John and Joyce Sheridan; New Jersey; When prosecutors err: NJ.com Editorial Page Editor Tom Moran writes about "an unsolved murder" and "a simple request", in a commentary on Mark Sheridan and his three brothers who still don’t know who murdered their parents at their Somerset County home in 2014, a wound that was deepened by the state of New Jersey when prosecutors falsely concluded that their father, John Sheridan, killed their mother, Joyce, and then took his own life..."That lurid story crumbled under close inspection after the Sheridan children essentially launched their own investigation, revealing solid evidence that demolished the murder-suicide theory. Eventually the medical examiner reversed the prosecutor’s conclusion. But the real killer remains at large, and the knife that supposedly killed John Sheridan has never been found. Now Mark Sheridan, their son, is asking authorities to run down a fresh possibility -- to see if the knife found on another murder suspect the day after his parents were killed might indeed be the missing knife. He notes, with horror, that the suspect, George Bratsenis, admitted stabbing a man to death in Hudson County, then burning down his home to hide the evidence – exactly what happened in the Sheridan case. Sheridan is not saying these killings are connected, only that prosecutors should check. He wants them to see if the knife found the day after his parents’ murder might match the family’s kitchen set, which was missing a knife, or if the knife has traces of blood that could be matched against his parents’ DNA. “One simple courtesy,” he called it in an open letter to Somerset prosecutors and the acting state attorney general, Andrew Bruck."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "This is a reasonable request from a crime survivor whose family was ferociously mistreated by the Somerset County prosecutor at the time, Geoffrey Soriano. Here’s a look at the sheer incompetence of the investigation that led to Soriano to rashly label this a murder-suicide: Prosecutors accused John Sheridan or murdering his wife in their master bedroom, then somehow stabbing himself in the neck, pouring gasoline around the room, and lighting it on fire. They never presented a motive, there was no history of violence, no gambling debt, no drugs, not even a theory to why Sheridan, a respected lawyer and hospital executive with no history of violence, would suddenly snap. Nor did they recover the knife that Sheridan supposedly used to stab himself. - No one dusted for fingerprints outside the master bedroom to see if an intruder had entered the house through one of four unlocked doors. - Two months after the killings, an insurance adjuster inspecting the home found a bag full of jewelry in a closet off the master bedroom. Investigators had somehow missed it. - It was a private autopsy paid by the Sheridans that revealed the knife that killed Joyce Sheridan could not possibly be the same knife that killed John Sheridan, as prosecutors had suggested. That alerted prosecutors to the fact that they were missing the weapon that killed John Sheridan."

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COMMENTARY: "An unsolved murder, a simple request," by Editorial Page Editor  Tom Moran, published by NJ.com, on February 01, 2022.

 GIST: "Mark Sheridan and his three brothers still don’t know who murdered their parents at their Somerset County home in 2014, a wound that was deepened by the state of New Jersey when prosecutors falsely concluded that their father, John Sheridan, killed their mother, Joyce, and then took his own life.

That lurid story crumbled under close inspection after the Sheridan children essentially launched their own investigation, revealing solid evidence that demolished the murder-suicide theory. Eventually the medical examiner reversed the prosecutor’s conclusion. But the real killer remains at large, and the knife that supposedly killed John Sheridan has never been found.

Now Mark Sheridan, their son, is asking authorities to run down a fresh possibility -- to see if the knife found on another murder suspect the day after his parents were killed might indeed be the missing knife. He notes, with horror, that the suspect, George Bratsenis, admitted stabbing a man to death in Hudson County, then burning down his home to hide the evidence – exactly what happened in the Sheridan case.

Sheridan is not saying these killings are connected, only that prosecutors should check. He wants them to see if the knife found the day after his parents’ murder might match the family’s kitchen set, which was missing a knife, or if the knife has traces of blood that could be matched against his parents’ DNA.

“One simple courtesy,” he called it in an open letter to Somerset prosecutors and the acting state attorney general, Andrew Bruck.

\

This is a reasonable request from a crime survivor whose family was ferociously mistreated by the Somerset County prosecutor at the time, Geoffrey Soriano. Here’s a look at the sheer incompetence of the investigation that led to Soriano to rashly label this a murder-suicide:

· Prosecutors accused John Sheridan or murdering his wife in their master bedroom, then somehow stabbing himself in the neck, pouring gasoline around the room, and lighting it on fire. They never presented a motive, there was no history of violence, no gambling debt, no drugs, not even a theory to why Sheridan, a respected lawyer and hospital executive with no history of violence, would suddenly snap. Nor did they recover the knife that Sheridan supposedly used to stab himself.

