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You might think that putting an innocent person in prison for a major crime like rape or murder would end or at least impede a prosecutor's career. But prosecutors are rarely sanctioned for mistakes, even when their misconduct is egregious. In fact, they are often re-elected, promoted to judge, or encouraged to run for political office. Sometimes they even owe these successes to the publicity they get from high-profile convictions of people who turned out to be innocent. Here are some of the worst cases of prosecutors who put more than one innocent person in prison but suffered no significant professional consequences.
The Death Row Gambler
Forrest Allgood, district attorney for four Mississippi counties
Four people Forrest Allgood has convicted of murder were later set free. Two of them served time on death row.
One was Sabrina Butler, an 18-year-old mentally retarded woman Allgood convicted of killing her infant son in 1990. Butler was retried in 1995 after the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that Allgood had committed misconduct when he told jurors that Butler's refusal to take the stand in her own defense was an indication of her guilt. In the retrial, the medical examiner that Allgood had used the first time around admitted to making some key mistakes, and outside examiners testified that Butler's child likely died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or kidney disease. Butler was acquitted and released from prison.
Another Allgood victim was Tyler Edmonds. In Ed-monds' 2007 trial, Allgood posited that the defendant and his sister, Kristi Fulgham, had teamed up to kill Fulgham's husband 13 years earlier. The duo, he argued, had waited until the man was asleep and then simultaneously pulled the trigger. At trial, Allgood called on controversial medical examiner Steven Hayne, who preposterously claimed that he could tell by the bullet wounds in the victim's body that two people had held the gun. On review, the Mississippi Supreme Court threw out Hayne's testimony and ordered a new trial. In 2008 Edmonds was retried, acquitted, and released. Kristi Fulgham was convicted in a separate trial and is still on death row.
In his 1995 prosecution of Kennedy Brewer, Allgood again solicited testimony from Hayne, this time accompanied by Hayne's longtime sidekick, the disgraced bite mark specialist Michael West. West testified that he found bite marks on a 3-year-old murder victim that could only have been made by Brewer's teeth. Based largely on that testimony, Brewer was convicted of raping and killing Christine Jackson, his girlfriend's daughter, and sentenced to death. After the conviction, Allgood attempted to have the biological evidence from the case destroyed. Brewer's lawyer objected and managed to preserve it.
A decade later, more-advanced DNA testing determined that there was semen from two men inside of Jackson, and neither of them was Kennedy Brewer. The state Supreme Court ordered a new trial. Despite the test results, Allgood planned to prosecute Brewer again. When The New York Times asked him why he hadn't bothered checking the crime scene DNA against the state's DNA database, Allgood replied that the state doesn't have such a database. This came as a surprise to the man who had been running it.
Allgood's decision to retry Brewer and his opposition to checking the crime scene evidence against the state DNA database kept Brewer in prison for another six years. When the DNA was finally checked, it revealed Christine Jackson's murderer and showed that he had also raped and murdered another young girl two years later, just a few miles away. Allgood had used Hayne, West, and dubious bite mark testimony in that case too, convicting the wrong man. In 2008, that man, Levon Brooks, was exonerated and freed. The DNA in both cases matched a man named Justin Albert Johnson, who later confessed to both crimes.
Allgood continues to win re-election, and there are still countless people in prison based on his use of Hayne and West. One of them, Eddie Lee Howard, is still on death row.
The DNA Denialist
Michael Mermel, assistant state attorney, Lake County, Illinois
Michael Mermel has a history of standing behind his hunches, even in the face of contrary DNA evidence. In 2005, when a DNA test on an 11-year-old rape and murder victim didn't match his suspect, Mermel argued that the victim must have been sexually active around the time of her murder.
When a DNA test in 2003 showed that the semen in the underwear of a 68-year-old woman didn't belong to Bernie Starks, a man convicted in 1986 of raping and murdering her, Mermel dismissed the results because the semen came from the victim's clothing. Had it come from the woman's vagina, Mermel said, "I would be standing over there advocating the side that the defense has in the case."
Three years later, defense attorneys found the rape kit and tested semen recovered from the woman's vagina. Again, there was no match. Mermel again wouldn't budge, this time arguing that the woman must have had sex with someone else just before the rape.
Mermel's biggest blunder was Jerry Hobbs, who was arrested in 2005 on charges of raping and stabbing to death his 8-year-old daughter and her 9-year-old friend. Hobbs confessed to the killings, but only after 16 straight hours of questioning that began after he'd spent the previous night looking for the girls. The interrogation was not videotaped. Hobbs later retracted his confession and has since claimed he was physically and psychologically tortured by police. The confession was the only evidence against him.
When Hobbs' attorneys revealed in court in 2008 that DNA tests showed the semen found in the mouth, rectum, and vagina of Hobbs' daughter didn't belong to Hobbs, Mermel postulated that the foreign semen must have found its way into the girl's body while she was playing in a patch of woods where teenagers were known to have sex. The girl had been found fully clothed.
Hobbs was finally vindicated in July 2010, when Jorge Torrez was arrested in Arlington, Virginia, for the abduction and rape of a University of Maryland student. When police ran Torrez's DNA against a national database, it provided a match to the semen found in Hobbs' daughter. After five years in jail, Hobbs was released in August 2010.
Mermel continues to serve as a Lake County assistant state's attorney.
The Witch Hunter
Ed Jagels, former district attorney, Kern County, California
Ed Jagels finally retired as district attorney of California's Kern County in 2009. During his 26 years in office, Jagels boasted that the Central Valley district had a higher per capita rate of imprisonment than any other large county in the state. The mock slogan for Bakersfield, the county seat, was "Come for Vacation, Leave on Probation." Yet with crime rates nosediving across the country, the Kern County rate did not fall as quickly as those in neighboring areas.
The boyish-looking Jagels, who was fond of strapping on a gun and tagging along on police raids, was at the forefront of California's disastrous "three strikes" law, which imposed a life sentence on anyone convicted of three felonies. He also led an effort to get anti-death penalty justices removed from the California Supreme Court. He was regularly berated by appellate courts for withholding exculpatory evidence.
Jagels' most egregious transgression was his prosecution of 26 working-class residents of Kern County in the 1980s and 1990s for shocking sex crimes against children. A rash of similar (and, it would turn out, equally bogus) prosecutions was erupting across the country at the time, but Jagels' office in Bakersfield may well have been ground zero. Police and prosecutors told fantastical tales of satanic rituals, orgies, and bestiality, painting gruesome word-pictures of children hung on meat hooks and infants sodomized with knives. None of it happened. Of the 26 people Jagels' office convicted, 25 have since had their convictions overturned. (For a moving account of these cases, see the 2009 documentary Witch Hunt.)
Even as the sex abuse convictions began to fall apart in the mid-1990s, Jagels continued to win re-election. His colleagues selected him to head the California District Attorneys Association. When Jagels finally announced his retirement, Scott Thorpe, the current head of that organization, called him "a prosecutor's prosecutor." An aide to Jagels told The Bakersfield Californian, "Prosecutors from around the state seek and respect his advice on almost every issue of public safety." After retiring, Jagels served as a policy adviser to 2010 GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman.
The Evidence Hoarder
Kenny Hulshof, former special prosecutor, Missouri Attorney General's Office
For the first half of the 1990s, Kenny Hulshof was the go-to prosecutor when the Missouri attorney general's office needed someone to handle a high-profile death penalty case. He quickly developed a reputation for winning big trials, which he later touted in successful runs for political office.
