Monday, August 29, 2016

Rodricus Crawford: Louisiana: (Part 1); (Too broken: Fair Punishment Project); A series of posts in anticipation of his up-coming appeal - Wednesday September 7, 2016; Part (1): Harvard University's Fair Punishment Project places Caddo Parish - where Rodicus Crawford had the misfortune of being tried, convicted and sentenced to death at the hands of notorious prosecutor Dale Cox, on the basis of a disputed medical examiner's report - on its list of eight 'outlier counties responsible for a disproportionate number of death sentences.'..."Dale Cox, who served as Caddo Parish’s acting District Attorney, personally prosecuted one-third of Louisiana’s death sentences between 2010 and 2015. When Maya Lau, a local reporter, questioned Cox about the release of Glenn Ford, a man with Stage 4 lung cancer who spent nearly three decades on death row for a crime he did not commit, Cox said: “I think we need to kill more people.” Cox later clarified his enthusiasm for the death penalty: “Revenge is important for society as a whole,” and it “brings to us a visceral satisfaction.” In 2014, Cox obtained a death sentence against a father, Rodricus Crawford, convicted of killing his infant son, despite the medical examiner’s uncertainty that the death was a homicide. At trial, Cox told the jury that Jesus demanded his disciples kill any child abuser and quoted a Bible verse: “You shall have a millstone cast around your neck and you will be thrown into the sea.”

›
URGENT PETITION: A petition, set up on 'Color of Change'  by supporter Marlene Belliveau on behalf of  Rodricus Crawford...

Darryl Howard: North Carolina: Bulletin: Hearing starts today: Disbarred prosecutor Mike Nifong could be called in double-murder case..."Expected to testify at the hearing is former Durham County district attorney Mike Nifong, whom Hudson said in his 2014 ruling failed to share with defense attorneys a police memo and other evidence that pointed to suspects other than Howard. The Howard prosecution isn't the first to tarnish Nifong. He was disbarred in June 2007 for his handling of the tumultuous Duke University lacrosse case, in which three Duke athletes were accused of raping a stripper hired to entertain a team party. State investigators later determined Nifong lied and buried evidence proving the lacrosse players were innocent."...".The State does not contest that post-conviction DNA testing identified foreign male DNA that was not detected and could not have been discovered with the exercise of reasonable diligence at the time of Howard's trial," wrote Charlotte attorney Jim Cooney and Barry Scheck, who was part of retired NFL star O.J. Simpson's defense team. It wasn't until a few years ago that Howard's attorneys found a Durham police memo about an informant's tip that the convicted killer's attorney said wasn't turned over before the murder trial, the Court of Appeals said. The police tipster knew that the women were raped before being killed, which investigators hadn't told the public, a police captain noted." Reporter Emery P. Dalesio; WRAL.com

›
"Evidence of prosecutorial misconduct that could exonerate a man who has spent 21 years in prison for a double murder will be at cent...

Kendrick Johnson: Georgia; Bulletin: (A cautionary note. HL); Rollingout story (August 20, 2016) shows how the pursuit of justice - no matter how worthy and well-intentioned - can come with a cost - a hefty one at that. Reporter Yvette Caslin;

›
"On January 11, 2013, Kendrick Johnson’s lifeless body was upside down when it was discovered inside a rolled up wrestling mat in the...
Sunday, August 28, 2016

Oral Nicholas Hillary: New York; Significant Development; Bulletin..."A judge presiding over a trial in the 2011 murder of a 12-year-old boy in northern New York State said on Friday that the prosecution could not use a cutting-edge and controversial method of analyzing DNA data, dealing a blow to its efforts to convict a former soccer coach accused of the crime."...Earlier this year, the prosecution team indicated that it would use STRmix to analyze a minuscule scraping from one of Garrett’s fingernails, and it later suggested that Mr. Hillary was one of eight people in the nation who might match the sample. The defense rebutted those assertions and challenged the reliability of the program, which uses an algorithm to determine probabilities for usually unusable data. On Friday, Judge Catena agreed with the defense, finding that the data could not be used at trial, a finding hailed by Mr. Hillary’s lawyers." Reporter Jesse McKinley; New York Times; (August 28, 2016);

