Forensic Resource companies in Las Cruces, NM

DNA EXONERATION COUNT: 258 wrongfully accused individuals have been set free as a consequence of DNA testing.

“Reliable forensic evidence increases the ability of law enforcement officials to identify those who commit crimes and it protects innocent people from being convicted of crimes they didn’t commit,”

-Harry T. Edwards, Senior Circuit Judge and Chief Judge Emeritus of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Provided below are descriptions of various intriguing criminal cases from across the U.S. Many involve wrongful imprisonment, reinvestigation, and exoneration. In some instances, individuals have been imprisoned under enormously questionable circumstances. The specifics of the cases often defy all sense of rationality-but they are all quite true.

Mr. Stephen D. Aarons (Santa Fe, New Mexico) was the assigned public defender for a Navajo man named Mr. Theodore Largo. Up until the week of the trial, July 26-29, 2010, Theodore had been sitting in jail for 16 months. In Federal Court, the FBI crime lab's enormous interpretive flaws were fully dissected in front of the jury. Mr. Largo was found not guilty on all counts and immediately released.

The prosecution’s scientific case was simple: 4 anal swabs had been collected from a young alleged victim. The FBI lab report stated "….semen identified". Mr. Aarons contacted SFR to examine the FBI lab report. Dr. Spence immediately asked Mr. Aarons to request discovery - all of the supporting scientific documentation. The FBI lab documents pointed to a "Faint Positive" screening test on two of the four swabs. Defying logic, NO effort was made to identify sperm cells on the evidence swabs via microscopic searches. Instead, they proceeded to test ONE of the four swabs for DNA. This strategy revealed NOTHING suggesting the possible presence of Mr. Largo's DNA. Despite this glaring chasm in their scientific case, FBI Lab management refused to back off from their conclusion of "….semen identified".

Dr. Spence informed Mr. Aarons that the FBI lab's conclusions were entirely unjustified, inappropriate, and an enormous misrepresentation of the scientific facts. Dr. Spence backed up that opinion by having the swabs tested (Independent Forensics, Hillside, Illinois) with a more accurate, SPECIFIC screening test for semen, as well as a more sensitive, more thorough DNA testing strategy. The independent outsource lab revealed NO indication of semen and SUPPORTED the FBI Lab’s finding of NO DNA linking Mr. Largo to any criminal act.

The screening test utilized by the FBI lab was an ultra-sensitive detection system for a protein that is abundant in semen, ....prostate specific antigen (PSA). The error of leaning too heavily on a PSA test is that recent years have revealed the presence of PSA in body tissues and fluids OTHER than semen. For the defense, the PSA and ZERO DNA issues were illuminated by Richard Coughlin, Ph.D. (President/Chief Scientific Officer of Sequela, Falmouth, Maine), Karl Reich, Ph.D. (Chief Scientific Officer, Independent Forensics), and Michael Spence (Spence Forensic Resources). Refer to the link for elementary information addressing the forensic detection of PSA.

The prosecution’s entire scientific case hinged upon a $1.05 PSA detection cartridge produced by Seratec, a German biotech company. Hidden in the FBI’s documentation was the "FT POS" notation, indicating the apparent presence of ONE protein. NO attempt was made to find any sperm cells, and two laboratories revealed a conspicuous ABSENCE of any incriminating DNA. It was no surprise that the jury took only a few hours to grant Mr. Largo his immediate release.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the PSA tests, ....when they are employed strictly as screening tools, ….pointing the way to the Holy Grail of Forensic Biology, …….DNA. PSA is anything but THE de facto means to establishing a crime. Management associated with ANY forensic biology lab (law enforcement or private enterprises) should interpret certain data with extreme caution.

From 2003 to 2007, I conducted analysis on over 100 cases as a Forensic Biologist in a Mid-American state, for the Indiana State Police. I have sincere admiration for the people who process the crime scenes and investigate the atrocities that people commit against each other. I respect the people of many disciplines who toil away in the crime labs. My respect also extends to those faced with the challenge of prosecuting the accused. My experiences with Indiana criminal casework has taught me the importance of professionalism and effectiveness at all levels.

This story pertains to a case in the Mid-American state of Arkansas. The case proved to be a black hole for professionalism and effectiveness at all levels. May 5th, 1993, West Memphis, Arkansas: Three 8-year-old boys were brutally murdered. Their bodies were submerged in a shallow, muddy creek running through a wooded area near two interstate highways. The names of those whose lives were so tragically cut short were Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore. As a single father of my own 13-year old boy, this crime embodies the absolute apex of our fears. Nothing could be worse than a senseless attack on innocent children. Okay, one thing IS worse—A senseless attack on innocent children, followed by a thoroughly botched investigation, followed by an astounding collapse of the criminal justice system.

All of the complex details could not possibly fit here on this humble little website. Any readers choosing to dig deeper into this case might begin with the book that got me started. Devil’s Knot-The True Story of the West Memphis Three, by the award-winning author, Mara Leveritt. Another book is Blood of Innocents, by Guy Reel. You may want to view the HBO documentary, Paradise Lost-The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, as well as the HBO-produced sequel, Revelations: Paradise Lost 2. On February 27, 2010, CBS presented their assessment of the story, 48 Hours: A Cry for Innocence. Another valuable source of information is the legal defense support website:

I have heard my share of disturbing details associated with horrific crimes. Beyond exploring the truth and honoring the memory of the three innocent West Memphis victims, my main purpose here is to punctuate the stunning, outrageous series of investigative and judicial consequences that played out after the May 5th, 1993 tragedy. Three teenagers were ultimately imprisoned in the aftermath of the triple homicide. Those three young men are still locked up. Please do not limit your examination of this case to what you read here. Exploration of the WM3 website mentioned above will unveil the artistic, Hollywood-esque flavor of the legal defense support for the West Memphis 3. If you are politically conservative, like me, by all means, go beyond any liberal-based websites, beyond the HBO documentaries, or even beyond Mara Leveritt’s superb account of this case, and talk to the local individuals who experienced the West Memphis atmosphere first hand. I encourage such individuals to contact me by phone or e-mail to provide responses and commentaries to this synopsis of the case.

The purpose of this article is NOT to guide anyone to a verdict. No, the verdict was already handed down, 16 years ago, by an Arkansas jury. Since then, countless combatants have butted heads over whether that verdict should be upheld or reversed. I am hoping that what I present here will illuminate the PROCESS that occurred after May 5th, 1993. I have developed a fascination with the various key events, the overpowering oddities, and the occasionally comic spectacle of the processes. These were processes that, in my opinion, typically defied all fundamental standards of logic. Please excuse me for relentlessly referring back to that vital concept of investigative and judicial “logic” that the victim's families and every average citizen should demand during the processes associated with such an important case.

The most ‘logical’ initial question pertaining to this case is as follows: “Was there evidence that the crime was related to a satanic cult or any other type of cult?” Everyone familiar with this case can probably agree that, in the early 1990’s, West Memphis, Arkansas was a community that was quite obsessed with the 'perceived' danger associated with a local cult. These concerns-whether justified or not-were driven by a leader within the Crittenden County Juvenile Probation Office. A man named Jerry Driver. Yes the 1993 ‘satanic panic’ in West Memphis was driven by a guy named Driver. It was at that moment in the history of the town that the terrible crime ended the lives of the three young boys.