But in 2010 Missouri Circuit Court Judge Warren McElwain freed a man Hulshof had prosecuted, declaring Dale Helmig innocent of killing his mother in 1993, a crime for which he had been sentenced to death. In his decision, McElwain singled out Hulshof for harsh criticism, accusing him of withholding exculpatory evidence, knowingly presenting false or misleading evidence, and putting evidence before the jury that prosecutors could not prove was true.
That wasn't the first time Hulshof had been reprimanded by a judge for his actions in a murder case. In 2009 Missouri Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan declared Joshua Kezer innocent of the 1992 murder of college student Angela Mischelle Lawless, criticizing Hulshof for withholding exculpatory evidence and embellishing facts in his closing argument to jurors.
In 2008 an Associated Press investigation found five other cases in which Hulshof was accused of significant misconduct. And in November 2010, the Missouri Supreme Court ordered a new hearing for Mark Woodworth, whom Hulshof convicted of murder in 1995, again finding evidence that should have been turned over to defense attorneys, including a letter from another prosecutor recommending that Woodworth be released due to a lack of evidence.
Hulshof rode his tough-on-crime credentials to six terms in Congress (1997–2009) and ran as the GOP nominee for governor in 2008, losing in the general election. Today he works as a lobbyist for Polsinelli Shughart, a white-shoe law firm with offices in St. Louis, Kansas City, and Washington, D.C.
Three Prosecutors Worth Praising
Many prosecutors, of course, understand that their job is to seek justice, as opposed to convictions by any means. Here are three particularly praiseworthy examples:
The Exculpator
Craig Watkins, district attorney, Dallas County, Texas
With his election in 2006, Watkins, a former defense attorney, became the first African-American D.A. in Texas history. He inherited the office long held by legendary law-and-order prosecutor Henry Wade (the respondent in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion case), who was rumored to boast of his ability to convict innocent men.
Upon taking office, Watkins set up what he called the Conviction Integrity Unit, a team of lawyers that works with the Texas Innocence Project to seek out and reopen cases of possibly wrongful convictions. Since 2001, 21 men convicted in Dallas County have been exonerated by DNA evidence—more than any county in the country and more than in all but a handful of states. Watkins' staff also has helped free prisoners in cases where non-DNA evidence has emerged that points to their innocence. There is now a remarkable tradition in Dallas in which former exonerees attend the final hearing of the latest exoneree and welcome him to life on the outside.
In 2010 Watkins was narrowly re-elected, defeating his challenger by a little over one percentage point.
The Snitch Snitcher
Earle Mobley, commonwealth's attorney, Portsmouth, Virginia
In 2009, 28-year-old Ryan Frederick was put on trial for the murder of Chesapeake, Virginia, police Det. Jarrod Shivers, who had been part of a team that broke into Frederick's home during a marijuana raid. Frederick, who had no prior record and who later said he thought he was being robbed, shot and killed Shivers during the raid. Frederick's case turned on whether the jury believed him when he said he feared for his life and had no idea that the men raiding his home were police. During the trial, Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert called a jailhouse snitch named Jamaal Skeeter to the witness stand. Skeeter claimed that Frederick had confessed to him in jail that he knew Shivers was a cop and that Frederick had boasted about killing him.
Skeeter was well-known to prosecutors as an opportunist who would say anything to get a break on his own (long) rap sheet. Mobley, a prosecutor, brought this information to Ebert's attention. When Ebert didn't call Mobley as a witness, Mobley reached out to the defense. It was an extraordinary move. It's one thing for a prosecutor to have the integrity to not use unreliable jailhouse informants himself. It's quite another to call out another prosecutor for doing so in the midst of a high-profile trial.
Mobley had warned other prosecutors about Skeeter in the past. He also has filed motions against police officers who miss hearings and publicly reprimanded cops and prosecutors who take shortcuts. "We have a sworn duty as prosecutors to make sure there's a fair proceeding," Mobley told The Virginian-Pilot. "You have to disclose everything under the rules."
Mobley's name also came up in Gene Weingarten's "Fatal Distraction," a moving (and Pulitzer-winning) 2009 Washington Post article about parents who had incomprehensibly but mistakenly killed their young children by leaving them alone in a hot car. While other prosecutors in similar cases had prosecuted the devastated parent, Mobley declined to charge Portsmouth electrician Andrew Culpepper in the death of his two-year-old son. Mobley said police found no evidence that Culpepper intended to kill the boy. He had simply made a crushing mistake. "The easy thing in a case like this is to dump it on a jury, but that is not the right thing to do," Mobley told Weingarten. "I'm not pretty sure I made the right decision. I'm positive I made the right decision." Mobley added that "a prosecutor's responsibility is to achieve justice, not to settle some sort of score."
The Unlikely Reformer
Pat Lykos, district attorney, Harris County, Texas
In 2008 Pat Lykos, a self-described Goldwater-Reagan Republican who supports the death penalty, was elected as chief law enforcement officer of Harris County, Texas, the county that has executed more people than any other, in a state that has executed more people than any other. In fact, under the leadership of former D.A. Johnny B. Holmes—a handlebar-mustached, lock-'em-up tough guy whom the Los Angeles Times once called "the killingest prosecutor" in the country—Harris County by itself sent more people to death row than the 49 states that aren't Texas.
So Lykos would seem to be an unlikely criminal justice reformer. But upon taking office she set up her own team to review prior convictions for mistakes, similar to Craig Watkins' unit in Dallas. Watkins has been aided by a fortuitous historical accident in which Dallas County routinely sent crime scene evidence to a private lab for safekeeping. That means some biological evidence from cases dating back to the 1980s can still be tested. Lykos not only does not have that advantage, but the crime lab in Harris County's largest city, Houston, has a history of mishandling and even destroying evidence.
Nevertheless, Lykos has initiated three exonerations so far. In 2010 the Innocence Project of Texas gave Lykos its Honesty and Integrity in Prosecution Award. The organization's spokesman, Jeff Blackburn, told The Daily Beast earlier this year that "Harris County was the standard bearer of everything bad in criminal justice" until Lykos came along. Under her leadership, Blackburn said, the county "is becoming the single most powerful example of how to change this system and make it work right."
Radley Balko (firstname.lastname@example.com) is a senior editor at reason.]]>
When Paul House was finally released from prison in 2008, he was a specter of the man who had been sentenced to death more than 22 years earlier. When I visit his home in Crossville, Tennessee, in March, House's mother Joyce, who has cared for him since his release, points to a photo of House taken the day he was finally allowed to come home. In that photo and others from his last days in prison, House is all of 150 pounds, ashen and drawn, his fragile frame nearly consumed by his wheelchair. In most of the images he looks days away from death, although in one he wears the broad smile of a man finally escaping a long confinement.
When House's aunt called to congratulate him on his first day back, his mother handed him her cell phone so he could chat. He inspected the phone, gave her a frustrated look, and asked her to find him one that worked. That kind of Rip Van Winkle moment is common among people freed after a long stint in prison. Dennis Fritz, one of the two wrongly convicted men profiled in John Grisham's 2006 book The Innocent Man, talks about nearly calling the police upon seeing someone use an electronic key card the first time he found himself in a hotel after his release. He thought he'd witnessed a burglar use a credit card to jimmy open a door.
"Paul's first meal when he got home was chili verde," Joyce House says. "It's his favorite. And I had been waiting a long time to make it for him." And apparently quite a few meals after that. House, now 49, has put on 75 pounds since his release. More important, he has been getting proper treatment for his advanced-stage multiple sclerosis, treatment the Tennessee prison system hadn't given him.
