Nadezda Steele-Warrick: Brooklyn New York: Part One: Flawed drug tests in U.S. prisons...Their false results have been blamed for unwarranted onerous jailhouse punishments, Courthouse News (Reporter Amanda Ottaway) , reports... “After being alerted to concerns regarding the accuracy of a new buprenorphine drug test, DOCCS suspended use of the test, and out of an abundance of caution, immediately reversed any actions taken as a result of these tests, and restored privileges to any potentially affected inmates. The matter has been referred to both the Inspector General’s office and DOCCS Office of Special Investigations‎."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: "I have become increasingly concerned about the prevalence of false tests in recent years - especially in light of  revelations from the FBI  and Motherisk  scandals. Revelations of alleged false positives in drug tests in American prisons raise serious questions about the diagnostic equipment used - and whether other inmates than the subjects of this important Courthouse News story have been adversely affected,

Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The 36-year-old former inmate sued Delaware-based Microgenics Corporation, which makes clinical diagnostic products, and Thermo Fisher Scientific, which manufactured the urine-analysis drug tests. “What happened is not only – the effects are – not only shocking, but just the magnitude is shocking,” said attorney Alanna Kaufman of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff and Abady LLP, who represents Steele-Warrick. “This is a lot of people, hundreds of people, some of whom spent extra months in prison for things they didn’t do….they’re entitled to damages commensurate to their injuries.”

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The April 2019 drug test, a requirement for her participation in the family reunification program, twice in a row falsely tested positive for the opioid suboxone/buprenorphine, Steele-Warrick’s complaint says. Rumors had reportedly been swirling about false positives. “Even before Ms. Steele-Warrick had a false positive result, correction officers told her that they believed something was wrong with the machines,” the lawsuit states. After the false positives, Steele-Warrick and other inmates were allegedly punished with solitary confinement, loss of privileges like family visitation and preferred work assignments, and denial of parole release. “When the sergeant and correction officer informed her of the charge, Ms. Steele- Warrick thought at first they were joking, as she knew it was not possible for her to have a true positive result,” the complaint says. “She quickly learned they were serious when they handcuffed her, walked her out of her housing unit, and confined her in a disciplinary keeplock cell where she remained for 11 days.” Officers confiscated her personal belongings, moved her to a different cell that had steel bars instead of a door, and gave her a formal disciplinary hearing. She couldn’t get to her toothbrush, shampoo, or soap.  She lost her recreation privileges and was denied her last visit with her husband and son, which was extra devastating because she was undergoing immigration proceedings that she feared would lead to her deportation, the lawsuit says."

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STORY: "False Drug Test Results Blamed for Jailhouse Punishments," by reporter Amanda Ottaway, published by Courthouse News on November 20, 2019.

GIST: Nadezda Steele-Warrick was a model prisoner. She’d earned a spot in preferred housing, secured her GED, and worked as a teacher’s assistant and exercise coach. She also snagged a spot in the family reunification program, through which her husband and son could visit her and stay overnight in a private setting. Then a false positive on a prison drug test turned her life upside down. Steele-Warrick, who lives in Queens, filed a federal class action Wednesday against two diagnostic companies whose drug tests she says produced false positives, leading to punishment for inmates who were in fact clean. The 36-year-old former inmate sued Delaware-based Microgenics Corporation, which makes clinical diagnostic products, and Thermo Fisher Scientific, which manufactured the urine-analysis drug tests. “What happened is not only – the effects are – not only shocking, but just the magnitude is shocking,” said attorney Alanna Kaufman of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff and Abady LLP, who represents Steele-Warrick. “This is a lot of people, hundreds of people, some of whom spent extra months in prison for things they didn’t do….they’re entitled to damages commensurate to their injuries.” Kaufman said this is the first suit on the issue that she knows of on behalf of an incarcerated person. The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS, entered into a five-year contract with Microgenics in 2018 to provide the tests to 52 facilities in New York, according to the complaint. Steele-Warrick was held at Albion Correctional Facility near Rochester from June 2015 until May 2019. The April 2019 drug test, a requirement for her participation in the family reunification program, twice in a row falsely tested positive for the opioid suboxone/buprenorphine, Steele-Warrick’s complaint says. Rumors had reportedly been swirling about false positives. “Even before Ms. Steele-Warrick had a false positive result, correction officers told her that they believed something was wrong with the machines,” the lawsuit states. After the false positives, Steele-Warrick and other inmates were allegedly punished with solitary confinement, loss of privileges like family visitation and preferred work assignments, and denial of parole release. “When the sergeant and correction officer informed her of the charge, Ms. Steele- Warrick thought at first they were joking, as she knew it was not possible for her to have a true positive result,” the complaint says. “She quickly learned they were serious when they handcuffed her, walked her out of her housing unit, and confined her in a disciplinary keeplock cell where she remained for 11 days.” Officers confiscated her personal belongings, moved her to a different cell that had steel bars instead of a door, and gave her a formal disciplinary hearing. She couldn’t get to her toothbrush, shampoo, or soap.  She lost her recreation privileges and was denied her last visit with her husband and son, which was extra devastating because she was undergoing immigration proceedings that she feared would lead to her deportation, the lawsuit says. According to the complaint, DOCCS is currently in the process of overturning all positive results generated by the faulty tests, which it says are the result of a “cross reactivity” issue. “After being alerted to concerns regarding the accuracy of a new buprenorphine drug test, DOCCS suspended use of the test, and out of an abundance of caution, immediately reversed any actions taken as a result of these tests, and restored privileges to any potentially affected inmates. The matter has been referred to both the Inspector General’s office and DOCCS Office of Special Investigations‎. We are now preparing to pursue all legal remedies to the fullest possible extent under the law,” DOCCS spokesperson Thomas Mailey said in a statement Thursday. Thermo Fisher did not immediately return a request for comment, and Microgenics could not be reached for comment."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.courthousenews.com/false-drug-tests-results-blamed-for-jailhouse-punishments/

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; 


Adnan Syed: Major (disappointing) Development: The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected his appeal in the ‘Serial’ Cases, The Crime Report reports, citing NPR... "The U.S. Supreme Court will not consider an appeal by convicted killer Adnan Syed, the main subject of the “Serial” podcast, leaving in place a state appeals court decision keeping him in prison for life."

