PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects (especially young suspects) are to widely used interrogation methods such as the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’ As all too many of this Blog's post have shown, I also recognize that pressure for false confessions can take many forms, up to and including inducement. deception (read ‘outright lies’) physical violence, and even physical and mental torture.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Rosario’s attorneys, with assistance from the New England Innocence Project and the Committee for Public Counsel Services, persuaded a judge to vacate the convictions in 2014 and set him free pending a new trial. After the Supreme Judicial Court upheld the ruling in 2017, Middlesex County prosecutors said they would not retry him, citing the passage of time. In 2019, he filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Lowell and about a dozen police officers and firefighters involved in the investigation, alleging constitutional violations. The settlement was announced just a couple of weeks before a trial in the case was scheduled to start. The lawsuit said investigators, under pressure to solve a high-profile case quickly, used “outright lies, coercion, threats, mistreatment, and sleep deprivation” and took advantage of Rosario’s “obvious mental health breakdown” to get their client to sign a confession. Prosecutors said at trial that Rosario and two brothers, who have since died, set the fire by throwing Molotov cocktails at the building. The brothers were never tried because Rosario refused to testify against them."
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STORY: "Wrongfully convicted man gets $13M settlement," (Associated Press) published by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, on May 4, 2023.
GIST: "A man who spent 32 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of setting a fire that killed eight people will receive $13 million from the city of Lowell. Victor Rosario, 65, said on May 3 that he has forgiven those who put him behind bars.
“One of the things for me to be able to continue moving forward is basically to learn how to forgive,” he said at a news conference the day after the Lowell City Council voted to settle a $13 million civil rights lawsuit he brought against the city.
Rosario was 24 years old when he was convicted of arson and multiple counts of murder in connection with the 1982 fire in Lowell. Three adults and five children died in the fire.
Rosario tried to help the victims escape the flames, his attorneys said.
But investigators identified Rosario as a suspect, and then fabricated evidence and hid evidence that the fire was actually an accident, attorney Mark Loevy-Reyes said.
“They brought Victor Rosario for questioning; They coerced a confession after keeping him up all night,” Loevy-Reyes said. “Victor was traumatized because he had tried to save children from the burning fire. He heard their screams.”
He was told if he signed a piece of paper, he could go, Loevy-Reyes said. It was in English, and Rosario did not understand it because his native language is Spanish. He signed it anyway and ended up with a life sentence.
Rosario missed all the highwater moments in his four children’s lives. But the worst thing about being wrongfully imprisoned, Rosario said, was not being there for his mother when she died in 2007.
“Thirty-five years, more than half of my life, I spent behind the wall of a Massachusetts state prison,” Rosario read from a written statement at the news conference outside Boston’s federal courthouse. “Today this chapter is ended and a new chapter begins. Nothing can ever compensate me for those years taken from me.”
Rosario’s attorneys, with assistance from the New England Innocence Project and the Committee for Public Counsel Services, persuaded a judge to vacate the convictions in 2014 and set him free pending a new trial. After the Supreme Judicial Court upheld the ruling in 2017, Middlesex County prosecutors said they would not retry him, citing the passage of time.
In 2019, he filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Lowell and about a dozen police officers and firefighters involved in the investigation, alleging constitutional violations. The settlement was announced just a couple of weeks before a trial in the case was scheduled to start.
The lawsuit said investigators, under pressure to solve a high-profile case quickly, used “outright lies, coercion, threats, mistreatment, and sleep deprivation” and took advantage of Rosario’s “obvious mental health breakdown” to get their client to sign a confession.
Prosecutors said at trial that Rosario and two brothers, who have since died, set the fire by throwing Molotov cocktails at the building. The brothers were never tried because Rosario refused to testify against them.
Locke Bowman, another of Rosario’s attorneys, credited the Lowell City Council for settling the case.
”$13 million does not begin to compensate Victor for all that he has lost but it reflects the acknowledgement of the city of Lowell that what happened wasn’t right,” he said.
The settlement covers all of the police officers and firefighters named individually in the lawsuit.
Since he’s been freed, Rosario has started helping prisoners still behind bars and even competes in marathons.
“I ask the criminal justice system, the universities preparing lawyers, prosecutors and investigators, to do their very best to not let what happened to me be the future of one more wrongfully convicted individual,” he said in his statement."
The entire story can be read at:
https://masslawyersweekly.com/2023/05/04/wrongfully-convicted-man-gets-13m-settlement/
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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