Unsolved homicides that haunt me…
Posted in Cold Cases in the News, Forensics, Miscarriages of Justice
He spent half of his life in prison for a rape and robbery he did not commit. But last Friday, at the age of 39, Allen Porter is finally a free man. Porter’s case stemmed from a robbery and sexual assault at an apartment in southwest Houston on June 18, 1990. Three masked robbers burst [...]
Posted in Forensics, Miscarriages of Justice, Vidocq Unscripted...
A Texas state board said last Friday that arson investigators in the Willingham case used flawed science but were not negligent in an investigation that led to a controversial 2004 execution. The panel also said that investigators did not commit misconduct. Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004, 13 years after a fire killed his [...]
Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for a fire that killed his three daughters. Prosecutors argued that Willingham deliberately set the 1991 blaze — but three reviews of the evidence by outside experts have found the fire should not have been ruled arson. The last of those reports was ordered by the Texas Forensic [...]
Posted in Cold Cases in the News, Forensics, Lapointe, Miscarriages of Justice, Unsolved Homicides
Questions about how long a fire burned at Mrs. Martin’s apartment and possibly tainted DNA evidence on a pair of gloves found at the crime scene were brought up last Thursday during a hearing for Richard Lapointe. Mrs. Bernice Martin was raped, stabbed and strangled in her apartment in Manchester on March 8, 1987. Lapointe was convicted [...]
LOUISVILLE, KY - After 11 years in prison before being paroled in 1994 for being convicted of rape and other charges in 1982, Michael VonAllmen’s record is now clear. On July 15, 2010, a judge finally ruled to dismiss all charges with prejudice, which means the charges can never be brought back. “I think this is a [...]
Posted in Cold Cases in the News, Forensics, Lapointe, Miscarriages of Justice, Unsolved Homicides
Lisa Black and Steve Mills of the Chicago Tribune have written an excellent piece about what makes people confess falsely. False confessions are not so uncommon as you would think. I understand that right now you shake your head and question Vidocq’s sanity…justifiably so! Why would a parent confess to raping their own three year old [...]
Posted in Forensics, Lapointe, Miscarriages of Justice, Unsolved Homicides
Christopher Cosgrove, Lapointe’s public defender during the criminal trial, and Henry Theodore Vogt, who sought a new trial for Lapointe in the late 1990s, testified during the latest hearing seeking a new trial for Lapointe. Paul Casteleiro, Lapointe’s current lawyer, focused on what Cosgrove and Vogt didn’t do when they handled the case in court. [...]
Posted in Forensics, Lapointe, Miscarriages of Justice, Unsolved Homicides
During direct examination on Tuesday, Lapointe’s attorney, Paul Casteleiro, suggested that in his quest for a confession, Detective Morrissey overlooked inconsistencies in Lapointe’s admission to Morrissey and failed to ask important questions. In his confession, Lapointe said he had strangled 88-year-old Bernice Martin with his hands, but the medical examiner determined she had been strangled [...]
Posted in Forensics, Lapointe, Miscarriages of Justice, Unsolved Homicides
Tomorrow, Richard Lapointe’s Habeas hearing will resume for three more days in the Rockville Superior Court. Lapointe was convicted for the 1987 murder of Mrs. Bernice Martin, his then-wife’s 88-year-old grandmother. He was sentenced to life without parole. After the Connecticut Supreme Court upheld his conviction, his lawyer filed a petition for a writ of Habeas Corpus that, if granted, [...]
Posted in Cold Cases in the News, Forensics, Miscarriages of Justice, Unsolved Homicides
Forty years after he was convicted of murder, Arthur Allan Thomas’ ex-wife Vivien has spoken out for the first time about New Zealand’s most baffling murder mystery. She has requested Justice Minister Simon Power to consider re-opening the 1970 cold case. The case inspired the 1980 movie “Beyond Reasonable Doubt.” Author David Yallop wrote a book about this case. In 1970, [...]