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Bad Jurors: 114 And Counting
the sierra times ^
| 4/24/03
| Carl F. Worden
Posted on 05/19/2003 5:54:23 AM PDT by runningbear
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a compilation of bits of news on the Laci Peterson Murder case. Monday is still a little slow of online news from Sunday's Bay search.
To: runningbear
114 and counting: That's the number of men released from death rows in the United States in the past 12 years, after DNA forensic science proved they could not have committed the crimes the jurors said they did.I admit it.
I committed all those crimes.
2
posted on
05/19/2003 5:55:49 AM PDT
by
Lazamataz
( "People that quote themselves in their taglines bother me." - Lazamataz)
To: runningbear; Rheo; spectre; Mystery Y; Searching4Justice; brneyedgirl; Scupoli; sissyjane; ...
pinging on some of the events you might of missed over the weekend...;o)
3
posted on
05/19/2003 5:56:23 AM PDT
by
runningbear
(Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)
To: texasbluebell; truthkeeper; BobFromNJ; WestCoastGal; Sunshine55; Yaelle; madison10; Devil_Anse; ...
pinging on some of the events you might of missed over the weekend...;o)
4
posted on
05/19/2003 5:56:59 AM PDT
by
runningbear
(Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)
To: Lazamataz
OJ did a couple of them.
5
posted on
05/19/2003 5:57:18 AM PDT
by
toothless
(I AM A MAN)
To: phd2b; SandyEgo; shattered; oceanperch; Jackie-O; uvular; Spunky; sirchtruth; sonserae; melodie; ...
pinging on some of the events you might of missed over the weekend...;o)
6
posted on
05/19/2003 5:57:46 AM PDT
by
runningbear
(Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)
To: toothless
OJ did a couple of them.We were a team.
7
posted on
05/19/2003 5:57:57 AM PDT
by
Lazamataz
( "People that quote themselves in their taglines bother me." - Lazamataz)
To: RGSpincich
8
posted on
05/19/2003 6:00:00 AM PDT
by
runningbear
(Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)
To: Lazamataz
Hey, stop beings sucha glory hound - you know you had help... ;0)
9
posted on
05/19/2003 6:00:40 AM PDT
by
Chad Fairbanks
(All other things being equal, fat people use more soap)
To: Lazamataz
LOL.... gee, how many sparkies would that be?....;o)/humor continuing....
10
posted on
05/19/2003 6:00:57 AM PDT
by
runningbear
(Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)
To: Lazamataz; toothless
Is it not more correct to report that the new evidence is in many cases NOT proof of guilt since it is often indefinite?
With this lack of proof, time passed, and death of witnesses, it is often not INNOCENSE PROVED...it is just not possible to go back and do it over again! They are then released!
I have a problem with the blanket statement that all were NOT GUILTY of the crimes.
11
posted on
05/19/2003 6:05:01 AM PDT
by
3D-JOY
To: runningbear
more on KPIX news
Bay Search Has 'Certain Objectives' in Peterson Case
Bay Search Has 'Certain Objectives' in Peterson Case
Divers searched San Francisco Bay Friday.
Tony Russomanno
As investigators wrapped up an underwater search Friday in the Laci Peterson case, Modesto police remained vague about the details.
Divers searched the area in the San Francisco Bay near where Peterson's body was found. But the only thing anyone directly connected with the search would say is that police have "certain objectives."
"The fact that they're suddenly re-dredging the bay again for the third time makes me wonder possibly do they have some information that there's something else there," said criminal defense attorney Maureen Baldwin.
There may be a weapon, or a weight used to hold down Laci Peterson's body.
"Part of the reason for putting a body in the bay is to obscure the cause of death," said San Francisco coroner Boyd Stephens. "So the way to resolve that is to spend the time and effort and pick up any trace evidence that's present."
But it's not like finding and picking up evidence on land. The divers are working in zero visibility. A technique commonly used was seen last year in a search for evidence in a creek by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department dive team.
"We use a tether line and we have up to four divers," said Lt. Dale Unger, dive team commander. "We're basically feeling hand to hand, crawling on the ground hand to hand, and if it's a body they were trying to find that by bumping into him."
