"A jury in its second full day of deliberations pops another question in the murder/arson retrial of Daniel Dougherty. He’s accused of setting an Oxford Circle rowhome fire that killed his two young sons in 1985. The latest question centered on a request to re-read testimony of the
only defense witness to take the stand forensic scientist John Lentini. Judge Scott O’Keefe told the prosecution and defense lawyers out of
view of the jury that he was inclined to say no that they should rely on
their recollection of testimony. Defense lawyer David Fryman says perhaps the judge should entertain
the request and have a read back of a portion or piece of the testimony.........The judge also pointed out that Lentini was on the stand for a day
and a half. A former Philadelphia fire marshal Thomas Schneider
confirmed the original report of arson during his testimony, but Lentini
told jurors it should’ve been ruled undetermined." http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2016/04/04/jury-in-murderarson-retrial-asks-for-reread-of-testimony-of-defense-witness-but-judge-declines/
"Jeff Rosenzweig and John Wesley Hall are working to persuade the
Arkansas Supreme Court to grant their clients legal avenues to return to
trial court in the wake of Department of Justice and FBI concessions
that expert testimony used against two Arkansas inmates was unsupported
by science. The problem, as state attorneys have pointed out in legal arguments,
is the inmates -- Eugene Pitts and Lonnie Strawhacker -- have exhausted
their appeals, and there is no mechanism for sending a case back to
trial because evidence was discovered to be faulty. Rosenzweig, who represents Strawhacker, said there ought to be. "In both cases, there was crucial evidence that was an important part
of their trial, and it has been explicitly repudiated by the FBI,"
Rosenzweig said. "The question is, does our system have a mechanism to
deal with that? The [attorney general] takes the position that we don't
and we shouldn't. Ours is, we do, and if we don't, then we need to
expand the writ [of error coram nobis] so that we do.".........Rosenzweig and Hall are asking for the Arkansas Supreme Court to hear
oral arguments for both appeals in the same court session. Even though
the inmates were convicted of different crimes, the barrier for going
back to court for some sort of relief is the same. Pitts, 68, has been in prison since 1979 after he was convicted of
kidnapping and killing a North Little Rock veterinarian who was married
to a former romantic interest of Pitts. Strawhacker, 61, was sentenced to life in prison for attacking a
woman in 1989, beating her face until it was so swollen that she
couldn't see, then sexually assaulting her. Prosecutors in both cases relied on voice identification from
victims, as well as testimony from Michael Malone -- a microscopic hair
analyst from the FBI -- that linked the suspects to hairs found at the
crime scenes. Under pressure from advocates, the FBI and the Department of Justice
began reviewing any cases involving such testimony and in April 2015
announced that 26 of their 28 experts, including Malone, offered
"erroneous" testimony. The Department of Justice, working with the Innocence Project, has
identified hundreds of cases similar to those of Pitts and Strawhacker,
where convictions were secured on the basis of what Hall has called
"junk science." The FBI still uses that forensic analysis, but as a complement to more scientific forensic testing, such as DNA analysis..........Although the Department of Justice announced that it would not fight
any procedural barriers in federal court on cases affected by faulty
testimony, the state attorney general's office is fighting to affirm the
state inmates' convictions. State attorneys argued that the discredited testimony was limited and
that both cases had compelling evidence, other than the FBI testimony,
that would have led to convictions. In a brief filed in Strawhacker's case, Assistant Attorney General
Brad Newman argued that the inmates did not have a right to return to
trial because there was no evidence withheld from the accused. "The prosecutor at the time could not have known that, over 20 years
later, the DOJ would assert that its examiner had testified outside the
bounds of his discipline," Newman wrote. "[Strawhacker] would require
the prosecutor to be omniscient, knowing all things that will ever
become known to any police agency, even long after the prosecution of a
case has concluded." State attorneys also argue that if the court were to expand certain
legal thresholds and allow the inmates a chance to return to trial, it
would open the floodgates to "an endless stream of re-litigation,"
Newman wrote. Hall said it's incumbent on the court to find a way to fulfill his
client's right to due process and not worry about what could come down
the road. "There are already tons of meritless appeals filed, and the judges
already screen them out," Hall said. "Who cares whether the floodgates
are open so long as it's fair and doing what's right? If people are in
Arkansas prisons and don't belong there, [the courts] should be doing
what's fair."