The years of inadequate care have taken a toll. House can't walk, and he needs help with such basic tasks as bathing, feeding himself, and maneuvering around in his wheelchair. His once distinctively deep voice (which had allegedly been heard by a witness at the crime scene) is now wispy and high-pitched. He spends his time playing computer games and watching game shows.
In the hour or so that I visit with House, his mental facilities fade in and out. Communicating with him can be like trying to listen to a baseball game broadcast by a distant radio station. He will give a slurred but lucid answer to one question, then answer the next one with silence, or with the answer to a previous question, or just with a random assortment of words. He frequently falls back on the resigned refrain, "Oh, well," delivered with a shrug. The gesture and phrasing are identical every time he uses them. It's what House says to kill the expectation that he will be able to deliver the words others in the room are waiting for. It's his signal to stop waiting for him and move on.
In 1986 House was convicted of murdering Carolyn Muncey in Union County, Tennessee, a rural part of the state that shoulders Appalachia. He was sentenced to death. His case is a textbook study in wrongful conviction. It includes mishandled evidence, prosecutorial misconduct, bad science, cops with tunnel vision, DNA testing, the near-execution of an innocent man, and an appellate court reluctant to reopen old cases even in the face of new evidence that strongly suggests the jury got it wrong.
House also embodies the tribulations and frustrations that the wrongly convicted encounter once they get out. According to the doctors treating him, his current condition is the direct result of the inadequate care he received in prison. If he is ever granted a formal exoneration—a process that can be as much political as it is judicial—he will be eligible for compensation for his years behind bars, but even then the money comes with vexing conditions and limitations.
Since 1989, DNA testing has freed 268 people who were convicted of crimes they did not commit. There are dozens of other cases, like House's, where DNA strongly suggests innocence but does not conclusively prove it. Convicting and imprisoning an innocent person is arguably the worst thing a government can do to one of its citizens, short of mistakenly executing him. (There's increasing evidence that this has happened too.) Just about everyone agrees that these are unfathomable tragedies. What is far less clear, and still hotly debated, is what these cases say about the way we administer justice in America, what we owe the wrongly convicted, and how the officials who send innocent people to prison should be held accountable.
How Many Are Innocent?
According to the Innocence Project, an advocacy group that provides legal aid to the wrongly convicted, the average DNA exoneree served 13 years in prison before he or she was freed. Seventeen had been sentenced to death. Remarkably, 67 percent of the exonerated were convicted after 2000, the year that marked the onset of modern DNA testing. Each new exoneration adds more urgency to the question that has hovered over these cases since the first convict was cleared by DNA in 1989: How many more innocent people are waiting to be freed?
Given the soundness of DNA testing, we can be nearly certain that the 268 cleared so far didn't commit the crimes for which they were convicted. There are hundreds of other cases where no DNA evidence exists to definitively establish guilt or innocence, but a prisoner has been freed due to lack of evidence, recantation of eyewitness testimony, or police or prosecutorial misconduct. Those convictions were overturned because there was insufficient evidence to overcome reasonable doubt; it does not necessarily mean the defendant didn't commit the crime. It's unclear whether and how those cases should be factored into any attempt to estimate the number of innocent people in prison.
In a country where there are 15,000 to 20,000 homicides each year, 268 exonerations over two decades may seem like an acceptable margin of error. But reform advocates point out that DNA testing is conclusive only in a small percentage of criminal cases. Testing is helpful only in solving crimes where exchange of DNA is common and significant, mostly rape and murder. (And most murder exonerations have come about because the murder was preceded by a rape that produced testable DNA.) Even within this subset of cases, DNA evidence is not always preserved, nor is it always dispositive to the identity of the perpetrator.
Death penalty cases add urgency to this debate. In a 2007 study published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, the Seton Hall law professor Michael Risinger looked at cases of exoneration for capital murder-rapes between 1982 and 1989, compared them to the total number of murder-rape cases over that period for which DNA would be a factor, and estimated from that data that 3 percent to 5 percent of the people convicted of capital crimes probably are innocent. If Risinger is right, it's still unclear how to extrapolate figures for the larger prison population. Some criminologists argue that there is more pressure on prosecutors and jurors to convict someone, anyone, in high-profile murder cases. That would suggest a higher wrongful conviction rate in death penalty cases. But defendants also tend to have better representation in capital cases, and media interest can also mean more scrutiny for police and prosecutors. That could lead to fewer wrongful convictions.
In a study published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology in 2005, a team led by University of Michigan law professor Samuel Gross looked at 328 exonerations of people who had been convicted of rape, murder, and other felonies between 1989 and 2003. They found that while those who have been condemned to die make up just 1 percent of the prison population, they account for 22 percent of the exonerated. But does that mean capital cases are more likely to bring a wrongful conviction? Or does it mean the attention and scrutiny that death penalty cases get after conviction—particularly as an execution date nears—make it more likely that wrongful convictions in capital cases will be discovered?
Many states have special public defender offices that take over death penalty cases after a defendant has exhausted his appeals. These offices tend to be well-staffed, with enough funding to hire their own investigators and forensic specialists. That sometimes stands in stark contrast to the public defender offices that handled the same cases at trial. Perversely, this means that in some jurisdictions, a defendant wrongly convicted of murder may be better off with a death sentence than with life in prison.
Even if we were to drop below the floor set in the Risinger study and assume that 2 percent of the 2008 prison population was innocent, that would still mean about 46,000 people have been convicted and incarcerated for crimes they didn't commit. But some skeptics say even that figure is way too high.
Joshua Marquis, the district attorney for Clatsop County, Oregon, is an outspoken critic of the Innocence Project and of academics like Risinger and Gross. He is skeptical of the belief that wrongful convictions are common. "If I thought that 3 to 5 percent of people in prison right now were innocent, I'd quit my job," Marquis says. "I'd become a public defender or something. Maybe an activist. Look, nobody but a fool would say that wrongful convictions don't happen. As a prosecutor, my worst nightmare is not losing a case—I've lost cases; I'll lose cases in the future. My worst nightmare is convicting an innocent person, and I tell my staff that. But the question here is whether wrongful convictions are epidemic or episodic. And I just don't think it's possible that the number could be anywhere near 3 to 5 percent."
Marquis and Gross have been butting heads for several years. In a 2006 New York Times op-ed piece, Marquis took the 328 exonerations Gross and his colleagues found between 1989 and 2003, rounded it up to 340, then multiplied it by 10—a charitable act, he wrote, to "give the professor the benefit of the doubt." He then divided that number by 15 million, the total number of felony convictions during the same period, and came up with what he said was an error rate of just 0.027 percent. His column was later quoted in a concurring opinion by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in the 2006 case Kansas v. Marsh, the same opinion where Scalia made the notorious claim that nothing in the U.S. Constitution prevents the government from executing an innocent person.
Gross responded with a 2008 article in the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, pointing out that his original number was by no means comprehensive. Those were merely the cases in which a judicial or political process had exonerated someone. The figure suggested only that wrongful convictions happen. "By [Marquis'] logic we could estimate the proportion of baseball players who've used steroids by dividing the number of major league players who've been caught by the total of all baseball players at all levels: major league, minor league, semipro, college and Little League," Gross wrote, "and maybe throw in football and basketball players as well."
