Riley Fox’ murderer Scott Eby’s plea bargain was accepted yesterday by Will County (IL) Judge Richard Schoenstedt. Before his sentence, Eby rose and addressed the courtroom briefly. He apologized to Riley‘s parents saying that he wished he could trade his life to bring her back. In June of 2004, the body of Riley Fox(3) was pulled from a […]
DNA
Zeigler, Part XV
Zeigler, Part XV: “Just testify that you were Zeigler’s homosexual lover and we’ll help you out!” A Florida, Orange County woman in her 80’s, reads an affidavit that she signed alleging that the state tried to get her son to testify that he was William Thomas Zeigler’s homosexual lover. As you know, the state went through great […]
Zeigler gets a new DNA hearing!
Zeigler gets a new DNA hearing! The Orlando Sentinel reports that an Orange Circuit Judge has granted long-time death row inmate Tommy Zeigler an evidentiary hearing more than a year after the man convicted of killing his in-laws, his wife, and another man on Christmas Eve 1975 filed a Petition_and_Proposed_Order[1] in his case. The order granting […]
“It’s not about the conviction or the sentence.”
Sundeep Bhatia’s observation is one I agree with: “But the request to test the DNA evidence is not really about the conviction or sentence. It’s about the evidence and the possibility that it may shed some light on who the real killer is. Skinner hopes it is exculpatory. But it may be inculpatory. Skinner doesn’t know. And that’s […]
Night Stalker’s DNA confirmed
The Night Stalker a.k.a. Richard Ramirez terrorized California in the early 80s with a string of rape-murders. His DNA has now finally been retested allowing San Francisco Police to close the case of the 1984 murder of a 9-year-old girl in the Tenderloin. Though the retesting of the serial killer’s DNA was largely a formality — meant simply […]
NYT Editorial on Skinner and DNA
In my post “DNA: a civil right” of March 26, 2010, I described why I firmly believe that (post-conviction) access to DNA testing for the condemned (in this case Henry Skinner) should not hinge on how formalistic the question to the courts is phrased. It should be implied. Today, the New York Times published an editorial that […]
Arrest in 1979 murder of Kathy Jo Baker
Richard L. Boswell Jr., a convicted sex offender, has been arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder in the 1979 murder of Kathy Jo Baker (20). That case was recently reopened by the Indiana State Police. He made his initial appearance this morning in Vigo Superior Court 6 to face the allegation that he abducted […]
Stephen Saloom: Texas science panel chairman John Bradley is biased
Stephen Saloom, the policy director of the New York-based Innocence Project, said prosecutor John Bradley shows “a critically important lack of objectivity” in his approach to the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. Bradley has publicly called Willingham a “guilty monster.” Bradley is the chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which is investigating whether fire […]
Did a cop murder the Crewes?
Author Ian Wishart has named Detective Sergeant Len Johnston as suspect in the murders of Harvey and Jeannette Crewe. Johnston was a detective who played a pivotal role in the police investigation into their deaths. Johnston passed away in 1978. The accusation has created an uproar amongst those who knew Johnston personally and professionally. It has also sparked a bitter attack […]
Guilty verdict in cold case of Jackie Johns
A St. Louis County jury convicted Gerald Carnahan of first-degree murder and forcible rape on Thursday afternoon for the death of Jackie Johns 25 years ago in Greene County, MO. Barring a successful appeal, the 52-year-old man will spend the rest of his life in prison. The murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of the rest […]