The StandDown Texas Project

An Update From Kirk Bloodsworth

Kirk Bloodsworth was the first person who had been sentenced to death and exonerated by DNA evidence.  Tim Junkin's book, Bloodsworth, written with Kirk's involvement, is the harrowing tale of Kirk's journey.  It was published in 2004.

Since then, Kirk has been an indefatigable fighter to expand DNA testing, an advocate for exonerees, and as exhibit one for the repeal of capital punishment.

Now, he's working with Gregory Bayne on the documentary, "Bloodsworth: An Innocent Man."  They have 14 days left in a KickStarter campaign to raise 

I hope you will take a moment to watch the trailer and help with this very worth project.

Earlier coverage of Kirk Bloodsworth begins at the links

In Philadelphia

Today's Philadelphia Inquirer publishes the editorial, "Dead end for D.A."  Here's the beginning:

Jailed for life for a vicious murder he insists he did not commit, Anthony Wright spent nearly half his time behind bars awaiting the day last month when he appeared before a Philadelphia judge to hear the good news that he had been granted a new trial.

Any sense of relief for Wright and his legal team, though, has been brief.

Even before Wright, 43, officially returned to the status of defendant rather than convict, prosecutors made it clear that they would seek another first-degree murder verdict. District Attorney Seth Williams' legal team remains unconvinced by DNA and other evidence revealed with the help of attorneys from the Innocence Project at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School in New York.

That compelling evidence suggests not only that Wright is likely innocent of the 1991 slaying of 77-year-old Louise Talley in her Nicetown home, but also that a now-dead career criminal was the actual killer.

An earlier reference to his case is at the link.  Related posts are in the DNA cateogry index.

Earlier unrelated coverage from Pennsylvania begins at the link.

Kentucky Supreme Court to Examine Long-Running Case

"Kentucky Supreme Court takes up issues in ongoing appeals in 26-year-old death penalty case," is the AP report, via the Daily Journal.

The Kentucky Supreme Court is set to hear the latest appeal in the case of a death row inmate convicted in a 1987 kidnapping and slaying of a woman.

The justices on Thursday will take up two issues raised by 57-year-old Gregory L. Wilson. Wilson was convicted on Oct. 31, 1988, of kidnapping and killing Deborah "Debbie" Pooley of Kenton County 19 months earlier.

And:

Wilson claims that his appeals counsel was ineffective and on issues related to DNA evidence.

Oral arguments in the case is today.

Earlier coverage of the case begins at the link.  You can also jump to more recent unrelated news from Kentucky begins.

The Plight of the Exonerated

"Walking free from death row -- and into a new nightmare," is by Agence France-Presse (AFP), via GlobalPost.

Sabrina Butler can lay claim to a dubious honor -- she is the only female death row prisoner in the United States to be exonerated.

But while she may finally be free, the stain on her character has proven far harder to erase, while adjusting back into normal life is an everyday struggle. Getting compensation is a whole new battle.

"I get to meet other people that are just like me, you know? Well, the guys, rather, because I'm the only female," Butler said at a meeting in Philadelphia of 30 former death-row convicts who were all exonerated -- the victims of false testimonies, judicial errors, wrongful confessions and worse.

And:

Steve Honeyman, interim executive director at Witness to Innocence, said being freed is only the start of a long battle, especially when it comes to compensation. Those freed are often broke and jobless.

"Some of them sue the state that they're in and they get some compensation, but most of them get out and don't get anything," said Honeyman.

Related posts are in the exoneration, innocence, and wrongful incarceration category indexes.

Sanctions Pursued Against DA in Oklahoma Exoneration Case

Today's Tulsa World reports, "Attorneys seek contempt ruling against DA Tim Harris in murder case."  It's by Ziva Branstetter.  Here's the beginning:

Attorneys for a woman who was exonerated in a 20-year-old murder case have asked a judge to find Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris in contempt of court for his handling of the case in the past year.

The motion by attorneys Richard O’Carroll and Sharisse O’Carroll asks Tulsa County District Judge William Kellough to hold Harris in contempt for claims he made in court filings regarding the prosecution of Michelle Murphy.

Murphy was freed from prison this summer based on newly discovered evidence after serving nearly 20 years for the murder of her infant son. Earlier this month, Kellough declared her innocent, and all charges were dropped.

During Murphy’s 1995 trial, Harris told jurors “that there was (type) AB blood which was not the victim’s” at the crime scene.

In a May 29 motion dropping her murder charges, Harris said the statement to jurors was made “in good faith based upon forensic testing provided by the Tulsa Police Department Laboratory.”

Earlier unrelated coverage from Oklahoma begins with the preceding post.  Related posts are in the DNA, exoneration, innocence, and prosecutorial misconduct category indexes.

Texas State Senator, Advocates to Push Legislative Fix for DNA Testing Hurdle

Today's Austin American-Statesman reports, "Senator vows to expand DNA testing in innocence claims."  It's by Chuck Lindell.  Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning:

Arguing that the state’s highest criminal court watered down a law designed to free innocent people from prison, a state senator vowed Wednesday to introduce, and pass, legislation allowing for expanded DNA testing of crime-scene evidence.

Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said a February ruling by the Court of Criminal Appeals interpreted the 2011 law too narrowly, “making it difficult for folks to secure DNA testing that can prove their innocence and identify actual perpetrators.”

“This decision, respectfully, is out of touch with tremendous advances in science that we’ve made in regard to DNA testing,” he said.

In its February ruling, the appeals court unanimously denied DNA testing for death row inmate Larry Swearingen, ruling that his lawyers had not established that there was biological material on several items Swearingen wanted to test, including pantyhose used to strangle the victim, Conroe college student Melissa Trotter.

The ruling leaves inmates in a catch-22 — unable to get DNA testing unless they can prove the existence of biological material that cannot be revealed without testing, said Michael Morton, who was exonerated by DNA evidence in 2011 after 25 years in prison.

Time Warner Cable News Austin posts, "Advocates Fight to 'Fix' DNA Testing Laws," by LeAnn Wallace.  There is video at the link.

"The legislature has done a lot in recent years in regard to DNA testing to make sure the guilty are punished,” Democratic Sen. Rodney Ellis said. “And the innocent are free."

But Sen. Rodney Ellis says those efforts have seen a setback. A decision made by the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals earlier this year weakened the post-conviction DNA statute, denying death row inmate Larry Swearingen further DNA testing in his case.

"The legislature clearly understood this issue and why on earth would we execute a person without applying scientific DNA testing to determine whether that person was actually guilty,” Bryce Benjet with The Innocence Project said.

Earlier coverage of the February ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals begins at the link.  You can also jump to coverage of the 2013 Texas post-conviction forensics legislation (SB 344).

Related posts are in the DNA category index.  Also available, more on Michael Morton's exoneration and advocacy to prevent wrongful convictions.

Kentucky Supreme Court to Revisit Case

"High court to hear pivotal death penalty case," by Carrie Blackmore Smith in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

For 26 years Gregory L. Wilson has sat on death row for kidnapping, raping and murdering Pooley, assisted by his then-girlfriend Brenda Humphrey, who is serving a life sentence with a chance at parole in 2017.

But now, a new twist may change what is written in history, and add fuel to the ongoing debate over capital punishment, currently on hold in the Bluegrass State because of legal challenges by Wilson and others.

The Supreme Court of Kentucky has agreed to take another look at the case to determine whether Wilson had inadequate representation more than a quarter century ago, and if a full review of DNA evidence should be conducted.

They are scheduled to hear oral arguments on Oct. 16.

Wilson's attorneys, some of the leading public defenders in the state, argue Wilson didn't get the chance to prove he didn't kill Pooley or rape her. Someone else, they suggest, has gotten away with murder for a quarter century.

Depending on whom you ask, Wilson's initial conviction was either solid or a "charade," as one federal judge put it, and with the filing of this case, Wilson's attorneys are asking the Supreme Court of Kentucky to decide, said Michael J. Zydney Mannheimer, a professor of law at Northern Kentucky University.

Earlier coverage from Kentucky begins at the link.

Bite-Mark Analysis

"Mississippi Death Row Case Faults Bite-Mark Forensics," is the New York Times report by Erik Eckholm.  It appears in the Tuesday edition.

...[M]ounting evidence has shown that matching body wounds to a suspect’s dentition is prone to bias and unreliable.

A disputed bite-mark identification is at the center of an appeal that was filed Monday with the Mississippi Supreme Court. Eddie Lee Howard Jr., 61, has been on death row for two decades for the murder and rape of an 84-year-old woman, convicted largely because of what many experts call a far-fetched match of his teeth to purported bite wounds, discerned only after the woman’s body had been buried and exhumed.

The identification was made by Dr. Michael West, a Mississippi dentist who was sought out by prosecutors across the country in the 1980s and 1990s but whose freewheeling methods “put a huge black eye on bite-mark evidence,” in the words of Dr. Richard Souviron, a Florida-based dental expert who helped identify Mr. Bundy in 1979, in an interview last week.

Since 2000, at least 17 people convicted of murder or rape based on “expert” bite matches have been exonerated and freed, usually because DNA tests showed they had been wrongfully accused, according to research by The Innocence Project in New York. Dr. West was the expert witness in two of those cases.

Related posts are in the junk science category index.

Earlier coverage from Mississippi begins at the link.

What Will Doom the Death Penalty

That's the title of an OpEd in today's New York Times by Daniel LaChance.  It's subtitled, "Capital Punishment, Another Failed Government Program?"  LaChance is an assistant professor of history at Emory University, in Atlanta.

TO opponents of the death penalty, recent accounts of botched executions and DNA-based exonerations of death-row prisoners have revived hope that judges and voters will finally see capital punishment for what it is: an intolerable affront to human dignity.

But while such optimism is understandable, it is misplaced. Support for capital punishment is, in fact, in decline — but it’s less the result of a moral awakening on the part of the public than a symptom of a 40-year-plus process of disillusionment.

And:

Resources for fighting the death penalty are scarce, and for too long, abolitionists have spent them appealing to the humanistic ideals they wished most Americans shared, instead of one they actually do: distrust of government. Arguing that the death penalty is an affront to human dignity just doesn’t work. But portraying it as another failed government program just might.

Related posts are in the OpEd category index.

Continuing Coverage of the North Carolina Exonerations

Today's Raleigh News & Observer publishes the editorial, "NC brothers are cleared after system failed."  Here's the beginning of this must-read:

The chain of evidence that freed Henry McCollum and his half-brother Leon Brown after 30 years in North Carolina prisons was a chain of delicate links.

If the man now suspected of the 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl hadn’t smoked, if an investigator had not stooped to collect a discarded cigarette butt found in the bean field near the victim’s body, if the evidence had not been kept over the decades, if the N.C Innocence Inquiry Commission had not been formed and its staff had not decided to act on Brown’s request to have his case reviewed, if the DNA on the cigarette had not matched Roscoe Artis – a man convicted of a similar rape and murder in the same Red Springs area – the brothers would be still in the prisons they left this week. Henry McCollum would still be on death row. Leon Brown would be serving life.

It is a great thing that these random acts and decisions joined against high odds to free the brothers. But it is also disturbing to consider how close this proof came to never surfacing and how many other people have been wrongly convicted and never redeemed by such rare good fortune. In the United States since 1989, 312 people convicted of crimes have been exonerated by DNA evidence.

"Freed pair will seek pardons; Could then seek compensation," is the AP report by Jonathan Drew, via the Robesonian

Henry McCollum and Leon Brown are planning to ask for pardons after they were freed this week from North Carolina prisons following the discovery of evidence that they didn’t kill a young girl 30 years ago.

Vernetta Alston, an attorney for McCollum, says lawyers representing him and Brown, his half brother, are preparing petitions for a pardon of innocence and plan to file within the next couple of weeks. McCollum was freed from death row after three decades, while Brown had been serving a life sentence.

If the men are pardoned, they would be eligible to claim compensation under a state law that allows up to $750,000 for people wrongly convicted of felonies. Alston said Brown and McCollum had not yet explicitly discussed petitioning for compensation.

"McCrory praises vacated convictions," is by Joseph Neff in the News & Observer.

Gov. Pat McCrory said he was pleased by recent headlines about the exonerations of Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, who were freed this week after almost 31 years in prison.

"Yesterday, I was heartened to see the convictions of Henry McCollum and Leon Brown vacated by the court," McCrory said in a statement released Thursday. "My office has a process in place to review applications for pardons of innocence. If they apply, we will begin reviewing their applications as soon as they are received."

And:

"That's awesome," said Vernetta Alston, attorney for Henry McCollum. Alston said she has begun the pardon application.

"We're thrilled the governor has sentiments that echo what the district attorney said and the court found, that these fellows are innocent," said James Payne, a laywer for Leon Brown.

The Fayetteville Observer reports, "Sabrina Buie's family stunned by release of two men convicted of killing her in 1983," by Nathan Hardin.

Buie was 4 years old when her sister was found in the field half-naked and choked to death by her underwear.

Reliving the murder investigation of her sister, Buie said, is nearly unbearable.

"It's the worst nightmare you could ever imagine," she said.

Buie declined to go into detail about the court's decision or the two men convicted 30 years earlier, but she said the ruling and timing of the hearing - near the anniversary of Sabrina's death - was especially painful.

Earlier coverage of the North Carolina exonerations begins at the link.

Additional North Carolina News Coverage

"North Carolina Men Are Released After Convictions Are Overturned," is the New York Times report by Jonathan M. Katz.

Henry Lee McCollum had barely slept in days, terrified that his dream of 31 years — being released from North Carolina’s death row — might not come true.

But finally on Wednesday morning, after one more night of delays, he was driven out of the concertina-wire gates of the central prison here and to the waiting arms of his parents.

“I just thank God I’m out of this place,” Mr. McCollum, 50, said. “Now I want to eat, I want to sleep, and I want to wake up tomorrow and see that this is real.”

