PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Judge Calvo-Torres wrote that the DNA evidence, combined with testimony from Belton that he, and not Agee, committed the crime, “demonstrated a reasonable probability that had the newly discovered DNA evidence been produced at trail, the verdict would have been more favorable to the defendant.”
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STORY: "Judge orders new trial for a man who claimed DNA evidence was withheld," WIFB4 (Digital Executive Reporter, producer Nick Veronica and Reporter Daniel Telvock) report ,on July 26, 2023.
GIST: "A man who was convicted of two armed robberies in Niagara Falls and imprisoned for more than a decade was ordered to be released Wednesday after his lawyers successfully argued prosecutors failed to provide him with conflicting DNA evidence obtained after his conviction.
Judge Betty Calvo-Torres vacated the judgment against 30-year-old Michael Agee and granted his request for a new trial.
Niagara County District Attorney Brian Seaman did not indicate whether prosecutors would re-try Agee.
Agee was convicted of first-degree attempted robbery of a furniture store in 2010, and first- and second-degree robbery for a car theft two days later. He was sentenced on March 14, 2013, to 12 years in prison.
Court papers state prosecutors came into possession of a DNA report in October 2013 that cast doubt in Agee being involved, but they never provided the exculpatory evidence to Agee’s attorneys.
Agee did not get a copy of the report until 2021, when a team of investigators and an attorney filed a Freedom of Information law request.
Specifically, the DNA report stated that a knife recovered at the scene of one of the robberies contained DNA that matched another man, Darius Belton, and not Agee, according to court papers.
Judge Calvo-Torres wrote that the DNA evidence, combined with testimony from Belton that he, and not Agee, committed the crime, “demonstrated a reasonable probability that had the newly discovered DNA evidence been produced at trail, the verdict would have been more favorable to the defendant.”
Agee was being held at a state prison in Wyoming County. His earliest possible release date was listed as March 2027.""
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.wivb.com/news/judge-orders-new-trial-for-man-who-claimed-dna-evidence-was-withheld/
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/
