PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects are to widely used interrogation methods such as the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’ As all too many of this Blog's post have shown, I also recognize that pressure for false confessions can take many forms, up to and including physical violence, even physical and mental torture.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:
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BACKGROUND ON THE LATE MARY JANE BURTON: Axios: "A Virginia crime lab scientist was posthumously heralded as a hero after her old files helped exonerate 13 wrongfully convicted men. What's happening: It turns out Mary Jane Burton might have actually been responsible for some of those wrongful convictions in the first place. An investigative podcast released this year by VPM and iHeartMedia, "Admissible: Shreds of Evidence," uncovered allegations she altered evidence to help police and prosecutors make cases. Why it matters: Present-day officials in the state crime lab are now weighing whether they need to undertake another review of Burton's old case files for more possible wrongful convictions. Catch up fast: Burton's files were rediscovered in 2001, setting off a cascade of exonerations/ DNA testing had only recently emerged as the gold standard for forensic science and the Innocence Project was looking for evidence in a client's case that could be retested. The state lab's director pulled the man's file and found Burton had been taping swabs containing evidence samples to all her reports. The discovery prompted an unprecedented review by the state that ultimately resulted in the exoneration of 13 convicted men. And Burton, who died in 1999, was portrayed in the press as a visionary who must have seen that better science was just down the road. Details: That's where podcast host Tessa Kramer and reporting partner Sophie Bearman come in. Kramer tells Axios she began her reporting thinking she might tell the story of a pioneering female scientist. Instead, Kramer discovered Burton was a controversial figure in the state lab who, in the 1970s, was the subject of a whistleblower complaint that centered on allegations she changed test results to avoid eliminating suspects sought by police. Plus: All those scraps of evidence Burton saved — colleagues told Kramer it was actually about selling her test results to juries when she testified via a well-practiced "show and tell" routine. Of note: Leadership of the state crime lab was aware of the concerns surrounding Burton, Kramer reports. But officials never acted or intervened, allowing Burton to work another decade until her retirement in 1988. What we're watching: Kramer has handed over much of the documentation she uncovered to the state. Officials said last month they were reviewing the material, but hadn't decided yet whether a broader review of Burton's cases for potential wrongful convictions is warranted, per VPM." Ned Oliver: November 3, 2023;
https://www.axios.com/local/richmond/2023/11/03/mary-jane-burton-crime-lab-evidence-tampered
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Read the Ruling by the Virginia Court of Appeals
Marvin Leon Grimm Jr., who confessed to the 1975 murder of a 3-year-old boy and spent 45 years in prison, was granted a writ of actual innocence by the Virginia appeals court, fully absolving him of the crime.
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PODCAST REFERRED TO IN POST: 'Admissible: Shreds of Evidence'…Thirteen exonerations all connected to one forensic scientist. (Mary Jane Burton); But is this the story of a hero or something more complex?
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PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "But as the years passed and forensic science improved, the story of the boy’s death unraveled. A new analysis of the toxicology report showed that the prosecution’s timeline of the crime was virtually impossible. And the only physical evidence connecting Mr. Grimm to the victim were eight strands of hair found in Mr. Grimm’s car and on his coat, which a state forensic scientist said were all “consistent with” the victim, according to court documents. Later, it turned out that none of the hairs belonged to the victim; in fact, they were from several people. More significant, Mr. Grimm’s DNA was nowhere to be found in swabs from the victim’s body. And the alleged semen was not semen at all, calling into question not just the medical examiner’s ruling on the manner of death but also Mr. Grimm’s entire confession, since he had described a sexual assault."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "The appeals court noted on Tuesday that little was known about false confessions in the mid-1970s. Since then, research has shown that oppressive interrogation conditions, like extended questioning and misrepresentation of facts or evidence by the police, can induce people to say what their interrogators seem to want to hear, believing that the truth will eventually come to light. More than 10 percent of wrongful convictions involve false confessions, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, and the percentage is far higher in homicide cases, according to data collected by the Innocence Project.
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PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "Much of the key evidence that linked Mr. Grimm to the killing was the work of Mary Jane Burton, a senior analyst at Virginia’s crime lab who died in 1999. Ms. Burton, who worked at the state crime lab from 1973 to 1988, was once hailed because it was discovered that she had preserved evidence that helped lead to several exonerations. But in a recent podcast investigation of Ms. Burton’s work, a whistle-blower revealed that she had tried to alert officials that Ms. Burton was cutting corners and falsifying results, and an independent expert said that the serology evidence that Ms. Burton had analyzed in one of her own cases excluded the man who went on to be convicted of the crime. The podcast also noted that there were several accounts of shoddy work by Ms. Burton, and a perception that she favored the prosecution. The podcast, “Admissible: Shreds of Evidence,” has triggered state reviews of about 4,800 cases handled by Ms. Burton. But the Grimm case was still jarring, said Tessa Kramer, the journalist who produced it.
“Even after all the reporting I’ve done on Mary Jane Burton and the issues with her work, I was shocked to see something that egregiously bad and seemingly falsified,” she said. “It makes me think about how much power these forensic results have in a case, and therefore how dangerous they can be if they’re not done properly.”
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "“That detail had to come from the police — it could not have originated with Marvin Grimm,” said Peter Neufeld, a co-founder of the Innocence Project, which handled the case with Arnold & Porter, a private law firm. “It’s a smoking gun detail which provides compelling evidence of the falsity of the confession.”
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STORY: "Virginia Exonerates Man Who Spent 45 Years in Prison for Death of 3-Year-Old," by Reporter Shaila Dewan, published by The New York Times, on June 18, 2024. (Shaila Dewan is a national correspondent for The New York Times, covering criminal justice — policing, courts and prisons — across the country.)
