The Innocence Project Thread

[PilotsError 2277]

Busy past seven days for justice.

 

Yesterday, Freddie Joe Lawrence and Paul Jenkins were freed after serving 23 years in prison for a murder they did not commit.

On Friday, April 13^th, District Judge Kathy Seeley overturned Lawrence’s and Jenkins’ convictions. In 1995, Lawrence and Jenkins were convicted of the 1994 murder of Donna Meagher. Meagher was kidnapped from a casino in Montana City and killed west of Helena.

In 2018, DNA testing was completed on numerous items collected from the crime scene, including a rope with Meagher’s blood on it. DNA found on the rope was inputted into the state DNA database and matched David Wayne Nelson’s profile. Nelson is currently serving life in prison for two other murders.

Nelson’s nephew, Fred Nelson, had previously told law enforcement that his uncle had told him a story strikingly similar to the facts surrounding Meagher’s murder, including that two men had been convicted instead of him. The state verified that Fred Nelson had reported his uncle’s statements at least twice, but they were not investigated until 2016.

Judge Seeley concluded that the DNA evidence, in addition to Fred Nelson’s testimony, warranted post-conviction relief for Lawrence and Jenkins. In her decision, she wrote: “The new evidence is generally inconsistent with the state’s theory of the cases as presented at trial. The physical evidence, and the statements and testimony of Fred Nelson, support the theory that David Nelson, a known killer, was involved in the robbery, kidnapping and homicide of Donna Meagher.”

Judge Seeley ordered Lawrence’s and Jenkins’ release on Tuesday afternoon. Lawrence was released to the general care and custody of the Montana Innocence Project. Jenkins was released to his family and will live with his daughter.

The Montana Attorney General’s Office is still considering whether to re-file the charges against Lawrence and Jenkins, while it also investigates Nelson.

“I have been waiting for this moment for many, many years,” Lawrence said in a Montana Innocence Project press release. “I am very grateful for the amazing and dedicated work of the Montana Innocence Project. Their lawyers, experts, and investigators worked tirelessly on my behalf.”

 

https://www.innocenceproject.org/freddie-joe-lawrence-paul-jenkins-released-after-convictions-overturned-in-montana/

[PilotsError 2277]

(Paterson, NJ – April 6, 2018) Today, Innocence Project client Eric Kelley and Centurion client Ralph Lee were exonerated of their 1996 felony murder and robbery convictions, marking the end in their fight for justice of more than 24 years.

Related: Eric Kelley and Ralph Lee Walk Out of Prison After 24-Year Fight for Freedom

In September 2017, a New Jersey Superior Court Judge vacated the convictions based on DNA evidence identifying another suspect. The post-conviction DNA testing of a hat recovered at the scene that the prosecution long maintained had been worn by the assailant excluded both Kelly and Lee and matched to another man who had recently been released from prison for committing a similar crime.

Kelley and Lee were released on bail shortly after, with the prosecution appealing both the decision and their release. However, in March 2018, the Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division unanimously affirmed the decision by Paterson Superior Court Judge Joseph Portelli vacating the convictions.

“Today was an unexpected, but a long-awaited victory for Eric Kelley and Ralph Lee. We went into court for a routine appearance and to our surprise the state announced it was dismissing the charges. We’ve had the DNA evidence excluding Mr. Kelley and Mr. Lee, and identifying an alternate suspect since 2014. It was unexpected but three years overdue,” said Vanessa Potkin, Post-Conviction Litigation Director at the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law.

Kelley and Lee were convicted of the 1993 murder of Tito Merino based largely on contradictory statements they made to police after the police took them into custody. At the Paterson detective bureau, the two were interrogated separately for several hours. Kelley, who suffers from significant cognitive impairments because of a brain injury from a car accident and has difficulties processing information, was interrogated first and allegedly admitted to the crime.

Detectives admitted that they fed the information supplied by Kelley when interrogating Lee. The interrogations were not recorded and there are no notes of what occurred. The only evidence of the confessions are typewritten statements officers prepared that were signed by Kelley and Lee. Kelley allegedly told police where the knife used in the murder was hidden and where stolen property was fenced. However, the police were not able to corroborate the claims, and the purported confessions were contradicted by the crime scene evidence.

Prior to their arrests, police were searching for one suspect in the murder of Merino, who was stabbed to death during the robbery of the Paterson video store where he worked. A green and purple plaid baseball hat that did not belong to anyone in the store and was not present prior to the murder was recovered near the victim’s body. Police submitted it for DNA testing believing it could help identify the killer, but DNA testing wasn’t as advanced then and the testing was inconclusive.

The court ordered retesting of the hat in October 2010 over the prosecutor’s opposition. Male DNA was identified, excluding Kelley and Lee. The profile was entered into the FBI’s DNA database of convicted felons and matched to a man who matched to the age and physical description of the person a witness observed in the store around the time of the murder. Just three months prior to the crime, this man had been released from prison after serving three years for a similar knifepoint robbery of a nearby store.

“We hope this case will spark changes in how prosecutors in New Jersey respond to potential wrongful conviction cases. New Jersey has been a leader when it comes to adopting reforms aimed at preventing wrongful convictions, but when it came to the individual cases of Mr. Kelley and Mr. Lee, we encountered unjustified and unrelenting resistance,” added Potkin. “Rather than investigate the person whose DNA was found at the scene, the prosecutors chose to bury their heads in the sand and cling to the conviction. The trial court and appellate court recognized not only the power of the new DNA evidence here, but also the problem of false confessions, mistaken identification, and law enforcement tunnel vision – leading causes of wrongful conviction.”

 

https://www.innocenceproject.org/eric-kelley-and-ralph-lee-exonerated/

[Chet Steadman 940]

This country should have very little patience for DAs who refuse to admit their mistakes -or worse- double down on their stupidity.  

I hope that Montana DA is voted out of office so quickly his head spins.  Or better yet, gets the Ken Krainz treatment and the ugly not-so-ethical parts of his life are exposed.

[TwiceHorn 31084]

1 hour ago, Chet Steadman said:

This country should have very little patience for DAs who refuse to admit their mistakes -or worse- double down on their stupidity.  

I hope that Montana DA is voted out of office so quickly his head spins.  Or better yet, gets the Ken Krainz treatment and the ugly not-so-ethical parts of his life are exposed.

Completely agreed.  The best solution for a lot of this is for voters to become aware and intolerant of such abuses in the name of Convictions!!!!11!1111!

[hayden_horn 11358]

i believe that some of you are SOFT ON CRIME

[bularry1 23]

8 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

i believe that some of you are SOFT ON CRIME

exactly.   average moron likes their DA getting convictions at any cost.

[Chopper 17055]

Taking the innocence clinic at law school was a great eye opener. 

[Hank Scorpio 17704]

Look, they all did something wrong. Maybe it wasn't the crime they were convicted of, but they're all criminals in some fashion, so it doesn't mater. 

 

[PilotsError 2277]

And one more to get your weekend started.  How many innocent people do you think are in prison?  

 

Vicente Benavides, 68, spent nearly 25 years on California’s death row for the 1991 sexual assault and murder of 21-month-old Consuelo Verdugo before the California Supreme Court overturned his conviction on March 12, 2018.

