BACKGROUND: UK DEATH PENALTY PROJECT PRESS RELEASE: (May 3, 2024):Systemic failures in DNA testing leads to release of Bermudan man wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for more than 10 years: "In a rare act, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the highest court in Bermuda, ordered the immediate release of Julian Washington on bail. A final order will follow quashing his conviction, on the basis of fresh evidence undermining the safety of his original conviction for murder over 10 years ago. The appeal, originally listed to be heard in June 2024, was abruptly halted after lawyers representing the Bermudan government conceded that forensic evidence presented at Julian’s original trial was flawed and could not be relied upon. Julian was convicted on 6 May 2014 for the murder of Stefan Burgess and the attempted murder of Davano Jahkai Brimmer. The prosecution’s case relied on forensic evidence, including DNA on bullet casings. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 30 years imprisonment before his release would be considered. Julian has consistently maintained his innocence. In 2021 The Death Penalty Project, a UK-based legal action NGO who specialise in appeals to the Privy Council, took on Julian’s case. We sought to obtain fresh evidence to challenge the forensic evidence at trial, on the basis that it was flawed, imbalanced and wrongly implicated Julian. The Privy Council granted permission for Julian to appeal his conviction on 15 February 2023 and a hearing was listed for 17 and 18 June 2024. The DNA evidence: At Julian’s original trial, the prosecution relied on the evidence of Ms Candy Zuleger, the then laboratory director of the now defunct Trinity DNA Solutions. She gave evidence before the jury that there was a 1 in 46,000,000 (forty-six million) chance that Julian was not a possible contributor to the DNA found on the bullet casings near the scene of the crime. This was inaccurate and should not have been placed before the jury. In our case we relied on the expert opinion of Dr Dan Krane of Wright State University. He concluded that it would have been more appropriate to characterise the testing of the casing as “inconclusive” and exclude the evidence against Julian entirely. Dr Krane found that there were significant errors in the methodology used and in the calculation and explanation of the statistical weight attached to the DNA evidence in Julian’s case. The prosecution was forced to reconsider their position in light of the expert evidence presented, leading to today’s decision to immediately release Julian on unconditional bail until the final order quashing his conviction is delivered. Trinity DNA Solutions were frequently engaged as experts by the Government of Bermuda in criminal prosecutions. The Government have recognised that Trinity DNA Solutions were not complying with the accepted practice at the time and did not have appropriate protocols in place. The same forensic laboratory has also worked with prosecutors in The Bahamas and the United States, raising alarm of possible widespread miscarriages of justice.
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Based in Florida, Trinity DNA Solutions were frequently engaged as forensics experts by the government of Bermuda, who have now accepted that the company were not operating with the correct protocols in place. The same forensics lab has also worked with prosecutors in the US and the Bahamas, raising the prospect of widespread miscarriages of justice as a result of their failings."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "The Death Penalty Project, a UK based legal charity, has been supporting Washington through his appeal. Parvais Jabbar, Co-Executive Director of the DPP, said: ‘The prosecution’s decision to concede the appeal and not seek a retrial is a complete vindication of the years Julian has maintained his innocence. However, whilst Julian is now free, this case raises wider concerns that expert evidence that is fundamentally flawed, has been wrongfully used to secure convictions in potentially many cases.’ He said the Bermudan government should now conduct an urgent inquiry into whether other miscarriages of justice may have occurred because of the ‘systemic failings’ identified by this case."
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STORY: "Alarm raised about widespread miscarriages of justice after dodgy DNA exoneration in Bermuda, by Reporter Samantha Dulieu, published by The Justice Gap, on May 7, 2024. (Samantha Dulieu is a freelance writer and News Editor of The Justice Gap. She has covered some of the most high profile miscarriages of justice in the UK, as well as law, policy, human rights issues, prisons, protest and migration. She also offers her expertise to All party Parliamentary Group on miscarriages of justice through its secretariat, the Future Justice Project.)
GIST: "Alarm has been raised about the prospect of possible widespread miscarriages of justice across the US and the Bahamas after the exoneration of a man who had been convicted of murder on the basis of inaccurate DNA evidence.
The highest court in Bermuda ruled last week that Julian Washington, who was convicted in 2014 for the murder of one man and the attempted murder of another, should be immediately released.
At his appeal the lawyers representing the Bermudan government conceded that the forensic evidence that had implicated him was flawed and could not be relied upon.
Washington was originally sentenced to a minimum of 30 years imprisonment, but since being jailed ten years ago has always maintained his innocence.
A forensics expert at the original trial, from the now defunct Trinity DNA Solutions, said there was a one in 46 million chance that Washington’s DNA was not present on a bullet casing found at the scene. At the appeal a different forensics expert said this evidence was in fact ‘inconclusive’ and should not have been put before the jury.
Based in Florida, Trinity DNA Solutions were frequently engaged as forensics experts by the government of Bermuda, who have now accepted that the company were not operating with the correct protocols in place. The same forensics lab has also worked with prosecutors in the US and the Bahamas, raising the prospect of widespread miscarriages of justice as a result of their failings.
Julian Washington has been released from prison immediately on unconditional bail and awaits the final order that will quash his conviction.
The Death Penalty Project, a UK based legal charity, has been supporting Washington through his appeal. Parvais Jabbar, Co-Executive Director of the DPP, said: ‘The prosecution’s decision to concede the appeal and not seek a retrial is a complete vindication of the years Julian has maintained his innocence.
However, whilst Julian is now free, this case raises wider concerns that expert evidence that is fundamentally flawed, has been wrongfully used to secure convictions in potentially many cases.’
He said the Bermudan government should now conduct an urgent inquiry into whether other miscarriages of justice may have occurred because of the ‘systemic failings’ identified by this case."
The entire story can be read at:
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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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
---------------------------------------------------------------
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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