"Eyewitness
misidentification has accounted for 71 percent of the 337 convictions
overturned by DNA evidence since 1989, said Michelle Feldman, the state
policy advocate of the Innocence Project, a national organization that
works to free inmates wrongly imprisoned. What’s more, the actual
perpetrators of the crimes went on to commit and be convicted of 100
additional violent crimes, she said. Kansas legislators are
considering a bill that seeks to limit wrongful convictions by requiring
law enforcement agencies to create written policies for dealing with
eyewitnesses. It has support from law enforcement groups, and it has
been approved by the full Senate and the House Judiciary Committee.
Republican Sen. Jeff King, of Independence, said House and Senate
members might include the measure in a larger package of judiciary
legislation. The bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. David Haley,
of Kansas City, would require law enforcement agencies to take steps
recommended by the National Academy of Science. First, suspect
lineups would have to be conducted by an officer who doesn’t know the
suspect’s identity. Officers using photographs instead of a physical
lineup could put pictures in folders and shuffle them to make sure they
don’t know whose photo the witness is viewing. “Just like any other scientific experiment, it takes any suggestiveness or unintended cues out of the process,” Feldman said. Another
procedure would require a written statement from the witness about
their level of certainty that the person identified from the lineup was
the perpetrator. All of the people selected for the lineup would have to
look similar to the perpetrator that the witness described so one
person doesn’t stand out. And witnesses would be told that they’re not
required to identify someone from the lineup. Fourteen states have similar eyewitness identification policies, Feldman said." http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/27/kansas-weighing-rules-for-handling-eyewitnesses-to/?
RELEASE: "Dr. Waney Squier: Innocence Network Champion of Justice Award Winner, published in anticipation of the Network's annual conference in San Antonio Texas on April 8 and 9.
GIST: "During her 31 years at
Oxford, she has specialized in the pathology of the developing brain in
the fetus, neonate, and child. Dr. Squier was among the first in the
world to recognize the criminal justice implications of scientific
research that cast doubt on the medical hypothesis known as Shaken Baby
Syndrome (SBS). She has been relentless and courageous in seeking to
prevent this frequently accepted but unproven hypothesis from sustaining
or producing wrongful convictions. Her influence has been felt around
the world, as she has written reports and/or testified in more than 160
cases in Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, The
Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and
the United States. Through scores of peer-reviewed articles, invited
lectures, and television appearances, Dr. Squier has sought to inform
prosecutors, defence lawyers, coroners, forensic pathologists, and the
public at large that the SBS hypothesis has caused, and will continue to
cause, miscarriages of justice when accepted uncritically. She has had a
particularly strong voice that has encouraged innocence organizations
throughout the Network to devote more and more resources to examining
the integrity of convictions that were premised on the SBS hypothesis.
This scrutiny has contributed to at least 19 exonerations in the United
States, with more abroad and many more cases in the pipeline. Dr. Squier
has been personally involved in a number of these cases. Because of her
efforts, many wrongful convictions around the world have been – and
will continue to be – averted."
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:
STORY: "New testing further supports innocence in 1982 Va. rape-murder case," by reporter Frank Green, published by the Richmond Times-Dispatch on April 2, 2016;
GIST: "DNA implicates a career
criminal in the rape of a Newport News woman and the murder of her
husband more than three decades ago and conclusively proves the
innocence of his former Navy shipmate wrongly convicted of the crimes,
according to the imprisoned man’s lawyers. Keith Allen Harward, 59, has served more than 33
years of a life sentence for the murder of Jesse Perron, who was beaten
to death early on the morning of Sept. 14, 1982, with a crowbar by a
killer who repeatedly sexually assaulted the dying man’s wife as their
children slept in a nearby bedroom. Key evidence against Harward was testimony from expert witnesses who said bite marks on the rape victim matched his teeth. The Innocence Project filed an actual innocence
petition last month after initial DNA testing failed to identify
Harward’s genetic profile in sperm left by the assailant. Since then,
the Virginia Department of Forensic Science reported that the profile
found in the sperm and run through the national DNA database produced a
“cold hit” on Jerry L. Crotty. Crotty, who died in an Ohio prison 10 years ago, also
was a sailor stationed on the USS Carl Vinson at the time of the rape