Related: Report: Death Penalty Sees Continued Decline in 2017

On Tuesday, the Kern County District Attorney’s office announced it would be dropping all charges against Benavides: “Our professional and ethical standards require us to decline to re-try the case when, upon an objective review of the facts, there is insufficient evidence to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Benavides’ conviction was based on false medical testimony introduced at trial. In its decision, the court concluded that Verdugo had never been sexually assaulted and may actually have died from being hit by a car.

At trial, a forensic pathologist testified that Verdugo had died as a result of anal injuries from being sodomized. Numerous medical doctors testified that her injuries were the result of sexual assault.

Years later, many doctors who testified to the cause of Verdugo’s injuries recanted their testimony. They stated they had not reviewed Verdugo’s full medical record, which did not reveal any evidence of sexual assault when she was first hospitalized. During post-conviction proceedings, Benavides’ lawyers presented evidence from one of the country’s leading experts on child abuse who further discredited the medical testimony presented at trial.

In its decision, the court also concluded that the injuries to Verdugo’s genitalia and anus that doctors at trial had cited were evidence of sexual assault were actually the result of medical treatment Verdugo received after she arrived at the hospital.

Until a court order to release Benavides is submitted, he will remain on death row at San Quentin prison. Once the order is submitted, Benavides could be released quickly—within hours or days.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Benavides will be the fourth person exonerated from California’s death row since 1980. He will be the 162^nd person exonerated from the United States’ death row since 1973.

 

https://www.innocenceproject.org/vicente-benavides-to-be-freed-after-25-years-on-californias-death-row/

[PilotsError 2277]

Yesterday, two Exoneration Project clients—Anthony Jakes and Robert Bouto—had their convictions overturned. Jakes and Bouto are not co-defendants, but they were both wrongfully incarcerated as a result of police misconduct. Coincidentally, Jakes and Buoto were both exonerated yesterday in Chicago.

When Jakes was 15-years-old, two notoriously corrupt Chicago police detectives beat him until he falsely confessed to murder. After a special prosecutor conducted a three-month review of Jakes’ case, he determined that the evidence used to convict Jakes did not meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt and requested that his case be dismissed.

In a similar vein, Bouto was convicted after two other corrupt and notorious Chicago police detectives beat and bullied two witnesses into identifying Bouto as the gunman. Bouto’s attorney, Russell Ainsworth, said that both witnesses have since recanted their identification. After investigating the detectives involved in Bouto’s case, it was determined that Bouto was likely innocent, and a Cook County judge agreed to vacate his conviction.

Both men served all their time before they were exonerated—each over 20 years. Congratulating to Jakes, Bouto and their legal teams on their freedom.

You can read more about both cases here.

https://www.innocenceproject.org/jakes-boutos-convictions-overturned/

[Nice Guy Eddie 13388]

There are a certain number of people that will either automatically believe or not believe the police/DA before hearing one word.   When they get on juries', the testimony may not matter.  Either the defendant is guilty because why else would the police have arrested them, or they're innocent because cops are lazy and quickly blame a minority.  

People will always bring some bias into the jury room so who knows what the answer should be.  Not to mention that the few juries that I've served on, I didn't leave impressed with all of my fellow citizens.  Some of them treated it as school detention and started off into space for 3 days.  Then they followed the rest of us during deliberations.  

 

[Red Six 131]

On 4/20/2018 at 7:40 AM, PilotsError said:

In its decision, the court also concluded that the injuries to Verdugo’s genitalia and anus that doctors at trial had cited were evidence of sexual assault were actually the result of medical treatment Verdugo received after she arrived at the hospital.

I am not a doctor, but that that appears to be an unorthodox treatment.

[Stoogey 219]

On 4/19/2018 at 2:23 PM, Hank Scorpio said:

Look, they all did something wrong. Maybe it wasn't the crime they were convicted of, but they're all criminals in some fashion, so it doesn't mater. 

That was the general consensus with Steven Avery. 
 

Quote

https://www.innocenceproject.org/cases/steven-avery/

 

Steven Avery

Time Served: 18 years

Steven Avery, at the age of 22, was wrongfully convicted of rape. He spent almost twenty years in prison before being exonerated through DNA testing.

On July 29, 1985, at approximately 3:50 p.m., Penny Ann Beernsten was out running along the Lake Michigan shoreline and was apprehended by an unknown man who forced her into a wooded area and sexually assaulted her.

Investigation and Trial

Based on a physical description of Beernsten’s attacker, police provided a photo array of nine men. Beernsten selected the photograph of Steven Avery, who was arrested the following day.

At trial, Beernsten identified Avery as her attacker. A state forensic examiner testified that a hair recovered from a shirt of Avery’s was consistent with Beernsten’s hair, but did not present qualifying information about the limitations of hair microscopy.

Avery presented 16 alibi witnesses, including the clerk of a store in Green Bay, Wisconsin, who recalled Avery, accompanied by his wife and five children, buying paint from the store. A checkout tape put the purchase at 5:13 p.m. Beernsten put the attack at 3:50 p.m. and estimated it lasted 15 minutes, which meant that Avery would have had to leave the scene of the attack, walk a mile to the nearest parking area, drive home, load his family into the car, and drive 45 miles in just over an hour.

The jury deliberated for only four hours and convicted Avery almost exclusively on the eyewitness account, on December 14, 1985. He was sentenced to 32 years in prison.

 Post-Conviction Investigation

After losing several appeals, a petition for DNA testing was granted in 1995 and showed that scrapings taken of Beernsten’s fingernails contained the DNA of an unknown person. The tests were unable to eliminate Avery, however, and a motion for a new trial was denied.

In April of 2002, attorneys for the Wisconsin Innocence Project obtained a court order for DNA testing of 13 hairs recovered from Beernsten at the time of the crime. The state crime laboratory reported that, using the FBI DNA database, it had linked a hair to Gregory Allen, a convicted felon who bore a striking resemblance to Avery.  Allen was then serving a 60-year prison term for a sexual assault in Green Bay that occurred after the attack on Beernsten.

On September 11, 2003, a request brought by the Manitowoc District Attorney’s Office and the Wisconsin Innocence Project to dismiss the charges was granted and Avery was released.

In 2005, with support from Beernsten and Avery, the Wisconsin Department of Justice adopted a model eyewitness identification protocol.

On October 31, 2005, 25-year-old Teresa Halbach was murdered. Avery and his nephew were convicted in separate trials and were both sentenced to life in prison.

 

The Innocence Project glosses things over a bit. Teresa Halbach was tortured, raped and murdered. Avery incinerated her body; bone fragments were found.

Avery had prior convictions and was a suspect in several sexual assaults before Penny Ann Beernsten incorrectly identified him as her attacker. But even fucking assholes have rights. 

[PilotsError 2277]

Just happened minutes ago.  Live video on FB.  Links to follow.

 

 

Breaking: Gregory Counts and VanDyke Perry were just exonerated of 1991 crime that never even occurred. They spent a combined 36 years in prison.

[PilotsError 2277]

Pennsylvania Judge Vacates 1991 Rape Conviction of Man Who Wrongly Served 28 Years for a Crime New DNA Evidence Proves He Didn’t Commit

 

 

Case Marks the 31st Wrongful Conviction or Indictment Involving Erroneous Bite Mark Evidence 

(Pittsburgh, PA – May 23, 2018) Today, a court in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania vacated the 1991 rape conviction of John Kunco based on new DNA evidence proving his innocence. In addition to the DNA evidence, attorneys also discovered evidence showing that Kunco had a corroborated alibi showing his whereabouts at the exact time of the crime. After wrongly serving 28 years, Kunco was released on $10,000 unsecured bond around 7:40 p.m. ET from Westmoreland County Prison. The case was adjourned for 90 days for the district attorney to decide how to proceed with the case.