Despite a judge’s order on Tuesday overturning their conviction in the 1983 rape and murder of a child, Mr. McCollum and his half brother, Leon Brown, remained in custody overnight as officials processed the paperwork for their release. Mr. McCollum finally left the prison around 9:45 a.m. on Wednesday. Mr. Brown, 46, who was serving a life sentence, was released from prison around 1 p.m. He walked out of the prison gates in Maury, N.C., 80 miles east of here, and was embraced by family members. “God is good all the time,” he said.

"Exonerated North Carolina inmate adjusts to outside life after 30 years in prison," is AP coverage, via the Guardian.

After walking out of prison for the first time in three decades, former death row inmate Henry McCollum tried to climb into his father’s car but put his head through the loop of the seatbelt that is supposed to cross his chest. A TV cameraman showed him how it works.

The safety gear isn’t all that’s changed since the 50-year-old McCollum and his younger half brother were sent away for a 1983 rape and killing that new DNA evidence shows they likely did not commit.

McCollum has never accessed the internet or owned a cellphone. And he looked ill at ease on Wednesday in a tie and white dress shirt, the collar at least an inch too large, shedding the red jumpsuit he wore in his cell. His relief was obvious, though.

The Raleigh News & Observer reports, "NC brothers released from prison spend first day in freedom," by Joseph Neff.

Prison is over, but freedom will certainly carry new and bewildering challenges for McCollum and Brown, who’ve been locked up their entire adult lives. Both are mentally challenged, with IQ tests scoring in the 50s or 60s. They struggle with basic reading and writing, and they have lived three decades in a world being ordered around by others.

Like exonerated inmates before them, the two entered the free world with no outreach or help from the state that imprisoned them. They will rely on family, McCollum living with his father and stepmother outside Wilmington and Brown with his sister and cousins in Fayetteville. A social worker from the Center for Death Penalty Litigation has been trying to help establish residency, locate birth certificates and line up social services.

They will likely consider reparations: a pardon of innocence from the governor could bring a maximum of $750,000 each. Other wrongfully convicted inmates have filed civil rights lawsuits that have won settlements in the millions of dollars.

"How the North Carolina GOP Made a Wrongfully Convicted Man a Death Row Scapegoat," is by Michael Daly at the Daily Beast. For those interested in politicians who pushed the death penalty as a political wedge issue, it's a must-read.

From North Carolina comes a multi-twisted, true-life horror story, a Southern grotesque of despicable politics and outrageous injustice.

The supporting characters include a prosecutor who prided himself on being in the Guinness Book of Records for the number of people he put on death row.

There is also a convicted killer who was about to be executed for murdering a teenage girl when he refused his last meal as a protest against abortion.

And there is a woman legislator who got elected after her party smeared her opponent for being soft on crime even though his teen daughter had been raped and murdered. Her first priority upon achieving office was to introduce legislation to criminalize exposing a nipple or even an areola in public.

But the principal figures in this tale are two mentally challenged half-brothers who are being freed only this week after serving more than three decades for a heinous crime they did not commit, the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.

ThinkProgress posts, "Senate Hopeful On 30-Year Wrongful Conviction: ‘The Process Worked’," by Alice Ollstein.

The same day Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis faced off against Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan in the first debate for her hotly contested US Senate seat, two men were freed from a North Carolina prison after spending decades incarcerated for a crime they didn’t commit.

Now middle aged, the two brothers have been in prison — one of them on death row — since they were teenagers, wrongfully accused of raping and murdering a child. When ThinkProgress asked Tillis if anything needs to change in light of this case, he said that because they were eventually exonerated, “It’s an example of how we have protections in our judicial system in North Carolina.”

“I feel very, very sorry for them and I’m glad to know they’re out,” he said. “At least the process worked, it just took too long.”

But civil and legal rights advocates, including Vernetta Alston at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, have long argued the “process” has not worked at all for Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown.

Earlier coverage of the North Carolina exonerations begins at the link.

Two Exonerated in North Carolina

"DNA Evidence Clears Two Men in 1983 Murder," is the New York Times report by Jonathan M. Katz and Erik Eckholm.

Thirty years after their convictions in the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in rural North Carolina, based on confessions that they quickly repudiated and said were coerced, two mentally disabled half brothers were declared innocent and ordered released Tuesday by a judge here.

The case against the men, always weak, fell apart after DNA evidence implicated another man whose possible involvement had been somehow overlooked by the authorities even though he lived only a block from where the victim’s body was found, and he had admitted to committing a similar rape and murder around the same time.

The startling shift in fortunes for the men, Henry Lee McCollum, 50, who has spent three decades on death row, and Leon Brown, 46, who was serving a life sentence, provided one of the most dramatic examples yet of the potential harm from false, coerced confessions and of the power of DNA tests to exonerate the innocent.

As friends and relatives of the two men wept, a Superior Court judge in Robeson County, Douglas B. Sasser, said he was vacating their convictions and Mr. McCollum’s death sentence and ordering their release. The courtroom erupted into a standing ovation.

"2 N.C. men's convictions overturned in 1983 killing," is AP coverage, via the Greensboro News & Record.

One of North Carolina's longest-serving death-row inmates and his half brother are being freed after three decades in prison after another man's DNA was discovered on a cigarette butt left near the body of a girl the siblings were convicted of killing.

On Tuesday, a judge overturned the convictions of Henry McCollum, 50, and Leon Brown, 46, in the 1983 rape and murder of Sabrina Buie, citing the new evidence that they didn't commit the crime. The ruling is the latest twist in a notorious legal case that began with what defense attorneys said were coerced confessions from two scared teenagers with low IQs. McCollum was 19 at the time and Brown was 15.

Superior Court Judge Douglas Sasser said the new DNA results contradicted the case prosecutors put forward.

And:

Because of paperwork, it will likely take until Wednesday for the men to walk free, said Keith Acree, spokesman for the state prison system. They are required to return to the prisons where they have been serving time before they can be processed out.

The men's freedom hinged largely on the local prosecutor's acknowledgement of the strong evidence of their innocence.

“The evidence you heard today in my opinion negates the evidence presented at trial,” Johnson Britt, the Robeson County district attorney, said during a closing statement before the judge announced his decision. Britt was not the prosecutor of the men.

The Raleigh News & Observer reports, "Judge overturns convictions of Robeson men in child's 1983 rape, murder," by Joseph Neff.  There is a timeline of the case at the link.

The brothers were ordered freed after the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission found DNA evidence tying the killing to Roscoe Artis, a sexual predator with a lengthy criminal history, including a similar rape and murder in Red Springs one month after the arrest of Brown and McCollum.

Prosecutors had argued at trials in the 1980s and 1990s that the killer left a cigarette at the crime scene. Recent DNA tests of that cigarette found Artis’ DNA on it.

Sharon Stellato of the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission testified Tuesday that Artis, who is in prison in Warren County, told her in several interviews that Brown and McCollum were innocent.

“If the police would have done their job, then Leon and Henry wouldn’t be in prison,” Stellato quoted Artis as saying.

"McCollum, Brown freed," by Sarah Willets for the Robesonian.

Sharon Stellato, associate director of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, spent nearly six hours on the stand reviewing what had turned up since Brown asked the the commission to investigate his case in 2009, including a cigarette butt containing DNA matching that of Roscoe Artis. The 74-year-old is serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of 18-year-old Joann Brockman in Red Springs sooner than a month after Buie was killed.

According to Stellato, the evidence of Buie and Brockman’s murders — as well as other cases in Artis’ history of violence against women — was consistent. Both Buie and Brockman were taken to secluded locations, sexually assaulted and found with foreign objects in their throats. In Buie’s case, it was her underwear, which had been shoved down her throat with a stick until she died of asphyxiation.

Stellato read a long list to the crowd of evidence that had been tested since Brown and McCollum were first tried in 1984 and again in 1991 and 1992. No physical evidence ever linked back to them. She also recounted evidence from the case that had not been turned over despite multiple requests to do so.

"Free at last: DNA exonerates 2 NC men imprisoned for 30 years, is by Mary Kuhlman of the N.C. News Service, via the Charlotte Post.

Ann Kirby, an attorney for Brown, said the case highlights the need for better investigations and people willing to stand up for what's right.

"District attorneys with the kind of courage that Johnson Britt has, as a true minister of justice, which is what prosecutors are charged to be - not going in just to get convictions, but to go in and just give the truth," Kirby said. "Because that's what we need is the truth - and sometimes, we stop before we get there."

And:

Both McCollum and Brown have intellectual disabilities and were teenagers at the time of their arrest. James Payne, who also represented Brown, said the evidence that tied them to the crime was false - coerced confessions and investigators rushed to judgment.

"Taking the easy answer and ignoring all the other indicators that there was another answer to the question led to two of them being on death row," he said. “One for five, one for 31 years.”

McCollum's attorney, Ken Rose, called it "terrifying" that the justice system allowed the men to be wrongfully imprisoned. He added that there's a problem with the reliability of the convictions of people on death row.

"Mostly, these cases are old cases, before there were important reforms in the state, and I think there are a lot of problems in a lot of those cases," he said. "So, it's a powerful message that we should not restart executions, and we should consider abolishing the death penalty."

Attorneys for the two men have issued a news release, "DNA evidence frees two innocent N.C. men 30 years after wrongful conviction. One of the exonerees is North Carolina’s longest serving death row inmate."  Here's the text of the release.

LUMBERTON, N.C. — On Tuesday, two men, including North Carolina’s longest serving death row inmate, were exonerated and released from prison after serving 30 years for a rape and murder they did not commit.

New DNA evidence, which proved their innocence, prompted a Robeson County judge to dismiss all charges against Henry Lee McCollum, who was living under a death sentence, and his half-brother, Leon Brown, who was serving a life sentence for the rape. Both are severely intellectually disabled and were teenagers – McCollum 19 years old, Brown just 15 - at the time of their arrests in 1983

McCollum and Brown were released after a hearing Tuesday morning in Robeson County Superior Court, in which the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, an independent state agency, detailed the results of its investigation, including DNA testing of items found at the crime scene. The Commission found that none of the items could be traced to McCollum or Brown. Instead, critical DNA evidence matched another individual named Roscoe Artis, a convicted rapist and murderer who lived less than 100 yards from where the victim’s body was found.

Lawyers for the two men said the new testing leaves no doubt about their clients’ innocence.

“It’s terrifying that our justice system allowed two intellectually disabled children to go to prison for a crime they had nothing to do with, and then to suffer there for 30 years,” said Ken Rose, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham, who has represented McCollum for 20 years. “Henry watched dozens of people be hauled away for execution. He would become so distraught he had to be put in isolation. It’s impossible to put into words what these men have been through and how much they have lost.”

Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt agreed that McCollum and Brown are innocent of all charges, and consented to their unconditional release. No further charges will be brought against them. Judge Douglas Sasser signed an order acknowledging the men’s innocence.

The men’s attorneys said they appreciated Britt’s efforts to correct wrongs that occurred under the previous prosecutions. “We are most grateful to Johnson Britt, who has shown a strong desire to find the truth and to make sure that these two innocent men don’t spend any more time in prison,” said James Payne, a Wilmington attorney who represents Leon Brown.

McCollum and Brown were sentenced to death in 1984 for the murder of Sabrina Buie, an 11-year-old girl who was brutally raped and suffocated in the Robeson County town of Red Springs. Her body was left in a field, along with beer cans and cigarette butts. Investigators believe the girl was lured by her killer to drink beer, then attacked and killed.

Brown’s sentence was later reduced to life in prison and his charge reduced to rape, but McCollum has remained on death row through decades of appeals. Each had pursued many other legal avenues for relief until the Commission took up Brown’s case in 2010. The Commission ordered new testing and uncovered evidence that the men’s attorneys had not been able to obtain, all of which points to McCollum and Brown’s innocence.

The DNA match with Roscoe Artis was especially significant because, less than a month after Sabrina Buie’s killing, Artis raped and killed an 18-year-old girl, Joann Brockman, in shockingly similar circumstances. Both crimes happened in Red Springs, a town of only 4,000 people. Both victims were sexually assaulted, asphyxiated, and left in fields wearing only a bra. Artis was sentenced to death for Brockman’s murder, but his sentence was later reduced to life in prison. Despite the similarities between the two crimes -- and the fact that police suspected Artis of yet another similar rape and murder in Gastonia -- police failed to investigate Artis as a suspect in Buie’s murder. Artis also had a long criminal record including more than a half dozen incidents of attempted rape and assaults on women.

“This case is a tragedy which has profoundly affected not only the lives of the people involved, but which profoundly affects our system of justice in North Carolina,” said Ann Kirby, another attorney for Leon Brown. “This case highlights in a most dramatic manner the importance of finding the truth. Today truth has prevailed, but it comes thirty years too late for Sabrina Buie and her family, and for Leon, Henry, and their families. Their sadness, grief, and loss will remain with them forever.”

The only evidence that tied McCollum and Brown to the crime were false confessions that law enforcement obtained from the disabled teens, who even as adults have the intellectual ability of children. McCollum at first told police he knew nothing about the murder, but at 2 a.m. on Sept. 29, 1983, after five hours of intense interrogation, he signed a confession written by police. Soon after, his younger brother, Brown, also confessed.

North Carolina law now requires homicide interrogations to be recorded or videotaped, but at the time, no such laws were in place. There are no recordings of the confessions, which contain details that are factually impossible.

McCollum and Brown were originally prosecuted jointly by Robeson County District Attorney Joe Freeman Britt, who earned the nickname “World’s Deadliest DA” for winning nearly 50 death sentences during his 12 years as chief prosecutor. At that time, there were also no laws preventing children and people with intellectual disabilities from being sentenced to death.

