Thursday, August 4, 2016

Kevin Martin: (Cleveland Wright, Santae Tribble, Kirk Odom, Donald Gates); U.S.A. Discredited FBI hair analysis: Momentous Development: Discredited FBI testimony; (The District of Columbia discovers that junk science comes with a price to the taxpayers - not just to the innocent people who have been wrongly convicted because of it like Kevin Martin, and the others. HL); Fox 5 reports that Kevin Martin has settled a lawsuit for the 26 years he spent in prison for $4.3 million..."Martin, who now lives in San Francisco, spent 26 years in prison for the murder of a woman in 1982. Although he maintained his innocence, Martin took an Alford plea in 1984 after prosecutors told his attorney they found a pubic hair on the victim that was a match to martin. The then-teenager admitted to committing robberies but denied being involved in the murder. DNA testing later determined martin was not involved in the rape and killing of 19-year-old Ursula Brown. Instead, the DNA pointed to another man, William Davidson, who is now serving 65 years to life."..."In a statement from Robert Marus, with the office of the D.C. Attorney General, he said: “Mr. Martin's lawsuit was filed pursuant to the District's Unjust Imprisonment Act, and it is one of several similar cases we have settled recently. In each of these cases, the plaintiffs served significant time in prison for crimes they did not commit -- a horrible and unjust experience for which they rightly should be compensated. However, we also have to be concerned about the health of the District's fisc. In this fiscal year alone, the District of Columbia has agreed to pay more than $50 million to settle five lawsuits brought under the Unjust Imprisonment Act. These are cases in which the plaintiffs were prosecuted by the federal government, not the District. And in most of these cases, the key evidence on which federal prosecutors relied was now-discredited FBI analysis of hair samples. The federal government, not the District, was responsible for that faulty analysis." Reporter Paul Wagner.


STORY: "DC agrees to $4.3M settlement with man wrongly convicted of murder," by reporter Paul Wagner, published by Fox 5 News (WTTG) on August 4, 2016.


http://www.fox5dc.com/news/local-news/185337058-story

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: 
  http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: 


 
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Harold Levy; 
 
Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;