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 m...

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 as...
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 tap...

Predictive Policing? Major (Welcome) Development: The Bradenton Times (Reporter Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix) reports that the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office has admitted in a settlement agreement made public on Wednesday that its policy of keeping a list of people considered likely to commit future crimes and sending deputies to their homes violated the U.S. Constitution - noting that as part of the settlement, the office will pay $105,000 to four Pasco County residents who were targeted by the law enforcement agency and is barred from implementing any similar program in the future…"The program, dubbed “Intelligent Led Policing” by the Sheriff’s Office and “predictive policing” by its critics, first came to light in a series of reports by the Tampa Bay Times in 2020. The paper reported that after Sheriff Chris Nocco took office in 2011, he created a “cutting-edge intelligence program” designed to stop crime before it happened, which led to the harassment of children and their families. The Times found that Pasco County residents who got caught in the agency’s sights were placed on a list as potential criminals and subjected to harassment, often having deputies show up at odd hours. More than 12,500 times, the reporters found, deputies checked on the people identified by a departmental algorithm as targets. Those targeted were cited for violations such as missing mailbox numbers or overgrown grass. The paper reported that one of the goals of the program was to encourage those who made it onto the agency’s list to move away."

›
QUOTE OF THE DAY: " For years, the Pasco Sheriff ran an unconstitutional program, harassing kids and their parents because a glorified ...