Sum it up! #15

Week 15: Sum it up! This was a very active week with lots of movement in decade old cold cases. I could not be more pleased. Many of the cases were highlighted in the media, some on blogs and some of course, here on DCC.

We start with Sum it up! with a loss for Professor David Bowen. Prof. Bowen passed away on March 31, 2011, at the age of 87. As head of forensic medicine at the Charing Cross Hospital between 1973 and 1989 and professor of forensic medicine at London University from 1977 to 1989, Bowen investigated some 500 cases of murder and suspicious deaths. Famous cases include Dennis Nilsen, the Railway Murders, Ross McWhirter, Blair Peach, Robert Calvi, Rudolf Hess, and of course, the murder of PC Keith Blakelock who was hacked to death in the riots on the Broadwater Farm estate, Tottenham, 1985.

Houston, Texas, is getting a grant from the Justice Department to analyse why old rape kist went untested for years. For details, read and follow it over at Grits for Breakfast.

Reuters reports that familial DNA in forensic searches is gaining clout. “Recently adopted in Virginia and under consideration in Pennsylvania, the controversial search technology is used in Colorado and California, where it was credited with nabbing suspects in the Grim Sleeper serial murders and a coffee shop rape case. In familial DNA searches, authorities collect crime scene DNA and search for a near – but not perfect – match with existing DNA in the criminal database, presumably from an incarcerated blood relative of the yet unknown suspect. A near match may cause authorities to focus on a potential suspect, possibly the first break in a protracted investigation that otherwise has no leads.”

The use of familial DNA is controversial since it does not provide an exact match, infringes on privacy, could target innocent people, etc. However, others say that the use will immediately show whether police is searching in the right direction and thus, could move an investigaiton along faster and more effectively.

Cold cases in the news:

In Illinois “Cook County prosecutors say they have reopened their investigation into the rape and murder of a suburban girl 20 years ago, after defense lawyers said DNA testing done last month linked a convicted rapist to the crime. Five teenagers were convicted of the rape and murder of 14-year-old Cateresa Matthews, and three of them are still serving long prison sentences for the crime. DNA does not connect any of the five to the rape and murder, according to their lawyers. In a new round of DNA tests last month, a lab was able to isolate a single genetic profile from the swabs taken at the time of the murder and rape. When the Illinois State Police uploaded it into a database, it matched the DNA profile of a man who was 33 at the time of the 1991 murder. At the time, he had already been convicted of a sexual assault and recently paroled near where Matthews lived, according to sources. Prosecutors plan to review the case but oppose defense efforts to throw out the convictions.”

The 1969 murder of John Joseph McCabe has been solved. McCabe was 15 years old when he died. “Arrested were Edward Brown, 59, Walter Shelley, 60, and Michael Ferreira, 57. Only Shelley is charged with murder, while Brown faces manslaughter charges and Ferreira, who was not yet a legal adult at the time of the crime, will face juvenile murder charges as well as a perjury charge for lying in court regarding the case. Shelley and Ferreira are being held on $500,000 cash bail while Brown was released on his own recognizance. Shelley and Brown’s next court date is scheduled for May 26 and Ferreira will be back before a judge on April 18.”

In San Rafael, CA, Joseph Naso has been arrested and is accused in four homicides dating back to 1977.  All four women had alliterative names: Carmen Colon, Roxene Roggasch, Pamela Parsons and Tracy Tafoya. “Authorities acknowledged that a DNA sample taken from one of the New York victims didn’t match Naso, and they have no other physical evidence that he was involved in those killings. Still, they’re not ready to eliminate Naso as a suspect and hope people who knew him will be able to help with their investigation.”

In Atlanta, GA, 66-year old Johnny Wright was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the 1976 slaying of Rebecca Doisy, who was 23 years old when she died. Doisy’s body was never found.

CBS reports about the cold case of Louis Allen. Allen’s is one of the Civil Rights Era cases the FBI is digging into again. Allen was a World War II veteran who witnesses the murder of a black civil rights volunteer. After talking to the FBI about that murder, he received threats. He planned to move away from Liberty, MS, but was murdered before he could.

Professor Brandon Garrett has published a new book called Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong. “He explores false confessions and mistaken eyewitness testimony. “Based on trial transcripts, Garrett’s investigation into the causes of wrongful convictions reveal larger patterns of incompetence, abuse, and error. Evidence corrupted by suggestive eyewitness procedures, coercive interrogations, unsound and unreliable forensics, shoddy investigative practices, cognitive bias, and poor lawyering illustrates the weaknesses built into our current criminal justice system. Garrett proposes practical reforms that rely more on documented, recorded, and audited evidence, and less on fallible human memory.”

Garrett highlights the case of Ronald Cotton to pinpoint some of the key factors that cause faulty identifications. North Carolina college student Jennifer Thompson misidentified Ronald Cotton as her rapist, leading to Cotton spending 10 years in prison before DNA finally exonerated him in 1995. In a joint cooperation with the Innocence Project, Garrett also unveiled the first section of a new interactive feature on the causes of wrongful conviction on the Innocence Project website that includes additional information on eyewitness misidentification reform and the Cotton case.” Read more here and here.

Last for this Sum it Up: America’s heartbreaking case of the “Boy in the Box.” Found in a box in 1957, this boy has not been identified, has not been claimed and there do not seem to be any new leads. The website has a wealth of information about this case and includes maps, photographs (warning: graphic) and more. Please take a look.

Till the next Sum it Up!