STORY: "Supreme Court Rejects Syed Appeal in ‘Serial’ Cases," published by The Crime Report on November 25, 2019.

GIST: "The U.S. Supreme Court will not consider an appeal by convicted killer Adnan Syed, the main subject of the “Serial” podcast, leaving in place a state appeals court decision keeping him in prison for life, NPR reports. Syed is serving a life sentence after a jury convicted him in 2000 of strangling to death his former girlfriend, 17-year-old Hae Min Lee, whose body was found in Baltimore. The case attracted an international following when it was featured in the 12-part podcast in 2014. In 2016, a Maryland court ordered a new trial, citing an alibi witness that was never explored by Syed’s defense attorney. In March, the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, determined in a 4-to-3 decision that Syed does not deserve a new trial.  The appeals court believed that Syed’s trial counsel was deficient but did not find any prejudice. Syed’s lawyer, Justin Brown, said he was “extremely disappointed” by the Supreme Court’s decision. “Two courts have said he deserves a new trial, and then Maryland’s highest court reversed that. We think it’s appalling,” Brown said. “We think this is a grave injustice. The way this has played out is sickening.” Brown said Syed’s legal fight isn’t over because his client was a juvenile sentenced to life in prison without a “meaningful opportunity for parole.” “That can be litigated in state court,” Brown said. “We won’t give up.""

The entire story can be read at:

https://thecrimereport.org/2019/11/25/supreme-court-rejects-syed-appeal-in-serial-case/

 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; 

Rodney Reed; Death Row: Texas: Reed: Aftermath: Part Three: Excellent Los Angeles Post commentary by former public defender Stephen Cooper, asks a very relevant question: "Why do some death row prisoners get celebrity help and others don’t?"..."A day after Sister Helen’s tweet issued, on November 13, Maurice Chammah, a writer for the Marshall Project and author of a forthcoming book about the Texas death penalty, also took to Twitter; shortly before Georgia executed Ray Cromartie, Chammah insightfully observed: “Still amazed [Cromartie’s] case has not gotten much attention despite untested DNA that could implicate someone else (like #RodneyReed) and an affidavit suggesting someone else committed the murder (also like Reed).” Clearly troubled, Chammah wrote that this “presents food for thought: Why do some death row prisoners get celebrity help and others don’t? Georgia is executing Ray Cromartie tonight, and the contrast to the attention on Rodney Reed is pretty stark.”

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Heller quotes GoFundMe’s C.E.O. Rob Solomon, who, while grimacing, admitted that “The reality of the social web is that connections are important,” and success raising money “really is dependent on a lot of different factors — like your network or your ability to tell a story that travels.” This led Heller to dolorously conclude: “People can speak their truths and still get lost within a labyrinth of trending interests, channeled audiences, and ten million individuated heartfelt pleas that don’t connect.” The same is true for prisoners on death row. The arbitrariness and the disparity in media and activist attention between different cases involving death row prisoners is itself a horror, and an unseemly byproduct of state-sponsored killing. This is true despite the fact that cases like those of Rodney Reed, Troy Davis in Georgia (in 2011), Keith Tharpe (also in Georgia), and Julius Jones (in Oklahoma), have successfully, though fleetingly, managed to seize and hold a sizable portion of the public’s sympathy for a measurable period of time; generally, only until after execution though. After that, it’s only trench weary abolitionists, defeated lawyers, and the demoralized friends and relatives of the executed that continue to carry the pain. And the loss. And the damn injustice of it all. The outsized difference in the media (and the resulting public) attention to the cases of different death row prisoners – despite often hard to discern differences legally, morally, and ethically – is why, rhetorically, in 2018, after the well-publicized botched execution of Doyle Hamm in Alabama, I bitterly observed: “If you have a high-profile lawyer with powerful friends and you’re tortured while on death row in Alabama, everyone in the nation not only knows about it – overwhelmingly, especially in liberal, progressive, civilized circles of thought and news – they’re righteously appalled. But poor death row inmates in Alabama . . . whose stories are not featured in the New Yorker multiple times, and, who have no well-connected, media-savvy friends and supporters?"

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COMMENTARY: "Death penalty horror: Stark disparities in media and activist attention," published by Los Angeles Post-Examiner on  December 18, 2019. Stephen Cooper is a former D.C. public defender who worked as an assistant federal public defender in Alabama between 2012 and 2015. He has contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers in the United States and overseas.

