The "Protecting Innocent Families Petition: (PIF): Another disturbing factor disclosed by the petition, reported on recently by 'ON SBS.' In addition to calling for a review of the scientific literature, the petition objects to "the suppressive tactics used by the state and by professional organizations" which impose extraordinary pressure on both families and professionals. (Particular reference to attacks on Dr. Waney Squier, Dr. John Plunkett and Dr. John Lloyd.) ..."Even when charges are dismissed, caretakers acquitted, or verdicts overturned, families are emotionally and financially devastated, with many unwilling to speak out because they are still traumatized or they fear stigma or retaliation. Doctors and other experts who question or criticize these diagnoses also suffer retaliation, including threats against their jobs and licenses." (Must Read. Must Sign. HL);

POST: "Innocent Family Petition hits a nerve, by Sue Luttner, published on her formidable blog 'On SBS'  on October 22, 2015.

GIST: "Even when charges are dismissed, caretakers acquitted, or verdicts overturned, families are emotionally and financially devastated, with many unwilling to speak out because they are still traumatized or they fear stigma or retaliation. Doctors and other experts who question or criticize these diagnoses also suffer retaliation, including threats against their jobs and licenses. Right now in England, for example, neuropathologist Dr. Waney Squier is facing hearings by the General Medical Council, where she is accused of testifying “outside her field of expertise,” giving biased opinions, and not paying “due regard to the views of other experts.” Last fall, The Telegraph reported that the original complaints against Dr. Squier came from the Metropolitan Police, who were tired of losing shaken baby cases because of her testimony on behalf of accused parents. Dr. Squier has long been the target of direct and indirect harassment from her opponents. ........In the U.S. in the early 2000s, forensic pathologist Dr. John Plunkett was forced to defend himself against charges that he lied under oath after he testified on behalf of an Oregon defendant in a child head injury case. In “The Battle of the Expert,” ABA Journal reporter Mark Hansen traced the byzantine course of the case against Dr. Plunkett, which ended with an acquittal in 2005..........Similarly, the state attorney in Florida’s 14th judicial district charged biomechanic John Lloyd, PhD with perjury in 2013 for his work on behalf of Timothy Foxworth, accused of beating his 10-week-old son into permanent brain damage......... The Protecting Innocent Families petition is an effort to bring together the many people who are affected by misguided diagnoses of child abuse, including the accused families, their extended communities, and the medical and legal professionals who defend them. If you agree that we need an objective, scientific review of the evidence base for today’s guidelines for diagnosing child abuse, please sign the petition, at http://tinyurl.com/InnocentFamilyPetition. If you have a web site or Facebook page, please post the  url. If you are a medical or legal professional, please consider sharing the url with your colleagues and clients (that’s http://tinyurl.com/InnocentFamilyPetition).

The entire post can be  found at:

http://onsbs.com/2015/10/22/innocent-family-petition-hits-a-nerve/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
 
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.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html  
I look forward to hearing from readers at:

hlevy15@gmail.com;  Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;

"The Protecting Innocent Families petition: (PIF): On SBS says the petition has "hit a nerve."..."The petition calls for "an objective, scientific review of the evidence base underlying today’s guidelines for diagnosing child abuse."..."When PIF launched the petition in March of 2015, the immediate goal was to collect the names of 1,000 people who had seen a medical misdiagnosis of child abuse tear apart an innocent family. Three weeks after the petition went live, 1,000 people had signed and signatures were still coming in. The rate has slowed since then, but new names continue to arrive, and PIF has decided to launch another publicity campaign before implementing its labor-intensive plan for taking the petition to Congress." (Must Read. Must Sign!. HL); (Tomorrow, the Charles Smith Blog looks at another aspect of the petition disclosed by the ON SBS Blog.)

POST: "Protecting Innocent families" (PIF) petition hits a nerve," published by Sue Luttner  on her formidable Blog 'On SBS,' on October 22, 2015;

