"PUBLISHER'S  NOTE: WORDS TO HEED: FROM OUR POST ON KEVIN COOPER'S  APPLICATION FOR POST-CONVICTION DNA TESTING; CALIFORNIA: (Applicable wherever a state resists DNA testing): "Blogger/extraordinaire Jeff Gamso's blunt, unequivocal, unforgettable message to the powers that be in California: "JUST TEST THE FUCKING DNA." (Oh yes, Gamso raises, as he does in many of his posts, an important philosophical question: This post is headed: "What is truth, said jesting Pilate."...Says Gamso: "So what's the harm? What, exactly, are they scared of? Don't we want the truth?")  ht ..read more

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "This is good news for Melissa Lucio, but only in contrast to the bad news she’s been living through since 2007 — for almost 17 long unimaginable years — all of it imposed on her by agents of the state. Starting just two hours after she’d lost a child and continuing without stop since then. And worst of all, mostly imposed by supposed agents of justice, some of whom clearly didn’t give a rat’s behind for justice. " -------------------------------------------------------------- COMMENTARY:  "The state of Texas almost killed an innocent woman," by David Mills, publi ..read more

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Ron Dalton, now co-president of Innocence Canada, took up the men’s case when he was fighting for freedom from his own wrongful conviction. He called Gillespie a “study in strength of character and friendship.” “For 40 years (Gillespie) refused to falsely implicate his friend, Robert Mailman, and paid dearly with his freedom,” Dalton said. “A sad end to a difficult but honourable life.” In an interview in January, about a week after he was formally exonerated, Gillespie recounted the offer of freedom dangled before him a year after Leeman’s murder. He ..read more

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo on Tuesday denied the county's bid to dismiss the "Monell" claim by Jane Dorotik that puts the county on the hook for the deprivation of her constitutional rights that resulted from the work by the lab's employees. "Plaintiff’s allegations that the crime lab, at the time of plaintiff’s investigation, was not accredited and had no manual for the proper handling of evidence sufficiently allege a failure to train crime lab employees to avoid constitutional violations committed by those employees," Bencivengo wrote ..read more

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "One of the sisters’ staunchest advocates recently asked federal Justice Minister Arif Virani to wrap up the review. “Both sisters’ current freedoms are extremely limited, and they continue to have a black cloud over them as the wheels of the federal justice system turn at a snail’s pace,” said Kim Beaudin, national vice-chief for the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, in an April 12 letter to Virani obtained by APTN. “You have the power to expedite this process, to set an example to all other cases seeking redress for wrongful convictions. It is critical ..read more

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Even before the medical evidence emerged, questions were raised about Robinson’s conviction.  No physical evidence connected him to the crime, and he did not make a confession.  The video, which was captured by a motion-sensitive camera at the Chicago Housing Authority’s Washington Park homes, showed a shooter with short hair; Robinson had dreadlocks when he was arrested. The day after the shooting, a detective tracked down Dwayne Rolle, who was with Jemison. Rolle identified Robinson as the shooter, but during the trial he testified he did so because ..read more

------------------------------------------------------------- MESSAGE FROM:  THE INNOCENCE PROJECT:  Learn more about yesterday's ruling and Damien, Jessie, and Jason's case — and then share the news of the DNA decision with your friends and family on social media. --------------------------------------------------------------- RELEASE: 'Breaking news in the West Memphis Three case.' The Innocence Project: April 19, 2024. GIST: "In 1993, teenagers Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were wrongly arrested for the murders of three eight-year-old boys ..read more

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