Unsolved homicides that haunt me…
Posted in Cold Cases in the News, Forensics, Help the Cops!
Kansas City police announced today that they are reopening the investigation into the 40-year-old killing of Civil Rights and political leader Leon Jordan. In a news release, police said that they “have located the weapon used in the murder and partial fingerprints taken from the weapon and cars around the crime scene. The fingerprints were [...]
Toronto homicide detectives believe a north Scarborough home is where a reputed gangster was killed before his body was encased in a cement-filled barrel and dumped in Lake Ontario. Police showed up with a search warrant late Monday at 12 Shallowford Ct. to look for evidence in the case of Quang Lu, 47. They are working [...]
Posted in Unsolved Homicides
One of the strangest cases that I worked on is the unsolved homicide of Mr. McHenry Biggers. Nothing in the file makes sense. The people we spoke to did not make sense. What we found out did not make sense either. That is, what we were able to find. This is, alas, one of those [...]
Posted in Forensics
The Houston Chronicle has an interesting article related to the Skinner case. It discusses that the United States Supreme Court (USSC) will have to consider whether inmates’ requests for DNA testing can be considered as civil rights claims — a question that has split the nation’s top federal courts. The USSC on Thursday stayed Skinner’s [...]
Posted in Miscarriages of Justice, Miscellaneous
Great news from the Innocence Blog: “Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr., announced that he is setting up a Conviction Integrity Unit to re-examine closed cases where claims of innocence have been made and to establish standard procedures for new cases to prevent wrongful convictions. The unit will consist of three components: a Conviction Integrity [...]
All police agencies had a deadline: By January next year, they must submit criminal fingerprints electronically to the state. Problem is, most small police agencies don’t have the equipment necessary to do that. Not only does it cost about $30,000 but software and training costs would make the switch prohibitive, a budget-buster. “That’s more than a [...]
Enrique Ramos slipped a long piece of packing tape into a bowl of purple dye, swished it around and then held it up to a light, looking for fingerprints.”They use this tape for packaging drugs or for tying you up before they put a bullet in your head,” he told a group of forensic science [...]
Today, Innocence Project’s client Freddie Peacock became the 250th person exonerated through DNA evidence in the United States of America. Peacock was convicted in New York in 1976 of a rape he didn’t commit based on an eyewitness misidentification and a false confession that police claimed he made during an interrogation. Peacock, who has severe [...]
For those interested in the Texas Forensic Science Commission, check out the meeting notes and information at this blog: Grits for Breakfast, a blog that looks at the Texas Criminal Justice System, with a little politics and whatever else suits the author’s fancy thrown in. The meeting’s agenda can be found here and as you can [...]
Past Wednesday, defense attorney Kathleen Cannon accused Vista-based prosecutors of repeatedly withholding evidence that could favor accused criminals, an action that could potentially jeopardize a defendant’s right to a fair trial. Cannon argued to Superior Court Judge Harry Elias that there has been “a continuing pattern of failure” by prosecutors to supply evidence that could be important to [...]