PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Ogrod was exonerated and released from prison in 2020 following an investigation by the District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit. Since then, he has sued the city in an attempt to get compensated for the 28 years he served behind bars. It was part of that lawsuit that Ogrod’s lawyers sought to look at the DNA in the case. “There should be additional testing on any DNA that exists,” said Ogrod’s lawyer, Joseph Marrone, outside of court Tuesday. “Technology has come a long way in DNA investigations.”
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STORY: "Lawyers for man wrongfully convicted of Barbara Jean's murder ask city to test DNA," by Reporter Claudia Vargas, published but NBC10, on June 29, 2023. (Claudia Vargas is an award-winning investigative reporter for NBC10.)
SUB-HEADING: “There has never been any analysis of this ‘touch DNA’ from the plastic bag, but the partial sample has been confirmed to be that of a male who is not Walter Ogrod."
PHOTO CAPTION: "There is a new push for DNA testing in the 35-year-old cold case of Barbara Jean,. NBC10 Investigative reporter Claudia Vargas has the latest on the case where lawyers for the formerly convicted killer, who served 28 years in prison before he was exonerated in 2020, are asking the city to investigate DNA."
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WHAT TO KNOW: "The lawyers representing a man who was wrongfully convicted of killing 4-year-old Barbara Jean Horn in 1988 are asking the city of Philadelphia to test an existing DNA sample...In a letter to the judge overseeing Walter Ogrod’s civil lawsuit against the city for wrongful prosecution, Ogrod’s lawyer says that they hired a forensic scientist to review the DNA evidence in the case. During that review, the letter says, the scientist found a DNA sample from the plastic bag that was covering the girl’s body when she was found...Barbara Jean was killed just a few hours after going missing from her front lawn in broad daylight. She was found two blocks from her home in the city’s Castor Garden section. Her body was wrapped in a plastic bag and placed inside a cardboard TV box."
GIST: "The lawyers representing a man who was wrongfully convicted of killing 4-year-old Barbara Jean Horn in 1988 are asking the city of Philadelphia to test an existing DNA sample.
In a letter to the judge overseeing Walter Ogrod’s civil lawsuit against the city for wrongful prosecution, Ogrod’s lawyer says that they hired a forensic scientist to review the DNA evidence in the case.
During that review, the letter says, the scientist found a DNA sample from the plastic bag that was covering the girl’s body when she was found.
“There has never been any analysis of this ‘touch DNA’ from the plastic bag, but the partial sample has been confirmed to be that of a male who is not Walter Ogrod,” the letter said.
Barbara Jean was killed just a few hours after going missing from her front lawn in broad daylight.
She was found two blocks from her home in the city’s Castor Garden section. Her body was wrapped in a plastic bag and placed inside a cardboard TV box.
Walter Ogrod was convicted of the murder in 1996 following two trials.
At the time of the murder, he lived across the street from where Barbara Jean Horn and her family lived.
Ogrod was exonerated and released from prison in 2020 following an investigation by the District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit.
Since then, he has sued the city in an attempt to get compensated for the 28 years he served behind bars.
It was part of that lawsuit that Ogrod’s lawyers sought to look at the DNA in the case.
“There should be additional testing on any DNA that exists,” said Ogrod’s lawyer, Joseph Marrone, outside of court Tuesday. “Technology has come a long way in DNA investigations.”
Marrone said that no decision was made during Tuesdays’ court hearing.
The District Attorney’s Office declined to comment, citing pending litigation."
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/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
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/