Watch Kunco walk out of prison:

 

Craig Cooley@Craig_Cooley33

 

 

Look who just walked out of prison for the first time in 27.5 years!! Congrats John!!! @VanessaPotkin @MaddydeLone @innocencepa @amazonatty @Nina_R_Morr

7:42 PM - May 23, 2018

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Kunco’s conviction was obtained primarily through the introduction of bite mark evidence, a discredited technique that the Innocence Project has long advocated should be abandoned entirely. Indeed, this case is the 31st wrongful conviction or indictment involving the use of erroneous bite mark evidence.

“We are grateful to the court for vacating Mr. Kunco’s conviction and restoring his freedom,” said Karen Thompson, a senior staff attorney with the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo Law School. “Now that there is irrefutable DNA evidence proving Mr. Kunco’s innocence, we hope the district attorney will move quickly to dismiss the indictment.”

“There is irrefutable DNA evidence proving Mr. Kunco’s innocence, we hope the district attorney will move quickly to dismiss the indictment.”

At approximately 5 a.m. on December 16, 1990, a woman who was blind in one eye and farsighted in the other awoke to find a man in her bedroom.  Over the next six hours, she was brutally raped and tortured by the assailant.

 Related: Doctor’s Discredited Bitemark Testimony Stripped Innocent Men of Freedom

Kunco, who has a slight speech impediment, was originally identified as the perpetrator in a highly unusual and unreliable manner. Two days after the attack, Police Officer William Dlubak, without ever having heard Kunco’s voice, did a voice impression of him to the victim, who then came to believe that Kunco was her assailant. Kunco was the building superintendent in the apartment where the victim lived, but he had only spoken to her on one prior occasion.

At trial, the prosecution relied on the critical testimony of two forensic dentists, Dr. Michael Sobel and Dr. Thomas David, who both claimed that “to a reasonable degree of dental certainty” Kunco’s teeth matched a mark on the victim’s shoulder, despite only “seeing” the mark for the first time five months after it was created. In closing arguments, the district attorney argued, “There’s no way, no way on this earth, for Mr. Kunco to explain how his tooth marks got on Donna Seaman’s shoulder unless you accept the fact that he’s the one who attacked and brutalized Mrs. Seaman.  That’s the only explanation, ladies and gentlemen.” Kunco was convicted and sentenced to 40-90 years.

Despite this DNA evidence, the court refused to vacate the conviction, ruling that the bite mark evidence was so strong that the jury would not change its verdict.

Kunco, who has always maintained his innocence, contacted the Innocence Project. In 2009, lawyers secured DNA testing of an electric cord from a bedroom lamp that the assailant used in the attack. That testing identified male DNA that excluded Kunco. Despite this DNA evidence, the court refused to vacate the conviction, ruling that the bite mark evidence was so strong that the jury would not change its verdict.

In the years since that original testing, bite mark evidence has been widely discredited. The National Academy of Sciences and President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology condemned the discipline as having no scientific basis. Following a six-month investigation into the technique, the Texas Forensic Science Commission recommended a complete moratorium on the use of bite mark evidence and is currently conducting an audit of all bite mark convictions in Texas, since any such conviction is inherently unreliable.

Based on the discrediting of bite mark evidence since the time of Kunco’s conviction, the Innocence Project filed a new motion to vacate the conviction. The Innocence Project also learned that a blanket on which the attack occurred was still available for DNA testing and asked the court to grant testing of the blanket. The court conducted a hearing in March 2016. Evidence was presented at the hearing that Drs. David and Sobel had recanted their testimony because the “scientific knowledge and understanding on which [their] conclusions were based . . . has changed significantly since they were given in 1991”.  Thus, the dentists admitted that they “would not” and “could not” testify as to the identity of the probable biter because to do so would be inconsistent “with current scientific understanding” of bite mark evidence.  After the hearing, the court reserved ruling on the motion to vacate and granted testing of the blanket.

“There have now been at least 31 people wrongly convicted or indicted based on erroneous bite mark evidence, yet courts continue to let prosecutors proffer this unreliable evidence.”

The Commonwealth appealed the court’s decision granting testing, arguing that the additional testing wouldn’t undermine the bite mark evidence, identification of the imitated voice and purported commentary by Kunco. The appellate court rejected the Commonwealth’s appeal, noting that the “now discredited bite mark evidence” proffered by the Commonwealth was “problematic, if not entirely incredible.”  The DNA testing subsequently identified a single source unknown male profile from blood on the blanket that excluded Kunco and was consistent with the male DNA on the lamp cord used by the assailant in the attack.

“There have now been at least 31 people wrongly convicted or indicted based on erroneous bite mark evidence, yet courts continue to let prosecutors proffer this unreliable evidence,” said Chris Fabricant, Director of Strategic Litigation for the Innocence Project. Dana Delger, a staff attorney with the strategic litigation department added, “The gross injustice to Mr. Kunco underscores the need for the courts to acknowledge that bite mark evidence is not backed by science and shouldn’t be used in criminal investigations and trials.”

In addition to the DNA evidence, attorneys for Kunco also discovered new evidence proving that Kunco couldn’t have committed the crime because he was on the phone with the building landlord during the time the crime occurred.  In 1996, five years after the trial, the landlord, in unrelated litigation, gave deposition testimony stating that he had received a call from Kunco on December 16, 1990 at 11:15 a.m. and had written the date, time and a notation that Kunco had called on his lease at the time of the call.  The attack didn’t end until 11:45 a.m.

“There is definitive DNA evidence and strong alibi evidence proving Mr. Kunco’s innocence,” added Wendy Williams, a Pennsylvania attorney representing Kunco with the Innocence Project. “We’re optimistic that the district attorney will now see fit to dismiss the indictment against Mr. Kunco soon.”

Kunco is represented by Thompson, Fabricant, Delger and Pennsylvania attorney Williams.

https://www.innocenceproject.org/pennsylvania-judge-vacates-1991-rape-conviction-of-john-kunco/

[hookem2010 2590]

I am for Bada Bing/Daily Texan serving as the Bernard forum. I always forgot about that one (unless I wanted to feel miserable, and that is what the cloak room is for) and it's important that we don't ignore this shit.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Stringer 1435]

My wife spent 6 months with the Innocence Project in New Orleans when she volunteered with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.  It is an incredibly important organization, and that's where a good chunk of our yearly charity funds go.  

Many people don't realize some of the bullshit injustices that people go through, from simple traffic violations to death row.  

Fully support this thread.

[PilotsError 2277]

and one more.   i can't fathom the number of innocent people in prison.

 

Quintin Lee Alonzo spent nearly 17 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit — a crime a notorious cop killer had privately confessed to years ago.

Alonzo, 38, walked free Wednesday after he was declared innocent during a short hearing before state District Judge Carter Thompson.

Thompson ruled that Alonzo had been convicted on false evidence, including witness testimony that identified the innocent man as a murderer.

"But for a violation of his constitutional rights, he would not have been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," the judge said.

