Defrosting Cold Cases

Recap #crimechat April 4, 2013 Today we spoke about wrongful convictions with Nancy Petro. A short introduction to wrongful convictions started this crimechat. How do we find out about Wrongful Convictions in general? A: We discover that the victim is alive & well. Examples: India 2003, the Reena Devi case. Reena disappeared, her mother ID-ed her [...]

Sum it Up! #40 There are a few cases that I am watching: The Italian Supreme Court heard arguments today re Amanda Knox. The story on CNN is here. The issue of extradition will most likely fail since the US Constitution prohibits that someone faces another prosecution on substantially the same charges (double jeopardy). Note [...]

The case of Eddie Gilfoyle is anything but straightforward or clear cut. His pregnant wife’s estimated time of dead occurred hours before she was found. In that time period, Eddie was at work. Paula was portrait as a happily expecting first time mom while she had a history of a suicide attempt and on no [...]

Based on a fingerprint misidentification, Lana Canen spent eight years in prison for a murder she did not commit. But now, she has finally been exonerated of Helen Sailor’s 2002 murder. From the Wrongful Convictions Blog: “On Thanksgiving 2002, Helen Sailor, an elderly woman living in Elkhart, Indiana, was found dead in her apartment. Because her [...]

On November 13, 2012, Judge Whitehead denied the motion to vacate judgment of conviction and sentence based on newly discovered evidence in the case of William Thomas Zeigler. Judge Whitehead’s decision is below.                                

The Connecticut Appellate Court ordered a new trial for Richard Lapointe! From the Hartford Courant: “In a stunning decision, the state Appellate Court Monday ordered a new trial for Richard Lapointe, a mentally disabled dishwasher convicted of a murder a quarter century ago, concluding that state prosecutors wrongly withheld a police report that tends to [...]

For decades, rumours circulated that it had to be Norma Demler who fed Rochelle Crewe in the time period between her parents’ murders and her being officially found in 1970. The fact that Norma was Len Demler’s second wife and a very closed, reserved woman, who refused to talk about the Crewe Murders, only added [...]

I just found this on the clerk’s website: OTHER EVENTS AND HEARINGS 09/04/2012 Deposition Hearing 08/30/2012 Case Management Conference  (1:30 PM) (Judicial Officer Whitehead, Reginald K) Case Management Conference 08/17/2012 Correspondence / Rec’d from Judge I will post details as soon as I have spoken to the defense team! UPDATE: I contacted the defense team. They [...]

Last Thursday, the Zeigler defense team was back in court to ask Judge Whitehead for an evidentiary hearing to explore the latest developments in the case of William Thomas Zeigler, who remains on death row in Florida. Of course, at issue were the false arrest report and the legal consequences for the case. From the Orlando [...]

Who left his DNA behind: Richard A. Lapointe or Frederick Rodney Merrill? We have new developments that could shed a light on the case of Bernice Martin and could once and for all clear up who left his DNA. We already know it wasn’t Lapointe. The Connecticut State Board of Pardons and Paroles decided last week to grant [...]