Wisconsin:  Prosecutors retrying a 1980 murder charge against Ralph Armstrong  in Madison, WI cannot use the results of a DNA test on a key piece of evidence because the results were obtained in violation of a court order, a judge has ruled.  Dane County Circuit Judge Daniel Moeser said the state acted in "bad faith" when it went ahead with the testing without notifying the defense and, in the process, used up the material - in violation of the judge's order.  Bad Faith.

UPDATE - 4/25/08:  Now we know why the state violated a court order to test -- and use up -- key evidence.  The state, and specifically, Assistant DA John Norsetter, has known for 13 years that Ralph Armstrong's brother confessed to the crime of which Ralph was convicted.  Norsetter, who retired from the office last year, allegedly not only failed to investigate or notify Armstrong’s defense attorneys of this confession, he subsequently ordered a test that destroyed evidence that could have established Steve Armstrong’s guilt.  Worse Than Bad Faith

North Carolina:  Durham County DA Mike Nifong has made himself the national poster boy for prosecutorial misconduct by his handling of rape allegations against Duke University lacrosse players.  Nifong made inflammatory comments about the accused to the media, withheld exculpatory evidence, and continued to pursue convictions long after it was obvious the defendants are innocent.  Why did he do it?  He was running for election, and as Nifong himself said, 'I'm getting a million dollars of free advertisements.'

Texas: In deciding Ex Parte James S. Masonheimer, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found that Taylor County prosecutors (including now Judge Robert Harper) intentionally withheld exculpatory evidence with the specific intent to avoid an acquittal on three separate occasions. The CCA granted Mr. Masonheimer double jeopardy relief stating this prosecutorial misconduct met the Oregon v. Kennedy standard.  Third Trial Barred. 

New York: Bruce Mason was convicted of arson and other charges in a federal bench trial in Binghamton, New York before the Hon. Thomas J. McAvoy. Although government and insurance fire investigators found no evidence of arson at the fire scene (i.e., no accelerant, no incendiary device), the record shows these experts devised a physically impossible arson scenario, and ignored, destroyed, suppressed, or lied about evidence which disproved it. When this wasn't enough to win the conviction, authorities fabricated a witness. Link: Bruce Mason

Texas:  The Dallas County, TX district attorney's office has acknowledged that prosecutors illegally withheld evidence that might have saved a man from a 1983 rape conviction and 10 years in prison.  Newly discovered evidence amassed by attorneys for James Curtis Giles "strongly suggests" that he was misidentified as one of three men involved in the gang rape, prosecutors said.  They said his conviction should be overturned, but stopped short of declaring Mr. Giles innocent. Instead, they asked state District Judge Robert Francis for additional time to investigate Mr. Giles' claim that a man with a nearly identical name was the true rapist.  What's in a Name?

Similar: Kerry Sanders was whisked from Los Angeles, CA to prison in Stormville, NY when he was mistaken for fugitive Robert Sanders.  For 2 years, no one would listen when he insisted, "My Name is Not Robert."

New York:  Following a "trend" begun by former US Attorney (now a presidential hopeful) Rudy Giuliani, criminalizing non-criminal conduct, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Michael J. Garcia went after David Finnerty and 14 other NY Stock Exchange floor specialists for "interpositioning."  Interpositioning means that instead of matching pending buy and sell orders, the specialists repeatedly trade for their company's proprietary account, making a profit from the slight differences in pricing.  The government said Finnerty cheated customers out of $4.5 million.  Judge Denny Chin overturned a jury's guilty verdict, however, concluding that no one was defrauded of any money and that interpositioning is not a crime.  A Page from The Tyranny of Good Intentions

Minnesota:  Minnesota prosecutors, the people accustomed to dishing out punishment, have found themselves on the receiving end of two recent state Supreme Court decisions that targeted improper closing arguments and other out-of-bounds trial behavior.  Prosecutors are bristling over the decisions, but many defense lawyers and legal experts think it's about time that courts stop warning prosecutors about misconduct and start doing something to stop it.  Crackdown on Prosecutor Misconduct

Nebraska:  Matt Livers of Murdoch, Nebraska, the latest false confessor to a murder, was set free after evidence that two other persons committed the crime surfaced.  The State's own expert agreed with the findings of the defense expert that Livers was mentally retarded, vulnerable to the tactics used by the police, and the confession was almost certainly false.  Still to be explained are findings in the car police said Matt drove the night of the murders.  Interestingly, no DNA is found in the car on first inspection. It is only on second inspection, using a wet swab, that the DNA is found, in the only area searched.  Meet Matt Livers.