Whatever the total number of innocent convicts, there is good reason to believe that the 268 cases in which DNA evidence has proven innocence don't begin to scratch the surface. For one thing, the pace of these exonerations hasn't slowed down: There were 22 in 2009, making it the second busiest name-clearing year to date. Furthermore, exonerations are expensive in both time and resources. Merely discovering a possible case and requesting testing often isn't enough. With some commendable exceptions (see "Bad Boys," page 58), prosecutors tend to fight requests for post-conviction DNA testing. (The U.S. Supreme Court held in 2009 that there is no constitutional right to such tests.) So for now, the pace of genetic exonerations appears to be limited primarily by the amount of money and staff that legal advocacy groups have to uncover these cases and argue them in court, the amount of evidence available for testing, and the willingness of courts to allow the process to happen, not by a lack of cases in need of further investigation.
It's notable that one of the few places in America where a district attorney has specifically dedicated staff and resources to seeking out bad convictions—Dallas County, Texas—has produced more exonerations than all but a handful of states. That's partly because Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins is more interested in reopening old cases than his counterparts elsewhere, and partly because of a historical quirk: Since the early 1980s the county has been sending biological crime scene evidence to a private crime lab for testing, and that lab has kept the evidence well preserved. Few states require such evidence be preserved once a defendant has exhausted his appeals, and in some jurisdictions the evidence is routinely destroyed at that point.
"I don't think there was anything unique about the way Dallas was prosecuting crimes," Watkins told me in 2008. "It's unfortunate that other places didn't preserve evidence too. We're just in a unique position where I can look at a case, test DNA evidence from that period, and say without a doubt that a person is innocent.…But that doesn't mean other places don't have the same problems Dallas had."
If the rest of the country has an actual (but undetected) wrongful conviction rate as high as Dallas County's, the number of innocents in prison for felony crimes could be in the tens of thousands.
The Trial and Conviction of Paul House
As with many wrongful convictions, the case against Paul House once seemed watertight. House was an outsider, having only recently moved to Union County when Carolyn Muncey was murdered in 1985, and he was an ex-con, having served five years in a Utah prison for sexual assault. He got into scuffles with locals, although he considered Muncey and her husband, Hubert, friends. When Muncey turned up dead, House was a natural suspect.
House has claimed he was innocent of the Utah charge. His mother, Joyce, says it was a he said/she said case in which her son pleaded guilty on the advice of his attorney. "He could have been paroled earlier if he had shown some remorse," she says. "But he said, 'I pled guilty the one time, because that's what the lawyer told me I should do. I'm not going to say again that I did something I didn't do.' He said he'd rather serve more time than admit to the rape again." Joyce House and Mike Pemberton, Paul House's attorney, are hesitant to go into much detail about the Utah case, and public records aren't available due to the plea bargain. But while what happened in Utah certainly makes House less sympathetic, it has no bearing on whether House is the man who killed Carolyn Muncey.
House also didn't do himself any favors during the Muncey investigation. In initial questioning, he lied to the police about where he was the night of the murder, saying he was with his girlfriend all night. But he later admitted he had gone for a walk at one point and had come back without his shoes and with scratches on his arms. He initially lied to police about the scratches too, saying they were inflicted by his girlfriend's cats. House later said he'd been accosted by some locals while on his walk, scuffled with them, then fled through a field, where he lost his shoes. (House would learn years later that his shoes were found by police before his trial. There was no blood or other biological evidence on them, potentially exculpatory information that was never turned over to House's lawyers.)
"I think it was a situation where you're on parole, you're an outsider, and this woman has just been killed near where you live," says Pemberton, House's attorney. "It wasn't smart of him to lie to the police. But it was understandable."
Carolyn Muncey's husband, who House's attorneys would later suspect was her killer, also lied about where he was when she was killed. He would additionally claim, falsely, that he had never physically abused her. Still, House was clearly the early suspect.
The strongest evidence against House was semen found on Muncey's clothing, which an FBI agent testified at trial "could have" belonged to House. DNA testing didn't exist in 1986, but the agent said House was a secretor, meaning he produced blood type secretions in other body fluids, including semen, and that the type secreted in semen found on Muncey's nightgown was a match to House's type A blood. About 80 percent of people are secretors, and about 36 percent of Americans have type A blood. The agent also said the semen found on Muncey's panties included secretions that didn't match House's blood type, but added, inaccurately, that House's secretion could have "degraded" into a match. Muncey's husband was never tested.
The other strong evidence against House was some blood stains on his jeans that matched Muncey's blood type, but not his own. Those stains on House's jeans did turn out to have been Muncey's blood; the question is how they got there.
House was never charged with rape; there were no physical indications that Muncey had been sexually assaulted. But the semen was used to put him at the crime scene, and the state used the possibility of rape as an aggravating circumstance in arguing that House should receive the death penalty.
House was convicted in February 1986. The morning after his conviction, just hours before the sentencing portion of his trial, House slashed his wrists with a disposable razor. He left behind a suicide note in which he professed his innocence. Jail officials rushed him to a hospital in Knoxville, where doctors saved his life and stitched up his wounds. He was then sent back to the courthouse, where a jury sentenced him to death.
It wasn't until more than a decade later, in 1999, that the case against House began to erode. New witnesses came forward with accusations against Hubert Muncey, Carolyn's husband. Several said he was an alcoholic who frequently beat her. At an ensuing evidentiary hearing, two other women said Hubert had drunkenly confessed to killing his wife several months after the murder. When one went to the police with the information the next day, she said at the hearing, the sheriff brushed her off. Another witness testified that Hubert Muncey had asked her to lie to back up his alibi.
But it was the forensic evidence presented at that 1999 hearing that really unraveled the state's case. When House's attorneys were finally able to get DNA testing for the semen found on Carolyn Muncey's clothes, it showed that the semen was a match to Muncey's husband, not House. The state responded that rape was never part of their case against House (though it is why he was initially a suspect, it was the only conceivable motive, and it was presented as evidence in the sentencing portion of his trial). Besides, prosecutors argued, there was still the blood on House's jeans.
Except there were problems with that too. Cleland Blake, an assistant chief medical examiner for the state of Tennessee, testified that while the blood did belong to Muncey, its chemical composition indicated it was blood that had been taken after she had been autopsied. Worse still, three-quarters of a test tube of the blood taken during Muncey's autopsy went missing between the time of the autopsy and the time House's jeans arrived at the FBI crime lab for testing. The test tubes with Muncey's blood and House's jeans were transported in the same Styrofoam box. The blood on House's jeans, his attorneys argued, must have either been planted or spilled because of sloppy handling of the evidence.
It is extraordinarily difficult to win a new trial in a felony case, even in light of new evidence, and House's case was no exception. A federal circuit court judge denied his request for post-conviction relief, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit affirmed that decision. Somewhat surprisingly, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear House's case, and in 2006 issued a rare, bitterly divided 5-to-3 ruling granting House a new trial.
The Supreme Court has occasionally thrown out death penalty convictions because of procedural errors or constitutional violations, but it's rare for the Court to methodically review the evidence in a capital case. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy did exactly that, finding in the end that "although the issue is close, we conclude that this is the rare case where—had the jury heard all the conflicting testimony—it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror viewing the record as a whole would lack reasonable doubt."
It was a surprising and significant victory for House. But it would be another three years before he would be released from prison.
How Do Wrongful Convictions Happen?
The most significant consequence of the spate of DNA exonerations has been a much-needed reassessment of what we thought we knew about how justice is administered in America. Consider the chief causes of wrongful convictions:
Bad forensic evidence. DNA technology was developed by scientists, and it has been thoroughly peer-reviewed by other scientists. Most of the forensic science used in the courtroom, on the other hand, was either invented in police stations and crime labs or has been refined and revised there to fight crime and obtain convictions. Most forensic evidence isn't peer-reviewed, isn't subject to blind testing, and is susceptible to corrupting bias, both intentional and unintentional. The most careful analysts can fall victim to cognitive bias creeping into their work, particularly when their lab falls under the auspices of a law enforcement agency. Even fingerprint analysis isn't as sound as is commonly believed.
