Curtis Lovelace: (Part 1): Illinois; On-going trial: "Second defense pathologist denies Cory Lovelace's death caused by suffocation, the Herald-Whig reports. (Excellent links for following this case - a battle between dueling pathologists - provided..." Dr. William Oliver testified Thursday during the Curtis Lovelace first-degree murder trial that Cory Lovelace's cause of death was a complication of alcohol withdrawal from fatty liver disease. This is consistent with Dr. Shaku Teas' assessment that Cory Lovelace died from fatty liver as the result of chronic alcoholism. Teas testified for the defense Wednesday. Oliver also said the time of death was likely about 8 a.m. This differs from prosecution witnesses who testified that Cory Lovelace died several hours earlier from suffocation."

STORY: "Second defence pathologist denies Cory Lovelace's death caused by suffication," by reporter Matt Hopf, published by the Herald-Whig on March 9, 2017.

PHOTO CAPTION: "Dr. William Oliver, a forensic pathologist, testifies Thursday in the Curtis Lovelace first-degree murder trial. Oliver believes that Cory Lovelace's death was caused by fatty liver, not suffocation."

GIST: "A second forensic pathologist testified that Cory Lovelace's Feb. 14, 2006, death was not caused by suffocation but by natural causes.Oliver is an assistant medical examiner for Knox County in Tennessee and a former professor in the department of pathology at East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine. He reviewed slides of Cory Lovelace's liver that he said showed signs of fatty liver. "It's not supposed to look like this at all," Oliver said. "You're not supposed to have all this lipid." On cross-examination by special prosecutor Ed Parkinson, Oliver said more photos from the scene would have been helpful, especially those that could have shown blanching or the movement of blood in the tissue when pressed. Parkinson also asked Oliver about the position of Cory Lovelace's arms. Oliver said her arms could have been resting on something, such as a comforter. On redirect from defense attorney Jon Loevy, Oliver said they also could have moved when she was assessed by first responders."

The entire story - with numerous links that provide background to the case  and its battle between dueling pathologists - can be found at the link below:

 http://www.whig.com/20170309/second-defense-pathologist-denies-cory-lovelaces-death-caused-by-suffocation#

See 48-Hours producer Allan Sirkin's  commentary at the link below:  "The Lovelace trial, in the words of one local pundit, was "the trial of the century" in this town of 40,000. Of course, we have to keep in mind that the century is only 16 years old so far. But still, Curtis Lovelace was by any measure, a shining pillar of this community. Football star, state's attorney, president of the school board -- you don't get much more prominent than that. Beautiful family, long roots in the community. So when his wife died under mysterious circumstances in 2006, people talked. And when eight years later he was suddenly arrested after a secret investigation, people were stunned. Just about everyone knew of Lovelace, and so many people, in one way or another, had a connection to him. So that increased interest in the trial, and the local media were all over it. To give you an idea of how small this town is -- and how even "48 Hours" discovered a personal connection to the case -- it turned out the local CBS affiliate news director who worked with us is the daughter of the original coroner involved in this case! And her sister runs the hotel where we were staying."

 http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-lovelace-case-big-story-small-town/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. 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: "Number of exonerations hits record for third-straight year..."The 70 wrongful convictions involving official misconduct also set a record last year. The most common form, researchers found, involved police and prosecutors concealing evidence. There were a record number of overturned drug cases in 2016 as well — 61, up from 43 in 2014 — with the vast majority of them occurring in Harris County. A program there was started three years ago to clear defendants who plead guilty to possessing illegal substances — even though a crime lab analysis would later contradict the original drug charge. Gross said that faulty drug testing kits were behind those charges. Recalling a case in which kitty litter was misidentified as cocaine, he said: "Those tests are very often totally innaccurate."...Reporter Tim Stelloh; NBC News; March 7, 2017; (Thanks to the Wrongful Conviction Blog for bringing this story to our attention. HL);