Vermont:  In Burlington, VT, District Court Judge Michael Kupersmith has had it with police who violate suspects' rights willingly and repeatedly by ignoring the precept of reciting a Miranda warning.  "It's unfortunate that in this country there are people who believe that the rules do not apply to the executive branch, and they do; and the courts are here to enforce that," says Judge Kupersmith.  "At least," he continued, his voice rising, "these courts are."  Sidestepping Miranda.

California:  A Huntington Beach police officer's exoneration for planting a loaded gun in a suspect's car has led to the revelation that police routinely plant evidence in unsuspecting civilians' vehicles for training exercises. Police admit planting evidence.

Illinois:  In Chicago in 1997, June Siler mistakenly identified Robert Wilson as the man who slashed her wish a razor blade, after viewing a suggestive photo line up and being told he had confessed.  This is a chilling reminder of how easy it is for police and prosecutors to manipulate a witness' testimony.  Now, June says, "I have to make this right."

Michigan:  It took egregious misconduct by both police and prosecutors to hold together a case against teacher James Perry long enough for a jury to convict him of molesting 2 kindergarteners in suburban Detroit's Oakland County.  Well, it was either deliberate misconduct or these folks really believe that "Harry Potter" and "The Lion King" are "nonerotic pornography."  If you need your hair curled, read the following news reports:

North Carolina:  The Robeson County District Attorney has had to dismiss 180 drug cases because a state and federal investigation has led to corruption charges against former drug enforcement deputies.  Three of those deputies — Roger Taylor, C.T. Strickland and Steven Lovin — have been charged in a 10-count federal indictment. The indictment alleges that they burned two homes and a business, assaulted people, paid informants with drugs, and stole and laundered public money.  Power Corrupts

South Carolina:  An investigation by The Post and Courier (Charleston) uncovered endemic failures in the state's system for tracking police officers that allow problem cops to keep their badges despite histories of misconduct and even criminal behavior.  Systemic Failure

New Jersey:  Superior Court Judge Wilbur Mathesius thinks two N.J. Supreme Court justices are too prejudiced against him to be objective when they review the 6-month suspension Mathesius caught for, among other things, berating a jury for acquitting a defendant of illegal handgun possession; talking ex parte to jurors in the midst of deliberations in a murder case; making derogatory comments, some in public, about appellate judges; and gratuitous remarks that show bias about cases or defendants.  Can't They Take a Joke?

Texas:  The Bexar County district attorney's investigation into the possibly wrongful execution of Ruben Cantu had barely started early in 2006, but already DA investigators were scoffing at the three witnesses who contend Texas sent an innocent man named Ruben Cantu to his death.  The DA denies bias.

Ohio:  According to appeals court decisions, at least three men could be on death row because Cleveland's former star prosecutor Carmen Marino hid evidence.  Three others had murder convictions set aside, one because of what an appeals court called Marino's "highly improper and highly prejudicial" conduct. The others, because he hid key evidence or lied about secret deals with jailed witnesses.  Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Daniel Gaul said Marino should be criminally prosecuted for the abuses.  How Many Other Marinos are out there?

Missouri:  Sandra Kemper, a suspect in an alleged arson that took the life of her son, denied nine times that she had anything to do with the fire. Then the St. Louis County police detective resorted to one of the oldest tricks in the book -- he told Kemper that she had failed a lie detector test. Later that day, Kemper admitted that she set the fire to get out from under the burden of being the sole provider to her family and to collect insurance proceeds. But the confession did not fit the facts of the crime, the motive evidence was weak, and Sandra had passed the lie detector test with flying colors.  The trial judge declared a mistrial on issues related to the polygraph, and Missouri's high court has now ruled that Sandra cannot be retried.  Police Lies Backfired.

Florida:  Florida correctional officials -- already facing a surge of unwelcome scrutiny in the wake of the forced resignation of former commissioner James Crosby, nine firings of high ranking officials by Crosby’s successor, and the release of a videotape showing the fatal beating of a fourteen year old boy -- have been put on notice by former inmate Thomas Craig: I know where the bodies are buried.  Payback Time.

Wisconsin:  Two years after Winnebago County DA Joe Paulus pled guilty to taking bribes to fix cases, his iron-fisted approach is still practiced by local politicos.  The Legacy of Joe Paulus Lives On.




