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Truth in
Justice
Newsletter
Wrongful Conviction News from January-April, 2010
RECENT CASES
The
State of Oregon's case against Scott Cannon for the execution-style
murders of three people in 1998 rested on now-discredited bullet lead
analysis and the testimony of the victims' landlady, who told
police Scott was the last person at the residence and the only one who
could have committed the murders. The landlady has been
implicated in the killing of her husband and the murder of her
boyfriend, and is serving a prison sentence in the latter shooting
death.
UPDATE:
8/14/09--Salem, Oregon prosecutors have decided not to try to defend
bullet lead analysis in Scott Cannon's case. They have stipulated
to reversal of his conviction. Scott Cannon to get
a retrial.
UPDATE:
12/18/09--Prosecutors have dropped all charges against Scott Cannon,
admitting that the State destroyed the evidence in the case.
Note: The State does not say what this evidence was, since the
little there was in the first place has been discredited, and a
reasonable person must suspect the authorities are lying to save
face. Meanwhile, Scott Cannon is Free.
On
Thursday, January 14, 2010, Michael Tillman walked out of the Cook
County Courthouse and headed straight for Mac Arthur's Restaurant, a
soul food institution on Chicago's West Side. After 23 years of
being wrongfully incarcerated and facing a life behind bars, the
barbeque ribs tasted particularly sweet. "If it
weren't for the publicity that was brought to the case in the early
stages, being only a couple of years ago, by AlterNet… he might still
be in prison now," Flint Taylor founding partner of the People's Law
Office and co-counsel in Tillman's case, told AlterNet.
In
1998, 17-year-old Jarrett Adams, an African American from the South
Side of Chicago, was falsely accused and ultimately wrongfully
convicted of raping a white woman. He spent 8 years in prison
before he was exonerated in 2007 with the help of the Wisconsin
Innocence Project. Since his release, Jarrett has gone back
to college and ultimately plans to attend law school so that he can
become a criminal defense attorney. On December 23, 2009, Jarrett was
inexplicably denied compensation for his wrongful conviction. (A
YouTube documentary by John Maki.)
In
2008, Waynesville, NC resident Donald “Pete” McCracken Jr., 40, was
indicted on a charge of first-degree rape — a B1 felony that, at the
time, carried a minimum sentence of 16 years in prison, with a maximum
sentence of up to life without parole. Almost
14 months later, the alleged victim recanted the accusation and the
charge against McCracken was dismissed. He was declared innocent. But
it cost him more than $100,000 and a “year of hell” to clear his name.
Still, he fears his reputation may be tainted beyond repair.
Ronald Taylor and
George Gould
Two
Connecticut men imprisoned for 16 years in a murder that a judge says
they did not commit were ordered freed on Thursday. Rockville
Superior Court Judge Stanley Fuger said
in a ruling that the two men were victims of "manifest injustice" when
they were convicted of the 1993 killing of a New Haven store owner. The
star witness against them has since recanted, and a private
investigator hired by state public defenders concluded the men's DNA
was not found on a cord used to tie the victim's hands.
The
Innocence Project Northwest is seeking — on the basis of DNA testing
unavailable at the time of the crime — a new trial for two
Orchards-area men convicted in 1993 of attacking a woman in La
Center. “New
evidence has proven what the defendants have maintained for 17 years,”
said John Pantazis, staff attorney for the Innocence Project Northwest
Clinic in Seattle. “They are completely innocent.”
UPDATE: On
April 21, 2010, Clark County Superior Court Judge Diane Woolard vacated
the sentences of Alan G. Northrop and Larry W. Davis.
A
former Rochester, NY truck driver who spent nearly 19 years behind bars
for a 1988 slaying he didn't commit walked free April 28, 2010 after
DNA testing exonerated him and instead pointed to a man who strangled a
4-year-old girl in 1994. This is yet another case in which police
coerced a false confession from an innocent man. They got a
conviction, but they allowed the killer to kill again.
Rochester,
NY makes the news twice in one week, when the NY Court of Appeals threw
out Mr. Richardson's conviction. The trial judge should have caught this,
but instead put his seal of approval on a coerced Alford plea by
Rashjeem Richardson and sent him to prison for a knife attack someone
else committed. Rochester prosecutors said four witnesses
identified Mr. Richardson, when only one did so, and she retracted the
next day because she had been drunk when she fingered him. When
faced with a choice between a conviction and truth, prosecutors in
Rochester choose a conviction.
