PASSAGE OF THE DAY; "Prosecutors dropped the charges over Suzanne Morphew’s death in April 2022 after (Judge) Lama barred them from calling key witnesses for repeatedly failing to follow rules for turning over evidence to the defense. That included DNA from an unknown male found in Suzanne Morphew’s SUV. At the time, prosecutors said they wanted more time to find her body and left open the possibility of filing charges again later. Suzanne Morphew’s remains were found in September in a remote area of central Colorado more than 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of her home as authorities were pursuing a different case. An autopsy report released in April labeled her death a homicide but said she died by “undetermined means.” A cocktail of drugs that are used to tranquilize wildlife was found in one of the 49-year-old woman’s bones but there was no indication of trauma, the report said."
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STORY: "District Attorney who prosecuted Barry Morphew faces discipline hearing," by Associated Press Reporter Colleen Slevin, published on June 11, 2024.
A district attorney who brought charges that were ultimately dismissed against a Colorado man accused of killing his wife faced a discipline hearing Monday that could lead to her disbarment.
A lawyer for Colorado’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel described 11th Judicial District Attorney Linda Stanley during opening statements of the two-week hearing as an absent leader who failed to steer the case and let it crash.
“This is a case about a ship with a captain who never manned the bridge,” said attorney Jonathan Blasewitz, alleging Stanley violated attorney conduct rules.
While Stanley failed to make sure her office was meeting deadlines to have crucial experts in line to testify against Barry Morphew, she spent time engaging with true crime podcasters and tried to find out whether the judge in the case had committed domestic violence after one of the podcasters launched an online petition questioning his fairness, Blasewitz said in opening statements.
Stanley’s lawyer, former prosecutor Steven Jensen, told the three-member panel considering the case in Denver that rural district attorney offices like Stanley’s do not have as many resources to handle high-profile cases as larger, urban ones.
Stanley struggled to hire prosecutors to work in her sprawling district, especially after protests over the killing of George Floyd in 2020 discouraged people from working in law enforcement, Jensen said.
Stanley had never prosecuted a homicide case herself, he said, but hired an experienced prosecutor, Jeff Lindsey, who said he was forced to leave his job at a much larger district that includes Colorado Springs after the newly elected district attorney wanted to bring in new prosecutors.
Jensen said that Stanley had a right to investigate a possible conflict of interest by Judge Ramsey Lama because he had been “incredibly biased” against the prosecution.
Stanley is also accused of violating rules for public comments she made about Morphew as well as unrelated fatal child abuse case in which she said a man accused of killing his girlfriend’s child agreed to be a babysitter so he could “get laid.” Jensen said Stanley believed her comments to the reporter regarding the child abuse case were off the record.
The state will not be able to show “clear and convincing” evidence that Stanley violated ethical rules, Jensen said.
The panel will decide whether Stanley violated the rules and, if so, what her punishment should be. The most serious punishment she could receive is losing her ability to practice law in Colorado.
Lindsey, the first witness called by the state, testified that he was the main prosecutor working on the Morphew case with help from another one who, like him, was also working on many other cases.
He said the case needed a prosecutor working exclusivlely on it as well as a full-time investigator and victim’s advocate. He said he had to work nights and weekends to try to keep up with the case, and quit as preparations began for trial.
“I saw that nothing was happening as we geared up for trial unless I did it and I couldn’t do it anymore,” he said.
Prosecutors dropped the charges over Suzanne Morphew’s death in April 2022 after Lama barred them from calling key witnesses for repeatedly failing to follow rules for turning over evidence to the defense. That included DNA from an unknown male found in Suzanne Morphew’s SUV.
At the time, prosecutors said they wanted more time to find her body and left open the possibility of filing charges again later.
Suzanne Morphew’s remains were found in September in a remote area of central Colorado more than 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of her home as authorities were pursuing a different case. An autopsy report released in April labeled her death a homicide but said she died by “undetermined means.” A cocktail of drugs that are used to tranquilize wildlife was found in one of the 49-year-old woman’s bones but there was no indication of trauma, the report said."
The entire story can be read at:
https://apnews.com/article/linda-stanley-barry-suzanne-morphew-3ad75e509be64f802e0b76dceeb13a5b
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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