"It's the court's hope that you can move past the injustice done to you," Thompson told Alonzo.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors had worked quickly to free him so he could attend his daughter's graduation party this week.

After the hearing, Alonzo kissed and hugged relatives and posed for a photo with other men who had been wrongfully convicted.

Quintin Lee Alonzo hugged his aunt, Joanne Alonzo-Gloria (center), and reached to hug his mother, Julie Vazquez (far left), after he was declared innocent on Wednesday.

 

(Rose Baca/Staff Photographer)

Instead of saying, "cheese," they grinned and said, "exonerees!"

Alonzo didn't say much about his freedom, other than, "It feels good."

He dodged TV cameras and reporters to get out of the courtroom. He held onto family members as he walked free outside the Frank Crowley Courts Building, opting not to speak publicly about his release.

He is the first person declared innocent in Dallas County since 2015, when Steven Mark Chaney was freed after serving 25 years for a conviction that was based on a bite mark.

 

 

Alonzo was convicted of murder and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison for the slaying of 18-year-old Santos Gauna and the shootings of Gauna's parents.

Santos Gauna, 18, was killed Saturday, June 9, 2001, at his going-away party in the Ledbetter area of West Dallas.

(Courtesy photo)

Gauna was gunned down at his high school graduation party where a fight broke out with uninvited guests. His parents were injured in the shooting.

The teenager was set to join the Marines.

Police originally suspected Licho Escamilla, but a witness identified Alonzo in a lineup as the killer.

Public defender Julie Lesser said Alonzo was convicted because of "a lot of misstatements, a lot of false evidence."

She said police homed in on Alonzo only because of one eyewitness after Escamilla fled.  

"The police did an incredibly poor investigation in this case," Lesser said. "They arrested Mr. Alonzo, and that was basically the end of the investigation."

Escamilla went free. In November 2001, he killed 26-year-old Michael Torres in West Dallas. Weeks after that, Escamilla killed Officer Christopher Kevin James, 34, at a nightclub where James was working an off-duty security job.

At the time of the nightclub shooting, authorities had issued a warrant for Escamilla's arrest in Torres' slaying.

James and another officer ran to help Escamilla, a known gang member, to keep other men from attacking him. Escamilla shot James in the arm and hit the other officer.

Licho Escamilla  

(File photo )

Then Escamilla shot James three times in the head.

Before his death penalty trial, Escamilla told his defense attorney that he was also the gunman at Gauna's graduation party, but because of attorney-client privilege, the attorney didn't tell anyone. Escamilla famously threw a water pitcher at the jury after he was sentenced to death.

The condemned man again confessed to killing Gauna before he was executed in 2015. Escamilla also waived his attorney-client privilege before his execution, allowing his former defense attorneys to share what he told them.

That's when attorneys in the Dallas County District Attorney's Office took on the case and interviewed witnesses to corroborate Escamilla's story and prove Alonzo's innocence.

If he hadn't been declared innocent, Alonzo wouldn't have even been eligible for parole until 2031. The case will now be sent to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for Alonzo to be officially exonerated.

Before Alonzo walked from the courtroom, Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson apologized to him for the time he spent in prison.

"I don't want any person, not one person, to spend a day in jail when they're really innocent," she said later.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2018/05/30/dallas-man-freed-17-years-after-conviction-murder-committed-executed-cop-killer

[PilotsError 2277]

One more.

 

Oklahoma Man Exonerated After Serving 26 Years for a Murder DNA Evidence Proves He Didn’t Commit

(Oklahoma City – June 11, 2018) With the consent of the Oklahoma County District Attorney, district court judge Glenn M. Jones vacated the 1992 murder conviction and dismissed the charges against Johnny Edward Tallbear based on new DNA evidence proving his innocence. Tallbear served 26 years for murder based on the erroneous statements of an alleged eyewitness who claimed to have seen Tallbear fighting with the victim but later expressed doubts about his identification.

Support Tallbear as he transitions home via Amazon Wishlist

“We are grateful to District Attorney David Prater and Assistant District Attorney Jen Hinsperger for collaborating with us to secure DNA testing in this case, and for expeditiously moving to vacate Mr. Tallbear’s conviction once the results were obtained,” said Karen Thompson, a senior staff attorney with the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law.

“I’ve been saying for more than two decades that I didn’t have anything to do with this horrible crime. I’ve always known that I’m innocent and now the DNA has proved it.”

“The DNA proving Mr. Tallbear’s innocence was pivotal to bringing an end to his wrongful incarceration.”

“I’ve been saying for more than two decades that I didn’t have anything to do with this horrible crime. I’ve always known that I’m innocent and now the DNA has proved it,” said Tallbear.

 

On October 3, 1991, the body of a homeless man, known as “Pops” (there was no identification on the body), was found on top of a pile of garbage near a deserted building in an area of Oklahoma City frequented by a homeless population. The man had been brutally stabbed and beaten. The pockets of his pants were turned inside out and had small bloodstains on them. Police also collected several pieces of torn up paper bag left on the ground near to the victim’s body that they believed had been used to “staunch a wound.”

Tallbear became a suspect after a man named Floyd Lewis (who was familiar with Tallbear from the neighborhood) alleged to police that he witnessed two men fighting with a third man, who was lying on the ground. Lewis claimed that from the distance of a football field away, at dusk, he saw two men on their knees beating the victim. Lewis claimed that after he yelled at the men to stop, one of them stood up and, while “making Indian,” shook a cane. Seeing this, Lewis stated, “he knew it was Tallbear.” It was based on this identification—and no other evidence—that Mr. Tallbear was prosecuted and convicted.

Support Tallbear as he transitions home via Amazon Wishlist

At a preliminary hearing, Lewis stated, “I don’t think Tallbear done it.” Nonetheless, Lewis went on to identify Tallbear at his subsequent trial, testifying that he saw Tallbear and another person fighting with the victim, although he was unable to identify the second assailant.

“The DNA proving Mr. Tallbear’s innocence was pivotal to bringing an end to his wrongful incarceration.”

At trial, the state also relied on the testimony of discredited forensic analyst Joyce Gilchrist, who, as was revealed in a preliminary study conducted by the FBI in 2001, made outright errors or overstepped “the acceptable limits of forensic science” in at least five of her cases, leading to a comprehensive review of thousands of cases handled by her as a state forensic analyst between 1980 and 1993 by former Governor Frank Keating. Gilchrist performed basic serology (blood type testing) and claimed to have found four different blood types at the scene. While she acknowledged that Tallbear didn’t match any of these blood types, her conclusion that there were four blood types called into question whether the blood was related to the crime (as there were only two assailants) and diminished the significance of Mr. Tallbear’s exclusion from the blood types found at the scene.  The district attorney stood by the strength of the eyewitness identification and argued that while “the forensic evidence did not tell us very much … There’s evidence of several different blood types and enzyme activity.”

 

 

 

Despite the fact that there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime and that Mr. Tallbear’s physical therapist testified he had recently undergone surgery to remove gangrene from his leg, making “walking very difficult,” confining him to a wheelchair and rendering him unable to walk distances, kneel or stand for long periods of time, the jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to life without parole, a sentenced later modified by the Court of Criminal Appeals to life imprisonment.

Take action: Help prevent wrongful convictions in Oklahoma and around the U.S.

Tallbear, who always maintained his innocence, sought the help of the Innocence Project. With the consent of the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office, the Innocence Project conducted DNA testing on the bloody bags that police believed were used to stop bleeding and blood found on the inside out pockets of the victim’s pants. The testing identified DNA belonging to the one unknown male in blood found on two pieces of the collected bags and DNA belonging to another unknown male in the blood found on the victim’s pockets.  Tallbear was excluded from all of the profiles. DNA testing also revealed that Gilchrist’s serology results were, once again, false; she had incorrectly attributed blood from an unknown male to the victim and from the victim to an unknown male. Aside from the victim, only two blood types were found on the crime scene evidence, consistent with the eyewitness’ account.

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Karen Thompson@amazonatty

 

 

An “End of the Trail” taco (brisket, scrambled eggs, potatoes, cheese sauce and potatoes) is Johnny’s first meal free. I asked him if it was tasty. “It ain’t no prison food!” @innocence #exonerated

1:14 PM - Jun 11, 2018

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Based on these results, the District Attorney’s Office agreed to join our motion to vacate the conviction which was granted today and to dismiss the indictment against Tallbear, allowing him to regain his freedom for the first time in 26 years and advancing the cause of justice.

Eyewitness misidentification is a leading contributor to DNA-based exonerations. District Attorney David Prater and Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty have taken the lead in implementing evidence-based practices that reduce the risk of eyewitness misidentification in Oklahoma City. To prevent these types of injustice, other jurisdictions across the state should follow their lead.

Tallbear was represented by Thompson and local attorney Douglas L. Parr.

[PilotsError 2277]

Yesterday in Cleveland, OH, Christopher Miller was exonerated after spending 17 years in prison for a crime DNA proves he did not commit. Miller was freed with the assistance of the Ohio Innocence Project.

In 2002, Miller was convicted of kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and robbery and sentenced to 44 years in prison. On the day after the crime, police located the victim’s cellphone in Miller’s possession, which made him the prime suspect. Miller claimed he’d purchased it from a stranger on the street in exchange for drugs and maintained his innocence. The victim later identified him as one of her attackers.

Pretrial DNA testing of the rape kit excluded Miller and revealed an unknown male profile. The prosecutor argued that the unknown profile must’ve belonged to Miller’s accomplice, since the victim claimed that two men had attacked her. Miller was ultimately convicted based on the victim’s identification of him and his possession of her cellphone.

Two years after Miller’s conviction, investigators matched the DNA from the rape kit to Richard Stadmire through the state’s DNA database. After the DNA implicated Stadmire, detectives interviewed both Stadmire and Charles Boyd, Stadmire’s accomplice in a rape that occurred one month after the attack in this case. Boyd told police that Miller and Stadmire had raped and robbed the victim while he waited outside as the lookout. A jury convicted Stadmire and sentenced him to 43 years in prison; Boyd plead guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison.

In 2015, the Ohio Innocence Project became involved in Miller’s case. Upon further investigation, they recovered police reports that showed inconsistencies in the victim’s identification of Miller. These reports had not been turned over to Miller’s defense at the time of trial.

The Ohio Innocence Project then requested that the rape kit be re-tested using advanced technology that was not available at the time of trial. The testing revealed a second profile—in addition to Stadmire’s—belonging to Boyd. The state then tested other items at the crime scene, which further confirmed Miller’s innocence.

Miller is the 27^th person freed by the Ohio Innocence Project and the 10th exoneration in the last 3 years.

 

https://www.innocenceproject.org/ohio-innocence-project-client-exonerated-after-spending-17-years-in-prison/

Edited June 22, 2018 by PilotsError

[PilotsError 2277]

On June 19, 2018, Innocence Project New Orleans (IPNO) client Gerald Manning walked out of prison at age 59 as a free man—the first time he’s experienced freedom in his adult life. Manning spent 42 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

In 1977 at age 17, Manning was convicted of raping and murdering Vonda Harris. Manning confessed to the crime after police interrogated him for 33 hours without a lawyer or parent present.

Manning maintained he had provided police with a false confession. The confession, however, became the only evidence used to convict him. At only 17 years old, Manning was convicted of attempted aggravated rape and second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Manning was not alone in fighting for his innocence. Upon reading through the case, Harris’ daughter, Rhondalynn, became convinced of Manning’s innocence. To further investigate her mother’s murder, Rhondalynn took a job at the courthouse. “It [the trial transcripts] was like a movie, I read it from the beginning to end and that’s where I came up with my conclusion that he didn’t do it,” Rhondalynn told the local news.

In April 2018, Manning’s lawyers sought post-conviction relief based on exculpatory DNA evidence and a flawed police investigation. Last week, in an agreement with the Ouachita Parish District Attorney’s Office, Manning accepted an Alford plea and was resentenced to time-served.

Related: New York Times Editorial: Alford Pleas ‘Defy Justice’

When Manning was released last week, Rhondalynn could not have been happier. “[All the] prayers and tears we done shed, it feels good because who wants someone incarcerated for the murder of your mom that didn’t even commit it. I don’t see how they slept at night because I couldn’t even sleep at night,” she told the local news.

Harris’ family is currently trying to have the case re-opened and to locate the actual perpetrator, while Manning is beginning to rebuild his life after spending 42 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

 

https://www.innocenceproject.org/ipno-client-gerald-manning-free/

[Pato del Muerto 52232]

Any white guys wrongfully imprisoned?  I don’t feel like pouring back over the thread. 

 

[PilotsError 2277]

Many.

[PilotsError 2277]

You guys ready for one more?  Another man just walked free this week.  He was another victim of Detective Ronald Watts, who framed many people.  What a week.  Wish this thread was more popular.

Anthony McDaniels was exonerated in Chicago yesterday after spending nearly a decade in prison for a crime he did not commit. McDaniels was freed with the assistance of the Exoneration Project.

McDaniels’ conviction is one of 33 overturned because of a connection to a team of Chicago police officers, led by ex-Sergeant Ronald Watts, notorious for engaging in misconduct. McDaniels, who was convicted of gun possession in 2008, has long maintained that members of Watts’ team framed him for refusing to pay a bribe to Chicago police officer Kallat Mohammed.

“They planted a gun on me and then charged me with having a weapon,” McDaniels told reporters at his release yesterday.

After being caught taking $5,200 from an FBI informant, Watts and Mohammed both pled guilty to federal charges and were sent to federal prison.

“These officers have a very long and disgraced history of planting drugs and guns on individuals who would not cooperate with them,” McDaniels’ attorney Joshua Tepfar told reporters.

Despite a scheduled evidentiary hearing, the state announced yesterday that it would not object to the Exoneration Project’s request for relief and would dismiss all charges against McDaniels. His case is particularly notable because it was the first gun case thrown out—all others were drug cases.

McDaniels is the 24^th person to have his Watts-related conviction dismissed and the Exoneration Project’s 49th exoneree.

https://www.innocenceproject.org/charges-dismissed-against-exoneration-project-client-convicted-due-to-police-misconduct/

 

[PilotsError 2277]

Another innocent man walked free yesterday.

 

In 1988, Jerome Johnson was convicted of participating in the murder of a man in Baltimore and spent 30 years—more than half of his life—in prison. For all of those years, he insisted that he was innocent. And on Monday, with the help of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, Johnson was declared innocent by a judge and freed.