New
lab tests show that DNA recovered from the semen-stained underwear of a
12-year-old rape victim couldn't have come from the man who has served
more than 27 years in prison for the crime. Raymond Towler has
maintained his innocence for nearly three decades, insisting he wasn't
the man who abducted two young children from a Cleveland park on May
24, 1981. His
lawyers with the Ohio Innocence Project say the results prove Towler's
innocence.
UPDATE:
On May 5, 2010, a beaming Raymond Towler was fold by Judge Eileen
Gallagher: "Mr. Towler, you are free
to go."
DEATH
PENALTY ISSUES
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American
Law Institute, which created the intellectual framework for the modern
capital justice system almost 50 years ago, has pronounced its project
a failure and walked away from it. The ALI provided the
only intellectually respectable support for the death penalty system in
the United States. The death penalty, the ALI has decided, is
irretrievably broken. |
Judge Declares Death
Penalty Unconstitutional
A
Houston judge on Thursday granted a pretrial motion declaring the death
penalty unconstitutional, saying he believes innocent people have been
executed. “Based on the moratorium (on the death penalty) in
Illinois, the Innocence Project and more than 200 people being
exonerated nationwide, it can only be concluded that innocent people
have been executed,” state District Judge Kevin Fine said. “It's safe
to assume we execute innocent people.”
Unfortunately, Judge Fine reversed himself a few days later. It's
safe to assume we can't bring those innocent people who have been
executed back to life.
INNOCENT IMPRISONED
Koua
Fong Lee, serving
eight years for vehicular homicide because of a fatal crash involving
his Toyota Camry, is hoping for exoneration amid concerns over
unintended acceleration in some of Toyota's vehicles. He has
always maintained his innocence in the 2006 crash, which killed Javis Adams,
33, his 10-year-old son, Javis Adams Jr., and 6-year-old Devyn
Bolton. Mr.
Lee is not the first innocent person convicted of murder due to a
defective auto. Sheila Bryan was convicted of killing
her mother (and later cleared) because the defective ignition switch in
her Ford caused a fatal fire.
Representatives
from The Connecticut Innocence Project, a division of the state public
defender services, have collected evidence in the case of Erik C.
Rasmussen, who was 25 in 1990 when a jury convicted hm of murdering his
wife, 22-year-old Loreli T. Rasmussen. Rasmussen,
who has maintained his innocence since his arrest, would be the first
case examined with the help of a nearly $1.5 million post-conviction
DNA federal grant awarded collectively to the Connecticut Innocence
Project, Office of the Chief State’s Attorney and state forensic
science laboratory.
In
1985, Cress was convicted of raping and battering Battle Creek, MI
teenager Patty Rosansky, leaving her body in a trash-filled
ravine. Since
then, his case has been argued through state and federal courts in a
bewildering history of lost and destroyed evidence, contrary
confessions from an Arkansas killer, pleas by a U.S. senator and
demands of prosecutors and the Rosansky family that he never go
free. Now
his bid for release is before the board that will advise Gov. Jennifer
Granholm.
Steve Haddock visits the grave of his mother, Barbara, a
few times a year at the St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Lenexa,KS. The
plot next to Barbara is reserved for Steve’s father, Ken. The
inscription on the headstone reads “Ken and Barbie Forever.” In a
complicated legal case, Steve and his two sisters, Jen and Jody, have
been fighting for the release of their father for nearly two decades,
never losing faith in his innocence. “There was never, ever any
thought in our minds that our dad could have done this,” Steve said.
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HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS
Missed it by that
much. The
U.S. Supreme Court announced late on January 4, 2010 that it had
dismissed an important pending case over prosecutorial immunity after
being alerted that the dispute had been settled. The action stops in
its tracks a case that could have produced a landmark decision that
many believed would have reined in the longstanding tradition that
prosecutors cannot be held liable for their actions as prosecutors.
Another reminder
of the role of the press in exonerations. On Thursday,
January 14, 2010, Michael Tillman walked out of the Cook County
Courthouse and headed straight for Mac Arthur's Restaurant, a soul food
institution on Chicago's West Side. After 23 years of being
wrongfully incarcerated and facing a life behind bars, the barbeque
ribs tasted particularly sweet. "If
it weren't for the publicity that was brought to the case in the early
stages, being only a couple of years ago, by AlterNet… he might still
be in prison now," Flint Taylor founding partner of the People's Law
Office and co-counsel in Tillman's case, told AlterNet.
