The case of Simon Hall in the UK has already made the headlines time and again, for all the wrong reasons. See just some of the coverage of the case collated here… and you can visit Simon’s great campaign website ‘Justice 4 Simon’ here… . This is an apparent miscarriage of justice that has gone on for far too long.

Now, another shocking twist in the tale.

Simon’s conviction rests on fibre analysis. For his appeal, a highly respected independent expert in fibres analysis – Tiernan Coyle, was employed to re-examine the evidence used to secure Simon’s conviction. He found multiple flaws in the evidence, and had no doubt that the conclusions reached were unsustainable. Unfortunately, this was not sufficient to win Simon his appeal.

As a respectable scientist, Tiernan Coyle then sought to publicise his findings to the wider forensic science community, sending his report to the scientific journal ‘Science and Justice’. Peer reviewers used terms like ‘valid’, ‘compelling’ and ‘highly convincing’ in their reviews, and commented on Coyle’s professional approach to the issues raised by the case, as well as stating that the report raises important issues that the fibres community needed to debate, which justified its publication. It was duly accepted and published. Subsequently, the article was withdrawn from Science and Justice, supposedly for ‘copyright’ reasons (the article showed images from the Forensic Science Service’s original analysis – although these images were used in the bundle of evidence at the trial and appeal so have been seen by anyone with access to the evidence).

Tiernan is then to be congratulated that rather than be silenced by this outrageous withdrawal of his paper from the journal, he has made it publicly available, with a short commentary on the story of how he was driven to this action.

I highly recommend that all those interested in forensic science and justice read the report. It demonstrates clearly how not only are people being wrongly convicted using flawed forensic science, but that even when discovery of flawed scientific conclusions are aired, it may not be enough to win freedom for the wrongly convicted. It is a salutary tale for those convinced that forensic science will end miscarriages of justice. It is also illuminating that while some in the forensic community wish to work to strengthen the scientific basis of their work, and share mistakes and assist in research, there are elements of the community that remain strongly resistant. This cannot be allowed to happen if progress is to be made.

Go to Tiernan Coyle’s website here…

The Case of Simon Hall

From web source:

The state prosecution told the High Court of Justice yesterday it will submit articles of clothing worn by a man murdered 17 years ago for advanced DNA testing, to help determine whether the case should be retried.

At issue are nine blood and saliva stains on the shoes and shirt that attorney Shmuel Levinson was wearing when he was killed in August 1994, after he surprised a burglar in his Jerusalem home. Levinson had been named chairman of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel shortly before his murder.

Based on the technology available at the time, which did not include DNA testing, the coroner’s office said the blood stains found at the scene were consistent with Shalom’s blood. But a hair found in a sock at the scene was found not to be Continue reading →

The Washington Post has an interesting article about a pretty egregious sounding Brady case (police failing to disclose information helpful to the defense prior to trial) being litigated at the moment by the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and others.  Here’s the article in full:

An attorney whose client was acquitted in a high-profile 1985 murder trial in the District testified Tuesday that prosecutors never shared several pieces of evidence in a case that sent eight men to prison for first-degree murder.

Two people were acquitted in the death of Catherine Fuller, and Michele Roberts, then with the District’s Public Defender Service, was co-counsel for one of them. On Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court, Roberts said that prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense — including the names of three other Continue reading →

A team of innocence lawyers (including Network Board President Keith Findley) and medical experts have posted Shaken Baby Syndrome, Abusive Head Trauma, and Actual Innocence:  Getting it Right on SSRN.  Download full article here.  Abstract:

In the past decade, the existence of shaken baby syndrome (SBS) has been called into serious question by biomechanical studies, the medical and legal literature, and the media. As a result of these questions, SBS has been renamed abusive head trauma (AHT). This is, however, primarily a terminological shift: like SBS, AHT refers to the two-part hypothesis that one can reliably diagnose shaking or abuse from three internal findings (subdural hemorrhage, retinal hemorrhage and encephalopathy) and that one can identify the perpetrator based on the onset of symptoms. Over the past decade, we have learned that this hypothesis fits poorly with the anatomy and physiology of the infant brain, that there are Continue reading →