No physical evidence linked Johnson to the crime. According to the Baltimore Sun, Johnson tried 15 times to get his conviction overturned but to no avail until defense attorney Nancy Foster took on his case. Foster found strong evidence of Johnson’s innocence and asked the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) of the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office to look into his case. With the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, Foster and the CIU reinvestigated Johnson’s case and discovered “evidence proving Johnson’s innocence, including statements from co-defendants, alibi witnesses, and new evidence undercutting an eyewitness that placed him at the scene,” writes the Sun. Based on the newly discovered evidence, the unit asked the court to clear Johnson’s murder conviction.

In a statement, Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project Legal Director Parisa Dehghani-Tafti said: “Jerome Johnson has proclaimed his innocence for 30 years, but those proclamations fell on deaf ears in the courts until today. . . . We’re thrilled that Nancy Forster and the CIU [Conviction Integrity Unit] both recognized the seriousness of his innocence claim and got us involved to help free Mr. Johnson.”

https://www.innocenceproject.org/jerome-johnson-has-proclaimed-his-innocence-for-30-years/

[PilotsError 2277]

And another one walks free.

 

 

Today, Innocence Project client Perry Lott walked out of prison after 30 years of wrongful incarceration in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma. Despite exculpatory DNA evidence, District Attorney Paul Smith offered Lott a sentence modification in the form of time served. Lott agreed to accept this settlement so he can move forward with certainty in regaining his life and not risk years of litigation while a motion to vacate his conviction is resolved in the courts.

“We believe that DNA and other new evidence clearly establish Perry Lott’s innocence and show that the last 30 years he has spent incarcerated were years stolen from him by the State of Oklahoma,” said Innocence Project Senior Staff Attorney Karen Thompson, who represented Lott alongside local counsel Douglas Parr. “No physical evidence has ever connected him to these crimes.”

 

In November 1987, at 1:15 a.m., the victim felt a gun to her head as she unlocked the door to her house. A man then pushed her into her house, took $120.00 from her purse and raped her. The victim described the perpetrator as a black male between 5’7” and 6’2” with a partial gold tooth in the front. She could not determine his hair length or body size because he was wearing a cap and a jacket.

While filming a Crimestoppers re-enactment video about the rape and robbery near the victim’s home, Detective Mike Baskin directed Detective Jeff Crosby’s attention to “a black guy parked on 15th Street.” Detective Crosby approached the car, spoke with the man—who was later identified as Perry Lott—and asked for identification. Detective Crosby testified that during their conversation, he “noted” Lott had a gold tooth.

Take action: Help prevent wrongful convictions in Oklahoma and around the U.S.

Lott told Detective Crosby that he was in the area to see his girlfriend who lived nearby. Lott further explained that he had been with his fiancée the night before, from 3:30 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. the next morning when he left for work. Despite this alibi, the detectives asked Lott to go to the police station for further questioning.

Two days later, after police told the victim that the perpetrator had been caught, Lott was put in a formal lineup. None of the other “fillers” in the line up had gold teeth; they were instead given gold foil from a local flower shop to cover their teeth as a means of simulating the partial gold tooth allegedly described by the victim. Based on this lineup, the victim selected Lott.

In 2014, the victim would tell an investigator about the lineup, “But I can’t think of anything that overly stands out that made me select him . . . I kept thinking, what if I choose the wrong one?”

In 2014, the victim would tell an investigator about the lineup, “But I can’t think of anything that overly stands out that made me select him . . . there wasn’t nothing, you know, that screamed, hey, it’s me . . . I kept thinking, what if I choose the wrong one?”

At trial, police acknowledged that the only suspect in the lineup without gold foil on their tooth was Lott. In addition, although the victim testified her perpetrator was clean-shaven at the time of the rape, at the time of the lineup, Lott had at least “a few days’ growth of moustache.” Lott presented an alibi defense at trial, noting that the day before the rape he had been with his fiancée at court on a bond hearing and then home all night.

Related: Eyewitness Misidentification

DNA testing performed in 2014 on the victim’s rape kit revealed a mixture of two males on a vaginal swab. The victim’s ex-husband—with whom she was still sexually intimate—could not be excluded. Lott, however, was excluded as the source of male genetic material found on the victim’s vaginal swab.

Despite this powerful new scientific evidence revealing Lott’s innocence, current District Attorney Paul Smith has refused to grant post-conviction relief to Lott. Smith also objected to testimony from an eyewitness identification expert about the frailty of the victim’s identification.

Having been wrongly convicted once and deeply concerned that it could happen a second time given the prosecutor’s posture in the case, today Lott agreed to a sentence modification in the form of time served. He regained his freedom today for the first time in 30 years.

“The Innocence Project is thrilled that Mr. Lott is now free,” said Attorney Thompson. “We will continue to stand with and by him and his loving family as he bravely re-enters a new world.”

https://www.innocenceproject.org/innocence-project-client-perry-lott-released-from-prison/

[ocugolf 1200]

7 hours ago, PilotsError said:

And another one walks free.

 

 

Today, Innocence Project client Perry Lott walked out of prison after 30 years of wrongful incarceration in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma. Despite exculpatory DNA evidence, District Attorney Paul Smith offered Lott a sentence modification in the form of time served. Lott agreed to accept this settlement so he can move forward with certainty in regaining his life and not risk years of litigation while a motion to vacate his conviction is resolved in the courts.

“We believe that DNA and other new evidence clearly establish Perry Lott’s innocence and show that the last 30 years he has spent incarcerated were years stolen from him by the State of Oklahoma,” said Innocence Project Senior Staff Attorney Karen Thompson, who represented Lott alongside local counsel Douglas Parr. “No physical evidence has ever connected him to these crimes.”

 

In November 1987, at 1:15 a.m., the victim felt a gun to her head as she unlocked the door to her house. A man then pushed her into her house, took $120.00 from her purse and raped her. The victim described the perpetrator as a black male between 5’7” and 6’2” with a partial gold tooth in the front. She could not determine his hair length or body size because he was wearing a cap and a jacket.

While filming a Crimestoppers re-enactment video about the rape and robbery near the victim’s home, Detective Mike Baskin directed Detective Jeff Crosby’s attention to “a black guy parked on 15th Street.” Detective Crosby approached the car, spoke with the man—who was later identified as Perry Lott—and asked for identification. Detective Crosby testified that during their conversation, he “noted” Lott had a gold tooth.

Take action: Help prevent wrongful convictions in Oklahoma and around the U.S.

Lott told Detective Crosby that he was in the area to see his girlfriend who lived nearby. Lott further explained that he had been with his fiancée the night before, from 3:30 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. the next morning when he left for work. Despite this alibi, the detectives asked Lott to go to the police station for further questioning.

Two days later, after police told the victim that the perpetrator had been caught, Lott was put in a formal lineup. None of the other “fillers” in the line up had gold teeth; they were instead given gold foil from a local flower shop to cover their teeth as a means of simulating the partial gold tooth allegedly described by the victim. Based on this lineup, the victim selected Lott.

In 2014, the victim would tell an investigator about the lineup, “But I can’t think of anything that overly stands out that made me select him . . . I kept thinking, what if I choose the wrong one?”

In 2014, the victim would tell an investigator about the lineup, “But I can’t think of anything that overly stands out that made me select him . . . there wasn’t nothing, you know, that screamed, hey, it’s me . . . I kept thinking, what if I choose the wrong one?”