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More innovation in
Illinois to chill journalist investigations. In 1994,
Carolyn Nielsen was a graduate student at Northwestern University's
Medill School of Journalism when she wrote stories that questioned the
trial and subsequent murder conviction of a 14-year-old Chicago
boy. Nothing
came of it then. The boy, Thaddeus Jimenez,
was sent to prison and Nielsen went on to become an assistant professor
of journalism at Western Washington University. But Ms. Nielsen's
work got the attention of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, and their
efforts led to his exoneration in May of 2009. Now that he's sued
the cops who framed him, the police defense lawyers want Ms. Nielsen's
notes from 1994.
The Wrong Man. In the fall
of 2001, a nation reeling from the horror of 9/11 was rocked by a
series of deadly anthrax attacks. As the pressure to find a culprit
mounted, the FBI, abetted by the media, found one. The wrong one. This
is the story of how federal authorities blew the biggest anti-terror
investigation of the past decade—and nearly destroyed an innocent man.
Here, for the first time, the falsely accused, Dr. Steven J. Hatfill,
speaks out about his ordeal.
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POLICE/PROSECUTOR
MISCONDUCT
Illinois. A
case that was about whether a convicted man is innocent has morphed
into an increasingly personal brawl between two heavyweights unwilling
to back down—with academics, prosecutors, freedom of the press
advocates, and students hanging on the judge’s decision. The Professor and
the Prosecutor.
Colorado. So just what have
cops and prosecutors in the Rocky Mountain State learned from the case
of Tim Masters--a
vulnerable kid targeted to clear a disturbing murder, railroaded
through court and convicted on speculation and innuendo because there
was no evidence against him? Douglas County Sheriff David Weaver
and DA Carol Chambers give a resounding answer: Nothing, absolutely
nothing.
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Massachusetts.
Frankly, we never thought we would see it happen. Between 1991
and 1993, Boston U.S. Attorney Jeffrey
Auerhahn concealed evidence that might have cleared Vincent
Ferrara and Pasquale Barone of murder charges. No big deal.
Business as usual. In 2005, the USDOJ Office of Professional
Responsibility found Auerhahn acted with "reckless
disregard of discovery obligations," but all he "suffered" was a
private reprimand. But Auerhahn's conduct has been referred to a
state agency, and he'll face a 3-judge disciplinary panel. The Tide is Turning. Click HERE for
the back story.
North
Carolina. State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) agent
Michael Deaver stands with a foot in each camp -- junk science and
egregious police misconduct. He can take a great deal of credit
for Greg Taylor's conviction for a crime he didn't commit, because
Deaver selectively reported -- and testified to -- finding blood in
Taylor's truck, when he knew that more sophisticated tests showed the
substance wasn't blood at all. SBI
Director Robin Pendergraft stands behind Deaver, but there is a growing
call across the state: Re-examine Old Cases.
Maryland. In
Baltimore, Donnie Chestnut's trial was delayed 15 times. Small
wonder. The state had no basis for the drug charges filed against
him, and no justification for shooting him four times. He was
acquitted -- and filed suit the
same day.
New
Jersey. An
assistant Camden County prosecutor accused of withholding evidence
resigned after prosecutors agreed they never turned over all the
information required when a Camden man charged with murder tried to
prove his innocence. Harry
Collins, who has been with the office for more than 15 years, resigned
after the prosecution of Perman Pitman came under scrutiny. Pitman was
freed last month shortly after officials discovered a handwritten note
by Collins that said a witness had been paid to lie. "Please
destroy this note."
Florida. Now that
Anthony Caravella's conviction for the 1983 rape and murder of Ada Cox
Jankowski has been tossed by DNA, officials there are forced to face
the fact that now-retired Sheriff's Deputy Tony Fantigrassi 's real
talent was extracting false confessions from innocent people. And
then there's the crime lab. A legacy of
corruption.
New York. The trial
judge should have caught this, but instead put his seal of approval on
a coerced Alford plea by Rashjeem Richardson and sent him to prison for
a knife attack someone else committed. Rochester prosecutors said
four witnesses identified Mr. Richardson, when only one did so, and she
retracted the next day because she had been drunk when she fingered
him. When faced with a choice between a conviction and truth,prosecutors in
Rochester choose a conviction.
False
Allegations of Child Abuse
Shaken
Baby Syndrome
An
acquittal should have brought Brian Kalinowski's nightmare to an end.
