The passage of time doesn’t remove the importance of learning from exoneration litigation success. It should intensify how important it is.
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Juan Rivera to receive $20 million for 20 years of wrongful imprisonment
When should government employees face personal liability for knowingly gaming our justice system in order to get convictions?
Juan Rivera, 42, who endured three trials and twenty years of wrongful imprisonment before being exonerated of a vicious crime, has reached a $20 million settlement agreement with Lake County (IL) authorities. His $1 million award for each year in prison will enable him to pursue his education and assist his family, but, as reported in the Chicago Sun-Times (here), Rivera said, “I still would prefer my 20 years back [over] the $20 million.”
The settlement cost will be shared by the county and several municipalities that contributed police work in the investigation of the brutal crime. The largest amount will be paid by the city of Waukegan where the crime occurred.
Rivera was convicted of the 1992 rape and murder of 11-year-old Holly Staker. His conviction was based primarily on a confession that occurred over four days
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Investigation of forensic science misconduct and deception
Must read. Includes comments from UK expert Professor Iain Pretty. Im still waiting for a response from the US forensic dental group. I think they are in hiding. Thats too bad because they may miss out on some uncoming judicial responses from the California Supreme Court regarding their methods and practices.
http://www.forensicdentistryonline.org/balko-part-2-the-witch-hunt
The Debra Milke Lawsuit – A Perspective
More dastardly deeds from Maricopa County AZ. Litigation for wrongful conviction compensation always taxes the taxpayers. This seems of little concern to the “tough on crime” government advocates who are cloaked in immunity by the US Supreme Court.
Camille Tilley, whose daughter Courtney was wrongfully convicted in Maricopa County, was kind enough to post a link to the lawsuit recently brought by Debra Milke against a number of Phoenex and Maricopa County, AZ officials regarding her wrongful conviction for the murder of her 4 1/2 year-old son. This post was contained in a comment to our recent story about the Debra Milke case.
If you haven’t had a chance to read the lawsuit, I think it deserves some special comment. You can access it directly here: Debra Milke-lawsuit. It’s very interesting to note that Milke is represented in her suit by the firm of Neufeld Scheck & Brustin. You probably know that Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck are the founders of the original Innocence Project.
I’ve read the suit, and if you think this kind of thing can’t happen to you, you need to…
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False forensic bitemark case gets another CA high court look
William Richards’ newest attempt for freedom centers on this application of a new law expecting the judiciary to know something about junk forensic science.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-bite-mark-court-20150318-story.html
Debra Milke Case — She Remains Free — and IT’S DONE !!
Another Maricopa County conviction gone bad with an exoneration to match Ray Krone from 2000.
Today, the Arizona Supreme Court refused to grant the prosecution a retrial for Debra Milke. Milke’s conviction had been overturned by the US 9th Circuit for prosecutorial misconduct, and sent back to the Arizona courts. See the AZ Central story here.
We’ve covered this case extensively. See here, here, here, and here.
And …….. Debra Milke has filed suit against Maricopa County, AZ, the prosecutor (Bill Montgomery), the detective (Armando Saldate), and twelve other officials. See the Courthouse News Service article here.
All I can say is …. YOU GO, GIRL!
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Ray Krone’s Exoneration from bitemark evidence: THE INSIDE STORY @csidds
Nothing says junk science more than this forensic method that has no legitimate validation of methods, no QC, no internal or external audits, no calibration of its testing or personnel, no reproducible testing, multiple “approved methods,” no equipment requirements, no estimation of measurement error, no control standards reference samples, and mere assurances that what its examiners say is in accordance to a scientific basis. Im sure members of this group on the NCFS will ignore all this and promote themselves to the NIST governing committee. All the standards of competency noted above fall within the ISO Standards for Accreditation ISO 17025 and are considered the minima for scientific lab conformity and confidence. I doubt the US justice system understands any of this. Meanwhile, read this past blog piece about the case mentioned most frequently as the reason why bitemark IDs are synonymous with “junk” forensics.
Photo by: Heidi Huber/AP
This picture has Ray Krone ( left) immediately after his release from AZ prison in 2000. Part of his story is below, which develops the persona of the Prosecutor Noel Levy who put Ray on death row. The article was written in 2013 about prosecutorial misconduct in AZ which focused on multiple cases including Krone’s. Ray is now a international public speaker on the subject of “win at all costs” prosecutors and junk forensic science.
He hates bitemark identification.
In fact, during the 10 year fight for freedom, his family reached out to the American Board of Forensic Odontology (ABFO), the “elite” dentists of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) for an official review of the bitemark aspects of Ray’s case.
The Preamble of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences is it’s public commitment to scientific integrity (and its subsidiary forensic boards like the ABFO). I…
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24 forensic exonerations and dismissals later: bitemark matchers still in control
Nothing says how messed-up forensics science reform is than this 4 part series on the “elite” of the AAFS.
The myth of government-run crime lab impartiality is revealed
Former crime lab employee gets the boot for being a defense expert outside his state, sues the county government, its DA and police chief. So much for impartiality myth of police run forensic labs. The courts expect the “whole truth” from experts. Law enforcement expects partisanship in this case. This individual was qualified in a separate court system as a verified expert. He was hired to evaluate evidence being admitted against a defendant. Apparently no trouble would have occurred if a DA was the employer. Reasoning behind this is obvious. To prevent contamination of some sort. Aggressive partisanship amongst forensic experts is a quiet fact though-out the US criminal justice system. This separatism is a negative factor and creates pit fall of undo influence into an already subjective environment.
Florida judge reverses jury guilty verdict in murder case.
Montana crime lab lag time binds-up everyday “war on drugs”
Fingerprints do not “have a time-stamp’ revealed during cross-examination.
A modern example of the Inquisition and Devils Island
An unprecedented response to a botched conviction occurring on chronic_jordan on Twitter. Read the comments.
Once convicted, the state of Nevada tries to ignore or deny evidence and even the inmate from public scrutiny.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/12/murderinvegas/
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