"A pair of reports released Tuesday examining wrongful convictions in the United States found that there were a record number of exonerations in 2016 — the third such record-setting year in a row — and that innocent black people face a raft of racial disparities that make them more likely to wind up behind bars, and to remain there longer than whites. Researchers at the National Registry of Exonerations, which is run by the University of California, the University of Michigan and Michigan State, published the data. Samuel Gross, a law professor at the University of Michigan and an author of the race study, attributed the growing number of exonerations to increased awareness and resources, and he said they were part of persistent pattern: the number of exonerations climbed to 166 last year, up from 149 the year before and more than double the number of cases in 2011. The registry has collected data on nearly 2,000 cases since 1989. Researchers found that racial disparities disproportionately impacted black people across the three crimes they examined — murder, sexual assault and drug charges. Innocent blacks, for instance, were seven times more likely to be convicted of murder than innocent whites and three-and-a-half times more likely to be convicted of sexual assault. Once convicted of the latter, the researchers found, wrongly convicted black people spent four-and-a-half years longer in prison than whites. Cross-racial mis-identification was frequently what put them there to begin with — particularly "a core problem" among white female victims wrongly accusing black men, Gross said — but those black men who refused to plead guilty also received longer sentences than their white counterparts. Then, Gross added, "there was more resistance to releasing them once other evidence began to emerge."..."The 70 wrongful convictions involving official misconduct also set a record last year. The most common form, researchers found, involved police and prosecutors concealing evidence. There were a record number of overturned drug cases in 2016 as well — 61, up from 43 in 2014 — with the vast majority of them occurring in Harris County. A program there was started three years ago to clear defendants who plead guilty to possessing illegal substances — even though a crime lab analysis would later contradict the original drug charge. Gross said that faulty drug testing kits were behind those charges. Recalling a case in which kitty litter was misidentified as cocaine, he said: "Those tests are very often totally inaccurate."
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/number-exonerations-hits-record-third-straight-year-n729916

Bulletin: Amaury Villalobos and William Vasquez; New York: Outdated arson science: Wrongly convicted partially because of outdated arson science and wrongly imprisoned for almost 33 years until their guilty verdicts were overturned, these 2 wrongly convicted men will receive $31 million... "Although a fire marshal testified at the men’s trial that he had found evidence of arson, Mr. Hale said evolving fire science disproved the 1980 analysis. Reports by experts that were filed by Mr. Villalobos’s lawyer and the district attorney’s office showed that despite the initial testimony, there was no evidence of arson and the fire was most likely an accident." Reporter Alan Feuer; New York Times; March 6, 2017; (Thanks to Wrongful Convictions Blog for bringing this case to our attention);

"City and state officials in New York have agreed to pay two men who were wrongfully convicted of setting a fire in 1980 in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn about $31 million to settle their claims of being unjustly prosecuted. The early-morning blaze caused the death of a woman and her five children. The two men, Amaury Villalobos and William Vasquez, spent almost 33 years in prison on charges of murder and arson before their guilty verdicts were overturned in 2015 in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn on the recommendation of the Conviction Review Unit of the Brooklyn district attorney’s office. A third man convicted in the blaze, Raymond Mora, was also cleared by the ruling, but he died in prison in 1989.  According to a statement by Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller, who has the power to settle claims, the city will pay Mr. Villalobos and Mr. Vasquez $9.7 million each. Officials in the office of Eric T. Schneiderman, the state attorney general, said the state had agreed to pay each man $5.75 million..........The townhouse’s owner, Hannah Quick, told the police at the time that it had been arson and that she had heard the three defendants inside the townhouse just before the fire and then had seen them walk out. Ms. Quick, a drug dealer, said she had been feuding with one or two of the men over drugs. All of the men were convicted at a trial in 1981. But years later, as she was dying, Ms. Quick told her daughter that she had lied about the men’s involvement in the fire. The case found its way to the Conviction Review Unit, whose leader, Mark J. Hale, said he had no idea how the case had proceeded to trial in the first place. In an interview conducted when the men were exonerated, Mr. Hale said that Ms. Quick’s motives to lie might have included liability for the fire and an insurance payment she received. Although a fire marshal testified at the men’s trial that he had found evidence of arson, Mr. Hale said evolving fire science disproved the 1980 analysis. Reports by experts that were filed by Mr. Villalobos’s lawyer and the district attorney’s office showed that despite the initial testimony, there was no evidence of arson and the fire was most likely an accident. “It’s a significant settlement,” Joel Rudin, Mr. Vasquez’s lawyer, said. “This is a case where the system completely failed these men.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/nyregion/wrongful-conviction-amaury-villalobos-william-vasquez.html?_r=0

The Reid Technique (3): The New Orleans 'Times-Picayune' Deputy Opinions Editor response Wicklander-Zulawski's move away from 'confrontation' in the interrogation process: "Good interrogations shouldn't prompt false confessions."..." I can't say for sure what methods were used to get those false confessions out of Thibodeaux and Hayes, but there's a good chance that the law enforcement officers who questioned them used the confrontational techniques that are now being rejected by the police consulting firm. If there are interrogation techniques that better get at the truth without the same risk of false confessions, those are the techniques our officials should be using."