›
"A judge presiding over a trial in the 2011 murder of a 12-year-old boy in northern New York State said on Friday that the prosecut...
Saturday, August 27, 2016

Dr. Roberto Bayardo: Texas: KXAN reporters David Barer and John Hinkle present a remarkable portrait of a controversial chief medical examiner with failing memory, now over 80, who examined thousands of sudden, violent and unusual deaths in Travis County and dozens of other smaller Texas counties and can still be called to court to testify - even decades later to testify. Great heading for the KXAN story: "Body of Evidence: Forgotten Forensics." As chief medical examiner for nearly 30 years, Dr. Roberto Bayardo examined thousands of sudden, violent and unusual deaths in Travis County; KXAN..."“I’ve been losing my memory,” Bayardo said. “If you don’t show me something that was written or said, I can’t tell you if it was true or not.” According to records obtained from 45 counties around the state, the McKinney case was among at least seven murder or manslaughter cases Bayardo has testified in since his 2006 retirement. It is not clear if, or to what extent, prosecutors have examined Bayardo’s memory since his retirement. However, according to Sam Bassett, a veteran Central Texas defense attorney, using Bayardo’s testimony at this point could present problems in court. Bassett, who chaired the Texas Forensic Science Commission, said key testimony could be at stake if a witness's memory is compromised while giving testimony. A faltering memory could lead to inaccuracies and a jury being misled on important scientific opinion and data, he said. “The risk of a failing memory is it basically eliminates that person’s testimony, as to the events at the time he testified.” — Sam Bassett “The risk of a failing memory is it basically eliminates that person’s testimony, as to the events at the time he testified,” he said.

›
STORY: by David Barer and John Hinkle, published as a KXAN  in-depth investigation,  on August 16, 2016." SUB-HEADING: "A...
Friday, August 26, 2016

Michael West; Steven Hayne; Eddie Lee Howard; Mississippi; Radley Balko charges that State Attorney General Jim Hood defends discredited forensic experts while harassing defense attorneys instead..."Hood is widely expected to run for governor next year. As one of the only Democrats holding statewide office in the deep south (and a fairly popular one at that), he’s expected to get a lot of support from the national party once he announces. So far in his political career, Hood has found success in the south by countering his close (and at time scandalous) relationship with the plaintiff’s bar and high-profile fights with prominent businesses with an unapologetic embrace of law-and-order policies, including a particular enthusiasm for the death penalty. It will be interesting to see if he continues to pull it off. The landscape on criminal justice is shifting. Hood’s efforts to undermine the rights of criminal defendants and his utter disinterest in the forensics crisis unfolding right under his nose may came back to haunt him." The Washington Post;

›
POST: 'Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood defends discredited forensic experts, harasses defense attorneys instead,' by Radley B...

Roadside drug tests: The Orange County Register takes a tough, well-reasoned editorial stand: There are so many problems with them, "until greater accuracy of such testing can be verified, Congress and local police should not even consider authorizing or using them." As the heading puts it: "Kick roadside drug and DNA tests to the curb."..." A six-month investigation done by Fox 13/TV in Tampa, Fla., found similar weaknesses in the test results. “We watched as aspirin, cough medicine, coffee and spices like oregano – and even air – tested positive for illegal drugs,” reporter Gloria Gomez said. To make matters worse, Congress is considering legislation that would allow police to utilize a field test to collect genetic material from detainees and suspects. Under the Rapid DNA Act, S.2348, which the Senate passed by unanimous consent in June, officers could obtain DNA evidence from a cheek swab and the results would be checked against the FBI’s central DNA database. This raises troubling privacy concerns, which should give members in the House great pause when they consider the bill. We should not be encouraging police to take DNA evidence from everyone they encounter and building a massive biometric database, particularly with evidence from innocent citizens. Then there are the accuracy issues." (Bravo! HL);

›
EDITORIAL:  ""Kick roadside drug and DNA tests to the curb," published by The Orange County Register. (Thanks to Blogger Mik...