Monday, December 24, 2018

Back in action: On-Going: Jeff Boppre: Nebraska: "His lawyers claim new evidence points to the real killer - a man known as 'Yellowboy.'..." Today's filing also includes photos from the front door of the home. Attorney's say there is a bloodstain near the door of the home, and DNA evidence points to the blood belonging to Yellowboy. The motion for a new trial also raises issues with discrepancies with the murder investigation, allegations into tampering of recorded interviews and crime scene video, the murder weapon and its discovery in New Mexico, and more."...

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In a filing Thursday, attorneys suggest new evidence points to John Yellowboy as the man responsible for th...
Sunday, December 23, 2018

Back in action: On-Going: Patrick Pursley: Illinois: Ballistics: White elephant case: Retrial: Decades after his murder conviction a ballistics test proved the gun in the original murder trial (1994) did not match the weapon used in the victim's death. Now a judge conducting an evidentiary hearing must determine if the police, having failed to find the murder weapon, planted another one.

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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: ...
Saturday, December 22, 2018

Back in action: On-Going: Defunct Motherisk lab: Dr. Gideon Koren (Under investigation in Israel); Toronto Star investigative team gets another direct hit as it takes us "Inside the flawed world of medical publishing that allowed a lie in a paper coauthored by Dr. Gideon Koren to pollute the scientific record."..."Koren, who retired from Sick Kids in June 2015, has continued to publish since his departure. Neither he nor his lawyers responded to emails and phone calls seeking comment for this story. Koren, who now lives in Israel, had been working as a senior researcher for Maccabi Health, a healthcare provider. In late October, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, a medical ethics’ watchdog, wrote to Maccabi Health with concerns that Maccabi may not know about Koren’s role in two Sick Kids controversies, including the Motherisk scandal. On Dec. 5, Maccabi, in a letter obtained by the Star, wrote back saying it had appointed a committee to “examine the role of Professor Koren in these incidents.” Israel Hayom, a national newspaper, reported on Dec. 18, that Maccabi Health said Koren will be on leave until the end of the investigation. Haaretz, another Israeli newspaper reported that day that Koren defended the Motherisk lab by saying it was clinical, not forensic, and “won praise.” He said, according to the newspaper, that claims of biased or misleading research were outright libel. Sick Kids said last week that it is “regrettable” that an audit of Koren’s work had not been conducted sooner and that there should have been “closer oversight of his disclosure and publication practices.”

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The once vaunted gold-standard test employed by the Hospital for Sick Children's now defunct (hair-testing)  for ...

Back in action; On-going: Julie Rea: Illinois: Pamela Colloff winds up her Pro-Publica, New York Times, collaboration on Joe Bryan (Texas) with a compelling account of the Julie Rea (Illinois) blood-splatter case - and a contextual analyis of how so-called blood-splatter 'science' fits in with the numerous other kinds of faukty forensic science. After reading these stories I am left with one compelling question: How can the so-called experts get it so very, very wrong? HL..." Prosecutors used a forensic discipline called bloodstain-pattern analysis to argue that an intruder never entered her home on the night of the crime and that Rea was, in fact, her son’s killer. She was convicted of first-degree murder in 2002 largely on the strength of the testimony of two bloodstain-pattern analysts. Four years later, Rea was acquitted at a retrial, after a legal team assembled by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law in Chicago mounted a vigorous defense that challenged the state’s forensic testimony. They also presented new evidence that a serial killer of children — a lifelong drifter who was on Texas death row for a nearly identical crime — had confessed to killing Joel. Rea was formally exonerated in 2010. Today, she belongs to a growing community of victims: Americans who were wrongly convicted with the help of forensic disciplines allowed into courtrooms despite little to no proof of their reliability."

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  PASSAGE OF THE DAY: " Bloodstain-pattern analysis is rooted in the belief that the drops, spatters and trails of blood at a crim...
Friday, December 21, 2018

Back in action: On-Going: Joe Bryan: Texas: ProPublica reporter Pamela Colloff's video interview with the former beloved high school principal twice convicted of murdering his wife Mickey in their Texas home..."Curious what he made of all this, I asked him if he would be willing to talk — about Mickey; about his odyssey through the criminal justice system; and about his decades behind bars. He agreed, and ProPublica video journalist Katie Campbell and I went to the prison in Huntsville, Texas, known as the Walls Unit, to interview him on camera. We had a strict time limit, so we stuck to broad themes, rather than exploring the many intricacies of his case. The resulting video provides a moving view of a man who has somehow retained grace, forgiveness and, most of all, hope, even after his world turned its back on him."

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  PASSAGE OF THE DAY (1): "He has always maintained that he was asleep in his hotel room at the time of the crime. At the hearing...
Thursday, December 20, 2018

Back in action: On-Going: Steven Mark Chaney: Texas; Great News: Junk bite mark evidence; Convicted of murder in 1987 mostly on words of two forensic odontologists who said he left a bite mark on the arms of one of the victims, Chaney has been declared actually innocent, Texas Monthly (reporter Michael Hall) reports..."The CCA’s opinion is long and detailed, concluding, “Chaney has proven that he is actually innocent.” Soon Chaney will get $2.5 million from the state for his troubles, then a monthly stipend. He’ll use the money to live on and also to support himself in his prison ministry. Ever since he got out, Chaney has gone to the Wynne unit, where he lived for decades, to preach, testify, and play music."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "As of today, Chaney, 62, is officially an innocent man, ruled so by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. He is ...

Back in action: On-going: Vincente Benavides(California)...Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin (Florida): Both freed from death row in 2018 (both cases of particular interest to this Blog) - a year noted by A.P. writer Jessica Greko as one in which nationwide, executions remained near historic lows."..."The report notes two death row inmates were freed in 2018: California inmate Vicente Benavides and Florida inmate Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin. Benavides, who was on death row for nearly 25 years after being convicted of raping and killing his girlfriend's 21-month-old daughter, was freed after California's highest court ruled that false medical testimony was presented at his trial. Aguirre-Jarquin, who spent 14 years behind bars for the murder of his two neighbors, was freed after evidence showed that the daughter of one of the victims confessed to the murders and her blood was at the scene. Seventeen inmates currently have execution dates set for 2019 , according to center records."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY (1): (Executions remain near historic lows): "The report notes two death row inmates were freed in 2018: Californi...