Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Tim Rees: Ontario: On-going Appeal: A few personal thoughts on attending today's hearing (Day One) of Tim Rees appeal of his conviction and life sentence with no parole for 15 years, (23 years in penitentiary). And thanks, dear reader, for giving me the opportunity to get this off my chest!…"Given the sordid history of this miscarriage of justice, I would expect the lawyers from the Attorney General's office handling the appeal today (they were not the prosecutors at trial) to be horrified by the failure of the police to bring forward to the trial prosecutor every scrap of that mountain of evidence pointing to Raymer as Darla's killer - and by the prospect that the during the trial the police were keeping silent when they kew that witnesses were lying to the jury. That being the case, I would expect the Attorney General's representatives at this important hearing to make amends to Mr. Rees, by apologizing to him for the ordeal he has been put through - the loss of such a huge portion of his life to prison - and by supporting Rees's lawyers call to the appeal court for a clear, unfettered acquittal, which will tell the world that he is an innocent man. Nothing less will do.



PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I was utterly confused when I left court today after hearing Day One of Tim Rees's appeal of his conviction and life sentence with no parole for 15 years for murdering Darla Thurrott. For background, read the previous post  (June 27, 2024) of this Blog, headed,  "Did cops 'deep-six' incriminating statement of alternate suspect in 1989 child murder?", by Toronto Sun Reporter Michele Mandel, a very fine criminal justice scribe at the Toronto Sun (and my concluding comments at the bottom of this post) and I think you will understand why today's  hearing reminded me  a bit of Alice in Wonderland.

Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles  Smith Blog: 

https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/mandel-did-cops-deep-six-incriminating-tape-of-alternate-suspect-in-1989-child-murder

------------------------------------------------------------------

THE PREVIOUS POST: (Michele Mandel was reporting on an earlier portion of Tim Rees's  on-going application to the Ontario Court of Appeal.)

STORY: "Did cops 'deep-six' incriminating tape of alternate suspect in 1989 child murder?, by Reporter Michelle Mandel, published by The Toronto sun, on June 27, 2024. (Michele Mandel   is a veteran writer on justice issues for the Toronto Sun,)


GIST: "It was like watching a true crime documentary playing out in real time in Ontario’s highest court.


On the stand for the second day was George Clanfield, a retired Toronto cop who conducted a recorded interview with the landlord who lived across the hall from Darla Thurrott, the 10-year-old Toronto girl found dead in her bed by her mom on March 17, 1989.

Darla had died of manual strangulation, with the coroner noting some evidence of anal intercourse.

Their prime suspect at the time was James Raymer, who’s aunt was famous actress June Lockhart.

In the 30-minute audio tape played in court, Raymer admits being the last person to see Darla alive. He said he kissed her goodnight on the cheek, which he later recanted, and then saw her after midnight when they both headed to the bathroom on the second-floor of his Etobicoke home.

But what was even more suspicious was the landlord’s disturbing claim that the child, 42 years his junior, had seduced him and they’d had sexual “fun” over the previous few weeks.

Yet that incriminating recording mysteriously disappeared and was unknown to the defence lawyers for Timothy Rees, a friend of Darla’s stepfather who had stayed over at their home that night and was found guilty of second-degree murder in 1990.

The cassette tape wasn’t discovered by Toronto Police until 2016 and it ultimately led to Innocence Canada winning a review of Rees’s conviction before the Ontario Court of Appeal.

Clanfield, who was a constable seconded to homicide at the time, said he has no memory of interviewing Raymer.

“The tape is a complete revelation to me,” he told Rees’s lawyer James Lockyer.

But what an interview it is.

Sounding like a hard-nosed Sam Spade out of a black-and-white movie, Clanfield draws Raymer into telling him about his illicit relationship with Darla. At first, the Taco Bell cook is pretty chatty – recounting how he kissed her, how he’d rub her between the legs and how he went into her room on the night she was killed.

Then he seems to backtrack and insist they hadn’t interacted at all that night, which sees Clanfield press him on his waffling story.

“You know Christians don’t lie. And in the face of God in this room we need to hear the truth. You know how important the truth is,” he told Raymer. “You know confession is the best part of redemption, isn’t it? Don’t ya wanna be redeemed? Well then redeem yourself now.”

“I didn’t see her last night. I seen her other nights but not last night. That’s the truth,” he whined.

The officer tried again: “You touched Darla and got her excited and, and you got all excited and everything. Right?”

“Yeah,” Raymer agreed, but again maintained he hadn’t seen her that fateful night.

Now 67, Clanfield agreed with Lockyer that he would have certainly handed over the tape to his superiors on the case: Doug Massey, who later died in 2023, and Wayne Cotgreave, who is expected to testify Friday.

