Monday, February 26, 2018

Jeffrey Havard: Mississippi; (Part two): Pending decision by Mississippi Circuit Court Judge Forest "Al" Johnson; Radley Balko's insightful commentary on the role played by controversial former medical examiner Steven Hayne in the case; (Balko sheds light on the sexual assault issue in the case (in addition to the shaken baby syndrome issue)..."At trial, Havard’s attorney requested funds to hire his own medical examiner to review Hayne’s work. The judge turned him down. After the conviction and death sentence, former Alabama state medical examiner Jim Lauridson submitted an affidavit on Havard’s behalf questioning Hayne’s conclusions about the sexual abuse. Lauridson pointed out that what the doctors, nurses and law enforcement officials likely saw during those frantic moments in the emergency room was a dilated anus, which often occurs in young children who are brain-dead, or shortly after death. Hayne’s own photos of the girl’s body, taken after she was cleaned up, showed no signs of sexual abuse. The Mississippi Supreme Court at first refused to even consider Lauridson’s affidavit. The court ruled that his critique of Hayne’s work was evidence that should have been introduced at trial. Of course, that was impossible, since the court refused to give Havard money to hire his own expert witness. The court didn’t consider Lauridson’s affidavit until Havard had exhausted his appeals and was in post-conviction — when such claims are much more difficult to win. When the court did finally consider Lauridson’s affidavit, in 2008, the court rejected it out of hand."

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: "I have been following this case for years. Jeffrey Havard. On death row in Mississippi for the past 15 ...
Sunday, February 25, 2018

Jeffery Havard; (Part One): Mississippi; Crucial decision by Circuit Court Judge in this life and death 'shaken baby syndrome' death row case is expected by summer... (Havard has been on Mississippi's death row for 15 years); Judge Forrest "Al" Johnson calls his upcoming decision one of the most important in his more than two decades on the bench, The Natchez Democrat reports. (Reporter David Hamilton; " In August 2017, a three-day hearing was held in Adam's County due to revised beliefs in the medical field about shaken baby syndrome, which medical examiners in 2002 determined as the cause of death of 6-month old Chloe Britt. From the outset, Havard has maintained his innocence and claimed the death resulted from him accidentally dropping the the baby while removing her from the bathtub, with Britt subsequently hitting her head on the toilet. Various medical professionals testified in August how contemporary beliefs about shaken baby syndrome could bring the initial 2002 conviction into question. One such testimony from Dr. Steven Hayne, a former medical examiner who conducted the 2002 autopsy and whose testimony lent towards Havard's conviction. This time around, Hayne said pinning Britt's death solely on shaken baby syndrome would be a mistake due to the observance of the baby's head injuries."

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Jeffrey Havard.has been on Mississippi's death row for 15 years. At the heart of the case, according to Circuit C...
Saturday, February 24, 2018

Scott Peterson: Mark Godsey, author of 'Blind Injustice; asks, "Is Scott Peterson Innocent?" as he explores human lie detection and demeanour evidence...". I mean, as high-profile murder trials go, this one seemed even easier to crack than O.J. But A and E's new docuseries The Murder of Laci Peterson, which is based on newly discovered evidence revealed in recent court filings, makes you seriously question that assumption."...". But regardless of whether or not the docuseries convinces you that Peterson is innocent, it presents a fascinating case study of the human frailties—the psychological flaws—that often cause criminal investigations to go awry."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In recent years, the innocence movement has exposed more than 2,000 wrongful convictions in America, with the ...
Friday, February 23, 2018

Susan Neill-Fraser: Australia: On-going "last chance" appeal. Significant Development? (Another twist in this suspicious death at sea case (among many others, including new DNA evidence): Police claim to have two films - said to have come into their posession in the last two weeks - which they say are important, ABC News reports. Adjournment granted. (Neill-Fraser is serving a 23-year jail sentence for the 2009 murder of her partner Bob Chappell onboard their yacht moored off Hobart.)..."The Crown had previously advised the court that they would not be calling any of its own witnesses in the appeal. But today the court heard four new Crown witnesses would be called, in addition to the cross-examining of Detective Shane Sinnitt. Detective Sinnitt was one of the investigators on the original murder investigation, and was also involved in last year's investigation into allegations that three people attempted to pervert the course of justice in relation to the appeal application. It is understood the two recordings were some of the items seized during raids on CJZ productions in Sydney in November last year. It was reported at the time that the seized footage had been for a Seven Network "true crime" series."

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STORY: "Sue Neill-Fraser murder appeal: Police reveal new recordings and witnesses, delaying case, by reporter Edith Bevin, published ...
Thursday, February 22, 2018

National Commission of Forensic Science: (No big surprise here. HL); Innocence Project disappointed by the Department of Justice's approach to forensic science reform as set out by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in an address to the American Academy of Forensic Science..."While short on details, his remarks renew concerns that the DOJ is backtracking on progress to ensure that forensic disciplines are guided by the best science and that safeguards were enacted to insulate practitioners from law enforcement influence. “We’ve known since 2009 that there are problems with the scientific validity of forensic disciplines used to identify suspects with the exception of DNA evidence. Yet after this administration shut down the National Commission of Forensic Science — the first inclusive and transparent effort to address these fundamental flaws in evidence that is used in countless prosecutions across the nation — there was no mention by Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein of how the Department of Justice plans to address this core validity problem,” said Chris Fabricant, director of Strategic Litigation at the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law."

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 QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The initial attempt by the DOJ to develop uniform language fell far short of meeting the standards for science. Althou...

William Amor: Illinois. Arson 'science.' False confession: Major Development: (A very welcome development. HL); He has been acquitted on retrial for murder, arson in mother-in-law’s 1995 death..." On Sept. 17, 1997, Amor was convicted of murder and aggravated arson for the fire that caused Miceli’s death, according to the statement. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Brennan vacated Amor’s conviction in April 2017 after his attorneys claimed he was convicted based upon a confession which was proven false and arson findings that are no longer scientifically reliable, the Innocence Project said. His confession was the basis for fire investigators to change their mind in 1995 to change their initial finding of an “undetermined” cause of the fire to arson."

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: “While my office stands by our prosecution and we believe the evidence supported a finding of guilty, we certainly respec...

John Giuca: Brooklyn, New York. (A fascinating story of a troublesome murder case that has a big question mark hanging over it, by New York Times Reporter Alan Feuer..."Many murder cases are built on science — fingerprints, ballistics, DNA — but Mr. Giuca’s case was built from the start on something much more tenuous: the shifting stories of a group of privileged young people who were partying with him and Mr. Fisher on the late-night-into-morning when Mr. Fisher died. From the outset, the prosecution’s presentation was a kind of collegiate Rashomon: people lied, changed their statements and often contradicted one another. “This wasn’t really a forensic case,” said Mark Hale, the prosecutor who oversaw the probe by the district attorney’s office. “This was a case of who said what to whom, when.”

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STORY: "A murder, a conviction and a never-ending case," by reporter Alan Feuer, published by The New York Times on February 21,...