· No one dusted for fingerprints outside the master bedroom to see if an intruder had entered the house through one of four unlocked doors.

· Two months after the killings, an insurance adjuster inspecting the home found a bag full of jewelry in a closet off the master bedroom. Investigators had somehow missed it.

· It was a private autopsy paid by the Sheridans that revealed the knife that killed Joyce Sheridan could not possibly be the same knife that killed John Sheridan, as prosecutors had suggested. That alerted prosecutors to the fact that they were missing the weapon that killed John Sheridan.

Mark Sheridan concedes that he has no evidence showing a connection between these two 2014 murder cases. “I’ve got all kinds of people waving me off, saying there is no connection,” he says. “And if someone checks and tells me no, there isn’t, I get that. It was a long shot to begin with. But there’s no harm in asking.”

It is also possible that the FBI or state investigators have already made this connection and tested Sheridan’s theory on their own. Investigators rarely comment on murders cases that remain open.

But one hopes they can make an exception and offer Sheridan some assurance. At a minimum, Sheridan says, prosecutors should share the picture of the knife they found in Bratsenis’ car the day after his parents died. “There’s a photo in their files,” Sheridan says. “Just ask Connecticut to press ‘send.’”

The victims in both these murders had deep political ties in New Jersey. John Sheridan served as Commissioner of Transportation in Gov. Tom Kean’s cabinet, and at the time of his death was CEO of Camden’s Cooper University Hospital, where he worked closely with the hospital’s chairman and champion, George Norcross, the Democratic political boss. Mark Sheridan is the former counsel for the state Republican Party.

In the second murder, the victim was Michael Galdieri, 52, the son of former state Sen. James Galdieri of Jersey City. A Hudson County political operative, Sean Caddle, has pleaded guilty to hiring two men to commit the murder – Bomani Africa, of Philadelphia, and Bratsenis, in whose car police found the knife that Sheridan wants examined.

Stayed tuned for more on this case. Caddle and Bomani both have likely been wearing recording devices since their guilty pleas, indicating that prosecutors may be onto something even more serious than the Galtieri murder.

In the meantime, the investigation has opened old wounds for the Sheridans, whose parents’ murders remain unsolved. After their shabby treatment, one hopes prosecutors offer them the simple consolation of meeting Mark Sheridan’s reasonable request."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.nj.com/opinion/2022/02/an-unsolved-murder-a-simple-request-moran.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. 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;

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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

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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;

The Criminal Case Review Commission: Why has the government of Australia failed to implement this valuable safeguard against miscarriages of justice - many of them caused by flawed forensics? An insightful briefing paper by Dr Robert Moles and Ms Bibi Sangha, Networked Knowledge and Adjunct Associate Professors, College of Business Government and Law, Flinders University..."The revelations around the recent Post Office scandal in the UK are most alarming. It has been revealed that the post office over the last 20 years had prosecuted some 700 people running post offices arising from theft or misappropriation of funds. The shortfalls had been revealed by the ‘Horizon’ software system which was introduced to all post-offices and installed and run by Fujitsu. When those accused of theft denied the offences, they were told they were the only potential offenders and the software system was reliable. At that time the post office officials knew that those representations were untrue. The appeal court in the UK has begun to overturn the convictions, 39 in one case and 12 in another. An inquiry has been established to look at the human cost of this betrayal by this national institution – wrongful imprisonment, breakdown in marriages, loss of family and sometimes suicides resulting from what were known to be false accusations at the time they were made. Without the investigative capacities of the CCRC, it is doubtful if many of these shocking practices would have ever been revealed."