Instead, it continues for the 33-year-old Palatine, IL man found not
guilty of shaking and seriously injuring his infant son.
Kalinowski and his wife, who has not been implicated in any wrongdoing,
still face charges they abused and neglected their son, says defense
attorney Lawrence Lykowski. This despite a finding of not guilty from
Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Etchingham. A spokeswoman for the
Cook County State's Attorney confirmed an abuse case against the couple
is pending in juvenile court. They'll get you one
way or another.
False
Allegations of Sexual Abuse
In
2008, Waynesville, NC resident Donald “Pete” McCracken Jr., 40, was
indicted on a charge of first-degree rape — a B1 felony that, at the
time, carried a minimum sentence of 16 years in prison, with a maximum
sentence of up to life without parole. Almost
14 months later, the alleged victim recanted the accusation and the
charge against McCracken was dismissed. He was declared innocent. But
it cost him more than $100,000 and a “year of hell” to clear his name.
Still, he fears his reputation may be tainted beyond repair. The high cost of
innocence.
Daniel
Velez walked into Superior in Milford, CT on April 29, 2010, accused of
committing vile acts against a child, but walked out a free man,
exonerated of all charges against him. At
the end of a four-day trial, a jury deliberated for just two hours
before finding Velez, 45, of New Haven, CT, innocent of raping a
9-year-old male relative in the boy’s West Haven home. But the allegation alone is
poison.
Links on the Tonya Craft witch hunt in Catoosa County, Georgia: Truth for Tonya and William L. Anderson Blog
Arson or
Accident?
The inability of arson investigators to recognize the
difference could put YOU in prison - or worse. |
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"He is like the father of
the science-based fire investigation, along
with a couple others who were willing to take fire investigation from
what was basically an art to a science," Jim Mazerat, a 37-year fire investigator
from New Orleans, says.
"That met a lot
of resistance from your average fire investigator, so you have to have
real character to be able to stand up to that." Dozens of
innocent people literally owe their lives to him.
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Life After Exoneration
Jarrett Adams. In
1998, 17-year-old Jarrett Adams, an African American from the South
Side of Chicago, was falsely accused and ultimately wrongfully
convicted of raping a white woman. He spent 8 years in prison
before he was exonerated in 2007 with the help of the Wisconsin
Innocence Project. Since his release, Jarrett has gone back
to college and ultimately plans to attend law school so that he can
become a criminal defense attorney. On December 23, 2009, Jarrett was
inexplicably denied compensation for his wrongful conviction. (A
YouTube documentary by John Maki.) |
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INNOCENCE
PROJECTS
Innocence
Projects provide representation and/or investigative assistance
to prison inmates who claim to be innocent of the crimes for which they
were
convicted. There is now at least one innocence project serving each
state (except Oregon and Tennessee, whose programs are undergoing
reorganization).
Most of these innocence projects are new and overwhelmed with
applications,
so waiting time between application and acceptance is long. Wrongfully
convicted persons should not be dissuaded from applying to Innocence
Projects because of this, but should have realistic expectations
regarding acceptance and time
lags. Check the list for the innocence project in your area; we
update
it regularly.
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RECOMMENDED
READING
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Three
Felonies a Day
by Harvey Silvergate
Harvey Silverglate’s Three Felonies
A Day focuses on how federal prosecutors invent creative
interpretations of statutes, sometimes creating new felonies out of
vague language or thin air, felonies never legislated by Congress.
Federal criminal law is today so vast and so poorly worded that
Silverglate reports, truthfully, each of us, every American, commits
three felonies every day without knowing it. A respected Boston
civil liberties lawyer, Mr. Silverglate shows his readers why federal
prosecutors target innocent people (career enhancement) and how they do
it (dispensing with the need to show criminal intent in order to commit
a crime). The careers of Rudy Giuliani, William Weld and Michael
J. Sullivan were built on the backs of innocent defendants.
Click HERE for
L. Gordon Crovitz's review, published in the Wall Street Journal.
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OF
NOTE: Phillip Finch's landmark book, Fatal Flaw: A True
Story of Malice and Murder in a Small Southern Town,
is once again available. Fatal
Flaw can be purchased in printed copy or may be downloaded free
of charge from the website of the publisher, Libertary.com. Click
HERE for
more information.
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LINKS
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Truth in Justice are frequently updated. Be
sure
to check them for resources, "must" reading, websites of inmates with
compelling
innocence claims and more. Start at
http://truthinjustice.org/links.htm
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