QUOTES OF THE DAY: "Jill Paiva’s mother, Nancy, was one of the victims murdered that year. Paiva said she met with Bristol County prosecutors last November to press for an update on the case. She asked them why they were opposed to DNA testing in Tanner’s case, urging them to leave no stone unturned. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a pebble,” Paiva remembers saying. “You don’t know what you’ll find under it if you don’t look.” The prosecutors told her that they had ruled out any connection between the serial murders and Tanner’s case, Paiva said, and reiterated that the case against Tanner was strong. But at the appellate hearing late last year in Boston, a panel of seven judges echoed Paiva’s query. “We’re dealing with, potentially, evidence that everyone would care about,” Justice Scott Kafker said. “What is the Commonwealth’s interest in not finding out what’s under those fingernails?”
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In late 2020, lawyers at the New England Innocence Project took on Tanner’s case, which raised several red flags, said staff attorney Laura Carey. The prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of a single witness, she said, and also cited two potentially misleading forensic techniques — hair and blood type analysis — that have contributed to erroneous convictions. Meanwhile, the evidence collected at the scene — including scrapings from beneath the victim’s fingernails as well as from the bedsheets and towels — had never been subjected to DNA testing. “Why rely on what somebody said Shawn told them after the murder when you can test it with science?” Carey asked."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "In late 2020, lawyers at the New England Innocence Project took on Tanner’s case, which raised several red flags, said staff attorney Laura Carey. The prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of a single witness, she said, and also cited two potentially misleading forensic techniques — hair and blood type analysis — that have contributed to erroneous convictions. Meanwhile, the evidence collected at the scene — including scrapings from beneath the victim’s fingernails as well as from the bedsheets and towels — had never been subjected to DNA testing. “Why rely on what somebody said Shawn told them after the murder when you can test it with science?” Carey asked."
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PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "It wasn’t just Tanner’s sister and lawyers pushing for the testing. Among the groups that filed briefs in the case: the relatives of women who were victims in a notorious serial murder case in the same area that remains unsolved. The so-called New Bedford Highway Killer is believed to have murdered at least nine women, many by strangulation, starting in 1988, the year of Tanner’s arrest."
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PASSAGE FOUR OF THE DAY: "Last month, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in Tanner’s favor, saying a valid order to conduct post-conviction DNA testing does not automatically expire after a defendant’s death. It also noted that there was a “societal interest” in these results since there “remain nine unsolved murders from the same period and region.” n a statement, the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office said it would comply with the ruling. It did not respond to further questions."
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STORY: "DNA testing could clear a dead man’s name — and point to a serial killer
Over 34 years in prison, Shawn Tanner maintained he was not guilty of murder. A legal battle over whether the dead can clear their names will grant his final wish," by Reporter Joanna Slater, published by The Washington Post, on March 16 2026. (Joanna Slater is a national correspondent for The Washington Post focusing on the Northeast. Previously she served as the paper's India bureau chief based in New Delhi. She is an award-winning foreign correspondent whose career includes assignments in the United States, Europe and Asia. She has reported from more than 20 countries. Prior to joining The Post, she worked at Canada's Globe & Mail and the Wall Street Journal. She was based in Asia for seven years, first in Hong Kong and then Mumbai. In 2014-5, she was posted in Berlin, where she covered Europe’s refugee crisis.)
SUB-HEADING: "Shawn Tanner, who was found guilty of a 1988 murder, died of brain cancer in 2022. Before his death, he asked authorities in Massachusetts to allow DNA testing of key evidence in his case. (Courtesy of New England Innocence Project)
GIST: "Over his 34 years in prison, Shawn Tanner always maintained he was not guilty of murder, insisting on his innocence right up until his death in 2022.
Now a years-long legal battle will grant his final wish: for DNA testing to be conducted on crucial evidence in his case.
The prosecutor’s office that obtained his conviction fought the testing, arguing that his death invalidated his request and that the results wouldn’t prove his innocence anyway.
His advocates disagreed, arguing that the results could not only lead to his exoneration but also offer a clue in the unsolved case of an infamous serial killer.
The result: A debate over whether the dead can clear their names that eventually reached the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, testing legal boundaries and fundamental notions of justice along the way.
In late 2020, lawyers at the New England Innocence Project took on Tanner’s case, which raised several red flags, said staff attorney Laura Carey. The prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of a single witness, she said, and also cited two potentially misleading forensic techniques — hair and blood type analysis — that have contributed to erroneous convictions.
Meanwhile, the evidence collected at the scene — including scrapings from beneath the victim’s fingernails as well as from the bedsheets and towels — had never been subjected to DNA testing. “Why rely on what somebody said Shawn told them after the murder when you can test it with science?” Carey asked.
In late 2020, lawyers at the New England Innocence Project took on Tanner’s case, which raised several red flags, said staff attorney Laura Carey. The prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of a single witness, she said, and also cited two potentially misleading forensic techniques — hair and blood type analysis — that have contributed to erroneous convictions.
Meanwhile, the evidence collected at the scene — including scrapings from beneath the victim’s fingernails as well as from the bedsheets and towels — had never been subjected to DNA testing. “Why rely on what somebody said Shawn told them after the murder when you can test it with science?” Carey asked.
The private laboratory conducting the testing did not receive an approval needed to start the process from the state crime laboratory until 2023. That’s when it discovered that a key sample — the fingernail scrapings — were missing from the materials previously sent by state police.
Meanwhile, the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office decided to fight the judge’s order. It filed a motion arguing that Tanner’s death meant the court no longer had any jurisdiction. The order becomes “null and void once the defendant has passed away,” a prosecutor said during a September 2023 hearing.
The legal debate would escalate to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
For Tanner’s family, the question is simpler. Cheryl Kirby, his older sister, declined to answer questions about her brother’s life, saying her goal is to honor his dying wish. “I want to continue his fight,” Kirby said. “I want the testing to move forward to get to the truth.”
Turn every ‘pebble’
It wasn’t just Tanner’s sister and lawyers pushing for the testing.
Among the groups that filed briefs in the case: the relatives of women who were victims in a notorious serial murder case in the same area that remains unsolved. The so-called New Bedford Highway Killer is believed to have murdered at least nine women, many by strangulation, starting in 1988, the year of Tanner’s arrest.
Jill Paiva’s mother, Nancy, was one of the victims murdered that year. Paiva said she met with Bristol County prosecutors last November to press for an update on the case. She asked them why they were opposed to DNA testing in Tanner’s case, urging them to leave no stone unturned.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a pebble,” Paiva remembers saying. “You don’t know what you’ll find under it if you don’t look.” The prosecutors told her that they had ruled out any connection between the serial murders and Tanner’s case, Paiva said, and reiterated that the case against Tanner was strong.
But at the appellate hearing late last year in Boston, a panel of seven judges echoed Paiva’s query. “We’re dealing with, potentially, evidence that everyone would care about,” Justice Scott Kafker said. “What is the Commonwealth’s interest in not finding out what’s under those fingernails?”
David Mark, a lawyer at the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office, said at the hearing that no matter what the DNA testing showed, it would not prove Tanner’s innocence.
“This is not a case where testing alone can produce a definitive result of exoneration,” Mark told the judges. It’s “simply not possible on these facts.” Even if DNA results show that a third person was present in the room, prosecutors have argued, it does not diminish the strength of the other evidence against Tanner, particularly Almeida’s testimony.
Last month, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in Tanner’s favor, saying a valid order to conduct post-conviction DNA testing does not automatically expire after a defendant’s death. It also noted that there was a “societal interest” in these results since there “remain nine unsolved murders from the same period and region.”
In a statement, the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office said it would comply with the ruling. It did not respond to further questions.
Paiva welcomed the court’s decision. She said her 11-year-old grandson has begun asking questions about her mother’s death, questions that she cannot answer. Why would someone do something like that? How come they don’t know who did it?
Like several of the serial killer’s victims, Paiva’s mother, Nancy, struggled with drug use. But she was a devoted and loving parent, Paiva said, remembered for her elaborate Christmas decorations and blueberry picking expeditions.
“Do I expect that this is going to be a miracle, we’re going to find out who did it? No,” Paiva said. But Tanner’s family “deserves to know,” she continued. “Even though he’s passed, his family deserves an answer.""
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/03/16/dna-testing-dead-convicted-murder/
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. 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.
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;
