| KATU-TV Could new evidence exonerate this man? by Thom Jensen KATU News November 24, 2008
In an exclusive interview with KATU News recently, Scott Cannon maintains his innocence. He says he was a fall guy for Polk County. "They just came in and said you're the guy," Cannon said. "That's pretty much it." Now Cannon wants a judge to hear new arguments in his case. "I'm looking forward to going to court," he said. Cannon is excited because he says he believes the prosecution’s case against him is now weaker than ever. During his time in prison, Cannon has been researching the evidence against him. “It's funny how time has a way of revealing things," he said. "Ten years is a long time." Two key pieces of the prosecution’s case now face serious questions. The first is bullet lead analysis. A scientist from Oregon State University told jurors in 1998 that bullets recovered from the murder scene matched lead in bullets found in Cannon’s garage. He said there was a 1 in 64 million chance of getting a match like that. KATU brought the bullet lead issue to Polk County District Attorney John Fisher six years ago. “I think the matter was fully litigated," Fisher, who prosecuted Cannon, said at the time. "I think the jury reached the right decision." Since that decision, the National Academy of Science has come out condemning the bullet lead analysis as “bad science." The man who handled all high-profile cases involving the forensic science of metals for the FBI for 24 years says it is “built on a faulty premise.” Former FBI Chief Metallurgical Forensic Scientist William Tobin told KATU bullets are made in 100 to 150 ton batches and shipped in such large quantities you could have saturations of millions of matching bullets in one city. He says he looked at the bullet lead in the Cannon case and could not make a judgment of innocence or guilt, but he says there does not appear to be any evidence that bullets found in Scott Cannon’s garage and at the murder scene are unique to each other. Cannon’s attorney, Mark Geiger, agrees. "It's not good science," he said. "It is junk science, and Dr. Tobin has been very successful in challenging that." Tobin could be called as an expert witness in Cannon’s case. * Letter/e-mail questioning the analysis (pdf) Former Polk County District Attorney John Fisher has not returned numerous calls regarding the evidence and a new witness. However, a spokesman for the Oregon Attorney General’s Office said its attorneys now looking at the case stand behind the bullet testing. “It is one piece of evidence that went into the trial," said Jake Weigler. "There are other witnesses and testimony from them. We are going to look at all of the evidence." Then there is the prosecution’s key witness, Bimla Boyd. Boyd owned the property where the murders occurred. Two of the victims, Kinser and Osborne, were her personal caretakers. Since the 1998 murders, two more people have died at Boyd’s home under suspicious circumstances. In 2001, her estranged husband, Charles Boyd, died from a drug overdose. Weeks later, Boyd turned up in a Marion County court with Charles Boyd’s Last Will and Testament, a document that awarded Bimla Boyd everything. The will was witnessed and signed by Boyd’s new caretaker, 54-year-old Robert Daniel Spencer. In 2002, Spencer died in Boyd’s home from a single gunshot to the head. Boyd was arrested for the murder and pleaded guilty to manslaughter after convincing prosecutors she killed Spencer because he was molesting her 14-year-old daughter. Boyd could be released from prison as early as April 2009. Now there are new questions about Boyd’s testimony in the 1998 triple murder in her caretakers’ trailer. Boyd swore under oath she never left her property. In fact, she says at 3:45 p.m. on that stormy day she was inside her house when she noticed a fire in the trailer and then found Kinser shot in the head and lying face down by the kitchen table. Boyd’s cell phone records show she then called 9-1-1 at 3:57 p.m. She told police Scott Cannon was the last person at the trailer and was the only one who could have committed the murders. But a neighbor, who was never called to the witness stand and never interviewed by Polk County detectives, says Boyd was not home at that time. Irene Morrow, who lives at the bottom of a long roadway leading to Boyd’s house, told KATU she and her husband saw Bimla Boyd speed down the driveway and turn right on to Orchard Heights Road at 3:45 p.m. "She was visibly shaken when she saw us," Morrow said. "She didn't expect to see anyone there." Morrow said 10 minutes later, Boyd returned, alone in her car, and sped back up the driveway. Pointing to a stairway overlooking Boyd’s driveway, Morrow said, "I was standing right there at the top of the stairs when she came back." About the same time, while Boyd was making her call to 9-1-1, Scott Cannon’s ex-girlfriend says Cannon was walking in his house a half hour away from the murder scene. "I was on the phone with PGE, because the power was out," Sarah Miller said. "Just as that was happening, Scott was walking through the front door." Miller’s cell phone records prove the call was made at 3:58 p.m. Cell phone records from Susan Osborne’s phone show Osborne was on her phone at 3:25 p.m. that day. Cannon says he wants to know how he was able to kill three people, start a fire in a trailer to hide the murders, leave the scene within a few minutes and then get home all in a half hour when his home is 30 minutes away in good weather. He says Boyd’s recollection of the events is impossible. "I just know that she wasn't truthful about what she said in the timing of the events," he said. "She couldn't have been ... absolutely couldn't have been." Both he and his son want to know why Boyd lied about not leaving her property and where she went. If Boyd was capable of killing her new caretaker by shooting him in the head, Cannon asks why she is believed as a key witness placing him at the murder scene. “She's wavered in her recollections of events, over and over and over," he said. Cannon and his attorney also want to know why the neighbors who saw Bimla Boyd speed away from the murder scene were never questioned or called to testify as witnesses. “There's not that much evidence left against me, and there's certainly some reasonable doubt now," he said. Right now Scott Cannon is asking for what is called Post Conviction Relief. If the court grants his request, it could overturn his life sentence for a lack of evidence. But for now, Oregon attorney general spokesman Jake Weigler said his office is sticking to the case against Scott Cannon. “Before you let somebody out of jail, you want to make sure that they didn't do it," Weigler said. Scott Cannon says he thought you were supposed to prove someone is guilty before you put them in prison. - If you have information about the murders, you can contact On Your Side Investigator Thom Jensen at tjensen@katu.com |
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