Driver, who had already been alleging the existence of a dangerous local cult, leapt into action. Anyone in the community who was willing to stop and listen, especially those associated with local law enforcement, were informed by Driver of the indisputable logic that the triple homicide HAD to be the result of witches and cult-related human sacrifices. Driver jotted down his list of ‘local cult-members’ for the police and guaranteed that their investigation would lead to the imprisonment of individuals on the list. Have you ever heard the phrase ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’?

From the beginning, law enforcement officials claimed that they were not centering their efforts exclusively on Driver’s irrational drivel. As the police claimed objectivity, vital details of the case circumstances were promptly leaked to the media and the public at large. The triple homicide was the 555th local case of 1993, earning the case number 93-05-0555. Mysteriously, the case number was somehow transformed into 93-05-0666. This illuminated the satanic fixation embraced by the local police. Recall that I was once employed by a state police agency. Regardless of denials to the contrary, case numbers simply do not change by themselves! During the weeks that followed the homicides, the small community was gripped by a spiraling atmosphere of hysteria. This was fueled by a consensus of dread that satanic killers were prowling throughout the local region. Outlandish rumors escalated into exaggerated dimensions.

About two hours after the three boys were reported missing, the first opportunity for a breakthrough developed in the case. A call to the police dispatch line came from workers at a Bojangle’s restaurant just a short distance from where the three 8-year-old boys were last seen. A black man, reportedly covered in blood and mud, was found in the women’s restroom, attempting to clean himself up. The man, clearly in a state of disorientation, had defecated on himself, as well as on the floor. He left the restaurant before the police arrived.

On the following day, after the bodies were discovered in the nearby woods, the Bojangle’s manager badgered the police until they agreed to follow up at his restaurant. The follow up investigaton revealed that remnants of bloodstains were indeed present in the restroom. Various samples were collected as evidence to be analyzed by the crime lab. Defying logic, none of the collected samples ever made it to the crime lab. Instead, Detective Bryn Ridge later testified that this potentially crucial evidence had been lost. Logic dictates that these samples would have been handled with the UTMOST care and documentation. It is important to note that a hair, identified as originating from an African American, was later recovered from a sheet used by the perpetrator to wrap the body of one of the murdered boys. We will never know if there was a connection between the negroid hair and the African American man at the restaurant. The first opportunity of a case breakthrough was LOST. Nice work guys!

Defying all sense of logic, the West Memphis Police declined all offers of assistance from the Arkansas State Police. To this day, no reasonable cause has justified this decision to rebuff the vastly superior investigative resources available from the state agency. Consequently, the investigation rapidly deteriorated into a chaotic mess. Beyond a month after the crime, the principals studying the case had yet to receive a single autopsy report from the medical examiner.

As often happens in a high-profile criminal investigation, one principal inspector emerges to spearhead the historic crusade toward truth and justice for the victims. Entering the realm of the most implausible comedies, I present you, my readers, ........................with a waitress. Not just any waitress, ....but a 32-year-old, alcoholic waitress with a penchant for raiding her employer’s cash register, getting fired, writing bad checks, lying about being afflicted with a brain tumor, and occasionally passing out in her front yard from extreme intoxication. Please consult Devil’s Knot, view the HBO documentaries, and surf the web. As improbable as this twist in the investigation might appear, please trust that I am NOT making any of it up!

With her eyes firmly fixed on a promise of $30,000 in reward money, our undercover waitress casted her net with hopes of a long-anticipated investigative breakthrough on the West Memphis triple homicide. It is amusing to note that the prosecution and the local law enforcement officials actually expressed enthusiastic support for this foolishness. The waitress began by attempting to get cozy with a teenaged neighbor residing in her trailer park. ‘Get cozy’ translates into her providing the under-aged minor with alcoholic beverages. The authorities decided to simply look the other way on this minor felonious hitch. The teenager, 17-year-old Jessie Misskelley, was on Jerry Driver’s list of cult members. The local region’s irrationally-conceived cult hysteria was now evolving into an unpredictable, bizarre, police-endorsed clown act. Have I mentioned that this investigative crusade was being steered by a waitress? Okay, just checking.

At her insistence, young Jessie introduced the booze-mongering waitress to a friend, 18-year-old Damien Echols. Damien was the young man that Jerry Driver had proclaimed as the local cult leader. Yes, in Driver's view, Damien was clearly the oddest misfit teenager in the community.

Soon after being introduced to the 'cult leader', the waitress reported startling allegations to the local police. She claimed that Damien had driven her and Jessie to a nearby town to attend an ‘esbat’. An esbat is a gathering of witches. At this event, the waitress alleged that she had witnessed a drunken orgy. The local police enthusiastically documented her account of the ceremony.

There were just a few glaring flaws in the allegations described by the check-bouncing waitress. The most hilarious breach of logic was the fact that young Damien had never learned to operate a motor vehicle. The waitress was unaware of the fact that the teenager could not possibly have driven her, Jessie, or anybody else, anywhere. The alcoholic waitress later admitted that she was so intoxicated that evening, she had only a sparse recollection of whom she might have gone with, where she went, or if she was able to see anything once she arrived. The waitress did remember regaining consciousness the next morning, as she lay in her front yard. The police later discovered that she was unable to retrace her way back to the site of the alleged esbat. Nor was she able to identify any individuals who might have been in attendance. The waitress eventually admitted that she might have dreamed the entire episode, rather than actually experiencing it. Most important, the waitress admitted that, in addition to the $30,000 reward, her statements were motivated by promises from local investigators to assist with her various legal problems.

Regardless of the improbable tall tales from a marginally-coherent waitress, the police believed that they had ‘probable cause’ to haul Jessie Misskelley in for questioning. This time, Jessie was the 'lucky one' being tempted by the suggestion of a substantial monetary reward. The cash, of course, was mentioned ONLY as an incentive for statements that might facilitate the investigation. With no regard to parental consent, investigators badgered the teenager for 12 hours. Beyond all logic, no more than 20 minutes of these vital police interviews were recorded as an audio file. The rest was a jumbled mess of handwritten notes.

Of enormous importance, consider the fact that Jessie Misskelley is borderline retarded, …..with an IQ documented at 72. As an example of Jessie Misskelley's limitations, recall that 1993 was the year that saw Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton inaugurated as the 42nd U.S. President. Jessie admitted that he had never heard of the man.

For the majority of the 12 hours, Jessie insisted that he had no knowledge or involvement in the triple homicide. He repeatedly stated that he was unaware of any type of local cult, had never attended an esbat, and was completely clueless as to what goes on at an esbat. When presented with an opportunity to take a polygraph test, Jessie did not hesitate. Nor did he ask for his parents or an attorney to be present. Jessie passed the examination with flying colors.

You guessed it, ….contrary to every standard of decency and logic, the polygraph administrator, Officer Bill Durham, falsely boasted that “Jessie is lying his ass off.” The other investigators took that as a queue to bear down on their badgering tactics. Hours later, the professional tormentors (or should I say “unprofessional tormentors”?) ultimately broke the confused teenager’s will. Jessie foolishly attempted to simply give them the answers that they were demanding from him. He also sensed the possibility of gaining a substantial cash reward as an added bonus.

Unbeknownst to his parents, or an attorney who might have provided useful insights relative to the story he was fabricating, Jessie made statements that implicated Damien Echols, 16-year old Jason Baldwin, ….and himself. Jessie was not allowed to go home, as he had previously been promised. Instead, the bewildered teenager was unceremoniously escorted to a jail cell. His repeated efforts to recant his statements were all too late. Finally, the elusive satanic cult had been identified and verified! Triumphantly, the local police were soon announcing this extraordinary breakthrough to the media.

