Defrosting Cold Cases

The Hartford Courant reported what I had feared since last year: Richard Lapointe’s Habeas Petition was denied. “Superior Court Judge John J. Nazzaro, in a 51-page ruling issued late Friday, turned back arguments that prosecutors had withheld material evidence, that Lapointe’s trial and appellate lawyers were incompetent, and that new evidence proved Lapointe was innocent. [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Bernice Martin, Connecticut, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Partial Finger Printing, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Rape kits, Richard A. Lapointe, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

I raise my glass to possibilities! We have an exciting year ahead of us. For the first time in history, the Zeigler case will be open to students from Penn State CSI and I look forward to hearing their discussions. This collaboration between Penn State CSI, Defrosting Cold Cases, and the Zeigler legal defense team is exclusive [...]

Tags: Cameron Todd Willingham, Henry Skinner, Mike Silcock, PennState University, Richard A. Lapointe, William Thomas Zeigler

Rick Green wrote a new blog post about the habeas hearings in the case of Richard Lapointe. We both believe that Lapointe deserves a new trial. “They say justice delayed is justice denied, but if our judicial system can finally admit that Richard Lapointe deserves a new trial after nearly two decades, I suppose another [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Death Row, DNA, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Rape kits, Richard A. Lapointe, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Wrongful Convictions

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 [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Rape kits, Richard A. Lapointe, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Wrongful Convictions

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 [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Capital Punishment, Child Abuse, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Expert Testimony, FBI, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Illinois, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Rape kits, Richard A. Lapointe, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Wrongful Convictions

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. [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Rape kits, Richard A. Lapointe, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Wrongful Convictions

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 [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Rape kits, Richard A. Lapointe, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

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, [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Richard A. Lapointe, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

The defense lawyers trying to clear Richard Lapointe of the horrendous 1987 murder of Mrs. Bernice Martin began an attack in court last Friday on a detective who they said secured the mentally disabled man’s questionable confession after a series of suggestive and, at times, threatening interrogations. Much of the testimony Friday focused on a [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Forensics, Identification, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Richard A. Lapointe, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Wrongful Convictions

Karen Lapointe-Martin stands by her ex-husband. She was called to testify yesterday. “Do you recall the day your grandmother died?” Casteleiro asked. “Yes, I do, it was a Sunday,” she responded. She recounted her family’s Sunday routine — go to church, visit with her 88-year-old grandmother, Bernice Martin, then go home for Sunday dinner. That [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Crime Scene, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Richard A. Lapointe, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Wiretaps, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions