FBI overstated hair match crisis: (13b): (The Emperor's Clothes); Petula Dvorak, of the Washington Post, shows how flawed FBI testimony ruins lives.

COMMENTARY: "Petula Dvorak: Flawed FBI testimony ruins lives," published by the Washington Post on April 28, 2015. (Petula Dvorak writes for The Washington Post.

SUB-HEADING:  "The Justice Department and FBI acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite forensic unit gave flawed testimony against criminal defendants for decades. That ruined people like Thomas Haynesworth, who spent 27 years in prison for rapes he didn't commit."

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  GIST: "In Curly’s world, there’s nothing surprising about the Justice Department and the FBI acknowledging that nearly every examiner in an elite forensic unit gave flawed testimony against criminal defendants for more than 20 years. “Well, yeah, they were lying,” one man said when I asked what they made of the news, which calls into question the work of the FBI Laboratory’s microscopic hair comparison unit before 2000. Of 28 examiners, the FBI says 26 of them gave flawed testimony in favor of prosecutors, The Washington Post’s Spencer Hsu wrote. The hundreds of cases being revisited by the government include 32 that ended with death row convictions. The forensic scandal gives real teeth to the long-ignored complaints we hear from the over-prisoned pockets of the country, where generations of people are locked up in the nation with the highest incarceration rate in the world. Make all the jokes you want about everyone in jail saying they’re innocent. Yeah, yeah, they’re all angels in there. And there’s no doubt that plenty of folks on the inside are guilty of all kinds of crimes. But there is growing evidence that wrongful convictions are more common than many people think. Since 1989, we’ve had exonerations in 329 cases based on DNA evidence, entire lifetimes lost because of mistakes bolstered by bias.  Every year we hear stories about these innocent people, trapped in the amber time suck of prison, trying to reintegrate into a world that has changed at light speed and left them behind once they are set free. Hundreds of human years lost — damage that simply cannot be repaired. Imagine being Kirk Odom, who served 22 years in prison and another nine on parole as a registered sex offender after being wrongly convicted of raping a woman on Capitol Hill because of flawed forensic hair analysis. Or Santae Tribble, who did 23 years for a D.C. cabdriver’s murder he did not commit because of a bad informant and an FBI analyst who presented bogus hair analysis. Or the unforgettable case of Thomas Haynesworth, who spent a breathtaking 27 years in prison for rapes he didn’t commit..."
  
  http://www.lenconnect.com/article/20150428/OPINION/150429097
  
  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; 

  
  
  

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Bulletin: Pedro Hernandez: New York; Commentator says Patz jurors face unusual burden of mulling fate of confessed 'killer': SoHo: DNAinfo.com;

"As the Etan Patz trial enters its 11th week, jurors are facing an unusual burden: determining whether to convict Pedro Hernandez on the basis of his confessions without any physical evidence to back his tale — or free the only suspect to ever confess to the sensational 1979 murder. In most murder trials, defendants claim they are innocent, and the burden of proof falls on the prosecution to prove them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But in the Patz case, jurors face a defendant who has admitted several times he is Patz's killer. Justice Maxwell Wiley has instructed the jury that it cannot convict Hernandez solely on the accused man's own words, especially since Etan's body has never been found. That leaves jurors with the gut-wrenching responsibility of deciding between justice and potential closure for the Patz family by convicting Hernandez, now 54, against the possibility that they are convicting a mentally feeble man who was pressured into a false confession, as his lawyer argues. Hernandez’s defense lawyer Harvey Fishbein has insisted jurors disregard his client's numerous confessions, arguing that Hernandez only imagined that he killed Patz. Fishbein has argued that the killer was more likely Jose Ramos, a convicted pedophile who dated Etan's babysitter and has admitted to trying to molest the boy the day he went missing."

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150428/soho/patz-jurors-face-unusual-burden-of-mulling-fate-of-confessed-killer

Bulletin: Purvi Patel: Indiana; WSBT reports that she has fied an appeal of her neglect and feticide conviction. (Bravo. HL);

 

"A St. Joseph County woman has filed an appeal of her neglect and feticide conviction. Purvi Patel was sentenced late last month to 20 years in prison for causing her newborn's death and not getting help for the baby, before she leaving him in a dumpster. Prosecutors argued that Patel took drugs from China to end the pregnancy. Patel's attorney said there was no proof she took any drug."
http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/patel-files-appeal-of-neglect-feticide-conviction/32605850

Bulletin: Drager, the company that manufactures alcohol breath testing devices used by police throughout Massachusetts, is helping to review problems that may have compromised scores of drunk driving cases. Milford Daily News;

"The company that manufactures alcohol breath testing devices used by police throughout Massachusetts is helping to review problems that may have compromised scores of drunk driving cases. German-headquartered equipment manufacturer Dräger said Monday it is working with the state to assess breath tests conducted with its Alcotest devices.  Seven district attorneys have either temporarily suspended the use of breath test evidence in OUI cases under their jurisdiction, or have asked judges to continue those cases, after concerns arose earlier this year about the reliability of the tests."
http://www.milforddailynews.com/article/20150427/NEWS/150426

Mark Lundy: New Zealand; His lawyer announces an appeal of both conviction and sentence. No specific grounds of appeal disclosed. (Appeal will likely center on the scientific tests used to determine if brain matter belonging to Christine Lundy was found on Lundy's shirt). The New Zealand Herald.

STORY: "Mark Lundy to appeal double murder conviction," published by the New Zealand Herald  on April 28, 2015.

