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Truth in
Justice
Newsletter
Wrongful Conviction News from February and March, 2008
The
long-awaited decision handed down in Mumia Abu-Jamal's federal appeal
weighed in at 118 pages but changed nothing as the 3rd U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's ruling that upheld
Abu-Jamal's conviction but overturned his death sentence because of
potentially confusing jury instructions.
INNOCENT IMPRISONEDArthur Johnson of Sunflower, Mississippi is poised to become the first inmate freed by DNA exoneration in that state's history. Johnson is serving a 55-year sentence for a 1992 rape conviction -- a rape that DNA tests show he did not commit. His freedom, however, is no sure bet. Mississippi has no legal procedures in place to deal with evidence preservation or post-conviction DNA testing. One thing is certain, however: There are a lot more Arthur Johnsons in Mississippi's prisons. UPDATE: 2/25/08 - Arthur Johnson was released on $25,000 bond and went home with his family for the first time in 15 years. Although he has been excluded by DNA, the Sunflower County DA will re-try Johnson in July, 2008. In 1990, when he was charged with the murder of Myron Hailey in Fayetteville, NC, Lamont McKoy turned down a plea deal that would have had him out of jail in 7 months. He knew he was innocent, and he believed a jury would see that. He was wrong. With only speculation and innuendo as evidence, the state convinced a jury of Lamont's guilt. He has been in prison ever since. Now he's hoping the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence can help him clear his name and gain his freedom. Don Siegelman, former Democratic Governor of Alabama, has a lot in common with Georgia Thompson. Both were prosecuted for acts that were not crimes, by politically motivated U.S. Attorneys, at the behest of vengeful politicos highly placed in the Bush administration. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals tossed Thompson's conviction at the conclusion of oral argument, ordering her immediate release from prison. It has taken longer, but the foundation of lies and corruption underlying Siegelman's conviction is starting to crumble. Clearly, Bush and his cronies have turned the U.S. Department of Justice into a cadre of political operatives. This is a story about an innocent man who has been in prison for 26 years while two attorneys who knew he was innocent stayed silent. They did so because they felt they had no choice. Alton Logan was convicted of killing a security guard at a McDonald's in Chicago in 1982. Police arrested him after a tip and got three eyewitnesses to identify him. Logan, his mother and brother all testified he was at home asleep when the murder occurred. But a jury found him guilty of first degree murder. New evidence reveals that Logan did not commit that murder. What is worse, the attorneys for the real killer, Andrew Wilson, knew Logan was innocent, but could not violate lawyer-client confidentiality to expose him. The Innocence Project at Cooley Law School in Lansing has secured a new hearing for Nathaniel Hatchett, who was convicted in 1998 in Macomb County Circuit Court on charges of kidnapping, criminal sexual conduct and carjacking. One of the main issues raised by the project's law students was why the court and defense were never notified of additional DNA samples that were taken from the victim's husband as part of the investigation. DNA samples taken from the victim did not match Hatchett, either, but the prosecutor led the judge to believe that the DNA samples were from the victim's husband. In 2004, Sebastian Burns and Atif Rafay were convicted in a Washington state court of the brutal bludgeoning of Atif's father, his mother and his autistic sister.They were also convicted in the court of public opinion. We believe that they are in prison for the remainder of their lives because the public and the jury were denied access to the truth.
Erik and Sean Ibarra --
the power of common men. In
a press release, Rosenthal said prescription drugs had impaired his
judgment. But it was what happened inside a southeast Houston
home six years ago that led to events in a federal courtroom and to
Rosenthal's resignation.
Wrong voice on the tape. Start with a 20-year-old cold case, two missing teenagers, and call their disappearance murder. Pick a suspect, a rapist serving a long prison term. Use a state psychologist to "help" the suspect's sister come up with "recovered memories" of seeing the missing teens at her family's farm. Recruit a seasoned snitch to get a confession on tape. Voila! You've got a conviction -- almost. POLICE/PROSECUTOR
MISCONDUCT
California: The Orange
County case against James Ochoa for robbing three restaurant workers
was tainted at every level: police misconduct in manipulating the
victims' identification of James and misrepresenting the responses of a
police tracking dog; efforts by the DA's office to bully crime lab
scientists into lying about the DNA exclusion
of James as the robber; and the inexcusable conduct of Judge Robert
Fitzgerald in extorting a guilty plea from James by threatening him
with life in prison.
False
Allegations of Child AbuseIn a rare series of real-time reports about the prosecution of James Ochoa, R. Scott Moxley told readers of the Orange County Weekly exactly which public servants were perverting justice and how they were doing it. As you read these, keep in mind that for the police, prosecutors and judge, business goes on as usual. Moreover, the DA is starting up his own crime lab, so he won't have to put up with scientists who refuse to lie about their findings.
Also see how the California Attorney General played games with James Ochoa's compensation: Making a Chew Toy of Justice Shaken
Baby Syndrome
On the
Thursday before Labor Day, 2007, while Julianna Caplan of Washington,
DC was changing the diaper on one of her twins, she heard a dull thud.
She turned around to see her other 8-month-old trying to push herself
up from the floor, where she'd been playing, and knock her head. There
were no bumps or bruises, but over the next few hours, the little girl
acted fussy, then altogether out of sorts. After she began throwing up
and drifting off to sleep, her parents grew concerned, called the
doctor and ended up at Children's Hospital. The
baby recovered fully within 24 hours, but Caplan and her husband,
Greg, remain trapped in the District's frightening child-abuse
system. Family
Services Well Done, or Overdone?
In the UK, new medical evidence could clear childminder (babysitter) Keran Henderson, who is serving a three-year prison sentence after being convicted of shaking an 11-month-old girl to death. That new evidence comes from this side of the Atlantic. Dr Chris Van Ee, professor of biomechanics at Wayne State University in Detroit, claims tests with crash dummies and corpses show that falling off a sofa -- as the Caplan twin accidentally did -- does far more damage than shaking. Conclusion: the science behind shaken baby syndrome is flawed. False Allegations of Sexual Abuse
Just when you think you've seen it all ... Ted White of Lee's Summit, MO served 5 years of a 50-year sentence after he was falsely convicted of sexually molesting his step-daughter. His conviction was overturned in 2005, and he was acquitted at re-trial. Lee's Summit police detective Richard McKinley, who was having an affair with White's then-wife, Tina, framed White on false charges to get rid of him. Tina subsequently married McKinley, and Ted White is suing them both. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit has ruled that White has a right to sue. It started with a phone call from CPS, telling North Texas home builder Douglas Buchar that his 12-year-old adopted daughter had accused him of sexually assaulting him. Over the next two years, his wife was also charged, although the charges were dismissed, and the couple lost their business, their home and their two biological children. A jury has found him not guilty of the sexual assault charge. But getting his kids back is a separate, uphill battle.
The HPD Crime Lab is
back in the news, not because it cleaned up its act, but because it
continues its tradition of sloppy testing and perjured testimony.
Doubt Cast on
Lawrence Napper Molestation Conviction
Lawyer Questions Truth of Lab Scientist's Testimony HPD Chief Promises Review of George Rodriguez Case Officials Urge Special Probe of Crime Lab UPDATE: George Rodriguez, exonerated by DNA, wonders "Why am I Still in Prison?" UPDATE: HPD has discovered 280 boxes of evidence "lost" in its property room. Time for Probe? UPDATE: Tests Find Christy Kim's Analysis Just Plain Wrong in Yet Another Case UPDATE: HPD Admits It Failed to Review Suspect Work Few people listened when Ronald Gene Taylor declared himself innocent of a rape charge 14 years ago. But the Harris County District Attorney's Office finally agreed with him on October 3, 2007, acknowledging that the scandal-plagued Houston Police Department crime lab was responsible for sending yet another wrong person to prison. The crime lab said there was no semen on a sheet taken from the rape scene. New tests yielded the DNA profile of another man, a sex offender currently in prison, who looks very much like Taylor. Another Blow to Lab. In 1998, a rape victim identified Josiah Sutton as one of her assailants when she saw him on the street, and the Houston, Texas crime lab claimed DNA tests implicated him. The crime lab has been shut down because of the poor quality of its work, and new DNA tests have excluded Josiah. 4 1/2 Years in Prison -- for Nothing Never mind. A city panel has reinstated Christy Kim, adopting the theory that individual lab analysts who testify as expert witnesses have no personal responsibility for their work. Meanwhile, Josiah Sutton is still waiting for a pardon. Another Free Pass Small wonder the DNA analysts at the Houston Police Crime Lab did such a poor job. None of them were qualified by education and training to do their jobs. The founder of the DNA lab, James Bolding, retired rather than be fired. Among other things, he failed both algebra and geometry in college, though he later passed both, and he never took statistics. Interim update on Houston Police Crime Lab. New DNA tests on evidence from four cases originally processed by the Houston Police Department's troubled crime lab have found significantly weaker links between the evidence and the defendants than the first results. Crime Lab 'Just Way Off' in Calvin Jermany Case No indictments were returned, but a Harris County grand jury completing its investigation of the Houston Police Department crime lab Friday criticized how officials dealt with the problem that shook public confidence in the criminal justice system. Plato was Right - Science without Virtue is Immoral Science Two grand juries investigating problems in Houston's police crime laboratory have widened their inquiry to include local prosecutors, asking about their potential culpability for winning convictions with Tainted Evidence . The head of the DNA division of the Houston Police Department's crime lab has offered testimony in at least three cases that has later turned out to be wrong, according to court transcripts. "They intentionally mislead," said Dr. Elizabeth Johnson, the former head of the DNA lab at the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office who now often works as a consultant for criminal defense teams. "And in all the cases I've been involved in, they always mislead in favor of a conviction." Houston Democratic state Rep. Harold Dutton says, "We have a name for that in Texas, and that is Perjury ." When handled, analyzed and interpreted correctly, DNA evidence works to exclude the innocent and convict the guilty. But when the same evidence is handled and analyzed in shoddy lab conditions and by incompetent lab staff, the consequences can be dire. One consequence is that the innocent are convicted. But another consequence is that the real perpetrators go free and continue to commit crimes. Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld tell the Houston Police crime lab: End This DNA Debacle "There were two different problems in the crime lab — scientific incompetence and corruption," Law Professor David Dow of the University of Houston said. "That's a deadly combination. Once you have corruption, there is no reason to think that this is limited to DNA cases or cases where there is scientific evidence of any sort." The Houston Police Crime Lab
INNOCENCE
PROJECTS
SLIDE
PRESENTATION
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