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Truth in Justice Newsletter - January, 2003
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS
PATRICK MCCREARY - BEDFORD KENTUCKY
NORTHERN KENTUCKY LAW REVIEW (SALMON P. CHASE SCHOOL OF LAW) SYMPOSIUM ON INNOCENCE In the spirit of the Chase College of Law's Innocence Project, whose work just recently helped reverse the conviction of a Kentucky man, the Northern Kentucky Law Review will be sponsoring a Wrongful Convictions Symposium. The Wrongful Convictions Symposium is a day-long event focusing on the many issues surrounding wrongful convictions. The Symposium will include nine speakers, each of whom will speak on a different problem area surrounding wrongful convictions. The main topics which will be discussed are (1) prosecutorial misconduct, (2) police misconduct, (3) faulty eyewitness testimony, (4) false confessions, (5) junk science (DNA), and (6) judicial misconduct. The event will take place on Saturday, February 22, 2003 from 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. at the Cincinnati Club Building in downtown Cincinnati on Garfield Place. For more information, please call the law review office at 859-572-5444 EXONERATED VICTIMS OF FAULTY EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATIONTHOMAS BREWSTER Eleven years after Terry Arndt was murdered and his girlfriend raped in Shasta County, CA, the rape victim identified Thomas Brewster as the assailant -- even though she failed to pick him out of a line up 6 days after the attack. The charges cost Brewster almost 2 years pre-trial in jail; DNA tests cleared him 8 weeks into his capital murder trial. Now it's The System's Turn to Pay TROY RUFRA Louisville, KY financial advisor Troy Rufra was identified by four eyewitnesses as the man who robbed an equal number of banks. The eyewitnesses were sure. The problem? The Eyewitnesses were Wrong BERNARD WEBSTER Bernard Webster spent 20 years in prison for raping a Baltimore, MD woman when he was 19 years old. He was repeatedly denied parole because he refused to admit his guilt. Now DNA has established Bernard's innocence. The victim remains convinced of her identification of him. 115th Person Freed by DNA COPS CAN BE VICTIMS OF WRONGFUL CONVICTION, TOO
JAMES ANDROS, III After a long night of drinking, James Andros, III, a veteran Pleasantville, NJ police officer, the son of a police captain, calls 911 to say his young wife is dead. The medical examiner rules the death a homicide — asphyxia by suffocation — and the husband is charged with killing his wife, his childhood sweetheart. Facing a life sentence, he loses his job and his children, and finds himself vilified by neighbors and the news media. Brutal wife killer? No. Botched autopsy. http://truthinjustice.org/andros.htm OTHER WRONGFULLY CONVICTED COPS AREN'T AS FORTUNATE AS SCOTT AND JAMES -- THEY'RE STILL IN PRISON
MARSHALL KING AND BRUNO CRUTCHFIELD In November, 2000, Marshall King, a Virginia State Trooper, and Bruno Crutchfield, Brodnax, VA Police Chief, were convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Those convictions, based on perjured testimony by snitches, were vacated by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Payne, who observed, "This trial has a taint on it that stinks awful." Crutchfield has been released on bond, but federal prosecutors have trotted out yet another snitch to claim King did what they did -- suborned perjury -- to keep the former cop in prison while he awaits retrial. http://truthinjustice.org/king-crutchfield.htm
RECENT EXONERATIONS WESLEY RONALD TULEY In Texas in 1997, facing a deadlocked jury, Wesley Ronald Tuley pleaded guilty rather sit for another trial and the possibility of life in prison if convicted. Then his accuser recanted her allegations. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has ruled that Innocence Supercedes Guilty Plea OMAR AGUIRRE, LUIS ORTIZ, DUARTE SANTOS AND ROBERT GAYOL Federal authorities in Chicago, IL recently announced charges against a total of nine people accused of racketeering, conspiracy, attempted murder, kidnapping, the 1997 murder of Sindalfo Miranda, as well as drug charges. Oh yes, and they mentioned that the four men convicted of Miranda's murder were, well, innocent -- which might explain why the confession of at least one of the men was written in English when he only speaks Spanish. http://truthinjustice.org/Bogus_Confession.htm DEATH PENALTY ISSUES 10 TRUTHS ABOUT CLEMENCY Gov. George Ryan of Illinois has said, with regard to death penalty issues, "I'm not sure about anything at this point." Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn provides 10 things Gov. Ryan can be sure of. http://truthinjustice.org/10_Truths.htm ERNEST WILLIS Ernest Willis had the bad luck to survive a fatal fire. Cops didn't like the way he acted afterward. They had no evidence to support their suspicions: no fingerprints, no bodily fluids, no flammable liquids in the house or on Willis' clothes or body, no witnesses, no motive. They charged him anyway, kept him drugged through his trial and got a conviction. Then the appeals courts abandoned him. Now he waits on death row while his final appeal before execution works its way through federal court. http://truthinjustice.org/Death-Not-Fair.htm PAUL GREGORY HOUSE Recently discovered DNA evidence proves that House did not rape Carolyn Muncey immediately before she was killed in 1985 in Union County, north of Knoxville, Tennessee. Other evidence has surfaced that might show that House did not rape or kill Muncey. While Tennessee's judiciary argues over how many jurors can dance on the head of a pin, Paul Gregory House remains on death row. http://truthinjustice.org/Paul-House.htm PROTECTING THE CONVICTION AND EXECUTION OF ROGER KEITH COLEMAN The Virginia Supreme Court has refused to allow new DNA testing of evidence left over from the case of executed killer Roger Keith Coleman, ruling that doing so would unduly expand the public's right of access -- foreclosing an answer to the question, was an innocent man executed? http://truthinjustice.org/DNA_Testing_Denied.html Newsday Editorial The Virginia justices look cowardly, and their actions appear political. The state's governor and attorney general have the authority to order new tests on their own, however, and they should. All doubt should be absent in capital cases. http://truthinjustice.org/coleman-dna.htm FALSE CHILD ABUSE ALLEGATIONS WENATCHEE, WASHINGTON WITCHHUNT Before national attention brought a halt to the worst witch hunt in U.S. history, 43 adults were falsely arrested on 29,726 fabricated charges of child sex abuse involving 60 children. Parents, Sunday school teachers and a local pastor were indicted and many were convicted of raping their own children and the children of other members of a sex ring. Innocent people were railroaded into prison, and their children were sold into foster care. Conservative Columnist Paul Craig Roberts details how a mantra ate justice. http://truthinjustice.org/pcr-wenatchee.htm POLICE/PROSECUTOR MISCONDUCT Kentucky: Narcotics investigators Mark Watson and Christie Richardson face hundreds of counts of burglary, theft, perjury and tampering with court records for forging judges' signatures to search warrants, entering residences without valid warrants and shaking down informants. Now they are indicted defendants. http://truthinjustice.org/watson-richardson.htm COERCED FALSE CONFESSIONS
There is nothing
quite so convincing to jurors as a defendant's confession. Perhaps that
explains why police are willing to coerce confessions or, failing that, simply
make them up, and why prosecutors turn a blind eye to the practice. Florida:
At least 38 false or
questionable murder confessions have been thrown out by Broward County courts,
rejected by juries or abandoned by police or prosecutors since 1990. The
Miami Herald has turned a Spotlight
on False Confessions. Indiana:
In the past few years,
Indiana appellate courts have affirmed confessions by defendants who were
told lies by police before confessing. The courts tolerated the use of
deception in cases where police told suspects they had ballistic information,
fingerprints, DNA evidence and eyewitness identifications when there were
none. False Confessions Rarely Questioned New York: Contrary to arguments made by a prosecutor at two trials in 1990, four strands of hair were never "matched" to any of the Harlem teenagers accused of beating and raping a jogger in Central Park, according to a former police scientist. DNA has since cleared all five defendants, and the actual rapist has confessed. http://truthinjustice.org/jogger-case.htm So what does this say about the "confessions" obtained by police from five teenagers? http://truthinjustice.org/01JOGG.html LINKS The links pages at Truth in Justice are frequently updated. Be sure to check them for resources, "must" reading, websites of inmates with compelling innocence claims and more. Start at http://truthinjustice.org/links.htm SITE SEARCH ENGINE There are now over 600 pages at Truth in Justice. The site search engine on the main page can make it faster and easier to find what you seek. And remember, YOU can make a difference! Sheila and Doug Berry Back to Top |
