Kerry Max Cook: Texas; Major (but incredibly overdue) Development: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has declared him “actually innocent” - 46 Years after his original conviction, noting amongst other factors that there has been "new scientific evidence."… "Describing Mr. Cook’s case as “one of the most notable murder cases of the last half-century,” the majority opinion explains that “when it comes to solid support for actual innocence, this case contains it all—uncontroverted Brady violations, proof of false testimony, admissions of perjury, and new scientific evidence.” The Death Penalty Information Center has determined that Mr. Cook meets the criteria for inclusion on our exoneration list, making him the 198th person exonerated after being sentenced to death."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Mr. Cook’s case was marred by multiple acts of prosecutorial and police misconduct, including the initial failure of the state to disclose a deal a “jailhouse snitch” received in exchange for testimony – a detail only disclosed 14 years after testimony was provided; the destruction of a human hair containing potentially exculpatory DNA evidence, despite a pending DNA testing request by the defense; and false and misleading testimony by Sargent Collard, deemed a fingerprinting expert, who was pressured by the District Attorney.  The opinion outlines the numerous acts of misconduct in the case, stating that “[s]everal actions of the State go beyond gross negligence and reach into the realm of intentional deception against the tribunal.”

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:  “Marked by bookends of deception spanning over 40 years,” the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has now found Mr. Cook to be innocent.  “The State merely has to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt—which the State could never achieve in this case. Cook should therefore not have to prove his innocence beyond all doubt,” stated the majority opinion, authored by Judge Bert Richardson.  “After being incarcerated on death row for almost twenty torturous years, we hold that Cook has met the burden required for actual innocence and relief is hereby granted.” 

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POST: "Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Finds Kerry Max Cook  “Actually Innocent” 46 Years After His Original Conviction," posted on June 21, 2024, by The Death Penalty Information Center.

GIST: On June 19, 2024, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals set aside 68-year-old Kerry Max Cook’s conviction, finding him to be “actually innocent.” 

Describing Mr. Cook’s case as “one of the most notable murder cases of the last half-century,” the majority opinion explains that “when it comes to solid support for actual innocence, this case contains it all—uncontroverted Brady violations, proof of false testimony, admissions of perjury, and new scientific evidence.” 

The Death Penalty Information Center has determined that Mr. Cook meets the criteria for inclusion on our exoneration list, making him the 198th person exonerated after being sentenced to death.  

Mr. Cook, who was tried three times, was originally sentenced to death for the 1977 murder of Linda Jo Edwards. 

His original 1978 conviction was vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court and remanded to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which then reversed the conviction in 1991. 

In 1992, a mistrial was declared during Mr. Cook’s second trial due to the jury’s inability to reach a unanimous verdict.

 Despite the disclosure of evidence previously withheld during the first trial, Mr. Cook was tried a third time, resulting in a conviction and death sentence in 1994. 

Once again, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found Mr. Cook’s right to due process was violated, reversed the conviction in 1996, and remanded the case to the trial court.

 Prior to what would have been his fourth trial in 1999, Mr. Cook pled “no contest” in exchange for a 20-year sentence and was released from prison for time-served. 

Following an alternate suspect’s recantation of his false testimony, the trial court held hearings regarding a “Stipulation and Settlement Agreement” between the state and Mr. Cook in 2016. 

On August 16, 2016, the trial court recommended Mr. Cook be granted relief based on the false testimony but found that the new evidence did not prove his innocence.

 “Marked by bookends of deception spanning over 40 years,” the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has now found Mr. Cook to be innocent. 

“The State merely has to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt—which the State could never achieve in this case. Cook should therefore not have to prove his innocence beyond all doubt,” stated the majority opinion, authored by Judge Bert Richardson. 

“After being incarcerated on death row for almost twenty torturous years, we hold that Cook has met the burden required for actual innocence and relief is hereby granted.” 

Mr. Cook’s case was marred by multiple acts of prosecutorial and police misconduct, including the initial failure of the state to disclose a deal a “jailhouse snitch” received in exchange for testimony – a detail only disclosed 14 years after testimony was provided; the destruction of a human hair containing potentially exculpatory DNA evidence, despite a pending DNA testing request by the defense; and false and misleading testimony by Sargent Collard, deemed a fingerprinting expert, who was pressured by the District Attorney.

