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Truth in Justice Newsletter
Wrongful Conviction News from January and February, 2009

RECENT CASES

In 1985, when Robert Lee Stinson of Milwaukee was 21 years old, he was convicted of the murder of a 63-year-old woman who had been savagely beaten to death the previous year. Robert's conviction was based on bite mark evidence that didn't even match--he had a tooth missing where the bite marks indicated a tooth, a fact that didn't bother the state's "experts" at all. DNA evidence rules him out conclusively.

Timothy Cole

In 1985, Timothy Cole was a student in Lubbock when he was arrested and accused of being the Texas Tech rapist. A string of coeds had been raped, and the young African-American man from Fort Worth, who'd never been in trouble with the law before, was convicted largely on the eyewitness account of one rape victim. The real rapist, Jerry Wayne Johnson, waited for the statute of limitations to toll in 1995 and began writing to the courts, confessing. Judges and the prosecutor who obtained Timothy's conviction ignored him. Finally, in 2007, Johnson's letter of confession reached Timothy's mother. It was too late for Timothy. He died in prison in 1999 from an asthma attack.

Joshua Kezer

It's a case of technicalities. It's a case of changed stories. Of questionable evidence. For Joshua Kezer and the attorneys representing him, it's a case of unjustified imprisonment, an unfair trial and new evidence that proves Kezer was not the right man. Kezer's defense team has reason to be optimistic. Cole County Judge Richard Callahan has thrown out a conviction before in a similar trial.

UPDATE: February 18, 2009 - Joshua's attorneys' optimism was on target. After 17 years in prison for a murder Judge Callahan says Joshua did not commit, he has walked out of prison a free man.

DEATH PENALTY ISSUES

Larry Swearingen

In an 11th-hour move, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals halted the January 27, 2009 execution of Texan Larry Swearingen. Four forensic pathologists , including the medical examiner who testified against Swearingen at his capital murder trial, now say that Swearingen was in jail when Melissa Trotter, 19, was strangled and left in a national forest near Conroe in East Texas. The 5th Circuit did not address his innocence claim, and the Montgomery County DA remains intent on seeing Larry executed, regardless of evidence of his innocence.

Charles Raby

DNA tests have excluded Charles as the donor of skin found under the fingernails of Edna Franklin, the 72-year-old North Houston, TX grandmother he was convicted of beating and stabbing to death. Charles is scheduled to die, and Texas has the most efficient death machine in the country. Is innocence enough to spare him from the executioner?

INNOCENT IMPRISONED

Michael O'Laughlin

Michael O'Laughlin, of Lee, MA, has been convicted, freed and convicted again for beating a Lee woman nearly to death in 2000. Now, he is hoping to be freed again. He was convicted in 2002 of beating Annmarie Kotowski with a baseball bat in her apartment. That verdict was overturned by a state appeals court in 2005, which found there was insufficient evidence to support a guilty finding, but then reinstated in 2006 by the Supreme Judicial Court. Now the New England Innocence Project is seeking DNA testing of the blood, hair and other voluminous physical evidence that could identify the assailant. And we're all wondering why the testing wasn't done in the first place.

Hannah Overton

On October 2, 2006, Hannah Overton of Corpus Christi, TX and her husband rushed their foster son to a hospital, where the child died of salt poisoning related to an eating disorder that led him to gorge and to consume strange objects. Less than a year later, Hannah was convicted of capital murder based on the theory that she waited too long--less than an hour--before rushing the boy to the hospital. Bennett Gershman, a nationally recognized expert on prosecutorial misconduct, reviewed Hannah's case and stated, “A conviction for capital murder can’t rest on such a flimsy, almost incredibly thin reed, as this one rests on. It rests on sand."

Jeff Boppre

Defense attorneys in a 20-year-old murder case are now pointing the finger at a Colorado inmate in an attempt to free their client. The defense outlined some of its claims during a hearing in Scotts Bluff County Court (Nebraska) Tuesday. A jury convicted Jeff Boppre, 44, in March 1989 of two counts of first-degree murder in the Sept. 19, 1988, murders of Richard Valdez, 25, and his pregnant girlfriend, Sharon Condon, 19. Increasingly sophisticated DNA tests appear to support what Jeff has said for two decades -- he's innocent.

HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS

US Supreme Court to hear Alaska man's appeal for DNA testing. William Osborne, convicted of a brutal rape near Fort Richardson in 1993, continues to fight for a sophisticated DNA test his lawyers say could prove him innocent. The State of Alaska says he should be denied the DNA testing because it would only prove his guilt. Osborne's lawyers are incredulous at the state's position. If it's probably going to cement his guilt, and the defense is willing to pay for the $1,000 test, why not just do it? The test can provide a final answer, perhaps put the lie to Osborne's all-or-nothing trial defense: He wasn't even there that night, his lawyer told jurors. The victim's testimony was a case of mistaken identity.

POLICE/PROSECUTOR MISCONDUCT

United States. An angry federal judge held Justice Department lawyers in contempt for failing to deliver documents to former senator Ted Stevens's legal team, as he had ordered. "That was a court order," U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan bellowed. "That wasn't a request. I didn't ask for them out of the kindness of your hearts. . . . Isn't the Department of Justice taking court orders seriously these days?" Judges rarely hold prosecutors in contempt. They're following in Mike Nifong's footsteps.