A congressionally commissioned 2009 report by the National Academy of Sciences found that many other forensic specialties that are often presented in court with the gloss of science—hair and carpet fiber analysis, blood spatter analysis, shoe print identification, and especially bite mark analysis—lack the standards, peer review, and testing procedures of genuinely scientific research and analysis. Some are not supported by any scientific literature at all. Moreover, the report found, even the forensic specialties with some scientific support are often portrayed in court in ways that play down error rates and cognitive bias.
According to an Innocence Project analysis of the first 225 DNA exonerations, flawed or fraudulent forensic evidence factored into about half of the faulty convictions.
Eyewitness testimony. Social scientists have known about the inherent weakness of eyewitness testimony for decades. Yet it continues to be the leading cause of wrongful convictions in America; it was a factor in 77 percent of those first 225 cases. Simple steps, such as making sure police who administer lineups have no knowledge of the case (since they can give subtle clues to witnesses, even unintentionally) and that witnesses are told that the actual perpetrator may not be among the photos included in a lineup, can go a long way toward improving accuracy. But such reforms also make it more difficult to win convictions, so many jurisdictions, under pressure from police and prosecutor groups, have been hesitant to embrace them.
False confessions. Difficult as it may be to comprehend, people do confess to crimes they didn't commit. It happened in about one-quarter of the first 225 DNA exonerations. Confessions are more common among suspects who are minors or are mentally handicapped, but they can happen in other contexts as well, particularly after intense or abusive police interrogations.
In a candid 2008 op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times, D.C. Police Detective Jim Trainum detailed how he unwittingly coaxed a false confession out of a 34-year-old woman he suspected of murder. She even revealed details about the crime that could only have been known to police investigators and the killer. But Trainum later discovered that the woman couldn't possibly have committed the crime. When he reviewed video of his interrogation, he realized that he had inadvertently provided the woman with those very specific details, which she then repeated back to him when she was ready to confess.
Trainum concluded that all police interrogations should be videotaped, a policy that would not just discourage abusive questioning but also provide an incontrovertible record of how a suspect's confession was obtained. Here too, however, there has been pushback from some police agencies, out of fear that jurors may be turned off even by legitimate forms of questioning.
Jailhouse informants. If you were to take every jailhouse informant at his word, you'd find that a remarkably high percentage of the people accused of felonies boast about their crimes to the complete strangers they meet in jail and prison cells. (See "The Guilt Market," page 24.) Informants are particularly valuable in federal drug cases, where helping a prosecutor obtain more convictions is often the only way to get time cut from a mandatory minimum sentence. That gives them a pretty good incentive to lie.
There is some disagreement over a prosecutor's duty to verify the testimony he solicits from jailhouse informants. In the 2006, Church Point, Louisiana, case of Ann Colomb, for example, Brett Grayson, an assistant U.S. attorney in Louisiana, put on a parade of jailhouse informants whose claims about buying drugs from Colomb and her sons were rather improbable, especially when the sum of their testimony was considered as a whole. According to defense attorneys I spoke with, when one attorney asked him if he actually believed what his informants were telling the jury, Grayson replied that it doesn't matter if he believes his witnesses; it only matters if the jury does. He expressed a similar sentiment in his closing argument.
After indicating that he isn't familiar with the Colomb case and isn't commenting on Grayson specifically, Josh Marquis says that sentiment is wrong. "A prosecutor absolutely has a duty to only put on evidence he believes is truthful," Marquis says. "And that includes the testimony you put on from informants."
In a 2005 study, the Center on Wrongful Convictions in Chicago found that false or misleading informant testimony was responsible for 38 wrongful convictions in death penalty cases.
The professional culture of the criminal justice system. In addition to the more specific causes of wrongful convictions listed above, there is a problem with the institutional culture among prosecutors, police officers, forensic analysts, and other officials. Misplaced incentives value high conviction rates more than a fair and equal administration of justice. (See "Culture of Misconduct," page 30.)
Prosecutors in particular enjoy absolute immunity from civil liability, even in cases where they manufacture evidence that leads to a wrongful conviction. The only time prosecutors can be sued is when they commit misconduct while acting as investigators—that is, while doing something police normally do. At that point they're subject to qualified immunity, which provides less protection than absolute immunity but still makes it difficult to recover damages.
Marquis says this isn't a problem. "Prosecutors are still subject to criminal liability," he says. "In fact, my predecessor here in Oregon was prosecuted for misconduct in criminal cases. State bars will also hold prosecutors accountable."
But criminal charges are few and far between, and prosecutors can make egregious mistakes that still don't rise to the level of criminal misconduct. Professional sanctions are also rare. A 2010 study by the Northern California Innocence Project found more than 700 examples between 1997 and 2009 in which a court had found misconduct on the part of a prosecutor in the state. Only six of those cases resulted in any disciplinary action by the state bar. A 2010 investigation of federal prosecutorial misconduct by USA Today produced similar results: Of 201 cases in which federal judges found that prosecutors had committed misconduct, just one resulted in discipline by a state bar association. Prosecutorial misconduct was a factor in about one-quarter of the first 225 DNA exonerations, but none of the prosecutors in those cases faced any significant discipline from the courts or the bar.
There is also a common misconception that appeals courts serve as a check on criminal justice abuse. It is actually rare for an appeals court to review the evidence in a criminal case. Appeals courts make sure trials abide by the state and federal constitutions and by state or federal rules of criminal procedure, but they almost never second-guess the conclusions of juries.
In a 2008 article published in the Columbia Law Review, the University of Virginia law professor Brandon L. Garrett looked at the procedural history of the first 200 cases of DNA exoneration. Of those, just 18 convictions were reversed by appellate courts. Another 67 defendants had their appeals denied with no written ruling at all. In 63 cases, the appellate court opinion described the defendant as guilty, and in 12 cases it referred to the "overwhelming" evidence of guilt. Keep in mind these were all cases in which DNA testing later proved actual innocence. In the remaining cases, the appeals courts either found the defendant's appeal without merit or found that the errors in the case were "harmless"—that is, there were problems with the case, but those problems were unlikely to have affected the jury's verdict due to the other overwhelming evidence of guilt.
"We've seen a lot of exoneration cases where, for example, the defendant raised a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel," says Peter Neufeld, co-founder of the Innocence Project of New York. "And in those cases, the appellate courts often found that the defense lawyer provided sub- standard representation. But they would then say that the poor lawyering didn't prejudice the case because the evidence of guilt was so overwhelming. Well, these people were later proven innocent! If you have a test that is frequently producing erroneous results, there's either something wrong with the test, or there's something wrong with the way it's being implemented."
Life on the Outside
Paul House was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2000, a year after the evidentiary hearing that would eventually lead to his release. But while House was convicted of Carolyn Muncey's murder less than a year after it happened, it took a decade after his conviction was called into serious question for House to get back home to Crossville. During those 10 years, the state's case continued to fall apart. So did House's body.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned House's conviction in 2006, Paul Phillips, the district attorney for Tennessee's 8th Judicial District and the man who prosecuted House in 1986, pushed ahead with plans to retry him. In December 2007, after a series of delays, Harry S. Mattice Jr., a U.S. district court judge in Knoxville, finally ordered the state to try House within 180 days or set him free. Those 180 days then came and went without House being freed, thanks to an extension granted by the 6th Circuit.
