PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Denkowski’s assessment of Gallo concluded that the defendant's IQ score should be higher than the test scores he obtained, in part, because Gallo is Hispanic, according to court filings. In his testimony, Denkowski argued Gallo’s score should be inflated due to his “low socioeconomic antisocial lifestyle,” and thus he could not be properly assessed by mainstream IQ tests. Ellis described Denkowski's evaluation as “entirely racist and not acceptable.” Dembowski evaluated over a dozen en on Texas' death row, several of whom were executed. Since the psychologist was rep ..read more

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Lucio was first arrested in 2007 after her two-year-old, Mariah, was found motionless in her family’s home. The child showed signs of a broken arm untreated for weeks, a head injury, bite marks on her back, and bruises across her body. Prosecutors said she beat her child to death. However, Lucio said the two-year-old sustained the injuries by falling down stairs. Lucio was convicted and sentenced to death in 2008. She was scheduled to be executed in 2022, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted her a stay with just 48 hours to spare. Now, Judge Nels ..read more

BACKGROUND: "Arguing over how many hundreds of cases may have been tainted by a disgraced former detective. In January, Brooklyn prosecutors mistakenly sent to defense attorneys a 524-page PDF file listing cases that may have been tainted by the misconduct of Louis Scarcella, a retired homicide detective whose work has been frequently cited in wrongful conviction cases that have cost New York millions. One list included 319 cases. The actual number is 235, prosecutors claim. They have asked the judge to force defense attorneys to return the list without sharing its details with the pub ..read more

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "At issue in the hearing is a request by the Greenbergs’ attorneys to begin putting Philadelphia officials under oath to question them at length during a series of depositions as part of the legal discovery process. First up to be deposed is former Philadelphia assistant district attorney Guy D’Andrea, who’s spoken out in favor of the Greenbergs’ cause since leaving the office. D’Andrea is on record saying he found Ellen Greenberg’s death investigation file buried in a DA’s office closet containing Christmas decorations. D’Andrea said he combed through the file and or ..read more

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Bromley’s appeal was knocked back, but two out of the five judges dissented against the decision, finding there was “a substantial miscarriage of justice” because the trial judge gave inadequate directions to the jury. “There is, at least, a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted,” Justice James Edelman and Justice Simon Steward said in December 2023." STORY: "South Australian prisoner Derek Bromley is about to be released after 40 years in prison. One family fears nothing has changed," by Adelaide Reporter Sowaibah Hanifie, published by 7 ..read more

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The Guardian revealed last year that police and prosecutors knew in 2007 that forensic testing had found a searchable male DNA profile on the victim’s vest top that did not match Malkinson’s. Yet he spent another 13 years in prison. In that time the CCRC twice refused to refer his case for appeal, or to commission further forensic tests. Malkinson was exonerated last year after fresh forensic work linked DNA on a sample of the victim’s clothing to male DNA on the police database. He has repeatedly called for the CCRC’s chair, Helen Pitcher, t ..read more

PASSAGE ONE  OF THE DAY: "Anton Black’s cause of death, however, was ruled accidental despite the police response. He died from a sudden cardiac event with a congenital heart condition and other factors listed, the official report said. Police pinning Black to the ground was also considered a factor, but the report stated there was no evidence that the police response caused his death. According to CBS News, however, a Johns Hopkins University expert later said that Black’s cause of death was “positional asphyxiation,” or the position of Black’s body and the weight of ..read more

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "That case was remarkable. There was a DNA exclusion, and they said they were going to try it anyway,” said Maurice Possley, a senior researcher at The National Registry of Exonerations.  Santiago and Devlin are accused of lying about the confession. Santiago and Jastrzembski are accused of lying when they testified that they didn’t know about the DNA problem. Jastrzembski is accused of lying about finding the victim’s clothes in Wright’s bedroom." PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Wright was arrested at age 20. He spent two decades in prison before DNA testing seemingly cleared hi ..read more

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Reading the Associated Press story, I couldn't help but think about Victor Hugo's character Jean Valjean in 'Les Misérables - described in Wikipedia as an ex-convict  "who becomes a force for good in the world but cannot escape his criminal past." Both men are tormented by their respective criminal justice systems - an ocean and many decades apart. But there is a major difference: William Woods is not an ex-convict. He is a both a victim of a crime - and of a  criminal justice system, which, instead of protecting him, turned his life into hell. Stay tune ..read more

BACKGROUND: (Boston Globe: Globe Staff: Sean Cotter: "Who his Karen Read? A look at the woman in the center of a media storm):  Dedham, Massachusetts: "The courthouse doors opened and a slight figure emerged, sending dozens of demonstrators assembled outside erupting into applause, whooping and waving signs and American flags. Karen Read, the woman accused of murdering her Boston police officer boyfriend in Canton, grinned at the crowd of supporters who’d braved a chilly drizzle to show out for a mundane pre-trial hearing at Norfolk Superior Court. “Free Karen Read ..read more