BRIEFING PAPER: 'Briefing note on the issue of a Criminal Cases Review Commission," by   Dr Robert Moles and Ms Bibi Sangha, Networked Knowledge and Adjunct Associate Professors, College of Business Government and Law, Flinders University. Published by Networked Knowledge'  on February 24, 2022.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: "In a recently published "briefing note',  (link below).  Dr. Robert Moles and Prof. Bibi Sangha present a  powerful argument in support of  'Criminal Case Review Commissions' (CRCS)  as an important check against miscarriages of justice.  Indeed,  together they have spear-headed a movement in which the CRCC model has spread to Scotland, Norway and New Zealand, and may well be on the way to Canada, where  the Moles and Sangha team has  been  making its   knowledge and experience available to the Canadian government. The CRCC movement is of particular interest to this Blog, because, as the authors point out, the  British  system arose  out  of the flawed forensics which led to the overturning of the IRA bombing convictions – of the  the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four, the Maguire Seven and the Judith Ward case, in the early 1990's. As they note: "The convictions had been obtained by what the appeal court described as false and fraudulent evidence. The scientists at trial had presented the results of preliminary screening tests (for nitro-glycerine) as if they were confirmatory. The appeal court, after 20 years, was informed that substances such as shoe polish, the nitrites in common soaps and the plastic backing on playing cards would also have produced positive results to the screening test. It all started in the UK - with an array of essential powers and funding." Moreover, we learn that, among the more than 500 cases identified in the UK as being wrongful convictions, the CCRC has identified gross failures of proper procedures in all aspects of  "forensic" as well as police,  prosecutorial and judicial functions - including the role played by  police torturing suspects into signing confessions (often where there is no incriminating forensic evidence) - and  expert witnesses providing evidence unduly favourable to the prosecution. (Also very much of interest to this Blog.) I often say to myself in half-jest, that Australia  is an extraordinary 'laboratory' for this Blog - because of the extraordinary forensic issues that dot the nation's criminal justice landscape. Think  Lindy Chamberlain, Henry Keogh, Derek Bromley, Susan Neill-Fraser, Jesse Vinaccia, Joby Rowe, Robert Xie, Andrew Mallard, Frank Button, David Harold Eastman...(Don't get me started!). This country desperately needs to listen to Dr. Moles, Prof. Sangha, and they movement they have inspired. How many more people be pilloried  on Australia's mountainous record of injustice, because its government's indifference?  Indeed,  in spite of the role that Australian legal scholars such as Moles and Sangha have played in the global development of CRCC's,  there still appears to be considerable opposition to this important criminal justice safeguard in their own country - which to me, in a country supposed to be based on the rule of law, seems to be like shooting oneself in the proverbial foot. This will likely become evident as more and more jurisdictions that do treasure the rule of law turn to  the CRCC model with extensive powers and funding to investigate possible wrongful convictions,  combined with combined with an unfettered right of appeal - and leave Australia far behind.

Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.

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GIST: "The current position with regard to a CCRC is as follows:

The UK CCRC was established in 1997 with extensive powers and funding to investigate possible wrongful convictions. It can retain independent experts to help review cases and appoint investigators, including those who can exercise police powers; it has a statutory right to access any documents or materials held by any public or private body including forensic services, police and prosecutorial departments. This is important given the move to privatise forensic services in the UK.

It can, in effect, grant leave to appeal by referring cases directly to the appeal court to be heard as an appeal.

In the last 25 years, referrals by the CCRC have led to 535 successful appeals, mostly overturning convictions, but a few sentence referrals also. They include the overturning of more than 100 murder convictions, including the convictions of four people who had been hanged.

The initiative to set up the CCRC arose from the overturning of the IRA bombing convictions in the early 1990’s – the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four, the Maguire Seven and the Judith Ward case. The convictions had been obtained by what the appeal court described as false and fraudulent evidence. The scientists at trial had presented the results of preliminary screening tests (for nitro-glycerine) as if they were confirmatory. The appeal court, after 20 years, was informed that substances such as shoe polish, the nitrites in common soaps and the plastic backing on playing cards would also have produced positive results to the screening test.

This error was very similar to that which occurred in the case of Susan Neill-Fraser in Tasmania, where the results of preliminary screening tests for blood were presented as if they were confirmatory. Of course, with the added experience from the UK, and also from other Australian and Canadian cases, it is something which should not have occurred. That error alone would warrant her conviction being set aside.

Amongst the more than 500 cases identified in the UK as being wrongful convictions, the CCRC has identified gross failures of proper procedures in all aspects of police, forensic, prosecutorial and judicial functions. They include the police torturing suspects into signing confessions, expert witnesses providing evidence unduly favourable to the prosecution (each of which was clearly exemplified in the case of Treadaway in 1994), and a current surge of cases involving serious non-disclosures by the prosecution services – see The Guardian 31 October 2021 “Courts are close to collapse over police [and prosecution] disclosure failures” where it is stated that in the year ending June 2021 1,648 cases had collapsed in the UK due to disclosure failures.

The revelations around the recent Post Office scandal in the UK are most alarming. It has been revealed that the post office over the last 20 years had prosecuted some 700 people running post offices arising from theft or misappropriation of funds. The shortfalls had been revealed by the ‘Horizon’ software system which was introduced to all post-offices and installed and run by Fujitsu. When those accused of theft denied the offences, they were told they were the only potential offenders and the software system was reliable. At that time the post office officials knew that those representations were untrue.

