Facts Behind the Fiction
They say truth is stranger than fiction. In these cases, truth is scarier that fiction.
Just so there's no doubt, any individuals named here should be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. And, as we'll see, even then guilt may not be certain.
The recent spate of overturned murder convictions in the U.S. (the Innocence Project has reported 18 this year alone) has apparently led some jurisdictions to reconsider their capital punishment policies. One, the state of New Jersey, lead by Governor Jon Corzine, has abolished the death penalty and commuted the death sentences of eight men to life in prison without chance of parole.
While this lessens the chance of executing innocent people, not everyone is pleased with the decision.
Jesse Timmendequas is a sex offender who murdered 7-year old Megan Kanka in 1994. Megan's father, Richard, was quoted in the New York times as stating, "The only thing we can really hope for is somebody in jail will knock off these guys."
Even with the new legislation, there's no guarantee New Jersey won't revert back to deleting those offenders it deems most dangerous. Families of other victims have said they'll let their votes speak for them, implying that a change of politicians could lead to the death penalty being reinstated.
In the 1990s Doctor Charles Smith was a leading expert in forensic pediatric pathology, until many of his findings were called into question. In reviewing his cases, his colleagues have described some of his conclusions as "ridiculous."
In a SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) case Smith suspected the parents of criminal activity, but offered no explanation for his suspicions. Another pathologist, an expert in SIDS, the police, and other investigators found no evidence of foul play.
In another case, Doctor Smith suspected a mother had a mental disorder and was responsible for her child's death. Another pathologist conducted an autopsy and found a fungal infection that had grown in the child's airway, obstructed his breathing, leading to his death.
A number of individuals were convicted, at least partially, on the basis of Smith's testimony. Among them is William Mullins-Johnson who spent 12 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit.
We don't know why Smith reached some of the conclusions he did. He may have been under personal or job-related stress. He may have been overworked. In 2001 he even wrote to his superiors asking to be excused from performing postmortems. Whatever the reason for his job performance, rather than cast shame on Doctor Smith these incidents simply highlight that even "expert" testimony is not proof of guilt. Even so-called experts can--and do--make mistakes.
Robert Pickton has been sentenced to the maximum term possible for his second-degree murder convictions in the deaths of six women: life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
The 58-year old still faces an additional 20 murder charges. However, considering the expense and length of his first trial on six charges (jury selection began December 12, 2006; sentence was read December 11, 2007) and the fact that he'll almost certainly be spending the rest of his life behind bars in any case, even British Columbia's Attorney-General Wally Oppal questions whether there will ever be a second trial.
If there was a second trial, and if the verdict on all charges was guilty, Pickton would have the distinction of being Canada's most deadly serial killer.
There were so many missing women, most of them drug addicts and prostitutes, in and around Vancouver, B.C. that the police formed a Missing Women Task Force. Eventually their investigation led to the arrest, trial, and conviction of a man who may be Canada's worst serial killer, Robert Pickton.
Last week, Pickton was convicted of murder in the deaths of six of those women, and may still face trial for the murders of twenty others. But he was convicted only of second-degree murder, implying he didn't intend to kill his victims. Now the former head of the Missing Women Task Force asserts that the jury likely would have delivered first-degree verdicts if they had been given all of the evidence.
Don Adam praises the jury for the work they did, but claims a year of their lives were wasted and wonders how they'll feel when they learn the whole truth. At this time, Adam isn't saying what that whole truth is, perhaps because another trial is pending. But he did say no compelling evidence was found that would have convicted anyone else, Pickton's brother and two acquaintances, as the defense contended.
Adam hopes to stir public debate about what evidence should be provided a jury, and what should be withheld. Is it possible for a jury to reach a fair and just decision without having all the evidence?
Robert Pickton was today found guilty on six charges of second-degree murder in a courtroom in New Westminster, B.C. However, he was found not guilty on six charges of first-degree murder.
In a move that Pickton's defense attorneys said denied their client of a fair trial, Judge James William revised his instructions to the jury part way through their deliberations, telling them he had made an error when he initially explained what it would take to convict Pickton, and saying they could find Pickton guilty even if they believed he was only indirectly linked to the murders. It's likely this action will be used as the basis for any future appeals.
