SUB-HEADING: "Two years has passed since a Missouri teen died under mysterious circumstances."
GIST: ST. LOUIS, Mo. "Family, friends and activists rallied Sunday afternoon in Downtown St. Louis for a 19-year-old who died in rural Missouri in 2021.
The family of Derontae Martin hosted a rally at Keiner Plaza more than two years after Martin died in Fredericktown, Missouri, under mysterious circumstances.
In April 2021, a classmate picked up Martin from his home in Ferguson, Missouri, and then drove to Fredericktown, Missouri, for a party. Fredericktown is about 90 miles south of St. Louis.
Martin’s grandmother lives in Park Hills, where Martin spent significant time growing up. Martin also planned to visit his grandmother on his trip south. Park Hills is about 30 minutes from Fredericktown.
Shortly after Martin died, Missouri State Highway Patrol and Madison County, Missouri, officials told Martin’s family he died by suicide from a gun, but during a coroner’s inquest a few months later, a jury ruled Martin died violently.
Martin’s family paid for a separate autopsy that found the gun was shot from a distance, not consistent with suicide.
One person at the 2021 inquest testified the person who owns the home where the party happened bragged about killing Martin, but another person testified that Martin shot himself.
No one has ever been charged with a crime.
“It’s been two years, and nobody still has been charged with the murder of my son,” said Ericka Lotts, Martin’s mother.
Lotts said she contacted the new prosecuting attorney for Madison County, Missouri, to investigate the case.
“That’s been about four months ago, and he still hasn’t contacted me,” she said.
“They failed Derontae, and they’re not even held accountable,” said Kimberly Lotts-Robinson, Martin’s grandmother. “It shouldn’t be that hard for someone to step in and prompt an investigation.""
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;
—————————————————————————————————
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;
------------------------------------------------------------------
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/