According to the Innocence Project website (refer to this article), about 25% of DNA exoneration cases involve innocent defendants who “made incriminating statements, delivered outright confessions or pled guilty. These cases show that confessions are not always prompted by internal knowledge of actual guilt, but are sometimes motivated by external influences.” If you wish to examine a couple of recent examples, look up the Freddy Peacock case out of Rochester, New York or the Robert Gonzales case out of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

An endless dissertation could be written at this point, focusing on all of the rambling inaccuracies associated with the coerced statements from a clearly retarded teenager. Defying logic, the investigators became angry and frustrated every time Jessie made a statement that they knew to be entirely false. When Jessie repeatedly referred to the murders taking place during the morning of May 5th, their exasperation reached a peak. Yes, the morning time frame was just an itsy-bitsy discrepancy, considering that all three victims were in school until 2:45 p.m. One of the victims, Christopher Byers, was last seen by his stepfather, closer to 6:00 p.m. The murders had to have occurred sometime between 90 minutes prior to sunset (sunset was 7:50 p.m.) and perhaps well after nightfall. Initial searches of the wooded area-where the bodies were found the next day began about 40 minutes after sundown.

The frustrated detectives badgered Jessie, gradually encouraging him to say that the murders may have occurred sometime after noon, rather than before noon. They eventually convinced him to say that the murders were committed closer to the evening, rather than the afternoon. In an attempt to ensure that Jessie’s confession timeline had a chance of holding water, the detectives ultimately pushed the teenager into saying, “Yes, it was dark.” Logic asks the question: “Is the young man so mentally challenged, he cannot tell light from dark?”

Jessie told the police that the boys were tied up with lengths of rope and raped by Damien and Jason. This further infuriated the detectives, who knew that the boys were tied up with shoestrings, which to most trial jurors, don’t look at all like lengths of rope. The accusation of rape was apparently due to countless rumors swarming throughout West Memphis, (recall the previously-mentioned police investigative leaks to the public). The medical examiner later testified that there was actually no physical evidence that the boys had been raped.

As Jessie’s ridiculously flawed confession continued to materialize, a customary investigative exercise would have been to walk the teenager through the crime scene. The investigators could have verified or refuted an assortment of Jessie’s vague statements by escorting him to the wooded area and asking for specific details. Where did each event occur? Where were the bodies placed? Where were the bicycles placed? The detectives decided not to run the risk of bringing a ‘successful’ confession into doubt. Unbelievable.

It would be quite an undertaking for anybody-let alone three misfit teenagers-to perpetrate such bloody human sacrifices, within the confines of a forest full of vegetation, fallen branches, and leaf litter, while casting off such an amazing LACK of blood or other biological evidence. Any experienced crime scene investigator would expect much more than the minimal residue of blood that was ultimately detected. Prosecutors alleged that the teens had simply done an amazingly meticulous job of cleaning up the crime scene. A widely embraced alternative solution to this riddle is that the creek in the woods was used strictly as a dumping area.

The homicides most likely took place at another crime scene. This distinct possibility raises more questions then it answers. How did the impoverished teenagers, with essentially no means of transportation, commit the murders, transport the bodies, discard the bodies, and clean up not one, but TWO crime scenes?

Months after the homicides, investigators returned to the forest and randomly collected large sticks that ‘seemed to fit’ as weapons used during the crime. Despite the absence of blood or any other physical evidence suggesting that these particular items had any vague connection to the crime, the court allowed prosecutors to proudly showcase them to the jury.

Somehow, the alleged cult managed to leave behind a nearly pristine, alleged human sacrifice scene, 100% devoid of their own hair, skin cells, biological fluids, or any other physical evidence. After immaculately covering their tracks, either Damien or Jason allegedly defied logic by carelessly tossing a vital evidence item, a knife, into the lake RIGHT NEXT TO THEIR HOMES! It is important to pause and emphasize that no form of analysis has ever linked this particular knife to the brutal attack on the three young victims. Why wouldn't such a meticulous killer choose to simply rinse the knife and toss it into a nearby muddy creek? This glaring flaw did not discourage prosecutors from waving the knife around in front of the jury, emphasizing WHERE it was found, and proclaiming it to be ‘consistent’ with the injuries on the bodies.

The prosecutors and the police have insisted that their sudden brainstorm to scour the nearby lake, months after the homicides, was kept quiet until Arkansas State Police divers had completed their search. This claim was contradicted by a front-page newspaper photo that surfaced the following day. The photo comically displayed a diver, neck deep in the lake, triumphantly holding the knife above his head. If all had been kept hush-hush, how did the newspaper staff become aware in time to capture this late-breaking lakeside photo?

It defies logic that the authorities would risk contacting the media BEFORE they had found anything. As bad as the investigation was going, the last thing the police needed was camera crews arriving at the lake, just in time to document yet another empty, wild goose chase. Along came the stunning coincidence. Just when the case looked so hopelessly circumstantial, Presto! A vital piece of evidence was revealed, instantly ready for a photo-op. It all worked out just peachy.

The prosecution eventually admitted that, at the time of Jessie Misskelley’s arrest in June of 1993, they had nothing more than the teenager’s confession and a rumor-driven cult panic. After many intense months of continued investigation, the prosecution had scarcely added any meat to their case. Jessie was found guilty anyway, and subsequently sentenced to life in prison. The words of a juror at the end of the trial was a profound representation of their baffling logic, ….and the man did not even realize what he was saying. The juror stated that he was not surprised that the defense attorney chose NOT to put Jessie Misskelley on the witness stand. “I think that prosecuting attorney could have tore him apart and made him say anything.” Just sit back, close your tired eyes, and allow the logic behind that revelation sink in for a moment. Again, the prosecution secured a conviction armed with little more than a confession from a retarded teenager.

When Jessie Misskelley insisted that he would NOT pursue a reduced sentence in exchange for his testimony at the Echols/Baldwin trial, the prosecutors began sweating bullets. During the several months leading up to the Echols/Baldwin trial, the prosecution was unable to produce any tangible proof that the homicides were even vaguely connected to satanic cults. With no confession from either Damien or Jason, their entire case was built chiefly upon wildly absurd, small town gossip.

Prior to the trial, prosecutors offered Jason Baldwin 40 years in prison in exchange for testifying against Damien Echols. Midway through the trial, they came back to Jason and sweetened that offer to 20 years. Jason maintained that both he and Damien were entirely innocent. He stated that he would not lie to the court, and implicate an innocent human being, even if they had decided to offer him his immediate freedom in exchange for his testimony. You won’t find character like this among any of the monsters who kill children.

The knife from the lake was a colossal hoax, but the jury bought it. The testimony from a jailhouse informant was an equally transparent, shameless scam, but the jury bought that too. The claim of a ‘fiber match’ was a joke-an enormous contradiction of logic. Did the jury seriously believe that Jason Baldwin put on his mother’s red bathrobe prior to attending a triple homicide? A so-called expert for the prosecution suggested that fibers, could have become associated with the victims due to ‘secondary transfer’. That expert would remain clueless about the dynamics of secondary transfer, even if a patch of it attached to a meteor that subsequently crashed into his living room. The police could have searched anyone’s home in West Memphis and found additional ‘similar fibers’. Such fibers are abundantly present throughout the clothing sections of Walmart, K-Mart, and the like.

The jury earnestly soaked up the dull ramblings of the prosecution’s so-called occult expert. This quack came to the trial armed with a mail-order Ph.D. from a college degree 'warehouse' that was subsequently shut down for their fraudulent practices. The man offered virtually nothing of scientific value on the witness stand. In spite of all of this, the two teenagers were found guilty. Jason was sentenced to life in prison. Damien was sentenced to death.

