PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects are to widely used interrogation methods such as the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’ As all too many of this Blog's post have shown, I also recognize that pressure for false confessions can take many forms, up to and including physical violence, even physical and mental torture.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:
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STORY: "Betty Tyson dies at 75: Spent 25 years in New York prison (sounds like a third of her life to me (HL) before murder conviction was overturned," by Associated Press reporter Carolyn Thompson, published on August 23, 2023.
GIST: "A Rochester, New York, woman who spent 25 years in prison for murder before being exonerated will be laid to rest Friday. Betty Tyson died last week in a Rochester hospital following a heart attack.
Her sister confirmed the death Wednesday and said Thomas was 75 years old and had recently marked a milestone, having spent as much time free after her incarceration as she had behind bars.
Tyson was sent to prison in 1974 for the death of a Philadelphia business consultant.
A judge overturned her conviction in 1998, ruling that the police had withheld exculpatory evidence. By then, she was the longest-serving female inmate in New York state.
betty-tyson-dies-at-75-spent-25-years-in-new-york-prison-before-murder-conviction-was-overturned
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: National Registry of Exonerations: "Tyson settled a lawsuit with the City of Rochester for $1.2 million."
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Read National Registry of Exonerations entry dated before June 2012, by Stephanie Denzel, at the link below: Contributing factors are: "False Confession, Perjury or False Accusation, and Official Misconduct.
GIST: "In May 1973, Timothy Haworth was found bludgeoned and strangled to death in Rochester, New York. Police believed he had left his hotel the previous evening in search of a prostitute.
Police picked up known prostitute John Duval and prostitute Betty Tyson.
Both Duval and Tyson signed confessions, but later recanted, saying police had beaten them into confessing.
Two teenage acquaintances of Tyson’s were taken into custody and held for seven months. They testified at the trials that they saw Tyson and Duval with the victim shortly before the murder.
Tyson and Duval were convicted of second-degree murder in separate trials and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3702
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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