the charles smith blog
Friday, April 26, 2024
Scott Peterson: California: Prosecutors say his request for new DNA tests is unnecessary,, ABC7 San Francisco (Reporter Dann Noyes) reports.. "A major development in Scott Peterson's fight for a new trial, 20 years after he was convicted of murdering his wife, Laci, and their unborn son The LA Innocence Project asked for new DNA testing, but now, the people are firing back. The original prosecutors in the case argue there is no need for new DNA testing, that Scott Peterson's lies about his role in Laci's death make it unnecessary."
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: WORDS TO HEED: FROM OUR POST ON KEVIN COOPER'S APPLICATION FOR POST-CONVICTION DNA TESTING; CALIFORNIA: (Applic...
Ellen Greenberg: Pennsylvania: Major (Welcome) Development: The parents of a young Philadelphia teacher may be heading back to court as they continue to search for answers surrounding loss of their beloved daughter, Fox 29 staff report, noting that earlier this month a former Philadelphia prosecutor was granted permission to testify as part of the family's ongoing fight against the city…."The family filed a lawsuit against the medical examiner's office in 2021 in a push for investigators to reevaluate the case. Officials initially ruled Ellen's death a suicide before changing it to homicide, then switching it back to suicide days later. However, her parents contended that Ellen could not have stabbed herself that many times and pushed to have the case reopened. "I want my daughter's name cleared, because there's no way that she could have done that to herself," Sandee told Good Day Philadelphia back in 2021. They were granted a non-jury trial to try to get the cause of death changed to "undecided" or homicide. On Tuesday, a court ruled that the former ADA Guy D'Andrea could be deposed on or before May 6."
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: " The Greenbergs aren't the only ones who pushed for the case to be reopened. A Change.org petition called &quo...
Thursday, April 25, 2024
World DNA DAY: Today: April 25, The Innocence Project salutes this important day that commemorates James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin’s breakthrough discovery of DNA’s unique double helix structure - while highlighting Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld's realization that if DNA evidence could be used to convict someone of a crime, it could also be used to prove someone innocent…"To date, the Innocence Project has used DNA to help exonerate 202 people of crimes they did not commit, 20 of whom were scheduled for execution." (Check out the two cases cited by The Innocence Project uses to make its point: Cornelius Dupree and Michelle Murphy.)
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RELEASE: Innocence Project: April 25, 2024: 'World DNA Day: GIST: "Today is World DNA Day, a day that commemorates James Watson, ...
Wayne Burgess: Tennessee: Major (Welcome) Development: A disgraced former medical examiner Charles Harlan case: As Evan Mealins reports in The Tennessean, this innocent man, who was wrongfully imprisoned 24 years on the testimony of disgraced former medical examiner Harlan, has filed a lawsuit against the county, city and police officers that investigated and prosecuted him…"Burgess, 59, was released from prison in May last year after a Giles County judge overturned the first-degree murder conviction he received in 1999, which was reached in large part due to the flawed testimony of former medical examiner Charles Harlan. Judge David L. Allen found that new scientific evidence showed Burgess was innocent of the 1997 death of his then-girlfriend's daughter. On April 12, Burgess filed a federal lawsuit against Giles County, the Pulaski Police Department and Joel Robison and John Dickey, the two officers he says illegally coerced a confession from him. Dickey is now the police chief of Pulaski. "As a result of this wrongful conviction Wayne spent an unimaginable 24 years in prison, unjustly plucked from society in the prime of his life," the lawsuit states."
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PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "On Aug. 8, 1997, 16-month-old Nakeavia Rivers was rushed to the hospital minutes after she began showing signs...
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