Remember the guy, Jerry Driver, you know, the ‘driving’ force behind the satanic cult/human sacrifice theory of the homicide? In March of 1997, Driver resigned from the Crittenden County Juvenile Probation Office as a consequence of the mysterious disappearance of $30,000, funds which belonged to the county. Three years later, Driver pleaded no contest to the theft. Ironically, he never spent a day in jail, and was simply ordered to repay the missing funds at a rate of $241 per month.

In 2007, evidence from the West Memphis crime scene was finally tested using modern day, STR-based DNA typing methods. None of the DNA data showed consistency with Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, or Jessie Misskelley. A hair, consistent with Terry Hobbs, stepfather to Stevie Branch, was found in one of the knots used tie up the boys. John Fogleman, the prosecutor in the case has been quoted as follows: “They found a hair that belonged to a stepfather of one of the boys and another belonging to a friend of that stepfather. But what is really unusual about finding a hair from a stepfather on his stepson? I would think that would be something expected.”

Was Mr. Folgleman ever right about ANYTHING associated with this case? Dear Mr. Fogleman: The hair, revealing consistency to Hobbs, was weaved into the binding used to tie up a DIFFERENT CHILD, ..... Michael Moore, …..NOT Stevie Branch! What is the state of Arkansas’ stance on how the hair came to be associated with the WRONG boy?

The first ever DNA-based exoneration occurred in January, 1989. David Vasquez, a borderline retarded man, was accused of sexually assaulting and murdering a Virginia woman. Two witnesses placed Vasquez near the victim's home on the day of the crime. Vasquez had no alibi. After four years of wrongful imprisonment, DNA tests from three laboratories implicated Timothy Spencer as the rapist/killer. Ironically, Spencer became the first person executed after being convicted by DNA testing.

The first recorded DNA-based exoneration of a Death Row inmate occurred in December, 1993 in the state of Maryland. On July 25, 1984, a 9-year-old girl was found dead in a wooded area. She had been beaten with a rock, sexually assaulted, and strangled. An anonymous caller and various witnesses claimed they had seen Kirk Bloodsworth with the little girl on the day of the crime. Bloodsworth had told friends that he had done "something terrible" that day that would affect his marriage. In his first police interrogation, Bloodsworth mentioned a "bloody rock," even though the police had not revealed the nature of the murder weapon.

After the conviction, Bloodsworth's attorneys filed an appeal contending that their client mentioned the bloody rock ONLY because the police happened to have a bloody rock sitting on the table next to their suspect during the initial interrogation. Defense attorneys also pointed out that the "terrible" thing Bloodsworth mentioned to his friends was that he had failed to make good on his promise to buy his wife a taco salad. A Baltimore County judge sentenced Bloodsworth to death. After eight years in prison, DNA testing gave Kirk Bloodsworth his place in history-the first exonerated Death Row inmate.

Fraudulent Conviction
Reversed in Colorado

This Colorado case exhibits remarkable similarities to the West Memphis story (see article above: The Mid-American Witch Hunt). In both cases, the suspect(s) are teenagers, who were convicted and sentenced to life in prison, or handed the death penalty. Both crimes are homicides involving mutilation with a knife or scalpel, with attention to the genitalia. Prosecutorial strategies in both Colorado and Arkansas included a profound reliance on circumstantial evidence. Virtually no physical evidence linked any of the defendant(s) to the victims or to the crime scene. Instead, law enforcement investigators were more preoccuped, in both cases, on the defiant, misfit, or free-spirited tendencies of each teenage suspect. Just a few years prior to both homicide cases, was perhaps the most famous case of a defiant, satanic, misfit serial killer, The Night Stalker: Richard Ramirez.

The case: In Fort Collins, Colorado, a passing bicyclist discovered the sexually mutilated body of Peggy Hettrick. The woman’s body was near the home of 15-year-old Tim Masters. Since February 12, 1987 – the day after the killing – Masters insisted that he did not commit the crime. When police found gruesome sketches that had been drawn by Masters, they focused the next several years of their investigative efforts upon the teenager. In 1999, twelve years after Hettrick’s death, these efforts finally saw Masters convicted of the homicide and sentenced to life in prison. This was despite the fact that no physical evidence was ever found that tied Masters to the crime. I'm surprised that the authorities did not simply execute the 15-year-old boy on the spot-the minute they discovered the ghastly sketches. Who needs physical evidence anyway?

In 1995, eight years after the homicide and four years prior to the Masters conviction, Fort Collins police investigated Dr. Richard Hammond, a 44-year-old eye surgeon. In Dr. Hammond’s home, they found sophisticated cameras and an enormous collection of pornography. At the doctor’s home, as well as at his medical office, police found countless homemade videos. These videos included precisely detailed shots zooming into the vaginal areas of females using the downstairs toilet in the Hammond home as well as the patient toilet at his medical office. The doctor was using carefully controlled, cleverly concealed cameras. His unsuspecting victims ranged from girls in their early teens to women in their forties. Other hidden cameras captured women's breasts as they stood at the restroom mirrors. Police also discovered a storage unit Dr. Hammond was renting that contained thousands of pornographic materials and containers filled with sex toys and jewelry. He also had a secret bank account and a secret apartment. Dr. Hammond was arrested on sexual-exploitation charges. Days later, the man committed suicide in a Denver hotel room using an IV drip filled with cyanide.

Although Dr. Hammond was often known to disappear for hours and he frequently left town on mysterious trips, his wife had no knowledge of her husband’s secret identity. His friends, stunned by the news of the doctor’s arrest, described him as extremely polite and professional. His partner and his colleagues, equally floored by the news, had always admired Hammond’s specialized expertise with a scalpel.

Detective Dave Mickelson of the Fort Collins Police Department was particularly alarmed by two facts. First, the Hammond home was located just 100 yards east of where Peggy Hettrick's body had been found eight years earlier. Second, the woman’s body had been skillfully carved up by her killer, with special focus on the intricate vaginal parts and the nipples of her breasts. These facts, taken together with Dr. Hammond’s obsession with female genitalia and breasts, and his surgical expertise, prompted Detective Mickelson to approach his superiors.

Despite pleas from the detective for a thorough investigation of Hammond as a suspect in the Hettrick homicide, his concerns were promptly dismissed. All of the evidence that was seized during the investigation was destroyed within six months after Dr. Hammond's arrest and subsequent suicide. Four years later, Tim Masters was tried and sent to prison for murder.

In a January 2008 news conference, Colorado special prosecutor, Don Quick, announced that a defense-commissioned DNA test pointed not to Tim Masters, but to an unknown male. The validity of the DNA test was supported by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Quick filed a motion citing four instances in which police and prosecutors should have provided evidence to Masters' original defense team. When Quick requested for the conviction to be vacated, Judge Joseph Weatherby promptly agreed. Tim Masters, at the age of 36, was released from prison.

Based on the clear instances of misconduct, Fort Collins District Attorney Larry Abrahamson has vowed to review all "contested convictions" in which advances in DNA testing may prove useful. Abrahamson also said that he has met with the Fort Collins police chief and his investigators to discuss the importance of information flow between law enforcement authorities, prosecutors, and counsel for the defense.

The fascinating William Dillon case was recently revisited on the May 23, 2010 edition of On the Case-with Paula Zahn.

On the morning of August 17, 1981, the body of James Dvorak was discovered in wooded area near Canova Beach, on Florida’s Atlantic coast. The body was nude and severely beaten.