and murder, Harward’s lawyers said. The aircraft carrier was undergoing
work at Newport News Shipyard located near the victims’ home, according
to trial testimony. “Mr. Harward has spent over 33 years in prison for a
crime that he did not commit, and indeed came perilously close to
receiving the death penalty,” his lawyers wrote to the Virginia Supreme
Court in a supplemental brief filed last week. “The stark evidence of his innocence not only meets
the rigorous standard of proof for a writ of actual innocence, but
indeed far surpasses it,” they added.........A spokeswoman for the Ohio
Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said Crotty died in prison
on June 6, 2006, but no cause or manner of death was available Friday. He was serving seven to 25 years for crimes that included abduction, burglary, theft and firearms violations. It was his third time in the Ohio prison system. His first was in 1988, or 5½ years after the rape and murder in Newport News. Olga Akselrod, one of Harward’s lawyers with the
Innocence Project, said Harward has been informed that testing
implicates Crotty. She said that although the two were stationed on the
same ship, Harward did not know Crotty. “He is certainly confident that at this point, given
how powerful the DNA results are ... that he will be released as soon as
possible,” Akselrod said.........Akselrod said Harward first contacted the Innocence
Project seeking DNA testing in 2007, but there was a long line ahead of
him. He was moved up, however, because he was convicted largely on bite
mark evidence, a now controversial forensic technique. The rape victim, who was attacked while no lights were on in the house, was unable to identify Harward. In what became known in the Tidewater area as “the
bite-mark case,” Harward was convicted largely on the testimony of
experts who said bite marks the rapist left on the woman’s leg were made
by Harward’s teeth to within “reasonable medical certainty” and
“reasonable scientific certainty.” A security guard at the shipyard also identified
Harward as the clean-shaven sailor he saw enter the shipyard with blood
spatter on his uniform that morning. Harward’s lawyers said studies since have discredited
the scientific basis for bite mark comparison and that the security
guard identified Harward from a spread of mug shots long after that
night and after he had been hypnotized by investigators. Also, while the victim and the guard said the
assailant was clean-shaven, trial testimony and old photographs strongly
suggested Harward had a mustache at the time. One of the bite-mark experts who testified against
Harward told the Richmond Times-Dispatch last month that he was
confident in his conclusion but that he respects DNA and said it was
possible the wrong man had been convicted. Trial testimony and Harward’s innocence petition show
that swabs were used to collect biological evidence from the victim’s
body and crime scene items soon after the attack. Initial DNA testing was completed earlier this year
and failed to find Harward’s profile. The Innocence Project filed an
initial innocence petition on March 4 but told the court the state
forensics lab was continuing testing and that further results would be
forthcoming. Papers filed at the Virginia Supreme Court last week
by Harward’s lawyers say the same DNA profile — not Harward’s or her
husband’s — was identified in sperm that was recovered and could have
been left only by the assailant. The Virginia Department of Forensic Science matched
that male genetic profile to Crotty. Harward’s DNA profile was not found
in anything that was tested.........“Crotty precisely matches the victim’s description of
the perpetrator,” Harward’s lawyers contend. Harward was 26 and had a
mustache at the time, they said. Harward’s innocence petition says more than 1,000
sailors on the aircraft carrier underwent dental screenings to see if
their tooth alignment matched the bite marks on the rape victim’s legs. A
mold of Harward’s teeth was made, and he was excluded as a suspect......... Harward’s lawyers wrote last week, “DNA has left no
doubt that Mr. Harward was not the man who raped (the victim) and
murdered (her husband), just as it has left no doubt about the identity
of the actual rapist and murderer.” They added, “Given the irrefutable proof of Mr.
Harward’s innocence, Mr. Harward respectfully requests that the court
expedite its review of the case so that he can be exonerated as quickly
as is feasible and finally be released from his three-decades-long
nightmare.”
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:
STORY: "Brian Peixoto’s Final Appeal," by reporter Gus Garcia-Roberts, published by Boston Magazine in its February, 2016 issue.
GIST:"The story about a suspected baby killer along the South Coast spread
like wildfire. “Westport tot was killed over wet pants,” the Boston Herald blared on its front page. “Mom: I heard banging,” read another newspaper’s headline. The tabloid television show Hard Copy sent a film crew to cover the crime. The media zeroed in on the Ricki Lake show
about unwed mothers, and how a small-town bouncer beat his girlfriend’s
son to death after watching the segment that mirrored her lifestyle.
