GIST: "An Oklahoma lawmaker is asking the state’s attorney general to reexamine DNA evidence in the case of death row inmate Anthony Sanchez, set to be executed in September.
Rep. Justin J.J. Humphrey, R-Lane, believes DNA evidence in Sanchez’s case should be reprocessed due to questions of its accuracy, the legislator wrote in a letter Thursday to Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
“I have completed an initial review of Anthony Sanchez’s case, and I believe there is a significant issue with the processing of DNA evidence in death penalty cases in Oklahoma,” Humphrey wrote.
“I understand the legal system in Oklahoma can sometimes be lacking, and it is important to ensure that justice is served in every case,” Humphrey continued.
He noted that reprocessing the evidence "would be a critical step towards ensuring that the death penalty process is fair and just," not just in Sanchez's case, but in others like it.
Sanchez, 44, was convicted in 2006 of first-degree murder in the death of University of Oklahoma dance student Juli Busken, who was found raped and shot in the head at Lake Stanley Draper on Dec. 20, 1996.
Busken was 21 years old.
Why does Humphrey support reinvestigating DNA in the Sanchez case?
Humphrey, describing himself as a strong proponent of the death penalty in his letter to Drummond, also has advocated on behalf of another death row inmate, Richard Glossip, whose guilt Humphrey says has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
To much criticism, Drummond also has called for Glossip’s conviction to be set aside, telling justices that a 2004 retrial was unfair due to a false testimony not being corrected by the prosecution.
Humphrey mentions the controversy in his letter, thanking Drummond for his commitment to his stance and alluding to other contentious death penalty cases.
“There have been a number of issues raised with death penalty cases in Oklahoma in recent years, and I believe that it is imperative for our government to go the extra mile to restore confidence in the Oklahoma Death Penalty process,” Humphrey wrote.
“(While) I understand your knowledge of this case likely exceeds my own, I believe that the reprocessing of DNA evidence could be an important step in the right direction.”
What happened to the DNA evidence?
David Ballard, an investigator hired by the anti-capital punishment group Death Penalty Action to further review Sanchez’s case, said DNA evidence linking Sanchez to Busken’s murder may have been contaminated.
He also said an inexperienced lab technician miscommunicated the strength of the evidence to the jury.
Former Cleveland County District Attorney Tim Kuykendall has been adamant that “all of the evidence pointed to no one but Anthony Sanchez,” citing shoeprints and ballistics also used to convict him. But Ballard said his own investigation has led him to disagree.
“There’s a lot of conjecture,” Ballard said in June. “But everything I’ve seen, there’s nothing that draws directly to Anthony. Or, it’s a lot of outer-lying stuff that isn’t supported. Yes, you could use evidence like that in court, but it is not 100%.”
The Rev. Jeff Hood, Sanchez’s spiritual adviser, said he is convinced of his innocence and lambasted the legacy of capital punishment in Oklahoma.
“Even though our campaign has come a long distance, we will not stop until Attorney General Drummond asks for the date of Anthony Sanchez’s execution to be pulled,” Hood said in a statement.
Earlier this summer, Sanchez voiced a desire to move forward without his court-appointed attorneys and to instead attempt to prove his claim of innocence on his own.
He also has said he would avoid a hearing to request clemency, or mercy, of Gov. Kevin Stitt, because of what he described as the governor’s unwillingness to grant clemency, even if the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommends it.
Sanchez is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 21 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester."
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/
