SUB-HEADING: "Man convicted of sex assault asks for evidence to be retested while DNA analyst is under investigation"
(SUB-HEADING): "On Wednesday, a federal judge is set to hear arguments on whether evidence should be retested two decades after the man was sentenced."
GIST: "A federal judge will hear arguments on Wednesday on whether evidence examined by a DNA analyst who is now under investigation should be retested.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said an internal affairs investigation found Yvonne "Missy" Woods manipulated data on hundreds of cases.
James Hunter who is now 64-years-old said he's been in prison for 22 years for a sexual assault he didn't commit.
His attorney, Mark Burton, planned to file a lawsuit before CBI announced its investigation into Woods. Burton said the findings from the agency so far validate their suspicions.
According to a lawsuit filed in November 2023, evidence examined and tested by Woods led to Hunter's conviction. Burton believes there needs to be more testing.
"Mr. Hunter was prosecuted and tried based on fabricated and false evidence," the lawsuit says.
Burton will ask a federal judge to give them access to the evidence so it can be retested.
"Because we are very confident that if we get access to the DNA material that the police agency holds that we can show our client is incarcerated unjustly," Burton said.
Days before filing Burton learned Woods was under investigation for "anomalies" in her work.
Woods was a 29-year veteran at CBI and was considered the gold standard in her industry.
An internal affairs investigation found she "cut corners" and tampered with results, impacting 652 cases between 2008 and 2023. There could be more, as the agency is still reviewing her work from 1994 to 2008.
CBI worked with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to help with an independent evaluation.
"It gives a lot of weight to our argument," he said. "It shows we are not barking up the wrong tree. I think it does."
Burton will make his argument in federal court for a man he feels is one of the cases impacted by this internal affairs review. CBI hasn't released to the public a list of cases that are a part of this review.
"I don't really have a question. I am certain it is part of this," he said.
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/
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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."
