A short one just alerting you to some interesting things I found in the mailbox: Starting this Friday, March 9, 2012 on Investigation Discovery the movie “An Appointment With Death” will show you interviews with five death row inmates in Florida and Texas awaiting their execution. It is a four-part miniseries. More information is here. [...]
Tags: 3D Skull Reconstruction, Bernice Martin, DNA, Forensics, Richard LapointeThe 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 ConvictionsThere is so much progress in cold case investigations that I could easily write about 10 new posts…but I am not gonna! Instead, I will give you the names and links so you can follow what I read this week. Progress in UK cold case investigation resulted in justice when Judge John Devaux sentenced Peter Hull to [...]
Tags: CrimeRick 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 ConvictionsQuestions 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 ConvictionsLisa 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 ConvictionsChristopher 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 ConvictionsDuring 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 ConvictionsTomorrow, 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 ConvictionsLooking back it is always easier to point out how many mistakes police made during an investigation. I try to remain objective. Working with many serving men and women, I partly know the pressure they are under. But some goof-ups need to be exposed especially since it could have prevented an even bigger one. This [...]
Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Child Abuse, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Cruelty, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Illinois, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prisons, Rape kits, Riley Fox, Unsolved Homicide, Victim
