Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Raymond Jennings: California; Prosecution expert who testified at trial has had a change of mind); A judge has thrown out his murder conviction after prosecutors announced there was new evidence that seemed to “undermine the entire prosecution case and point unerringly to innocence or reduced culpability.”..." The judge also noted that a prosecution expert who testified at trial about the sexual motive — “the cornerstone” of the case, the judge said — had since changed his stance. Without that testimony, Ryan ruled, the prosecution’s case would have been “decidedly different.” In a written statement Monday, Blake, the trial prosecutor, said he’s “aware of additional facts that were not available to me at the time I tried Raymond Lee Jennings.” “As a result,” he said, “I understand why my office has lost confidence in the conviction.” Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey said in a statement that the case shows her office is “dedicated to serving justice, even when it means reopening a closed case.” Asking a judge to throw out the conviction in Jennings’ case — one of more than 1,000 that prosecutors have been asked to look into — marked the first big move by the district attorney’s unit dedicated to overturning wrongful convictions."

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STORY: "Judge throws out murder conviction of man in notorious Palmdale killing," by reporter Marisa Gerber, published by ...
Monday, January 30, 2017

Rodricus Crawford: Louisiana; Bulletin: Freed from death row by Louisiana's highest court, he must wait until February 22 to learn whether prosecutors will retry him, Nexstar reports..."Publicity surrounding the case, which was spotlighted in a lengthy article in the New Yorker magazine and a subsequent article in the New York Times, drew public scrutiny not only to Crawford’s case, but to the large amount of prisoners on death row from Caddo Parish, most of whom were African American." Reporter Nancy Cook. January 30, 2017;

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"Rodricus Crawford, who was freed in November after spending almost three years on death row, was in Caddo District Court today to s...

Rodricus Crawford: Louisiana: Bulletin: ; Once on death row, he is due in court today (Monday January 30) to find out if prosecutors are seeking a new trial..."Crawford was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2012 death of Roderius Lott and sentenced to death in November 2013, but the Louisiana Supreme Court vacated his sentence on Nov. 16 and ordered a new trial. Pathologist Dr. James Traylor's autopsy results concluded that the child died from smothering, but Crawford's team of post-conviction lawyers insist the child had been very sick and died from sepsis. Crawford's appeal claimed that then-Assistant District Attorney Dale Cox eliminated jurors based on their race and pointed to interviews with 9 other doctors suggesting the child died from natural causes." Domonique Benn reports; KSLA; (We are following developments. HL);

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"A Shreveport man freed from death row after his conviction for killing his one-year-old son was overturned is due back in court on ...

Purvi Patel: Indiana; A symbol of the ever-increasing criminalization of American women by introducing junk reproduction science into the courtroom. Patel is the subject of actress Rose McGowan's film 'Woman's Womb' - a timely film (link to the short film provided) said to reflect McGowan's conviction that Donald Trumps election was a massive war on women that’s been sanctioned and approved by voters. Refinery 29;

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POST: "You Need To Watch This Powerful Rose McGowan Film," by Erin Donnelly, published by Refinery 29 on January 17, 2017.   GI...
Sunday, January 29, 2017

Yet another book shedding light on forensic science: 'Forensic science reform: Protecting the innocent.' Edited by Wendy J. Koen and C. Michael Bowers. (Well, some say we get far more sleep than we need! Read on. HL); .

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Big year for publication of books taking an honest,  up-to-date, critical approach to forensic science Caitlin Pakosh, 'The Lawyer...
Saturday, January 28, 2017

Mary Han: New Mexico; At last, there could be light at the end of the lengthy tunnel for the family of Mary Han, who have spent years fighting one of the most suspicious classifications of 'suicide' that I have ever seen. The Alburquerque Journal (bombshell) story by reporter Joline Gutierrez Krueger is headed: "Shocking testimony backs kin’s claims in Mary Han case."..."The first officers on the scene from both the Albuquerque Fire Department and the Albuquerque Police Department testified this week that they classified Han’s death as suspicious and a “possible crime scene,” but the APD officers say they were thwarted in their efforts to conduct a proper investigation when dozens of the highest-ranking APD and city officials descended on the house."..."Many things that occurred that day were in violation or simply not done. Former longtime chief medical investigator Dr. Ross Zumwalt testified that neither the state Office of the Medical Investigator nor APD had considered Han’s bank statements, credit card records, medical records, cellphone records, the other prescription medications in her system, such as Ambien, or the contents of her laptop to determine a manner of death. They hadn’t tested the air in the house, the clear liquid in the glass or the plastic bag in the car; nor had they questioned the positioning of her body in the car."

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: "At last, there could be light at the end of the lengthy tunnel for the family of Mary Han who have spent years ...

Annie Dookhan: Massachusetts; White Elephant case: Decision of the State's highest court: There was a dissent that has been largely ignored in news reports; Thanks to the Boston Globe for reporting the dissent which unequivocally orders prosecutors to withdraw all of the Dookhan cases...Associate Justice Geraldine S. Hines wrote the only dissent, arguing that the court should have thrown out all affected convictions. The court had also considered dismissing all the convictions and allowing prosecutors the option to retry those cases, but Hines rejected even that prospect. “The need to adopt a swift and sure remedy for the harm caused by [Dookhan’s] deceit presents itself with palpable urgency. The time has come to close the book on this scandal, once and for all, by adopting a global remedy,” Hines wrote.

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In the years since I started publishing this Blog I have become increasingly disturbed by the 'white elephant' in the room: S...