GIST: "When child protective services separated Melissa and Anthony Geers from their five sons last spring, Melissa says, the pain was staggering. The worst part was watching the effects on their children: the 9-year-old’s full-blown panic attack, the 8-year-old’s holding his mom “so tight I couldn’t breathe,” the sudden interruption of breast-feeding for the 4-month-old twins (Melissa pumped throughout their foster placement). The state filed to terminate the Geers’ parental rights just weeks after x-rays revealed rib fractures in both twins—but withdrew the suit 10 weeks later, after the Geers submitted opinions from eight outside experts who attributed the fractures to fragile bones, citing two underlying causes: First, the boys had a metabolic disorder that impedes bone formation. Second, like most twins, the youngest Geers had arrived early, 7 weeks early in their case. Because the rate of bone mineralization ramps up during the final trimester of gestation, premature infants in general are prone to weak bones. But those explanations entered the record only because the Geers did their own research and called in their own experts. The state tore her sons’ lives apart, Melissa says, based on the opinion of one child abuse doctor “who never met me, my husband, or our kids.” “We have two sons, now 10 and 8, who were traumatized by this experience,” she points out. “They don’t do the things they used to do. They are afraid. The child abuse experts need to understand what they are doing to children.” Since their story hit the news, Melissa says, they have been contacted by an astonishing number of families with their own stories of ill-considered abuse diagnoses—most of them with far less happy outcomes. “How are the child abuse doctors not aware of all these other things?” Melissa asks. “That’s the part that bothers me the most. Why are they not doing their due diligence?” The Geers say they understand how valuable it was to have a supportive community during their ordeal, as documented by Click on Detroit and later by Melissa herself in an essay on Medical Kidnap. Melissa says she and her husband now feel compelled to do what they can to shed light on a broken system. Earlier this fall, the Geers joined demonstrators at the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents meeting, where supporters of Joshua and Brenda Burns protested the Burns family’s treatment by the university’s Mott Children’s Hospital. As reported on this blog in the spring, the Burnses’ daughter Naomi was diagnosed as a shaken baby at Mott in 2014. While Naomi seems to have recovered fully, Joshua is serving a one-year sentence in the county jail. As he approaches his December release date, J0shua has been allowed weekly visits with his family, through a glass window and a telephone handset, after a year and a half of no contact at all with Naomi. (For an insider’s view of the regents meeting, including video statements by Melissa Geers and Brenda Burns, please see the Washtenaw Watchdogs coverage.) The Burns family and the Geers family found each other, and they also found the Protecting Innocent Families (PIF) petition, which calls for an objective, scientific review of the evidence base underlying today’s guidelines for diagnosing child abuse. The petition form includes an optional field where signers can identify the name of a defendant or family they are supporting. Of about 2,700 people who have signed the petition so far, slightly more than 1,000 have filled in the support field. The signers have named 338 individuals and families. The most frequently named case, with 270 signatures, is the Burns family, the subject of the Torn Family web site, which includes a link to the petition. The Geers family is the second most-often named, with 96 signers, presumably from their Facebook site. Other defendants named in significant numbers were a mix of past cases that helped inspire the petition—like the stories of Kristian Aspelin, Brian Peixoto, Tiffany Cole-Calise, Amanda Brumfield, and Leo Ackley—and unfolding cases like those of Rebecca and Anthony Wanosik and Cynthia and Brandon Ross, reunited with their children this summer; Cindy Rosenwinkel, convicted in 2015; and single father Andrew Sprint, who declared his innocence outside the Children’s Justice Conference this past spring in Seattle. When PIF launched the petition in March of 2015, the immediate goal was to collect the names of 1,000 people who had seen a medical misdiagnosis of child abuse tear apart an innocent family. Three weeks after the petition went live, 1,000 people had signed and signatures were still coming in. The rate has slowed since then, but new names continue to arrive, and PIF has decided to launch another publicity campaign before implementing its labor-intensive plan for taking the petition to Congress. Signers who indicated they would be willing to contact Congress personally should expect to be hearing from PIF volunteers..........If you agree that we need an objective, scientific review of the evidence base for today’s guidelines for diagnosing child abuse, please sign the petition, at http://tinyurl.com/InnocentFamilyPetition. If you have a web site or Facebook page, please post the  url. If you are a medical or legal professional, please consider sharing the url with your colleagues and clients (that’s http://tinyurl.com/InnocentFamilyPetition).

