Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Charles Flores: Flawed forensic hypnosis; Dallas Observer Investigative reporter Christian Maschino probes a death row case in Dallas County which puts hypnosis on trial as "junk science."..."Forensic hypnosis is what brought Flores, who is now 47, back to a Dallas district courtroom in October and again in December. Texas was supposed to execute him in June 2016, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals delayed the lethal injection a week before it was scheduled. Flores' new attorneys filed a motion that argued, in part, that he deserved a new trial because forensic hypnosis “was based on junk science.” Law enforcement officials, however, claim that forensic hypnosis is one of several tools that has helped generate leads in some high-profile cold cases."


PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "At Flores' hearing late last year in Dallas, Sween called Flores' expert, Steven Lynn, a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He explained that in the past 15 years, a shift has occurred in the psychological community, which believes hypnosis is not safe to use on lost memory retrieval in any way and the findings in the Zani case were erroneous, meriting a new trial for Flores."

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STORY: "Death Row Case in Dallas County Puts Hypnosis on Trial as "Junk Science," by Brian Maschino, published by The Dallas Observer onMarch 29, 2018. (Christian McPhate is an award-winning journalist who specializes in investigative reporting. He covers crime, the environment, business, government and social justice. His work has appeared in several publications, including the Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star Telegram, the Miami Herald, San Antonio Express News and The Washington Times.)

