Friday, October 29, 2021

Stephanie Spurgeon: Florida: Major (Very Welcome) Development: Fighting to prove her innocence in the tragic death of a child in her care, her prosecutors have permitted her to enter an Alford 'guilty' plea - meaning that her case would finally be behind her - and she would not be forced to undergo the uncertainty of a new trial: As the Center of Integrity in Forensic Sciences put it in a release issued on October 15: "Today, our client, Stephanie Spurgeon, entered a guilty plea for a crime she did not commit. She pled guilty under a provision known as an Alford plea, which is a legal construction that allows her to end her case while still maintaining her innocence. Stephanie deserves to be free and she deserves to put this tragic chapter in her life behind her. She has been fighting to prove her innocence since her initial accusation in 2008."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In 2008, Stephanie was working as a day care provider when a child collapsed while in her care and tragically died...

Juwan Deering: Michigan: Antiquated arson 'science' - and much more...The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed his convictions and sentence in December 2008. Deering then sought help at the Michigan Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School. The clinic began investigating in 2009 and took Deering on as a client in 2016. His legal team, led by Imran Syed, co-director of the clinic, sought independent expert reviews of the fire evidence by David Smith and Robert Trenkle. The two fire investigation experts concluded that the initial fire investigation by Lehtola relied on outdated science, and that a proper review of the evidence indicates that the fire likely started inside the house—as witnesses had testified—and not on the porch. Without Lehtola’s conclusion that the fire started on the porch, the jail informant testimony was worthless. The two experts said that Lehtola relied on myths of fire investigation that had been debunked by the time of trial. They noted that even though these outdated techniques were considered junk science by 2006, the defense had not presented an expert. In their affidavits, Smith and Trenkle agreed that no fire investigator in 2006 could credibly have deemed the fire to be arson under the requirements of NFPA 921. Smith and Trenkle said Lehtola did not follow NFPA 921, used outdated methodologies that had been exposed as junk science by 2006, failed to account for “flashover,” and erroneously concluded the fire was arson. Flashover occurs when a room becomes so hot that the entire room catches fire at once and burns with an intense heat. Flashover can leave behind debris and burn patterns that formerly were erroneously interpreted as being the result of an accelerant."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "(Independent expert)  Trenkle concluded that “[t]he fire cause classification for this fire, under NFPA 921, has t...
Thursday, October 28, 2021

John Grant RIP: Julius Jones: Oklahoma: Bulletin: Horrible news: US Supreme Court overturns stays of execution; Reuters (Reporter Sharon Bernstein) reports a witness saying that John Grant convulsed and vomited before dying..."Dale Baich, one of the attorneys representing Grant, called Thursday's execution "problematic." "There should be no more executions in Oklahoma until we go to trial in February to address the state’s problematic lethal injection protocol," Baich said. Grant had been a plaintiff in a lawsuit set to go to trial next year challenging the three-drug protocol as inhumane, but the state refused to postpone his execution to accommodate the case."

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: " Lawyers for Grant and five other condemned prisoners had argued that the state violated their right to religious ...

Disgraced pathologist Michael Heath: UK: Yet another disturbing story about a disgraced pathologist: Surrey Live (Reporter Emma Pengelli) reports that the local Coroner's Court denied a family closure by holding an inquest into their father's death without their knowledge - and that the Court has since admitted that "administrative errors" have accounted for the hearing being held without the family's consent in March this year..."Hannah also raised concerns about the court's use of a discredited pathologist, Michael Heath. At the time he was carrying out work on behalf of the coroner despite previous questions over the reliability of his evidence, including leading to one man having his murder conviction quashed in 2005. Hannah's family, and Robert's oncologist and clinical trial team, required post-mortem testing and sampling to get specific answers about Robert's brain tumour and potential Covid positivity. They feared they may not be conducted correctly by Dr Heath. Hannah said: "When we found out that Dr Heath would be carrying out the autopsy we researched him and were extremely concerned by what we learnt about his conduct - a litany of issues, medical blunders and disciplinary proceedings - we were very concerned about him performing it." When the family asked Surrey Coroner's Office for a different pathologist, they were told this was not possible. Hannah said: "We felt that the coroner was not very sympathetic to our concerns."

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE:   The Surrey Live story describes 'Dr. Heath's fall from grace.' The fact however how that Heath has been ...