Bulletin: Douglas Prade. Ohio. Hearing set for possible new trial. New DNA evidence appears to exonerate him. WKYC TV.

STORY: "Hearing set for possible new trial in Prade case," by reporters Kim Wendel and Pamela Osborne published on August 2, 2012 on WKYC Television.

GIST: "Convicted former Akron police captain Douglas Prade has requested he be exonerated or granted a new trial as a result of new DNA findings. Summit County Prosecuting Attorney Sherri Bevan Walsh says a hearing has been set for Aug. 21 in the case of State v. Prade. In Nov. 1997, Margo was shot six times with a .38-caliber pistol and found dead inside her van in the parking lot behind her Akron office. A jury convicted Prade in September 1998 of her murder. He was sentenced to 26 years in prison and would be eligible for parole in 26 years. Prade has always maintained his innocence. The Ohio Innocence Project, on Prade's behalf, filed a petition for either post-conviction relief or a new trial. Bevan Walsh said The Innocence Project claims that new DNA testing results of Dr. Prade's lab coat, which she wore on a daily basis and was wearing at the time of her murder, exonerates Prade."

The entire story can be found at:
 
http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/254564/3/Akron-Hearing-set-for-possible-new-trial-in-Prade-case

Bulletin: Julio Davila: "DNA tech's questionable work delays sentencing." Spokane-Review.

STORY: "DNA tech's questionable work delays sentencing,"  by reporter Thomas Clouse, published in the Spokane-Review on August 1, 2012.

 GIST: "A Spokane County judge today postponed the sentencing of a man convicted almost exclusively on DNA evidence after defense attorneys learned that tests identifying their client as the killer had been done by a crime lab technician who later was fired. The technician’s work was so deficient that a co-worker described it as a “nightmare,” and an internal report said it could “not be trusted.”  Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor stopped short of granting a new trial for Julio J. Davila, 46, who was convicted last month of second-degree murder in the 2007 killing of a Spokane adult bookstore owner. But O’Connor called for an evidentiary hearing about the DNA testing performed by Denise Olson, who was fired last year from the Washington State Patrol crime laboratory.  Defense attorney Tom Krzyminski argued that Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Dale Nagy knew about Olson’s shoddy work and did not disclose it prior to the trial.  Co-defense attorney Kevin Griffin filed a public records request seeking information about Olson’s work history prior to Davila’s trial. But the WSP didn’t release that information until six days after a jury convicted Davila on July 13.  Olson “is a loose cannon and her work cannot be trusted,” the internal WSP report states. “The risk of a wrongful conviction or the erroneous exclusion of a guilty subject because of (her) incompetence is far too great for the agency to undertake. Attempting to work around that fact would only leave (Olson) open to harsh public and legal criticism and potential lawsuits.”

 

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/aug/01/murderers-sentencing-postponed-based-shoddy-dna-wo/

Marvin Wilson: "How Texas can execute a man with an IQ of 61." Amnesty International;

STORY: How Texas can execute a man with an IQ of 61," by Brian Evans, posted on the Amnesty USA  site on August 2, 2012.

GIST:  "According to his most recent test, Marvin Wilson has an IQ of 61 (most states bar executions for those with IQs at 70 or below). That puts him below the first percentile of human intelligence, and he’s in an even lower percentile for adaptive functioning.  Despite the US Supreme Court’s ten-year old ban on executing the “mentally retarded” (Atkins v. Virginia), Marvin Wilson faces execution in Texas on August 7.........To determine whether its “level and degree of mental retardation” has been reached, the TCCA developed a set of seven questions that the court itself suggested were inspired by Lennie Small, the mentally impaired ranch hand in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Lennie is a fictional character from a book written 75 years ago. The American Association of Intellectual and Development Disabilities (AAIDD) has written that these 7 questions “…are based on false stereotypes about mental retardation that effectively exclude all but the most severely incapacitated.”  The AAIDD (known then as AAMR), was the main scientific authority noted by the US Supreme Court in Atkins. Nonetheless, Marvin Wilson was evaluated by the TCCA’s dubious criteria, and found to be eligible for execution.  So it seems that by interpreting a US Supreme Court ruling with 1930s literature instead of 21st century science, Texas has effectively exempted some prisoners with “mental retardation” from the protections ordered by our nation’s highest court. And unless the US Supreme Court or someone intervenes, Texas will execute Marvin Wilson on August 7."

The entire post can be found at:

http://blog.amnestyusa.org/us/how-texas-can-execute-a-man-with-an-iq-of-61/

Austin Crime Lab: Grits for Breakfast questions definitions used to clear lab of negligence and misconduct;

STORY: "Defining away negligence and misconduct at crime labs," posted by Grits for Breakfast on July 27, 2012.

