PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Meanwhile, the Minnesota Attorney General’s office continues “an unbiased and independent review of all cases the Attorney General’s Office prosecuted in which Dr. McGee provided testimony on behalf of the state,” spokesman Brian Evans said this week. “We have identified roughly a dozen homicide cases that fall under the scope of the initial review,” he wrote in an email. “This review is ongoing and will take time to complete because it is being done in a careful and thorough manner. We have not yet identified cases that warrant further investigation.”
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STORY: "Two years after Dru Sjodin killer’s sentence overturned, review of medical examiner’s work continues," by Reporter Mara H. Gottfried, published by Twin Cities Pioneer Press, on January 11, 2023. (Mara Gottfried has been a Pioneer Press reporter since 2001, mostly covering public safety.)
PHOTO CAPTION: "Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. listens at his bail hearing Dec. 4, 2003 in Grand Forks, N.D. Rodriguez was convicted of kidnapping and killing Dru Sjodin and was sentenced to death, but a federal judge’s September 2021 ruling overturned the death penalty for the case."
GIST: "Inquiries into the former Ramsey County medical examiner continue after his work was called into question in the Dru Sjodin murder and other cases.
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office announced a year ago that it had agreed to vacate a man’s 1998 conviction for first- and second-degree murder in Kandiyohi County. The AG’s office said Dr. Michael McGee’s testimony was the “linchpin” of the case and cited “increasing scrutiny” of his work.
After the death sentence of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. was overturned in Dru Sjodin’s murder, with Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ralph Erickson writing in September 2021 that McGee’s testimony about Sjodin’s cause of death was “unreliable, misleading and inaccurate,” the Ramsey County attorney’s office launched an outside review of McGee’s work. That review is ongoing, a county attorney’s spokesman said this week.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota Attorney General’s office continues “an unbiased and independent review of all cases the Attorney General’s Office prosecuted in which Dr. McGee provided testimony on behalf of the state,” spokesman Brian Evans said this week.
“We have identified roughly a dozen homicide cases that fall under the scope of the initial review,” he wrote in an email. “This review is ongoing and will take time to complete because it is being done in a careful and thorough manner. We have not yet identified cases that warrant further investigation.”
McGee could not be reached for comment."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.twincities.com/author/mara-gottfried/
| 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.