Renee Dupuis, a Bristol County assistant district attorney who had
successfully prosecuted priest James Porter—one of the first clergymen
in Massachusetts sentenced to prison for sexual abuse—was in charge of
the case against Peixoto. “When the child messed his pants,” she said
during Peixoto’s arraignment, “he just lost it.” Having no experience with lawyers or the criminal justice system,
Peixoto decided to take what the state gave him: a public defender who
spent most of his time representing drug dealers. He wore a loud green
suit jacket, Peixoto recalled, and laced his sentences with profanity.
During pretrial motions, the defense attorney mistakenly included
details of unrelated cases he’d worked on. Not one to mince words,
Peixoto called him a “fast-talking, slick, used-car-salesman type of
lawyer.” After nearly a year of fruitless efforts to meet in person and
prepare a defense, Peixoto finally sat down with his attorney four days
before trial. Dupuis was willing to drop the charge down to
second-degree murder, the lawyer excitedly reported, meaning Peixoto
could likely walk away with a sentence short enough to see his young
daughter graduate from high school. Peixoto started crying. “I’m not
pleading guilty to something I didn’t do,” he said. When his attorney
responded, “I guess I can whip up a defense for you by Monday,” Peixoto
recalled, he fired the man on the spot. The attorney did not respond to
requests for comment.Peixoto’s family searched for a new lawyer, ultimately retaining
Raymond Veary, an amateur actor who moonlighted at the local playhouse,
where his roles included George from Of Mice and Men. A
prosecutor for more than two decades, Veary had recently converted to
criminal defense. With 60 days to prepare for trial, Veary thought
Peixoto’s prospects looked bleak. “As the evidence currently stands,” he
wrote Peixoto’s family in a letter seeking $25,000 before the trial
began, “the child died as a result of multiple trauma, most likely the
result of a single beating. Based upon this evidence, the most likely
explanation lies with Brian, regrettably.” Dupuis, in the meantime, had secured a new medical expert to testify
alongside Weiner. It was a familiar name among criminal attorneys: “Just
received this from the prosecutor,” Veary stated in a fax a week before
the trial. “They’re bringing in Dr. Newberger.”"
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:
'A New York college student was arraigned
Saturday on charges of second-degree murder for allegedly suffocating
her newborn girl after giving birth in her Long Island home. Sharon Seudat, 20, appeared at First District
Court in Hempstead, Long Island, and was ordered held on $1 million bond
or $750,000 cash, Nassau County District Attorney spokesman Shams Tarek
told NBC News. Judge Douglas D. Lerose also had Seudat turn over her
passport, Tarek said. Her next court date is April 5. Edward L. Lieberman, Seudat's attorney, told NBC
News in an email Saturday night "that this was a tragedy for all
concerned" and that Seudat has her family's support.........Seudat's arrest came on the same day as another New York woman from Staten Island was indicted on charges of leaving her newborn to die in the trash outside her home.
Nausheen Rahman, 28, pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and one count of concealment of a human corpse. She is being held without bail.
After giving birth inside her home, Rahman
allegedly cut the umbilical cord of her baby daughter, who was still
breathing, placed her in a plastic bag, and threw her in a garbage can
outside her Staten Island residence on March 11, according to the Staten
Island District Attorney's Office and a criminal complaint. Prosecutors said Rahman's parents later took her
to Staten Island University Hospital - North for vaginal bleeding. At
first, Rahman allegedly denied having a baby, but later admitted to
giving birth and disposing of her daughter who was alive, prosecutors
said. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/long-island-woman-charged-death-newborn-daughter-n549791
Two Blogs Now: The Charles Smith Blog; The Selfless Warriors Blog: I created the Charles Smith Blog in 2007 after I retired from The Toronto Star to permit me to keep digging into the story of the flawed pathologist and the harm he had done to so many innocent parents and caregivers, and to Ontario’s criminal justice system. Since then it has taken new directions, including examinations of other flawed pathologists, flawed pathology, and flawed science and technology which has marred the quality of justice in courtrooms around the world. On International Wrongful Conviction Day in 2024, I was thrilled to have the Blog recognized by Innocence Canada, when I was presented with the, "Rubin Hurricane Carter Champion of Justice Award." The heart of the Blog is my approach to following cases which raise issues in all of these areas - especially those involving the death penalty. I have dedicated 'The Selfless Warrior Blog’ (soon to appear) to those exceptional individuals who have been ripped out of their ordinary lives by their inability to stand by in the face of a glaring miscarriage of justice. They are my ’Selfless Warriors.’ Enjoy!