Illinois:  In 1994, Chicago cops used a "reverse lineup" (in which a suspect is asked to identify his victims), along with threats and physical abuse, to coerce 17-year-old Lafonso Rollins into confessing to the rape of an elderly woman.  He was convicted and sentenced to 75 years prison, but he was freed in 2004 when DNA proved his innocence.  He sued.  Discovery in his civil suit disclosed that the police crime lab had excluded him based on blood type before Rollins was ever tried.  Oops.  The great teamwork cost the city $9 million.  Cops & Crime Lab, Working Together

Florida:  With the help of testimony from convicted murderer Clarence Zacke, Brevard County prosecutors sent Wilton Dedge to prison for 22 years for a crime he did not commit. In December, 2005, Zacke was sentenced to life in prison for raping his adopted daughter 30 years earlier.  Now, Dedge's attorneys are calling for an investigation of the state attorney's office after learning during Zacke's rape trial that the child-rape allegations were the subject of a grand jury investigation before Dedge's trial in 1984. Hidden Dirt, Hidden Deals

New York:  A former FBI agent helped set up the 1992 shotgun murder of a Brooklyn mobster, a federal civil suit filed by the gangster's widow charges.  The agent, Lindley DeVecchio, pulled a surveillance team shortly before the rubout of Nicholas Grancio as a favor to Mafia capo Gregory Scarpa Sr. - DeVecchio's secret informant, the suit contends.  It's Nothing Personal; It's Just Business

Wisconsin: It was one of the most terrifying crimes ever to hit Kaukauna, WI, a community of 13,000.  On June 25, 2000, Shanna Van Dyn Hoven, a 19-year-old UW-Madison student, was stabbed to death as she jogged by a quarry near her home about 6 p.m.  Prosecutors said Kenneth Hudson stabbed Van Dyn Hoven, a stranger, in a fit of misplaced rage, and that they caught him red-handed, covered in her blood.  Newly uncovered evidence, however, appears to support Hudson's contentions -- and raises more questions about the conduct of the police and the prosecutor, Vince Biskupic.  Morphing DNA, Disappearing Evidence

UPDATE:  Ken Hudson's bid for a new trial crashed and burned.  No surprise.  His new lawyer dropped all the substantive issues, and the judge wouldn't let Hudson fire the attorney.  New Trial Denied

Click HERE for full coverage of Wisconsin's Vince Biskupic money-for-leniency scandal.

Click HERE for more on Vince Biskupic's approach to cooking up a case.

New York:  A Long Island, N.Y., judge has been arrested and charged by federal prosecutors with participating in a money laundering and fencing scheme with a suspected organized crime associate.  According to a 71-page complaint unsealed Tuesday by the Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney's Office, Nassau County District Court Judge David Gross helped an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agent posing as a stolen diamond trafficker unload merchandise as well as launder about $130,000 in illicit funds.  A Cut in the Action

Tennessee:  Two more former Campbell County sheriff's officers have been sentenced to prison for the beating and torture of a suspected drug dealer.  The officers claimed they went to Lester Siler's home to serve a probation violation warrant, but in fact they tortured him, demanding drugs and money.  And Siler's wife tape recorded it.  Taped Interrogation

Illinois: In October, 2004, Kevin Fox of Wilmington, Illinos was arrested following a 14-hour interrogation in which investigators said he confessed to molesting and murdering his 3-year-old daughter Riley in June of the same year.  The prosecutor, just days away from a hotly contested re-election bid that he ended up losing, vowed to seek the death penalty.  A sheriff's officer called the FBI Lab at Quantico, Virginia in November and told them to stop working on DNA evidence sent there for analysis.  Kevin's attorney convinced the new prosecutor to send the evidence to a private lab for testing, and the DNA test results "absolutely" exclude Kevin.  Charges that could have led to his execution have been dropped.  Riley's killer remains free.  Political Overkill

Virginia:  Cisco A. Olavarria was almost 1,000 miles away when 14-year-old LaBrian Harris was shot dead in South Richmond in the fall of 2004. Eleven days after the Oct. 16 shooting, Richmond police publicly named Olavarria, then 19, as a suspected accomplice in the killing and distributed his driver's license photo to the news media.  Early the next month, a special grand jury began meeting over an intensive investigation by Virginia State Police into the killing of Olavarria's older brother, Santanna, by two Richmond police officers the preceding spring.  It's Time to Set the Record Straight

UPDATE:  Patrolman, ex-partner indicted in Santanna Olavarria's murder.

