Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Nadezda Steele-Warrick: Brooklyn New York: Part One: Flawed drug tests in U.S. prisons...Their false results have been blamed for unwarranted onerous jailhouse punishments, Courthouse News (Reporter Amanda Ottaway) , reports... “After being alerted to concerns regarding the accuracy of a new buprenorphine drug test, DOCCS suspended use of the test, and out of an abundance of caution, immediately reversed any actions taken as a result of these tests, and restored privileges to any potentially affected inmates. The matter has been referred to both the Inspector General’s office and DOCCS Office of Special Investigations‎."

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: "I have become increasingly concerned about the prevalence of false tests in recent years - especially in lig...
Monday, November 25, 2019

Adnan Syed: Major (disappointing) Development: The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected his appeal in the ‘Serial’ Cases, The Crime Report reports, citing NPR... "The U.S. Supreme Court will not consider an appeal by convicted killer Adnan Syed, the main subject of the “Serial” podcast, leaving in place a state appeals court decision keeping him in prison for life."

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STORY: "Supreme Court Rejects Syed Appeal in ‘Serial’ Cases," published by The Crime Report on November 25, 2019. GIST: "T...

Rodney Reed; Death Row: Texas: Reed: Aftermath: Part Three: Excellent Los Angeles Post commentary by former public defender Stephen Cooper, asks a very relevant question: "Why do some death row prisoners get celebrity help and others don’t?"..."A day after Sister Helen’s tweet issued, on November 13, Maurice Chammah, a writer for the Marshall Project and author of a forthcoming book about the Texas death penalty, also took to Twitter; shortly before Georgia executed Ray Cromartie, Chammah insightfully observed: “Still amazed [Cromartie’s] case has not gotten much attention despite untested DNA that could implicate someone else (like #RodneyReed) and an affidavit suggesting someone else committed the murder (also like Reed).” Clearly troubled, Chammah wrote that this “presents food for thought: Why do some death row prisoners get celebrity help and others don’t? Georgia is executing Ray Cromartie tonight, and the contrast to the attention on Rodney Reed is pretty stark.”

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Heller quotes GoFundMe’s C.E.O. Rob Solomon, who, while grimacing, admitted that “The reality of the social we...
Sunday, November 24, 2019

Rodney Reed: Death Row: Texas: (Aftermath Part Two): Important New York Times story by reporter Richard A. Oppel Jr. inspired by the recent flood of exculpatory evidence relating to Rodney Reed warns that there may well be other Rodney Reed's out there...."Lawyers for death row prisoners frequently argue that their clients did not receive a fair trial, or file appeals on other procedural grounds. Yet researchers say there now are a striking number of cases in which significant doubts have been raised about the condemned man’s guilt."

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Kudo's to The New York Times and its reporter Richard Oppel Jr. for this very important story inspired by the r...
Saturday, November 23, 2019

Rodney Reed. Death Row. Texas: Aftermath: Part One): Development: A retired judge (District Court Judge Jimmy Don. J.D. Langley) has been assigned to oversee the case. (Some interesting reporting on the judicial assignments thus far in the case - and on Judge Langley's background - with particular reference to death penalty motions. HL.)

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STORY: "Retired Brazos County judge set to oversee Rodney Reed case," by reporter Erin  Wencle, published by KHOU 11,  on No...

Confirmation Bias: 'Crime Report' story by Editor Stephen Handleman focusses on common flaws of police investigation including reliance on evidence that appears to corroborate their assumptions or "hunches" - and reports on a panel discussion focussing on "thinking errors.'...“The consequences of investigative failure are huge,” said D. Kim Rossmo, a criminologist at Texas State University, noting that sending the wrong individual to prison for murder means the real killer is still at large. Rossmo, who chaired a discussion entitled “The New Detective: Rethinking Criminal Investigations” at the American Society of Criminology’s annual conference in San Francisco Thursday, suggested that “thinking errors” were among the principal afflictions of crime investigators."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY:  “The consequences of investigative failure are huge,” said D. Kim Rossmo, a criminologist at Texas State University, ...
Friday, November 22, 2019

Reid Technique: Central Park Jogger case (often referred to as 'The Central Park Five'); False confession case: Incisive New York Law Journal article suggests that Reid has never acknowledged an uncomfortable truth: "that this lawsuit may expose if Duvernay and Netflix win: that is, that the Reid Technique, whether used correctly or incorrectly, can cause incalculable harm to innocent people and to justice itself."

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and...