Human remains found in the water could help determine the time of death. San Francisco coroner Boyd Stephens placed donated cadavers in different parts of the Bay in the 1970s to see how changes in tides and water temperature affected decomposition and how long it took the bay's small marine life to attach itself to bones.
"Those can be pretty good markers," Stephens said.
But the search's "certain objectives" mentioned by police may not be an object at all. It may be an attempt to block a charge of police bias against Scott Peterson. Baldwin says Peterson's attorney may be attempting to show that police did not look for evidence that could clear Peterson.
"Sometimes an attorney may play a card, may make a suggestion and see whether or not the police follow up on it," she said.
EXCERPTED........
12
posted on
05/19/2003 6:05:02 AM PDT
by
runningbear
(Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)
To: runningbear
LOL.... gee, how many sparkies would that be?....I wonder if that is a new rating system: "He rated 4 sparkies and a lethal injection!"
13
posted on
05/19/2003 6:06:40 AM PDT
by
Lazamataz
( "People that quote themselves in their taglines bother me." - Lazamataz)
To: 3D-JOY
I disagree. If there is DNA collected that shows that someone ELSE committed the crime in question, then that is definitive proof that the suspect did not commit the crime.
In fact, *I* committed the crime we are talking about -- whichever one that is.
I done 'em all.
14
posted on
05/19/2003 6:09:11 AM PDT
by
Lazamataz
( "People that quote themselves in their taglines bother me." - Lazamataz)
To: Chad Fairbanks
Hey, stop beings sucha glory hound - you know you had help... ;0)I promise never to turn "states evidence" on you.
15
posted on
05/19/2003 6:09:51 AM PDT
by
Lazamataz
( "People that quote themselves in their taglines bother me." - Lazamataz)
To: runningbear
That is good. 114. Out of how many. How many people did DNA find did do the crime? What is the percentage. If it was 114 out of 120, I would say we have a big problem. If it is 114 out of 100,000, then I say that while there may be a problem, it is not a big problem.
16
posted on
05/19/2003 6:10:10 AM PDT
by
7thson
(I think it takes a big dog to weigh a 100 pounds.)
To: runningbear; All
New search in Laci Peterson case
the defense team w/client
RICHMOND, Calif., May 16 Police divers were back in the waters of San Francisco Bay Friday, looking for more evidence in the Laci Peterson murder case. The search followed a judges decision to seal the autopsy reports pending a May 27 hearing.
Snip it
17
posted on
05/19/2003 6:11:47 AM PDT
by
runningbear
(Lurkers beware, Freeping is public opinions based on facts, theories, and news online.......)
To: Lazamataz
I thought the DNA question was only that it did not prove the "STATES" case.
In most cases it did not show another person was guilty.(?)
One piece of evidence "out of place" after all this time and "reasonable doubt" arrises and re-trying the case is not possible.
Maybe I did it! Not you. Were we together? LOL
18
posted on
05/19/2003 6:18:43 AM PDT
by
3D-JOY
To: 7thson
I doubt that the 114 number counts any of the Houston crime lab cases that were the results of both sloppy testing and downright lying at trials. Number will probably be in the hundreds since it has been going on for years.
19
posted on
05/19/2003 6:23:44 AM PDT
by
FreePaul
To: runningbear
Here is an old story back in the news.
Diane Downs case changed lives of many in Oregon
TOOLSEmail this story to a friendPrinter-friendly Version
PORTLAND - Twenty years ago Monday,
Elizabeth Diane Downs drove up to a
hospital in Springfield with her three
dying children in her car, the start
of a case that riveted Oregonians and
changed the lives of a doctor, a
detective, a judge, a writer, a lawyer
and Downs herself.
Emergency room Dr. John Mackey
remembers the horn blaring outside the
ER door of McKenzie-Willamette
Hospital in Springfield and the woman
with a bullet wound in her left
forearm exclaiming, "Somebody just
shot my kids."