“I have no idea where that tape went and how it ended up in a box,” he said.

Lockyer had a surprising suggestion about why it may have gone missing – Raymer’s father, he said, had been a superintendent at the OPP.

“Did you understand him to be from a well-connected family?” the lawyer asked.

“Not that I recall,” Clanfield replied.

Lockyer then suggested that the tape he handed over was never meant to be found.

“Mr. Raymer was not just an obvious suspect from the beginning, he was the obvious suspect from the beginning,” the lawyer charged.

“Mr. Raymer is a good suspect,” the retired officer agreed.

But then everything changed when Rees, 25 at the time, gave what he says was a false confession.

“Once Mr. Rees was charged,” Lockyer insisted, “it was decided that anything implicating Raymer would be purged or deep-sixed.”

The cops had their man, the tape mysteriously vanished, Rees served 23 years behind bars before parole and Raymer died in 1999 at the age of 63."

The entire story can be read at: 

—————————————————————————————


CONCLUDING COMMENTS: Back to my comments on today's proceedings in the Ontario Court of Appeal: Courtroom 10:  I was confused, if not horrified by the fact that Tim Rees had to be in that courtroom at all, pleading for an acquittal, utterly unaware at the time of his trial and unsuccessful appeal that  the police had been in possession of mountains of evidence  (discovered long after the trial and appeal)  which had disappeared, or perhaps had been  'deep-sixed' by the police. Indeed, if the  police had informed Rees's  prosecutor that this mountain of evidence  incriminating Raymer existed, it is highly doubtful that he would have been charged at all with the terrible crime, and Raymer would  be rightfully occupying the prisoner's box.  Given the sordid history of this miscarriage of justice, I would expect the lawyers from the Attorney General's office handling the appeal today - (they were not the prosecutors at trial)  to be horrified by the failure of the police to bring forward to the trial prosecutor every scrap of that mountain of evidence pointing to Raymer as Darla's killer - and by the prospect that the during the trial the police were keeping silent when  they knew that witnesses were lying to the jury. That being the case, I would expect the Attorney General's representatives at this important hearing  to make amends to  Mr. Rees, by apologizing to him for the ordeal he has been  put through - the loss of such a huge portion of his life to  prison - and by supporting  Rees's lawyers call to the appeal court for a clear, unfettered acquittal, which will tell the world that he is an innocent man." Nothing less will do,


HAROLD LEVY:  PUBLISHER: THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG:

----------------------------------------------------------------


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


———————————————————————————————


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;


—————————————————————————————————

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;

Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Danny Davis: Illinois: False confession case and much more: Major (Welcome) Development: When he was 20—years-old police coerced a false confession from him - and 32 years later, his murder conviction is finally vacated…"Danny Davis returned home Tuesday after more than 32 years in prison for a murder that DNA evidence proves he did not commit."…"He was released after a judge vacated his convictions in the 1992 murder and robbery of a woman in Cairo, Illinois. The woman was brutally stabbed 38 times in her home, where she ran a small neighborhood store selling soda, snacks and cigarettes. Days after her death, police wanted to talk to 17-year-old Isaac Davis about the murder based on an unfounded tip. Officers took Isaac and his 20-year old brother Danny in for questioning. Danny endured many hours of psychological and physical abuse, including police threats that Isaac was going down for the crime. Police also threatened Danny with the death penalty, saying “your Black ass” is “going to fry.” Fearing for their lives, Danny and Isaac both signed false confession statements implicating themselves and an acquaintance, DeVoe Johnson, in the crime."



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:

———————————————————

Link to Amanda Knox's false confession series: All episodes  to date: 

https://open.spotify.com/show/7BkEIOwmfy7Dl7etQkkTPU

-------------------------------------------------

PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY:  "With his case going to trial just a few months later and facing the death penalty, Danny was pressured to plead guilty for a life sentence. When he entered his guilty plea in front of the judge, Danny said on the record  “I just want to live. That’s the only reason I’m pleading to it.”  He was sentenced to life without parole. Isaac also pleaded guilty. DeVoe Johnson went to a bench trial, a trial that does not involve a jury and is conducted by the judge alone. The presiding judge was the same judge who accepted Danny and Isaac’s guilty pleas. The judge found DeVoe not guilty and acquitted him, finding that the confessions were not credible  – a shocking development since these were the same confessions at the center of Danny and Issac’s convictions."


