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REMINDER: Live online seminar: Shaken Baby Syndrome to be examined on Wednesday, October 2d, in the shadow of Robert Roberson's execution scheduled for October 17:
ACCESS THIS LIVE ONLINE SEMINAR AT THE LINK BELOW:
October 2, 2024.
10-11 AM EDT (From April to October, Eastern Daylight Time is observed in most of Ontario, Quebec and parts of Nunavut. From October to April, Eastern Standard Time is in effect.)]
https://www.cato.org/events/shaken-baby-syndrome-examining-evidence-shadow-execution
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "With credit for the time he had already spent in jail since his arrest in 1997, Soto was released from prison on April 28, 2000. Several years later, evidence of misconduct by Guevara and other police officers began to gain traction. In February 2004, Juan Johnson, whose 30-year prison sentence for a murder conviction had been vacated in 2002, was acquitted at a retrial. The original three eyewitnesses who identified Johnson had all recanted their testimony and said they had been coerced to falsely identify Johnson. In October 2011, Jacques Rivera was exonerated of a murder based on evidence that Guevara and other officers buried exculpatory evidence and pressured a witness to falsely identify him as the gunman. The exonerations based on misconduct by Guevara kept coming. On August 9, 2022, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) agreed to vacate and then dismissed eight homicide convictions related to Guevara’s misconduct. By the end of that year, more than 30 men and women whose convictions were based on misconduct by Guevara and other detectives working with him had their cases vacated and dismissed. On February 28, 2024, attorneys Anand Swaminathan, of the law firm of Loevy & Loevy, and Joshua Tepfer and Fadya Salem of The Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School filed a petition for relief from judgment on behalf of Soto. The petition cited more than 40 wrongful convictions due to Guevara’s misconduct."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "On February 28, 2024, attorneys Anand Swaminathan, of the law firm of Loevy & Loevy, and Joshua Tepfer and Fadya Salem of The Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School filed a petition for relief from judgment on behalf of Soto. The petition cited more than 40 wrongful convictions due to Guevara’s misconduct. The petition noted that the “closed” case police report for the Salas murder stated, “without explanation” that the same person may have been involved in the Arroyo shooting. The petition also noted that Detective Guevara directed the photographic lineups for the Salas murder and Arroyo shooting during which Soto was identified. The petition said that Bahena could not be located for an interview. The other two of the witnesses who identified Soto in the Salas murder refused to speak to defense investigators, the petition said. “When [Soto’s] case was adjudicated decades ago, Guevara successfully concealed his corruption,” the petition said in requesting that Soto’s conviction be vacated. The petition declared, “Given that this case rests solely on a single eyewitness identification, [Soto] would be able to present scores of witnesses to corroborate the theory that Guevara manipulated the eyewitness identification in this case.” On September 3, 2024, the prosecution agreed to vacate the conviction and dismissed the case."
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ENTRY: Oscar Solo: Illinois: By Maurice Possley: Posted on September 15, 2024. Contributing factors: Mistaken witness ID.
| GIST: "On July 5, 1997, 18-year-old Oscar Arroyo, a member of the Spanish Cobras street gang, was shot and wounded in the 4200 block of West Dickens Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. A witness, Dalinda Bahena, told police that a white car stopped and a man got out of the passenger side, fired two shots, and got back into the car, which sped off. She said the gunman was in his 20s and bald, with a dark complexion and a mustache. Twelve days later, on July 17, 1997, 15-year-old Miguel Salas, who was a member of the same street gang, was fatally shot in the same block of West Dickens Avenue. Salas was sitting in a car when another car drove by and shots were fired. Salas was struck in the head. On July 20, police arrested 18-year-old Alex Razo and 18-year-old Julio Gonzalez after witnesses identified them in a photographic lineup as the driver and passenger in the car responsible for the wounding of Arroyo. They were later released for reasons not clear in police records. On July 30, 25-year-old Oscar Soto voluntarily went to the police station after he learned police wanted to question him about the Salas murder. Detective Reynaldo Guevara was one of the detectives investigating the murder. Soto denied any knowledge of the Salas shooting. He said that he had been in a gang years earlier, but no longer frequented the neighborhood because he was on probation for a drug conviction and wanted to stay out of trouble. Detectives also asked him about the shooting of Arroyo on July 5. Soto denied any knowledge of that shooting as well. Police created a photographic lineup that included Soto’s photograph. Dalinda Bahena identified Soto as the gunman who wounded Arroyo. Police said she made the identification, even though Soto had a light complexion and a full head of hair in contrast to her initial statement that the gunman was bald and had a dark complexion. Bahena and two other witnesses also identified Soto as the gunman who killed Salas. On July 31, Soto was charged with the murder of Salas and the attempted murder of Arroyo. On June 14, 1999, Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Schreier, who had presided over Soto’s murder trial without a jury, acquitted Soto of Salas’s murder. Soto remained in custody, awaiting trial for the attempted murder of Arroyo. Five weeks later, On July 22, 1999, Soto pled guilty to the attempted murder of Arroyo in return for a sentence of six years in prison. Years later, Soto said, “Even though I was innocent of the attempted murder of Oscar Arroyo, I was tired of fighting. I felt helpless and overwhelmed. I did not want to spend an indefinite number of years in pretrial custody fighting the second case, even if that meant I would be admitting to something I did not do.” Soto had two young children at home at the time. He was facing a revocation of his probation in the drug case. “When I was offered six years and I realized I would only have to serve about nine more months to resolve both the attempted murder case and the probation case, it gave me and my family an end in sight,” he said. Soto had already been in jail for two years. “[P]leading guilty was a guaranteed way to ensure that I did not miss out on any more years of their lives,” he said. With credit for the time he had already spent in jail since his arrest in 1997, Soto was released from prison on April 28, 2000. Several years later, evidence of misconduct by Guevara and other police officers began to gain traction. In February 2004, Juan Johnson, whose 30-year prison sentence for a murder conviction had been vacated in 2002, was acquitted at a retrial. The original three eyewitnesses who identified Johnson had all recanted their testimony and said they had been coerced to falsely identify Johnson. In October 2011, Jacques Rivera was exonerated of a murder based on evidence that Guevara and other officers buried exculpatory evidence and pressured a witness to falsely identify him as the gunman. The exonerations based on misconduct by Guevara kept coming. On August 9, 2022, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) agreed to vacate and then dismissed eight homicide convictions related to Guevara’s misconduct. By the end of that year, more than 30 men and women whose convictions were based on misconduct by Guevara and other detectives working with him had their cases vacated and dismissed. On February 28, 2024, attorneys Anand Swaminathan, of the law firm of Loevy & Loevy, and Joshua Tepfer and Fadya Salem of The Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School filed a petition for relief from judgment on behalf of Soto. The petition cited more than 40 wrongful convictions due to Guevara’s misconduct. The petition noted that the “closed” case police report for the Salas murder stated, “without explanation” that the same person may have been involved in the Arroyo shooting. The petition also noted that Detective Guevara directed the photographic lineups for the Salas murder and Arroyo shooting during which Soto was identified. The petition said that Bahena could not be located for an interview. The other two of the witnesses who identified Soto in the Salas murder refused to speak to defense investigators, the petition said. “When [Soto’s] case was adjudicated decades ago, Guevara successfully concealed his corruption,” the petition said in requesting that Soto’s conviction be vacated. The petition declared, “Given that this case rests solely on a single eyewitness identification, [Soto] would be able to present scores of witnesses to corroborate the theory that Guevara manipulated the eyewitness identification in this case.” On September 3, 2024, the prosecution agreed to vacate the conviction and dismissed the case. The entire entry can be read at: |
https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=6873