The appeal court in the UK has begun to overturn the convictions, 39 in one case and 12 in another. An inquiry has been established to look at the human cost of this betrayal by this national institution – wrongful imprisonment, breakdown in marriages, loss of family and sometimes suicides resulting from what were known to be false accusations at the time they were made.

Without the investigative capacities of the CCRC, it is doubtful if many of these shocking practices would have ever been revealed. It is instructive to note that similar CCRCs have been set up in Scotland, Norway and most recently in New Zealand.

Canada has committed to set up a similar commission, and the inquiry into how that should be done asked us to contribute to their consultation. We recommended that they partner with university-based innocence projects to provide a presence in all states and provinces, and to significantly extend their investigative capacity through the use of student and academic researchers. The report forwarded to government has included this recommendation, in addition to many others which give greater priority to the possible wrongful conviction of people belonging to indigenous and other minority groups. It includes the recommendation to allow the Commission to overturn convictions without referral to the appeal court, a power currently capable of being exercised by the Attorney- General.

In South Australia in 2010 we introduced a Bill to the South Australian Parliament for the establishment of a CCRC. The Bill was referred to a Legislative Review Committee which sought public submissions on the issue. Bodies such as the Law Council of Australia, and the Law Society, and individuals such as Michael Kirby (former Justice of the Australian High Court) provided submissions strongly supportive of this initiative. This is the speech of Anne Bressington MLC who sponsored the Bill for us.

The Australian Human Rights Commission had also issued a report in which it stated, following our submission to it, that the appeal rights in all states and territories of Australia failed to comply with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The AHRC said that the appeal laws in Australia failed adequately to protect the right to a fair trial or the right to an effective appeal as guaranteed by the ICCPR [see para 6.2].

The LRC subsequently recommended there be established a body similar to a CCRC but restricted to the review of forensic issues, in addition to an inquiry into the use of forensic evidence in criminal trials, and the establishment of a new right of appeal.

The South Australian parliament did legislate for the introduction of a new right of appeal which subsequently led to the overturning of the conviction of Henry Keogh, who, it turned out had served over 20 years imprisonment for a crime which had never occurred. Clearly this was an important innovation being the first substantial amendment to the appeal rights in any similar common law country for over 100 years.

Following the introduction of the new right of appeal in SA, it was also adopted in Tasmania following an invitation by the Attorney-General for us to address the government MPs after a lobbying campaign begun by Civil Liberties Australia.

It should be noted that the new right of appeal was established in both SA and Tasmania

without a single dissenting voice and without a single dissenting vote.

It was not surprising that Victoria also adopted the new appeal right after we had pointed out to the Attorney-General that without it, she would have to approve all of the referrals to the appeal court following the revelations about the ‘Lawyer X’ scandal.

It should be noted that Western Australia has a Bill before the parliament to implement a similar right of appeal, and we understand that there are moves in the Australian Capital Territory to make similar changes strongly supported by Australian Civil Liberties.

In a recent editorial in the Criminal Law Journal, Michael Kirby has called upon the remaining governments of New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory to also implement similar appeal rights. He said:

Doing nothing to improve our institutional arrangements is a stain on Australia’s reputation as a country of equal justice. It is a blight that is too often demonstrated by fresh evidence and argument. It is an intolerable burden on thoughtful judges, prosecutors and other lawyers who regard participation in a demonstrable miscarriage of justice as a nightmare. The provision of redress is urgent.

Prior to the introduction of the new appeal right in SA, all states and territories in Australia had ‘common-form’ appeal rights for over 100 years. It seems to many people that it is ‘un-Australian’ for some citizens to have appeal rights which do not comply with the major international human rights treaty to which Australia is a signatory or for some Australians to have appeal rights not available to other Australians.

However, as Michael Kirby has pointed out in his editorial, a new right of appeal without any capacity to investigate potentially delinquent cases is only a pyrrhic victory. Without access to transcripts, any ability to consult with expert forensic experts or to obtain legal advice, the chances of identifying wrongful convictions is almost eliminated. It is instructive to note that in the 7 years since the introduction of that right in Tasmania, there has only been one notable appeal and despite the clear manifest failures of that case, the state has been able to resist an effective review of it for many years. In South Australia, there has been on average just one application per year under the new appeal right.

Michael Kirby has championed the call for Australia to establish a single national CCRC

which could review potential wrongful conviction cases for all states. As he pointed out:

What is it about our country that always sees us limping behind [UK, NZ and Canada] where justice is at stake, whereas we can move with astonishing speed to diminish civil liberties, increase official powers and raise levels of incarceration, with no parliamentarian raising a murmur...