In 1991, courts granted the brothers separate new trials, saying the trial judge gave improper instructions to the jury. At Brown’s new trial, the judge acknowledged that there was little evidence of murder, dismissing it.  The jury, however, convicted Brown of rape, and he received a life sentence. McCollum was again convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

In the years since their false confessions, McCollum and Brown have maintained their innocence.

“In these old cases, tried under very different laws from what we have today, it is so difficult to root out the truth,” Rose said. “It’s even harder when the defendants are intellectually disabled or mentally ill, as so many on death row are. We were so lucky that the Innocence Inquiry Commission agreed to take this case. We can only be thankful that our client wasn’t executed before we had the chance to prove his innocence.”
###

Earlier coverage of the case begins at the link. The state of North Carolina currently has a moratorium on executions due to lethal injection issues.

An Update From North Carolina

"Buie hearing set for Tuesday; Judge will make call on new trial or freedom," is by Sarah Willets in today's Robesonian.

District Attorney Johnson Britt is prepared to turn over to a judge the fate of two men who have been in prison for 30 years in connection with the rape and murder of an 11-year old, saying new DNA evidence is favorable to their case.

Britt today filed his response to motions for relief brought by attorneys representing 50-year-old Henry McCollum and his half-brother, 46-year-old Leon Brown. McCollum is currently on death row for the rape and murder of Sabrina Buie. Brown was originally charged with both crimes, but in a retrial, the murder charge was dropped. He is now serving a life sentence.

Superior Court Judge Douglas Sasser, who is from Columbus County, is charged with the task of determining during an evidentiary hearing in Robeson County Superior Court whether the men will be given new trials or released from prison. Britt said the hearing, which begins at 10 a.m. Tuesday, could take days.

Earlier coverage of the North Carolina case begins at the link.

The North Carolina Innocence Commission at Work

Today's Fayetteville Observer reports, "New DNA evidence leads to hearing for men convicted in 1983 rape, murder of Red Springs girl," by Rodger Mullen.

A hearing has been scheduled based on new DNA evidence in the case of two men convicted of the 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old Red Springs girl.

The hearing Tuesday could result in freedom for the two men - 50-year-old Henry Lee McCollum and his half-brother, 46-year-old Leon Brown - who were teenagers when the crime was committed. McCollum is on death row in Raleigh's Central Prison, and Brown is serving a life sentence in Pitt County.

The two were convicted in 1984 of first-degree murder and rape in the death of Sabrina Buie, whose naked body was found in September 1983 in a soybean field about two blocks from her Red Springs home.

Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt said a motion for a hearing was filed Tuesday by lawyers for McCollum. The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. in Superior Court.

"They are asking in one part for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence and in another part they're asking for dismissal of the case," Britt said.

Britt said new DNA testing was done after Brown's lawyers filed a claim of innocence in 2010. The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission then conducted an investigation of crime scene evidence.

"Motion says Roscoe Artis killed Buie; Seeks release of McCollom, Brown," is by Sarah Willets for the Robesonian.

A motion to dismiss convictions against two men imprisoned for the 1983 rape and murder of a Red Springs girl points the finger at another man who is also incarcerated for a rape and murder in the same town.

The motion, filed at the Robeson County courthouse on Tuesday, asks that convictions against 50-year-old Henry Lee McCollum and 46-year-old Leon Brown be dismissed and that they be released from prison immediately. Put forth by the Center for Death Penalty Litigation and lawyers representing the men, the motion is expected to be heard in Robeson County Superior Court next week.

McCollum is currently on death row for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie, and Brown is serving a life sentence for her rape. Brown was originally on death row for her murder, but a second trial cleared him of that charge.

According to the motion, tests results from LabCorp show that DNA on a cigarette butt found near Buie’s body matched DNA belonging to Roscoe Artis, a 74-year-old currently serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of an 18-year-old girl in Red Springs about a month after Buie’s death.

Earlier coverage from North Carolina begins at the link.

The State v. Darryl Hunt

That's the title of a retrospective look at a notorious North Carolina case in the Winston-Salem Journal.  It's written by Michael Hewitt, and is subtitled, "30 years after the murder of Deborah Sykes and 10 years after the exoneration of Darryl Hunt, the case still haunts those it touched."  There are infographics at the link.

Here's the beginning:

Darryl Hunt has been a free man for a little more than 10 years now, but he remains guarded.

He still pauses sometimes before unlocking the door to his house because part of him expects the door to open automatically, like the doors to his cell when he was imprisoned for nearly 19 years for a crime he didn’t commit — the murder of Deborah Sykes, a 25-year-old copy editor at The Sentinel, an afternoon newspaper in Winston-Salem that closed in 1985.

And after he leaves the house and before he returns, Hunt drives to an ATM. It’s not that he needs money in his pocket. He’s focused on getting a receipt and he takes comfort in knowing that his picture is taken.

Those two things — a receipt and his picture — serve as his alibi just in case Winston-Salem police officers pick him up and throw him in jail. He knows the last time that happened — on Sept. 11, 1984, when he was initially arrested. He was charged Sept. 14, 1984 with Sykes’ murder and ended up spending a good portion of his life behind bars.

Earlier coverage from North Carolina begins at the link. Darryl Hunt's exoneration was the subject of an HBO documentary.

Opinion Roundup

The New York Law Journal posts, "Tinkering With the Machinery of Death," commentary by Walter P. Loughlin.  He's a partner at K&L Gates in New York, who represented Ernest Willis, pro bono.  Willis was released and exonerated in 2004, after serving 17 years on Texas death row.,

The spectacle in Arizona was at least the fourth botched execution this year. In January, an Oklahoma prisoner was heard to scream that he felt his body was burning as the lethal drugs were administered.³ One week later, an Ohio prisoner was seen to gasp for air for 25 minutes before being pronounced dead.⁴ Last April, again in Oklahoma, a prisoner writhed in pain as the drugs were pumped into his body tissue instead of his bloodstream. Prison officials halted the execution. The prisoner died of a heart attack.⁵ These are not isolated instances. It has been estimated that up to 7 per cent of lethal injection executions have historically gone awry for one reason or another.⁶

Ray Krone writes the OpEd, "The Death Penalty Is Too Broken To Be Fixed," for the Daily Caller.  He's the 100th person who was sentenced to death and later exonerated.  Krone is the co-founder of Witness to Innocence.

I spent more than 10 years in Arizona prisons for a crime I didn’t commit, including almost three years on death row.

I’m a lifelong Republican. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania playing Little League Baseball and Pee Wee Football. I served six years in the U.S. Air Force. I was honorably discharged, steadily employed, and had no criminal history.

Before this happened to me, I supported the death penalty. Fry ‘em. They don’t deserve to live. All that sounds different when people are talking about you and you were at home asleep at the time of a brutal murder.

"The death penalty is expensive, ineffective," is by Tom Markgraf for the Oregonian.

What if, instead of spending millions on killing criminals, we could use that money to help the families who are victims put their lives back together, with therapy, counseling and restitution? Wouldn't that be a more positive, effective use of money?

In every state with the death penalty, jurors have the option of sentencing murderers to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  It's cheaper to taxpayers and keeps violent offenders off the streets for good.  More important, it allows mistakes to be corrected.  In California, where 3,300 criminals have this sentence, seven people sentenced to life without parole have been released because they were able to prove their innocence.

Ending this practice makes financial and practical sense.

Related posts are in the OpEd category index.

FBI Malfeasance Undercuts Death Penalty

That's the title of an editorial published in today's Charlotte Observer, in North Carolina.  Here's teh beginning of this must-read:

The death penalty’s flaws have been well-documented. But a new report from the Justice Department’s Inspector General reveals some of the most troubling evidence yet, and provides a fresh reminder of why North Carolina and other states will forever be on shaky ground until they abolish it.

The FBI used flawed forensic evidence and overstated testimony by 13 lab examiners to help convict up to 64 murder suspects and put them on death row, the report said. Yet Justice and the FBI took five years to identify those suspects and delayed telling state prosecutors that it was reviewing the cases, so the states had no way of knowing that the convictions might be flawed.

At least three men were executed before a Justice Department task force fully reviewed those cases. In at least one, the defendant would not have been eligible for the death penalty without the FBI’s flawed work, the report said. (The Justice Department generally agreed with the report’s findings.)

Earlier coverage of crime lab problems begins at the link.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/07/22/5060267/fbi-malfeasance-undercuts-death.html#.U8_A_rGqRad#storylink=cpy

State District Judge Rules in Hank Skinner Case

The state district court's order is at the link.

"Judge: DNA doesn't help Skinner case," is by Jim McBride for the Amarillo Globe-News.

Convicted capital murder defendant Henry Watkins Skinner likely would have been convicted in a 1993 Pampa triple slaying even if his original defense attorney introduced DNA testing results from evidence recovered at the crime scene, a judge ruled Tuesday.

In a decision Tuesday, 31st state District Judge Steven Emmert said he had reviewed DNA laboratory reports, findings presented by the state and defense, testimony from forensic experts and other documentation before ruling against Skinner and his defense team.

“The court finds that the DNA testing results are not favorable to Henry W. Skinner because, had the results been available during the trial of the offense, it is reasonably probable that Skinner would nevertheless been convicted,” Emmert wrote in his ruling, which adopted proposed findings of fact submitted to the court by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office.

And:

Earlier this year, Emmert conducted a two-day hearing in Pampa over defense claims that DNA evidence in the case pointed to someone else.

Attorneys for the state argued in proposed legal findings filed in June that a bevy of DNA evidence in the case pointed solely to Skinner as the killer of his girlfriend and her two sons.

Here is a, "Statement from Attorneys for Hank Skinner in Response to State District Court’s Ruling." Skinner is represented by Douglas G. Robinson, (of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP) and Robert C. Owen (of the Bluhm Legal Clinic, Northwestern University Law School.)

“We are deeply disappointed by the district court’s ruling and will appeal, urging the courts to carefully consider all the evidence of Mr. Skinner’s innocence.

‘At the DNA hearing in February, the State failed to present any dramatic new evidence confirming Mr. Skinner’s guilt. The opposite is true: the testimony confirmed DNA from an unknown person, along with Twila Busby’s blood, on a dishtowel that had been secreted in a plastic garbage bag at the crime scene. In addition, the DNA test results were at odds with the State’s theory of the crime. If Mr. Skinner stabbed Randy Busby in the manner claimed by the State, Mr. Skinner’s blood should have been on the blanket of Randy’s bed. It wasn’t. If Mr. Skinner’s hands were covered with the victims’ blood when he staggered out of the house, their blood should have been mixed with his on the doorknobs he touched. It wasn’t. Finally, Mr. Skinner’s DNA on the common kitchen knife used in the crimes could have come from his having innocently used it as a resident of the house and being cut with it by the assailant.

‘Moreover, the DNA testing produced significant and exculpatory results that raise grave doubts about Mr. Skinner’s guilt and point to a credible alternate suspect. The State’s expert analyst did not retreat from his conclusion that three of the four hairs found in Twila Busby’s hand – hairs with DNA consistent with a maternal relative of the victims – were ‘visually dissimilar’ to the victims’ own hair. Indeed, he confirmed that the differences were so obvious that he could see them without using a microscope. This result supports the conclusion that a maternal relative of the victims committed the crimes, not Mr. Skinner. Robert Donnell, who is Ms. Busby’s maternal uncle, stalked Ms. Busby at a party shortly before her death, and the State presented no compelling evidence linking these hairs to any other maternal relative. In fact, Ms. Busby’s mother stated under oath before Mr. Skinner’s trial that she had not been inside the house in the preceding four months.

‘Where is the sweat-stained, blood-spattered men's windbreaker jacket found next to Ms. Busby’s body and collected as evidence by the police? The State claims to have lost this  major piece of evidence, which  could corroborate the hair evidence pointing to Donnell.  From the earliest days of his fight for DNA testing, Mr. Skinner insisted that the jacket should be tested because it may have been worn by the assailant.  But the State’s failure to safeguard this evidence has made that impossible.

‘At the DNA hearing, Mr. Skinner sought to present testimony from a witness who can positively identify the jacket as Mr. Donnell’s, and to have his DNA expert explain how testing could have confirmed Mr. Donnell’s DNA on the jacket. The State fought to keep this evidence out of the record, and the court agreed with the State and excluded it. We respectfully disagreed with this decision. In our view, this evidence is at the center of the case. It shows why a jury that heard all the evidence, including DNA results, would have harbored a reasonable doubt about Mr. Skinner’s guilt.

‘Excluding evidence about the jacket added to the overall unfairness of this process, in which Mr. Skinner was wrongfully forced to wait 13 years before obtaining DNA testing. In the meantime, through bungling by the State, potentially exculpatory evidence was being mishandled, damaged, contaminated, degraded, and lost.

‘The doubts about Hank Skinner’s guilt are far too great to allow his execution to proceed, particularly where the State’s utter failure to preserve key pieces of evidence may make it impossible to resolve those questions conclusively.”

Earlier coverage of Hank Skinner's case begins at the link.

Coverage of Rodney Reed Hearing

Today's Austin American-Statesman reports, "Rodney Reed’s execution set for Jan. 14, but more DNA tests to be done," by Wesley Gardner.

Death row inmate Rodney Reed, who was convicted of capital murder in the 1996 rape and slaying of 19-year-old Stacey Stites, received a Jan. 14 date of execution Monday morning from visiting Judge Doug Shaver.

Following a 30-minute delay, Reed, 46, was escorted into a Bastrop County courtroom around 11:30 a.m., wearing red-and-white striped prison garb. Friends and family members watched from across the aisle, sporting white T-shirts with bold, black letters saying “Free Rodney Reed.”

Defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed prior to the hearing that several pieces of evidence from the crime scene would be sent to the Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory Service in Garland for additional DNA testing, according to an order signed by Bastrop County District Attorney Bryan Goertz and defense attorney Bryce Benjet.

The crime lab will have ample time to analyze the evidence before the January date for the execution, Shaver said.

