Truth in Justice Newsletter - March, 2004
The
Feds made two cases against former Chicago police officer Steve
Manning, a murder in Illinois and a kidnapping in Missouri. They
based
both on the perjured testimony of notorious snitches, and put Manning
on Death Row for the Illinois murder. Manning was cleared of the
murder conviction in 2000, but was left to serve a life sentence in the
Missouri kidnapping. Now he has been cleared of that bogus
conviction
as well, and it appears the
kidnapping never even happened.
Police and
prosecutors in East Boston, MA were certain Billy Leyden killed and
decapitated his brother Jackie in March, 2001. Fixated on what
they called "inconsistencies", they charged him with 1st degree
murder. Billy was released on bail but lost his job, and
neighbors locked their doors when they saw him coming. Then, in
January, 2004, Eugene McCollom confessed to killing Jackie Leyden, and
directed authorities to Jackie's head, buried on a beach in Ft.
Lauderdale, FL. Indeed, the head found there is Jackie's, and
charges against Billy are slated to be dismissed. But so far only
the Florida press is reporting this story.
Sentenced to
die for the murder of
a man he had never met, Alan Gell
got a new trial when it was learned prosecutors withheld an audio tape
of their star witness saying she had to "make up a story" about
Jenkin's death. At Gell's retrial, it took the jury only 2 1/2
hours
to return its verdict: Not Guilty
Read the Raleigh, NC News-Observer's
riveting series on the
framing of Alan Gell: Who
Killed Allen Ray Jenkins
INNOCENCE AND THE
DEATH PENALTY
PHILIP
WORKMAN AND THE BIZARRE MEDICAL EXAMINER
In
2001 at condemned
prisoner Philip Workman's clemency hearing, Shelby Co., TN Medical
Examiner O. C. Smith testified that his microscopic analysis
showed that Workman's bullet was the one that felled a police officer
in 1981. Clemency was denied. Soon after, Smith was found
outside his
office, chained to a stairwell, wrapped in
barbed wire with a bomb hanging around his neck. He told officers
that an attacker had thrown a caustic substance in his face. Now
the
forensic pathologist has been indicted, charged with staging the
elaborate and extremely dangerous "abduction". Can we talk credibility here?
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RELIABILITY OF EVIDENCE
A day after a federal appeals
court spared the life of convicted killer
Kevin Cooper and ordered further testing of evidence, the death row
inmate's defense team called for an independent investigation
of the case.
The appeals court ordered testing to determine whether a blood drop
left outside Doug and Peg Ryen's bedroom had been treated with a
preservative known as EDTA, commonly used to take calcium out of
solutions, which could indicate the evidence was deliberately
planted.
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POLICE/PROSECUTOR
MISCONDUCT
MORE ON ALAN GELL'S
CASE
North
Carolina: Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald
News Editor Cal Bryant sat through all 7 days of testimony. He
concludes the not guilty verdict was a "no brainer".
While the final outcome was predictable, there remain so many Unanswered
Questions.
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In Keith Hoggard
's opinion, what the prosecutors did in the first Alan
Gell trial is criminal.
An investigation into this matter should be launched and heads should
roll if it is found that evidence was deliberately withheld from Mr.
Gell's first trial. But Attorney General Roy Cooper has closed
the investigation. Why? Governor Mike Easley was in charge
of the prosecution team Sent to Convict, Not
to Seek Justice.
Prosecutorial
Misconduct in Two Federal Courts: Federal prosecutorial misconduct has turned two
recent high profile
cases -- one involving allegations of murder, the other involving
allegations of a terrorist conspiracy -- upside down. Attorney
Elaine Cassel examines the specifics of the two cases and the factors
that allow federal prosecutors to engage in misconduct without fear of
penalties. Contempt of
Court
Nevada: Clark
County DA David Roger
is taking an innovative approach to dodging Rick Tabish's complaint
that Roger suborned perjury in order to obtain an extortion conviction
against Tabish. Roger is claiming that Tabish's prosecutorial
misconduct complaint is really
a complaint of ineffective assistance by his own trial counsel.