Five days later, 22-year old William Dillon was sitting in a car with his brother when they were approached by law enforcement officers. William was petrified when one of the officers began questioning him about the recent homicide. The main cause for his case of nerves was the fact that he was hiding a smoldering marijuana cigarette in the palm of his hand. William was certain that the officer would detect the pungent, smoky odor and order him out of the car.

Although the Dvorak murder was widely reported in the media, the officers were suspicious of William’s awareness of the brutal crime. When William pointed and stated, “It happened right over there.” the officers believed they were on to something big. They DID order him out of the vehicle. Still nervous about the marijuana, William didn't mention that EVERYBODY in the community could clearly see the bright yellow police crime scene tape encircling the area.

The officers insisted upon William scheduling a visit to the police station ASAP in order to “provide a statement”. William readily agreed. More than anything else, he was agreeable with the officers FINALLY walking away without busting him for possession. Young William, unaware that he was being considered as a suspect, never showed up for his appointment at the police station. Why should he? He had NOTHING to do with the crime. Prosecutors eventually charged him for the homicide.

William took the stand in his own defense and testified that he was miles away from the beach at the time of the Dvorak homicide. Witnesses corroborated his alibi. After a five-day trial, William was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. The jury based their verdict predominantly on flimsy testimony provided by various unreliable sources. One key witness was John Preston, the handler for a scent-tracking dog. William Dillon spent 27 years, more than half of his life, in a Florida prison-until he was recently freed by DNA testing.

Just three months after William was sentenced in 1981, another local Florida man, Wilton Dedge, was convicted of a murder based on strikingly similar, shoddy testimonial evidence. The prosecution's case included testimony from the scent-tracking dog handler, John Preston. Like William Dillon, Dedge was a Florida Innocence Project client. He was exonerated by DNA testing in 2004 after serving 22 years in prison.

In recent years, John Preston’s qualifications have been subjected to careful scrutiny. By this time, Preston had participated in hundreds of scent-tracking cases, assisting with countless convictions. In 2008, when Preston’s dog failed an accuracy test, a Brevard County judge concluded that Preston was often being used by prosecutors “to confirm the state’s preconceived notions.” Dog scent identification has yet to be validated as a reliable source of scientific data.

September 18, 2009: The following text is quoted directly from an Innocence Project website article entitled:

“Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004. Willingham was convicted of murder in 1992 after his three young daughters died in a fire at his Corsicana, Texas, home.

The prosecution claimed he intentionally set fire to his home in order to kill his own children. Willingham, who was asleep in the home when the fire started, always said he was innocent. He was convicted based on the testimony of forensic experts who said the fire was intentionally set and a jailhouse informant who said Willingham had confessed to him.

In the days leading up to Willingham's execution, his attorneys sent the governor and the Board of Pardon and Parole a report from Gerald Hurst, a nationally recognized arson expert, saying that Willingham's conviction was based on erroneous forensic analysis. Documents obtained by the Innocence Project show that state officials received that report but apparently did not act on it.

Months after Willingham was executed, the Chicago Tribune published an investigative report that raised questions about the forensic analysis. The Innocence Project assembled five of the nation's leading independent arson experts to review the evidence in the case, and they issued a 48-page report finding that none of the scientific analysis used to convict Willingham was valid.

In 2006, the Innocence Project formally submitted the case to the Texas Forensic Science Commission, asking the empowered state entity to launch a full investigation. Along with the Willingham case, the Innocence Project submitted information about another arson case in Texas where identical evidence was used to send another man to death row. In that case, Ernest Willis was exonerated and freed from prison because the forensic evidence was not valid.

In 2008, the Texas Forensic Science Commission agreed to investigate the case. The commission hired renowned arson expert Craig Beyler to review all of the evidence in the case. In August 2009, Beyler submitted his report to the commission, finding that the forensic analysis used to convict Willingham was wrong - and that experts who testified at Willingham's trial should have known it was wrong at the time.

The state Forensic Science Commission is reviewing that report and has said it will issue a report with its conclusions on the case in 2010. Meanwhile, an investigative report in the September 7, 2009 issue of the New Yorker deconstructs every facet of the state's case against Willingham. The 16,000-word report by David Grann shows that all of the evidence used against Willingham was invalid, including the forensic analysis, the informant's testimony, other witness testimony and additional circumstantial evidence.

A Cesspool of Fraud in Mississippi

In 1992, Kennedy Brewer was convicted and sentenced to death in Noxubee County Mississippi. He was accused of raping and killing a 3-year-old girl. Levon Brooks, was sentenced to life in prison for a separate but similar crime, the rape and murder of another 3-year old child. The Noxubee County Sheriff flippantly stated that a possible DNA match could not be sought on either case due to Mississippi’s lack of a DNA database -- this revelation was news to Mississippi’s crime lab director.

Ten years passed before both men were cleared of any involvement in the crimes. The actual perpetrator, Albert Johnson, confessed to both homicides. To top it off, DNA evidence supported Johnson’s confession. Despite the confession and the new evidence, and in defiance of all common rationality, both men spent an additional 5 years awaiting retrial in local jails. This was due to the fact that Forrest Allgood, the Noxubee County prosecutor, was anxious to bring back his star witnesses, medical examiner Steven Hayne, and forensic odontologist Dr. Michael West.

For two decades, Hayne has been responsible for about 80% of the autopsies conducted in the state of Mississippi. On April 8, 2008, the Innocence Project and the Mississippi Innocence Project collaborated on a formal allegation calling for the revocation of Haynes license to continue practicing medicine. The 1000-page document cited evidence of misconduct and fraudulent testimony that has sent an undetermined number of innocent people to prison, and in some cases, death row.

By many accounts, Michael West is even worse than Hayne. His bite mark testimony has already been disproven by DNA in various instances other than the Brewer and Brooks cases. Consequently, West resigned from professional odontology groups in order to avoid sanctions and possible expulsion.

In an unprecedented move, under pressure from The Innocence Project, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood revoked the county’s prosecutorial authority and paved the way for the exonerations of Brewer (February 2008) and Brooks (March 2008). Speaking for The Innocence Project, Peter Neufeld stated, "In two decades of working on these cases, we have never seen a more stark and troubling example of a rush to judgment at the hands of notorious forensic analysts who conspired to commit fraud."

October 15, 2008: At age 33, Arthur Johnson was convicted by a Sunflower County Mississippi jury of a sexual assault he did not commit. After the jury ignored the testimony of several alibi witnesses, Judge Ashley Hines sentenced Johnson to 55 years in prison. The man had no criminal record, and there was no physical evidence tying him to the crime.

Emily Maw, Johnson’s Innocence Project Attorney, was stonewalled by Mississippi officials from 2005 to 2007, in response to her efforts to utilize modern DNA technology. In November 2007, results from the DNA analysis conclusively established Johnson’s innocence. Oblivious to all standards of common decency, Sunflower District Attorney Dewayne Richardson insisted upon further delays by pursuing a retrial.

When Mississippi officials were shamed into running the DNA results through the convicted offender DNA database, the truth was finally revealed. Sixteen years after Johnson’s wrongful conviction, the actual perpetrator was identified. Richardson had no choice but to drop all charges against the man he had persecuted 16 years ealier. It was too late. The guilty rapist was already serving time in a Colorado for a 2002 sexual assault. A woman in Colorado was brutalized as a consequence of the collaborative buffoonery of Mississippi officials and Mississippi jury members.

Arthur Johnson is the fourth Mississippi man exonerated by DNA evidence since 2006.