Earlier coverage of Rodney Reed's case begins at the link.

Prosecutorial Misconduct in North Carolina

Sunday's Charlotte Observer published the editorial, "Another step closer to justice."

Orlando Hudson, chief resident Superior Court judge in Durham, believes that the conviction of Darryl Anthony Howard 19 years ago for two murders and arson was one of the most “horrendous” prosecutions Hudson has seen in his 34 years on the bench.

On Friday, Howard moved one step closer to justice, and North Carolina got a frightening reminder of how fragile justice can be.

Hudson vacated Howard’s conviction two months ago amid contentions of significant prosecutorial and police misconduct. On Friday, he granted Howard his release from prison while the state appeals the May ruling. Incredibly, the Durham District Attorney’s office is fighting that release. An appeals court could rule on it next week.

"Innocence Project co-founder calls for audit of all Nifong cases," is by Anne Blythe for the News & Observer.

Two men with a wealth of knowledge about wrongful convictions – an attorney who works with the Innocence Project and a North Carolina man who spent 19 years in prison for a murder and rape he did not commit – stood outside the Durham courthouse Friday and called for an inquiry into all cases former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong tried.

Inside the courthouse, Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson had just described a Nifong case from 1993 as one of the “most horrendous” prosecutions he had seen in his 34 years on the bench.

Despite DNA evidence that pointed to other culprits, Nifong pushed ahead in 1993 with a murder case against Darryl Howard, who has maintained he was wrongfully convicted.

Hudson in May vacated the two second-degree murder verdicts against Howard in the homicides of Doris Washington, 29, and her 13-year-old daughter, Nishonda, in a Durham public housing complex.

WRAL-TV posts, "Innocence Project co-founder calls for audit of Mike Nifong's prosecutions," by Julia Sims.

A co-founder of the New York-based Innocence Project is calling on the Durham County District Attorney's Office to set up a "conviction integrity unit" to audit criminal convictions handled by former prosecutor Mike Nifong.

Nifong made national headlines in 2006 for prosecuting three Duke University lacrosse players who were falsely accused of raping a woman.

"Mike Nifong has been disbarred and sanctioned for his conduct in the Duke lacrosse case for suppressing exculpatory evidence, and now we have proof he did it in this case," attorney Barry Scheck said Friday morning following a hearing in the case of Darryl Anthony Howard.

Related posts are in the prosecutorial misconduct category index.  Earlier coverage from North Carolina begins at the link.

Bastrop Hearing in Rodney Reed Case

"Rodney Reed to be back in court for hearing on execution date," is by Chuck Lindell in today's Austin American-Statesman.

Death row inmate Rodney Reed will return to a Bastrop court Monday for a hearing to set his execution date.

Prosecutors will ask visiting Judge Doug Shaver to issue a death warrant scheduling a Nov. 19 lethal injection for Reed, convicted of capital murder in the 1996 rape and strangulation of Stacey Stites, a 19-year-old who died 18 days before her wedding.

And:

During Monday’s hearing in Bastrop, defense lawyers and prosecutors with the Texas attorney general’s office are expected to present a joint motion calling for DNA testing on rape kit evidence and several hairs collected from Stites’ body.

Benjet said he also plans to submit a second request, opposed by prosecutors, for additional DNA tests on the murder weapon — Stites’ belt, which was broken in half during the attack — her clothing and other evidence that must have come into contact with the attacker.

Some of the items have not been tested, while others were tested before modern practices were developed that can find, and identify, skin cells and other sources of DNA, Benjet said.

Earlier coverage of the Bastrop County case begins at the link.   All coverage is in the Rodney Reed category index.

A New Book From Michael Morton

"When They Imprison the Wrong Guy," is by New York Times OpEd columnist Nicholas Kristof.

A great deal has been written about the shortcomings of the American criminal justice system, but perhaps nothing more searing than Morton’s book, “Getting Life.” It is a devastating and infuriating book, more astonishing than any legal thriller by John Grisham, a window into a broken criminal justice system.

And:

Finally, it’s worth noting that Michael Morton is able to deliver this aching and poignant look at the criminal justice system only because he didn’t get a death sentence. When Morton was finally freed from prison, some of his first words were: “Thank God this wasn’t a capital case.”

"Exoneree's 25-year prison odyssey," is by Mark Dore for the San Antonio Express-News.

On one of the 25 Christmases he spent in prison, Michael Morton received the best gift of his life — a cheap, all-plastic typewriter, with nothing even the most inventive inmate could fashion into a weapon.

He pounded on the rickety machine for hours, crafting fiction, writing legal documents and tapping out a 1,000-page prison journal. The memoir Morton fashioned in his cell — “Getting Life: An Innocent Man's 25-Year Journey From Prison to Peace,” out Tuesday — is a jarring testament that truth really can be stranger than fiction.

After serving two-and-a-half decades behind bars for the 1986 murder of his wife — a crime he did not commit — Morton has been the subject of a documentary, several media profiles and hours of TV talk-time. His story — a Texas story, out of Williamson County, north of Austin — attracted national attention.

With “Getting Life,” Morton takes his horrifying experience into his own hands, something he said carried none of the anxiousness he has felt in the past when he was interviewed.

Earlier coverage of Michael Morton begins at the link.

Florida Supreme Court Overturns Conviction Due to DNA

The Florida Supreme Court ruling in Hildwin v. Florida is available in Adobe .pdf format.

"Florida Court Overturns Death Sentence for 1985 Killing," is the New York Times report by Lizette Alvarez.

With new DNA evidence in hand, a divided Florida Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the death sentence and conviction of Paul C. Hildwin, a man found guilty nearly three decades ago of strangling a woman in Hernando County, Fla. The woman, Vronzettie Cox, 42, whose body was found in the trunk of a car, had been raped.

The DNA evidence found on Ms. Cox’s underwear and a washcloth at the scene matches that of her former boyfriend, William Haverty. Mr. Haverty is in prison serving a sentence for attempted sexual battery of a child.

The State Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Mr. Hildwin, 54. It remained unclear if prosecutors would seek to retry him.

During Mr. Hildwin’s murder trial, prosecutors told jurors that the type of DNA found at the scene was unusual and consistent with Mr. Hildwin’s. No evidence of a direct match was offered. Subsequent testing in 2003 made it clear the DNA did not match Mr. Hildwin. But it was not until 2010, when the Florida Supreme Court ordered the state to run the DNA against the national database, that a match was made: It was Mr. Haverty’s.

“We cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that a significant pillar of the state’s case, as presented to the jury, has collapsed and that this same evidence actually supports the defense,” the Florida Supreme Court wrote in its 5-2 decision on Thursday.

 "DNA evidence prompts Florida Supreme Court to overturn inmate’s death sentence," is the AP report by Gary Fineout, the Miami Herald

Nearly 30 years after Paul C. Hildwin was convicted of strangling a Hernando County woman, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday overturned both his conviction and death sentence, saying that new DNA evidence “completely discredits” the case used by the state.

A divided court ruled 5-2 that Hildwin should be given a new trial.

The new evidence instead points to the person that Hildwin said had done the crime all along — the victim’s boyfriend who was sentenced in 1998 to 20 years for attempted sexual battery of a child.

“It’s a wonderful day but a very long and overdue one,” said Nina Morrison, a senior staff attorney with The Innocence Project working on the case. “It’s taken us a decade to get him the justice he deserved.”

"DNA prompts court to overturn conviction in Hernando death," is by Geoff Fox of the Tampa Tribune.

“The newly-discovered evidence identifying the donor of the DNA left on (items at the crime scene) changes the entire character of the case originally presented to the jury,” justices on the majority said in the conclusion.

The state Attorney General’s Office has 15 days to file for a rehearing with the Supreme Court, said Martin McClain, Hildwin’s attorney.

“They usually don’t” grant rehearings, McClain said of the state Supreme Court.

If the state Supreme Court declines a rehearing, the case will go to Circuit Court, McClain said.

And:

Hildwin, 54, has battled a form of blood cancer while incarcerated in solitary confinement at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford.

Hildwin’s attorneys have worried that their client would not survive long enough for court machinations to conclude.

The Tampa Bay Times reports, "Florida Supreme Court overturns death sentence in 1985 Hernando murder," by Dan DeWitt.

The same samples of bodily fluids that helped put Paul Hildwin on death row for a 1985 murder in Hernando County persuaded the Florida Supreme Court to overturn his conviction and death sentence on Thursday.

Prosecutors in his original trial relied heavily on now-outdated scientific evidence that claimed to show semen and sweat found at the crime scene likely came from Hildwin, the court's ruling said.

Modern DNA testing not only disproved this, but demonstrated the samples belonged to William Haverty, the boyfriend of the victim, 42-year-old Vronzettie Cox.

"We cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that a significant pillar of the State's case, as presented to the jury, has collapsed and that this same evidence actually supports the defense," the court said in a 5-2 majority ruling.

"We vacate Hildwin's conviction for first-degree murder, vacate his death sentence, and remand for a new trial."

And:

If Hildwin is acquitted or the state elects not to retry him, he would probably become the first inmate released from Florida's death row primarily on DNA evidence, said Sam Gross, the University of Michigan law professor who edits the National Registry of Exonerations.

Such evidence had been a secondary factor in at least one death penalty exoneration in Florida, and Frank Lee Smith died on Florida's death row shortly before DNA evidence cleared him of his murder conviction in 2000.

Related posts are in the DNA and innocence category indexes.  Earlier, unrelated, Florida news coverage is also available.

Briefs Filed in Hank Skinner's Case

The Houston Chronicle reports, "Opposing lawyers argue over DNA evidence in 1993 triple murder," by Allan Turner.

For more than a decade convicted triple killer Henry Skinner insisted that DNA testing of previously unexamined crime scene evidence would definitively establish his innocence. But as opposing legal teams Friday tried to convince a Texas Panhandle judge to accept their versions of what the test results mean, it seems the long-running legal battle is anything but over.

Skinner, 52, was convicted in the 1993 New Year's Eve murder of his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby and her two adult sons, Elwin Caler and Randy Busby.

Twice he received last-minute stays of execution as his lawyers sought to obtain testing of dozens of pieces of crime scene evidence. Ping-ponging from the Pampa trial court to the U.S. Supreme Court, his case became a cause célèbre among death penalty foes who felt it reflected a Texas blood lust intent on exacting unjust vengeance.

In late 2011, lawyers from both sides finally agreed DNA testing could move forward. Oral arguments based on test findings were presented to Gray County state District Judge Douglas Robinson in February.

On Friday, Skinner's lawyer Robert Owen filed a recommendation to Robinson that he rule that the test results - if available at Skinner's 1995 trial - would have generated a reasonable doubt about guilt and saved the one-time paralegal's life.

"Attorneys file briefs in death row case," is the AP report, via the San Angelo Standard-Times.

Hank Skinner’s defense team asked the judge to rule that it is “reasonably probable” he would have been acquitted in the 1993 slayings of his girlfriend and her two sons in Pampa if jurors had heard testimony about DNA evidence gathered at the crime scene, the Amarillo Globe-News reported.

Attorneys for the state argued in their findings filed Friday that much of the DNA evidence in the case points solely to Skinner as the killer.

"AG, Lawyers for Hank Skinner Argue Over DNA in Death Penalty Case," is by Terri Langford for the Texas Tribune.

Lawyers for death row inmate Hank Skinner told a court, in documents filed Friday, that testing on long-sought-after DNA evidence in his case should be enough to forestall his execution. State prosecutors, who also submitted legal arguments on Friday, said the same evidence should convince the judge to confirm the 52-year-old's death sentence.

Jurors in 1995 found Skinner guilty of strangling and bludgeoning to death his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and fatally stabbing her two adult sons, Elwin Caler and Randy Busby.

Skinner has long proclaimed his innocence. He has said he was so intoxicated from a mixture of vodka and codeine that he could not have overpowered the victims. Since 2001, Skinner has sought DNA testing to prove his theory that the real killer was Busby's maternal uncle, who has since died but had a history of violence. State prosecutors agreed to testing in 2012.

Earlier coverage of Hank Skinner's case begins at the link.

More From CNN - Death Row Stories

The new CNN original series, Death Row Stories, produced by Alex Gibney and Robert Redford and narrated by Susan Sarandon, premieres this Sunday evening.

CNN has posted, "Death row lawyer: 'If I throw in the towel, a client dies'," by Emanuella Grinberg .  It focuses on Edward Lee Elmore, whose case will be profiled Sunday.  Here's the beginning:

By the time Edward Lee Elmore won his freedom at age 53, he had spent 30 years -- most of them on death row -- imprisoned in South Carolina for a crime he says he did not commit.

Law enforcement planted evidence and prosecutors manipulated facts to cast Elmore as the only suspect in the 1982 murder of 75-year-old Dorothy Edwards, his lawyers claim.

Even with seemingly overwhelming evidence in Elmore's favor, it took nearly two decades to win his release, in what an appeals court called "one of those exceptional cases of 'extreme malfunctions in the state criminal justice systems.' "

His experience raises nearly every issue that shapes America's capital punishment debate: DNA testing, mental retardation, a jailhouse snitch, incompetent defense lawyers, prosecutorial misconduct and "a strong claim of innocence," said author Raymond Bonner, who wrote about the case in "Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong."

In other words, a prime example of when "innocence is not enough," Bonner said.

Elmore would probably still be on death row if not for Diana Holt, who began investigating his claims of innocence in 1993.

CNN also posts an opinion column by Kirk Bloodsworth, "I was on death row, and I was innocent."

Edward Lee Elmore's story, which is the focus of the first episode of CNN's documentary series, "Death Row Stories," shows that the capital punishment system does not always get it right. Like Edward, I know this first-hand.

I was the first person in the United States to be exonerated from death row because of DNA testing.