GIST:  "Mark Lundy will again appeal his double-murder conviction and sentence. Lundy was found guilty on April 1 of hacking to death his wife Christine and 7 year-old daughter Amber in their Palmerston North home. Despite an unsuccessful appeal and retrial since the killings in August 2000 and his first conviction in 2002, Lundy's lawyer Julie-Anne Kincade said the convicted murderer would appeal again. "I can now inform you that an appeal will be lodged with the Court of Appeal on behalf of Mark Lundy," Ms Kincade said in a statement this afternoon. "The appeal is against sentence and conviction. It is not appropriate to rehearse in any detail in a public forum the grounds of the appeal, but it can be said that the issues raised will include a consideration of the [messenger RNA] evidence," Ms Kincade said.........Although it was not yet clear precisely what evidence would be contested in an upcoming appeal, ribonucleic acid (RNA) was discussed during the most recent trial. A key plank of the Crown's case was that Christine Lundy's brain matter was found in one of her husband's polo shirts. According to prosecutor Philip Morgan, QC, testing showed two stains found on the shirt were from tissue one billion, billion times more likely to belong to Christine Lundy than any other person in New Zealand. Dr Laetitia Sijen from the Netherlands Forensic Institute told the court she arrived at a conclusion brain matter was present on Lundy's shirt based on tests performed on RNA in a sample. RNA indicated which part of the body cells came from and was different to DNA, which revealed who cells belonged to. Professor of molecular medicine Stephen Buston, from Angela Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK, told the jury Dr Sijen did not follow written instructions when conducting tests on the sample. He claimed there were problems with timings and the test. "The method they are using for the detection of RNA is not really fit for purpose," he said in court. "I would be highly reluctant to accept the results ... because of the technique that has been applied.".........In 2013, Lundy appealed to the Privy Council, which threw out his conviction and a retrial began on February 8 this year."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11439902

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; 

FBI overstated hair match crisis: (14); (The Emperor's Clothes); Miami Herald columnist Fred Grimm comments on the impact in Florida which is said to have made more use of this faulty analysis than any other state; Seth Miller, Director of the Innocence Project of Florida says, “What we now know is that an entire area of forensic science, both the analysis and the testimony on conclusions drawn from that analysis, were just plain wrong in virtually every instance.” (Must, Must Read, HL);

COMMENTARY: "Fred Grimm: Bad science contributes to convictions," by Fred Grimm, published by the Miami Herald on April 25, 2015.

GIST: "Bogus scientific testimony from FBI analysts helped put at least 10 defendants on Florida’s death row. One of those poor saps has since been executed. The same discredited evidence — based on the FBI Laboratory’s microscopic hair comparisons — contributed to another 32 Florida criminal convictions. The numbers are sure to grow.........Last week, the FBI, the Justice Department, the Innocent Project and the NACDL issued one of the more chilling joint statements you’ll ever read: “In the 268 cases where examiners provided testimony used to inculpate a defendant at trial, erroneous statements were made in 257 — 96% of the cases.” It gets worse: “Defendants in at least 35 of these cases received the death penalty and errors were identified in 33 (94%) of those cases. Nine of these defendants have already been executed and five died of other causes while on death row.” Imagine the effect on a jury when an expert from the FBI lab, after reciting his gaudy science-guy credentials, delivered damning testimony based on microscopic hair analysis. “What we now know is that an entire area of forensic science, both the analysis and the testimony on conclusions drawn from that analysis, were just plain wrong in virtually every instance,” Seth Miller, director of the Innocence Project of Florida, told me via e-mail. “The effect is most acute for Florida because we apparently made use of this improper analysis in more criminal cases than any other state,” Miller said. No state had more suspect convictions than Florida with 42. (Next was Pennsylvania with 21, then Texas with 20.)By the time these investigators finish reviewing the remaining 2,500 cases, Florida will likely have scores of other tainted convictions to add to our collective shame. Each case demands a thorough examination. Whether Florida lives up to its moral obligation is another question.........We can now add mendacious microscopic hair analysis to Florida’s unseemly methods of sending prisoners to death row, along with unreliable eye witnesses; dishonest and shoddy police work; false confessions elicited from frightened juveniles and mentally addled men; jailhouse admissions of guilt reported by cellmates looking for a get-out-of-jail deal. As judges and defense lawyers and prosecutors examine this new batch of tainted cases, Floridians might consider the moral risk when their imperfect justice system includes death row."

 The entire column can be found at:

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fred-grimm/article19504029.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fred-grimm/article19504029.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: David Harold Eastman: (Australia); Court protects identity of a mafia informant who will give potentially crucial evidence in any second trial; Judge rules "Witness "A"' faces serious and dangerous retribution if his identity is revealed. "Witness "A"' could form an important part of Eastman's defence. Canberra Times.

A mafia informant who will give potentially crucial evidence in any second trial of David Eastman faces serious and dangerous retribution if his identity is revealed, a judge has said. The informant, known only as "Witness A", could form an important part of Eastman's defence, should he face trial again for the murder of Assistant Federal Police Commissioner Colin Stanley Winchester in 1989.  The witness provided information to Victoria Police suggesting that another person with no connection to Eastman may have been responsible for Mr Winchester's murder. Revelations about the witness, heard during the inquiry into Eastman's conviction last year, breathed new life into an alternative theory that the Calabrian mafia, or 'Ndrangheta, assassinated Mr Winchester in the belief the senior policeman had double-crossed them.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/dangers-to-mafia-informant-real-and-compelling-eastman-judge-says-20150427-1mu4el.html