Sent to Death Row By a Dentist

Ray Krone, the man who came to be known as the “Snaggletooth Killer”, spent ten years in prison for a homicide he did not commit. The victim, a Phoenix cocktail waitress named Kim Ancona, had been stabbed eleven times and bitten on the neck and left breast. Krone had no criminal record. The totality of evidence against him was sparsely more than the fact that Krone and Ancona were socially acquainted. When Dr. Raymond Rawson, a forensic odontologist reported a match between Krone’s teeth and the bite marks on the deceased woman, Krone’s claims of innocence were ignored. In 1992, he was sentenced to death by an Arizona jury.

In 1996, Ray Krone was able to obtain a new trial. Dr. Rawson was every bit as dazzling in the second trial as he was in the 1992 fiasco. Once again, the jury embraced the prosecution’s weak circumstantial case. Defying all sensibility, they chose to ignore nine forensic odontologists who openly contradicted Dr. Rawson’s testimony. Superior Court Judge James McDougall sensed their misjudgment, reduced Krone’s death sentence to life imprisonment, and wrote the following: "The court is left with a residual or lingering doubt about the clear identity of the killer."

When the Phoenix police and the Maricopa County prosecutors were finally compelled into releasing the ten-year-old case evidence, DNA testing cleared Krone of any involvement in the crime. The wrongfully imprisoned “Snaggletooth Killer” was released from prison on April 8, 2002.

In a 2005 interview, Krone lamented, “….if it was just a series of mistakes, and these guys would have stood up and apologized, I think I could completely get over it. But that's not what happened. They grabbed me and then built a case out of nothing, and then they covered it up.” Freed by DNA, Ray Krone was awarded a multimillion dollar settlement from the city and the county for the wrongful imprisonment.

Nine Days Away from Execution

Earl Washington Jr. came within nine days of being executed for the rape and murder of 19-year-old Rebecca Williams, a crime he did not commit. Washington, a Virginia man with mental retardation, spent nearly 18 years in prison, including nine on death row, before DNA testing led to his exoneration on February 12, 2001.

March 6, 2009: In 1984, Joseph Fears Jr. was convicted of two sexual assaults in separate jury trials. He was labeled a sexual predator, with a judge noting that "his denial of guilt made it unlikely he would benefit from programs to lessen his chances of re-offending."

Fears spent over 25 years in an Ohio prison for crimes he could not have committed. Fourteen years ago, Fears began requesting DNA testing. Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien opposed it. Eventually, Fears was told that his case evidence was ‘missing’.

Would you be angry? After forfeiting the prime of his life, from age 35 to 61, Fears FINALLY became the 233rd person in the U.S. to be exonerated by DNA testing. Understandably furious, Fears lashed out, "My reaction to this is: I think it's a bunch of bull and this was a cover-up. Ron O'Brien doesn't deserve any credit. I first asked for a DNA test in 1995, and they never did anything. Then they tell me my evidence is gone." Although relieved that he has been released from prison, Fears will hire an attorney and pursue compensation from the state of Ohio.

Things started to turn around for Fears when Robert McClendon was released from an Ohio prison in August, 2008 after serving 18 years for a child rape that DNA testing showed the he didn't commit. Like the Fears case, McClendon's efforts to obtain DNA testing had been ignored for years. A recent evidence search ordered by Ron O’Brien uncovered microscope slides from one of Fears alleged rape victims. DNA from the slides didn't match the convict. Male DNA from the slides was used to conduct a search of the national DNA database-CODIS. The DNA type matched a deceased convict from Michigan-a man confirmed to be in Columbus, Ohio at the time of the sexual assault.

Underpants from the other alleged victim were also located. The state crime lab in Ohio didn't detect any male DNA on it. This finding was consistent with Fears contention that the woman fabricated the sexual assault in the first place.

February 6, 2009: Timothy Cole was a student at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. In 1985, he was arrested and accused of being a campus serial rapist. The young African-American man had virtually NO criminal record. Despite this fact, he was convicted largely on the testimony of ONE eye witness. In 1986, Cole was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The real rapist, Jerry Wayne Johnson, waited for the statute of limitations to toll in 1995 and began repeatedly writing his confessions to the courts. These communications were ignored by the judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officials who wrongfully obtained Cole’s conviction. Presumably, it would have been a bad career move to admit their errors-nearly a decade after the fact.

Finally, in 2007, a confession letter from Johnson reached Cole’s mother. It was too late. In 1999, Timothy Cole died in prison, the victim of an asthma attack. Recent DNA testing confirmed that Cole had told the truth all along. Once DNA proved Cole’s innocence, signs began to accumulate that the investigation was mishandled from the beginning. Witnesses to Cole's alibi were ignored. The lack of physical evidence tying him to the attack was also ignored. Incredibly, investigators ignored the comment from the rape victim that her attacker was “A chain smoker.” A chain smoking, asmatic suspect, ….sounds promising. Prosecutors and investigators developed tunnel vision and molded their case around poorly acquired accounts of events.

"The investigation goes from trying to solve a case to trying to make a case against an individual that the police have started to focus on," said Mike Ware, head of Dallas County's conviction integrity unit. Prior to a recent hearing designed to once-and-for-all clear Timothy Cole’s name, Cole’s family had yet to hear directly from any Lubbock County official, past or present. The Innocence Project’s Jeff Blackburn angrily commented before the hearing, "They're cowards."

January 9, 2009: Chaunte D. Ott, a 35-year old Milwaukee man, wrongfully accused of homicide, has been released from prison. This development came as a result of assistance provided by the Wisconsin Innocence Project, which began working on Ott’s case in 2000.

After serving over thirteen years of a life sentence, recent DNA tests have pointed to an unknown male assailant. In addition to the 1995 tragic death of the murder victim, 16 year-old Jessica Payne, the unknown murderer has apparently killed again, ….twice. In June 1997, the same male DNA found on Payne’s body was also recovered from 41 year-old Milwaukee homicide victim, Joyce Mims. In 2007, only a short distance away from the two previous homicides, blood from the same male perpetrator was found on the body of 30 year-old Ouithreaun Stokes.

Two of Ott’s associates, Richard Gwin and Sam Hadaway, testified against Ott. Gwin was murdered in 1997. Hadaway later recanted his testimony. None of the three men provided a DNA match to that which was found on Jessica Payne’s body.

December 28, 2008: The following is one of those cases that did not involve DNA testing, ...but was too intriguing to ignore: A Washington state appeals court recently erased James S. Anderson’s conviction for armed robbery. Despite the fact that Anderson was in California at the time of the robbery in question, he spent over four years behind bars for a crime he could not possibly have committed.

Anderson was arrested in July 2004. But he quickly proved his innocence. Records from California established that he met with his probation officer in Los Angeles on the day of the armed robbery. But Pierce County Washington officials soon accused Anderson of a different robbery – one occurring on a different date. Two other robbery suspects provided statements implicating Anderson. Both suspects received significant time off their own sentences for their gracious cooperation. Again, Anderson insisted that he could not have committed the crime-offering to provide California probation records verifying that he was nearly 1000 miles away.

The case went to trial in 2005, with Anderson acting as his own lawyer. Unfortunately, Anderson was not able to obtain his records from the probation department in Los Angeles County. The jury didn't believe his testimony and a judge sentenced Anderson to nearly 17 years in prison.

