News and Politics | February 20, 2009 | 2 comments

National News - Ex-death row inmate's DNA not found on evidence

source: http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20090220/Legal.Limbo/

Image
mik661
After 20 years on death row and becoming confined to a wheelchair due to MS, 47 year old Paul House was released from prison. He had been convicted of the assault and murder of Carolyn Muncey of Tennessee nearly 23 years ago. The Supreme court ruled that no reasonable jury would have convicted him given access to new dna evidence that was collected from under the fingernails of the victim and cigarett butts. None of the DNA evidence matched House. However, Prosecutors are still retrying him on Murder charges in a trial beginning June 1st. DA Paul Phillips says that the new evidence just means that House must have had a coconspirator.
  1. groups:
    News and Politics
  2. tags:
    News and Politics,  Justice,  corrupt courts
  3.     
    |

2 comments // National News - Ex-death row inmate's DNA not found on evidence

  • mik661
    • 0
      mik661  
    • Image

    • Study Calls for Oversight of Forensics in Crime Labs

      Crime laboratories around the country are grossly underfunded, lack a scientific foundation and are compromised by critical delays in analyzing physical evidence, according to a broad study of forensic techniques published Wednesday by the National Academy of Sciences, the nation’s premier scientific body. The report calls into question the scientific merit of virtually every commonly used forensic method, including analysis of fingerprints, hair, fibers, blood spatters, ballistics and arson. Only DNA, which the panel said had benefited from rigorous scientific scrutiny and peer review outside of the forensics discipline, escaped significant criticism.

      “The fact is that many forensic tests, such as those used to infer the source of tooth marks and bite marks, have never been exposed to stringent scientific scrutiny,” the report said. The report highlights crime laboratory scandals involving hundreds of tainted cases handled by police agencies in Michigan, Texas and West Virginia, and by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. At least 10 wrongly convicted men have been exonerated as a result of those laboratory investigations, and the cases of hundreds of other people convicted with the help of those facilities are under review.

    • 3 years ago
  • mik661
    • 0
      mik661  

    • It seems to me that of the over 250 people released from death row mostly due to DNA evidence, not once has any prosecturor ever admitted that the wrong man was convicted. Even the ones who decline to repress charges will claim that they still believe in their guilt.

    • 3 years ago
more from News and Politics:
from the community

top videos