Update Lapointe: Habeas denied
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.
The decision is another defeat in what is now a third round of appeals filed on behalf of Lapointe, who was convicted in the 1987 killing of Bernice Martin of Manchester. But Lapointe’s lawyer, Paul Casteleiro, said the legal battle would continue.”
Casteleiro has 10 days to seek permission to file an appeal, and if granted, will have 20 more days to submit the case to the Appellate Court.
“Lapointe’s lawyers also argued that DNA testing on a pair of gloves and a pubic hair found in the apartment established that Lapointe could not have been the killer. The samples tested belonged a male, but not to Lapointe, leading his lawyers to argue that “all evidence leads to but one conclusion: the gloves were worn by the assailant during the commission of the offenses.”
But Nazzaro rejected that conclusion, saying there was no proof the samples belonged to the killer, and that the evidence did not exonerate Lapointe or prove his innocence. The fact that Lapointe was not the source of those samples, Nazzaro wrote, “does not prove that [Lapointe] did not commit the assault and murder.”
I have written extensively about this case and why I believe that Lapointe is not guilty. You can find all my posts about his case here. Most likely, this was the last shot that Lapointe had. Now I am fairly sure that he will die of old age in prison, incarcerated for a crime he just could not have planned let alone, committed.
I still consider this an unsolved homicide and a wrongful conviction. More later.
V
P.S.: the comments below the article are interesting to read as well.
Categories: Cold Case News, Forensics, Help the Cops!, Lapointe, Miscarriages of Justice, Unsolved
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