If not for the efforts of Boris Reznikov, a student working with the Innocence Project Northwest at the University of Washington Law School, Anderson might have remained in prison for untold years. Now a litigation attorney in Palo Alto, California, Reznikov said, "I remember reading about 700 pages of the court transcript and getting more and more mad. I was thinking, wow, every time James is in court he's telling the judge, he's telling the prosecutor, 'I was in L.A. I met with my probation officer.' All his attempts fell on deaf ears. The records were just never produced."

Reznikov called the probation office himself to see if Anderson had obeyed. A kindly man answered the phone and confirmed that Anderson had indeed met with his probation officer at 4:46 p.m. on April 7, 2004. The robbery occurred less than 12 hours later, nearly 1,000 miles away. Anderson had NOT taken any plane flights. Reznikov worked with the Innocence Project's director, Jacqueline McMurtrie, and a former student of hers, Seattle attorney Christopher R. Carney, to eventually overturn Anderson’s conviction. During his time in prison, Anderson missed his father’s funeral.

December 14, 2008: In 1993, a shotgun blast tore away half of Ricardo Rachell’s face. He survived, but was badly disfigured. In recent years, even worse atrocities have befallen Mr. Rachell. In 2003, he was wrongfully sentenced to 40 years in prison by a Houston jury. While Rachell was locked up for nearly six years, the real perpetrator roamed free-a man who had sexually assaulted an 8-year-old boy while threatening the child with a knife.

Harris County prosecutors ignored the fact that their key witnesses never mentioned or testified to a perpetrator with a severely disfigured face. They also ignored the fact that DNA evidence was readily available-evidence that could have immediately pointed to the fact that the real child molester was still on the loose. Defying all standards of decency, prosecutors also ignored the fact that a series of strikingly similar assaults on children continued AFTER RACHELL’S IMPRISONMENT. Like Ricardo Rachell, the REAL assailant was repeatedly seen travelling by bicycle in the same area of Houston.

When the sexual assault kit from the 8-year old boy, collected in October 2002, was FINALLY tested, the DNA results proved Ricardo Rachell’s innocence and lead to his release from prison. Harris County prosecutors have reported that the serial child molester is now in custody, but have not provided his identity to the media.

December 5, 2008: Darrell Edwards, 44, has been in a New Jersey prison since he was 31-years-old. A key evidence item-a sweatshirt-was collected from the scene of the homicide. However, testing on that item has recently revealed DNA originating from an unknown male, NOT from Darrell Edwards. In addition to that, a witness who previously claimed that she got a clear look at the killer, has now recanted her testimony. To further solidify her absence of credibility, the witness also mentioned a minor detail-that she was high on heroine at the time of the incident. The Innocence Project intends to continue working with the court to scrutize this case.

November 25, 2008: In 1985, 16-year-old Kimberly Simon’s body was found near the Mohawk River in Whitestown, New York. The high school girl was sexually assaulted and murdered. Four years later, 23-year-old Steven Barnes was convicted of the crime by a jury in Oneida County.

Just prior to Thanksgiving 2008, Barnes was released from prison. This occurred nearly 20 years after Barnes was wrongfully convicted for the crime. A client of the Innocence Project since 1993, Barnes was released as a consequence of modern DNA testing. Eyewitness testimony at the homicide trial was shaky, but forensic testimony linked him to the crime scene. The questionable forensic evidence included an alleged ‘soil match’ from the tires on Barnes’ truck. Additional flawed testimony linked a fabric imprint, allegedly matching the victim, to a similar pattern found on the truck.

Analysis of fabric patterns and comparison of soil have not been tested to determine their scientific validity; as a result, it is impossible to know how many other soil samples might be similar to soil from the crime scene or the likelihood that other clothing items have the same fabric pattern. In New York, 23 people have been exonerated through DNA testing, and 10 of those wrongful convictions involved invalid or improper forensic science.

“Unvalidated and exaggerated science convicted Steven Barnes and cost him nearly two decades, but real science finally secured his freedom,” said Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project. Renewed efforts are underway to identify Kimberly Simon's actual killer.

November 13, 2008: Perhaps you noticed the sudden jump in DNA-based exonerations from 221 to 227. Rather than a flurry of activity from the Innocence Project, the rescue of six innocent individuals involved reinvestigation of one case, yes ONE CASE, spearheaded by the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office. Good for them. This case sets a new national record for the number of wrongfully-convicted people cleared by DNA, ....in one case. In 1989, Joseph "Lobo" White, Thomas Winslow, Ada JoAnn Taylor, Deb Shelden, Kathy Gonzalez and James Dean were all wrongfully imprisoned for a 1985 rape/homicide that occurred in Beatrice, Nebraska. The victim was a 68-year old woman named Helen Wilson.

This 'mass exoneration' begs the question: How could six people be wrongfully convicted, including five who pleaded either guilty or no contest to parts of the crime?

The initial investigation went cold and wasn't revived until 1987, when a former Beatrice police officer, Bert Searcey, came forward with confidential informants. Searcey was hired by the Gage County Sheriff's Office and took over the investigation, focusing on White, Taylor, and a group of friends who consumed drugs and alcohol together. Investigators relied on idiotic, recklessly-conceived interview tactics centering on witnesses whose foggy memories were haunted by chronic substance abuse and psychiatric problems. As the interviews spawned a growing number of alleged perpetrators, more and more inconsistencies needed to be ignored. Glaring examples were as follows:

• How did seven people (including the victim) squeeze into her tiny residence without any outside bystanders hearing or noticing them?

• Why would any perpetrator of a sexual assault bring along ‘five friends’ to witness his crime?

• If robbery was a motive, as was alleged by the investigators, how did all six suspects overlook the victim's purse sitting in plain sight on a kitchen stool? The purse just happened to contain $1,300!

Recent DNA tests identified the real killer as Bruce Smith, a drifter from Oklahoma City, who has been walking free for 23 years. The DNA evidence showed no indication that any of the six exonerated individuals were ever at the crime scene.

October 8, 2008: A jury in El Paso, Texas found Jose Lorenzo Esparza guilty of the August 2006 beating death of Maria Porras. As part of the same incident, the defendant was also found guilty of attempted murder for the severe beating of Ruben Munoz. The sentence that was subsequently handed down was life in prison, plus 20 additional years, to be served concurrently.

Aside from the verdict, one of the issues associated with this trial was the DNA recovered from the handle of a lug wrench - alleged as the possible murder weapon. The Texas DPS crime lab in El Paso reported at least three unknown DNA profiles on the wrench handle. The crime lab also reported that Jose Esparza could not be excluded as a contributor to the DNA mixture on the wrench. The lab went one step further by estimating the following: Supposing 250 randomly selected individuals were tested for DNA, the lab would predict only ONE individual to be consistent with the DNA mixture, whereas 249 people would be excluded.

After the crime lab testimony, the defense called their own DNA expert to the witness stand. Their witness was Dr. Michael Spence, a consultant with Spence Forensic Resources of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Dr. Spence testified that the DNA mixture on the lug wrench was far too complex to be suitable for interpretation or statistical estimates. Spence drew no further conclusions.

According to the 10/8/08 article in the Las Cruces Sun News, “They (counsel for the defense) asked why Esparza’s DNA was not on the lug wrench if he committed the crime.” In an interesting reversal of the prosecution’s stance, the Sun News reported that counsel for the prosecution “….later responded that DNA wouldn’t have been transferred if the person wielding the wrench wasn’t injured.”