The entire post can be found at:

http://onsbs.com/2015/10/22/innocent-family-petition-hits-a-nerve/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
 
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.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html  

I look forward to hearing from readers at:

hlevy15@gmail.com;  Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;

Bulletin: Rajesh and Nupur Talwar: India; DNA story examines claims that the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) was provided edited footage of a 'narco test' conducted on Krishna, an assistant of Rajesh Talwar: "The sources said a Forensic Science Laboratory is supposed to provide whatever information it could gather to the investigation agency. The agency is clueless who edited the video, whether it was the doctors who did the tests, the person who created the CDs or officers of their own investigation team. The video which has been posted on CBI record is much smaller in length than the video on YouTube, said a source requesting anonymity."..."During the trial, Rajesh and Nupur Talwars wanted that narco tests should be placed on record but Allahabad High Court as well as Supreme Court rejected their demand." (Link to video provided.HL);

STORY: "Aarushi Talwar murder case: Was CBI provided edited footage of Krishna's narco test?" published by DNA on October 25, 2015.

SUB-HEADING:  A new video purportedly of the test conducted on Krishna has surfaced on social networking site YouTube which is 58.55- minute long.

GIST: "In a new twist to Aarushi-Hemraj murder case, it has emerged that CBI does not have complete raw footage of narco-analysis conducted on Krishna, assistant of Rajesh Talwar, in its records. A new video purportedly of the test conducted on Krishna has surfaced on social networking site YouTube which is 58.55- minute long. CBI sources claimed the agency, in its records, has only about 45 minutes of video of the test conducted on Krishna at Forensic Science Laboratory, Bangalore. A source, who had been privy to the probe, said the new footage on social media appeared to be genuine. The narco tests were conducted on servants, including Krishna, by the first team of CBI under the then Joint Director Arun Kumar which suspected their involvement but could not produce any legally admissible evidence against them. The new video which has been posted on the YouTube on October 22 has a length of 58.55 minutes with the person, who posted the video, claiming that another part will be made public soon. The sources said a Forensic Science Laboratory is supposed to provide whatever information it could gather to the investigation agency. The agency is clueless who edited the video, whether it was the doctors who did the tests, the person who created the CDs or officers of their own investigation team. The video which has been posted on CBI record is much smaller in length than the video on YouTube, said a source requesting anonymity. Narco analysis is not an admissible evidence in court. Dr S Malini, who did the test on Krishna, was removed from FSL Bangalore following allegations of irregularities in 2009. However, in 2013, the Karnataka High Court had struck down her discharge from service. The apparently raw footage of the tests which has emerged now shows Krishna claiming that Arun Kumar had asked him to own the crime on the promise of a reduced sentence. Kumar had said the "original" footage did not have that portion. When asked what was the length of the video footage on the narco-test conducted on Krishna, which is part of CBI record, Kumar told PTI he cannot recollect the duration of the video. "I do not recall. It was sent from the FSL to CBI, the CD. I do not remember the minutes.... Any authorisation can come either from the organisation or the lab. Custodian of the video is FSL Bangalore. If there is a requirement they can come out with it," Kumar told PTI over phone.Kumar, now an Inspector General of Police in CRPF, said that if CBI has made public all the court orders they should bring the video and narco analysis too in the public domain even if they do not have evidence value. When asked whether the agency has only "edited" version of the narco analysis test done on Krishna, CBI spokesperson refused to comment saying the matter is sub-judice.........After the trial, Additional Sessions Judge Shyam Lal found the parents guilty of murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment. During the trial, Rajesh and Nupur Talwars wanted that narco tests should be placed on record but Allahabad High Court as well as Supreme Court rejected their demand."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-aarushi-talwar-murder-case-was-cbi-provided-edited-footage-of-krishna-s-narco-test-2138486

'Spy in bag' Gareth Williams was 'murdered by Russian hitmen after sexual photo blackmail plot' Former major and intelligence officer Boris Karpichkov claims he knows the truth behind the MI6 spy's death

STORY: "'Spy in bag' Gareth Williams was 'murdered by Russian hitmen after sexual photo blackmail plot,' by reporter Lucy Clarke-Billings, published by The Telegraph on October 24, 2015.

SUB-HEADING:  "Former major and intelligence officer Boris Karpichkov claims he knows the truth behind the MI6 spy's death."

PHOTO CAPTION: "British code breaker Gareth Williams."

 

GIST: "Gareth Williams, the MI6 spy whose body was found in a bag, was murdered by Russian hitmen who blackmailed him with compromising sexual photographs, according to a former KGB major. The former major and intelligence officer Boris Karpichkov, who was exiled from Russia and now lives in the UK with a new identity, claimed Mr Williams was given a lethal injection in the ear and put into the holdall by Russian operatives. Mr Williams' naked, decomposing body was found in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, London, in August 2010, after colleagues noticed he had not turned up for work. The locked handles of the holdall had been fastened with Velcro and there was no sign of him struggling to escape. No finger, foot, palm prints or DNA belonging to Mr Williams were found on the rim of the bath, padlock or zipper and he was not wearing any gloves. The key to the padlock was underneath his body, which was curled into a foetal position inside the bag, and the heating in the flat had been turned up, even though it was the middle of the summer. There were also no signs of a break in and what followed was a gruelling and fundamentally inconclusive three-year investigation into his death. A coroner ruled in 2012 that the spy was “probably killed unlawfully”, but also ruled it unlikely his death will ever be “satisfactorily explained”. But despite the result of the inquest and the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, the police concluded in 2012 that Mr Williams most likely got into the bag by himself and died after failing to get out again. However, William MacKay, a confined spaces expert who gave evidence at the inquest, disagreed, and Nr Williams’ family have maintained that he was murdered. The interior of Gareth Willaims' flat on Alderney Street, London  Photo: PA At the same time as his inquest, there were reports that he died in a solo sex game gone wrong, while £20,000 worth of women’s clothing had been found in his flat. Mr Williams was also reported to have visited bondage sex websites and was seen browsing for ladies’ clothes at exclusive stores in central London.........Mr Karpichkov served in Russian intelligence for more than a decade, reaching the rank of KGB major where he was privy to Kremlin secrets at the highest level." 

 

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11952973/Spy-in-bag-Gareth-Williams-was-murdered-by-Russian-hitmen-after-sexual-photo-blackmail-plot.html

Bulletin: Rajesh and Nupur Talwar: India; Fashion designer Masaba Gupta tells the Times of India that she agrees with Nupur's father that it is important to speak up now and demand a fair trial - as she gets to the heart of the bungled police investigation. "If still found guilty, then that is their fate, but the reason to jail them can't be that they were the only people alive in the house with the others dead." (I heartily agree. Harold Levy. Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog.)

"Talking about the Noida double murder case, fashion designer Masaba told us recently, "I think the most shocking thing was the way the case was handled. The one scene that shocked me was the bloody mark of the hand that was washed away by rain, and that the pictures of such important evidence were taken on a mobile phone. The sheer carelessness with which the cop said that the parents did it -because they (the cops) were just being lazy - is shocking. ........ Secondly, people who are invited for a debate on news channels have no right to comment whether Nupur Talwar was weeping or why she wasn't weeping, and say baseless things like 'she probably wasn't Aarushi's real mother because she looked calm and composed'. Don't we all have our own way of dealing with loss? While you may sob uncontrollably, someone else may choose to stare into blank space without a single tear rolling down.".........Not long after the movie's release, Nupur Talwar's father, BG Chitnis, had written an anguished open letter on FB, asking for the case to be reopened. About the letter, Masaba said, "You could be sitting in a corner, minding your own business, and the next thing you know, you're being taken to jail because someone decided to not do their job that day. I agree with Nupur Talwar's father's letter in every way. It is important to speak up now and demand a fair trial. If still found guilty, then that is their fate, but the reason to jail them can't be that they were the only people alive in the house with the others dead."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/I-agree-with-Nupur-Talwars-fathers-letter-in-every-way-says-Masaba-Gupta/articleshow/49505108.cms

Darryl Howard: North Carolina; He wonders when ruling on new trial will come; (Maybe Tuesday?) 15 months have passed since a judge vacated his verdict; "Defense attorneys representing Howard in his most recent quest for freedom contend that the new DNA evidence and autopsy reports showed that Washington was sexually assaulted shortly before she was strangled and beaten to death. They insist that another man is the real culprit and Howard has spent more than 20 years in prison, wrongfully committed for the deeds of someone else." The Charlotte Observer;

STORY: "NC inmate waits for Tuesdays and news," by reporter Anne Blythe, published by the Charlotte Observer on October 23, 2015.

SUB-HEADING: "Darryl Howard wonders when ruling on new trial will come;

15 months have passed since judge vacated his verdict; Howard remains in prison, while Mike Peterson has been released."

PHOTO CAPTION:  " Innocence Project defense attorneys Barry Scheck, left, and James Cooney III, right, were happy for their client Darryl Howard when a judge ordered a new trial in 2014."