GIST: "Those definitions are inadequate for another reason: They only call for negligence or misconduct findings if it affects the result of the test. So if a labworker engages in "drylabbing," it's not necessarily negligence or misconduct under FSC rules if they guessed correctly. E.g., recently Tarrant County self-reported that a crime lab employee had failed to test rape kits when the police report said no penetration occurred, claiming to have performed tests in at least five cases when he did not. Since further testing of those kits found no semen, it didn't change the results and so may not constitute negligence or misconduct under FSC policies. But that doesn't mean that labworker's results should be viewed as reliable. Similarly, the FSC (Forensic Science Commission) found no negligence or misconduct at the El Paso crime lab despite their employing a clearly incompetent analyst for the same reason: No one had yet demonstrated it changed the "result" of any specific test. The current definitions seem to assume the ends justify the means."

The entire post can be found at:

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.ca/2012/07/defining-away-negligence-and-misconduct.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

Bulletin: Douglas Prade: Former Akron police captain excluded by DNA test; He has always maintained his innocence. Columbus Dispatch.

STORY: "Former Akron police captain excluded by DNA test," by reporter Mike Wagner, published in the Columbus Dispatch on August 2, 2012;

GIST: Attorneys for former Akron Police Capt. Douglas Prade, center, say the tests prove his innocence. New lab-test results show that DNA recovered from a murder scene in Summit County didn't comefrom a former Akron police captain who was convicted of killing his ex-wife nearly 15 years ago ina case that received national attention. Douglas Prade, 66, is currently serving a life sentence at the Madison Correctional Institution,but has always maintained his innocence after being convicted in September of 1998. Prade was foundguilty of shooting his ex-wife, Margo, a prominent Akron doctor and the mother of his twodaughters. Margo was shot six times following a struggle in her van in a parking lot outside of heroffice. “They are not going to find my DNA because I didn’t do it,” said Prade in a prison interviewwith the Dispatch last year. “This has always been about seeking and revealing the truth.”

The entire story can be found at;

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/08/02/02-test-of-convictions.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

Tom Monfils: (Aftermath of his death); After 19 years, his widow drops wrongful-death suit; Freed man calls it long overdue. Oshkosh Northwestern.

STORY: "After 19 years, Monfils widow drops wrongful-death suit," by reporter Paul Srubas, published by the Oshkosh Northwestern on July 25, 2012.

GIST: "A lawsuit filed 19 years ago by the widow of Tom Monfils against the people she suspected of killing him has finally been laid to rest.“The family has moved on,” said Green Bay lawyer Bruce Bachhuber, who represented Susan Monfils in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed against seven men, six of whom eventually were convicted of conspiracy to murder Tom Monfils at the then-James River paper mill in 1992.........Among the men eventually convicted of the criminal charges, one of them, Michael Piaskowski, eventually had his conviction overturned by a federal court.The others, Kutska, Dale Basten, Michael Johnson, Michael Hirn and Rey Moore, remain in Wisconsin prisons, where they are serving life terms. Basten, Johnson and Hirn are eligible for parole later this year; Moore is eligible for parole in spring, and Kutska is eligible in spring 2015."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.thenorthwestern.com/article/20120725/OSH0101/307250252/Tom-Monfils-widow-drops-wrongful-death-suit

See also the following post "Much overdue great news" by Mike Piaskowski, published on "The Monfils Conspiracy: Conviction of six innocent men," in which he sees withdrawal of the lawsuit as "long overdue."

http://monfilsconspiracy.org/?p=1043

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

Tommy Zeigler: Filmmaker to produce documentary about convicted "Winter Garden" murderer who is protesting his innocence; Orlando Sentinel.

STORY: "Filmmaker to produce documentary about Winter Garden Killer Tommy Zeigler," by reporter Renee Stutzman, published in the Orlando Sentinel on July 25, 2012.

GIST: "An independent filmmaker on Wednesday announced that he had begun work on a documentary about death row inmate William Thomas "Tommy" Zeigler, the Winter Garden furniture store owner convicted in one of Central Florida's bloodiest crimes. Zeigler, now 67, was found guilty of shooting his wife, her parents and another man in the store Christmas Eve 1975. He insists he is innocent, the victim of a frame-up and a gang of robbers. Christian Bruyere, an independent filmmaker, announced he met for an hour and a half Tuesday with Zeigler on death row and watched the inmate tell his story and break down into tears. He is convinced, Bruyere said, that Zeigler deserves a new trial."

---

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-tommie-zeigler-documentary-20120725,0,1425717.story

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.