It is clear that Australia must reform its approach to the possibility of wrongful convictions if it is to retain the confidence of the public in the judiciary and the legal system more broadly. We should take note of the establishment in New Zealand of a CCRC, and of the substantially revised ambitions of the Canadian government in its consideration of this issue.

We are confident that the two appeals currently seeking Special Leave to appeal to the High Court (Derek Bromley in South Australia, and Susan Neill-Fraser in Tasmania) will be successful and provide the occasion for us to contemplate the significance of the egregious errors which have occurred in both of those cases.

It was the Director of the World Bank who, some years ago, spoke publicly about confidence in the rule of law as being the essential underlying principle for a successful economic and political system.

It is clear that the rule of law in Australia has been severely damaged by the ability of various sectional interests to obtain and maintain criminal convictions which are clearly not in accordance with the relevant legal principles. For so long as we ignore or turn a blind-eye to such failures, we increase the risk that people will take the law into their own hands, and undermine the very peace, order and good government which we all desire."

The entire briefing paper can be read at: 

CCRC19.pdf

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. 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;

George Floyd: Police-related autopsies: Colin Kaepernick: Major Development: A group founded by the former quarterback has founded (The Autopsy Initiative) has begun to offer free secondary autopsies for families of people who died under “police-related” circumstances, the New York Times (Reporter Vimal Patel) reports, noting that the examination by board-certified forensic pathologists will be available for the families of people who died in police-related circumstances..."A certified autopsy can be prohibitive, sometimes costing $5,000 or more, so those without means have had to rely on the official inquiry conducted by a medical examiner or coroner. But proponents of a second autopsy argue that forensic pathology is not an exact science, and that medical experts can have differing opinions that are sometimes colored by bias. Not having the means for an independent autopsy — a second opinion, in medical speak — prohibits one’s access to equal justice, supporters of Mr. Kaepernick’s initiative said. “There is definitely a deep-seated subconscious bias — and in some instances a conscious bias — on the part of medical examiners vis-à-vis police-related deaths,” Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, one of country’s most famous forensic pathologists and one of the board-certified examiners who will be conducting autopsies as part of this effort, said in an interview on Thursday."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "People distrustful of the often-cozy relationship between coroners and law enforcement officials have long turned to the private sector. Dozens of private-autopsy services, like 1-800-Autopsy in Los Angeles, operate across the country in commercial buildings, laboratories and in the backs of funeral homes. The concerns over forensic pathology were heightened after the killing of George Floyd in 2020 under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer. The Hennepin County medical examiner classified Mr. Floyd’s death as a homicide and listed heart disease, fentanyl and methamphetamine as contributing factors. But forensic pathologists hired by Mr. Floyd’s family said that asphyxia, or deprivation of oxygen, was the cause of death and placed the blame squarely on the police officers involved. The autopsy initiative is part of Know Your Rights Camp, an activist group founded by Mr. Kaepernick that describes its mission as advancing “the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities.”

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STORY: "A group founded by Colin Kaepernick is providing free second autopsies," The New York Times (Reporter Vimal Patal) reports, on February 24, 2022.

SUB-HEADING: "The examination by board-certified forensic pathologists will be available for the families of people who died in police-related circumstances."

GIST: "A group founded by the former N.F.L. quarterback Colin Kaepernick started this week to .

A certified autopsy can be prohibitive, sometimes costing $5,000 or more, so those without means have had to rely on the official inquiry conducted by a medical examiner or coroner. 

But proponents of a second autopsy argue that forensic pathology is not an exact science, and that medical experts can have differing opinions that are sometimes colored by bias.

Not having the means for an independent autopsy — a second opinion, in medical speak — prohibits one’s access to equal justice, supporters of Mr. Kaepernick’s initiative said.

“There is definitely a deep-seated subconscious bias — and in some instances a conscious bias — on the part of medical examiners vis-à-vis police-related deaths,” Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, one of country’s most famous forensic pathologists and one of the board-certified examiners who will be conducting autopsies as part of this effort, said in an interview on Thursday.

People distrustful of the often-cozy relationship between coroners and law enforcement officials have long turned to the private sector. Dozens of private-autopsy services, like 1-800-Autopsy in Los Angeles, operate across the country in commercial buildings, laboratories and in the backs of funeral homes.

The concerns over forensic pathology were heightened after the killing of George Floyd in 2020 under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.