GIST: "Darryl Anthony Howard and his attorneys usually greet every other Tuesday with the same lingering questions. The N.C. Court of Appeals issues a fresh batch of rulings every two weeks or so, and the lawyers and 53-year-old prison inmate wonder whether the batch released that day will have answers for them. In July 2014, Orlando Hudson, Durham’s chief resident Superior Court judge, overturned two guilty verdicts for murders in 1991 that Howard maintains he did not commit. With new DNA evidence gathered by the Innocence Project, a national organization dedicated to exonerating the wrongfully convicted, and statements collected by post-conviction investigators, Hudson ruled that Howard should get a new trial. Prosecutors appealed Hudson’s decision, and a three-judge appellate court panel heard arguments in April. The state appeals court is scheduled to release rulings on Tuesday, but it won’t be clear until morning whether Howard’s case will be among the group and offer any answers.
“We’re waiting to see,” said Jim Cooney, a Charlotte attorney who helped persuade Hudson to grant Howard a new trial. For Howard and his wife of 15 years, Nannie, the wheels of justice have sputtered, stalled, sputtered and stalled again just when they thought they had begun rolling in their favor. Not only have state prosecutors appealed Hudson’s ruling, they have fought Howard’s request for bail while the appellate judges weigh arguments for and against a new trial.........Meanwhile, Howard’s wife questions why the wheels of justice in her husband’s case have not spun forward enough for him to wait for decisions in his case outside prison walls, too. More than 20 years have passed since Howard was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder for the slayings of Doris Washington, 29, and her 13-year-old daughter, Nishonda. The killings occurred in 1991 in what investigators described as drug-related crimes at a Durham public housing complex. Howard, who was 32 when he was convicted, knew the victims and was no stranger to Durham police then. He also was a frequent visitor at the public housing complex where the homicides occurred. But ever since firefighters discovered the naked bodies inside a smoke-filled apartment, Howard has maintained that he had nothing to do with the violent deaths.
Sperm was found on the teenage girl and collected in an investigative rape kit. An autopsy showed that her mother had been sexually assaulted, according to court documents. Howard was charged in the homicides, but DNA tests excluded him as a match to the sexual assault evidence. But in their appeal, representatives from the state attorney general’s office argued that Howard was overheard telling his brother that, “He had to set the apartment on fire to hide the evidence.” In April, Assistant Attorney General Mary Carla Babb told appeals court judges – Ann Marie Calabria, Donna Stroud and John Tyson – that state prosecutors believed Judge Hudson erred. She contended that defense attorneys in 1995 pointed out to jurors that DNA evidence collected from the victims did not belong to Howard and the jury still arrived at the guilty verdicts. But defense attorneys have pointed out that a police document uncovered by Innocence Project researchers in the past decade raised questions about the actions of Durham prosecutors, who pushed ahead with the case against Howard knowing that DNA pointed to other culprits..........The recent, more sophisticated DNA tests done by Innocence Project researchers showed that sperm from the rape kit compiled in the Doris Washington homicide matched that of a convicted felon, Jermeck Jones, whose criminal history includes 35 convictions, including several assaults against women. Defense attorneys representing Howard in his most recent quest for freedom contend that the new DNA evidence and autopsy reports showed that Washington was sexually assaulted shortly before she was strangled and beaten to death. They insist that another man is the real culprit and Howard has spent more than 20 years in prison, wrongfully committed for the deeds of someone else. What happens next could be revealed in the state appeals court rulings on Tuesday, or the wait could continue for Howard, who is incarcerated in Warren Correctional Institute while his case moves slowly through the post-conviction legal process. “On Tuesdays, he waits to hear from us,” Cooney said."

The entire story can be  found at:

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article40364535.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article40364535.html

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
 
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.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html  

I look forward to hearing from readers at:

hlevy15@gmail.com; 
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;

Bulletin: Joseph Scott Pemberton; The Philippines; Deportation ordered issued - but cannot be acted on until his murder trial is over. The Philippine Star.

"The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has issued a deportation order against US Marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton even as he is still on trial for the killing of a Filipino transgender last year. But the BI clarified the deportation order could not be immediately enforced pending clearance from the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court Branch 74, which is hearing Pemberton’s case. The Marine is being tried for the murder of Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude in October last year inside a motel room in Olongapo..." Likewise, Pemberton’s offer for self-deportation was denied for lack of merit. Pemberton was one of the US soldiers conducting a joint drill with Filipino forces under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA): The killing of Laude triggered public outrage and rekindled calls for the scrapping of the VFA."

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2015/10/21/1513110/bi-orders-pemberton-deported