GIST: "On November 12, intrepid abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean tweeted to her legions of followers: “What do Sen. Ted Cruz, Gigi Hadid, Kim Kardashian, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and me all have in common? We’re among a growing local and national movement asking Texas @GovAbbott to stop the scheduled Nov. 20 execution of #RodneyReed[.]” But for Twitter’s character limitation on tweets, Sister Helen’s impressive and growing list of famous people — to publicly throw their support behind Reed’s bid to stop his impending execution — could have also included: Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, Cory Booker, Busta Rhymes, Ayanna Pressley, Ava Duvernay, Oprah, Beyoncé, Rihanna, LL Cool J, Reggie Bush, Meek Mill, Dr. Phil, Chuck Woolery, Beto O’Rourke, Common, Questlove, Larry Krasner, Greta Van Sustren, the Dixie Chicks, and many, many more (far too many for me to likewise list here). A day after Sister Helen’s tweet issued, on November 13, Maurice Chammah, a writer for the Marshall Project and author of a forthcoming book about the Texas death penalty, also took to Twitter; shortly before Georgia executed Ray Cromartie, Chammah insightfully observed: “Still amazed [Cromartie’s] case has not gotten much attention despite untested DNA that could implicate someone else (like #RodneyReed) and an affidavit suggesting someone else committed the murder (also like Reed).” Clearly troubled, Chammah wrote that this “presents food for thought: Why do some death row prisoners get celebrity help and others don’t? Georgia is executing Ray Cromartie tonight, and the contrast to the attention on Rodney Reed is pretty stark.” While perhaps not a satisfying answer to Chammah’s intriguing and disturbing inquiry, New Yorker staff writer Nathan Heller has provided, albeit unwittingly, in his July 1st article about the inequities of using GoFundMe to crowdfund medical costs, searing analysis I submit is equally applicable to why some death row prisoners receive more media and celebrity support than others. Heller quotes GoFundMe’s C.E.O. Rob Solomon, who, while grimacing, admitted that “The reality of the social web is that connections are important,” and success raising money “really is dependent on a lot of different factors — like your network or your ability to tell a story that travels.” This led Heller to dolorously conclude: “People can speak their truths and still get lost within a labyrinth of trending interests, channeled audiences, and ten million individuated heartfelt pleas that don’t connect.” The same is true for prisoners on death row. The arbitrariness and the disparity in media and activist attention between different cases involving death row prisoners is itself a horror, and an unseemly byproduct of state-sponsored killing. This is true despite the fact that cases like those of Rodney Reed, Troy Davis in Georgia (in 2011), Keith Tharpe (also in Georgia), and Julius Jones (in Oklahoma), have successfully, though fleetingly, managed to seize and hold a sizable portion of the public’s sympathy for a measurable period of time; generally, only until after execution though. After that, it’s only trench weary abolitionists, defeated lawyers, and the demoralized friends and relatives of the executed that continue to carry the pain. And the loss. And the damn injustice of it all. The outsized difference in the media (and the resulting public) attention to the cases of different death row prisoners – despite often hard to discern differences legally, morally, and ethically – is why, rhetorically, in 2018, after the well-publicized botched execution of Doyle Hamm in Alabama, I bitterly observed: “If you have a high-profile lawyer with powerful friends and you’re tortured while on death row in Alabama, everyone in the nation not only knows about it – overwhelmingly, especially in liberal, progressive, civilized circles of thought and news – they’re righteously appalled. But poor death row inmates in Alabama . . . whose stories are not featured in the New Yorker multiple times, and, who have no well-connected, media-savvy friends and supporters? They can be tortured just as terribly, just as brutally – they can be killed barbarically – and not many people in America, much less the rest of the world, knows a thing about it. Or worse, cares.” And so what I’d like to impress upon all people – the rich and powerful, but also the poor and unconnected, and all those in between – newly woken to the death penalty’s repugnance because of what they’ve heard and read about Rodney Reed: Rodney Reed’s case is no different than that of any other death penalty case in at least one regard. He’s a flesh-and-blood human being who deserves humane and just treatment, not extermination, regardless of whether you believe he is innocent and hasn’t had a fair legal process."

The entire commentary can be read at:
http://lapostexaminer.com/death-penalty-horror-stark-disparities-in-media-and-activist-attention/2019/11/18

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; 

Rodney Reed: Death Row: Texas: (Aftermath Part Two): Important New York Times story by reporter Richard A. Oppel Jr. inspired by the recent flood of exculpatory evidence relating to Rodney Reed warns that there may well be other Rodney Reed's out there...."Lawyers for death row prisoners frequently argue that their clients did not receive a fair trial, or file appeals on other procedural grounds. Yet researchers say there now are a striking number of cases in which significant doubts have been raised about the condemned man’s guilt."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Kudo's to The New York Times and its reporter Richard Oppel Jr. for this very important story inspired by the recent flood of exculpatory evidence relating to Rodney Reed  - a story which points out that there may well be other Rodney Reed's out there. One of them is  Larry Swearingen, who, sadly, was executed on August 21 of this year. This Blog has been following his case for years. Read on to learn about James Dailey and Richard Glossip. Mr. Dailey was set to be executed on Nov. 7 in Florida, but last month a federal district judge granted a stay until Dec. 30, to allow newly appointed federal public defenders to research the case and file petitions.  Shortly before Mr. Glossip’s scheduled execution in 2015, an Oklahoma appeals court voted 3 to 2 to deny a hearing to examine new evidence. One of the dissenting judges said that Mr. Glossip’s original trial was “deeply flawed.” Mr. Glossip was about to be executed days later when Oklahoma’s governor granted a last-minute stay because the state had the wrong execution drugs. Oklahoma hasn’t executed anyone since as the state revamps its procedures. 

Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog: 

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: “This year has had an extraordinarily high percentage of cases in which there is very serious evidence that people who did not commit the killing are being subjected to death warrants,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group that tracks executions. In at least one case, lawyers and family members have continued to push for new evidence long after an execution took place. On Monday, a Tennessee judge declined to allow DNA testing requested by the daughter of Sedley Alley, who was put to death in 2006 but claimed his confession was coerced. The daughter, April Alley, will continue to appeal and ask the State Supreme Court to grant permission.

Continue reading the main\  Bryce Benjet, Mr. Reed’s lawyer, said he doubted that there were a higher proportion of innocent people on death row than in the past. But efforts to vigorously contest death sentences now reveal dubious convictions more frequently, he said, bringing to the fore examples of bad forensic science and other prosecution evidence that wilts under close examination. “I don’t think the nature of the cases have changed,” said Mr. Benjet, a senior staff attorney at the Innocence Project who has represented dozens of death row inmates. “The nature of representation has changed.” Here are other current cases in which significant new evidence has surfaced. In each of them, prosecutors continue to argue that the accused was rightly convicted.