Pennsylvania. For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre, PA operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses. The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench. In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have pled guilty to taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers. $2.6 Million in Payoffs.

But that's just the beginning. The two former judges, now admitted felons, are cooperating with federal law enforcement officials as they continue their probe into corruption at the courthouse Conahan used to run. The U.S. Attorney's Office is, in fact, investigating possible case fixing in Luzerne County's uninsured and underinsured motorist cases and has been for some time. So you think it's just bad kids and adult criminals who were abused? Everybody suffers.

California. As part of a criminal justice review unprecedented in county history, the Santa Clara County public defender's has launched a massive project to revisit 1,500 or more sexual assault convictions dating back two decades to determine whether innocent people may have been put behind bars. Members of Valley Medical Center's Sexual Assault Response Team have been videotaping examinations of patients since 1991, but prosecutors failed to inform defense attorneys in cases involving those patients that such critical evidence existed. Under pressure to answer for the failure, District Attorney Dolores Carr has since revealed there are 3,300 such tapes in existence, and this week she vowed to inform defense attorneys of each case involving a medical-exam videotape where a defendant was convicted. Better late than never.

False Allegations of Child Abuse
False Allegations of Sexual Abuse

It had taken Dana Nachman and Don Hardy three years and $20,000 — most of which they had charged to their bruised and battered credit cards — to prepare their documentary, "Witch Hunt," for a run at the major film festivals. Then it took another year to get the documentary, a look at wrongful convictions that sent several Bakersfield, California residents to prison on false child molestation charges, past rejection by the Tribeca Film Festival, and shown at the Los Angeles and Toronto film festivals. How the cops brainwashed the kids. Click HERE to view trailer (youtube.com).

It used to be that all you needed for a conviction was a vague allegation of sexual abuse by a very young child and a signed confession by a day care worker. But jurors in Franklin, NC are picky. In Michael Bradley's case, they demanded actual evidence. All that the state could give them was the word of a detective who thinks he can tell in minutes if someone is guilty and will use harsh techniques against a timid person to coerce a conviction to a crime that may not have happened at all. Their verdict: Not Guilty.

JUNK SCIENCE

"Must" Reading: "Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward"

A congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council finds serious deficiencies in the nation's forensic science system and calls for major reforms and new research. Rigorous and mandatory certification programs for forensic scientists are currently lacking, the report says, as are strong standards and protocols for analyzing and reporting on evidence. And there is a dearth of peer-reviewed, published studies establishing the scientific bases and reliability of many forensic methods. Moreover, many forensic science labs are underfunded, understaffed, and have no effective oversight.

Mississippi. Radley Balko, senior editor at Reason Magazine, has taken an in-depth look at Mississippi's doctors of death, Steven Hayne and Michael West. They actually videotaped themselves using a cast of murder suspect Jimmie Duncan's teeth to create bite marks on the body of the child Duncan was accused of killing. Jimmie Duncan is on death row. Manufactured Guilt.

Arson or Accident?
The inability of arson investigators to recognize the difference could put YOU in prison - or worse.

Rose Kate Roseborough

On April 23, 2003, Rose was sleeping on the sofa in her living room in Ashland, Ohio when she awoke to find a fire on the home's second floor. She tried to rescue her 11-month-old twin daughters, Lucie and Julia, but was driven back by the heavy smoke. The children died of smoke inhalation. Rose was charged with arson and 2 counts of murder, and the death penalty was sought. The key evidence offered at trial was the "expert" testimony of EMT Kevin Rosser, who claimed that he noticed "large particle soot" on Rose's face at the fire scene. Holding himself out as a fire expert, Rosser opined that such soot is only produced in the early stages of a fire, meaning Rose set the fire herself. The presiding judge refused to conduct a Daubert hearing on the scientific validity of EMT Rosser's testimony. Rose was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. Fortunately, Judge James D. Sweeney recognized junk science proffered by an unqualified witness. He has vacated Rose's conviction and ordered a new trial. Click HERE to read his January 7, 2009 opinion.

The Arson Screening Project

With the generous support of the JEHT Foundation, the Center has launched an Arson Screening Project, designed to:

* Survey and analyze the range of “Arson” convictions that in fact involved accidental fires,
* Forward meritorious cases to a blue-ribbon Fire Science panel, led by Center Advisory Board member John Lentini,
* Report to scientists and practitioners the depth and extent of the problem and develop targeted remedies.

The Arson Screening Project will not provide legal representation. It will, however, offer an assessment of the science used to gain a conviction which can be employed in trying to persuade prosecutors, lawyers, and courts that a given case is worthy of review. The Project is not designed to assess “whodunit” cases; it is designed to offer a scientific analysis of whether the crime of arson was committed, not to identify arsonist or rule out a defendant in case where a fire was set.

If you believe you or a client have a case that would benefit from authoritative review, click HERE for further information and the application form.

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.

Innocence Projects Contact List