The Hennepin County medical examiner classified Mr. Floyd’s death as a homicide and listed heart disease, fentanyl and methamphetamine as contributing factors. But forensic pathologists hired by Mr. Floyd’s family said that asphyxia, or deprivation of oxygen, was the cause of death and placed the blame squarely on the police officers involved.

The autopsy initiative is part of Know Your Rights Camp, an activist group founded by Mr. Kaepernick that describes its mission as advancing “the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities.”

The group defines a police-related death as one in which an individual “dies as a result of being shot, beaten, restrained, intentionally hit by a police vehicle, pepper sprayed, tasered or otherwise harmed by police officers, whether on-duty or off-duty.”

Some medical examiners have said that, like everyone else, they have biases, but that ample systems are already in place, including courtroom scrutiny of their decisions. The National Association of Medical Examiners did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dr. Wecht said that a second review would often be in agreement with the first, but it could also serve as a check on the system. He said the biases that could develop among medical examiners are not necessarily sinister but rather the natural product of close working relationships with law enforcement.

“Medical examiners deal with cops all the time,” Dr. Wecht said. “They get their stories from the cops all the time. There’s nothing startling or highly unexpected to be influenced in that fashion by people with whom you work.”

Mr. Kaepernick, as a quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, started kneeling during the national anthem before N.F.L. games in 2016. He said he wanted to raise awareness of racism, social injustice and police brutality against “Black people and people of color.”

A program official said Mr. Kaepernick was not available for comment on Thursday, but the former quarterback said in a statement that the “prison industrial complex” includes the police and “strives to protect and serve its interests at all costs.”

The autopsy initiative, he said, “is one important step toward ensuring that family members have access to accurate and forensically verifiable information about the cause of death of their loved one in their time of need.""

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/us/colin-kaepernick-police-autopsy.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. 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;

Capital punishment: (Executing the intellectually disabled): Major Development: A bipartisan network of elected prosecutors - fifty-six elected prosecutors from 26 states - have pledged to effectively end the death penalty, including by refusing to support the execution of people with intellectual disabilities, seeking commutations, and helping to overturn sentences in cases of racial bias, negligent defense counsel or other misconduct, NBC News, (Reporter Erik Ortiz) reports...Miriam Krinsky, the executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution, said prosecutors have historically had a strong hand in promoting "tough-on-crime" laws that have disproportionately affected people of color and put hundreds of people to death, including those whose guilt was later called into question. "Now, for them to bring their voices together in an unexpected way and to turn back that tide is significant," Krinsky, a former federal prosecutor in California, said. "Our hope is they will be change agents in their states. Fifty-six of them coming together is a powerful number." The prosecutors' pledge comes as states have revived their death chambers following months of no activity during the coronavirus pandemic."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY:"Although we hold varied opinions surrounding the death penalty and hail from jurisdictions with different starting points on the propriety of this sentence, we have all now arrived at the same inexorable conclusion: our country's system of capital punishment is broken."...The coalition of district attorneys and state attorneys general is made up of mostly Democrats, but includes at least one Republican — Christian Gossett, the district attorney of Winnebago County, Wisconsin — and they hail from some of the largest counties and cities in the country, as well as rural communities. Eleven of the states they represent still have the death penalty, including Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas."

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STORY: "As states ramp up executions, prosecutors pledge changes in handling of death penalty cases,"  by Reporter Erik Ortiz, published by NBC News, on February  17, 2022.

SUB-HEADING: "We have all now arrived at the same inexorable conclusion, our country's system  of capital  punishment is broken, said a joint statement signed by 56 prosecutors."

GIST: "Fifty-six elected prosecutors from 26 states pledged to work to effectively end the death penalty, including by refusing to support the execution of people with intellectual disabilities, seeking commutations, and helping to overturn sentences in cases of racial bias, negligent defense counsel or other misconduct.

"Many of us have been on the front lines of the effort to reform the American death penalty. Others have witnessed — and in some cases been directly involved in — prosecutorial efforts to seek capital punishment," the joint statement, shared by Fair and Just Prosecution, a bipartisan network of elected prosecutors, said Thursday.

"Although we hold varied opinions surrounding the death penalty and hail from jurisdictions with different starting points on the propriety of this sentence, we have all now arrived at the same inexorable conclusion: our country's system of capital punishment is broken."

The coalition of district attorneys and state attorneys general is made up of mostly Democrats, but includes at least one Republican — Christian Gossett, the district attorney of Winnebago County, Wisconsin — and they hail from some of the largest counties and cities in the country, as well as rural communities.

