Scientists who exhumed the remains of several members of the Medici Family who dominated the Florentine Renaissance, have conclusively dismissed the theory of family murders, solving a more than 400-year-old cold case. Malaria, not poison as long rumored, killed Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his second wife, Bianca Cappello, according to research […]
Forensics
Michael VonAllmen: Cleared after 30 years
Cleared after 30 years in Louisville, KY: After 11 years in prison before being paroled in 1994 for being convicted of rape and other charges in 1982, Michael VonAllmen’s record is now clear. On July 15, 2010, a judge finally ruled to dismiss all charges with prejudice, which means the charges can never be brought back. […]
False Confessions
Lisa Black and Steve Mills of the Chicago Tribune have written an excellent piece about false confessions. False confessions are not so uncommon as you would think. Why would a parent confess to raping their own three-year old or murdering their own grandmother? If you really are not guilty, nothing in the world could make you […]
Trial date for Bernard Jackson
The trial of Bernard Jackson, the man accused of four Waldo area rapes in the 1980s, is scheduled for 2011. Judge Charles E. Atwell is scheduled to preside over the trial, which will be in either April or July. A case management conference is scheduled for August 13, 2010. Earlier this month, Jackson entered a […]
Hina Family Murders from 1989 cracked
On Wednesday, New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney announced that David McLeod has been arrested in West Sacramento, California, on four counts of second-degree murder for “recklessly causing the death of the Hina family under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life,” according to a written statement from the attorney general’s office. […]
The 1980 Tim Hack and Kelly Drew murders
Edward Edwards, of Louisville, Ky., was arrested after DNA connected him to the unsolved murders of Tim Hack and Kelly Drew, who disappeared from a Wisconsin wedding reception in August 1980. Their bodies were found weeks later in the woods. Investigators believe Hack was stabbed and Drew strangled. Authorities said the state crime lab matched Edwards’ DNA to […]
Fingerprints identify 1990 UK M25 victim!
Fingerprints identify 1990 UK M25 victim! New fingerprint technology has enabled police to identify a woman who was killed on the M25 in Hertfordshire, UK, 20 years ago. The victim’s name: Lesley Ann Pickavance. Lesley Ann had been in contact with her family, who are from Bedford, but was not living with them during the summer […]
Riley Fox: Ignored Evidence
Looking back in the Riley Fox case it is always easier to point out how many mistakes police made during that investigation. Some goof-ups need to be exposed especially since it could have prevented an even bigger one. This ignored piece of evidence in the case of Riley Fox could have spared her father a […]
Zeigler, Part XI
Zeigler, Part XI: On Juror Intimidation and Judicial Override You can debate all you want but I have made up my mind; Zeigler is guilty! That was what jury foreman Charles Ashley announced right after he had been elected foreman. According to other jurors, he had made up his mind about two weeks prior … […]
Was Claude Jones Wrongly Executed?
A state judge has ordered East Texas prosecutors to hand over key evidence from a 1989 murder case to the Innocence Project and The Texas Observer for DNA testing—analysis that may prove for the first time that Texas executed an innocent man. The Innocence Project and the Observer filed suit in 2007 to obtain a […]