 The opinion outlines the numerous acts of misconduct in the case, stating that “[s]everal actions of the State go beyond gross negligence and reach into the realm of intentional deception against the tribunal.”

In our ongoing research, the Death Penalty Information Center has also identified the exoneration of David Roeder, who was convicted and sentenced to death for his role in the robbery and murder of three people in Texas. In 1989, prosecutors dismissed all charges against Mr. Roeder, who is the 199th exonerated death-sentenced prisoner in DPIC’s Innocence Database. 

The entire post can be read at:

texas-court-of-criminal-appeals-finds-kerry-max-cook-actually-innocent-46-years-after-his-original-conviction

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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Shawn Henning and Ricky Birch: ConnecticutL A discredited Forensic Scientist Henry Lee case): Major (Welcome) Development..."A federal appeals court has refused to dismiss a multi-million lawsuit against the town of New Milford by two men who spent 30 years in prison after being wrongly convicted as teenagers of a grisly murder there in 1985," the Hartford Courant (Reporter Edmund H. Mahony) reports…"State and federal courts that reviewed the case concluded previously that the convictions of Shawn Henning and Ricky Birch were based in large part on false testimony by renowned forensic scientist Henry Lee about blood on a towel found at the crime scene. The courts said Lee’s testimony about detecting blood on the towel was false because neither Lee nor anyone on his staff ever did such tests. Lee has said he did not fabricate evidence in the murder case. The two men withdrew their suit against Lee and several State Police detectives in September after negotiating a $25 million settlement with state Attorney General William Tong. The legislature approved the settlement and paid it in March."

PASSAGE  ONE OF THE DAY: "Carr’s murder was an exceptionally bloody crime and blood evidence dominated the separate Henning and Birch trials. Carr had been stabbed 27 times. His jugular vein was slashed and the hallway in which his killers trapped him was so saturated with blood that detectives had to build a makeshift ramp to get to the body. Henning and Birch were teenage drug abusers supporting themselves by burglaries and living in a stolen car packed with all their possessions. At the heart of their defense was the claim that they couldn’t have killed Carr because not a speck of blood was found on them or any of the cluttered junk in the stolen car. Lee’s trial testimony was the prosecution’s answer.  At the time of Carr’s death, Lee was building a national reputation as a forensic scientist and could be counted on to be present with state police major crime investigators at high profile crime scenes."

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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Lee testified at both trials that he found the stained towel in an upstairs bathroom and that his repeated tests on what appeared to be light stains proved they were made by blood. The prosecutor used Lee’s testimony to argue to the juries that the then 17-year-old Henning and 18-year-old Birch could have used the towel to clean themselves of blood. When it reversed the convictions, the state Supreme Court found that there was no blood on the towel. In addition, the court said Lee had no way of knowing what the stain was because it hadn’t been tested before the convictions. Decades later, testing during the appeal process showed the stains weren’t made by blood, but some inorganic substance. Lee later released a statement that said: “I have no motive nor reason to fabricate evidence. My chemical testing of the towel played no direct role in implicating Mr. Birch and Mr. Henning or anyone else as suspects in this crime. Further, my scientific testimony at their trial included exculpatory evidence, such as a negative finding of blood on their clothing that served to exonerate them.”

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PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "The Town of New Milford and its officers have twice asked to throw this case out and they have lost both times. They are now out of options and it’s time for a trial about two innocent teenagers being wrongfully imprisoned for 30 years,” Henning lawyers Craig Raabe and James Cousins said Friday. Henning and Birch claim that the Milford officers violated their civil rights by engaging in a bad faith investigation that sent them to prison on 50- and 55-year sentences, respectively. They claim one officer failed to disclose that he found an envelope containing $1,000 in cash at the crime scene, a fact the defense could have used to deflate the prosecution theory that the murder was the result of a botched burglary. The second officer failed to intervene when a state police detective coached a witness to provide a false statement, their suit contends."

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STORY: "U.S. appeals court rules against police in CT suit by two men wrongly accused in grisly murder," by Reporter Edmund H. Mahony, published by The  Hartford Courant,  on June 21, 2024.

GIST: "A federal appeals court has refused to dismiss a multi-million lawsuit against the town of New Milford by two men who spent 30 years in prison after being wrongly convicted as teenagers of a grisly murder there in 1985.

State and federal courts that reviewed the case concluded previously that the convictions of Shawn Henning and Ricky Birch were based in large part on false testimony by renowned forensic scientist Henry Lee about blood on a towel found at the crime scene. The courts said Lee’s testimony about detecting blood on the towel was false because neither Lee nor anyone on his staff ever did such tests. Lee has said he did not fabricate evidence in the murder case.

The two men withdrew their suit against Lee and several State Police detectives in September after negotiating a $25 million settlement with state Attorney General William Tong. The legislature approved the settlement and paid it in March.

The settlement left the suit in place against New Milford and two town police officers who worked with the state police on the long and frustrating murder of retired truck driver Everett Carr.The summary order released by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected New Milford’s claim that the officers, as government employees, are protected from such suits by sovereign immunity. The immunity claim failed, the appeals court said, because of contradictory accounts of what the officers did during the investigation.

“The Town of New Milford and its officers have twice asked to throw this case out and they have lost both times. They are now out of options and it’s time for a trial about two innocent teenagers being wrongfully imprisoned for 30 years,” Henning lawyers Craig Raabe and James Cousins said Friday.

Henning and Birch claim that the Milford officers violated their civil rights by engaging in a bad faith investigation that sent them to prison on 50- and 55-year sentences, respectively.

They claim one officer failed to disclose that he found an envelope containing $1,000 in cash at the crime scene, a fact the defense could have used to deflate the prosecution theory that the murder was the result of a botched burglary. The second officer failed to intervene when a state police detective coached a witness to provide a false statement, their suit contends.

Carr’s murder was an exceptionally bloody crime and blood evidence dominated the separate Henning and Birch trials. Carr had been stabbed 27 times. His jugular vein was slashed and the hallway in which his killers trapped him was so saturated with blood that detectives had to build a makeshift ramp to get to the body.

Henning and Birch were teenage drug abusers supporting themselves by burglaries and living in a stolen car packed with all their possessions. At the heart of their defense was the claim that they couldn’t have killed Carr because not a speck of blood was found on them or any of the cluttered junk in the stolen car.

Lee’s trial testimony was the prosecution’s answer.  At the time of Carr’s death, Lee was building a national reputation as a forensic scientist and could be counted on to be present with state police major crime investigators at high profile crime scenes.

Lee testified at both trials that he found the stained towel in an upstairs bathroom and that his repeated tests on what appeared to be light stains proved they were made by blood. The prosecutor used Lee’s testimony to argue to the juries that the then 17-year-old Henning and 18-year-old Birch could have used the towel to clean themselves of blood.

When it reversed the convictions, the state Supreme Court found that there was no blood on the towel. In addition, the court said Lee had no way of knowing what the stain was because it hadn’t been tested before the convictions. Decades later, testing during the appeal process showed the stains weren’t made by blood, but some inorganic substance.

Lee later released a statement that said: “I have no motive nor reason to fabricate evidence. My chemical testing of the towel played no direct role in implicating Mr. Birch and Mr. Henning or anyone else as suspects in this crime. Further, my scientific testimony at their trial included exculpatory evidence, such as a negative finding of blood on their clothing that served to exonerate them.”

The wrongful conviction suit is pending in U.S. District Court. When denying a motion to dismiss the suit, U.S. District Judge Victor Bolden ruled that a jury could reasonably find that both state and New Milford police fabricated or concealed evidence that would have undermined the case against the teenagers."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.courant.com/2024/06/21/u-s-appeals-court-rules-against-police-in-ct-suit-by-two-men-wrongly-accused-in-grisly-murder/

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

———————————————————————————————

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;

—————————————————————————————————

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;

Robert Roberson: Texas: Shaken Baby Syndrome: Death and "debunked" science: A tragic, utterly untenable decision: As the heading of this Death Penalty Information Center post spells it out: "Anderson County, Texas District Attorney Requests Execution for Robert Roberson, Despite a Conviction Obtained with Debunked Forensic Science."…"On June 17, 2024, Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell filed a motion to set an execution date for Texas death row prisoner Robert Roberson, despite his steadfast maintenance of innocence in the death of his two-year-old daughter. Mr. Roberson has spent more than 20 years on death row for a crime that, according to the Innocence Project, “never occurred and a conviction based on the outdated and now debunked shaken baby hypothesis.” New evidence indicates that Mr. Roberson’s daughter, Nikki, died from a combination of both accidental and natural causes."