—————————————————————————————- 


PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "In 2015, the Illinois Innocence Project and Innocence Project jointly took on Danny’s case, with the Exoneration Project later joining the team. In their post-conviction investigation, attorneys litigated for access to evidence for DNA testing and obtained information that had not been turned over to the defense during the original investigation, including critical witness statements and potential alternate suspects who were never investigated. Testing identified male DNA underneath the fingernails of the victim, who tried to fight off her attacker. Danny, Isaac and DeVoe were all excluded. Last week, after an evidentiary hearing where the evidence of Danny’s innocence was presented, the court vacated Danny’s convictions and ordered his release."


—————————————————————————————-


RELEASE:  "Police Coerced a False Confession from 20-Year-Old Danny Davis — 32 Years Later, His Murder Conviction Is Finally Vacated," by Innocence Project staff, published on November 14, 2024.


SUB-HEADING: "Danny Davis returned home Tuesday after more than 32 years in prison for a murder that DNA evidence proves he did not commit.  


Danny Davis free from prison after 32 years (Image: Courtesy of Danny Davis).

Danny Davis returned home Tuesday after more than 32 years in prison for a murder that DNA evidence proves he did not commit.  

He was released after a judge vacated his convictions in the 1992 murder and robbery of a woman in Cairo, Illinois. The woman was brutally stabbed 38 times in her home, where she ran a small neighborhood store selling soda, snacks and cigarettes.

Days after her death, police wanted to talk to 17-year-old Isaac Davis about the murder based on an unfounded tip. Officers took Isaac and his 20-year old brother Danny in for questioning. 

Danny endured many hours of psychological and physical abuse, including police threats that Isaac was going down for the crime. Police also threatened Danny with the death penalty, saying “your Black ass” is “going to fry.” Fearing for their lives, Danny and Isaac both signed false confession statements implicating themselves and an acquaintance, DeVoe Johnson, in the crime.  

With his case going to trial just a few months later and facing the death penalty, Danny was pressured to plead guilty for a life sentence. When he entered his guilty plea in front of the judge, Danny said on the record  “I just want to live. That’s the only reason I’m pleading to it.”  He was sentenced to life without parole. Isaac also pleaded guilty.

DeVoe Johnson went to a bench trial, a trial that does not involve a jury and is conducted by the judge alone. The presiding judge was the same judge who accepted Danny and Isaac’s guilty pleas. The judge found DeVoe not guilty and acquitted him, finding that the confessions were not credible  – a shocking development since these were the same confessions at the center of Danny and Issac’s convictions.  

In 2015, the Illinois Innocence Project and Innocence Project jointly took on Danny’s case, with the Exoneration Project later joining the team. In their post-conviction investigation, attorneys litigated for access to evidence for DNA testing and obtained information that had not been turned over to the defense during the original investigation, including critical witness statements and potential alternate suspects who were never investigated. Testing identified male DNA underneath the fingernails of the victim, who tried to fight off her attacker. Danny, Isaac and DeVoe were all excluded.

Last week, after an evidentiary hearing where the evidence of Danny’s innocence was presented, the court vacated Danny’s convictions and ordered his release. Now 52 years old, Danny walked out of prison and reunited with his family, including his brother Isaac who was previously released from prison, after more than three decades of wrongful incarceration. 

The State has filed a notice to appeal the judge’s ruling, so the fight for Danny’s full exoneration is not over. 

On his car ride home, his first taste of freedom in more than three decades, Danny shared with his lawyers that he hopes other wrongly convicted people will see him and know to keep fighting. 

Danny is represented by Illinois Innocence Project lawyers Lauren Kaeseberg and Maria de Arteaga, Innocence Project Attorney Vanessa Potkin, and Exoneration Project attorneys Lauren Myerscough-Mueller and Karl Leonard. Illinois Innocence Project Staff Investigator Lynn Bagley provided critical investigation work on the case.

To support Danny during his transition home visit his Amazon wish list. 

The entire release can be read at:

 police-coerced-a-false-confession-from-20-year-old-danny-davis-32-years-later-his-murder-conviction-is-finally-vacated



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

    ———————————————————————————————

    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;

    —————————————————————————————-
    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;
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Daniel Penny: New York: Fault and 'fault lines,' Major Development: He has been acquitted by the Manhattan jury trying the New York City subway chokehold case. (Jordan Neely's death)…"Penny, 26, gripped Jordan Neely around the neck for about six minutes in a chokehold that other subway passengers partially captured on video. Penny’s lawyers said he was protecting himself and other subway passengers from a volatile, mentally ill man who was making alarming remarks and gestures. The defense also disputed a city medical examiner’s finding that the chokehold killed Neely. Prosecutors said Penny reacted far too forcefully to someone he perceived as a peril, not a person."