In 1984, I was 23 years old, newly married and living in Cambridge, Maryland. I had just served four years in the Marine Corps. I had never been arrested. This all changed on August 9, 1984, when the police knocked on my door at 3 a.m. and arrested me for the murder of 9-year-old Dawn Hamilton.

In a matter of days I became the most hated man in Maryland.

Earlier coverage of the new CNN documentary series is at the link.  Also available, coverage of Ray Bonner's journalism.

Texas CCA Rejects Larry Swearingen Petition

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruling in Texas v. Swearingen is available in Adobe .pdf format.

"CCA Denies DNA Testing in Swearingen Case," is Jordan Smith's post at the Austin Chronicle.

Death row inmate Larry Swearingen cannot prove that biological materials exist on evidence connected to the 1998 murder of Melissa Trotter – including on the alleged murder weapon – and therefore is not entitled to DNA testing of those items, the Court of Criminal Appeals ruled this morning.

And:

In ruling against Swearingen on Wednesday, Judge Paul Womack wrote for the unanimous court that a district court ruling that last year approved the requested DNA testing would be overturned because Swearingen "cannot prove the existence of biological material" that could be tested. Although the defense presented to the district court expert testimony that biological evidence would "likely" be found on the pantyhose that is not enough to secure testing, the court ruled. "[W]e have explicitly held that appellee must prove biological material exists and not that it is merely probable."

In other words, without testing, there can be no testing.

The court's conclusion also precludes any testing of cigarette butts found near Trotter's body or of Trotter's clothes absent a showing that biological material exists on each item.

Only finger nail scrapings taken from Trotter are considered "biological evidence per se" and thus not restricted by the need to prove DNA exists before testing can be done. Only some of the collected scrapings were tested, and material found from under one of Trotter's fingernails produced DNA from an unknown male.

The Texas Tribune reports, "Court Reverses DNA Testing Decision in Swearingen Case," by Brandi Grissom and Edgar Walters.

The state’s highest criminal court on Wednesday unanimously reversed a lower court’s decision to allow further DNA testing in the case of death row inmate Larry Swearingen, sending his case back to a district court for further proceedings.

Swearingen was sentenced to death in 2000 after he was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing 19-year-old Melissa Trotter in Montgomery County. His lawyers say DNA testing on evidence found near Trotter’s body could prove his innocence, but prosecutors say further testing is unnecessary.

James Rytting, a lawyer representing Swearingen, said he would revisit the present motion for further DNA testing now that the case is before the district court once again.

“They remanded it,” Rytting said of the Court of Criminal Appeals' decision. “They didn’t say DNA testing is completely forbidden.”

Bill Delmore, the Montgomery County assistant district attorney prosecuting Swearingen’s case, said he would ask the court to set another execution date, adding that there was a “mountain of evidence” of Swearingen’s guilt.

Earlier coverage of Larry Swearingen's case begins at the link.

Hank Skinner Evidentiary Hearing Concludes

Attorneys for Hank Skinner issued a "Statement at the Close of the Evidentiary Hearing Regarding DNA Test Results."  Skinner is represented by Robert C. Owen of the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University Law School and Douglas G. Robinson of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. 

Here's the full text:

“The State has not presented any dramatic new evidence confirming Mr. Skinner’s guilt.  On the contrary: the testimony confirmed DNA from an unknown person, along with Twila Busby’s blood, on a dishtowel that had been secreted in a plastic garbage bag at the crime scene.  Moreover, the DNA test results were at odds with the State’s theory of the crime.  If Mr. Skinner stabbed Randy Busby in the manner claimed by the State, Mr. Skinner’s blood should have been on the blanket of Randy’s bed.  It was not.  If Mr. Skinner’s hands were covered with the victims’ blood when he staggered out of the house, their blood should have been mixed with his on the doorknobs he touched.  It was not.  And Mr. Skinner’s DNA on the common kitchen knife used in the crimes could have come from his innocently using it as a resident of the house and being cut with it by the assailant.

“Furthermore, the DNA testing produced significant and exculpatory results that raise grave doubts about Mr. Skinner’s guilt and point to an alternate suspect.  The State’s expert analyst did not retreat from his conclusion that three of the four hairs found in Twila Busby’s hand – hairs with DNA consistent with a maternal relative of the victims –  were “visually dissimilar” to the victims’ own hair, and indeed confirmed that the differences were so obvious that he could see them without using a microscope. This result supports the conclusion that a maternal relative of the victims committed the crimes, not Mr. Skinner. Robert Donnell, who is Ms. Busby’s maternal uncle, was seen stalking Ms. Busby at a party shortly before her death, and the State presented no compelling evidence that the hairs could have come from another maternal relative.  In fact, Ms. Busby’s mother stated under oath before Mr. Skinner’s trial that she had not been inside the house in the preceding four months.

“A major piece of evidence, which the State claims it lost, could have corroborated the hair evidence pointing to Mr. Donnell. But no DNA testing will be performed on perhaps the key piece of evidence collected by the police at the crime scene: the sweat-stained, blood-spattered men's windbreaker jacket found next to Ms. Busby’s body. From the earliest days of his fight for DNA testing, Mr. Skinner has insisted that this jacket should be tested because it may have been worn by the assailant.

“At the DNA hearing, Mr. Skinner sought to present testimony from a witness who can positively identify the jacket as Donnell’s, and to have his DNA expert explain how testing could have confirmed Donnell’s DNA on the jacket.   The State fought to keep this evidence out of the record, and the court agreed with the State and excluded it.  We respectfully disagree with this decision.  In our view, this evidence is at the center of the case.  It shows why a jury that heard all the evidence, including DNA results, would have harbored a reasonable doubt about Mr. Skinner’s guilt.

“Excluding evidence about the jacket simply added to the overall unfairness of this process, in which Mr. Skinner was wrongly forced to wait thirteen years before obtaining DNA testing.  In the meantime, through bungling by the State, the evidence was being mishandled, damaged, contaminated, degraded, and lost.

“The doubts about Hank Skinner’s guilt are far too great to allow his execution to proceed, particularly where the State’s utter failure to safeguard key pieces of evidence may make it impossible to resolve those questions conclusively.”

The Texas Tribune coverage is, "DNA Hearing Brings Skinner Case Closer to Resolution," by Brandi Grissom.

Two days of painstakingly detailed testimony about DNA analysis have brought the 20-year-old case against death row inmate Hank Skinner closer to resolution.

DNA analysts for Skinner and for state prosecutors from the Texas attorney general’s office spent Monday and Tuesday in the historic Gray County Courthouse explaining to state district Judge Steven Emmert the significance of more than 180 tests on about 40 items of evidence from a 1993 New Year’s Eve triple murder. Prosecutors argued that the tests only confirmed Skinner’s guilt, while lawyers for the 51-year-old defendant said the results raised enough questions about the identity of the perpetrator that a jury would not have condemned him to death.

"Does DNA Testing Prove Skinner's Guilt?" by Jordan Smith at the Austin Chronicle.

Had the state of Texas actually safeguarded and properly preserved evidence collected as part of the investigation into the 1993 slaying in Pampa of Twila Busby and her two grown sons, Elwin and Randy, it is unlikely that questions would linger about who is responsible for the brutal and bloody crime.

But the state lost a key piece of evidence in the case – a sweat and blood-stained windbreaker found near Busby's body in the home she shared with her two sons and her boyfriend, Hank Skinner. And it failed also to properly package and store additional evidence, making DNA testing on an array of items impossible, according to Skinner's defense team.

Skinner was sentenced to die for the New Year's Eve 1993 triple murder. He has maintained his innocence and said that he was passed out on a combination of booze and pills at the time of the crime, awoke to find that the family had been slaughtered and cut his hand on a shard of glass before fleeing the home.

"Skinner's attorneys: state didn't present evidence to confirm death row inmate's guilt," is the AP filing, via the Greenfield Reporter.

The judge will rule once he has considered written arguments submitted by each side.

"Texas death row inmate pins hopes on DNA evidence," by AFP, via GlobalPost.

In a two-day hearing that ended Tuesday, his lawyer Robert Owen said "the DNA testing produced significant and exculpatory results that raise grave doubts about Mr. Skinner's guilt and point to an alternate suspect".

Four hairs were found in the hand of Busby at the time of her murder. The DNA tests show that in three of them there was a maternal link between the person the strands of hair came from and the three victims, the lawyer said in a statement.

An expert witness for the state testified that the hairs could not come from the victims themselves because their hair was "visually dissimilar".

The defense lawyer pointed to a maternal uncle of Busby, the late Robert Donnell. He was seen stalking Busby an hour before the killings and showed no remorse upon learning of the death of his niece, said Owen.

"Testimony ends in Hank Skinner's DNA hearing," by Jim McBride in the Amarillo Globe-News.

The hearing focused on whether it is “reasonably probable” that Skinner, now 51, would have been acquitted if all DNA evidence in the case had been presented at his 1995 trial, according to court records.

Skinner was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die in the slayings of Twila Jean Busby, 40, and her sons — 22- year-old Elwin “Scooter” Caler and 20-year-old Randy Busby.

Skinner has claimed he was too intoxicated to have slain the Busbys because he drank vodka and took codeine on the night of the killings.

After the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted Skinner’s execution three times due to changing post-conviction law, prosecutors agreed to allow DNA testing, and both sides now have received the results.

"Consistency important with DNA evidence," by Dennis Palmitier and Timothy P. Howsare for the Pampa News.

Using exhibits from Hank Skinner’s own defense team, Assistant Attorney General Georgette Oden showed that Skinner’s DNA was a consistent match throughout the house of murder victim Twila Busby.

From 9 a.m. until a lunch recess at 1:25 p.m. Tuesday, Oden meticulously questioned Brent Hester, a DNA specialist from the Texas Department of Safety Crime Lab in Lubbock, on results of samples taken from the crime scene in 1994 and then retested by DPS in 2012.

The defense, in earlier testimony by their expert, Dr. Julie Heinig, had pointed out what they believed were inconsistencies with DNA matching.

New tests on one of the murder weapons, a kitchen utility knife, showed a DNA consistency matching Skinner’s and Busby’s two sons, who were also murdered on Dec. 31, 1993.

Another contention by the defense was why a quarter-inch blood stain on the carpet in the sons’ bedroom was not tested.

Earlier coverage of the two-day hearing begins at the link.

News Coverage of the Hank Skinner Hearing

"Hearing to Look at DNA Evidence in Skinner Case," is by Brandi Grissom for the Texas Tribune.

Lawyers for death row inmate Hank Skinner will tell a Gray County district court judge on Monday that had a 1995 jury seen the results of more than 100 DNA tests conducted since his conviction, it would not have sentenced their client to die.

Across the courtroom, state prosecutors will argue that the same DNA tests confirm Skinner’s guilt in the 1993 New Year’s Eve slaying of Twila Busby, his live-in girlfriend, and her two sons.

After more than a decade of fighting over DNA testing and nearly two years of analysis of two-decade-old biological material, evidence that Skinner says should prove his innocence will be the focus of court proceedings. Skinner, 51, has maintained that he was too inebriated from a mixture of vodka and codeine on the night of the crime to stab, strangle and beat the victims to death. 

Prosecutors from the Texas attorney general’s office agreed in 2012 to allow DNA testing in the case after years of fighting the requests. From 2012 to 2013, Texas Department of Public Safety laboratories conducted 188 DNA tests on 40 pieces of evidence, including fingernail clippings, a knife used in the murders, doorknobs, clothing and furniture. More than half of the tests, though, produced no usable results. One DPS analyst reported that many items had been stored haphazardly during the 18 years between the crime and testing and showed damage from rodents or insects.

AP coverage is, "Death row inmate hopes DNA will exonerate him," via the Longview News-Journal.

Forensic and DNA experts began testifying Monday at a hearing that could lead to the exoneration of a death row inmate convicted in the 1993 slaying of three people in the Texas Panhandle.

Attorneys for the state of Texas say in court documents that DNA present at the crime scene confirms that 52-year-old Hank Skinner is guilty. Defense attorneys contend more sophisticated DNA test results collected by an independent lab present doubts about Skinner’s guilt “too weighty” to allow his execution.

Each side will submit written arguments after the hearing. The judge will later release his findings.

"Defense rests in Skinner hearing," by Jim McBride in the Amarillo Globe-News.

The defense rested its case Monday in Hank Skinner’s evidentiary hearing after a judge ruled a key witness could not testify.

District Judge Steven Emmert ruled that the defense could not offer testimony from a neighbor of a relative of one of the victims of the 1993 triple homicide for which Skinner was found guilty and sentenced to die.

Robert Owen, one of Skinner’s attorneys, said the neighbor was prepared to testify that she frequently saw Robert Donnell wearing a windbreaker that was found next to the body of Twila Busby, Skinner’s ex-girlfriend.

The defense contends that Donnell, Busby’s uncle, killed her and her two sons on New Year’s Eve 1993 in Pampa.

Emmert ruled that the neighbor could not testify because her testimony exceeded the scope of the hearing that was established by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

"Expert witness for Skinner defense claims evidence degraded over time while stored in plastic bags," is by Dennis Palmitier and Timothy P. Howsare for the Pampa News.

Defense attorneys representing Hank Skinner, the death-row inmate convicted for murdering Twila Busby and her two sons in 1993, said during an evidentiary hearing Monday morning that had all DNA evidence from the crime scene been properly stored and tested, their client might have been acquitted.

Skinner, now in his early 50s, has been on death row in Texas longer than any other inmate. He also is the inmate who has cost taxpayers the most money. The combined costs of his incarceration and legal proceedings has exceeded more than $2 million.

In testimony Monday morning, an expert witness for the defense said that evidence from the crime scene was stored in plastic bags. Julie Heinig, PhD, testified that samples in plastic bags can break down over time and create contamination, such as mold. She concluded that samples in the Skinner case degraded since 1994 and questioned the validity of the DNA tests performed by the Department of Safety Crime Lab in Lubbock in 2012. 

