Thursday, June 18, 2015

Bulletin: Han Tak Lee. Pennsylvania; Prosecutors in court today in effort to restore the arson conviction of now 80-year-old Han Tak Lee who had served nearly 25 years in prison for the death of his 20-year-old daughter, Ji Yun Lee. "Lee is far from alone in appealing an arson conviction based on discredited science, said John Lentini, an arson expert who testified at Lee's trial. "A lot of people were convicted on junk science," Lentini said."

Prosecutors are due to argue in Philadelphia on Thursday that an 80-year-old Korean-American businessman should resume serving a life sentence for the arson murder of his mentally ill daughter in 1989. Han Tak Lee when a federal magistrate in Harrisburg last year ordered him freed. The magistrate concluded that nearly all the technical evidence used to convict Lee was based on beliefs about arson fires that had since been discredited. Monroe County assistant prosecutor Mark Matthews is expected to tell a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that there is enough good evidence remaining to send Lee, who lives in New York City, back to prison.........Lee's stoic demeanor after his daughter's death is among the evidence cited by prosecutors. Lee's lawyer, Peter Goldberger, said the reaction was in keeping with Korean male tradition.
Goldberger argued in court papers that prosecutors did not have enough valid evidence to convict Lee. He is also expected to argue that prosecutors missed the deadline for filing their appeal. Lee is far from alone in appealing an arson conviction based on discredited science, said John Lentini, an arson expert who testified at Lee's trial. "A lot of people were convicted on junk science," Lentini said."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/17/us-usa-pennsylvania-arson-idUSKBN0OX2JJ20150617