Moreover, Roger wants a judge to throw out Tabish's complaint unless
Tabish waives attorney-client privilege so Roger can grill Tabish's
trial attorney. Speaking
of Extortion ...
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JUNK SCIENCE
A scientific
report released February 10, 2004 revealed serious flaws in FBI
testimony involving evidence on the chemical composition of bullets
presented in hundreds of criminal cases.
"If this technique had not been used for years to send people to
prison, no reasonable scholars of forensic evidence would consider it
ready for court," said William Thompson, professor of law and
criminology at UC Irvine. Bullet-Proof
No More
Until recently, FBI examiners
misleadingly expressed high confidence or
even certainty that crime scene lead fragments did or did not come from
the “same box” of other ammunition in evidence. In cases where a
so-called “match” was identified, the results have at times been
devastating to the truth-seeking process, which is the essence of any
criminal or civil trial. Speaking for the National Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers, Barry Scheck issues a Call to Reopen Cases.
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HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS
Virginia (Federal Case): Feds have now
withdrawn charges against Darrell Rice. A
classic, this case has it all: botched crime scene processing,
forensic fraud by the FBI Lab, reliance on perjured testimony by
jailhouse snitches, manipulation of a credulous media to slander the
defendant and poison the jury pool, plus inciting hatred and a desire
for revenge against the defendant among the victims' families that is
so intense they cannot let it go even after the feds are forced to
admit the defendant didn't do the crime.
Defense attorney Fred Heblich said, "I
think that people looking at this, if nothing else, that they should
take heart in the operation of the system." Truth
in Justice respectfully disagrees. People looking at
this, if nothing else, should be very, very afraid of the operation of
the system. You
Could Be Next
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Keeping
Hatred Alive: Darryl
Hunt's long imprisonment in connection with the 1984
rape and murder of
Deborah Sykes in Winston-Salem, NC was a case of
mistaken identity.
Another man killed her, the police and prosecutors have admitted. And
most importantly, that man acted alone. Unfortunately,
police and prosecutors were so thorough in inciting
hatred and a desire for revenge against Darryl Hunt in Deborah
Sykes' family that her mother and step-father refuse to accept Hunt's
innocence. Bitter Justice
Erasing Innocence:
In a move that Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission hearing
officer
Victor Perpetua likened to a scene from "Alice in Wonderland," State
Police argue they cannot release files associated
with the infamous Peter Reilly murder case from the 1970s because those
files have been "erased." Odd Developments
Guest Editorial by Don B. Laws: Scott cheated on his wife and then
lied about it. He told the world he had a great marriage and then
his infidelity was exposed. Suddenly where he was and when became
critically important, because he was the only suspect in a murder with
no direct evidence against him. If he cheated and lied, did he
commit murder, too? Does this sound like Scott Peterson?
The similarities are striking, but this was Before Scott
Peterson
LIFE AFTER EXONERATION
In New Jersey, DNA evidence cleared John Dixon of rape and
freed him from prison in 2001, but he now seeks another sort of
vindication. He has sued the public defender's office, alleging that for
10
years it turned a deaf ear to his requests for DNA testing. And on Feb.
6, 2004 Essex County Judge Mary Jacobson denied a motion to dismiss his
suit, Dixon v. Segars, L-7598. Ineffective
Assistance by Public Defenders
INNOCENCE PROJECTS
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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 Hawaii, North Dakota and
South Dakota. Most of these innocence projects are new and overwhelmed
with applications, so waiting time between application and acceptance
is long. Wrongfully convicted
persons should not be dissuaded from applying to Innocence Projects
because
of this, but should have realistic expectations regarding acceptance
and
time lags. Check the list for the innocence project in your area;
we update it regularly.
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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 850 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
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