Saturday, September 21, 2019

Rodney Reed: Texas: Filmakers create a documentary in a bid to stop Texas from executing an innocent man on November 20. "It's called 'A plea for justice.' Watch Part One "Time of death' on the links provided..."The series is intended to highlight the evidence that illustrates that Reed is actually innocent of the crime in hopes that this pending, wrongful execution can be avoided."

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POST: 'Rodney Reed Innocent' published by change.org on September 20, 2019. GIST: “A Plea for Justice: Why Texas Will Be Ex...
Friday, September 20, 2019

Teina Pora: New Zealand: Courts are no place for fetal alcohol victims, Newsroom.co.nz (Reporter Emma Espiner ) reports..."When Teina Pora’s appeal was upheld by the Privy Council in 2015, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) gained a rare moment in the spotlight. Pora was twice convicted of the rape and murder of Susan Burdett, and it was only after the second conviction that he was diagnosed with FASD. It was eventually proven that his undiagnosed condition had substantially contributed to the appalling miscarriage of justice which saw Pora imprisoned for 20 years for a crime he didn’t commit. Unfortunately, when justice was finally delivered for Teina Pora, the opportunity to protect other people with FASD from a similar fate was ignored. The problem, according to advocates and experts in neurodevelopmental science, is that incarceration and punishment simply don’t work for people with FASD."...

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PUBLISHER'S: Fetal Alcohol Spectral Disorder - the disorder brought to public attention in New Zealand by The Teina Pora case - is har...
Thursday, September 19, 2019

Officer Gerald Goines: The Houston police officer who led a botched raid that killed two people is now facing felony murder charges, Techdirt (Reporter Tim Cushing) reports. (As Cushing, a feisty reporter in his own right, reports, an independent forensic examination of the home has contradicted many of the claims made by officers in their reports. (As per a second story which can be read at the link below...."The increasingly-awful story of the Houston Police Department's botched drug raid continues to develop. Earlier this year, the Houston PD raided the house of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas. By the time the bullets stopped flying, the couple of 21 years was dead. The raid was predicated on a tip from a confidential informant who said he saw lots of heroin and some guns in the residence while performing a controlled buy. No heroin was found. The gun described by the informant was never found. What was found was personal use amounts of marijuana and cocaine, neither of which were mentioned by the informant. The informant never existed." (And there's much more. Read on. HL);

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "An independent forensic examination of the home contradicted many of the claims made by officers in their repo...
Wednesday, September 18, 2019

David Camm; Indiana: Significant Development: A federal court has ruled that he can sue for false arrest on charges of murdering his wife and children - a law suit in which he alleges that his original arrest was based on information from a "a plainly unqualified forensic assistant."..."A federal appeals court has ruled that former Indiana State Trooper David Camm can sue for false arrest in the highly publicizerd murders of his wife and two children. Camm was twice convicted of murdering his family, only to have both convictions overturned. He was acquitted in a 2013 trial and later won a civil settlement of $450,000."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The assistant, Robert Stites, was only qualified to take evidence photos but had analyzed blood spatter on Camm...
Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Tyrone Lamont Allen: Oregon: (3): Technology: White Elephant Case: (Photoshopping lineup photo of suspect): Excellent perspective from New York Times reporter Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs: Filling in' lineup photos of other people in the photo array can make lineups fairer by ensuring that the perpetrator does not stand out - but there's a line to be drawn when it comes to photos of the suspect for obvious reasons. The issue is important: As the heading of the story, by reporter Nicholas Bogel-Burrough points out: "The Police Photoshopped His (Tyrone Allen's) Mug Shot for a Lineup. He’s Not the Only 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: S...
Monday, September 16, 2019

Tyrone Lamont Allen: Oregon. (2): (Technology): White Elephant Case: Great piece by reporter Tim Cushing in Techdirt. It contains the outrage one would expect to to see when police photo-shop line-up photo's to pin the case on a suspect - and when the police and government defend the iniquitous practice. HL..."Altering photos is apparently "standard practice among investigators," according to Detective Brett Hawkinson, an 18-year veteran of altering lineup photos and the lead investigator on this case. He's the one who gave the orders to digitally delete Allen's tattoos before putting his face in the PD's photo lineup. Yes, this is standard practice. The lead investigator could name no official policy instructing cops to remove distinctive facial features from lineup photos, but of course there wouldn't be. It's an unofficial "standard practice" -- things cops do because of the gaping void where honesty and accountability should be. No one says this is how things should be done. But this is how things are done."

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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...
Sunday, September 15, 2019

Tyrone Lamont Allen: Oregon: (1): (Technology): White Elephant Case: Extraordinary. (And I don't shock easily! HL). As reporter Debra Cassens Weiss reports in the ABA Journal: "A lawyer for a defendant charged with bank robbery noticed something amiss when he received the six photos shown to four tellers to see whether they could identify the suspect. The photo of the defendant, Tyrone Lamont Allen, did not have the distinctive tattoos that are visible on Allen’s face, according to a motion filed by Assistant Federal Public Defender Mark Ahlemeyer. Yet police had failed to disclose—to the lawyer or the tellers—that the pictures had been digitally altered before being presented in the photo lineup."..."A Portland police detective assigned to an FBI task force on bank robberies had ordered the digital change. The police criminalist who actually altered the photo testified in a hearing last week that he had also changed suspect photos in other lineups, according to Oregonian coverage. Prosecutors argued that Allen could have put on makeup to cover the tattoos, and he shouldn’t “reap a windfall” because he took steps to conceal his identity. The Photoshop alteration was the “digital equivalent of makeup,” prosecutors said. (Unbelievable HL);

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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...