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STORY: "Not Just Rodney Reed: New Evidence Taints More Death Row Convictions," by national enterprise and investigative correspondent reporter Richard A. Oppel Jr., published by The New York Times on November 19, 2019.

SUB-HEADING: "A Texas court suspended Rodney Reed’s execution. But researchers say other current cases raise similar doubt about the guilt of the accused." 

GIST: "The number of executions in the United States remains close to nearly a three-decade low. And yet the decline has not prevented what those who closely track the death penalty see as a disturbing trend: a significant number of cases in which prisoners are being put to death, or whose execution dates are near, despite questions about their guilt. Rodney Reed, who came within days of execution in Texas before an appeals court suspended his death sentence on Friday, has been the most high-profile recent example, receiving support from Texas lawmakers of both parties and celebrities like Rihanna and Kim Kardashian West, who urged a new examination of the evidence. Mr. Reed has long maintained that he did not commit the 1996 murder for which he was convicted. And in recent months, new witnesses came forward pointing toward another possible suspect: the dead woman’s fiancé, a former police officer who spent a decade in prison for kidnapping and sexual assault. (He denies committing the murder.) Since the Supreme Court temporarily halted executions in 1972, at least 166 condemned inmates have been exonerated before their death sentences could be carried out. (Executions resumed in 1977 after states began revising their laws to comply with the high court ruling.) Advocates say that some innocent men have also been executed since then, including Cameron Todd Willingham, whom Texas put to death in 2004. Lawyers for death row prisoners frequently argue that their clients did not receive a fair trial, or file appeals on other procedural grounds. Yet researchers say there now are a striking number of cases in which significant doubts have been raised about the condemned man’s guilt.  “This year has had an extraordinarily high percentage of cases in which there is very serious evidence that people who did not commit the killing are being subjected to death warrants,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group that tracks executions. In at least one case, lawyers and family members have continued to push for new evidence long after an execution took place. On Monday, a Tennessee judge declined to allow DNA testing requested by the daughter of Sedley Alley, who was put to death in 2006 but claimed his confession was coerced. The daughter, April Alley, will continue to appeal and ask the State Supreme Court to grant permission.

Continue reading the main Bryce Benjet, Mr. Reed’s lawyer, said he doubted that there were a higher proportion of innocent people on death row than in the past. But efforts to vigorously contest death sentences now reveal dubious convictions more frequently, he said, bringing to the fore examples of bad forensic science and other prosecution evidence that wilts under close examination. “I don’t think the nature of the cases have changed,” said Mr. Benjet, a senior staff attorney at the Innocence Project who has represented dozens of death row inmates. “The nature of representation has changed.” Here are other current cases in which significant new evidence has surfaced. In each of them, prosecutors continue to argue that the accused was rightly convicted.

Larry Swearingen

Mr. Swearingen was convicted of the 1998 rape and strangulation of Melissa Trotter, a 19-year-old first-year student at a community college north of Houston.

Evidence at trial

The authorities immediately suspected Mr. Swearingen, who was seen talking to Ms. Trotter on Dec. 8, the day she disappeared. He was arrested three days later on unrelated warrants and charged with murder after her body was found on Jan. 2, 1999.

There were no witnesses to the abduction or killing. But prosecutors amassed circumstantial evidence that they said pointed to his guilt, including an anonymous letter he later admitted to have written from jail that contained information they said only the killer could have known. (Mr. Swearingen later said he had obtained the information from an autopsy report.)

The prosecution’s key evidence was one half of a pair of pantyhose recovered from Mr. Swearingen’s property. The state said it was a perfect match for another portion of hose that was used to strangle Ms. Trotter.

Continue reading the main story

New for the defense

Blood was found under Ms. Trotter’s fingernails, raising the possibility that she and the killer had engaged in a violent struggle. DNA tests determined that the blood was not Mr. Swearingen’s and had come from another man who could not be identified. But a prosecution witness explained that away during trial testimony, saying contamination had probably muddied the results. This year, though, a state crime lab director questioned that explanation. The timing of the death established at trial has also been called into question. The medical examiner testified that Ms. Trotter had been killed about 25 days before her body was found, placing the murder date on roughly the same day she disappeared. Since then, other experts have said the body was found within two weeks of death. The medical examiner also later said after reviewing additional evidence that she believed Ms. Trotter’s body had been dumped in the woods within two weeks of its discovery. Mr. Swearingen had already been in jail for 22 days when the body was discovered. Doubts emerged, too, about the pantyhose. Other experts determined that the hose recovered from Mr. Swearingen’s property — found only after the police had already searched twice, and after Ms. Trotter’s body was discovered — did not match the hose used to kill her.

Status of the case

Texas executed Mr. Swearingen on Aug. 21. His final statement was: “Lord forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.”

James Milton Dailey

Mr. Dailey was convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of Shelly Boggio, 14, whose body was found floating in the water near St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1985. She had been repeatedly stabbed and choked before drowning.

Evidence at trial

No witnesses or physical evidence tied Mr. Dailey to the killing. His co-defendant, Jack Pearcy, told the police that Mr. Dailey had committed the murder. Mr. Pearcy is serving a life sentence for his role in Shelly’s death. The case against Mr. Dailey, now 73, leaned heavily on the testimony of jailhouse informants who said Mr. Dailey had incriminated himself.

Continue reading the main story

New for the defense

In 2017, Mr. Pearcy stated in an affidavit that he had killed Shelly alone. “James Dailey was not present when Shelly Boggio was killed,” Mr. Pearcy wrote.

At a later hearing, Mr. Pearcy admitted that he had signed the affidavit, but said some of it was untrue. He refused to testify about its specific contents, invoking the Fifth Amendment.

An inmate who was once incarcerated with Mr. Dailey also stated that he had heard two of the jailhouse informants who had testified against Mr. Dailey plotting to provide prosecutors with false information about him so that they would get reduced sentences.

A third jailhouse informant, Paul Skalnik, is a former police officer whose credibility has been called into question. The Tampa Bay Times characterized him as a “prolific informer” who had been used to help send four men to death row even though he had racked up more than 20 convictions, including for grand larceny by fraud.

Status of the case

Mr. Dailey was set to be executed on Nov. 7 in Florida, but last month a federal district judge granted a stay until Dec. 30, to allow newly appointed federal public defenders to research the case and file petitions.

Richard Glossip

Mr. Glossip was convicted of arranging the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, the owner of a run-down motel in Oklahoma City that Mr. Glossip managed.Continue reading the main story

Evidence at trial

Prosecutors said Mr. Glossip had been stealing from the motel till and was afraid that he was about to be fired. They said he had enlisted Justin Sneed, a 19-year-old drifter doing maintenance work at the motel, to murder Mr. Van Treese in return for money.

The state’s case hinged on Mr. Sneed’s testimony against Mr. Glossip, in return for which Mr. Sneed, who admitted that he had committed the murder with a baseball bat, received a life sentence.

Prosecutors also highlighted Mr. Glossip’s behavior after the murder: In his first interview with police officers, for example, Mr. Glossip did not mention that Mr. Sneed had awakened him and told him about the killing. Mr. Glossip later said that he did not believe Mr. Sneed at the time.

New for the defense

No physical evidence tied Mr. Glossip to the murder, and his lawyers noted that Mr. Sneed had repeatedly changed his story before implicating Mr. Glossip. The lawyers later presented evidence that they said demolished Mr. Sneed’s credibility.

For example, Mr. Sneed’s cellmate before trial said Mr. Sneed talked extensively about the murder but never mentioned Mr. Glossip. Another inmate said that he had heard Mr. Sneed say he set Mr. Glossip up, and that he was “happy and proud of himself” for doing so. Richard Leo, an expert on false confessions, also reviewed the case and stated that investigators had fed Mr. Sneed the theory that Mr. Glossip had masterminded the killing and that Mr. Sneed would be the scapegoat for the crime if he did not confess.

Continue reading the main storThe state dismissed the statements by inmates who knew Mr. Sneed, saying “no one should believe the sworn word of ‘an admitted liar, drug abuser, and thief.’” Defense lawyers said it was hypocrisy to cite that rationale when so much of Mr. Glossip’s prosecution hinged on an admitted murderer testifying to avoid death row.

Status of the case

Shortly before Mr. Glossip’s scheduled execution in 2015, an Oklahoma appeals court voted 3 to 2 to deny a hearing to examine new evidence. One of the dissenting judges said that Mr. Glossip’s original trial was “deeply flawed.”

Mr. Glossip was about to be executed days later when Oklahoma’s governor granted a last-minute stay because the state had the wrong execution drugs. Oklahoma hasn’t executed anyone since as the state revamps its procedures."

The entire story can be read at:
 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/19/us/death-penalty-rodney-reed-crimes.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; 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/19/us/death-penalty-rodney-reed-cri
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; 

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; 
mes.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/19/us/death-penalty-rodney-reed-crimes.html

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Evidence at trial

Prosecutors said Mr. Glossip had been stealing from the motel till and was afraid that he was about to be fired. They said he had enlisted Justin Sneed, a 19-year-old drifter doing maintenance work at the motel, to murder Mr. Van Treese in return for money.

The state’s case hinged on Mr. Sneed’s testimony against Mr. Glossip, in return for which Mr. Sneed, who admitted that he had committed the murder with a baseball bat, received a life sentence.

Prosecutors also highlighted Mr. Glossip’s behavior after the murder: In his first interview with police officers, for example, Mr. Glossip did not mention that Mr. Sneed had awakened him and told him about the killing. Mr. Glossip later said that he did not believe Mr. Sneed at the time.

Image

Richard Glossip in 2014.Credit...Janelle Stecklein/Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., via Associated Press

New for the defense

No physical evidence tied Mr. Glossip to the murder, and his lawyers noted that Mr. Sneed had repeatedly changed his story before implicating Mr. Glossip. The lawyers later presented evidence that they said demolished Mr. Sneed’s credibility.

For example, Mr. Sneed’s cellmate before trial said Mr. Sneed talked extensively about the murder but never mentioned Mr. Glossip. Another inmate said that he had heard Mr. Sneed say he set Mr. Glossip up, and that he was “happy and proud of himself” for doing so.

Richard Leo, an expert on false confessions, also reviewed the case and stated that investigators had fed Mr. Sneed the theory that Mr. Glossip had masterminded the killing and that Mr. Sneed would be the scapegoat for the crime if he did not confess.

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The state dismissed the statements by inmates who knew Mr. Sneed, saying “no one should believe the sworn word of ‘an admitted liar, drug abuser, and thief.’” Defense lawyers said it was hypocrisy to cite that rationale when so much of Mr. Glossip’s prosecution hinged on an admitted murderer testifying to avoid death row.

Status of the case

Shortly before Mr. Glossip’s scheduled execution in 2015, an Oklahoma appeals court voted 3 to 2 to deny a hearing to examine new evidence. One of the dissenting judges said that Mr. Glossip’s original trial was “deeply flawed.”

Mr. Glossip was about to be executed days later when Oklahoma’s governor granted a last-minute stay because the state had the wrong execution drugs. Oklahoma hasn’t executed anyone since as the state revamps its procedures.

Rodney Reed. Death Row. Texas: Aftermath: Part One): Development: A retired judge (District Court Judge Jimmy Don. J.D. Langley) has been assigned to oversee the case. (Some interesting reporting on the judicial assignments thus far in the case - and on Judge Langley's background - with particular reference to death penalty motions. HL.)

