PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false eye-witness identification issues because wrongful identifications are at the heart of so many DNA-related exonerations in the USA and elsewhere - and because so much scientific research is being conducted with a goal to making the identification process more transparent and reliable- and less subject to deliberate manipulation. I have also reported far too many cases over the years - mainly cases lacking DNA evidence (or other forensic evidence pointing to the suspect - where the identification is erroneous - in spite of witness’s certainty that it is true - or where the police pressure the witness, or rig the identification process in order to make a desired identification inevitable.
But appellate lawyers who spent decades pursuing his innocence claims finally unearthed the police photo — with a federal judge's help — in 2016 and Gwynn was noticeably absent.
“He was nowhere to be found," said lawyer Karl Schwartz, who joined Gwynn as he left prison this week after 30 years, most of it spent on death row in western Pennsylvania. “It shocks the conscience.”
Gwynn, now 54, joins more than 40 Philadelphians exonerated of serious crimes since 2016, and more than 3,500 exonerated across the U.S. since 1989.
“More times than you would like to see, it's powerfully exculpatory evidence that has been either hidden or misrepresented at a homicide trial that results in a guy ending up with a life sentence, or worse,” Schwartz said.
The photo array was just one of several pieces of questionable evidence used to convict Gwynn in the capital case. Investigators also relied on a confession taken as he suffered from drug withdrawal and overlooked evidence that another person — now serving a life term on other charges — had threatened to torch the building three days earlier over an unrelated slaying. Evidence points to that suspect, prosecutors now say.
Marsha Smith died in the 1994 fire in West Philadelphia, while several other people staying there were injured jumping out of windows. Few of the relevant details Gwynn gave in his police statement matched the crime scene.
The case "exemplifies an era of inexact and, at times corrupt, policing and prosecution that has broken trust with our communities to this day,” said Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who has championed dozens of innocence claims since taking office in 2018. Meanwhile, he said, “the guilty go free and are emboldened to do more harm.”
Gwynn turned to art in prison to counter what he called “the pain and anger blinding me to the beauty of life.” Raised by a grandmother, he said he abused drugs and committed petty crimes amid “the madness of the streets” as crack-cocaine ravaged Philadelphia during his early life.
“Painting has been my therapy, a form of meditation that helps me work through my issues,” he wrote as part of an online display of his work organized by the group Art for Justice, which promotes art done by incarcerated people to foster conversations about the justice system.
A federal judge had vacated Gwynn's conviction last year. The victim’s closest surviving relative, a brother, did not oppose his release, and a city judge closed the case on Wednesday when Krasner's office declined to retry him.
Krasner hopes Philadelphia police, under a new mayor and commissioner, will now revisit Smith's death."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.wtae.com/article/pennsylvania-death-row-inmate-free-philadelphia/60048318
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/
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/
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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