Defrosting Cold Cases

He finally did it! Illinois Governor Pat Quinn abolished capital punishment in the state of Illinois! Quinn also commuted the sentences of all 15 inmates remaining on Illinois’ death row. They will now serve life in prison. From the Washington Post: “State lawmakers voted in January to abandon capital punishment, and Quinn spent two months [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Capital Punishment, Death Row, DNA, Evidence, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Illinois, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Wrongful Convictions

Justice Ginsburg, writing for the majority, said prison inmates may use a federal civil rights law to seek DNA testing that was not performed before their conviction. Lower federal courts had dismissed Skinner’s claims at an early stage, although other federal judges have allowed similar lawsuits to go forward in other parts of the country. [...]

Tags: Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Death Row, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Henry Skinner, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Rape kits, Texas, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Zeigler’s lawyers, arguing for more DNA testing, asked the court for a continuance of the scheduled February 3rd hearing. A former forensic expert is no longer available. “The new expert, Timothy Palmbach, works with blood spatter evidence an does forensic analysis work. But Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton, another veteran [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Ballistics, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, FBI, Finger Printing, Florida, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Partial Finger Printing, Penn State, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, William Thomas Zeigler, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

The significance of the Jellison Tape Is it evidence? Is it exonerating? Is it implicating? The tape’s conversation has been posted in full so I refer you to the previous post to read it. As you know, it was suppressed by the state for about twelve years. Why? Because of what Jon Jellison saw and the [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Ballistics, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Death Row, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, FBI, Finger Printing, Florida, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, Investigations Division, Jellison Tape, Miscarriage of Justice, Partial Finger Printing, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Victim, William Thomas Zeigler, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

This afternoon the Illinois Senate joined the Illinois House or Representatives in voting to abolish the death penalty.  The vote was 32 in favor, 25  against, with 2 abstentions. The measure passed the House last week. Sponsoring Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, urged his colleagues to “join the civilized world” and end the death penalty in Illinois. Raoul [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Capital Punishment, Death Row, Evidence, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Illinois, Miscarriage of Justice, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

More fire experts have ruled the Willingham fire accidental instead of arson. As you will recall, Willingham was executed by the state of Texas for the murder of his little girls who died in the fire. Here are links to some articles I found today: CNN,  the Dallas News, and the Star-Telegram. Since I have written [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Cameron Todd Willingham, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Texas, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

In my previous post “Zeigler, Part XVI“, I referred to the Jellison tape that was conveniently kept from the defense team. It was only recovered in April of 1987, when Zeigler’s lawyers made a Florida Public Records Act request for the files of the State Attorney in Orlando. That’s when they discovered (aside from the “Buried Thompson report”) [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Ballistics, Capital Punishment, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Death Row, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, FBI, Finger Printing, Florida, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, William Thomas Zeigler, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

On misplaced pride, loyalty, and sacrifice On Nov 4, 2010, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley (a.k.a. the Memphis Three) will get their cases reviewed in a lower court hearing to see whether they should be granted a new trial. This means that they will be able to [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Ballistics, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Death Row, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, FBI, Finger Printing, Florida, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, Investigations Division, Judicial Misconduct, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, William Thomas Zeigler, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

“Just testify that you were Zeigler’s homosexual lover and we’ll help you out!” A Florida, Orange County woman in her 80′s, reads an affidavit that she signed alleging that the state tried to get her son to testify that he was William Thomas Zeigler’s homosexual lover. As you know, the state went through great lengths to prove [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Ballistics, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Florida, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Perjury, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Victim, William Thomas Zeigler, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

The Orlando Sentinel reports that an Orange Circuit Judge has granted long-time death row inmate Tommy Zeigler an evidentiary hearing more than a year after the man convicted of killing his in-laws, his wife, and another man on Christmas Eve 1975 filed a Petition_and_Proposed_Order[1] in his case. The order granting an evidentiary hearing appeared on the [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Ballistics, Capital Punishment, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Death Row, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Faulty Evidence, Finger Printing, Florida, Forensics, Gun Fire, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Victim, William Thomas Zeigler, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions