Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Technology: Tony Robinson: Possibly the first case in Illinois where in which facial recognition technology has been challenged in court, as reported by 'Criminal Justice Journalists' on August 26, 2025, noting that: "Quandee Semrow of the public defender’s forensic science division asked the judge to bar all evidence derived from the use of facial recognition or force the prosecution to provide more information about how it was used. Semrow said police took a still image of Robinson’s face from an officer’s body camera and ran it through “black box” facial recognition software to get his name from a database of photos. She noted that an eyewitness didn’t pick Robinson out of a lineup that included the still photo. Semrow said images can be manipulated with editing tools that can introduce errors, and those of nonwhite people and women have been shown to have higher error rates."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: " The case was one of several examined in a  Chicago Sun-Times investigation  into violent attacks downtown by peop...
Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Shizuo Mishima: Japan: Wrongfully accused of the unauthorised export of sensitive equipment - and having died without being granted bail - police, and prosecutors have apologized at his grave apologise at his grave, The Straits Times reports, noting that: "Mr Okawara, Mr Shimada and Mr Aishima were arrested and indicted between March and June 2020 on suspicion of the unauthorised export of spray dryers capable of producing biological agents. Mr Aishima died in February 2021 at the age of 72 after a fight with stomach cancer, which was discovered while he was in detention. He had filed eight bail requests, but all were denied, though he was eventually allowed to leave detention to receive treatment. The prosecutors withdrew the indictments for Mr Aishima’s co-accused, Mr Okawara and Mr Shimada, in July 2021 when it was determined that “doubts have arisen as to whether they are guilty of a crime.”

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BACKGROUND:  (From a previous post of this Blog -January 14, 2024):  " Shizuo Aishima and two co-accused: Japan: Controversial case - r...

Sue Neill-Fraser: Australia: Alarming gag order: No body of the victim when they arrested her no murder weapon; no witness; no motive. no confession - and now there is one more glaring 'no' to add to this disturbing list: No opportunity to shout out her innocence to the world, because of a new gag order imposed by the Tasmanian Parole Board. As Author/Journalist Andrew L. Urban notes on his 'Wrongful Convictions Report': "Tasmania’s legal club has scraped the bottom of the justice barrel with the parole board’s inexcusable gag order to prevent Sue Neill-Fraser claiming her innocence. This is certainly improper and even despicable. She is barred from even mentioning that Justice Estcourt’s dissnting opinion was that her appeal be allowed and her conviction quashed (see below). The parole board can’t muzzle Estcourt J, though …"

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BACKGROUND: From a previous post of this Blog: (Link below): " The primary ground of appeal – the most critical element in the case fro...