California:  Kern County DA Ed Jagels put two dozen innocent people behind bars on charges that they molested their own kids -- while ignoring evidence that his friends were throwing orgies with teenage boys. So why is one of America's most reckless prosecutors still in power?  Mean Justice's Dirty Secrets

Illinois:  A lawsuit was predictable in the case of two teenagers who were wrongly charged in the February slaying of a Machesney Park, Illinois man.  The lawsuit was brought by mothers of the two youths who were wrongly charged, and it names Winnebago County Sheriff Dick Meyers, his department, detectives and deputies. It's time for Safeguards to Protect Accused Kids.

Wisconsin:  Suspicions about a 1998 4th offense drunken-driving case dismissed by former prosecutor Brad Priebe have prompted Winnebago County DA Bill Lennon to refer the matter to the state Department of Justice for review of the case.  Lennon said he did so in response to “red flags” that appeared as prosecutors prepared a new drunken driving case against the same man, whose 1998 case was dismissed as a result of a motion by Priebe, then a Winnebago County assistant district attorney.  Priebe, appointed judge in Outagamie County Circuit Court and running for election in his own right, said he was ordered to dismiss the charge by then-DA Joe Paulus, now in prison for taking bribes to fix cases, and "had no choice".   The Paulus Legacy Shines On

Click HERE for full coverage of Wisconsin's Joe Paulus bribery scandal, from initial allegations to sentencing.

Ohio:  Derrick Jamison has been released from Ohio's Death Row.  His 1985 murder conviction was overturned by two federal courts, which ruled he was denied a fair trial by prosecutors who withheld evidence that might have cleared him.  119th Innocent Person Released from Death Row

USA:  The popularity of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and its increasingly numerous progeny has spawned what some folks are calling the "CSI Effect."  That is, most people who might end up on a jury know, or think they know, a great deal about forensic science and the kind of evidence needed to solve crimes.  All this has been widely noted. What hasn't been noted is how years of cop shows have already formed our background ideas about the criminal justice system. What this suggests is that we ought to be a good deal more suspicious of prosecutorial infallibility than television shows suggest. Cop Show Effect

Wisconsin:  A Milwaukee police officer has been charged with a criminal civil rights violation for trying to shake down a parolee for money and guns, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Milwaukee.  The officer, Ala W. Awadallah, 26, also threatened to plant drugs on the man and to have him sent back to prison, according to an FBI agent's affidavit filed in support of the complaint. If convicted, Awadallah faces a maximum penalty of two years in prison and $200,000 in fines.  The Price of Staying Out on Parole

One day before Milwaukee cop Ala Awadallah was busted this week by the FBI on charges of shaking down a parolee, he was in the most unlikely of places: Sitting in the witness stand testifying for federal prosecutors in a drug/illegal immigration case.  Can you say "appeal"?

Illinois:  An Illinois State Police lieutenant says he was stopped from investigating the possible involvement of a Downstate businessman in a double homicide because the man had made significant political donations.  The lieutenant does not allege wrongdoing by the politician, former Gov. George Ryan, whose campaign fund received the businessman's donations.  But he alleges that state police brass were guided by fear of political reprisals, even in an investigation with the highest possible stakes--a death penalty murder case.  Demote the Messenger

Make no mistake. Nearly 19 years after the fact, this case is now a bigger mess than it's ever been. State police officials are the subject of very serious allegations of misconduct, and the attorney general's office is representing the state police against the man leveling those allegations.  Who will step in to clean it up?

Wisconsin: Dale Chu's conviction is proof that, in Wisconsin, you can convict someone of arson even when the cause of a fire cannot be determined.  All it takes is a win-at-all-costs prosecutor like Vince Biskupic, perjured testimony from state "arson experts", the lies of a paid-off snitch and a dummied-down jury.  Fixing It Up

The current DA in Winnebago County is conducting a secret John Doe investigation into the conduct of Vince Biskupic and his friend and mentor, Joe Paulus, when they controlled the prosecutor's offices in Winnebago and Outagamie Counties.  He calls their actions in the cases they made against Mark Price "an abuse of the justice system of the worst kind."

Click HERE for full coverage of Wisconsin's Joe Paulus bribery scandal, from initial allegations to sentencing.

Click HERE for full coverage of Wisconsin's Vince Biskupic money-for-leniency scandal.