In another hearing held in May 2008, Phillips argued that House—who by that point couldn't walk or move his wheelchair without assistance—presented a flight risk. Later, Tennessee Associate Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Smith attempted to show that House presented a danger to the public because he was still capable of feeding himself with a fork, which apparently meant he was also capable of stabbing someone with one. House's bail was set at $500,000, later reduced to $100,000. In July 2008, an anonymous donor paid the bail, allowing House to finally leave prison.
That same month, Phillips told the Associated Press that he would send two additional pieces of biological evidence off for DNA testing: a hair found at the crime scene, and blood found under Carolyn Muncey's fingernails. House's defense team had asked to conduct its own testing of any untested biological evidence for years, but had been told that either there was no such evidence or, if there was, the state didn't know where it was. Philips told the A.P. that if the new tests didn't implicate House, he would drop the murder charge and allow House to go home. In February 2009 the results came back. They didn't implicate House, and in fact pointed to a third, unidentified man. In May of that year, Phillips finally dropped the charge. But he still wouldn't clear House's name, telling Knoxville's local TV station WATE, "There is very adequate proof that Mr. House was involved in this crime. We just don't know the degree of culpability beyond a reasonable doubt." (Phillips' office did not respond to my requests for comment.)
By the time House was diagnosed with M.S. in 2000, his symptoms were already severe, although it took his mother, and not a prison doctor, to notice something was wrong. "I was visiting him, and I brought along some microwave popcorn," Joyce House recalls. "He asked me to heat it up, and I said, 'No, you heat it up.' When he got up, he had to prop himself up and drag along the wall to get to the microwave. He couldn't even stand up straight." According to Joyce House, her son's doctors today say that the Tennessee prison system's failure to diagnose House's M.S. earlier—then treat it properly after it was diagnosed—may have taken years off his life. (M.S. is also exacerbated by stress.) The disease has also significantly diminished the quality of the life House has left.
Under Tennessee's compensation law for the wrongly convicted, if House is formally exonerated—and that's still a big if—he will be eligible for $50,000 for each year he was in prison, up to $1 million. But there's a catch. The compensation is given in annual $50,000 installments over 20 years. If House dies before then, the payments stop.
Most of the 27 states with compensation laws similarly pay the money off in installments. Last October, A.P. ran a story about Victor Burnette, a 57-year-old Virginia man who served eight years for a 1979 rape before he was exonerated by DNA testing in 2006. Burnette actually turned down the $226,500 the state offered in compensation in 2010 because he was offended by the stipulation that it be paid out over 25 years. Even after the DNA test confirmed his innocence, it took another three years for Burnette to officially be pardoned, which finally made him eligible for the money. The installment plans make it unlikely that many exonerees—especially long-timers, who are arguably the most deserving—will ever see full compensation for their years in prison.
Only about half the people exonerated by DNA testing so far have been compensated at all. Most compensation laws require official findings of actual innocence, which eliminates just about any case that doesn't involve DNA. Some states also exclude anyone who played some role in their own conviction, which would disqualify a defendant who falsely confessed, even if the confession was coerced or beaten out of them.
Paul House has yet another predicament ahead of him. Even if he does win an official exoneration, and even if he somehow lives long enough to receive all of his compensation, he'll have to lose his health insurance to accept it. House's medical care is currently covered by TennCare, Tennessee's Medicare program. If he accepts compensation for his conviction, he will be ineligible. His $50,000 per year in compensation for nearly a quarter century on death row will then be offset by a steep increase in what he'll have to pay for his medical care.
These odd, sometimes absurd predicaments aren't intentionally cruel. They just work out that way. Paul House's attorney Mike Pemberton points out that the prosecutors in these cases aren't necessarily evil, either. "Paul Phillips is an honorable man, and an outstanding trial attorney," Pemberton says. "But on this case he was wrong." Pemberton, who was once a prosecutor himself, says the job can lend itself to tunnel vision, especially once a prosecutor has won a conviction. It can be hard to let go. We have a system with misplaced incentives and very little accountability for state actors who make mistakes. That's a system ripe for bad outcomes.
When I ask Paul House why he thinks it has taken so long to clear his name, he starts to answer, then stammers, looks away, and retreats again to Oh well, his cue to move on because he has no answer.
That may be an understandable response from a guy with advanced M.S. who just spent two decades on death row. But for too long our national response to the increasing evidence that our justice system is flawed has been the same sort of resignation. DNA has only begun to show us where some of those flaws lie. It will take a strong public will to see that policymakers address them.
Radley Balko (firstname.lastname@example.com) is a senior editor at reason.]]>
This is my last day as a Reason employee.
I'd like to thank Matt Welch, Nick Gillespie, David Nott, and the Reason Foundation for giving me such a great platform for the last several years, and for letting me occasionally chase and follow-up on the sorts of stories that magazines with a national focus don't often cover. Thanks also to Jacob Sullum for editing my column every week, making it immeasurably better than it would otherwise be, and for putting up with my frequent failure to hit a deadline.
It's been great working with all of my colleagues at the magazine, at Reason.tv, and at the Reason Foundation. Though I'm looking forward to the challenge of working somewhere where my readers and colleagues probably won't agree with me nearly as often, it has also been a pleasure to work the last several years with people who believe in the cause of liberty, who advocate passionately for the ideas behind that cause, but who also take great care to argue in good faith and with intellectual honesty.
I'm particularly excited about my final project here, a themed issue Jacob Sullum and I put together and co-edited. The July issue of Reason will take an in-depth look at the criminal justice system and the ramifications of America's massive prison population. Look for it in your mailbox or on newsstands at the beginning of next month.
I hope Hit & Run readers will follow me to Huffington Post, where I'll to continue to serve up the metaphorical kicks to the groin you've come to expect here. I'll be taking a vacation, then starting work there on May 17.]]>
In The Looming Tower, the Pulitzer-winning history of al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11, author Lawrence Wright lays out how Osama bin Laden's motivation for the attacks that he planned in the 1990s, and then the September 11 attacks, was to draw the U.S. and the West into a prolonged war—an actual war in Afghanistan, and a broader global war with Islam.
Osama got both. And we gave him a prolonged war in Iraq to boot. By the end of Obama's first term, we'll probably top 6,000 dead U.S. troops in those two wars, along with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans. The cost for both wars is also now well over $1 trillion.
We have also fundamentally altered who we are. A partial, off-the-top-of-my-head list of how we've changed since September 11 . . .
I'm relieved that bin Laden is dead. And the Navy SEALs who carried out the harrowing raid that ended his life have my respect and admiration. And for all the massive waste and abuse our government has perpetrated in the name of fighting terrorism over the last decade, there's something satisfying in knowing that he was killed in a limited, targeted operation based on specific intelligence.
But because of the actions of one guy, we allowed all the bullet points above to happen. That we managed to kill him a decade after the September 11 attacks is symbolically important, but hardly seems worth the celebrations we saw across the country last night. There was something unsettling about watching giddy crowds bounce around beach balls and climb telephone polls last night, as if they were in the lawn seats at a rock festival. Solemn and somber appreciation that an evil man is gone seemed like the more appropriate reaction.
Yes, bin Laden the man is dead. But he achieved all he set out to achieve, and a hell of a lot more. He forever changed who we are as a country, and for the worse. Mostly because we let him. That isn't something a special ops team can fix.]]>
Davidson County, Tennnessee, Criminal Court Clerk David Torrence has a pretty sweet gig: a $120,000 annual salary, five weeks of paid vacation, and a government car.
But he still can't drag his ass into the office more than three days per week. Nashville's WSMV reports:
On April 6, while Torrence's employees at the clerk's office were working, the I-Team found him at home picking up sticks and spraying his yard for bugs.