There was abundant evidence presented during the trial, including mutilated body parts, DNA matched to the victims and the accused, hours of video tape of police interviews with Pickton, testimony by an alleged eye-witness who claims she saw Pickton--covered in blood--butchering one of the victims hanging on a meat hook, and a possible confession from Pickton to an undercover officer.
However, the defense maintains the evidence isn't conclusive. It's reasonable that the accused's DNA would be found on his own farm and in his own home. The eye-witness who testified about seeing Pickton committing one of the murders was a confessed drug addict. And Pickton, they say, is an individual of "limited intelligence" who's apparent confession was obtained by police using sophisticated techniques of manipulation and lies.
The convictions carry an automatic life sentence, however the jury still has to determine whether Pickton will be eligible for parole after sometime between 10 and 25 years.
Outside the court, the families of the victims expressed disappointment at what they see as only a partial victory, the second-degree rather than first-degree convictions. One told reporters, "It's not right."
The United States Supreme Court today delayed the execution of Tommy Arthur, an inmate who's been on death row in Alabama for twenty years, not because they believe Tommy may be innocent, but because they will soon consider whether lethal injections (the common method of execution in the U.S.) constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
The Innocence Project is calling on Alabama Governor Bob Riley to take advantage of this delay to order DNA testing in the case, but the Governor has so far refused. The testing would take about four weeks and could be completed well before the Supreme Court deliberates on the lethal injection issue.
Why would the Governor refuse to allow the testing? When a man's life is at stake, shouldn't every effort be made to ensure justice is done, whether that means proving Tommy is innocent or guilty?
The Innocence Project has prepared a web page through which you can send a message to Governor Riley asking for DNA testing in this case: http://www.innocenceproject.org/testing-for-tommy
In 1996, Chad Heins was convicted of the 1994 murder of his sister-in-law, Tina. After spending 13 years in prison, Chad today became the 209th person in the United States to be exonerated through DNA testing, according to the Innocence Project which was instrumental in securing Chad's release.
Although Chad's murder conviction was thrown out last year based on DNA test results from hair and skin samples found at the crime scene, prosecutors prepared to retry him. Last month, additional DNA tests were performed on semen samples taken from the bed of the victim. Those tests indicated that one man was the source of all three samples, and that that man was not Chad Heins.
While the Florida State Attorney's office in Jacksonville has dismissed all charges against Chad, it has not yet fully acknowledged that Chad is, in fact, innocent. But at least it is continuing to investigate and now has solid evidence that may lead to the real assailant.
The plan had been to split the charges against alleged serial killer Robert Pickton in to two sets. The first six murder charges would be dealt with in one trial, the remaining twenty would be covered in a second trial. The second trial, it was said by prosecutors, would take place regardless of the outcome of the first trial. However, criminal lawyers across Canada say that may not happen.
If Pickton is found guilty, the lawyers suggest, he'd be sentenced to life in prison. Since he couldn't serve consecutive life sentences, there'd be no reason for the Crown to try the other charges. (This first trial has lasted ten months and cost millions of dollars.)
If Pickton is found not guilty, the Crown would be unlikely to try the remaining charges since the six from the first trial were chosen because they represented the Crown's best case. With no reasonable expectation of a conviction, the Crown would be hesitant to proceed.
Either way, canceling the second trial likely wouldn't sit well with the families of the victims. While only six charges are being dealt with in Pickton's present trial, the families of all the victims, as well as a huge group of citizens, have taken a very deep and personal interest in this case. The families of all the victims, not just the first six, want their day in court.
In 1994, Lynn DeJac, of Erie County, N.Y., was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of her 13-year-old daughter, Crystallin Girard, and spent 13 years in prison. On November 28th, 2007, Judge John Michalski released DeJac and ordered a new trial when DNA collected at the scene of the crime was found to implicate DeJac's boyfriend, Dennis Donahue.
Unfortunately, during DeJac's initial trial, Donahue was granted immunity for testifying against her and cannot be charged in the crime.
Of course, even if Donahue did murder Crystallin, it doesn't mean Crystallin's mother was not also involved. This may be what prosecutors hope to prove. But even if they succeed in convicting her for second-degree manslaughter she will not return to prison; she's already served the maximum sentence for that charge.
The trial of Robert Pickton is now in the hands of the jury. Pickton is on trial in British Columbia, Canada for the murders of Sereena Abotsway, Marnie Frey, Andrea Joesbury, Georgina Papin, Mona Wilson, and Brenda Wolfe.
So far the jury has heard from 128 witnesses, listened to a week of closing statements from the prosecution and defense, and received three days of instructions from the judge. Evidence has included such gruesome details as testimony from a witness who claims she saw one of Pickton's alleged victims hanging from a meat hook, to examinations of severed and split skulls.
Regardless of the outcome of this trial, Pickton's days in court are far from over. He still faces an additional 20 murder charges that it was determined would have overwhelmed a single jury.
In the 1990's, Dr. Charles Smith was the head of Ontario's pediatric forensic pathology unit. Now an inquiry has described his work as bordering on the 'bizarre' and has called into question his testimony in dozens of cases.
Pathologists from Britain and Alberta have determined that Smith made errors ranging from subtle to extreme, some of them leading to convictions of innocent people.
One of those was William Mullins-Johnson who has been found not guilty in the death of his four-year-old niece, but who spent 12 years in prison for her rape and murder, based mostly on Dr. Smith's testimony. During the appeal and a review of the forensic evidence, it was discovered that not only did William not rape and murder his niece, but that the girl wasn't raped and murdered at all; her death was accidental.
Now it seems the doctor's shortcomings were systemic of problems throughout the coroner's office. In January 2001, as questions about his performance were beginning to surface, Smith wrote a letter to his superiors asking to be excused from performing postmortems, and suggesting the office commission an independent review of his work. His request went ignored and Smith was still conducting autopsies until 2003.
In a rare occurrence, the Manhattan District Attorney's office asked the courts to dismiss all charges against five men previously convicted of the rape of a female jogger in Central Park. The men, all between 14 and 16 years of age when the attack occurred in 1989, had confessed - more or less - to the crime. Then why the dismissal?
Another man, Matias Reyes, also eventually confessed to the crime. And while there was little to no physical evidence against the five boys, there was DNA evidence against Reyes.
So why did the five boys confess? It could have something to do with the fact that their interrogations lasted from 14 to 30 hours each. Or that at times they were questioned without their guardians or legal counsel present. Or that at least one of the boys suffered from borderline mental retardation. Or that they were told physical evidence linked them to the victim when it really did not. Or that they were led to believe they'd get an easier time of it if they implicated their friends.
Even though their confessions were contradictory and inconsistent, both with their friend's confessions and with the testimony of other witnesses, the boys were convicted. And while they served their time, the real attacker, Reyes, went on to rape and kill another woman.
Robert Pickton may be Canada's worst serial killer. The fifty-five year old pig-farmer faces 27 counts of first-degree murder. That number may rise as investigators continue to sift through hundreds of tones of dirt from Pickton's farm. Pickton is suspected in the disappearance of more than 60 women, mostly drug-addicted sex-trade workers from Vancouver.
The case is still in the pre-trial phase and has recently encountered delays since the appointed judge has stepped aside due to scheduling conflicts; the trial is expected to run well into next year.
When we hear the term "child killer" we usually think of an adult who preys on children. This is an exception. In London, UK this month, British police arrested two girls and boy, 11 and 12 years old, on suspicion of attempting to murder a five-year-old boy.
The boy, Anthony, suffered serious injuries when the other children allegedly tried to strangle him by tying him to a tree with a rope around his neck. One could be inclined to excuse this as simply children playing, with no malicious intent. But such certainly wasn't the case in 1993 when two ten-year-olds murdered a toddler, James Bulger, under similar circumstances.
William Mullins-Johnson was convicted of killing his four-year-old niece in 1994. There were tissue samples that may have exonerated him, but those samples went missing before they could be examined. Now they've been found, in the office of a Toronto pathologist, raising the specter of wrongful conviction, not just for Mullins-Johnson, but in a number of other cases. Might innocent people have been convicted because of this doctor's actions, either accidental or otherwise?
As a result of this discovery, Ontario's Chief Coroner, Dr. Barry McLellan, will review at least 40 homicide cases in which the pathologist either performed autopsies or provided expert testimony. The Association in Defense of the Wrongfully Convicted has called for a public inquiry beyond the coroner's review.