Earlier coverage of Hank Skinner's case begins at the link.

News Coverage of National Registry of Exonerations Report

Today's New York Times reports, "Study Puts Exonerations at Record Level in U.S.," by Timothy Williams.

The number of exonerations in the United States of those wrongly convicted of a crime increased to a record 87 during 2013, and of that number, nearly one in five had initially pleaded guilty to charges filed against them, according to a report to be released on Tuesday as part of a project led by two university law schools.

Nearly half of the exonerations — 40 — were based on murder convictions, including that of a man wrongly convicted and subsequently sentenced to death in the fatal stabbing of a fellow inmate in a Missouri prison in 1983, according to the report by the National Registry of Exonerations. The registry is a joint program of the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law.

The previous record of known exonerations in the country came in 2009, when the group reported 83. The organization said it has documented 1,300 exonerations since 1989, most of them after convictions for murder, rape or other sexual assaults.

Fewer exonerations than in the past involved DNA evidence, a circumstance the registry attributed to the police and prosecutors exhibiting greater concern about the problem of false convictions.

But the report also found that 17 percent of those exonerated in 2013 had originally pleaded guilty to a crime they did not commit — usually because the defendant had been offered a plea bargain that guaranteed a lesser sentence on the condition of a guilty plea.

 "Prosecutors help set record number of exonerations," is the Associated Press coverage filed by Alan Scher Zagier.

A nationwide push by prosecutors and police to re-examine possible wrongful convictions contributed to a record number of exonerations in 2013, according to a report released Tuesday.

The National Registry of Exonerations says 87 people falsely convicted of crimes were exonerated last year, four more than in 2009, the year with the next highest total. The joint effort by the Northwestern University and University of Michigan law schools has documented more than 1,300 such cases in the U.S. since 1989 while also identifying another 1,100 "group exonerations" involving widespread police misconduct, primarily related to planted drug and gun evidence.

The new report shows that nearly 40 percent of exonerations recorded in 2013 were either initiated by law enforcement or included police and prosecutors' cooperation. One year earlier, nearly half of the exonerations involved such reviews.

"Police and prosecutors have become more attentive and concerned about the danger of false conviction," said registry editor Samuel Gross, a Michigan law professor. "We are working harder to identify the mistakes we made years ago, and we are catching more of them."

"U.S. criminals exonerated in 2013 climbs to record high: study," is by Mary Wisniewski of Reuters, via GlobalPost.

The states with the most exonerations last year were Texas, Illinois and New York, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, a project of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law and the University of Michigan Law School.

"Claims that were being ignored in a previous era are being given serious attention," said Rob Warden, executive director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions and co-founder of the registry.

An exoneration means a person is found innocent based on evidence not presented at his or her trial. This may include DNA evidence linking another person to the crime and evidence of perjury or false accusation.

The Guardian reports, "Record number of people exonerated of crimes in US in 2013," by Ed Pilkington.

The “Exonerations in 2013” report, which is produced jointly by the University of Michigan law school and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University school of law, lists the top 10 states in terms of the number of falsely convicted prisoners who walked free as Texas (13), Illinois (9), New York (8), Washington (7), California (6), Michigan and Missouri (5), Connecticut, Georgia and Virginia (4).

Gross cautions against assuming that the top 10 are the states that are most at fault in terms of making judicial mistakes, pointing out that a high number of exonerations can actually be an indication of progressive penal thinking.

"2013 was a record year for exonerations of prisoners," is by Elizabeth Chuck at NBC News.

There are no statistics on how many of the 2.3 million people who are currently in custody in the U.S. might be imprisoned for false convictions, but estimates based on various prison populations suggest the rate ranges from 2.3 percent to 5 percent, Gross said.

For innocent people who get exonerated, life isn't always easy after serving time.

"People will shy away from you," Gross said. "They've lost 10 years, or in some cases, 30-some years of their life. Their children have grown up if they had children, their spouse may have left them, their parents may have died, they have no skills. For many people, the destruction that has occurred is irreparable."

"Exonerations On The Rise, And Not Just Because Of DNA," by Laura Sullivan of NPR, via WBUR-FM.

Only one-fifth of the exonerations last year relied on newly tested DNA. More than 30 percent occurred because law enforcement agencies reopened a long-closed case or handed over their records to someone else who wanted to take a look.

Gross says that's a sea change from just 10 years ago.

"The sharp, cold shower that DNA gave to the criminal justice system has made us realize that we have to re-examine other cases as well," he says. "That was a serious wake-up call, because that showed we made mistakes in a lot of cases where it never occurred to anybody that a mistake had been made."

Nowhere is this change more visible than in district attorneys' offices across the country. New York, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles and others have opened "conviction integrity units," with the sole function of reviewing old cases and ensuring that the agency got it right.

Additional coverage includes:

"Record number of exonerations in 2013," by Natasha Lennard at Salon.

"Exonerations were at record high in 2013, report says," by Debra Cassens Weiss for ABA Journal.

"Texas Exonerates 13 in 2013," by Jordan Smith at the Austin Chronicle.

"4 of record 87 exonerations were in Va.," is by Frank Green with the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Earlier coverage of the National Registry of Exonerations latest report begins at the link.

Texas Forensic Science Commission Begins New Screening

'Hair Analysis: The Root of the Evidence Problem," is by Jordan Smith at the Austin Chronicle.

The Texas Forensic Science Commission voted unanimously Friday morning to move forward with a first-in-the-nation review of state criminal convictions that included testimony on microscopic hair analysis – a field of forensics deemed unreliable in a sweeping 2009 report on the state of forensics by the National Academy of Sciences.

Texas' planned review piggybacks on a groundbreaking federal investigation announced in July 2013. That inquiry involves 2,000 criminal cases in which hair comparison analysis linking a defendant to crime scene evidence was provided by Federal Bureau of Investigation examiners. That review is being conducted via an agreement between the FBI and Department of Justice with the New York-based Innocence Project and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Many of the Texas' hair examiners were trained by the FBI, so the state review makes sense, according to the Innocence Project of Texas, which is among the stakeholders collaborating with the FSC on the review. Indeed, the FSC noted this in its most recent annual report. "The FBI has also indicated that it trained many microscopic hair analysts in state and local crime laboratories, including some laboratories in Texas," reads the report. "Of course, this does not necessarily mean that state and local analysts made similar [scientific] overstatements" as did the FBI analysts at issue in the federal review. Still, as it is with that review, Texas' inquiry will focus on older cases, because microscopic hair analysis was more common in the 1980s and 1990s, before the rise of DNA testing.

Indeed, faulty hair analysis has been implicated in the case of at least one executed Texas inmate, Claude Jones, who was sentenced to die for the 1989 shooting of a liquor store owner. Jones maintained his innocence to death, and it wasn't until some 10 years later that DNA testing sought by the IP and the Texas Observer proved that the hair that the state said linked Jones to the crime wasn't his at all.

Earlier coverage of the FSC and microscopic hair analysis begins at the link;  also available, links to other FSC work, and more on the case of Claude Jones. 

Related posts are in the forensics and Texas Forensic Science Commission category indexes.

Additional Coverage & Reflections on DPIC Report

Think Progress posts, "In 2013, Death Penalty Rarely Doled Out To Those Whose Crimes Include Minority Victims," by Nicole Flatow and Adam Peck.  There is an infographic at the link.

Of the 39 executions performed in 2013, the overwhelming majority involved a crime with a white victim. The statistics from the Death Penalty Information Center show the continued racial bias of death penalty imposition, even as it becomes a decreasingly common punishment. While 32 of the 39 executions involved a white victim, just one white person was executed for killing only a black man. This defendant, Robert Gleason, was one of just four people who “volunteered” to be executed by waiving his appeals.

The December 23 edition of the Chicago Sun-Times published the editorial, "Death penalty on decline — a positive trend."

The death penalty is on the decline in the U.S., an encouraging and humanizing trend for a nation in need of one.

Across America, citizens and politicians are learning a simple truth: The ultimate punishment cannot be fairly delivered by our flawed criminal-justice system.

And:

Illinois has already gone down that path. More than a decade ago, then-Gov. George Ryan commuted all existing death sentences to life in prison and placed a moratorium on further executions, saying he had lost confidence in the reliability of convictions in capital cases. That was followed by abolishment of the death penalty in 2011.

"The death spiral of the death penalty," is Dick Polman's post at WHYY-FM NewsWorks National Interest blog.

As the year-end stats suggest, capital punishment is slowly but inexorably on the wane. If current trends continue, the United States may well lose its eminent status as one of the top five execution nations, an award it currently shares with mixed company: Iran, Iraq, China, and Saudi Arabia. (Maybe we'd be better off leading the world in things like health care, life expectancy, and student proficiency in math and science - instead of being way back in the pack.)

And:

Evan Mandery, an attorney and author of Wild Justice, a new book on the death penalty, confirms the conservatives' complaint: "Only about one in 10 people who are sentenced to die are ever executed. This means that states are paying the up-front costs associated with capital punishment - longer, more expensive trials, more expensive confinement, more appeals, and only occasionally receiving the cost savings of not having to imprison a criminal for his natural life."

If only Pennsylvania would follow the example of its northeastern neighbors - New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Maryland - all of whom have shelved the death penalty. If only Pennsylvania would heed Mandery's words: "If the past 40 years have proved nothing else, it is that creating a rational, predictable system for separating those who deserve to live from those who deserve to due may be beyond human capacity."

Pennsylvania hasn't killed an inmate since 1999, yet it currently houses 189 people on death row. That alone is the quintessence of irrational.

"Ohio executes inmates more than most states," by Jessie Balmert in the Zanesville Times-Recorder.

Fewer prisoners were executed nationwide this year as states struggle to find drugs for lethal injections and public support wanes.

Nine states executed 39 prisoners in 2013 — a 9.3 percent decrease from 2012 and a 60 percent decrease from 98 executed in 1999, the most since the death penalty was reinstated, according to the Death Penalty Information Center’s year-end report released Thursday.

Three of those executions occurred in Ohio, which ranked fourth in executions behind Texas, Florida and Oklahoma, according to the report.

Earlier coverage of the DPIC report begins at the link.  Also available, news from Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The Death Penalty Information Center's The Death Penalty in 2013: Year End Report is available at the link.  You can also find a news release, infographic, and a video at the link.

An Update on the Hank Skinner Case

"Skinner attorneys: DNA points to uncle as the killer," is by Timothy P. Howsare in today's edition of the Pampa News.

An advisory submitted to the 31st District Court in Pampa and the Texas Attorney General’s office by convicted murderer Hank Skinner’s attorneys points to Robert Donnell, Twila Busby’s deceased uncle, as the real killer in the triple homicide that occurred on New Year’s Eve in 1993.

In the advisory, submitted in August, Skinner’s attorneys, Douglas Robinson and Robert Owen, cite results of a third round of DNA tests performed by an independent laboratory in Lorton, Va.

Robinson and Owen have represented Skinner for more than a decade and have represented other death-row inmates.

The attorneys will be presenting evidence to support Skinner’s innocence at an evidentiary hearing scheduled for Feb. 3 and 4 in Pampa. The court also will consider evidence presented by the state.

Robinson and Owen could not say at this time if Skinner will be present at the hearing.

The state Attorney General’s Office has taken over the case and will present the state’s case at the hearing.

Earlier coverage of Hank Skinner's case begins at the link.

Lincoln Journal Star Editorial in Nebraska

"A welcome hiatus on death penalty," is the editorial published in today's Lincoln Journal Star.  Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning:

The state of Nebraska has not executed anyone since 1997, and it looks like it will be some time before another is carried out.

The state will be left without a method to carry out an execution because its supply of a lethal injection drug expires this month.

Nebraskans should welcome the hiatus. The arguments against the death penalty are gaining traction as more people begin to comprehend just how fallible the system is and how inequitably the death penalty is applied.

Nebraskans don’t need long memories to come up with two glaring examples of how the criminal justice system can go awry. In 2008 the so-called Beatrice Six were cleared of charges in the 1985 rape and murder of a 68-year-old Beatrice woman. DNA evidence showed the crime was committed by another man.

Last year Omaha CSI chief David Kofoed was convicted for planting a speck of blood that led to charges against two innocent men. DNA evidence linked the crime to a pair of Wisconsin teens.

The mounting evidence against the death penalty has begun to change public opinion. Support for the death penalty declined to 60 percent, its lowest level in 40 years.

Opposition to the death penalty has long been found on the liberal side of the political spectrum, but this year a boomlet of opposition surfaced among conservatives, led by Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty.

Earlier coverage from Nebraska begins at the link.

February Hearing Set in Hank Skinner Case

"Hank Skinner wins hearing on DNA evidence," is the Amarillo Globe-News report by Russell Anglin and Jim McBride.

An evidentiary hearing in the Hank Skinner case has been scheduled for Feb. 3 and 4 in 31st District Court, Texas Attorney General’s Office spokesman Tom Kelley said Thursday.

The hearing will focus on whether it is “reasonably probable” that Skinner would have been acquitted if all DNA evidence in the case had been presented at his 1995 trial, according to court records.

The hearing concerns DNA evidence that Skinner told the Texas Tribune will show someone else likely committed a 1993 triple murder.

And:

In November 2011, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted Skinner’s execution for the third time since 1995 to consider how changes to the state’s post-conviction DNA law would affect his requests for testing. Prosecutors agreed in June 2012 to allow the testing, and lawyers received tests results Aug. 6 from four hairs found on Busby’s hands.

“In light of this latest round of DNA tests, supported by other exculpatory evidence, the doubts about Mr. Skinner’s guilt are far too substantial to allow his execution to proceed,” Douglas Robinson, an attorney for Skinner, wrote in an email to the Texas Tribune.

Earlier coverage of Hank Skinner's case begins at the link.

