Monday, June 28, 2021

Curtis Crosland: Philadelphia: Prosecutorial misconduct: A tale of two snitches; Enough to make on weep...Cleared of murder on June 24th after being wrongfully robbed of 34 years of his life by evidence that was in the police file all along, The Philadelphia Inquirer, (Reporter Semantha Melamed) reports...In court filings, the CIU (Conviction Integrity Unit) made clear Crosland’s case involved not only apparent misconduct but also a compelling innocence claim. “To me, it’s a case that has all the telltale signs of a wrongful conviction,” CIU supervisor Patricia Cummings said. “You have a case that was cold. Then you have snitches involved wanting something in their case, and then the historical lack of understanding and appreciation of [disclosure requirements].”...Publisher's Note: "The historical lack of understanding and appreciation of [disclosure requirements]? Give me a break! HL

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: " When he saw the evidence that had been hidden in the case last year, he said, “it made me very emotional. It was mi...

False Confessions; (Part Two): Roman Zadorov: Israel: Bulletin: Granted a retrial in May, Roman Zadorov had been sentenced to life in prison for murdering a 13-year-old girl despite his repeated assertions he had been wrongly convicted. (The Ukrainian-Israeli handyman has spent more than a decade in prison for the brutal 2006 murder of Tair Rada.) The retrial has been delayed until July 26, The Jerusalem Post reports.

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BACKGROUND: (Charles Smith Blog): " Rada was found dead in a bathroom stall in her Katzrin school in the Golan Heights, with slashes to...

False confessions: (Part One): 'Lying to youth': Major (Welcome) Development: Oregon becomes the second state to pass legislation prohibiting law enforcement officers from using deception while interrogating people under the age of 18, the Cannon Beach Gazette reports..."The bill bans commonly used deceptive interrogation tactics, including false promises of leniency and false claims about the existence of incriminating evidence. Both of these tactics have long been identified as significantly increasing the risk of false confessions, which have played a role in about 30 percent of all wrongful convictions overturned by DNA. False confessions are also the most frequent contributing factor in wrongful conviction cases involving homicides. Recent studies suggest that children under 18 are between two and three times more likely to falsely confess than adults."

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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 m...
Sunday, June 27, 2021

Rapper McKinley “Mac” Phipps: Louisiana: Bulletin: Freed on parole after 20 years in prison - he still claims his innocence..."At the time of the shooting, he was a 22-year-old rapper with a new record deal with the No Limit label. Phipps has always maintained that he was wrongfully convicted. Witnesses told The Huffington Post in 2015 that their testimony was coerced, bringing new attention to his case."

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: A sour note, so to speak, has always hung over this case because of allegations of coerced testimony  as well as wides...

Annie Dookhan: Massachusetts: Bulletin: Crime lab fiasco back in the news (it seems like it never went away. HL.) as a Supreme Court Justice drops 100 more convictions - all handled by her, The Boston Herald (Reporter Joe Dwinell) reports..."The ruling came after Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins filed a motion to vacate those convictions. She has pledged to dismiss Suffolk County drug convictions — an estimated 74,800 — for anyone whose drug certification was done at the Hinton Lab between May 2003 and August 2012. That’s when rogue chemists Dookhan and Sonja Farak were convicted of botching samples in what has become the worst case of its kind in the nation’s history."

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: “No conviction that Annie Dookhan had a role in securing can be allowed to stand now that we understand the full scope and...

Testing DNA in cold-cases: Julianne "Julie" Williams and Laura "Mollie" Winans: DC:This month, FBI “seeking information” posters about the 1996 double murder of Julianne “Julie” Williams and Laura “Lollie” Winans in Shenandoah National Park began to appear at bus stops in D.C., marking the 25th anniversary of the unsolved murders. in a fascinating, unique analysis, Deidre M. Enright, Founder and director of the Innocence project at the University of Virginia school of law explains why the FBI should use DNA, not posters, to solve cold-case murders in illuminating Washington Post opinion piece - and why the FBI prefers "evidence provided by jailhouse snitches to science."

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Many posts on this Blog over the years have dealt with refusal of the authorities and the courts to permit post-convic...