David Bayliss, counsel for William Mullins-Johnson, commented, "What needs to be answered here is how a system tolerated this type of medical incompetence, or medical negligence, in a systemic way. We need to make sure that nothing like this ever occurs again."
Clark Jerome McMillan, a 22-year-old man, is arrested for rape and robbery with a deadly weapon. One of his two alleged victims fails to identify him in a police lineup. Both fail to mention his pronounced limp. McMillan's sister and girlfriend insist he was with them at the time of the attack. Still, McMillan is convicted and sentenced to 119 years.
Now, twenty-two years later, McMillan's conviction is overturned after DNA testing reveals that the semen found on the victim's jeans wasn't his.
McMillan is overjoyed at his release, but he feels hurt. The soft-spoken man says, "It was an unbelievable experience." While he hopes for some compensation for his ordeal, Tennessee has no compensation statute. What could compensate a man for half his life?
Karla Homolka has served her entire 12-year prison term in what has been called a Deal with the Devil. At first it was believed that Karla was a victim of spousal abuse, forced by her husband, Paul Bernardo, to take part in the rape, torture, and murder of two schoolgirls. That's certainly the way she skillfully portrayed herself. And prosecutors believed her. In exchange for her testimony, they agreed to reduce the charges against her to manslaughter. Only after the deal had been signed did investigators discover several video tapes the couple had made of their attack on the girls.
The tapes told a different story.
Karla was not the victim she claimed to be, but a willing participant in the girls' murders, and in the rape and death of her own sister, and in the rape of another young girl, never publicly identified.
Homolka is due to be released in the first few days of July, 2005.
Dennis Rader pleaded guilty to 10 counts of first-degree murder, admitting to a series of slayings that began in the 1970s.
In a slew of taunting, cryptic messages to police, Rader nicknamed himself BTK, for "Bind, Torture, Kill."
His sentencing date has not yet been set. But since Kansas adopted a new capital punishment law only after these particular crimes were committed, Rader will not face the death penalty.
Karla Homolka is afraid. "I believe some people wish to do the public a favour by killing me," the schoolgirl-killer said in an affidavit. So she asked the courts to ban all media and public mention of her.
While there may be legitimate concerns about her security, there's also the concern for public safety. Some psychologists who have examined her believe she may reoffend.
There's also some doubt about her real fears. Tim Danson, the lawyer for the families of two of Homolka's victims, questioned whether she's just playing a role. "What we don't know is whether this is simply part of Karla Homolka being the master manipulator to change the focus from the real problem -- the threat she poses to public safety -- by trying to portray herself as the victim."
Not surprisingly, the Quebec Superior Court, which heard the request, rejected it. Justice Paul-Marcel Bellavance of Quebec Superior Court ruled that granting the injunction would be a danger to freedom of the press. Of course, Homolka's lawyers will appeal.
Even if the court had passed the injunction, it would have been unenforceable. The Quebec court would have no jurisdiction over the rest of Canada, let alone the rest of the world, including the Internet.
After 12 years in prison for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of two schoolgirls, Karla Homolka is now a free woman. On July 4th, 2005, She left the Ste-Anne-des-Plaines prison north of Montreal where she's been for the past month and within two hours was giving a televised interview with Radio-Canada. While she claims she was a victim of her ex-husband, Paul Bernardo, forced into participating in the gruesome acts she committed, and that she feels remorse for what she's done, she's demonstrated outstanding acting abilities in the past.
In response, Paul Bernardo, himself serving a lift sentence for his part in the murders, requested that he be allowed to speak to the media as well. That request was denied, but he did manage to relay a message through his attorney. The message? That it was Karla who insisted they kill their victims, that she tried to kill one girl by embolism (injecting her with a syringe full of air), and that she strangled both girls.
Meanwhile, Karla has moved into an east-Montreal neighborhood where the residents seem, so far, content to leave her alone.
In June of 1990, University of Toronto student Elizabeth Bain goes missing from her Scarborough campus. A few days later her blood-stained car is discovered. But Elizabeth's body is never found.
The police investigate. The vehicle is carefully examined. Witnesses are interviewed. Although there's no physical evidence directly linking Elizabeth's boyfriend, Robert Baltovich, to the disappearance, the young man is arrested. Two years later, he's convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole for 17 years.
