Louis Taylor. Arson "science." Blogger Jeff Gamso takes on the prosecutors and fire investigator who "just knew" Taylor did it. Must read. HL.

POST: "A tale of two tragedies", published by Gamso for the defence, on April 3, 2013.

GIST: "Of course, the prosecutors still think he did it.  Don't need no stinkin' evidence.  They just know.  So does that fire investigator who just knew it was an 18-year-old black kid. Holmes, now 83, told The Associated Press on Monday he still stands by his determination that the fire was arson.  "There's no question about it," he said. He added that the new findings by Taylor's defense experts are based on incomplete information because a lot of the evidence was destroyed. "They didn't spend two full days digging through that place." No, instead, they looked at how fire actually works.  At science.  At physics.  At, you know, stuff that isn't old wives tales.  Doesn't matter.  Oh, sure there's that thing about their being no stinkin' evidence.  But what does that matter? ......... Here's another thing.  Louis Taylor and Todd Willingham aren't the only guys who were convicted of horrible crimes based on bullshit fire investigations.  And Taylor's not the only one who's still alive.  Lots of the others are out there - convicted felons, maybe convicted killers.  Some still in prison. Some on death row.  And nobody, almost nobody, sees a horrific injustice or gives a fuck. After all, their convictions proved the system works.  And Taylor got out, which certainly proves that it works yet again. Or not."

The entire post can be found at:

http://gamso-forthedefense.blogspot.ca/2013/04/a-tale-of-two-tragedies.html

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. 

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.  


Sent from my iPad

Manuel Velez: Texas; Capital case involving death of child shows importance of defence lawyers challenging state's medical experts - and asking the right questions; American Civil Liberties Union;

POST: "Court rejects ttempts to devalue life of the accused in South Texas capital case," by Brian Stull, published by the American Civil Liberties Union on April 5, 2013.

GIST: "In December of 2012, Judge Lopez held an evidentiary hearing on whether Manuel received effective assistance of counsel at trial. This week's order was the decision on the December hearing. By late in the hearing, the writing was on the wall: Manuel Velez was innocent. He had been convicted of killing the child and sentenced to death only because of ineffective defense attorneys who failed to present available medical evidence conclusively showing that the child's serious head injuries (and other injuries) were caused when Manuel was away working in construction in Tennessee. This evidence shattered the State's circumstantial trial theory that Manuel Velez must have been the guilty culprit because the child was a healthy baby before the last two weeks of his life and had become injured only after moving with his mother and siblings into Manuel's home. At the hearing, one by one the medical experts came to the stand – forensic pathologists, neuropathologists, medical examiners, pediatricians, State's experts, and defense experts. They talked of skull fractures, of microscopically-examined brain hematomas (blood on the brain), of cat scans, and the dramatic increase of the child's head circumference beginning three to four months before his death. All of this evidence converged to show the child had serious head injuries (and other injuries) long before he lived with Manuel Velez, but while he was living with his troubled mother, who had a drinking problem, irresponsible habits, and a bad temper. The experts uniformly stated that had they been called to the stand and/or asked these questions at the 2008 trial, they would have given this same exonerating testimony. But the experts either weren't called or, for those who were called by the State, were not asked the right questions because defense counsel had fallen down on the job."

The entire post can be found at:

http://www.aclu.org/blog/capital-punishment/court-rejects-attempts-devalue-life-accused-south-texas-capital-case

  PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. 

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.  

Jonathan Salvador: Grits for Breakfast reacts to the Forensic Commission meeting on the Masschusetts crime lab debacle - including a perspective on "drylabbing." Must read. HL.

POST: "On defining 'drylabbing': More from forensic commission meeting on DPS crime lab debacle," published by Grits for Breakfast on April 6, 2013.

GIST: "Notably, the commission removed from the final report a quote from the Rangers' investigation in which Mr. Salvador implausibly denied the implications of the evidence against him, declaring, "he has seen too many people go down after admitting that they 'dry-labbed.'" Dr. Sarah Kerrigan herself implausibly tried to differentiate what Salvador did (knowingly using results from a test of one sample to report in a different case) from drylabbing, but I don't see the distinction. I agree with her that Salvador's intent was not to falsely accuse anyone, but for whatever reason it's done, plugging in numbers from a different case and reporting them in the one you're working on to me qualifies as drylabbing by any possible definition. He reported results without running the tests. Dr. Kerrigan thought it significant that Salvador "attempted" analysis before using the numbers from another case. For the purposes of defining "drylabbing," I respectfully disagree"......It's worth mentioning that, if the Forensic Science Commission didn't exist, the extraordinary implications of this episode relating to thousands of convictions would have never become fully known. DPS would have still reported the incident to their accrediting body, crime lab chief Pat Johnson emphasized, but the FSC is the only vehicle for that information to ever get out in a public forum. And the ability of the FSC to pull together stakeholders, from DPS itself to prosecutors and the defense bar, has meant that Texas' response to this episode, however flawed, has been more prompt and thoroughgoing than a similar (even larger-scale) episode currently ongoing in Masschusetts, said FSC general counsel Garcia, adding that she'd received numerous communiques from officials in the Bay State seeking to understand how Texas is handling the Salvador situation. Chairman Vincent DiMaio said that these episodes suggest the need for "disaster protocols" for similar, future crime lab implosions that may crop up as the forensic sciences receive greater scrutiny in the coming years."

The entire post can be found at: 

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.ca/

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. 

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.  

Annie Dookhan: State crime lab; WCVB TV sees "a crime lab in complete disarray" - calls upon the state to conduct its investigation "in full public view."

EDITORIAL: "Scandal in state drug crime lab," published  by WCVB TV Boston on April 5, 2013.

GIST: "The escalating scandal at the State Drug Crime lab has us thinking about onion metaphors; many layers, lots of tears, and all of it stinks. This week a new layer is revealed; state inspector general investigators discovered more evidence pointing to a crime lab in complete disarray.  In an attorney general's confidential report obtained by Team 5, investigators uncovered drug samples scattered; in supervisors' desks, taped to cabinets, with some samples dating back more than 10 years. This new revelation casts doubt, not only on the 34,000 cases touched by indicted chemist Annie Dookhan, but on close to 200,000 cases processed by the lab since 2003. In a criminal justice system predicated on dismissing charges in light of "reasonable doubt," the flood gates are officially open; and they well should be.  Facing criminal charges and 27 counts tied to evidence mishandling, alleged "rogue chemist" Annie Dookhan has been portrayed as the central figure in the crime lab scandal.........It stretches credibility that any organization could become so dysfunctional without many layers of complicity or neglect.  We urge Governor Patrick and Attorney General Martha Coakley to open up the windows on the crime lab scandal; swiftly address the affected cases and let's start again with a clean slate.  With so many lives impacted, it's important this investigation is conducted in full public view."

The entire editorial can be found at:

http://www.wcvb.com/tv/editorials/Apr

See Boston Magazine:  "Many questions still unanswered about the Massachusetts drug lab scandal: It's been several months since the Massachusetts drug lab scandal broke. Why are we still in the dark about the mess that will potentially cost Massachusetts $100 million?"

 http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2013/04/04/massachusetts-drug-lab-scandal/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. 

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: Jonathan Salvador: Forensic Science Commission report filed earlier today leaves a key question unanswered: Has every conviction connected to his work been scientifically compromised? Texas Tribune.

STORY: "Forensic Science Commission reviews Department of Public Safety lab trouble," by reporter Maurice Chammah, published by the Texas Tribune on April 5, 2013.

GIST: "A report adopted today by the Texas Forensic Science Commission concludes that the potential reversal of thousands of drug convictions by the Court of Criminal Appeals was due to the incompetence of a Department of Public Safety crime lab employee. Members of the commission said it’s unclear whether every conviction connected to the employee’s work has been scientifically compromised. At a commission meeting on Friday, medical examiners and prosecutors discussed whether their findings regarding a DPS crime lab worker who replaced the results of one test with another mean that all of the drug samples that passed through his hands are now compromised. They also found that interviews with colleagues supported the conclusion that the employee "struggled with corrections and an overall understanding of the chemistry, especially in difficult cases."
The Court of Criminal Appeals has reversed more than 10 convictions due to the mistakes of the DPS Houston crime lab worker, Jonathan Salvador, who left the department last year. In the reversal of the conviction of Junius Sereal, from Galveston County, the judges wrote that all of the cases Salvador touched could be jeopardized. “While there is evidence remaining that is available to retest in this case, that evidence was in the custody of the lab technician in question,” according to the judicial opinion. “This Court believes his actions are not reliable therefore custody was compromised, resulting in a due process violation.” “This one analyst handled thousands of cases in the Houston area, and due to the breadth of the opinion, they may all be jeopardized,” the Texas District and County Attorneys Association wrote in a letter to its members."......... Jeff Blackburn, a lawyer with the Innocence Project of Texas, told the commission that the court is applying the same opinion to all of the cases involving Salvador simply as a practical matter. The Court of Criminal Appeals, he said, cannot possibly look at every single case connected to Salvador’s testing along with their normal work and so they are indicating that they will always rule in favor of the defendant in these cases. “I think it’s the numbers and judicial economy,” he said. Part of the problem, Blackburn added, is that Texas has no centralized public defender system, so each county handles the problematic convictions differently. “We have to go piecemeal,” he said, “but we’re doing the best with what we’ve got.”

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/04/05/commission-looks-misconduct-dps-worker/

Associated Press story: "The fact that this guy went on as long as he did without ever being figured out is appalling," said Jeff Blackburn, an attorney with the Innocence Project of Texas. "Once DPS figured it out, they did the right thing, but they should have gotten wise to him long before."

 http://www.click2houston.com/news/Texas-crime-lab-worker-had-history-of-poor-work/-/1735978/19640002/-/oh7s2/-/index.html

Houston Chronicle story: "This problem came up in the Houston police crime lab, where overworked forensic scientists frequently take shortcuts," said attorney Bob Wicoff, chief of appellate division of the Harris County Public Defender's Office. "And the result, frequently, is wrongful convictions." Other attorneys whose clients have been implicated by Salvador's findings said the DPS needs to do more, including independent audits and blind testing. "The dirty underbelly of this story is the peer review process," said Norm Silverman, an attorney who secured a dismissal for a client whose evidence was tested by Salvador. "When Salvador was running amok, as he was, the peer review process allowed it. They work together, they're friends. They don't want to get each other in trouble." He said defense lawyers are never told that results that don't "come out right" by a technician with a spotty history are being retested. "We're never told that things seized from our client are being tested by a chemist with a 50 percent error rate," Silverman said. "There needs to be a national standard for what goes on in a crime lab."

 http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Crime-lab-analyst-kept-on-job-despite-shoddy-work-4413046.php?cmpid=btfpm

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. 

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.  

Jonathan Salvador: Grits for Breakfast; Forensic panel looking into "crime lab debacle" to issue report today. Says Salvador may have tainted thousands of drug cases in 35 counties with shoddy or misleading work.

POST: "Forensic panel to review final report on Department of Public Safety crime lab debacle," published by Grits for Breakfast, on April 5, 2013.

GIST:  Here's where Grits is headed this morning, via AP          :"The Texas Forensics Science Commission meets Friday in Austin to get an update on its review of a crime lab worker who may have tainted thousands of drug cases with shoddy or misleading work.  Jonathan Salvador was a forensic scientist at state crime lab in Houston. He was suspended in 2012 after his work came into question and state officials have been reviewing his work dating back to 2006.The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has already set aside at least 16 drug convictions from Galveston County. The forensics panel says the total number of cases handled by Salvador is almost 5,000 from 36 counties.

The entire post can be found at:

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.ca/2013/04/forensic-panel-to-review-final-report.html

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. 

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.  

Louis Taylor; Cameron Todd Willingham; How the changing forensic science of arson Is freeing innocent convicts; Popular Science;

STORY: "The changing forensic science of arson is freeing innocent convicts: Modern investigations are finding no evidence for arson in old cases," by Francie Diep, published by PopSci on April 3, 2013. (Thanks to Justin J. McShane  for drawing our attention to the CBS news video  linked below and other important links on his informative blog "The truth about forensic science.")

GIST: "The science of proving arson has changed dramatically over the past 40 years, and Taylor's case isn't the only one to show how previous practices—including outdated practices that continued into recent decades—might have sent innocent people to tragic sentences........ So what was the science of fire before and what's it like now? The New Yorker's reporting on a case that ended in 2004 explained that what were traditionally considered marks of arson actually show up in accidental fires. Things like burn patterns near the floor, V-shaped marks on walls, and glass windows cracked in dense patterns were once considered certain signs of the use of some kind of lighter fluid to induce burning. In 1990, an experiment done in an abandoned house showed that a fire set on a couch without any accelerating fluid left the same marks. Another study showed that nearly all so-called fire experts tested didn't correctly identify where a test fire started. The identification of arson was once considered more of an "art" than a science. Arson investigators required little training for their jobs and resisted new evidence in their field, the New Yorker reported. In Taylor's case, the Arizona Justice Project asked modern fire investigator John Lantini to look through the evidence that Taylor's original prosecutors had compiled. Lantini found that it was impossible to determine how the hotel fire started, so there was no basis for an arson charge. County Prosecutor Barbara LaWall also asked for a review of the evidence from the Tuscan Fire Department. The department came to the same conclusion, CBS' 60 Minutes reported. LaWall told the show that her prosecution would continue based on the idea that arson could not be ruled out. In 2010, fire expert Gerald Hurst talked with PBS' Frontline about arson science and the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who received the death sentence in 2004. It can be difficult to prove arson in a case, Hurst said. It is still fair to try to convince a jury without scientific evidence of arson, he added. A prosecutor could use evidence that the accused was motivated to kill the people who died in the fire, for example. However, investigators need to recognize when they just can't tell, which can often happen, Lantini told 60 Minutes."

The entire article can be found at:

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-04/science-arson-and-how-its-changed

See 60 minutes and Arizona's Pioneer Hotel fire at:

 http://www.thetruthaboutforensicscience.com/60-minutes-and-arizonas-pioneer-hotel-fire/

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site. 

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.