POST: Transforming systems, with a focus on efforts on courts, statehouse, and Congress to confront the causes of wrongful conviction, including racial bias, eyewitness conviction, police misconduct and more. These efforts led to statements and admissions by juveniles being made inadmissible in court when police deception was used during custodial interrogations - and, In conjunction with the Korey Wise Innocence Project, The Innocence Project ensured that wrongfully convicted Coloradans can access DNA testing to prove their innocence.
GIST: EXPERT TESTIMONY: We submitted an amicus brief that successfully urged the admission of expert testimony on false confessions in the retrial of Andrew Krivak, who was convicted of a 1994 murder and rape in New York. Mr. Krivak was eventually acquitted after a jury determined that a statement he had signed implicating himself was a false confession.
Eyewitness Testimony: We participated as amici in a Washington robbery case that led to the Washington Supreme Court ordering the state’s trial courts to consider new scientific research when determining the suggestiveness and reliability of eyewitness identifications.
Earwitness Testimony: After a New York judge ordered a new trial for Prakash Churaman, who was convicted of murder based on an unreliable confession and “earwitness” testimony, we assisted with the defense counsel’s successful effort to exclude both pieces of evidence during pre-trial hearings. The district attorney later dropped murder charges against him, leading to his exoneration.
Fabricated Evidence: Together with co-counsel, we filed a civil rights lawsuit against Mississippi officials on behalf of Jocelyn McLean, who was wrongly charged and jailed for the death of her newborn daughter based on fabricated evidence by forensic pathologists.
TOOLMARK MATCHING EVIDENCE: A Colorado court ordered a new trial for our client Jimmy Genrich, after an extensive post-conviction hearing demonstrated the lack of reliability and scientific validity of the toolmark matching evidence that was used to convict him of a series of bombings over 30 years ago.
Facial Recognition: "In a New Jersey case, we participated as amicus, obtaining a court order mandating disclosure of discovery relating to facial recognition software used to identify people who have been accused of a crime. In a Maryland case, we participated as amicus and won a decision in the Maryland Supreme Court precluding firearm toolmark analysts from testifying to a conclusive identification between pieces of fired ammunition.
The entire section can be read at:
https://report2023.innocenceproject.org/#S03
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-123488014\