At trial, police acknowledged that the only suspect in the lineup without gold foil on their tooth was Lott. In addition, although the victim testified her perpetrator was clean-shaven at the time of the rape, at the time of the lineup, Lott had at least “a few days’ growth of moustache.” Lott presented an alibi defense at trial, noting that the day before the rape he had been with his fiancée at court on a bond hearing and then home all night.

Related: Eyewitness Misidentification

DNA testing performed in 2014 on the victim’s rape kit revealed a mixture of two males on a vaginal swab. The victim’s ex-husband—with whom she was still sexually intimate—could not be excluded. Lott, however, was excluded as the source of male genetic material found on the victim’s vaginal swab.

Despite this powerful new scientific evidence revealing Lott’s innocence, current District Attorney Paul Smith has refused to grant post-conviction relief to Lott. Smith also objected to testimony from an eyewitness identification expert about the frailty of the victim’s identification.

Having been wrongly convicted once and deeply concerned that it could happen a second time given the prosecutor’s posture in the case, today Lott agreed to a sentence modification in the form of time served. He regained his freedom today for the first time in 30 years.

“The Innocence Project is thrilled that Mr. Lott is now free,” said Attorney Thompson. “We will continue to stand with and by him and his loving family as he bravely re-enters a new world.”

https://www.innocenceproject.org/innocence-project-client-perry-lott-released-from-prison/

Same county where John Grisham’s The Innocent Man takes place. 

[Texas_Rocks 346]

In some of these cases the innocent victim should be given the right to beat the DA to a bloody pulp on primetime network TV.

[PilotsError 2277]

One more.  Twenty six fucking years. 

I can't fathom how many innocent people are in prison.

 

(MIP) client Laquanda “Faye” Jacobs was released yesterday in Newport, Arkansas, after being wrongly incarcerated for 26 years. Jacobs, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole as a juvenile offender, was resentenced to time served after the United States Supreme Court ruled that children cannot receive a mandatory sentence of life without parole. As such, Jacobs has yet to be exonerated.

In 1993, Jacobs was wrongfully convicted of capital murder. At the time of the crime, witnesses described the shooter as a woman in her thirties with scars under her eyes wearing black pants and a black coat. Despite this description, then 16-year-old Jacobs was arrested one hour after the crime, still wearing the white dress she wore to church earlier that morning.

“Faye’s case has all the hallmarks of a wrongful conviction — incentivized testimony, procedures known to lead to eyewitness misidentifications and absolutely inadequate counsel,” said Tricia Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project. “Faye’s attorneys never investigated the crime and didn’t even ask the state for its files…As a result, they never spoke to five additional eyewitnesses who saw the crime and stated that Faye was not the shooter.”

Although Jacobs is now free, her murder conviction will remain on her record. Because Jacobs is not incarcerated, on probation or parole, her best hope for being exonerated would be a pardon from the governor of Arkansas.

Jacobs’ legal team, which includes MIP and the law firm of Lathrop & Gage, plans to file a petition with Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Their petition will dispute the reliability of the two eyewitnesses who identified Jacobs as the shooter and claim Jacobs’ defense attorneys at trial were “inadequate.”

“Faye’s case exemplifies just how difficult it is to overturn a conviction in our justice system,” said Bushnell. “It should not be this hard, but she’s not done seeking justice and neither are we.”

Individuals wishing to support Jacobs’ reentry into society can donate to her GoFundMe page here.

Read the full press release from the Midwest Innocence Project here.

https://www.innocenceproject.org/midwest-innocence-project-client-released-after-26-years/

[Terry Silver 219]

Has anyone read Chasing Justice or The Dreams of Ada?  Fascinating stuff.

[PilotsError 2277]

Innocence Project Client Philip Barnett Released from Prison After Serving 10 Years for a Murder DNA Proves He Didn’t Commit

 

 

(West Virginia–August 9, 2018) Innocence Project client Philip Barnett was released from Parkersburg Correctional Center this afternoon after having posted bail set earlier today by Judge Alfred E. Ferguson of West Virginia’s Sixth Judicial Circuit in Huntington, West Virginia. The court agreed to set bail in the amount of $50,000 while Barnett’s habeas petition based on new and exculpatory DNA evidence is pending.   

Related: New DNA Test Results Excludes Barnett Brothers

“We are grateful that Mr. Barnett was released today and are hopeful given the strength of the DNA evidence that the District Attorney will continue to move quickly to vacate the convictions against Mr. Barnett and the others who served many years for a crime they didn’t commit,” said Karen Thompson, Senior Staff Attorney with the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law.  

Innocence Project✔@innocence

 · Aug 9, 2018

Replying to @innocence

“We are hopeful given the strength of the DNA evidence that the District Attorney will continue to move quickly to vacate the convictions against Mr. Barnett + others who served many years for a crime they didn’t commit.” @amazonatty http://bit.ly/2Mf4HGt pic.twitter.com/iShchs3Gve

Innocence Project✔@innocence

"It's nice to be out ... the air smells different and there is green grass on this side of the fence. I can't wait to try and piece my life back together."
-Philip Barnett, released from prison moments ago after 10 years: http://bit.ly/2Mf4HGt pic.twitter.com/sfvjwRlPWJ

 

“It’s heartbreaking to know that your only two children have spent eight-plus years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit.” 

Barnett was convicted of the 2002 crime based almost exclusively on the contradictory statements of Brian Dement. The case had gone cold for five years until police arrested Dement on an unrelated charge. Dement, who was addicted to drugs at the time, was interrogated for eight hours and gave three conflicting statements implicating himself; Barnett; Barnett’s brother, Nathan; and Justin Black, a friend of the Barnett brothers.  

Related: Innocence Blog Mother’s Day Series: Tammy and Philip Barnett

All four were eventually convicted of the crime and are challenging their convictions.  Nathan Barnett is represented by the West Virginia Innocence Project, Black is represented by the Exoneration Project, and Dement is represented by the Northwestern Center on Wrongful Convictions. In June 2018, Barnetts’ and Black’s defense attorneys received results of DNA comparisons conducted by the West Virginia State Crime Laboratory that revealed a single DNA profile on a cigarette butt found on the scene that matched to the DNA profile obtained from semen found on the victim’s pants that were removed from and left beside her body. The DNA profile identified through the DNA database belonged to Timothy Smith, a man who lived in Huntington, West Virginia at the time and who has been convicted of committing sexual assault on a minor.  Smith is currently incarcerated in Ohio for failing to update his address as a sex offender. The DNA excluded all four men originally convicted of the crime.

Nathan, Tammy, and Philip Barnett together before the wrongful conviction. Photo courtesy of the Barnett family.

Nathan Barnett, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison, spent eight years in prison and was released in 2015. Black was released on parole in June. Dement remains incarcerated.

“We are grateful that Mr. Barnett was released today and are hopeful given the strength of the DNA evidence that the District Attorney will continue to move quickly to vacate the convictions against Mr. Barnett and the others who served many years for a crime they didn’t commit.”

Tammy Barnett, mother of Philip and Nathan who has been a relentless advocate for her sons, shared with the Innocence Project in April, “It’s heartbreaking to know that your only two children have spent eight-plus years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit.”