Eleven of the states they represent still have the death penalty, including Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas.

Close to half of states have abolished the death penalty

Of those, four have ended the practice since 2018.

Miriam Krinsky, the executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution, said prosecutors have historically had a strong hand in promoting "tough-on-crime" laws that have disproportionately affected people of color and put hundreds of people to death, including those whose guilt was later called into question.

"Now, for them to bring their voices together in an unexpected way and to turn back that tide is significant," Krinsky, a former federal prosecutor in California, said. "Our hope is they will be change agents in their states. Fifty-six of them coming together is a powerful number."

The prosecutors' pledge comes as states have revived their death chambers following months of no activity during the coronavirus pandemic.

Texas has five executions slated this year. Oklahoma is set to execute a man Thursday, its second since the start of 2022 and the fourth since October.

On the flip side, the spree of federal executions that had become the norm under the Trump administration has been suspended under the Biden administration, although the White House has not said whether President Joe Biden will fulfill a campaign promise to eliminate the federal death penalty.

Meanwhile, recent executions have been called into question following lethal injection protocols that lawyers and death penalty opponents say pose the risk of causing undue pain and suffering. 

Recent cases of inmates being put to death in Missouri and Alabama have also come under scrutiny as examples of how executing people with intellectual disabilities violates their constitutional rights.

While polling has shown support for the death penalty among Americans has been on the decline in recent decades, efforts in some states to repeal or abolish it have been mixed. Last year, Virginia became the first Southern state to do away with capital punishment, in large part because Democrats controlled its Legislature at the time.

But in Utah, a bill that would have ended the death penalty narrowly lost in a committee vote Monday after families of victims spoke out. One mother told lawmakers that she was grateful there is the option of the death penalty because it was used as leverage to force her daughter's killer to provide information in exchange for him not being executed, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

"There are monsters in the world that should never be out of prison," Jessica Black, the mother of 5-year-old Elizabeth Shelley, said. "Having the death penalty allowed us to find our daughter and put the monster in prison for the rest of his life."

Krinsky said changing people's minds won't be easy, but she believes prosecutors are a needed voice in the conversation.

"We're at a moment in time when some states are starting to resurrect executions and move forward on them," she said. "But we also know prosecutors and elected prosecutors have a huge ability to be a guidepost and to show others it's safe to follow your conscience.""

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/states-ramp-executions-prosecutors-pledge-changes-handling-death-penal-rcna16491

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. 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;

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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

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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;

Tyrone Noling: Death Row: Ohio: Commentary: New evidence, discovered in 2010, indicated prosecutors may not have been fully forthcoming in sharing information with the defense at trial. Retired Beacon Journal Editorial Page Editor Michael Douglas, asks why prosecutors have yet to obey an appeal courts order requires them to open their files to determine if evidence was indeed withheld..."The Portage prosecutor’s office argues Noling just wants to delay his execution. Actually, Noling has been pressing for action. He has maintained his innocence from the start, passed a polygraph test and watched the case against him collapse. Most telling, his co-defendants long ago recanted confessions coerced by an unscrupulous investigator for the prosecution. Noling wants back the life and liberty grabbed from him. The Portage prosecutor’s office, headed by Victor Vigluicci, evinces more than contempt for the mandate of the appeals court. It has expressed the same for justice in this case. It fails to admit the obvious: People make mistakes, even prosecutors, and Tyrone Noling is the victim of a huge one."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Once the DNA litigation closed, the Noling team turned to fulfilling the appeals court mandate.  This effort stems from new evidence, discovered in 2010, indicating prosecutors may not have been fully forthcoming in sharing information with the defense at trial. The evidence involves the statement of a man saying his foster brother confessed to the Hartig murders.  That foster brother, Dan Wilson, later killed a woman and was executed in 2009.  The new evidence also includes DNA results from a cigarette butt that did not exclude Wilson. Finally, statements surfaced regarding efforts to conceal a missing .25 caliber handgun, the same gun type used to kill the Hartigs. Each piece of evidence may have helped the Noling defense at trial.  In  2011, the trial court held a hearing to weigh whether the evidence had been wrongly kept from the defense. The prosecution insisted it had an “open file.” The defense countered that if the evidence was there, it would have been used. The judge at the time ruled Noling failed to prove that his counsel was prevented from discovering the evidence. Noling appealed, and in 2014, the appeals court concluded that testimony alone was insufficient. It ordered the trial court to conduct “further proceedings,” viewing such a step as “necessary to fully and fairly dispose of the issue.” In short: Look in the file."

