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PETITION: STOP THE OCTOBER 17 EXECUTION OF ROBERT ROBERSON, AN INNOCENT FATHER.
https://innocenceproject.org/petitions/justice-for-robert-roberson/
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Kudos to the National Registry of:Exonerations for its 'medicolegal' research report on 'death investigations', the subject of many posts on this Blog. The report explores the correlations between death investigations and wrongful convictions, and serves as a wake up call to the criminal justice community, as it concludes: "Death investigators occupy a pivotal position in the criminal legal system and have substantial opportunities to prevent false convictions. Undoubtedly, in many cases they have done so. We cannot in this report address those cases. But, in this report, we are able to recount and describe those cases in which, tragically, death investigators failed to do so." Numbers help make the point: 151 cases analyzed in which defendants were exonerated between 1989 and 2023 in the United States; a total lost of 1, 837 years in prison; an average of 12.2 years per exoneree. The researchers propose present several quality 'guardrails' to improve death investigations. That said, they acknowledge that their findings show that useful as these measures may be, none of them promise to eliminate the contribution of death investigation to false convictions. They bluntly give us the bad news that , " The best the discipline has to offer—accredited medical examiner offices and board-certified forensic pathologists—all contributed to their share, or more than their share, of false convictions. A final observation:. The much debunked shaken baby syndrome plays a prominent role throughout the report as it should. The report has been released as Texas prepares to execute Robert Roberson on October 17. It has been described as the first U.S. case where a person is to be executed solely on the basis of this controversial, disproven syndrome,' which can be better described as a 'theory.' A man who should have been left free to mourn the death of his two-year-old son, instead of being treated as a callous murderer, and having his life plucked away by his executioner - while the courts and Texas officials look the other way, perhaps not wanting to admit that they could make such a terrible, misguided, irredeemable mistake. The execution is scheduled for October 17th, about two weeks after International Wrongful Conviction Day. (October 2): I don't know if outraged public opinion is enough to stop the execution in its tracks. But I do know that it's is worth trying, and should be hollered from the the roof-tops. I have placed a link to the Innocence Project, at the top of this page.
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
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The entire report can be read at:
https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/DeathInvestigation.pdf
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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