PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The pathologists' reports will increase pressure on the beleaguered CCRC, widely criticised after the recent scandal involving Andy Malkinson, who was wrongly convicted and jailed for 17 years for rape."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Richard Shepherd has carried out 23,000 post-mortem examinations during his distinguished career, including working on the Hungerford massacre, the Clapham rail crash, the sex killing of Rachel Nickell and the death of Princess Diana. He also worked on the Harold Shipman case, the murder of Jill Dando and the management of British fatalities following the 9/11 terror attacks in the US. But it is in relation to one of his less famous cases – the relatively little-reported alleged murder of a vagrant in 1988 – that he now finds his conclusions under scrutiny."
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STORY: "Eight leading forensic experts say polo player convicted of murder 35 years ago may be innocent," by Associate Editor Stephen Wright, published by The Daily Mail, on March 13, 2024.
GIST: Eight esteemed pathologists and forensic experts have cast serious doubt on the Crown's case that an ex-polo-playing landowner murdered a vagrant with a suffocation technique made famous by 19th-century body-snatchers.
In documents submitted to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), they have debunked claims that Clive Freeman killed Alexander Hardie using the so-called 'Burking' method perfected by serial killers in Edinburgh in 1828.
William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people to sell their corpses for medical research in one of Scotland's most notorious crimes.
Many of the experts say, in written reports seen by the Daily Mail, that the most likely cause of Mr Hardie's death was the mixture of alcohol and prescription drugs found in the dead man's body, and suggest the most appropriate cause of death is 'unascertained'.
It was accepted by the jury, which found him guilty of murder and arson.
The Zimbabwean father-of-three was given a minimum 13-year jail term in 1989 – but he has now served an additional 22 years because, he says, he has refused to admit murdering Mr Hardie and trying to destroy his body in a fire.
Now 80, Freeman is increasingly frail but determined to clear his name before he dies.
Yesterday, as the CCRC reviews his case for a fifth time, a major Mail investigation raised troubling questions about the safety of his convictions, and asked whether he has spent 35 years behind bars for a murder that may never have happened.
In documents submitted to the CCRC, the eight pathologists and forensic scientists (not including original defence pathologist Professor Keith Mant) rejected claims that Mr Hardie, a former plumber from Edinburgh, was killed unlawfully. In doing so, they aligned themselves with the views of the late Professor Mant, a giant in the world of pathology, who in his pre-trial report and in evidence at Freeman's trial, strongly rejected the Crown's case of murder.
In a report dated January 20, 1999, forensic pathologist Dr Peter Acland said 'any pathologist would be hard put to give a definite cause of death in this case and, whilst he would be perhaps unwise to rule out foul play, I think he would have considered the natural or alcohol-related potential causes of death more likely'.
In October 2001, Professor Christopher Milroy, another forensic pathologist, said: 'I agree with Dr Acland that the cause of death in this case cannot be ascertained. Dr Shepherd gave the cause of death as suffocation. There were no positive pathological findings in his autopsy to support such a conclusion.'
In 2017, Professor Jack Crane, state pathologist in Northern Ireland, wrote: 'I understand that CCRC has asked Dr Shepherd to review the case and I should say that I find this highly irregular and objectionable. If the case were to be reviewed by a pathologist, it should be an independent pathologist, especially since five other extremely senior pathologists have already disagreed with him over the past 20 years.'
Professor Nicholas Birch, a consulting pharmacologist, wrote in March 2014: 'The concentration of alcohol likely to have been present in the blood of Alexander Hardie in the hours prior to his death, especially when combined with the toxic effects of diazepam and dothiepin (anti-depressants) at substantial concentrations, make it extremely likely that the cause of death was related to alcohol consumption.'
Five years ago, forensic pathologist Dr Alexander Kolar wrote that 'there is no evidence in isolation or in combination that allows a cause of death to be put forward, in particular there is no evidence that allows a diagnosis of suffocation, crush asphyxia, Burking or similar'.
As revealed by the Mail yesterday, there were also alleged failures by the police to disclose vital evidence at Freeman's trial, and a key eyewitness retracted his statement placing Freeman at the alleged murder scene on the night in question, saying he was mistaken.
Prosecutors believed Freeman may have learned the 'Burking' murder technique while serving in the former Rhodesia's Grey's Scouts mounted infantry unit in the 1970s and killed Mr Hardie in a bizarre plot to defraud an insurance firm out of £300,000.
Dr Shepherd did not respond to requests for comment.
The pathologists' reports will increase pressure on the beleaguered CCRC, widely criticised after the recent scandal involving Andy Malkinson, who was wrongly convicted and jailed for 17 years for rape.
The experienced pathologist under the spotlight
Richard Shepherd has carried out 23,000 post-mortem examinations during his distinguished career, including working on the Hungerford massacre, the Clapham rail crash, the sex killing of Rachel Nickell and the death of Princess Diana.
He also worked on the Harold Shipman case, the murder of Jill Dando and the management of British fatalities following the 9/11 terror attacks in the US.
But it is in relation to one of his less famous cases – the relatively little-reported alleged murder of a vagrant in 1988 – that he now finds his conclusions under scrutiny.
Dr Shepherd, who retired from the official list of Home Office-approved pathologists in 2017, has written a memoir, features regularly on TV and has done a lecture tour. In the past, he has been open about how his work affected his mental health.
He said: 'I can't grieve for 23,000 people but each one was taking a little piece of me at the time.
'And there did come a point when a large rent happened in my life and I suffered a really nasty, acute episode of PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder].
'It was after the Bali bombings. They were the trigger.'
Dr Shepherd saved his controversial and now-disputed conclusion about Alexander Hardie having been killed by so-called 'Burking' – a suffocation technique named after 19th-century Scottish serial killers Burke and Hare – until the very end of his evidence at the 1989 trial of Clive Freeman. He told jurors: 'The important part of this type of death is that the body has minimal or no resistance to the occlusion of the airways or the fixation of the chest. It is called Burking.'
In an interview with the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme, Dr Shepherd said he was 'a strong believer truth is crucial', adding: 'If they [families] have the whole truth, it's fine.
'If it's not the whole truth, they will discover a gap and not believe anything you say.'
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/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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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-12348801
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MORE VALUABLE WORDS: "As a former public defender, Texas' refusal to delay Ivan Cantu's execution to evaluate new evidence is deeply worrying for the state of our legal system. There should be no room for doubt in a death penalty case. The facts surrounding Cantu's execution should haunt all of us."
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett; X March 1, 2024.
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