 
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: For years, this Blog has has been reporting on the dangerous inherent in use of the Reid method of interrogation which has been used in criminal justice jurisdictions around the world - even as mounting scientific research demonstrated its flaws and the number of exonerations based on false confessions  steadily increased. It is therefore a most significant event when Wicklander-Zulawski, which describes itself as "a world leader in interview and interrogation training services for federal government agencies, law enforcement organizations and corporations," announces that it will no longer offer training in the controversial method. Wicklander-Zulawski's far-reaching move will hopefully assist the numerous people convicted on the basis of false convictions obtained through use of the Reid method who have not yet been exonerated - and will open the door to less confrontation and thereby less risky interrogation methods.  John E. Reid and Associates have marketed there interrogation materials aggressively over the years.  The following Marshall Project post contains Reid and Associates response to Wicklander-Zulawski's staggering move.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;

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COMMENTARY: "Good interrogations shouldn't prompt false confessions, by Jarvis DeBerry, published by the Times-Picayune on March 8, 2016. Jarvis DeBerry is deputy opinions editor for NOLA.COM | The Times-Picayune. 

GIST: "The news this week from one of the largest police consulting forms that it will stop teaching the Reid technique during interrogations is meant to decrease the number of people who falsely confess to crimes they didn't commit.  According to reporting from The Marhsall Project, when polygraph expert John Reid introduced a new interrogation technique in the 1940s it was considered progressive.  It was meant to replace the beatings that police doled out to suspects they were demanding conf But Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates, a group that says it has worked with a majority of police departments in the United States, announced this week that the Reid method is outdated.  "Confrontation is not an effective way of getting truthful information," the company's CEO and president, Shane Sturman, told The Marshall Project.........Examples abound of criminal suspects caving in under pressure and saying that they did something that evidence later proves they didn't do.  One of the points made in the new 6-part documentary about Bronx teenager Kalief Browder is that the system puts pressure on suspects to confess and plead guilty and that many people do so because they can't take the interrogation tactics any longer. In 2012, here in Louisiana, Damon Thibodeaux was released from prison 16 years after he confessed to raping and strangling to death a 14-year-old girl.  When Thibodeaux was released, Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick released a statement that said, "I have concluded that the primary evidence in this case, the confession, is unreliable." In 2007, Harvey's Travis Hayes was released 10 years after he confessed to being the get-away driver after the murder of Bridge City grocer.  In a 2009 law journal article, a law professor describes Hayes' case as "the most naked, uncorroborated false confession I've ever seen." I can't say for sure what methods were used to get those false confessions out of Thibodeaux and Hayes, but there's a good chance that the law enforcement officers who questioned them used the confrontational techniques that are now being rejected by the police consulting firm. If there are interrogation techniques that better get at the truth without the same risk of false confessions, those are the techniques our officials should be using."

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2017/03/new_interrogation_techniques.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. 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;

The Reid Technique (2): Under siege, John E. Reid and Associates responds to Wicklander-Zulawski's bombshell announcement that it is ceasing use of the Reid technique because of the risk of false confessions.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: For years, this Blog has has been reporting on the dangerous inherent in use of the Reid method of interrogation which has been used in criminal justice jurisdictions around the world - even as mounting scientific research demonstrated its flaws and the number of exonerations based on false confessions  steadily increased. It is therefore a most significant event when Wicklander-Zulawski, which describes itself as "a world leader in interview and interrogation training services for federal government agencies, law enforcement organizations and corporations," announces that it will no longer offer training in the controversial method. Wicklander-Zulawski's far-reaching move will hopefully assist the numerous people convicted on the basis of false convictions obtained through use of the Reid method who have not yet been exonerated - and will open the door to less confrontation and thereby less risky interrogation methods.  John E. Reid and Associates have marketed there interrogation materials aggressively over the years.  The following Marshall Project post contains Reid and Associates response to Wicklander-Zulawski's staggering move.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;

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POST: "The Seismic change in police interrogations: A major player in law enforcement says it will no longer use a method linked to false confessions," by Eli Hager,  published by "The Marshall Project" on March 9, 2016.