An Update on the Tyrone Noling Case in Ohio

Today's Akron Beacon Journal reports, "Death row inmate Noling wins new DNA tests of cigarette evidence in 1990 double murder," by Ed Meyer.

Portage County Common Pleas Judge John Enlow has ordered new DNA tests of potentially decisive crime scene evidence in the case of death row inmate Tyrone Noling.

Enlow’s ruling Thursday morning was a significant victory for Noling.

It moved the case forward on a defense assertion by the Ohio Innocence Project that he was not the killer in a 1990 double murder in Atwater Township, but Noling’s lawyers came prepared for a full evidentiary hearing on the evidence.

Four nationally recognized experts, in the fields of DNA testing, false confessions by state witnesses and cold-case criminal investigations, were waiting to testify but now must wait until the test results are revealed.

Enlow ordered the new DNA tests on a cigarette butt found in the driveway at the home of the elderly victims, Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig.

His order calls for the tests to be done by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Any positive results then will be sent to the FBI lab for comparison to the genetic profiles of known criminals in the agency’s computerized database — the Combined DNA Index System known as CODIS.

Earlier coverage of Tyrone Noling's case begins at the link.

Akron Beacon-Journal Calls for DNA Testing in Tyrone Noling Case

"Test for the truth," is the Akron Beacon Journal editorial signed by Michael Douglas, the Journal's editorial page editor.

If Tyrone Noling faced trial today, he would be found not guilty. Actually, the strong likelihood is, a trial would not go forward, prosecutors left with the conclusion drawn more than two decades ago by the Portage County sheriff: The idea that Noling and three other young men were responsible for the murders of Cora and Bearnhardt Hartig in Atwater Township in April 1990 “just didn’t fit.”

Yet Noling has been sitting on death row since 1996. His case has evolved into another frustrating judicial chapter of form trumping substance. Common sense indicates the case against him has collapsed. Still, his attorneys must find a path through the law before the courts will declare as much.

On Thursday, his attorneys will be part of a hearing conducted by Judge John Enlow of the Portage County Common Pleas Court to weigh Noling’s request for DNA testing of potentially decisive evidence — a cigarette butt, shell casings and ring boxes. These items have not been subjected to the current more sophisticated DNA testing. The results could change the outcome of the case.

Or, put a different way, the request for testing reflects just what state lawmakers intended when they rewrote the law not too long ago to take better advantage of new technology in helping ensure that justice is achieved.

Earlier coverage of Tyrone Noling's case begins at the link.

CNN Documentary on Michael Morton Thursday Night

"‘An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story’ Premieres as CNN FILMS Broadcast on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 9:00 PM (ET)/8:00 PM (CT)," is the announcement from CNN.  Here's the beginning:

Academy award-nominated filmmaker Al Reinert (Apollo 13 and For All Mankind) profiles a universal worst nightmare scenario of a man wrongly convicted of murdering his wife in the film AN UNREAL DREAM: THE MICHAEL MORTON STORY.  The film will air for the first time ever on television at 9:00pm ET and PT on Thursday, Dec. 5 on CNN/U.S.

“We’re thrilled to bring this story to CNN audiences, raising awareness that the price of wrongful convictions goes well beyond individual loss of freedom for the wrongfully incarcerated” said Al Reinert, director of AN UNREAL DREAM.

Reinert’s award-winning documentary explores the harrowing true tale of Michael Morton, who stood accused and was convicted of the brutal murder of his young wife, Christine, in front of their three-year-old son, in 1986.  Morton always maintained his innocence and was never connected to the horrific crime by either witnesses or physical evidence.  As Morton spent nearly 25 years in the Texas penal system, he eventually lost all contact with his son Eric, who was raised by his wife’s relatives. 

Throughout the film, Michael and Eric movingly describe their evolving estrangement.  Michael Morton and other inmates also detail the pain of incarceration that Morton suffered unjustly for more than two decades – the relentless indignities, hard labor, desperate loneliness, and ever-present danger from other inmates.  Morton describes the toughest blow as the day he learned his son had requested to be adopted by Christine Morton’s sister and her husband.

Related posts are in the documentary and Michael Morton category indexes.  Earlier coverage of Michael Morton and his exoneration, at the link.

Ohio Editorial: 'Test for the Truth'

That's the title of an editorial published by the Akron Beacon-Journal this morning on the case of Tyrone Noling.

In May, the Ohio Supreme Court opened the door to new DNA testing in the case of Tyrone Noling. A 5-2 majority reversed a lower court decision and sent the question to Judge John Enlow of the Portage County Common Pleas Court. Earlier this month, attorneys for Noling filed a motion asking the court to permit testing of additional evidence. The request makes sense — if the objective is justice, or at least addressing the mounting doubt about the Noling conviction.

A jury found Noling guilty of the 1990 killings of Cora and Bearnhardt Hartig in their house in Atwater Township. He has resided on death row the past 17 years. The indictment of Noling didn’t come until five years after the episode, described by prosecutors as a robbery that turned into murder. Key to the conviction was the testimony of three friends of Noling at the scene.

They long ago recanted, citing coercion by the prosecution. On their own, these reversals might be played down. Striking is how they fit into a pattern, the case against Noling having eroded so substantially. Noling and his friends were involved in earlier robberies in Alliance. At the Hartig house, there was no physical evidence linking them to the crime. Nothing was taken from the house. If many in prison proclaim their innocence, know further that Noling’s gun didn’t match the murder weapon. He passed a polygraph test.

Four years ago, attorneys for Noling learned through a public records request about an alternative suspect. The information wasn’t shared at the trial. Yet the person in question lived near the Hartigs and eventually murdered a young woman. He received a death sentence and was executed.

And:

Logic follows: If the cigarette butt is tested, then a jewelry box and shell casings should be tested, too. The prosecution has argued that both were touched by the killer. Recent advances in DNA testing make possible gaining decisive evidence from each item. An opportunity exists to clear up the many uncertainties about whether Tyrone Noling murdered the Hartigs. More, the state must take necessary care to ensure that Ohio avoids the grievous mistake of executing an innocent man.

Earlier coverage of Tyrone Noling's case begins at the link.  Related posts are in the DNA category index.

Earlier coverage from Ohio focuses on lethal injection issues.

David Protess on the Latest Hank Skinner DNA Testing

"Texas Inmate Defies Death As Evidence of Innocence Mounts," is by David Protess at Huffington Post.  He's President of the Chicago Innocence Project.

Hank Skinner is in the final round of a fight against two heavyweights. One is the Texas lawmen who want him executed. The other is an often-fatal ailment that saps his strength and leaves him in constant pain. The odds makers give him little chance. Death, after all, is undefeated.

But Skinner, 51, is not about to throw in the towel. He is sustained by the love of his wife, Sandrine, and his daughter, Natalie. And, he is buoyed by the latest findings in his case, which support his steadfast contention for two decades -- that he is an innocent man.

It all began with a bloodbath on New Year's Eve in 1993. That is when Skinner's live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and her two adult sons were stabbed to death in their Panhandle home.

Earlier coverage of Hank Skinner's case begins at the link.

Impact of New Texas Pre-Trial DNA Testing Being Felt

The Beaumont Enterprise reports, "Slaying case stuck in limbo," by Tim Monzingo.  It's via the San Francisco Chronicle.

Senate Bill 1292, passed by the state Legislature this year, makes it mandatory for all evidence containing DNA collected in a criminal investigation to be tested before a capital murder case goes to trial. Prosecutors must meet with the defendant and "agree on which biological materials constitute biological evidence," the law reads.

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, and had the support of Texas Attorney Greg Abbott.

And:

Some attorneys are concerned about the new law's unintended consequences, including a potential drop in the number of death-penalty cases prosecutors pursue and a delay in the handling of non-capital cases.

Shannon Edmonds, a staff attorney for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, said one question is whether prosecutors might forgo a death-penalty case to speed up the trial process.

Edmonds said when the state adopted a life-without-parole option for capital offenders, prosecutors began turning to that more often than they sought the death penalty. He said only time will tell if this legislation has a similar effect.

Part of the concern, he said, is that all death penalty cases set to go to trial after Sept. 1, no matter how long they have been in the system, could be delayed by the additional testing.

Another issue is that testing evidence in capital punishment crimes will take priority. DNA samples from non-death penalty murders, rapes and other crimes will "go to the back of the line," Edmonds said.

Earlier coverage of the new Texas law begins at the link.  Related posts are in the DNA and Texas Legislature category indexes.

 

Hank Skinner DNA Testing Results

The latest Advisory filed with the 31st Texas District Court on DNA testing results in Hank Skinner's case is available in Adobe .pdf format.

The Texas Tribune posts, "Skinner's Lawyer, AG Disagree Over DNA Results," by Brandi Grissom.

Lawyers for death row inmate Hank Skinner say the latest round of DNA testing in the 1993 triple murder he was convicted for show that someone else likely committed the crime.

“In light of this latest round of DNA tests, supported by other exculpatory evidence, the doubts about Mr. Skinner’s guilt are far too substantial to allow his execution to proceed,” Douglas Robinson, an attorney for Skinner, wrote in an email.

But lawyers with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office argue that the same test results only reinforce Skinner’s guilt.

“The new round of testing does nothing to vindicate Hank Skinner in the murder of Twila Busby,” said Jerry Strickland, an Abbott spokesman.

And:

Prosecutors agreed to allow the DNA testing in June 2012, and on Aug. 6, lawyers received the results of a third round of tests — analysis of mitochondrial DNA on four hairs found on Busby’s hands. One of the hairs belonged to Skinner, which his lawyers say is unremarkable because he lived in the home where the killing occurred. The other three hairs came from the “maternally-related line of persons that included the victims.” A previous examination of those hairs indicated they weren't from the victims.

The testing on the hairs, Skinner’s lawyers argue, aligns with their contention that the killer was likely Busby’s maternal uncle, who they allege had a history of violence and had been making unwanted sexual advances toward her the night of the crime.

"Skinner's lawyers say DNA testing points to relative of victims," is Allan Turner's Houston Chronicle report.

Attorneys for convicted triple killer Henry Skinner on Thursday told a Texas Panhandle court that mitrochondrial DNA testing of hairs in one victim's hand supports their contention that their client is innocent.

In an advisory to Pampa's 31st District Court, lawyer Rob Owen reported that three hairs found in the hand of Twila Busby, who was bludgeoned to death in the home she shared with Skinner, belonged to a maternal relative of the victims. Earlier state testing showed the hairs did not come from Busby or her sons, Edwin Caler and Randy Busby, who also were killed.

A fourth hair, Owen conceded, came from Skinner.

Owen argues that the test results "support the inference that Robert Donnell, a maternal relative of the victims and the man who stalked Ms. Busby and frightened her with crude sexual advances less than an hour before she was murdered, committed the crimes." Donnell since has died.

AFP posts, "New evidence could free US death row inmate."  It's also available via Global Post.

New DNA evidence could help exonerate a man on death row in the US state of Texas for the murder of his girlfriend and her two adult sons, his lawyers claimed Thursday.

Hank Skinner, 51, has been on death row for 20 years over the 1993 triple murder. He has always denied the charges against him.

A private Virginia laboratory on Thursday published the results of tests conducted on four hairs found in the hand of the slain woman, Twila Busby -- and three of them show a family link with the three victims.

The fourth belongs to Skinner -- a result the lawyers called "unremarkable," given that the accused lived in Busby's house.

"The doubts about Mr. Skinner's guilt are far too weighty to allow his execution to proceed," said his attorneys, Robert Owen and Douglas Robinson.

"DNA Testing Allegedly Supports Skinners Claims," is from KAMR-TV.  There is video at the link.

Attorneys for death row inmate Hank Skinner say DNA testing points to his innocence.

Independent testing done by Skinner's defense team allegedly identifies a relative of one of the murder victims as a possible suspect.

Skinner says a man named Robert Donnell, an uncle of victim Twila Busby, could be guilty of the triple murders that sent him to death row.

In an advisory filed with the court Thursday, Skinner's attorneys say their testing shows three hairs found in the hand of Twila Busby belong to a maternal relative, implying Donnell may have been at the scene.
They concede a fourth hair belongs to skinner.

Earlier coverage of Hank Skinner's case begins at the link.  Related posts are in the DNA category index.

In 2011, Texas legislators strengthened access to post-conviction DNA testing.  The original Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 64 process for post-conviction DNA testing was passed in 2001.  Earlier this year, the Texas Legislature passed a measure requiring pre-trial DNA testing in capital murder cases.  The measure becomes state law on Sunday.

From the Washington Times

The Washington Times posts, "When, if ever, is the death penalty okay?" in its Communities section.  It's by Paul Samakow, an attorney licensed in Maryland and Virginia.

Is execution ever appropriate?  Should only killers face the death penalty? Rapists? Child-molesters? Should the number killed matter? Does motive matter? Terrorism? Mental incompetence? What if the killer were high on mind-altering drugs?

And:

A large body of evidence shows that many innocent people are convicted and that some have been executed. Statistics from the Innocence Project reveal that since 1989, there have been 311 cases where DNA proved convicted individuals were innocent. Twenty-nine of those 311 individuals pled guilty to crimes they did not commit. 

Samakow also notes the high cost of death penalty prosecutions and refers to a widely-referenced news article by Christy Hoppe examining Texas death penalty costs.  It was written for the Dallas Morning News in 1992; it continues to be cited.

Some Worry Over a Law to Increase DNA Testing

That's the title of a report by Brandi Grissom in the Texas editition of the Sunday New York Times.  An expanded version is posted at the Texas Tribune.  There is an interactive infographic at the Tribune page.  The article references the case of Hank Skinner.

In some Texas counties, it takes six months or longer to get DNA test results from the Department of Public Safety, says William Lee Hon, the Polk County criminal district attorney.

Now, Mr. Hon and other prosecutors fear that come Sept. 1, when a new law takes effect requiring DNA analysis of all biological evidence in death penalty cases, the wait could grow longer. “We’re not sure that D.P.S. has the resources currently to adequately comply with that legislation,” he said.