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COMMENTARY: "Justice system moves slowly in acting on claims by death row inmate from Northeast Ohio," by Reporter Michael Douglas, published by The Akron Beacon Journal, on February 13, 2022. Michael Douglas is a retired Beacon Journal editorial page editor.)

SUB-HEADING: "Portage County fails to admit mistakes in death penalty case"

GIST: "The panel of three judges had good reason for dismay, even anger. 

They sit on the Ohio 11th District Court of Appeals in Warren, and in 2014, the court ordered “further proceedings” to permit Tyrone Noling access to files that may show prosecutors withheld evidence favorable to his defense at trial. Those proceedings have yet to go forward.

On Feb. 1, the three judges, Cynthia Westcott Rice, Mary Jane Trapp and Thomas Wright, sat for an oral argument urged by attorneys for Noling, who have asked the court to enforce its mandate. That means getting the trial court and the prosecutor’s office in Portage County to comply with the law.

Recall that Noling sits on death row, though the current state of the evidence makes clear he did not kill Cora and Bernhardt Hartig at their home in Atwater Township three decades ago. The recent hearing reflects the difficulty in getting the justice system to repair a grievous wrong and avoid the horror of executing an innocent man.

As I wrote in December, this matter deserves the attention of Gov. Mike DeWine. His office has the power of commutations, pardons and reprieves — a last line of defense against injustice.

Advocates for Noling rightly argue that he has one of the strongest cases for innocence of anyone on death row across the country.

Why the delay in carrying out the mandate of the appeals court?

Part of the explanation goes to attention focused elsewhere. Noling and his attorneys waged a long and worthy litigation battle over DNA testing. They won some rounds. In the end, the result was not all they hoped — to deliver defining proof of his innocence.

State authorities still balk at DNA testing of cartridge casings.

The pursuit of such testing wasn’t about excluding Noling. No physical evidence links him to the crime scene. Rather, the purpose was to identify an alternative suspect.

Once the DNA litigation closed, the Noling team turned to fulfilling the appeals court mandate. 

This effort stems from new evidence, discovered in 2010, indicating prosecutors may not have been fully forthcoming in sharing information with the defense at trial.

The evidence involves the statement of a man saying his foster brother confessed to the Hartig murders. 

That foster brother, Dan Wilson, later killed a woman and was executed in 2009. 

The new evidence also includes DNA results from a cigarette butt that did not exclude Wilson. Finally, statements surfaced regarding efforts to conceal a missing .25 caliber handgun, the same gun type used to kill the Hartigs.

Each piece of evidence may have helped the Noling defense at trial. 

In  2011, the trial court held a hearing to weigh whether the evidence had been wrongly kept from the defense. The prosecution insisted it had an “open file.” The defense countered that if the evidence was there, it would have been used.

The judge at the time ruled Noling failed to prove that his counsel was prevented from discovering the evidence.

Noling appealed, and in 2014, the appeals court concluded that testimony alone was insufficient. It ordered the trial court to conduct “further proceedings,” viewing such a step as “necessary to fully and fairly dispose of the issue.”

In short: Look in the file.

This is the thread Noling and his attorneys picked up in early 2019. They asked Judge Becky Doherty of the Portage County Common Pleas Court to approve funds for an independent expert examiner to go through the file.

She quickly assented.

Soon, Noling sought access to the file. The judge denied the request. In October 2019, Noling tried again. When the court said nothing, his attorneys moved for a status conference. By then, it was April 2021, more than two years since the judge approved the expert examiner.

Three months later, the judge denied both motions, for access and the status conference.

Why approve an examiner and then block doing the work?

This is the question Noling and his attorneys brought to the appeals court. More, why deny access to a file that prosecutors say is “open”?

The Portage prosecutor’s office argues Noling just wants to delay his execution. 

Actually, Noling has been pressing for action. 

He has maintained his innocence from the start, passed a polygraph test and watched the case against him collapse. 

Most telling, his co-defendants long ago recanted confessions coerced by an unscrupulous investigator for the prosecution.

Noling wants back the life and liberty grabbed from him.

The Portage prosecutor’s office, headed by Victor Vigluicci, evinces more than contempt for the mandate of the appeals court. It has expressed the same for justice in this case. It fails to admit the obvious: People make mistakes, even prosecutors, and Tyrone Noling is the victim of a huge one."

The entire story can be read at: 

https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/opinion/columns/2022/02/13/portage-county-fails-admit-mistakes-death-penalty-case/6726844001/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. 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;