This page is for noting issues with the investigation
Currently, it’s just a list with little detail. It’s things the police / prosecution demonstrably got wrong, or improper behavior.
(1) The phone call that was meant to have disproved Camm’s alibi, but which turned out to have been made an hour earlier, consistent with David Camm’s account. From the First Appeal Ruling :
“The States claim in opening argument that Camm made a phone call from his house at 7:19 p.m., which would have refuted the alibi witnesses testimony that he was at the gym at that time, was found to be incorrect upon examination of a Verizon employee who testified that due to a software error concerning Indianas unusual time zones, the call was placed instead at 6:19 p.m., when Camm said he was at home and before he left to play basketball.”
(2) The delay (of five years) in running the DNA found on Boney’s sweatshirt through MODIS. The defence team were told it had been run, but this was a lie.
(3) The treatment of Lynn Scamahorn, a DNA analyst from the Indiana State Police, a university trained scientist who analyzes blood and DNA. She tested all the clothing in the Camm case in both trials.
Scamahorn said (on oath) that when she refused to change her testimony during Camm’s first trial in 2002, Faith was infuriated, screaming at her, and telling her he’d have her fired, and charged with a felony — obstructing justice, if she wasn’t able to find Camm’s DNA. ( www.wave3.com ).
This is supported by a memo she wrote just days after the incident ( http://www.justicefordavidcamm.com/pages/pdf/scamahorn_memo.pdf ).
Note that this was during a break in court hearings where Lynn was giving evidence. It cannot be explained as Faith asking Scamahorn to conduct further tests.
I cannot imagine a more blatant example of a prosecutor attempting to pervert the course of justice. I see no reason to doubt Scamahorn’s account of what happened.
Credibility of Englert
, from a petition :
The main expert used to convict David Camm, Rodney Englert, was also involved in convicting another innocent person, Julie Rea. She was wrongfully convicted in 2002 of stabbing to death her 10 year-old son in Lawrenceville, IL, based on Englert’s testimony. Englert claimed in her case that there was evidence of cast-off stains on Julie’s nightshirt. After her conviction, a serial killer who targeted children by the name of Tommy Lynn Sells confessed to the murder for which Julie had been wrongfully convicted. A Texas Ranger provided an affidavit in support of Julie’s petition to overturn her conviction. She was freed from prison and received a certificate of innocence.
On June 2, 2003, an ethics complaint with the American Academy of Forensic Science was lodged against Englert by a number of other bloodstain experts alleging that Englert misrepresented his education, training and experience. This prompted Englert to sue them for slander. The bloodstain experts who signed the complaint included Herb MacDonell, (who established the professions of blood stain pattern experts in 1971, with the publication of his book “Flight Characteristics and Stain Patterns of Human Blood.”) Stuart James, Terry Laber, and Bart Epstein. MacDonell was also sued for slander for calling Englert among other things “a forensic whore”, “liar-for-hire”, “a very smooth charlatan” and “The Bin Laden of Bloodstains”. All of these bloodstain experts that Englert sued have expressed opinions in support of David Camm’s innocence.
Links regarding the MacDonell slander case:
Ruling 6 July 2010 ( case dismissed on technical grounds )
Appeal ruling 26 May 2011 ( case partly restored, down from 12 statements to 2 emails )
“Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court with respect to 10 of the 12 allegedly defamatory statements, but reverse as to the final two statements – the emails of June 28, 2003, and October 8, 2003 – and remand for further proceedings consistent with this disposition. Each party shall bear his own costs on appeal.”
The Julie Rea Harper Case
Englert testified in both the original and second trial ( where Julie Rea Harper was exonerated ).
Julie Rea http://www.uis.edu/innocenceproject/cases/exonorees/jrharper/index.html
http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-3319-the-end.html
The final blow to Parkinson’s strategy came when the defense successfully objected to the performance planned by Rodney Englert, a “crime-scene reconstructionist” and blood-pattern analyst from Portland, Ore., hired by prosecutors to deliver his expert opinion about the physical evidence. Vaughn ruled that Englert could display a poster showing various types of blood spatter (hair swipe, fabric impression, low velocity, castoff) but that he could not stage a demonstration using fake blood inside the courtroom.
Competence of Robert Stites
ToDo
See also
http://www.pi-magazine.com/May-June2013.pdf pages 41-47.
Trial by Media 