” Kelley told The News. “I believe this is a DPD issue that they need to address.”
This was Hawkins’ second trial for Washington’s slaying.
Jurors in Hawkins’ first trial in December could not agree on a verdict and a mistrial was called then, too.
Hawkins is suspected of killing Washington on July 12, 2021, according to an indictment.
Washington’s girlfriend told police she went to check on him the next day after he had not returned her phone calls, according to The News’ previous reports. She found him in a pool of blood, police said."
The entire story can be read at:
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;
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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;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
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