On April 8, he never went to the office. He spent part of the day using his county car instead of his personal Corvette to run errands. From his home, he drove to a bank then to a liquor store. He got back in the car and headed home...
As the criminal court clerk, his only duties lie in the office, keeping the criminal courts operating. But the garage card swipes show he wasn't in the office for about half of 2010.
"You only worked about 50 percent of the time; only 50 percent of the time you were in this office. How do you explain that?" asked I-Team chief investigative reporter Jeremy Finley.
"It is what it is," Torrence said. Torrence said he takes Wednesdays and Fridays off every week.
"I'm working Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays," said Torrence...
The news team also found 18 weeks in which Torrence only worked two days.
In fairness to Torrence, he didn't spend all of those off days doing yard work or running personal errands in his government-issued car. Sometimes, he explained, he also played golf. He added that he has no plans to change his work habits, noting, "I've now been elected to my fifth term, so I must be doing something right."
It isn't in the linked article, but the report I caught last night also said Torrence recently had two openings in his office. But he didn't bother advertising those vacancies. Instead, he hired his sons.
I don't really see a problem with this, either. We shouldn't expect one of the highest-paid government officials in Nashville to carry his own clubs.]]>
In 1989 Donald Trump took out a full page ad in four New York City newspapers calling for the execution of the alleged rapists in the infamous Central Park Jogger case. Never mind that the five alleged assailants were all minors, or that rape wasn't a capital crime. There was a moral panic to be stoked.
And stoked it was. New York's media parted with their tradition of not publishing the names of minors accused of crimes. The case gave us the term "wilding", described at the time as the name violent youth gangs gave their sprees of crime and terror, but which was most likely the result of an NYPD detective who misunderstood the lyrics to a Tone Lōc song. The case made national headlines, and fueled the growing myth of the super-predator, in which the law-and-order crowd terrified white suburbia with tales of a rising class of young, black uber-criminals. The explosion in violent juvenile crime predicted by the likes of William Bennett and John DiIulio, Jr. never happened.
If Trump had his way, all of the Central Park Five would have been dead by 2002. That's the year Matias Reyes, already in prison for rape and murder, confessed to the crime, and insisted he acted alone. DNA tests had already confirmed that only one person raped victim Trisha Meili. Further testing showed Reyes was that person. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morganthou later vacated the convictions of the other five suspects, all of whom had already served their sentences for the attack.
Now, one of the wrongly convicted, Raymond Santana, wants Trump the presidential candidate to apologize. From NY1:
Santana was 14 years old at the time. He says Trump's call for the "death penalty" helped fuel the media firestorm before the suspects even went to trial.
"It says a lot about his character. If he can give the death penalty to 14-year-old, 15-year-old kids then there's nothing he would not do. Those are characteristics of a tyrant, not characteristics of a president," Santana said.
Santana served seven years in prison in connection with the rape and beating of Trisha Meili.
All five of the accused have sued the city. That lawsuit is still pending.]]>
Last month, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.) suggested the government give every school-age child his own iPad. According to The Hill, when he was subsequently mocked for the proposal by right-wing talk radio, he strangely defended his idea by arguing "that technology is a product of the First Amendment, and also necessary to help maintain First Amendment rights."
This month? Jackson has reversed course, and is now assailing the iPad as a job-killer, and—again, weirdly—as a foreign threat to the First Amendment.
I wish I were making this up.
A few short weeks ago I came to the House floor after having purchased an iPad and said that I happened to believe, Mr. Speaker, that at some point in time this new device, which is now probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs … now Borders is closing stores because, why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes & Noble? Buy an iPad and download your book, download your newspaper, download your magazine....
...what becomes of publishing companies and publishing company jobs? What becomes of book stores and librarians and all of the jobs associated with paper? Well, in the not-too-distant future such jobs simply will not exist.
Steve Jobs is doing pretty well. He's created the iPad. Certainly it's made life more efficient for Americans, but the iPad is produced in China. It's not produced here in the United States. So the Chinese get to take advantage of our First Amendment values, that is, to provide freedom of speech through the iPad to the American people.
You really can't argue with that logic. Mostly because you really can't comprehend it.
Please, no one tell Jackson about what has happened to the typewriters.
Reason.tv video on your iPad and your patriotism:]]>
For those of you H&Rers looking for employment:
$8.50-$11.00/hr Position available working 8am to 5pm, Monday-Friday, 40 hrs/wk for approximately 6 months enforcing the Citys Weed Ordinance. Will drive throughout the City checking for weed violations, verifying citizen complaints, using computer to conduct property searches for ownership and preparing documents for court actions and council billing. Able to deal courteously with the public. Requires use of personal vehicle for inspections (mileage to be reimbursed). Must have valid MO Drivers License + proof of liability coverage prior to hiring. Able to work in summer temps and around noxious plants and other fumes. Official City of Columbia application must be submitted to HR Dept. Open until filled.
Not to be confused with these Columbia, Missouri, weed inspectors.
(Thanks to Eapen Thampy for the tip.)]]>
In Florida.
Broward Circuit Court Judge Ilona Holmes, her sister and her sister's family says they were ordered at gun point by several Broward Sheriffs Deputies on Easter Sunday to come out of her sister's home with their hands up.
It was no evening of peace for the Deerfield Beach family, who'd just finished dinner with friends and family, and sent extra Easter dinner to a needy family connected with their church. Then, at 8:20 p.m., police got a call about a possible burglary next door. But a bad address caused police to go to the wrong home.
"Do I feel safe?" asked Carmita Scarlett, the homeowner and sister of Judge Holmes. "No, absolutely not. No, no. So much confusion, so much anger. So much, almost like, resentment. You know, 'you made the mistake and,' I told them, 'I'm the victim and you're upset with me?'"
The call to police said there might be a burglar inside 235 Southwest 4th Street. But there is no 235. Only 236 and 230.
Arriving police outside spotted someone inside 230 – Neville Scarlett was in the kitchen cleaning up the Easter dinner plates - and thought he might be the burglar.
He was not...
"There's a man with a gun and he's going to shoot me!!" yelled Carmita. "I thought it was the robber!" Her sister, Judge Holmes, came running to the kitchen. The judge carries a legal firearm and immediately pulled it out and held it in her hand.
"She said 'Who are you!? What are you doing?!' He said 'this is BSO.' She said, 'this is Circuit Court Judge Ilona Holmes!!'" Carmita said.
"'I'm the owner of this home. I'm Carmita Scarlett. Why are you at my home?' I kept saying that. They said 'put your hands up and come outside,'" she said.
If this had been a drug raid and the police had actually broken into the home, we'd probably be looking at a body or two.]]>
Last week, Michael Moynihan reported on a Whole Foods protest in the Jamaica Plains neighborhood in Boston in which activists defended local residents who never really asked to be defended, and in fact seemed okay with the store.
The Washington Business Journal reports on a similar fight over Walmart in D.C., where a consortium of activist groups have issued a long list of demands, including:
Meanwhile, the Washington City Paper points out that the actual residents living in the ward where one of the first of the four planned Walmarts is set to go up appear to be pretty excieted about the idea. The clash between poor people and the activists who claim to speak for them was also on display when Walmart tried to set up shop in Chicago, as I pointed out in a Daily Beast article a couple years ago.
In Chicago in 2006, a proposed Wal-Mart store met with fierce opposition from groups critical of its labor practices—a position just reiterated by Mayor Richard Daley. So instead, Wal-Mart opened in Evergreen Park, one block outside the Chicago city limits. The store received 24,500 job applications for just 325 positions, and now generates more than $1 million per year in taxes for the small town...