Massachusetts:  Eighteen years ago, three Boston-area men were convicted of fatally shooting a Lynnfield couple in the basement of their Main Street home as their two young children slept upstairs, a brazen crime that sent shock waves through the quiet, prosperous suburb.  Richard Costa, Dennis Daye, and Michael DeNictolis are each serving two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the 1985 slaying of Robert Paglia and his wife, Patricia, in a robbery at the couple's house.  But now a retired FBI agent says in an affidavit that a former colleague gave false and misleading forensic testimony -- deemed crucial to the prosecution's case -- at the trial.  BS Bullet Matching

Florida: The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is joining the investigation of Broward Sheriff's Office detectives suspected of falsifying crime reports.  Prosecutors recently filed criminal charges against two deputies who are charged with falsifying documents and making up confessions to clear cases in Weston and Southwest Ranches. Dozens more deputies have been informed that they are under investigation or have been asked to give statements to prosecutors.  Exceptional Clearance

Florida (but could be anywhere in the US):  James Faller claimed innocence in a complicated loan fraud from the time he reported it to Florida regulators more than 10 years ago, when he tried to explain it to an FBI Agent, when he was indicted, tried, convicted and sentenced to prison.   Along the way he infuriated federal prosecutors by making hundreds of allegations of misconduct at virtually every stage of his prosecution in the $3.6 million fraud because, he claims, they got the wrong guy.  They'll Get You if You Tick Them Off

UPDATE:  Faller's federal lawsuit has made it through the initial (and inevitable) barrage of motions to dismiss and motions for summary judgment.  Federal Judge Allows Suit to Stand

Illinois:  Cook County, Illinois prosecutors have dropped murder charges against Dan Young, Jr. and Harold Hill, who have spent more than 12 years behind bars, after DNA test results undermined their (coerced) confessions and testimony from a dentist who implicated the two through a bite mark and a hickey.  A Chicago Tradition

Illinois and Missouri:  A federal jury has awarded nearly $6.6 million in damages to former Chicago police Officer Steven Manning, finding two veteran FBI agents framed him for a Cook County murder that put him on Death Row.  The jury also held that one of the FBI agents also framed Manning in a Missouri kidnapping case. Manning spent 14 years in prison before both convictions were overturned and the prosecutions were dropped.  Framed by FBI

Arizona:  Last year, former Pima County DA Kenneth Peasley was disbarred for intentionally presenting false evidence in death-penalty cases—something that had never before happened to an American prosecutor. In a 1992 triple-murder case, Peasley introduced testimony that he knew to be false; three men were convicted and sentenced to die. Peasley was convinced that the three were guilty, but he also believed that the evidence needed a push. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, since the mid-nineteen-seventies a hundred and seventeen death-row inmates have been released. Defense lawyers, often relying on DNA testing, have shown repeatedly how shoddy crime-lab work, lying informants, and mistaken eyewitness identifications, among other factors, led to unjust convictions. But DNA tests don’t reveal how innocent people come to be prosecuted in the first place. The career of Kenneth Peasley -- and the case of Martin Soto-Fong -- do.  Killer Instincts [pdf format]

Nevada:  Police and prosecutors in the Las Vegas Valley routinely try to keep essential information from defense lawyers, violating the constitutional rights of those accused of crimes, defense attorneys and the county public defender say.  Putting Away the Innocent

Wisconsin:  Everything was hunky-dory at the Department of Corrections when the TV show "Lie Detector" proposed filming a polygraph exam of prisoner Mark Price.  But when Penny Brummer and Audrey Edmonds were added to the slate, Deputy Corrections Secretary Rick Raemisch pulled the plug, claiming the show is "entertainment", not news.  Why the 180 degree switch?  Perhaps it's because Raemisch was Dane County Sheriff and at the helm of the Brummer and Edmonds investigations.  Conflict of Interest

Virginia:  Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. of Albemarle County Circuit Court should be removed from office because of his vindictiveness and extremely serious questions about his truthfulness, the state's Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission has recommended.  He Got Mad and Got Even

Florida: In the 1989 nationally syndicated television program on the case, A Matter of Life and Death, television journalist Ike Pappas noted: ``In 1975, Tommy Zeigler was attempting to clean up corruption right in his hometown of Winter Garden, Florida. He was helpful in shutting down the old Edgewater Hotel, a center of prostitution and drug dealing. But he was also trying to gather information on other illegal activities such as gun running and, most importantly, loan sharking. The loan sharks made a fortune letting [black] migrant workers buy groceries on credit at an interest rate of 520 percent per year. And Tommy Zeigler alleges that certain members of the Winter Garden police force were in on the action.''