In Texas, there have been 54 exonerations based on DNA test results, including those of two inmates on death row, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Lawmakers this year approved Senate Bill 1292, written by Senator Rodney Ellis, Democrat of Houston, which aims to prevent wrongful convictions. Many prosecutors say that the bill may go too far, and that the pursuit of testing in some cases could be used to delay a conviction.

Tom Vinger, a safety department spokesman, said it was too early to predict the law’s impact. Mr. Ellis, who is the board chairman of the Innocence Project, which is dedicated to using DNA evidence to exonerate the wrongfully convicted, said that if the state sought the death penalty, expedience should not take priority over certainty.

“If you’re going to ask for the death penalty,” he said, “you ought to be confident that you have the right person.”

The bill’s champions include Attorney General Greg Abbott, the leading Republican candidate for governor, who said the measure would save Texas years of appeals.

“There’s no reason to test these items more than a decade after the crime was committed,” Mr. Abbott said in March.

Earlier coverage of the DNA testing legislation begins at the link; also available, additional coverage of the Texas Legislature's 2013 regular session and  more on Hank Skinner's case.  Related posts are in the DNA category index.

Forensic Science Commission to Examine Texas Hair Cases

"Forensic science commission to review convictions based on hair samples," by Yamil Berard for the Star Telegram.

Claude Jones had always claimed that he was innocent of the 1989 murder of an East Texas liquor store owner. But DNA testing wasn’t available in time to save his life.

Not until a decade after Jones was executed did scientists using DNA analysis confirm that a hair found at the crime scene did not belong to Jones. It was the murder victim’s.

Across the nation, more than 70 exonerations have involved the improper use of hair sampling — a practice, now considered “junk science,” in which a strand of hair is examined under a miscroscope to identify the people who were at a crime scene.

The Texas Forensic Science Commission wants to determine whether anyone has been wrongly imprisoned by identifying older criminal cases in which microscopic hair fibers were used to convict people of rape, murder, robbery and lesser crimes. The goal is to use DNA to find out whether any other miscarriages of justice have occurred.

“We have a moral responsibility to find out,” said Arthur J. Eisenberg, a forensic science commissioner who is a DNA expert and a co-director of the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification in Fort Worth.

The state’s top forensic watchdog agency is surveying crime labs large and small to learn the methods used to conduct hair analysis that did not involve verification with DNA. The Forensic Science Commission’s review is part of a national effort by the FBI and the Justice Department to clear up any false convictions due to improper hair comparisons.

Earlier coverage of the flawed testimony in microscopic hair analysis cases is at the link; also available, more on the case of Claude Jones.  Related posts are in the DNA and forensics category indexes.

DNA - Not Always a Silver Bullet

Today's New York Times publishes the OpEd, "High-Tech, High-Risk Forensics," by Osagie K. Obasogie.  He is a professor of law at the University of California, Hastings. Here's the beginning:

WHEN the police arrived last November at the ransacked mansion of the millionaire investor Raveesh Kumra, outside of San Jose, Calif., they found Mr. Kumra had been blindfolded, tied and gagged. The robbers took cash, rare coins and ultimately Mr. Kumra’s life; he died at the scene, suffocated by the packaging tape used to stifle his screams. A forensics team found DNA on his fingernails that belonged to an unknown person, presumably one of the assailants. The sample was put into a DNA database and turned up a “hit” — a local man by the name of Lukis Anderson.

Bingo. Mr. Anderson was arrested and charged with murder.

There was one small problem: the 26-year-old Mr. Anderson couldn’t have been the culprit. During the night in question, he was at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, suffering from severe intoxication.

Yet he spent more than five months in jail with a possible death sentence hanging over his head. Once presented with Mr. Anderson’s hospital records, prosecutors struggled to figure out how an innocent man’s DNA could have ended up on a murder victim.

Late last month, prosecutors announced what they believe to be the answer: the paramedics who transported Mr. Anderson to the hospital were the very same individuals who responded to the crime scene at the mansion a few hours later. Prosecutors now conclude that at some point, Mr. Anderson’s DNA must have been accidentally transferred to Mr. Kumra’s body — likely by way of the paramedics’ clothing or equipment.

This theory of transference is still under investigation. Nevertheless, the certainty with which prosecutors charged Mr. Anderson with murder highlights the very real injustices that can occur when we place too much faith in DNA forensic technologies.

Related posts are in the DNA and forensics category indexes.

Faulty Forensics & the Death Penalty

Today's Lincoln Journal Star publishes the editorial, "Another blow to death penalty."

The fallibility of the criminal justice system in applying the death penalty has been demonstrated again this month.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced last week its review of old criminal cases has found as many as 27 death penalty convictions that might have been based on invalid scientific testimony.

The review was announced a year ago by the FBI after three men were exonerated by DNA testing. Their convictions had been based in part on testimony on hair analysis from FBI lab experts.

In May, the review led to an 11th-hour stay of execution in a Mississippi double homicide case.

At issue is trial testimony from FBI experts that the organization now says “exceeded the limits of science.”

And:

The decline in death penalty support also is found among conservatives.

That shouldn't be surprising. After all, a distrust of government and a desire to limit the power of the state are fundamental to the conservative credo.

It should be natural for conservatives to be reluctant to give the state the ultimate power to take an inmate's life. When the state mistakenly executes the wrong person, there's no possibility to reverse the sentence.

The FBI review of hair analysis cases is another demonstration of how prone the death penalty system is to error. The Legislature should take that into account the next time it considers whether to add Nebraska to the growing list of states that have repealed the death penalty.

Earlier coverage of the FBI's flawed forensics testimony begins at the link.

Kurt Bloodsworth Celebrates 20th Anniversary of Exoneration

He is one of the fasters, noting the 20th anniversary of Gregg v. Georgia at the Supreme Court.

"Death-penalty opponents gather to press cause," is by Jamie Smith Hopkins for the Baltimore Sun.

Kirk Bloodsworth celebrated his 20th year of freedom Friday after he was wrongfully convicted of murder in Maryland and sentenced to death.

On Saturday, he joined with activists to mark other anniversaries: 41 years since the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily halted executions and 37 years (come Tuesday) since it allowed them to resume.

Dozens who gathered in front of the court Saturday want to see the death penalty permanently abolished. They kicked off a four-day vigil and fast to bring attention to the cause.

Organizers have held — coincidentally — the Fast & Vigil to Abolish the Death Penalty every year since Bloodsworth walked out of prison, exonerated by DNA evidence that later led to the true killer. This time, he spoke to the crowd.

"I would love to stand here and tell you my story is unique," said Bloodsworth, 52, who now lives in Philadelphia. "But it is not."

Others speaking out at the event included relatives of murder victims and of people on death row. The banners behind them were somber: "37 years of blood on our hands." And, "We remember the victims … but not with more killing." And "Should It Be Constitutional to Execute the Innocent? The U.S. Supreme Court says 'YES.'"

But the mood was largely upbeat. Gov. Martin O'Malley signed legislation in May to repeal Maryland's death penalty, making it the sixth state in sixth years to outlaw the practice.

AP circulates, "Former Md. death row inmate now witness advocate in Pa.," by Brian Witte.  It's via Delmarva Now.

A man who was on Maryland’s death row for a murder he didn’t commit is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his release.

Kirk Bloodsworth of Dorchester County marked the anniversary Friday.

Bloodsworth, who recently moved from Maryland to Philadelphia to be director of advocacy for Witness to Innocence, was twice convicted of a girl’s 1984 murder. He spent two years on death row following his first trial.

And:

Bloodsworth was cleared in 1993, becoming the first American freed because of DNA evidence after being convicted in a death penalty case.

Earlier coverage of Kirk Bloodsworth is at the links.  He is now the Director of Communications at Witness to Innocence.

Tim Junkin's book, Bloodsworth, written with Kirk's involvement, is available in the right column under Books.  It is the harrowing tale of Kirk's journey.

Florida Supreme Court Orders New Trial for Michael Peter Fitzpatrick

The Florida Supreme Court ruling in Florida v. Fitzpatrick is available in Adobe .pdf format.

The Tampa Bay Times reports, "New trial ordered for death row inmate from Pasco."

The Florida Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for a man sentenced to death for a 1996 fatal stabbing in Pasco County.

The court unanimously upheld a lower court's 2010 decision Thursday to grant a retrial to 51-year-old Michael Peter Fitzpatrick. Justices found that Fitzpatrick had ineffective help from his trial attorney, who should have consulted with experts on the DNA and other forensic evidence used against him.

Related posts are in the ineffective assistance of counsel category index.  Earlier coverage from Florida begins at the link.

AFP Series on Texas Executions

The French news service has produced a sereies of articles highlighting the state's 500th post-Furman execution.

"Texas prepares to execute 500th prisoner," is by Chantal Valery.

The US state of Texas is preparing to execute its 500th convict since the death penalty was restored in 1976, a record in a country where capital punishment is in decline elsewhere.

On Wednesday, in the absence of a last minute pardon, 52-year-old Kimberly McCarthy will receive a lethal injection in Huntsville Penitentiary for the 1997 murder of 71-year-old retired college professor Dorothy Booth.

And:

"It is obviously still the leader of executions in the nation, but it is limited to a handful of counties," said Steve Hall of the StandDown Texas Project, which has campaigns for a new moratorium.

"Texas leads with the number of executions and death sentences but there's no doubt you're seeing the same trend to decrease that you see nationally."

Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, an academic watchdog, agreed.

"Despite this major milestone, we expect the total number of executions to be less than last year and a new drop in death sentences," he said.

According to DPIC's figures, there are 3,125 convicts on death row in the United States and, if Wednesday's execution goes ahead, McCarthy will be the 17th prisoner put to death in the first six months of 2013.

"The innocent men haunted by years on death row," is also by Valery.

He spent 16 years on death row in a US jail, narrowly escaping two dates set for execution. Now Anthony Graves is one of about 140 people who walked free after being cleared of any crime.

His case is a beacon for activists seeking to ban capital punishment, which was reinstated in the United States in 1976.

Since then more than 1,300 people have been executed, but 142 have been exonerated by the courts. Graves was number 138.

"How do you compensate a man you took so much from and that you can never replace," says Graves.

He was wrongly accused of murder and spent more than two years in prison as his case was tried, before then languishing for another 16 on death row.

"They took 18 years of my life, that they can never give me back. They still owe me my opportunity to raise my children, they stole my opportunity to make free choices," he said.

Since he walked out of the prison gates in October 2010, this father of three boys says he has learned to appreciate the small things in life. "What a blessing to open your eyes every morning, see the sun rise," he tells AFP.

"Texas death row inmate awaits final judgement," examines the case of Hank Skinner.  It's also written by Chantal Valery, via France 24.

Hank Skinner escaped execution in 2010 by only 20 minutes after a dramatic 11th-hour reprieve. He now regards this as a miracle.

The 51-year-old, who was convicted in 1995 of the brutal triple murder of his girlfriend, Twila Busby, and her two adult sons, has protested his innocence for years, despite DNA evidence against him.

Haunted by the possibility of execution, the wait has taken a mental toll, says Skinner, who admits that in one sense, death may come as a relief.

"Living under the sentence of death is never off, it's always on your mind. It's always sitting on your chest, it's always on your shoulders and they're killing people about once a week. It's so heavy because there's a pall of death over this place," he told AFP in an interview.

And:

During his incarceration, Skinner has married a French wife, the militant anti-death penalty activist Sandrine Ageorges, who regularly visits him.

Earlier coverage from Texas begins with the editorials linked in the previous post.

DNA: A Test for Justice

That's the title of an OpEd by former federal district judge and FBI Director William Sessions.  It's subtitled, "Increased DNA testing can assure the guilty are convicted and the innocent exonerated.

In two courts, half a country apart, judges last month grappled with the reliability of testimony and forensic hair evidence analysis that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents provided in criminal trials decades ago. John Norman Huffington, imprisoned nearly 32 years in Maryland, had his conviction overturned by a judge after DNA testing revealed that the hair that was presented as key evidence against Mr. Huffington did not belong to him. Willie Jerome Manning, mere hours from death, won a stay of execution from the Mississippi Supreme Court to give his lawyers time to conduct DNA testing, which they believe could exonerate him. FBI testimony in both cases provided key evidence that led to their convictions.

Most of us are aware of the need for accurate and scientifically reliable evidence to ensure that those guilty of crimes are convicted and properly sentenced, and that those wrongfully convicted are exonerated. In Mr. Huffington's trial for the 1981 murders of two people in Harford County, at a time when DNA testing was not yet available, an FBI agent testified that the microscopic hair analysis was 99.98 percent accurate in determining that hair found in the bed where one victim was killed belonged to Mr. Huffington. This April, DNA testing revealed that the hair samples were in fact not his. In overturning his conviction and ordering a new trial, the judge noted that "due to the substantial weight given to the microscopic hair analysis by the jury … as well as the results of the DNA test [directly contradicting the FBI agent's testimony] … there is a significant possibility that the outcome of [Mr. Huffington's] case may have been different."

In Mr. Manning's trial for the 1992 murders of two college students, an FBI agent testified that microscopic hair analysis could identify a hair sample as belonging to Mr. Manning, to the exclusion of all others. Mr. Manning was convicted in 1994, in part based on the FBI agent's testimony. But such testimony, as a U.S. Department of Justice review found, "exceeded the limits of the science," and therefore the testimony was erroneous and "invalid." Had DNA testing (relatively new at the time) been performed on the hair sample, we would have had far greater certainty about the outcome in Mr. Manning's trial.

These are two examples among the potentially thousands of cases in which the reliability of FBI forensic analysis and testimony, particularly microscopic hair analysis, has been called into serious doubt.

Related posts are in the DNA category index.  Sessions is active in the Constitution Project.