SUB-HEADING: "On Tuesday, a Virginia appeals court fully absolved Marvin Grimm Jr. of the 1975 crime, saying that new evidence had dismantled the state’s original case against him."
GIST: "On a Saturday afternoon in 1975, a 3-year-old boy wandered into the woods behind the apartment complex where he lived in Richmond, Va.
Four days later, the toddler’s body was found floating in shallow water in the James River, fully clothed, arms folded across his chest, nine miles from home.
From there, the horror only grew: Forensic experts told the police that the boy had a gob of semen in the back of his throat and determined that he had been strangled during a sexual assault. Alcohol and a muscle relaxant were found in his blood, according to court documents.
About a month later, in December, the police arrested Marvin Leon Grimm Jr., a 20-year-old Navy veteran, picking him up after his shift at a carpeting company and questioning him for nine hours. Mr. Grimm, who had no criminal record, lived across the hall from the boy’s family and had argued with them over minor issues like toys that were damaged by his lawn mower. He was married, and his first child, a son, had been born 10 days before his arrest.
After the interrogation, he confessed to abduction, the sexual assault and the murder, eventually serving 45 years in prison for the killing before being released on parole in 2020.
But as the years passed and forensic science improved, the story of the boy’s death unraveled. A new analysis of the toxicology report showed that the prosecution’s timeline of the crime was virtually impossible. And the only physical evidence connecting Mr. Grimm to the victim were eight strands of hair found in Mr. Grimm’s car and on his coat, which a state forensic scientist said were all “consistent with” the victim, according to court documents.
Later, it turned out that none of the hairs belonged to the victim; in fact, they were from several people. More significant, Mr. Grimm’s DNA was nowhere to be found in swabs from the victim’s body.
And the alleged semen was not semen at all, calling into question not just the medical examiner’s ruling on the manner of death but also Mr. Grimm’s entire confession, since he had described a sexual assault.
“That detail had to come from the police — it could not have originated with Marvin Grimm,” said Peter Neufeld, a co-founder of the Innocence Project, which handled the case with Arnold & Porter, a private law firm. “It’s a smoking gun detail which provides compelling evidence of the falsity of the confession.”
On Tuesday, the Virginia Court of Appeals granted Mr. Grimm a writ of actual innocence, fully absolving him of the crime. The state attorney general, Jason Miyares, a Republican, had supported Mr. Grimm’s innocence claim, writing in a court brief, “No rational trier of fact would convict him in light of all the evidence.”
Mr. Grimm said that he had nearly given up in 2017, telling God that he was leaving it up to him. As he said in an interview: “If you’re going to let me out, let me out. If you’re going to keep me in, keep me in. I’m not going to stop worshiping you.”
The appeals court noted on Tuesday that little was known about false confessions in the mid-1970s. Since then, research has shown that oppressive interrogation conditions, like extended questioning and misrepresentation of facts or evidence by the police, can induce people to say what their interrogators seem to want to hear, believing that the truth will eventually come to light.
More than 10 percent of wrongful convictions involve false confessions, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, and the percentage is far higher in homicide cases, according to data collected by the Innocence Project.
Mr. Grimm is now among the exonerees who have served the most years in prison. The National Registry of Exonerations says that the longest time served was 48 years. All told, the registry says, the wrongfully convicted have served 25,000 years.
Much of the key evidence that linked Mr. Grimm to the killing was the work of Mary Jane Burton, a senior analyst at Virginia’s crime lab who died in 1999.
Ms. Burton, who worked at the state crime lab from 1973 to 1988, was once hailed because it was discovered that she had preserved evidence that helped lead to several exonerations.
But in a recent podcast investigation of Ms. Burton’s work, a whistle-blower revealed that she had tried to alert officials that Ms. Burton was cutting corners and falsifying results, and an independent expert said that the serology evidence that Ms. Burton had analyzed in one of her own cases excluded the man who went on to be convicted of the crime. The podcast also noted that there were several accounts of shoddy work by Ms. Burton, and a perception that she favored the prosecution.
The podcast, “Admissible: Shreds of Evidence,” has triggered state reviews of about 4,800 cases handled by Ms. Burton. But the Grimm case was still jarring, said Tessa Kramer, the journalist who produced it.
“Even after all the reporting I’ve done on Mary Jane Burton and the issues with her work, I was shocked to see something that egregiously bad and seemingly falsified,” she said. “It makes me think about how much power these forensic results have in a case, and therefore how dangerous they can be if they’re not done properly.”
The Grimm case exposed other problems, the appeals court noted. Mr. Grimm pleaded guilty in exchange for an agreement that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty. But under Virginia law at the time, the crime was not eligible for capital punishment.
Mr. Grimm said his lawyers at the time had handled the negotiations and had not made it clear to him that the death penalty was not on the table.
Because of the guilty plea, it became much harder for Mr. Grimm to argue his case. The Innocence Project, a legal effort that has freed hundreds of wrongly convicted people across the country, had to lobby to change state law to allow for defendants who had pleaded guilty to test DNA evidence, Mr. Neufeld said.
Throughout it all, Mr. Grimm, now 69, said he had been denied parole “28 or 29 times.” When he was finally released in 2020, he went to live with one of his two younger sisters.
Now with his parole restrictions no longer in effect, Mr. Grimm says he is looking forward to being able to travel, maybe to visit a friend in Nashville, a niece in Kansas, or the places he lived while growing up.
He has not seen his son since the day he was arrested, and he is not sure if he will. “I don’t know what he thinks,” Mr. Grimm said."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/18/us/marvin-grimm-virginia-exoneration.html
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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