While Robert is behind bars, the Scarborough Rapist, only later identified as Paul Bernardo, is still at large. His modus operandi is strikingly similar to the circumstances in the case of Elizabeth Bain. Still, it's not until 2000, after the case captures the attention of the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted, that Robert is released on bail pending his appeal.
In 2004, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturns Robert's conviction, stating that the original trial judge's charge to the jury was one-sided and prejudicial. But an overturned conviction is not the same as an acquittal; Robert is not declared innocent. Although he's out of prison, he's not a free man.
Now, in 2005, Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General has decided to retry Robert on second-degree murder charges. While the case against him in 1992 was weak, today, with so much new evidence implicating a far more likely suspect, perhaps Robert will at last gain the freedom he longs for.
During the morning of March 13, 1986, a female worker at the Forbes Hospital was raped. Other employees at the hospital pursued the attacker but he got away.
A short time later, Thomas Doswell was arrested. At his trial he was convicted and sentenced to 13 to 26 years in prison. On four separate occasions he was denied parole because he insisted he was innocent and refused to accept responsibility for the attack.
On Monday August 1, 2005, after serving 19 years, Thomas walked out of prison a free man, not because he finally fessed up to his crime and made parole, but because the courts finally realized he was innocent as he claimed.
It turns out there were a number of irregularities in his case. The victim stated that the man who attacked her had a beard; Thomas did not. Thomas had suffered a neck injury at work and was wearing a neck brace; the witnesses never mentioned that. Of the eight photographs of possible suspects shown to witnesses, only Thomas' photo was marked with a large "R", signifying a previous rape conviction, a charge for which Thomas had long since been acquitted. (Under new guidelines this practice will change. Photos presented to witnesses will not be marked and those officers presenting them will themselves be unaware of the identity of the suspect or of the other individuals in the photo lineup.)
But none of these facts were enough to exonerate Thomas Doswell.
Eventually, at the urging of the Innocence Project but against the advice of the prosecuting attorneys, semen specimens collected during the medical examination of the rape victim in 1986 were retested. When it was found that they were not from Thomas Doswell, the prosecutors quickly joined the motion to have the charges vacated.
After his release, Thomas said, "Having the faith I have in Jesus has taught me that I couldn't walk around for 20 years with anger bottled up in me. It would have killed me. It would have done more damage to me than good." He also said, "I'm thankful justice has been served. The court system is not perfect, but it works."
On August 18th, 2005, Dennis Rader, the self-named BTK serial killer, was been sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms, at least 175 years without the possibility of parole. Since Kansas had no death penalty at the time of the murders, this is the longest sentence the courts can impose. (The murders all occurred between 1974 and 1991; the death penalty was not reinstated until 1994.)
While addressing the court in a choked and halting voice, Rader said, "I know the victim's families will never be able to forgive me. I hope somewhere deep down, eventually that will happen." Judging by the reaction of some in the court, Rader may be disappointed.
Kevin Bright, the brother of one of Rader's victims, Kathryn Bright, said, "No remorse, no compassion -- he had no mercy. I think that's what he ought to receive." Kevin had first-hand knowledge of Rader's actions. He was shot by Rader but managed to escape.
Rader kept photographs and journals detailing his exploits, along with what he called "hit kits" -- bags containing rubber gloves, rope, tape, bandanas, and handcuffs.
"A dark side is there, but now I think light is beginning to shine," Rader said during his testimony. "Hopefully someday God will accept me."
It's unlikely anyone else will.
Canada and the US certainly have no monopoly on wrongful convictions.
In China in 1994 She (pronounced "Shuh") Xianglin was convicted of killing his wife. He even confessed to the crime. But his conviction was overturned after he spent 11 years in prison, when his wife returned. It seems she had simply run off with another man.
Xianglin says he signed the confession without reading it after he was tortured by police. Human rights groups have said that torture is common in this system that relies heavily on confessions to crack difficult cases. According to some reports, prisoners are sometimes tortured to death, their relatives being told that they died of natural causes or committed suicide. Curiously, one of the officers who allegedly took part in Xianglin's abuse hanged himself when authorities began an investigation into the incident.
Xianglin has received compensation for his time in prison, $7.90 US a day for each of the 4,009 days he spent confined, plus $24,600 for lost earnings. He has not received any compensation for the beatings he says he suffered, nor have any of the police involved in the case apologized.