STORY: "Retired Brazos County judge set to oversee Rodney Reed case," by reporter Erin  Wencle, published by KHOU 11,  on November 21, 2019.
 https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/brazos-county-judge-set-oversee-rodney-reed-case/285-a6cc1dfb-5a4d-4191-993b-d5773bd9f230

GIST: "Retired District Court Judge Jimmy Don J.D. Langley has been assigned to the controversial Rodney Reed Murder Case, according to an assignment notice filed in Bastrop County Thursday. Langley served for nearly 30 years in Brazos County's 85th Judicial District Court and is a Texas A&M graduate. He has been retired from practicing since Dec. 31, 2014. Langley also previously worked as an assistant district attorney and a county court of law judge. Langley was assigned the Reed case by Presiding Judge, Doug Shaver. The assignment notice allows Langley to be paid for his services for at least 15 days and after that time, he can file for an extension. The Rodney Reed case has been thrust into the international spotlight, after celebrities and political figures signed petitions and used their social media platforms to demand his stay of execution. Kim Kardashian West used her Twitter account, which is followed by more than 60 million people, to bring attention to Reed's story. Reed was set to be executed for the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites of Bastrop on Nov. 20. An appeals court order stayed the execution indefinitely Nov. 15, allowing Reed's trial court judge to hear from both the defense and prosecution on potential new evidence in the case. According to the documents, the assignment is set to begin Nov. 21. Our sister station in Austin, KVUE, has done an extensive investigation into this case. We have included those stories below for you to read further on the case that has captivated the nation.  We will keep you updated as more information becomes available."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: More details, including the letter of appointment,  and background on Judge Langley - with a specific reference to  motions he has tried on death  penalty cases -  have been provided by KXAN (Reporter Jody Barr) at the link  below: "

PASSAGE OF THE DAY:  (KXAN story): "During Langley’s time on the bench, he’s handled arguments over motions involving death penalty cases. One of the latest, most high-profile cases surrounded Marcus Druery. Druery was a week from execution when Langley denied a hearing from Druery’s lawyers who argued the convicted killer was not mentally fit to be executed. Their arguments were that Druery didn’t have a “rational” understanding for why he was being executed. Druery was convicted by a Brazos County jury in 2003 of robbing and murdering Skyyler Browne. Investigators found his burned body, riddled with bullet wounds, and dumped in a pond. Days before Druery’s Aug. 1, 2012 execution, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay, writing that “further review is necessary” before the state out Druery to death.  “Appellant’s competency motion, supplement, and attachments made a ‘substantial showing’ of incompetency,” the appeals court wrote in an Oct. 30, 2013 order, “…because they presented sufficient credible evidence that Appellant is incompetent to be executed. The trial court erred in weighing the credible evidence of Appellant’s incompetency against credible evidence of his competency to determine that he had not made a “substantial showing” of incompetency.” A court later found Druery incompetent to be executed."

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"After weeks of questions over whether the Rodney Reed case had a legally-appointed judge, a new filing shows retired District Court Judge Jimmy Don “J.D.” Langley is now Reed’s judge. Reed was set to be executed Nov. 20 after being convicted of the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites, but an appeals court order issued last Friday delayed Reed’s execution indefinitely while Reed’s trial court judge hears from Reed’s side and the prosecution over what Reed’s attorneys argue is new evidence in the case. An assignment notice filed in Bastrop County Thursday shows Langley’s pay for the Reed assignment “has been authorized not to exceed fifteen days.” “If the case or cases you are hearing under this assignment extend beyond the authorized time for compensation you must obtain an extension of time in order to receive compensation for anything beyond that period,” the notice stated. Langley served nearly 30 years as a district court judge in Brazos County’s 85^th Judicial District Court, winning reelection five times. A Texas A and M graduate, Langley graduated from the South Texas College of law in 1983. Langley did not seek reelection in 2014 and retired at the end of his term on Dec. 31, 2014. He was first elected as a district court judge in 1991 after working as a county court of law judge and an assistant district attorney in the mid-80s. Reed’s case is based in Bastrop County, which is in the Second Administrative Judicial Region. Langley was appointed to Reed’s case Thursday by the second region’s Presiding Judge Olen Underwood. Underwood is also the one who appointed Reed’s former judge, Doug Shaver. Questions surrounding Shaver’s appointment arose in early November when Reed’s side filed motions asking to have the July 2019 execution order voided. Shaver signed that order in July, but Reed’s side later argued that Shaver was not legally appointed to have signed the execution order, pointing out that Shaver’s 2014 assignment expired in 2014. Shaver was originally appointed to the Reed case in 2014 and was never reappointed by Presiding Judge Underwood. Reed’s side argued to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that decisions Shaver made in Reed’s case after 2014 should be voided. Days after Shaver signed Reed’s death warrant, on Aug. 9, Shaver sent the Texas Supreme Court a letter saying he was retiring. That same day Shaver also emailed his boss, Presiding Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield, telling Stubblefield he’d been in “fear” of making mistakes on “some important legal matter” and was stepping down as a judge. The state supreme court sent Shaver a letter on Aug. 19, thanking him for his service and accepting his retirement. Until Thursday’s appointment order came down from Underwood, there was no judge presiding over Reed’s case between Aug. 19 and Thursday’s appointment of Judge J.D. Langley. In response to Thursday’s appointment filing, Reed’s attorneys forwarded a new motion Reed’s side filed with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Reed wants the appeals court to amend its Nov. 15 order staying Reed’s execution and not addressing the legalities regarding Shaver’s appointment. Reed’s side wants Judge Carson Campbell, the elected judge of the 21st District Court, to hear Reed’s motions. During Langley’s time on the bench, he’s handled arguments over motions involving death penalty cases. One of the latest, most high-profile cases surrounded Marcus Druery. Druery was a week from execution when Langley denied a hearing from Druery’s lawyers who argued the convicted killer was not mentally fit to be executed. Their arguments were that Druery didn’t have a “rational” understanding for why he was being executed. Druery was convicted by a Brazos County jury in 2003 of robbing and murdering Skyyler Browne. Investigators found his burned body, riddled with bullet wounds, and dumped in a pond. Days before Druery’s Aug. 1, 2012 execution, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay, writing that “further review is necessary” before the state out Druery to death.  “Appellant’s competency motion, supplement, and attachments made a ‘substantial showing’ of incompetency,” the appeals court wrote in an Oct. 30, 2013 order, “…because they presented sufficient credible evidence that Appellant is incompetent to be executed. The trial court erred in weighing the credible evidence of Appellant’s incompetency against credible evidence of his competency to determine that he had not made a “substantial showing” of incompetency.” A court later found Druery incompetent to be executed. Druery still sits on death row today, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice records. Hearing dates in the Rodney Reed case have not yet been set. Langley told KXAN by phone Thursday he could not discuss his assignment or any of the pending matters in the Reed case since he will be deciding arguments from both sides. Multiple messages and calls to Bastrop County District Attorney Bryan Goertz have not been returned."
https://www.kxan.com/investigations/new-judge-assigned-to-hear-pending-rodney-reed-motions/

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;  

Confirmation Bias: 'Crime Report' story by Editor Stephen Handleman focusses on common flaws of police investigation including reliance on evidence that appears to corroborate their assumptions or "hunches" - and reports on a panel discussion focussing on "thinking errors.'...“The consequences of investigative failure are huge,” said D. Kim Rossmo, a criminologist at Texas State University, noting that sending the wrong individual to prison for murder means the real killer is still at large. Rossmo, who chaired a discussion entitled “The New Detective: Rethinking Criminal Investigations” at the American Society of Criminology’s annual conference in San Francisco Thursday, suggested that “thinking errors” were among the principal afflictions of crime investigators."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY:  “The consequences of investigative failure are huge,” said D. Kim Rossmo, a criminologist at Texas State University, noting that sending the wrong individual to prison for murder means the real killer is still at large. Rossmo, who chaired a discussion entitled “The New Detective: Rethinking Criminal Investigations” at the American Society of Criminology’s annual conference in San Francisco Thursday, suggested that “thinking errors” were among the principal afflictions of crime investigators. Detective work can be influenced by pressure from the public, the media, or local prosecutors to crack a controversial case quickly, and that in turn often persuades investigators to rely on evidence that appears to corroborate their assumptions or “hunches,” Rossmo said. Instead, detectives should check just as hard for evidence that might clear a suspect as they do for evidence of his guilt, he suggested. “We tend to regard significant evidence as important even when its reliability is low,” he said. “Evidence is not sufficient to solve a crime, even if it is significant.” The only way to correct for common errors such as “confirmation bias,” defined as seizing on facts that confirm your hunches, is to constantly question what seems like unshakable proof of guilt—a witness identification, a fingerprint at the murder scene, a cut-and-dried motive—and look just as hard for evidence that might demonstrate the innocence of the accused, he said. “It doesn’t matter how good our technology is,” said Rossmo. “If we have flawed thinking, it undermines judgment.”

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POST: "A detective's worst foe," by Editor Stephen Handleman  published by The Crime Report on November 15, 2019.

GIST: "The grizzled, world-weary detective who solves tough cases on a hunch is a staple of TV and movie crime dramas. But statistics tell a very different story about the achievements of real-life crime sleuths. “Clearance rates”—the percentage of solved crimes—for murder and other serious offenses have been plummeting at least since 1960; and disclosures of wrongful arrests have added more fuel to fiery critiques of the justice system. Much of the national attention to justice mistakes has focused on wrongful convictions that send innocent individuals to prison—or in some cases to Death Row.  But a growing body of scholarship has begun to examine why criminal investigations can go so badly wrong at the “gateway” to the system. “The consequences of investigative failure are huge,” said D. Kim Rossmo, a criminologist at Texas State University, noting that sending the wrong individual to prison for murder means the real killer is still at large. Rossmo, who chaired a discussion entitled “The New Detective: Rethinking Criminal Investigations” at the American Society of Criminology’s annual conference in San Francisco Thursday, suggested that “thinking errors” were among the principal afflictions of crime investigators. Detective work can be influenced by pressure from the public, the media, or local prosecutors to crack a controversial case quickly, and that in turn often persuades investigators to rely on evidence that appears to corroborate their assumptions or “hunches,” Rossmo said. Instead, detectives should check just as hard for evidence that might clear a suspect as they do for evidence of his guilt, he suggested. “We tend to regard significant evidence as important even when its reliability is low,” he said. “Evidence is not sufficient to solve a crime, even if it is significant.” The only way to correct for common errors such as “confirmation bias,” defined as seizing on facts that confirm your hunches, is to constantly question what seems like unshakable proof of guilt—a witness identification, a fingerprint at the murder scene, a cut-and-dried motive—and look just as hard for evidence that might demonstrate the innocence of the accused, he said. “It doesn’t matter how good our technology is,” said Rossmo. “If we have flawed thinking, it undermines judgment.” A similar approach had been urged on prosecutors, as a way of avoiding the kinds of tragedies that result from wrongful convictions. But rethinking the role of detectives may also involve looking beyond the investigative process. John Eck of the University of Cincinnati noted that the decline in clearance rates coincided with significant drops in the U.S. crime rate, raising the question of whether “solving crime (is) unrelated to reducing crime.” Eck, the co-author with Kim Rossmo of the study showing the 40-year drop in solved crimes, said his work should persuade law enforcement to focus not only on the quality of police investigations but also on crime prevention.
In areas where crime rates have bucked the national trend—in cities for instance where homicides have spiked—investigators and policymakers should be looking at the “crime-facilitating circumstances,” such as poor schools, decaying housing, and high poverty rates. Another panelist, former Los Angeles Times reporter Jill Leovy, author of “Ghettoside,” the bestselling account of the Los Angeles Police Department, said her own investigations showed that even before the 1960s, clearance rates in L.A. were massaged to provide misleading versions of crime investigations. “It’s a problem that goes back 100 years,” she said. A fourth speaker, Brian Forst of American University, called on policymakers to reexamine their general assumptions about the proactive crime-fighting strategies that have been in favor over the past decades, such as “intelligence-led” policing and “hot spot” policing, because they were as likely to lead to wrongful arrests as to increased public safety. Wrongful arrests arise from errors of “due process” or impunity—over-aggressive policing that places the goal of getting a suspected dangerous individual off the street ahead of the possibility that he may be innocent, Forst said. Many prosecutors’ offices are already shifting to a focus on identifying the kinds of systemic errors that have led to miscarriages of justice, using tools such as “conviction integrity units.” The approach, modeled on analytical strategies long used in medicine and aviation to understand why tragedies occur, is usually described as “Sentinel Event” thinking, and has been adopted by the Department of Justice in several pilot projects around the country.
Detectives should be trained in the same approach, suggested Forst. “A system of accountability should be in place to help detectives think more about error management than clearance rates,” he said. “Miscarriages of justice harm us all, and undermine the legitimacy of our system of justice. They deserve more thought than we have given them so far.""