GIST: "Charles Flores and Richard Childs broke into a house on Bergen Street in Farmers Branch and killed Elizabeth Black while searching for money. Meth is why they wanted the cash. They scored a half-pound of it a few hours earlier and took it back to Flores' trailer, where he weighed it and found Childs' drug dealer had shorted him. Flores pointed a handgun at Roberts, purportedly as a joke, and persuaded her “to call the drug dealer to try to rectify the situation,” but dealers are not known for rectifying situations. So Roberts told Flores about the $39,000 in cash stashed behind a medicine cabinet at her mother-in-law's house in Farmers Branch. Her ex had left it there and told his mother, Elizabeth, to give Roberts $500 a month in spousal support while he served 15 years in prison on a drug charge. They were searching for money and planning to shoot the guard dog, Santana, but didn't realize Elizabeth Black would be home, too. Each man had placed a potato on the end of his gun — a .380 and .44 Magnum — to act as a poor-man's silencer. When Bill Black came home from work later that morning, he discovered potato fragments splattered on the walls and ceiling and his 64-year old wife, Elizabeth, and Santana dead. The $39,000 was still hidden in the master bedroom closet. The medicine cabinet had been torn off the wall. Law enforcement recovered the .44 Magnum, believed to have been used to kill the dog, from Childs' home after his arrest on the night of Elizabeth Black's murder. Flores was captured a few months later in Dallas. The murder weapon was never recovered. Childs took a plea deal and served 17 years of a 35-year prison sentence before being paroled. Flores, who went to trial before Childs' deal, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Witnesses against him included a friend and Flores' father-in-law, who claimed Flores told them he was there at the murder; Childs' former girlfriend, who smoked dope with them moments before the murder; and an eyewitness who had undergone forensic hypnosis shortly after the murder. Although Childs said he was the one who killed Elizabeth Black when he signed the deal, Flores was culpable for the murder since he took part in the crime.  Forensic hypnosis is what brought Flores, who is now 47, back to a Dallas district courtroom in October and again in December. Texas was supposed to execute him in June 2016, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals delayed the lethal injection a week before it was scheduled. Flores' new attorneys filed a motion that argued, in part, that he deserved a new trial because forensic hypnosis “was based on junk science.” Law enforcement officials, however, claim that forensic hypnosis is one of several tools that has helped  generate leads in some high-profile cold cases..................Today, the Texas Rangers use forensic hypnosis more than any other law enforcement agency in the state because they're less likely to know specific details of a local investigation when they're called in for help, says Perry Gilmore of the Texas Association for Investigative Hypnosis and the Texas Crime Stoppers Council, which advises the governor on crime stoppers programs around the state. He is trained in forensic hypnosis. “We always say it is not a shortcut for a good traditional investigations,” he says. “When we do get information from hypnosis, we try to verify as many of those facts as we can................Flores watched Sween "dismantle" the Dallas county prosecutor's case during closing arguments of his hearing in late 2017. He called her a “superhero” on his blog, “Innocent on Death Row.” Sween used a PowerPoint presentation projected on three screens in the courtroom to give a lesson on the history of the criminal appellate law and statute related to forensic hypnosis. She discussed a recent change in Texas law that allows defense attorneys to challenge hypnosis as “junk science.”......... At Flores' hearing late last year in Dallas, Sween called Flores' expert, Steven Lynn, a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He explained that in the past 15 years, a shift has occurred in the psychological community, which believes hypnosis is not safe to use on lost memory retrieval in any way and the findings in the Zani case were erroneous, meriting a new trial for Flores. The prosecution claimed that Lynn wasn't pointing out anything new and the substance of his opinion was available in Flores' original trial in the late '90s. "The court finds that, through reasonable diligence, [Flores] could have obtained the testimony of Dr. Lynn or a similar expert at the time of his trial," wrote Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Ott. In court documents, Sween introduces testimony from hypnosis and memory expert Martin Orne, one of the world's foremost forensic psychologists and someone whom courts have used to determine if forensic hypnosis should be submitted as evidence. “Dr. Orne no longer believes that procedural safeguards reduce the risk associated with hypnotically enhanced memory,” she wrote. “There is a consensus among scientists in the field of memory and eyewitness identification that hypnosis is an inherently suggestive pretrial procedure based on data that supports that perspective.” The prosecution introduced its expert witness, Dr. David Spiegel, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University whose knowledge of hypnosis spans 45 years. He is also part of the American Medical Association's Council on Scientific Affairs panel that evaluated the effects of hypnosis on memory. "It suggested that there can be complications with hypnotically refreshed memory, not unlike the things that are in the Zani hearing," Spiegel testified. "And it suggested that caution should be used when hypnosis is used in the forensic setting. Sometimes false information or confabulation can occur. So it should be used with caution."  Spiegel testified that although new scientific studies on hypnosis and memory have been conducted, their findings have been consistent with what was already known before Flores' original trial. “There is a consensus among scientists in the field of memory and eyewitness identification that hypnosis is an inherently suggestive pretrial procedure."  Sween also argues that the state did not present any physical evidence and rested its case on the testimonies of drug dealers and users, some of whom were seeking leniency in their own cases. The only “seemingly untainted evidence the state presented to place Flores on the scene was Bargainer's hypnotically altered testimony,” she said. Prosecutors, however, claim hypnotically refreshed testimony is still admissible in Texas courts as long as it meets the Zani factors. In Barganier's case, when she arrived at Flores' trial in the late '90s and recognized Flores as the passenger, the court conducted a hearing and determined that her testimony was admissible. Psychologist George Mount, an expert for the prosecution, testified during Flores' original trial that he'd evaluated hundreds of hypnosis sessions, taught hypnosis for 20 years and served on the board that developed the exam for Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officers Standards and saw no evidence of any incorrect procedures on the video recording of Barganier's forensic hypnosis session. Jason January, the lead prosecutor in Flores' original trial, summarized the corroborating evidence placing Flores at the scene as follows: Eight people witnessed Childs and Flores together shortly before Black's murder, two people claimed Flores admitted being present at the scene and one person saw Flores torching Childs' Volkswagen on Interstate 30 two days after Black's murder. Flores' case is now in the hands 195th District Judge Hector Garza, who will rule sometime in the coming months."

The entire story can be read at:
http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/texas-court-reconsiders-use-of-hypnosis-induced-testimony-in-dallas-county-death-row-case-10501228

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.