PUBLISHER'S NOTE: What do police informants have to do with forensic science? (I'm glad you asked). Investigative Reporter Pamela Colloff give us a clue when she writes - at the link below - "I’ve wanted to write about jailhouse informants for a long time because they often appear in troubled cases in which the other evidence is weak." That's my experience as will as a criminal lawyer and an observer of criminal justice. Given the reality that jurors - thanks to the CSI effect - are becoming more and more insistent on the need for there to be forensic evidence, it is becoming more and more common for police to rely on shady tactics such as use of police snitches, staging lineups, coercing, inducing, or creating false confessions out of thin air, procuring false eyewitness testimony or concealing exculpatory evidence."
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The allegations centers on the murder of Charles Butler, who was shot and killed during a road rage incident.' Tran is accused of paying a witness thousands of dollars to lie on the stand. The witness recanted years later. The Alameda County DA is now reviewing more than 200 other cases involving Tran."
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STORY: "Case against Oakland police investigator accused of perjury, bribing witness heads to tria, by Reporter Velena Jones, published by NBC (Bay Area) on June 21, 2023. (Velena Jones is an award-winning reporter born and raised in the Bay Area. She reports for NBC Bay Area’s weekday newscasts covering Oakland and the East Bay.)
GIST: "There is enough evidence to send an Oakland homicide investigator to trial, an Alameda County judge ruled Wednesday.
Oakland police investigator Phong Tran faces five felony charges, including perjury and bribing a witness in a 2011 murder case.
"This case involves a decade of lying and manipulation by an Oakland police officer," Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price said. "The days when we turn a blind eye to misconduct and violations of the law are over. This case hopefully should send a message that this kind of conduct is an outlier, that it cannot be tolerated."
The allegations centers on the murder of Charles Butler, who was shot and killed during a road rage incident.'
Tran is accused of paying a witness thousands of dollars to lie on the stand. The witness recanted years later.
The Alameda County DA is now reviewing more than 200 other cases involving Tran.
"We do not want police officers to solve crimes," Price said. "We will not and do not tolerate homicides, but we want witnesses to be able to come forward truthfully and unafraid."
Adante Pointer represents Giovante Douglas and Cartier Hunter, the two men who spent nearly a decade behind bars based on the false testimony before their convictions were overturned.
"My clients are very happy to see that the officer who orchestrated essentially the hell that they lived through for 10 years, a decade now being held accountable for his actions," Pointer said.
The two men are now suing Tran and the City of Oakland. The detective was formally served with the paperwork at court on Wednesday, but refused to take it.
If convicted on all criminal charges, Tran could be sentenced to just over six years in prison, Pointer said.
"I think this is a situation where he should be forced to spend at least as much time as they did away from their families snatched away from their lives and forced to deal with the nightmares of prison that would be fair," Pointer said. "Unfortunately, the law doesn't allow that."
Tran's attorney, Andrew Ganz, believes the case is hollow and is accusing Price of using press conferences to influence public opinion and dismiss murder cases in a statement saying "I must simply respect the ruling of the judge, even though this should have been the exception based on the actual evidence and law."
It is a ruling Price said should send a message to both law enforcement and the community.
"My responsibility is to ensure there is no double standard and that the community is aware if you violate the law, even if you are a police officer that you will be held accountable," Price said."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/oakland-phong-tran-invesigator-trial/3257116/
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/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
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.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
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