Saturday, February 25, 2012

'Science should be crime labs' client, not prosecutors'

Rick Casey says science should be crime labs' client, not prosecutors:

Posted by Gritsforbreakfast at 10:54 AM
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7 comments:

rodsmith said...

LOL talk about a no brainer!

2/25/2012 10:58:00 AM
Gritsforbreakfast said...

You'd think, but ...

2/25/2012 11:13:00 AM
Anonymous said...

We have just as much corruption from Medical Examiners, if not more.

Indeed, anyone who has a young child die becomes immediately suspected of foul play by authorities in Harris county. And these suspicions are passed along to the medical examiners conducting the autopsy. If the pathologist cannot easily determine a specific manner of death, many will revert to the detectives "gut hunch" and arrive at a manner of death that supports this. http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Harris-Co-autopsy-changes-spur-plea-for-freedom-1732345.php

Harris county has a long, long history of corrupt and incompetent medical examiners. And dozens of innocent defendants have been convicted of murdering children when no real evidence supported the findings of murder other than the "gut feelings" of mostly inept detectives, and an opinion of a pathologist who was cop-friendly and had long ago ruled out any possibility of natural death due to SIDS, anaphylactic shock (a severe allergic reaction to vaccines), or other manners that aren't obvious like rare diseases and complications due to premature birth among many others. http://blog.chron.com/momhouston/2011/06/npr-case-of-mistaken-baby-homicides-in-texas/

In 1998, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Joye Carter (now with the Southeast Texas Forensic Center) fired an assistant medical examiner who had reported illegal activity at the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office. And no less than a dozen of the cases where Dr. Carter testified for the prosecution that a murder has indeed occurred have been overturned by appeals courts. Carter was soon sent packing when lawsuit awards began to be too expensive for the commissioner's court to pay. http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1998_3042264/medical-examiner-fires-whistle-blower-assistant-wa.html

Dr. Patricia Moore (also now with the Southeast Texas Forensic Center) was among the most "cop-friendly" medical examiners in Harris county. During her time in Harris County, Moore attributed infant deaths to shaken baby syndrome at a rate considerably higher than the rate at which it happens in the general population. Once even reprimanded for being "biased in favor of the prosecution" as the document reads. http://freetrenda.com/default.aspx

http://www.truthinjustice.org/patricia-moore.htm

Be very careful when serving as jurors on these cases. And if you should have a child die make certain to retain legal counsel before speaking with detectives, and be sure to have a second autopsy performed by an independent medical examiner as soon as possible. Otherwise you could be mourning the loss of a child while behind bars just like Brandy Briggs: http://www.chron.com/default/article/Grudging-justice-Cleared-of-charges-in-her-1515206.php

http://www.chron.com/default/article/Exonerated-mom-facing-all-new-struggles-1485179.php

2/25/2012 11:54:00 AM
rodsmith said...

we agree anon!

the problem with the system is there is little accountability or testing of the actions taken!

once anyone manages to get something to be considered "SCIENCE" suddnly it's infallable and gospel!

We need a system that constantly TEST'S everything. Not just what we don't know. But what we know NOW and even more importantly what we USED to know!

I'm sure we have 10's of THOUSANDS in prison across the country based of what has since been proven to be JUNK SCIENCE if not out and out fraud! But even though we know now the science is in fact JUNK those in authority REFUSE to even ADMIT they exist let along work to fix the problem!

2/26/2012 03:47:00 PM
Thomas R. Griffith said...

Hey Grits, What do you suspect ol Rick Casey is aiming for by agreeing to the obvious?

And wouldn't it be better to agree that - 'all' evidence should be turned directly over to the court. Be fully vetted (and never, ever be destroyed) by crime labs. And, continue to let the taxpayers be the client? Just saying. Thanks.

2/27/2012 10:57:00 AM
Anonymous said...

I guess having Casey just ride off into the sunset after he left the Houston Chronicle was too much to hope for. While there, his typically pro-criminal columns were poorly researched and frequently inaccurate. I see some things haven't changed.

2/27/2012 07:17:00 PM
Anonymous said...

Wholly disagree!!! Our MEs are littered with corruption, poor training, no training, poor funding, falsification and imaginary causes of death not supported by any science......accidental deaths ruled as suicides and homicides.....these horrors begin with the MEs.

2/27/2012 10:37:00 PM

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