The entire post can be read at:
https://thecrimereport.org/2019/11/15/a-detectives-worst-foe-flawed-thinking/

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; 


Reid Technique: Central Park Jogger case (often referred to as 'The Central Park Five'); False confession case: Incisive New York Law Journal article suggests that Reid has never acknowledged an uncomfortable truth: "that this lawsuit may expose if Duvernay and Netflix win: that is, that the Reid Technique, whether used correctly or incorrectly, can cause incalculable harm to innocent people and to justice itself."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination  (as well as false identification and jailhouse informants) – and because of the growing body of  scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects (especially juveniles)  are to widely used interrogation methods  such as  the controversial ‘Reid Technique.’"

 
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Whatever the outcome, Reid’s huffing about its reputation and corporate bottom line will assure that millions of viewers who did not catch or appreciate passing references to the Reid Technique will now learn about this company’s methods Although the Reid Technique has been updated since 1962, it still rests largely on old beliefs about behavioral psychology and the wishful notion that police officers can become foolproof human lie detectors. Once they have concluded from body language and words that a suspect is lying, Reid trains interrogating officers to reject denials of guilt. It teaches officers they may isolate vulnerable suspects in custody, falsely pose as the suspect’s friend or ally, minimize guilt or consequences to induce a confession, even lie to a suspect by claiming nonexistent evidence. It is confrontational, which can be intimidating. For some officers, it can become about confessions, not about truth. The results? The National Registry of Exonerations documents that almost one out of eight wrongfully convicted innocent people confessed falsely: about 12%, 304 of 2,503. When you consider youth and mental illness or disability, the percentages skyrocket as those in custody become younger or impaired. Because the Reid Technique has been used almost exclusively since the mid-1970s in the United States, a fair inference is that many of these confessions occurred with police officers who were, or thought they were, using the Reid Technique. Much of the world has moved on to newer, more reliable, non-confrontational interview techniques. America has not."

STORY:  "Now We See You: The Reid Technique and ‘When They See Us’, by Nancy Gertner and Dean Strang, published by The  New York Law Review on November 14,  2019. (Nancy Gertner is a retired federal judge of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, who left the bench to teach at the Harvard Law School. Dean Strang is a criminal defense lawyer, a visiting professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, the author of two books of legal history, and one of Steven Avery’s trial lawyers in the cases in Netflix’s ‘Making A Murderer’.)

SUB-HEADING: "Reid never has acknowledged an uncomfortable truth that this lawsuit may expose if Duvernay and Netflix win: that is, that the Reid Technique, whether used correctly or incorrectly, can cause incalculable harm to innocent people and to justice itself."
 

GIST:  (This story should be read in it's entirety at the link below - sign up for three free articles and you may well want to read more given the high standards of this well-respected  law journal - for now, here is a taste.) "You may not have heard of John E. Reid  and Associates, a Chicago firm that teaches law enforcement officers interrogation techniques. But you will now. Choosing two snippets from When They See Us, Ava Duvernay’s blockbuster series on the false confessions that New York police elicited from five teenaged boys in the Central Park jogger case, Reid has sued Duvernay and the distributor, Netflix, for defamation. It contends that the two bits of dialog—one referring to Reid’s interrogation technique as universally rejected and the other suggesting that the lengthy, arduous interrogations of the five teenagers were consistent with the technique—were false and damaged its reputation and business. Duvernay and Netflix may be able to defend on grounds that the disputed brief statements are true, or opinion, or within dramatic license. But Reid’s lawsuit raises deeper issues and reveals something about the firm itself. The lawsuit picks a precarious path. On one side, Reid claims—correctly—to be the leading trainer of police interrogation techniques in the country. On the other side, though, when courts find that interrogations by those trained in the Reid Technique have produced false confessions, Reid denies any fault: Interrogators must have misapplied the techniques. Reid is like Betty Crocker. If your cake isn’t so great, you must not have followed exactly the instructions on the box. Reid never has acknowledged an uncomfortable truth that this lawsuit may expose if Duvernay and Netflix win: that is, that the Reid Technique, whether used correctly or incorrectly, can cause incalculable harm to innocent people and to justice itself. "

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2019/11/14/now-we-see-you-the-reid-technique-and-when-they-see-us/

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;