PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer is opposing the motion to vacate their convictions, saying the fresh evidence would not be enough to change the outcome of their trials — the standard for reversing verdicts in Pennsylvania. Nickens lived alone and was found dead by her family on Oct. 10, 1997. Her apartment was in disarray and blood was spattered on her bed and a wall. Alan Keel, a consultant in forensic biology and DNA analysis, testified before a courtroom packed with the three men’s family and friends that the new tests did not find the men’s DNA on a range of items in Nickens’s apartment. That included her bedsheets, her underwear and most significantly a green jacket left at the scene that was the only piece of physical evidence allegedly linking the men to the crime. Authorities had argued at trials that it looked like one that belonged to Grasty. “This is a violent assault that took time,” Keel said of Nickens’s killing. “If any of these defendants did this, I would expect to recover biological evidence from one or more of these items.” Keel said it was equally significant that tests of the green jacket, a chewed straw in a pocket of the jacket and Nickens’s bedsheets turned up the DNA profile of a single man, who has yet to be identified and was referred to as “unknown male #1” in court. The same man’s DNA was recovered from semen in Nickens’s rectum during an autopsy. Keel testified he believed the green jacket belonged to the unknown man, not the defendants. “The totality of the evidence demonstrates that unknown male #1 raped and killed Ms. Nickens,” Keel testified."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "The attorneys said the case has echoes of another high-profile innocence case — a group of Black and Latino teens who were convicted of the rape of a jogger in Central Park before they were exonerated with the help of DNA evidence. Johnson, Chappell and Grasty, who are all Black, were teens and young men when they were arrested in Nickens’s slaying. The men were convicted during trials in 2000 and 2001 largely on the testimony of a teenage friend, Richard McElwee, who said he served as a lookout while the trio broke into Nickens’s apartment, robbed her of $30 and beat her. A medical examiner found Nickens’s injuries aggravated existing heart and lung issues, leading to her death. Prosecutors offered no definitive explanation for why the semen was on Nickens’s body during the men’s trials. They offered varying possibilities, including Nickens had a consensual encounter before her attack, the defendants found a used condom and deposited the semen on her body to cover up their crime, and a man entered Nickens’s apartment after the defendants left and raped her as she lay dying or was already dead. The innocence group attorneys have said all of those explanations were highly implausible.
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STORY: "DNA expert testifies evidence suggests men innocent n 199y killing."
SUB-HEADING: "Three men convicted in the slaying of a 70-year-old woman in the Philadelphia suburbs argue new DNA tests point to another perpetrator. Prosecutors reject that contention."
GIST: "A DNA expert testified Tuesday that new genetic tests show three Pennsylvania men convicted of a 1997 murder were likely not at the scene of the crime and that another perpetrator raped and killed 70-year-old Henrietta Nickens.
The testimony came as attorneys for Morton Johnson, Derrick Chappell and Samuel Grasty asked a judge in the suburbs of Philadelphia to throw out the men’s convictions and order new trials, arguing that the new DNA evidence shows they were wrongfully convicted of the brutal slaying in Chester, Pa.
The hearing in a Delaware County court ended without a resolution late Tuesday afternoon after running longer than expected. Both sides will return on Aug. 22 to mount more testimony. Court of Common Pleas Judge Mary Alice Brennan is likely to render a decision weeks later on their motion to vacate their convictions.
Johnson, Chappell and Grasty have always maintained their innocence and have spent more than two decades in prison.
Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer is opposing the motion to vacate their convictions, saying the fresh evidence would not be enough to change the outcome of their trials — the standard for reversing verdicts in Pennsylvania.
Nickens lived alone and was found dead by her family on Oct. 10, 1997. Her apartment was in disarray and blood was spattered on her bed and a wall.
Alan Keel, a consultant in forensic biology and DNA analysis, testified before a courtroom packed with the three men’s family and friends that the new tests did not find the men’s DNA on a range of items in Nickens’s apartment.
That included her bedsheets, her underwear and most significantly a green jacket left at the scene that was the only piece of physical evidence allegedly linking the men to the crime. Authorities had argued at trials that it looked like one that belonged to Grasty.
“This is a violent assault that took time,” Keel said of Nickens’s killing. “If any of these defendants did this, I would expect to recover biological evidence from one or more of these items.”
Keel said it was equally significant that tests of the green jacket, a chewed straw in a pocket of the jacket and Nickens’s bedsheets turned up the DNA profile of a single man, who has yet to be identified and was referred to as “unknown male #1” in court.
The same man’s DNA was recovered from semen in Nickens’s rectum during an autopsy.
Keel testified he believed the green jacket belonged to the unknown man, not the defendants.
“The totality of the evidence demonstrates that unknown male #1 raped and killed Ms. Nickens,” Keel testified.
Assistant District Attorney Sara G. Vanore argued that at each of the men’s trials in 2000 and 2001, prosecutors made clear that Johnson’s, Chappell’s and Grasty’s DNA was not present in the semen found on Nickens’s body, so the new evidence wouldn’t be enough to sway jurors’ minds in a new proceeding.
Vanore did not dispute the new DNA evidence, but spent hours Tuesday trying to poke holes in Keel’s conclusions about what it meant.
“When we look at [the new DNA tests] and we look at what is known, it is cumulative and it would not warrant a new trial,” Vanore said in opening remarks.
The attorneys said the case has echoes of another high-profile innocence case — a group of Black and Latino teens who were convicted of the rape of a jogger in Central Park before they were exonerated with the help of DNA evidence.
Johnson, Chappell and Grasty, who are all Black, were teens and young men when they were arrested in Nickens’s slaying.
The men were convicted during trials in 2000 and 2001 largely on the testimony of a teenage friend, Richard McElwee, who said he served as a lookout while the trio broke into Nickens’s apartment, robbed her of $30 and beat her.
A medical examiner found Nickens’s injuries aggravated existing heart and lung issues, leading to her death.
Prosecutors offered no definitive explanation for why the semen was on Nickens’s body during the men’s trials.
They offered varying possibilities, including Nickens had a consensual encounter before her attack, the defendants found a used condom and deposited the semen on her body to cover up their crime, and a man entered Nickens’s apartment after the defendants left and raped her as she lay dying or was already dead.
The innocence group attorneys have said all of those explanations were highly implausible.
Nickens’s daughter testified at trial that her mother had no boyfriend. Nickens was also in poor health, so the men’s attorneys say a sexual assault is the most likely explanation for the semen.
They have also raised doubts about McElwee’s testimony, which they say is inconsistent with the facts of Nickens’s assault.
McElwee said the break-in at Nickens’s apartment occurred at 10 p.m. on Oct. 9, 1997 and lasted five to 20 minutes, but Nickens’s daughter testified she spoke to her mother until about 11 p.m. that night.
The innocence group attorneys also said McElwee was prone to manipulation because he was 15, had an IQ of 69 and was mildly intellectually disabled, and was facing the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence.
Carlotta Nickens, the daughter of Henrietta Nickens, attended Tuesday’s hearing, but said she remained unconvinced by the arguments on behalf of Johnson, Chappell and Grasty. She called her mother “one in a million”
“If they weren’t guilty, they wouldn’t be here,” Carlotta Nickens said of the men."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/07/25/pennsylvania-dna-innocence-claim-nickens/
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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