Tuesday, April 23, 2024

James Hunter: Colorado: Bulletin: A discredited DNA Analyst Yvonne "Missy" Woods case: The Colorado Springs Gazette (Senior Investigative Reporter Christopher Osher) reports that a federal judge has denied his request for DNA testing which he says will prove his innocence…"A federal judge on Friday denied access to DNA evidence that defense lawyers say will exonerate a man whose 2003 conviction of a heinous rape at a Lakewood trailer park rape largely relied on the testimony of a former Colorado Bureau of Investigation scientist who was forced to resign last year for manipulating DNA data in other cases. U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico dismissed the request for additional DNA testing filed on behalf of James Hunter, now 64, who contends that his 168-year prison sentence is a travesty of justice. Hunter has been incarcerated for more than 21 years. Hunter’s conviction is one of thousands now under scrutiny that involved former CBI state crime lab scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods. The CBI in March announced the discovery of “anomalies” in the work of Woods put “all her work in question.”

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" PUBLISHER'S  NOTE:  WORDS TO HEED: FROM OUR POST ON KEVIN COOPER'S  APPLICATION FOR POST-CONVICTION DNA TESTING; CALIFORNIA: ...
Monday, April 22, 2024

Melissa Lucio: Texas: Columnist David Mills (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) explains why her story, "should disconcert those of us who aren't likely ever to be in her place" - stressing that, 'only two years ago, Melissa Lucio was just two days from certain death.'…"The state of Texas was going to execute Melissa Lucio on April 27, 2022, based on a confession coerced by the police, using dirty tricks and intimidation; prosecution by a corrupt prosecutor running for reelection (he’s now in prison); when she was defended by an incompetent defense lawyer; when she faced a prosecution aided by testimony from a forensic expert who was full of crap, who claimed with an expert’s authority facts that were not true, and known not to be true by other experts. And that was not all the legal abuse she suffered. She was going to be killed after a trial in which the abundance of evidence of how much she loved her children was never presented in court, letting the prosecution (who must have known better) portray her as a bad and abusive mother (there was no evidence whatsoever that she ever abused her children, but the jury was not told that). Within two days And there’s still more. She came within two days of being executed thanks in part to a judge who prevented testimony in her favor, particularly expert testimony on how the extreme abuse she had suffered throughout her life left her very vulnerable to coercion; and who nevertheless allowed the Texas ranger who interrogated her, also full of crap, and covering his backside, to claim that he knew, as an experienced lawman, that she was guilty from the way she sat. And on top of that, she would have gotten another trial but for a legal technicality."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: " This is good news for Melissa Lucio, but only in contrast to the bad news she’s been living through since 2007 — ...
Sunday, April 21, 2024

Walter Gillespie: New Brunswick: The Toronto Star caption captures the tragedy of Walter Gillespie's death: "Wrongfully convicted New Brunswick man dies months after exoneration." Indeed, as Canadian Press Reporter Hana Alam reports, "Innocence Canada, which led the legal fight to exonerate Walter Gillespie and his friend Robert Mailman of their 1984 murder convictions, said Gillespie died Friday in his home in Saint John, N.B., at the age of 80. Founding director James Lockyer lamented the fact that Gillespie had such a brief time to enjoy the fruits of his decades-long fight. “It’s very sad,” Lockyer said. “I’m just glad that he managed to have his name cleared before he died. That was so important to him.”

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: " Ron Dalton, now co-president of Innocence Canada, took up the men’s case when he was fighting for freedom from hi...