On Christmas Eve that year, there was a multiple murder at the Zeigler family furniture store. Zeigler was charged with the murders. Maurice Paul, who openly opposed Ziegler's efforts, was the trial judge who presided over Zeigler's fate.  Paul overrode the jury's recommendation and sentenced Zeigler to death.  Zeigler has maintained his innocence.  Now DNA evidence offers Zeigler the hope of a Very Different Future Christmas.

Washington, DC:  Former Asst. U.S. Attorney G. Paul Howes is a generous guy.  He's so generous that he handed out payment vouchers not just to witnesses in cases he prosecuted, but to cooperating witnesses, their families, friends, even their lawyers.   And Howes didn't limit his generosity to federal cases he prosecuted.  He even handed out federal vouchers in DC Superior Court cases in which he was involved.  High Level Misconduct

Massachusetts:  James Rodwell was convicted of the November 1978 fatal shooting of Louis Rose Jr. outside a Somerville, MA bakery. The state's key witness against him was David P. Nagle, a law enforcement snitch who made a career out of committing armed robberies to support his drug habit, according to court documents.  But prosecutors not only failed to disclose the sweetheart deal Nagle got in exchange for his testimony -- 7 to 12 years for 10 armed robberies --, they actively concealed it.  Business as Usual

Michigan:  The Justice Department has secretly opened an investigation into two drug cases handled by a Detroit prosecutor already accused of misconduct in a high-profile terrorism case.  It's the first indication that the department's review of Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard G. Convertino, a 14-year prosecutor in Detroit, has expanded beyond his handling of the nation's first post-September 11 terrorism trial. In that case, a judge dismissed terror convictions in September against two men after the Justice Department acknowledged that Convertino withheld key evidence from defense attorneys. Probe Widens

Georgia:  U.S. District Court Judge Hugh Lawson has sentenced Robert B. Ellis Jr., formerly district attorney of the Alapaha Judicial Circuit, to 18 months in prison and levied a $5,000 fine against him for making a false statement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  What did he lie about?  Having sex with a suspect who was acting as a confidential informant.  Illegal Liaisons

Michigan:  A special prosecutor is being appointed to probe the conduct of police and the prosecutor in the case of a man wrongfully convicted of rape, a spokesman with the Michigan Attorney General's Office has confirmed.  The probe is the latest development stemming from Ken Wyniemko's year-old federal lawsuit, which lays out evidence that suggests witnesses were coached, evidence was buried, conflicting leads were ignored and justice was forsaken for a conviction.  Winning at Any Cost

Pennsylvania:  PA State Police have a unique track record for charging accidental fires as arson.  They have taken this to a new low, using pizza and candy to get a 7-year-old boy to confess to setting a fatal fire at a neighbor's home that occurred when the child was miles away.  The child is too young to be prosecuted, even as a juvenile.  Instead, the authorities want to put him in a treatment facility for mentally disturbed kids -- Go in Normal, Come Out Twisted.

Massachusetts:  Louis Greco died behind bars in 1995 from cancer and heart disease.  He suffered horribly, losing a leg to amputation because he was denied proper care for his diabetes.  Along with co-defendants Peter Limone and Joseph Salvati, Louis was framed for murder by the Boston FBI to protect their informant, mob hit man Steve "The Rifleman" Flemmi.  Nine years after Louis' death, the prosecutor has acknowledged he was an innocent man.  Too Little, Too Late

Texas:  James Masonheimer of Abilene, TX said he shot Gilbert Sanchez in self-defense.  Masonheimer claimed Sanchez's abuse of steroids resulted in dangerous fits of rage, one of which led to their encounter.  But two mistrials were declared because the prosecutor withheld evidence of Sanchez's steroid abuse.  Now John Robert Harper, who prosecuted the first trial and has since become a judge, is charged with ethics violations in the case.  The Judge Goes on Trial

Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Michigan and Panama:  Internationally known dog handler Sandra Anderson dazzled police in Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Michigan and Panama with the ability of her dog, Eagle, to find evidence that eluded everyone else.  Of course Eagle could find it -- Anderson planted the evidence.  Anderson has pled guilty to federal evidence tampering charges.  How Many Cases did She Taint?

Massachusetts: