GIST: "A London court has formally quashed the conviction of Julian Washington after a “miscarriage of justice” put him behind bars for more than ten years.
Mr Washington was sentenced to serve at least 30 years behind bars for the 2012 murder of Stefan Burgess and the attempted murder of Davano Brimmer.
However, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council found that DNA evidence put forward to link Mr Washington to the crime during the trial was flawed and inaccurate.
In a statement, Mr Washington said: “I feel a sense of victory tempered with the bitterness of injustice.
“The process that led to my wrongful conviction, the flawed evidence and biased testimony that sealed my fate is a scar that may never fully heal.
“The wounds of the legal battle run deep, leaving behind a trail of pain, stress and trauma that lingers in my soul.
“The pain, stress and trauma that spread throughout the courtroom affected not just myself but the families inside the courtroom as well.”
The Death Penalty Project, a legal action group dedicated to protecting prisoners faced with execution and promote fairness in criminal justice, celebrated the quashing of the case, but said more work must still be done.
Parvais Jabbar, its co-executive director, said: “Julian’s case has exposed a problem at the heart of the criminal justice system in Bermuda.
“While we are delighted that Julian has been publicly vindicated, this is not an isolated incident. There will be more cases in which flawed DNA evidence was used at trial.
“An urgent independent review is needed to quickly and effectively determine the scale of the problem and remedy further miscarriages of justice.”
During his 2014 trial, the jury heard that Mr Burgess and Mr Brimmer were among several friends attending a birthday party in a home on The Glebe Road on January 8, 2012, when a man wearing a dark helmet and clothing opened fire.
The gunman then fled the scene, riding away on a waiting motorcycle.
Mr Brimmer suffered a non-fatal gunshot wound to his groin but Mr Burgess was shot twice in the upper body.
He was rushed to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.
Mr Washington was arrested for the offence and charged with murder and attempted murder, along with possessing a firearm to commit an indictable offence and handling ammunition.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and maintained his innocence during a subsequent trial in the Supreme Court.
During the trial, the court heard evidence from Candy Zuleger, of the now defunct Florida firm Trinity DNA Solutions, who claimed there was a 1-in-46 million chance that he was not a possible contributor to the DNA found on the bullet casings near the murder scene.
The jury convicted Mr Washington of the offences, but in 2022 the Death Penalty Project launched an appeal in the Privy Council, citing evidence from Dan Krane, a professor of biological sciences at Wright State University in Ohio.
Dr Krane found “significant errors” in the methodology used and in the calculation and explanation of the statistical weight attached to the DNA.
He concluded that it would have been more appropriate to characterise the testing of the casing as “inconclusive” and exclude the evidence against Mr Washington entirely.
The matter was set to go before the Privy Council in June, but after receiving independent expert evidence the Crown elected not to challenge the appeal and invited the court to quash the conviction.
Mr Washington was released on unconditional bail in May, but the appeal was only formally quashed by the Privy Council yesterday.
The written judgment of the court said: “Even though the parties agreed, and the board was prepared to advise His Majesty that an order should be made allowing the appeal, the appellant contended that the board was required to hold an oral hearing and to provide written reasons for the disposal of the appeal.”
The judgment also noted that Cindy Clarke, the Director of Public Prosecutions, had launched a review to identify other cases affected by the DNA issues raised in the appeal.
As of June, the DPP had found that Trinity DNA Solutions carried out forensic analysis for the Crown in 426 cases between 2005 and 2015.
“Of these 426 cases, DNA was found in 247,” the judgment said. “Having identified those 247 cases, the second stage of the review will be to identify whether any cases resulted in a prosecution and conviction.”
In such cases, the court said the third stage of the review would involve sending all relevant documentation, including the trial transcript, to an expert to determine if the flaws identified in the case of Mr Washington are present.
If any of the flaws are identified, the expert will report the finding to the DPP and the individuals concerned would be notified.
Ms Clarke said in May that of the more than 400 cases reviewed, three cases had been brought to her attention, but none of the three had been approved for prosecution.
The DPP said then that she accepted there was a “miscarriage of justice in [Mr Washington’s] case with respect to the DNA evidence”.
She explained in May: “The DNA evidence in that case was undermined by the lack of policies and procedures in place at the time for the specific typing and analysis that was relied upon at his trial.”
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.royalgazette.com/court/news/article/20241101/murder-conviction-quashed-after-ten-years-behind-bars/
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;