The woman was Downs, a 27-year-old
Postal Service worker and divorcee who
had moved to Oregon from Arizona only
a couple of months before. In the car
were her 7-year-old daughter, Cheryl;
her 8-year-old daughter, Christie; and
her 3-year-old son, Danny.
"To see these three kids moribund in a
car that pulls up outside your door .
. . ," Mackey begins. "Initially we
didn't know how many there were. I was
just horrified - there's another one -
it was just too horrifying."
Nothing could be done for Cheryl, shot
twice in the back. Surgeon Steven
Wilhite stopped the internal bleeding
and miraculously saved Christie, shot
twice in the left chest. Danny, shot
near the spinal cord survived, but is
paralyzed from mid-chest down.
It was the first homicide case Lane
County detective Doug Welch had ever
faced. His task that night was to
interview Downs, who told her story in
clipped fashion.
She and the children had visited a
friend in the Marcola area, northeast
of Springfield. On the way back, she
said, a shaggy-haired man appeared out
of the darkness. She stopped and got
out of her car, keys in hand, to see
if he needed help. He demanded her car
and opened fire on her children, then
on her, when she refused.
The detectives pressed for
information; if a desperate killer was
on the loose in the rural countryside,
they needed all the details they could
get.
"It was probably an hour, maybe a
little more, into the interview . . .
when I began to have some serious
doubts about her story," Welch said.
"Her demeanor was really odd. She was
not nearly as interested in talking
about the suspect, than in talking
about her boyfriend in Arizona and
what a great lover he was, and how she
missed him."
Welch and detectives Kurt Wuest and
Richard Tracy took on the
investigation. They established a
motive: Downs wanted her children out
of the way to reunite with the Arizona
boyfriend, who didn't want kids.
At first they had only their
suspicions. They had no murder weapon,
and the only known witnesses were
badly injured children.
Two months after the shootings, Welch
and Wuest met with Downs for what came
to be known as the "hardball
interview," when Downs' story changed.
Now she claimed that the shaggy-haired
man knew her, called her by name.
Downs became increasingly hostile as
the detectives challenged the
inconsistencies.
When the case finally came to trial,
in front of Judge Gregory Foote and
using then-revolutionary forensic
evidence, emotions were high.
Downs faced a count of murder, two
counts of attempted murder and two
counts of first-degree assault.
The case began in May 1984 and lasted
six weeks, with 500 pieces of
evidence.
Christie Downs, by then 9, was the
state's key witness. She had spent
much of the past year meeting with a
psychologist, Carl Peterson. At his
suggestion, she wrote the name of the
person who shot her and Cheryl and
sealed them in envelopes.
On the witness stand, Peterson opened
the envelopes. "My mom," the notes
inside said.
Finally, a jury convicted Downs of all
charges. She was sentenced to life in
prison plus 50 years.
Author Ann Rule attended much of the
trial, then wrote a book about the
Downs case called "Small Sacrifices."
Rule, who lives in Seattle, is now a
true-crime institution with 20 books
to her name and three in the works.
"That book sold enough so that since
then I've never had to really worry
about bills," Rule says. "It was my
crossover book from hanging on by my
fingernails."
Downs also kept herself in the news.
In 1987, Downs scaled the razor-wire
fence at the Oregon Women's
Correctional Center in Salem and
escaped. She was caught 10 days later;
she'd been in a house a half mile from
the prison, sleeping with one of the
men who lived there.
She is now at the Valley State Prison
for Women in Chowchilla, Calif. It's a
maximum-security prison, with an
electric fence around the perimeter.
California law prohibits the release
of much information, such as her work
assignments, behavior or visitors.
Her two children were adopted by
Joanne and Fred Hugi, the prosecutor
who put their mother away.
Christie and Danny, who now goes by
Dan, are 28 and 23, respectively. Both
graduated from college and are
employed. Last year, Christie married
the son of a former police officer.
Rule says the Hugis adopted Christie
and Dan for the most basic reason:
They loved them.
"I think they bonded with those kids
from the first night," she says. "They
never particularly planned to have
children. They saw those kids, and
that was it."
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