BACKGROUND: (Role played by Child Abuse Expert Janet Squires);  Herald Press story by Pennylynn Webb, published on April 27, 2024:  (Child Abuse Expert Janet Squires):  "This week, Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney, asked the court to reconsider its decision in 2023 “based on the showing that his conviction was based on the debunked Shaken Baby Syndrome/Abusive Head Trauma hypothesis used to convict him in 2003.”  “The decision is entirely up to the court, but the Court of Criminal Appeals has, occasionally, decided to reconsider a decision when it is clear that key facts or law have changed.” Sween said prosecutors representing the state in Dallas County have agreed that Andrew Roark should get a new trial after he also was convicted using the same SBS/AHT hypothesis. Roark was convicted in 2000.  Sween said the same "child abuse expert" testified for the state in both Roark and Roberson’s trials. “The new filing shows how a huge amount of her testimony was virtually identical in these two cases in which she had diagnosed SBS and then gave a graphic opinion of her belief that both men had committed child abuse through violent shaking and blunt impact,” Sween said. “It does not make sense that the state of Texas would admit that the science has changed and a new trial is necessary in one county (Dallas) but not acknowledge the same changed science in another county (Anderson).” In their filings, Roberson legal team said both convictions hinged on the hypothesis that a child was the victim of intentionally inflicted violent shaking and head trauma known as Shaken Baby Syndrome; that “both cases were tried in the same era (2000 and 2003, respectively) when a version of SBS, now universally rejected, was viewed as medical orthodoxy; and both trials featured the very same child abuse expert, Dr. Janet Squires – who opined that three medical findings, often referred to as the “triad” of subdural bleeding, cerebral edema aka brain swelling and retinal hemorrhage – supported the inference that abusive shaking/blunt impact was inflicted on a child.”

https://www.palestineherald.com/news/robert-roberson-legal-team-asks-court-of-criminal-appeals-for-new-trial-in-death-penalty/article_66df887a-050c-11ef-ad3a-b3a5f2c184e1.html

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PASSAGE ONE  OF THE DAY:  "In a brief of opposition, Mr. Roberson’s attorneys argue that Nikki died from “severe undiagnosed pneumonia that caused her to cease breathing, collapse, and turn blue before she was discovered unconscious.”  Rather than identifying this pneumonia, doctors prescribed Nikki with a dangerous medication that is no longer given to young children, as it is known to suppress respiration in already infected lungs.  “There was a tragic, untimely death of a sick child whose impaired, impoverished father did not know how to explain what has confounded the medical community for decades,” the petition outlines."

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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "In 2003, there was a medical consensus that a child with a specific set of internal conditions, all of which were present in Nikki’s case, must have been shaken or struck with a blunt object.  Mr. Roberson brought Nikki to the hospital and was unable to explain the issues that his chronically ill daughter faced.  At the hospital, staff were unaware that Mr. Roberson has autism, and misconstrued his demeanor as lack of concern for his daughter. Using one physician’s hypothesis that Nikki’s death was the result of shaken baby syndrome, police arrested Mr. Roberson prior to an autopsy being performed. At trial, Mr. Roberson’s attorney ignored his claims of innocence, instead conceding to the prosecution’s argument that it was a “classic” shaken baby case, but that Mr. Roberson lacked intent to kill his daughter.  The prosecution also presented misleading evidence from a nurse suggesting that Nikki was sexually assaulted, despite the fact that the medical examiner and further testing failed to confirm her speculations."

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PASSAGE THREE  OF THE DAY: "The suggestion argues that another case, Ex parte Roark, also pending before the TCCA, shows that “the State conceded the falsity of virtually identical expert testimony on the shaken baby hypothesis.”  Both Mr. Roberson and Mr. Roark were sentenced to death more than two decades ago using this theory and testimony from the same child abuse expert.  The Dallas County prosecutor has conceded that Mr. Roark should receive a new trial because of changes to scientific knowledge, but DA Mitchell’s office has continuously argued that the science in Mr. Roberson’s case has not changed.

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POST: "Anderson County, Texas District Attorney Requests Execution for Robert Roberson, Despite a Conviction Obtained with Debunked Forensic Science," published by The Death Penalty Information Center, on June 20 2024.

GIST: "On June 17, 2024, Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell filed a motion to set an execution date for Texas death row prisoner Robert Roberson, despite his steadfast maintenance of innocence in the death of his two-year-old daughter. 

Mr. Roberson has spent more than 20 years on death row for a crime that, according to the Innocence Project, “never occurred and a conviction based on the outdated and now debunked shaken baby hypothesis.” 

New evidence indicates that Mr. Roberson’s daughter, Nikki, died from a combination of both accidental and natural causes.

 In a brief of opposition, Mr. Roberson’s attorneys argue that Nikki died from “severe undiagnosed pneumonia that caused her to cease breathing, collapse, and turn blue before she was discovered unconscious.” 

Rather than identifying this pneumonia, doctors prescribed Nikki with a dangerous medication that is no longer given to young children, as it is known to suppress respiration in already infected lungs. 

“There was a tragic, untimely death of a sick child whose impaired, impoverished father did not know how to explain what has confounded the medical community for decades,” the petition outlines.

At the time of DA Mitchell’s request for an execution date, Mr. Roberson’s Motion for Notice and Opportunity to Be Heard Before Any Execution Date is Set, requesting a court hearing, remains pending before Texas’ 3rd Judicial District Court. 

This motion explains that, since June 2016, Mr. Roberson’s attorneys have developed new evidence of his factual innocence in the death of his daughter. 

Mr. Roberson has another pending suggestion in front of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA), asking the Court to reconsider their previous ruling. 

The suggestion argues that another case, Ex parte Roark, also pending before the TCCA, shows that “the State conceded the falsity of virtually identical expert testimony on the shaken baby hypothesis.” 

Both Mr. Roberson and Mr. Roark were sentenced to death more than two decades ago using this theory and testimony from the same child abuse expert. 

The Dallas County prosecutor has conceded that Mr. Roark should receive a new trial because of changes to scientific knowledge, but DA Mitchell’s office has continuously argued that the science in Mr. Roberson’s case has not changed.

In 2003, there was a medical consensus that a child with a specific set of internal conditions, all of which were present in Nikki’s case, must have been shaken or struck with a blunt object.

 Mr. Roberson brought Nikki to the hospital and was unable to explain the issues that his chronically ill daughter faced. 

At the hospital, staff were unaware that Mr. Roberson has autism, and misconstrued his demeanor as lack of concern for his daughter.

 Using one physician’s hypothesis that Nikki’s death was the result of shaken baby syndrome, police arrested Mr. Roberson prior to an autopsy being performed.

At trial, Mr. Roberson’s attorney ignored his claims of innocence, instead conceding to the prosecution’s argument that it was a “classic” shaken baby case, but that Mr. Roberson lacked intent to kill his daughter. 

The prosecution also presented misleading evidence from a nurse suggesting that Nikki was sexually assaulted, despite the fact that the medical examiner and further testing failed to confirm her speculations.

In 2013, the Texas legislature passed a law that allows prisoners to challenge their wrongful convictions “by showing that changes in the field of forensic science either undermined the integrity of the criminal trials that led to their convictions or exonerated the defendant.”

 Since the passage of this law, zero prisoners on Texas’ death row have successfully raised claims under this law, including Mr. Roberson.

 Gretchen Sween, one of Mr. Roberson’s attorneys, said that “each of the shaken baby premises used to convict and sentence Mr. Roberson to death, considered medical orthodoxy in 2003, has since been debunked by evidence-based science. 

The courts or Governor Abbott must stop this miscarriage of justice before it is too late.” 

Across the US, at least 18 states have formally exonerated parents and caregivers wrongfully convicted under the shaken baby hypothesis, according to the National Registry of Exonerations."

The entire post can be read at:

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/anderson-county-texas-district-attorney-requests-execution-for-robert-roberson-despite-a-conviction-obtained-with-debunked-forensic-science

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

———————————————————————————————

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;

—————————————————————————————————

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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