The prosecutor’s statement begs a few intriguing questions. First, what happened to the crime lab’s decision NOT to exclude Esparza, …..with a theoretical 249 out of 250 random individuals expected to be excluded? Second, is it really true that DNA CANNOT be deposited on an item, just by handling the item? If so, …..this is news to all of the forensic biologists residing on planet earth. Perhaps the prosecutor needs to brush up on her knowledge of forensic biology. Third, what about the mixture of at least three unknown DNA profiles recovered from the handle of the wrench? Did all of those people injury themselves and bleed on the handle? If so, did the Texas DPS-El Paso forensic biologist observe blood on the handle? Did the analyst even conduct a test for blood on the handle? The Texas DPS analyst testified to no visual observation of blood, ….and consequently conducted no such diagnostic test on the item.

Read the long, twisted story centering on Brandon Moon, of El Paso, Texas. The man was wrongfully incarcerated 1987-2004. Faulty forensic biology testing, misinterpretation of the facts, and flawed testimony--Texas DPS Crime Labs in El Paso, Texas and Lubbock, Texas.

September 22, 2008:Read an article focusing on the 20th DNA-based exoneration out of Dallas County, Texas. The article was authored by none other than Kirk Bloodsworth, the first ever Death Row inmate to be wrongfully imprisoned-and later released by DNA.

September 3, 2008: The primary focus of “This Just In” is DNA. Although the Ted White story does not involve DNA, this tale of corruption is too compelling to ignore. Readers will find themselves asking, “Where WAS the DNA evidence?”, or perhaps “Upon WHAT did the prosecution build their case?”

A jury in Lee’s Summit, Missouri recently awarded Theodore W. White Jr. $16 million in damages for his wrongful conviction and imprisonment. The case is a glaring example of how our system of Law Enforcement and Justice is often susceptible to a momentous crash-and-burn. White’s attorney, Sean O’Brien, stated, “This case highlights what can happen when crucial evidence is withheld from a defendant.”

Ted White, a successful Missouri businessman, was suffering through a difficult divorce. Out of nowhere, Tina White accused him of molesting her biological daughter, Ted’s adopted child. To his shock, Ted was charged with the crime. What Ted didn’t know was that during the early stages of the investigation, the officer in charge of the case, Richard McKinley, became romantically involved with Tina White.

Despite the flimsy case against him, Ted was convicted of child molestation in 1999. He fled to Costa Rica and was featured on “America’s Most Wanted”. Once captured, Ted was brutally beaten by law enforcement officers and extradited back to Missouri.

After spending five years in a Missouri prison, Mr. White was granted a re-trial. His second jury favored his acquittal 11 to 1. ONE holdout juror!

When a THIRD jury heard the case, several members of the second jury were in attendance of the proceedings in an unusual show of support for the accused. An astounding series of truths was provided to the third jury.

Not only did the investigating officer become involved with Tina White, former prosecutors were aware of this fact-and decided that it was not important enough to disclose to the defense!

While Ted suffered in a Missouri prison, Tina White became Tina McKinley when she MARRIED the investigator of the ridiculous child molestation claims.

The truth goes from profound to outrageous. In a stunning development, it was revealed that Richard McKinley had read the diary of the alleged victim, Ted White’s adopted daughter. The investigator didn’t seize this evidence. Nor did he share it with the prosecution, ....and of course, NOT with the defense. No, the vital record of the child’s life--during the time frame of the alleged crime--mysteriously vanished!

On August 29, 2008 husband and wife were convicted of conspiracy. Richard and Tina McKinley conspired to fabricate charges of child molestation. In the process, they violated Ted White’s right to a fair trial. It took ten years to reveal the malicious scheme. Unfortunately, this scheme will now cost law-abiding taxpayers an enormous financial penalty.

Twisted Logic In Montana

Late one night in 1987, a man entered the bedroom of an 8-year-old Montana girl. The intruder raped the girl. Arnold Melnikoff, the manager of the Montana State Crime Lab, convinced a jury that hairs taken from the crime scene were a “1 in 10,000 match” to Jimmy Ray Bromgard. This statistical statement was pulled out thin air. In 2002, after spending 15 years in prison, Bromgard was exonerated by DNA tests showing that he could not have been the man who assaulted the young girl.

Bromgard’s legal counsel filed a civil suit demanding restitution for Bromgard’s wrongful conviction and imprisonment. In opposition to the law suit, Montana’s Attorney General, Mike McGrath, provided a deposition that affirmed his continued belief in Bromgard’s guilt.

McGrath is a leading candidate in the race for Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court. In addition to the irrefutable DNA evidence favoring the innocence of Jimmy Ray Bromgard, McGrath was confronted with the child’s testimony that she was attacked by only one, not two men. Devoid of all rationality, the attorney general stumbled through his explanation of several possibilities. He pointed out that the 8-year-old girl may have been sexually active with someone other than the intruder. He then proposed that perhaps the child’s 11-year sister may have been sexually active and that the two sisters may have shared underpants. Lastly, McGrath explored the possibility that the child’s father or another family member may have had sexual contact with the child prior to the appearance of the intruder.

According to Edward Blake, the forensic biologist who performed the DNA typing that exonerated Bromgard, “Any college-educated individual who has had a high school biology class should be able to look at my report and see . . . that it is scientifically not possible for that sperm to be from the father of that girl.”

The victim's father accused McGrath of making "reckless statements that will cause more harm to the victim and her family. . . . Needless to say, we are deeply offended by his remarks. Deeply offended."

Peter Neufeld, an attorney for Bromgard who questioned McGrath at the deposition, characterized McGrath's answers as "the most remote, absurd, speculative theories to explain evidence that otherwise . . . exonerates Mr. Bromgard."

Ronald Singer, director of the Tarrant County, Texas, medical examiner's crime lab and former president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, said, "To even insinuate that an 8-year-old is sexually active is kind of extreme. . . . I find it amazing."

It is important to remember that the only physical evidence linking Bromgard to the crime scene came as a result of Arnold Melnikoff’s erroneous testimony regarding the hairs. Lawyers for Bromgard have requested a review and retesting of evidence in numerous additional cases involving Melnikoff. As a consequence of this, two other convictions have thus far been overturned in Montana.

In light of these developments, the Washington State Patrol, Melnikoff’s employer in 2006, opted to fire him. When an official with the Montana State Crime Lab’s quality assurance office asked Attorney General Mike McGrath to reinvestigate an additional 244 of Melnikoff’s cases, he refused and focused on only eight cases. McGrath justified this decision by referring to the “expensive, tedious process” of a deeper inquiry.

24 Years in Prison:

an Unusual Case of Mistaken Identity

In February, 1981 a woman accused 16-year-old Michael Williams of breaking into her home, beating her, and raping her three times. Three months later, a Louisiana jury spent less than an hour to decide the fate of the accused. He was sentenced to life without parole in a hard labor prison facility. During his twenty-four-years in the atrocious prison, Williams was stabbed on sixteen separate occasions.

In March, 2005, three independent DNA labs reached the same conclusions. The state of Louisiana had imprisoned the wrong man.

While mistaken identification is a common cause of wrongful imprisonment -- playing a role in about 80% of the convictions overturned by DNA testing - the Williams case provided a unique twist. The victim actually knew the accused. When Mike Williams was expelled from high school in late 1980, his eventual accuser began tutoring him in math. Although their tutoring sessions spanned only a few weeks, the victim's family had known Williams since he was a baby.

MOST FASCINATING CRIMINAL CASES

Fraudulent Conviction
Reversed in Colorado

A Cesspool of Fraud in Mississippi

Sent to Death Row By a Dentist

Nine Days Away from Execution

Twisted Logic In Montana

24 Years in Prison:

an Unusual Case of Mistaken Identity