Related: DNA’s Revolutionary Role in Freeing the Innocent

The case is now in the hands of the Cabell County District Attorney who must decide how to proceed with the case in light of the new DNA evidence revealing the mens’ innocence.

https://www.innocenceproject.org/innocence-project-client-philip-barnett-released-from-prison-after-serving-10-years-for-a-murder-dna-proves-he-didnt-commit/

[J.R. 150]

If you really want to get your jimmies rustled on this issue, give The Cadaver King and The Country Dentist a spin. Mind boggling corruption and justice system ineptitude. 

[PilotsError 2277]

Christinlola / DreamstimeA dog may have spared a Salem, Oregon, man from a 50-year prison sentence for sexual abuse of a minor. The fact that the dog is still alive contradicts key testimony used to convict the defendant, who had already been released from prison and is no longer facing a possible retrial.

In this very strange and slightly confusing tale, plumber Joshua Horner was convicted in 2017 of abusing a minor who testified that Horner had threatened to shoot her animals if she ever squealed on him to the cops. To prove he was in earnest, she said, he shot her dog.

But after Horner appealed to the Oregon Innocence Project, the group realized that if it could find the dog—Lucy—it would be proof that the alleged victim had lied under oath.

The Oregonian reported that when the Project "raised concerns in April about the case with Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel, he agreed to work with them." Let's hear it for a D.A. willing to revisit a case.

The folks at the Innocence Project became human bloodhounds on the trail of the dog, a black lab with distinctive ears and coloring. Somehow, they ended up tracking her down, as Fox News reported:

The dog's existence showed the complainant was lying in her testimony — enough evidence for [Deschutes County District Attorney John ] Hummel to request the case be dismissed. The woman also failed to show up to a meeting in August to address her statement.

"Lucy the dog was not shot. Lucy the dog is alive and well," Hummel's office said in a statement.

"While I cannot say with certainty that Mr. Horner did not sexually abuse the named victim I can say I am not convinced by a preponderance of evidence that he did and I am certainly not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt," Hummel said Monday.

While we're on the subject of reasonable doubt, even the jury that convicted Horner was not unanimous. How is that legal? It turns out Oregon is one of two states where jury decisions need not be unanimous—even when the outcome will result in a person spending 50 years in a cage.

To add one last layer of weirdness to this story, Horner was already out on appeal as of August 3. Accordng to The Oregonian:

[T]he Oregon Court of Appeals reversed his conviction and ordered a new trial. The appeals court said the defense had not been allowed to present certain evidence that was unrelated to the dog.

Now, Horner no longer faces that second trial. He declined a request for an interview, saying he is not ready to speak with the press just yet

After Lucy was found, the complainant failed to attend a meeting in August to discuss her testimony, Hummel said. Last Wednesday, one of his investigators heard she was at a home near Redmond. When he pulled up to the driveway, she ran away.

A case of ruff justice all around.

https://reason.com/blog/2018/09/12/oregon-innocence-project-dog-lucy

[SDG 3319]

Yeah that case is odd.  The alleged victim may need to be taught a life lesson.  

[Pato del Muerto 52232]

So, are they going to charge the lady with filing a false police report at least?

[PilotsError 2277]

T WORTH, Texas - A Fort Worth man who was wrongly convicted of murder has been exonerated.

John Earl Nolley was legally declared innocent at a court hearing Wednesday morning. Judge Louis Sturns apologized to him on behalf of the state of Texas, saying he realized “this can never make up for what you’ve endured.”

Nolley was accused of murdering his friend Sharon McLane. She was stabbed 57 times in her Bedford apartment in 1996.

He was freed on a personal recognizance bond in 2016 after a jailhouse snitch admitted he lied. New technology also proved a bloody palm print found at the crime scene was linked to someone else.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Nolley’s murder conviction in May. He had been serving a life sentence and had already spent nearly 20 years of his life behind bars.

“I’m just glad the district attorney Sharen Wilson did the honorable thing in my situation,” he told the court after being exonerated.

His case inspired the district attorney to create new policies for jailhouse informants in Tarrant County.

http://www.fox4news.com/news/wrongly-convicted-fort-worth-man-to-be-exonerated

[Sawbonz 27296]

There was a documentary a few years ago that had a segment on him.  Had a chance to test the blood from the murder weapon and judge wouldn’t allow it. The doc had an obvious bias but it definitely seemed there was enough doubt to allow the DNA testing. 
 

He was one of 8 condemned prisoners Arkansas rushed to execute before the remaining batch of one of the “meds” expired. Just sickening 

[Fudge Nuggets 19111]

I don’t understand why DNA testing isn’t mandatory when samples are available. There should be no reason to deny it. 

[Sawbonz 27296]

There is no reason not to allow it. I believe in this case the family or maybe the innocence project even agreed to pay for the test (which compared to the cost of taking a dp case to its conclusion is inconsequential). The state’s attorney, the judge, and the governor are murderers

 

i am opposed to the dp on religious grounds, but if we are going to use it we need a standard higher than reasonable doubt for it apply

[scottsins 1951]

There is no reason not to allow it. I believe in this case the family or maybe the innocence project even agreed to pay for the test (which compared to the cost of taking a dp case to its conclusion is inconsequential). The state’s attorney, the judge, and the governor are murderers
 
i am opposed to the dp on religious grounds, but if we are going to use it we need a standard higher than reasonable doubt for it apply

There isn’t any higher standard possible, other than “zero doubt” which obviously can’t be used.

The solution is to just abolish the DP and overhauling the justice system wholesale.

[Anastasis 23328]

1 hour ago, scottsins said:

The solution is to just abolish the DP

This. It's unfitting barbarism. 

[Anastasis 23328]

9 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

There was a documentary a few years ago that had a segment on him.  Had a chance to test the blood from the murder weapon and judge wouldn’t allow it. The doc had an obvious bias but it definitely seemed there was enough doubt to allow the DNA testing. 
 

He was one of 8 condemned prisoners Arkansas rushed to execute before the remaining batch of one of the “meds” expired. Just sickening 

“My dying words will always be, as it has been, ‘I am an innocent man,’” he told the BBC in an interview published on April 19, 2017 — the day before officials in Arkansas administered the lethal injection.

[Pato del Muerto 52232]

35 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

This. It's unfitting barbarism. 

I don’t have an issue with capital punishment as a valid punishment for the most serious of crimes. 
but I have a serious problem with the misapplication of it by a...less than perfect...legal system. So I’m firmly against any legal system having access to it because of the inevitable mistakes and lies that will and have led to innocent people being put to death. 

[Anastasis 23328]

2 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I don’t have an issue with capital punishment as a valid punishment for the most serious of crimes. 
but I have a serious problem with the misapplication of it by a...less than perfect...legal system. So I’m firmly against any legal system having access to it because of the inevitable mistakes and lies that will and have led to innocent people being put to death. 

It's barbarism, and founded on retributional concepts of justice.  I get it.  Some motherfuckers need to get got and get their's. But IMO, that sense of retributional justice is totally outweighed by the lives of innocent people executed by the state.  And those numbers are not small enough that we just ignore them. 

[Fudge Nuggets 19111]

12 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

There is no reason not to allow it. I believe in this case the family or maybe the innocence project even agreed to pay for the test (which compared to the cost of taking a dp case to its conclusion is inconsequential). The state’s attorney, the judge, and the governor are murderers

 

i am opposed to the dp on religious grounds, but if we are going to use it we need a standard higher than reasonable doubt for it apply

I also believe if it’s found the judge and / or prosecution conspired to get a wrongful conviction then they should face the same punishment as the person that was on trial.