BACKGROUD: From a previous post: "The jury of seven women and five men sent a note to Judge Maxwell Wiley around 3pm on Wednesday asking to rehear pat of the city Medical Examiner's testimony about issuing a death certificate without getting toxicology results for the 30-year-old victim. Dr. Cynthia Harris had testified that bystander video of Penny's six-minute encounter with Neely onboard the F train in Manhattan, as well as investigative findings gave her all the information she needed to declare that Neely died of compression to the neck, NBC 4 reports. 'No toxicological result imaginable was going to change my opinion,' Harris said, even if it showed 'enough fentanyl to put down an elephant.'


-----------------------------------------------------------------

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The case amplified many American fault lines, among them race, politics, crime, urban life, mental illness and homelessness. Neely was Black. Penny is white. There were sometimes dueling demonstrations outside the courthouse, and high-profile Republican politicians portrayed Penny as a hero while prominent Democrats attended Neely’s funeral."

----------------------------------------------------

STORY: "Daniel Penny is acquitted in NYC subway chokehold case over Jordan Neely's death," by Associated Press Reporter Jennifer  Pelts, published on December 9,  2024.

GIST: "A Marine veteran who used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider was acquitted on Monday in a death that became a prism for differing views about public safety, valor and vigilantism.

A Manhattan jury delivered the verdict, clearing Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide in Jordan Neely’s death last year. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed earlier in deliberations because the jury deadlocked on that count.

Both charges were felonies and carried the possibility of prison time.

Penny, 26, gripped Jordan Neely around the neck for about six minutes in a chokehold that other subway passengers partially captured on video.

Penny’s lawyers said he was protecting himself and other subway passengers from a volatile, mentally ill man who was making alarming remarks and gestures. The defense also disputed a city medical examiner’s finding that the chokehold killed Neely.

Prosecutors said Penny reacted far too forcefully to someone he perceived as a peril, not a person.

The case amplified many American fault lines, among them race, politics, crime, urban life, mental illness and homelessness. Neely was Black. Penny is white.

There were sometimes dueling demonstrations outside the courthouse, and high-profile Republican politicians portrayed Penny as a hero while prominent Democrats attended Neely’s funeral.

The entire story can be read at: 

https://www.kmbc.com/article/daniel-penny-acquitted-nyc-subway-chokehold/63136036

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

    ———————————————————————————————

    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;

    —————————————————————————————-
    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;
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, December 9, 2024

Tim Rees: Ontario: Nota Bene: Publisher's Note: A startling incriminating taped interview with another man - that Toronto police had never turned over to the prosecutors or to the defence lawyers - is expected to be at the heart of Tim Rees's appeal, which is scheduled to begin tomorrow (Tuesday December 10) at Osgoode Hall in Toronto, before three justices of the Ontario Court of Appeal. (Innocence Canada lawyers, James Lockyer and Jerome Kennedy will be representing Mr. Rees.)…"The spectre of an innocent man serving 23 years behind bars as a child killer before being released on parole in these circumstances, could place the Rees case among the most notorious miscarriages in Canadian history. Indeed, Reporter Powell notes that If the panel of three judges agrees, Rees’s case will join the list of Canada’s highest-profile wrongful convictions, alongside those of names like Donald Marshall Jr, Guy Paul Morin, David Milgaard and Steven Truscott."


PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In her  July 24, 2024 story headed, "Did Toronto police ‘bury’ evidence of this girl’s real killer? Shocking tape of admitted abuser never turned over to Crown, defence," Toronto Star Courts reporter Betsy Powell  reported that although Rees, 61, spent  23 years in prison for the 1989 murder of 10-year-old Darla Thurrott,  it was only later, with the help of   Innocence Canada that he learned Toronto police had never turned over a startlingly incriminating interview with another man. That taped interview is expected to be at the heart of  Tim Rees's appeal, which is scheduled to begin tomorrow (December 10)  at Osgoode Hall in Toronto, before three justices of the Ontario Court of Appeal.  (Innocence Canada lawyers, James Lockyer and Jerome Kennedy will be representing Mr. Rees.)  The spectre of  an innocent   man  serving  23 years behind bars as a child killer before being released  on parole in these circumstances,  could place the Rees case among the most notorious  miscarriages in Canadian history. Indeed, as Reporter Powell notes, if the panel of three judges agrees, Rees’s case will join the list of Canada’s highest-profile wrongful convictions, alongside those of names like Donald Marshall Jr, Guy Paul Morin, David Milgaard and  Steven Truscott."


HAROLD LEVY:  PUBLISHER: THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG: 

----------------------------------------------------------

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

    ———————————————————————————————

    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;

    —————————————————————————————-
    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;
-----------------------------------------------------------------