GIST:  "You may have never heard of the Reid technique, but chances are you know how it works. For more than half a century, it has been the go-to police interrogation method for squeezing confessions out of suspects. Its tropes are familiar from any cop show: the claustrophobic room, the repeated accusations of guilt, the presentation of evidence — real or invented — and the slow build-up of pressure that makes admitting a crime seem like the easiest way out. That’s why it jolted the investigative world this week when one of the nation’s largest police consulting firms — one that has trained hundreds of thousands of cops from Chicago to New York and federal agents at almost every major agency — said it is tossing out the Reid technique because of the risk of false confessions........."This is big news in the interrogation world," said Steven A. Drizin, a law professor at Northwestern University and an expert on police interviews. Joseph P. Buckley, the president of John E. Reid &Associates, which licenses the Reid method, said Wednesday that Wicklander-Zulawski’s announcement was “very misleading and disingenuous.” He said the technique has consistently held up in court and that it is not “confrontational” except when evidence already suggests the suspect’s guilt. Wicklander-Zulawski said it would use the Reid technique only to educate police on the risk and reality of false confessions. The method, the company said, "has remained relatively unchanged since the 1970s, and it… does not reflect updates in our legal system." Buckley said that Wicklander-Zulawski has been teaching the 1984 version of the Reid technique, which does not include “any of the updates or new material that we developed” since then — making it unfair to suggest that Reid itself is outdated. The technique was first introduced in the 1940s and 50s by polygraph expert John Reid, who intended it to be a modern-era reform — replacing the beatings that police frequently used to elicit information. His tactics soon became dogma in police departments and were considered so successful in garnering confessions that, in its famous 1966 Miranda decision, the U.S. Supreme Court cited it as a reason why suspects must be warned of their right against self-incrimination. But the advent of DNA evidence and advocacy by the Innocence Project in the 1990s showed that about one-third of exonerations involve confessions, once believed to be an absolute sign of guilt. Academics have theories why someone would falsely confess to a crime, including having a mental disability, being interviewed without a lawyer or parent in the room, or suffering through hours or days in jail before questioning. But the most common factor is the Reid method and its imitators, experts say, since it can create confirmation bias in the minds of investigators while overwhelming a suspect to such an extent that the truth no longer seems like the best option. "At some point, the technique itself has to take responsibility," said Saul Kassin, a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and an expert on police interviews. "What Wicklander-Zulawski has realized is that once you start down the road of using trickery and deception, the misuses are inherent in that. There are no clear lines of, 'This is a good amount of trickery, and this isn't.'" after study shows are unreliable?" Drizin said. To Maurice Possley, a journalist who helps maintain a comprehensive registry of exonerations at the University of Michigan and has written for The Marshall Project, it's a big deal either way. "This is not defense attorneys or wrongly convicted defendants saying it,” he said. “A major player in the field of law enforcement has stated that this method leads to false confessions."

The entire post can be found at:

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/03/07/the-seismic-change-in-police-interrogations#.fMbU0UE0s

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. 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;

Rodricus Crawford: Louisiana; Back in court March 15; Will the former death row inmate finally learn whether prosecutors will drop the murder charge - or put him through a new trial?

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Rodricus Crawford  is set to appear in court on Wednesday, March 15. The former death row inmate  won his appeal in September for reasons reported previously in this Blog. Louisiana prosecutors have said they are taking a fresh look at his case. Crawford will hopefully learn at this hearing whether they will drop the murder charge - or proceed with a new trial. This Blog will be following developments closely.

Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

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See the previous post (September 8, 2016) at the link below: "Rodricus Crawford; Louisiana; Part 23; (Appeal); The Advocate's John Simerman's comprehensive story on  yesterday's appeal: "Justice Jeannette Theriot Knoll cast perhaps the most doubt from the bench as she questioned Caddo Parish Assistant District Attorney Tommy Johnson over the office's decision to seek death for Crawford. "Is there any evidence he occasionally abused the child or was rough with the child?" Knoll asked. "No, your honor," Johnson responded. "Then how did the state come about (to the position) that this was a first-degree murder case, on circumstantial evidence, with a child that an autopsy had discovered had sepsis, and ask that this man be put to death on weak circumstances? You don't even have a motive," Knoll said."

 http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2016/09/rodricus-crawford-louisiana-part-23.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. 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;

Back In action: The Reid Technique (1): Significant development: Wicklander-Zulawski, a leader in interview and interrogation training, has discontinued teaching the Reid Method after more than 30 years..."In future classes, WZ will only discuss the Reid Method in effort to highlight potential risks posed in obtaining a false confession, or to illustrate the major advantages of using the WZ Non-Confrontational Method.”

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: For years, this Blog has has been reporting on the dangerous inherent in use of the Reid method of interrogation which has been used in criminal justice jurisdictions around the world - even as mounting scientific research demonstrated its flaws and the number of exonerations based on false confessions  steadily increased. It is therefore a most significant event when Wicklander-Zulawski, which describes itself as "a world leader in interview and interrogation training services for federal government agencies, law enforcement organizations and corporations," announces that it will no longer offer training in the controversial method. Wicklander-Zulawski's far-reaching move will hopefully assist the numerous people convicted on the basis of false convictions obtained through use of the Reid method who have not yet been exonerated - and will open the door to less confrontation and thereby less risky interrogation methods.  John E. Reid and Associates have marketed there interrogation materials aggressively over the years. It will be interesting to see how the company responds to Wicklander-Zulawski's staggering release.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;

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RELEASE: Wicklander-Zulawski discontinues Reid Method instruction  after  more than thirty years,  released by the company on March 6, 2017

QUOTE OF THE DAY:  “It’s human nature to deny and defend oneself. Confrontation is not an effective way of getting truthful information,” said WZ President and CEO Shane Sturman, CFI.

GIST:  "Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates, Inc. (WZ), a world leader in interview and interrogation training services for federal government agencies, law enforcement organizations and corporations, announced today the company will no longer offer training in the controversial Reid Method. WZ has been licensed by John E. Reid and Associates, Inc., originator and developer of the Reid Method, and had included this direct, positive interrogation method in their standard public sector curriculum with WZ’s non-confrontational techniques for the last 33 years. WZ Certified Forensic Interviewer (CFI©) instructors have conducted training for more than 200,000 law enforcement officers worldwide since the founding of the firm in 1982. Going forward, WZ will standardize their core instruction on multiple techniques including the Participatory Method, Cognitive Interviewing, Fact-Finding and Selective Interviewing, as well as the popular WZ Non-Confrontational Method. A major city police department recently contracted with WZ to teach this exact combination of industry best practices in seminars for their new detectives. This customized course was designed to provide progressive, comprehensive training in multiple non-confrontational interviewing techniques with a focus on obtaining truthful information and admissions. It will now become WZ’s flagship seminar for law enforcement. “It’s human nature to deny and defend oneself. Confrontation is not an effective way of getting truthful information,” said WZ President and CEO Shane Sturman, CFI. “Rather than primarily seeking a confession, it’s an important goal for investigators to find the truth ethically through a respectful, non-confrontational approach.” Sturman added, “WZ has dedicated instructional blocks to educate detectives on the causes of false confessions and the risks of utilizing improper interrogation methods. In future classes, WZ will only discuss the Reid Method in effort to highlight potential risks posed in obtaining a false confession, or to illustrate the major advantages of using the WZ Non-Confrontational Method.” Approximately 29% of DNA exonerations in the US since 1989 have involved false confessions to the crime. A combination of factors could cause innocent persons to confess to a crime they did not commit. Academics have chronicled the commonalities among these cases and found the suspect is often mentally or intellectually challenged, interviewed without an attorney or parent, interrogated for over three hours, or told information about the crime by the investigators. In addition, the officers in these cases were often trained in the Reid Technique of Interview and Interrogation. Although one might argue that the officers misused their training in the Technique, many courts and law enforcement agencies are moving away from this confrontational approach to non-confrontational styles. With the availability of DNA evidence, and with efforts from organizations such as The Innocence Project, there has been a heightened awareness of the danger of improper use of interrogation tactics. Wrongful convictions, exonerations and false confessions have become a more global point of discussion, and justifiably so. Although the Reid Method can be a useful tool in obtaining a confession, cases have shown that the improper use of the method, combined with the intense emotional pressure put on the suspect, can lead to catastrophic results. The Reid Method has remained relatively unchanged since the 1970s, and it conflicts with the progressive nature of how people communicate today. The Reid Method does not reflect updates in our legal system and does not acknowledge the availability of scholarly work on the subject. “Because of the possible abuses inherent in the confrontational Reid style, we believe it is time to move away from the practices of the 1970s when it was developed,” Sturman concluded. “While the Reid Method has been successful in solving crimes over the years, there are serious pitfalls and significant risks associated with the incorrect application of the technique. WZ will remain a progressive, evolving organization dedicated to partnering with academics, attorneys, researchers, corporations, and law enforcement agencies around the world to ensure the tools we are teaching are ethical, moral and legally acceptable.”

The  entire release can be found at:


/06/wicklander-zulawski-discontinues-reid-method-instruction-after-more-than-30-years/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. 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;