(Hat tip: Nick Cheolas)]]>
Best line from this Atlantic post about the shuttering of the world's last remaining typewriter factory, in India:
"Now, our primary market is among the defence agencies, courts and government offices."
In April 2009 I blogged about the case of John Kunco, a Pennsylvania man convicted of a rape in 1992 based mostly on the testimony of a bite mark expert. The Innocence Project asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to grant Kunco a new trial, based mostly on the 2009 National Academy of Sciences report on forensic evidence that found no scientific evidence to support the proposition that it's possible to trace bite marks in human skin to one person to the exclusion of all others.
A quick summary from my post last year:
Two forensic odonotologists, or bite mark experts, named Michael N. Sobel and Thomas J. David testified that they were able to use ultraviolet light to isolate and photograph the woman's wounds. Based on that photograph they were able to match the wounds to Kunco's teeth, to the exclusion of anyone else. Their testimony grows more absurd when you consider that the photograph was taken five months after the rape, after the wounds had mostly healed.
Sobel and David wrote an article about their analysis in the Kunco case for a 1994 edition of the Journal of Forensic Sciences. In that article, they explain that "the technique used followed the recommendations developed by other odontologists." One of the two footnotes to that sentence points to an article written by none other than . . . now-disgraced Mississippi bite mark expert, Dr. Michael West.
There's no question that bite mark testimony was critical to securing Kunco's conviction. The excellent new Bite Mark Evidence blog notes this passage from the prosecutor's closing argument:
[T]here's no way, no way on this earth, for Mr. Kunco to explain how his tooth marks got on Donna Seaman's shoulder unless you accept the fact that he's the one who attacked and brutalized Mrs. Seaman. That's the only explanation, ladies and gentlemen. That's why the evidence is better than fingerprints or hair samples … [T]he bite mark on Danna Seaman's shoulder was as good as a fingerprint. And I submit to you it was that, ladies and gentlemen, for all intents and purposes. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd submit to you that John Kunco should have just signed his name on Donna Seaman's back, because the bite mark on Donna Seaman's shoulder belongs to John Kunco.
There was no other physical evidence linking Kunco to the crime scene.
I missed the decision when it came out, but last October Pennsylvania Jude Rita Donovan Hathaway refused Kunco's petition for a new trial. Hathaway acknowledged the limitations of bite mark testimony, and that the reliability of said testimony has been called into question (to put it mildly). So why did she deny Kunco relief?
To get a new trial post-conviction, you have to show that you've discovered new evidence that could not have been discovered at the time of trial, and that given the new evidence, no reasonable juror would convict you. But in Pennsylvania, you also need to file your petition within one year of discovering the new evidence.
Kunco did file his petition within one year of the release of the NAS report. But Hathaway ruled that the research upon which the NAS report was based was published in other sources much earlier. Kunco, she ruled, should have filed within a year of the publication of that research. In other words, the expert testimony used to convict Kunco may well have been fraudulent, but Hathaway is going to keep him in prison anyway, basically on a technicality (this is similar to what's happening in the Eddie Lee Howard case).
The NAS report was a synthesis of research across nearly every forensic discipline. It was a landmark report, commissioned by Congress in response to the rash of DNA exonerations. The cruel conundrum here is that when other people convicted on bite mark testimony have filed for relief and cited the publication of an article in a narrowly-read scientific journal (also like Eddie Lee Howard in Mississippi), they've been denied on the argument that a peer-reviewed article here and there isn't enough of a scientific consensus to overturn a jury verdict, especially if you already challenged the state's bite mark expert at trial. If Kunco had filed shortly after that first journal article disputing bite mark evidence was published, and had he lost, in most states he would then be barred from making additional post-conviction claims on the same topic, even if more articles then came out showing a consensus that he was right.
Hathaway then goes on to misstate the findings of the NAS report. She writes:
The [NAS] Report does not, however, conclude that the use of bitemark analysis and comparison has lost general acceptance in the scientific community of forensic odontology. Rather, it specifically acknowledges that "the majority of forensic odontologists are satisfied that bite marks can demonstrate sufficient detail for positive identification."
Two problems here. First, Hathaway is only quoting the first part of that sentence. Second, she has also taken the entire sentence out of context. Here's the complete sentence, in proper context:
Although the majority of forensic odontologists are satisfied that bite marks can demonstrate sufficient detail for positive identification, no scientific studies support this assessment, and no large population studies have been conducted. In numerous instances, experts diverge widely in their evaluations of the same bite mark evidence, which has led to questioning of the value and scientific objectivity of such evidence.
Bite mark testimony has been criticized basically on the same grounds as testimony by questioned document examiners and microscopic hair examiners. The committee received no evidence of an existing scientific basis for identifying an individual to the exclusion of all others.
Leaves quite a different impression, doesn't it? The disconnect here is that the NAS report is criticizing the entire field of forensic odontology. It isn't surprising that a majority of forensic odontologists, many of whom have given bite mark-matching testimony themselves, would think that bite mark matching is legitimate science. It's only slightly less absurd than saying that palm reading is a legitimate science because a majority of clairvoyants, some of whom are palm readers, say so. (I use the word slightly here because there are legitimate areas of forensic odontology, such as using dental records to identify human remains.)
Hathaway is also misleading here:
Even the defendants' experts, in their remarkably uniform affidavits, state: "the NAS Report did not invalidate bite mark identification entirely," nor did it report that bite mark identification fell into the realm of junk science" . . .
I guess that's true. The NAS report did not specifically use the phrase junk science. It's also true that the report didn't "invalidate bite mark identification entirely." Instead, the report concluded that with more research, bite mark identification might someday be useful as an investigative tool, and, in limited circumstances, might have some value in excluding suspects. (Such as if there's a fresh, easily identified human bite mark on the body, and the chief suspect has no teeth.) But as noted above, the report was decisive in its conclusion about the use of bite mark analysis to identify one suspect to the exclusion of all others: It simply isn't backed by any serious science. And this is exactly how bite mark evidence was used in Kunco's case.
One other thing. As noted, the expert witnesses in Kunco's case used a method of analysis used by disgraced Mississippi bite mark specialist Michael West. West has been cast out from the forensic odontology community. So even within the already-questionable field of bite mark matching, West and his methods are considered quackery.
Hathaway's ruling here is appalling, as is the state's willingness to keep a man in prison based on testimony we now know to be utterly unsupported by science. Judges and prosecutors with any sense of justice or shame ought to be tripping over themselves to give all of these bite mark cases a thorough review. Instead, they're throwing up procedural and technical roadblocks to prevent the convicted from getting a fair trial untainted by crappy science.]]>
Not really sure what to make of this, other than that it's disturbing:
The U.S. Department of State is proposing a new Biographical Questionnaire for some passport applicants: The proposed new Form DS-5513 asks for all addresses since birth; lifetime employment history including employers' and supervisors names, addresses, and telephone numbers; personal details of all siblings; mother's address one year prior to your birth; any "religious ceremony" around the time of birth; and a variety of other information. According to the proposed form, "failure to provide the information requested may result in … the denial of your U.S. passport application."
The State Department estimated that the average respondent would be able to compile all this information in just 45 minutes, which is obviously absurd given the amount of research that is likely to be required to even attempt to complete the form.
It seems likely that only some, not all, applicants will be required to fill out the new questionnaire, but no criteria have been made public for determining who will be subjected to these additional new written interrogatories. So if the passport examiner wants to deny your application, all they will have to do is give you the impossible new form to complete.
It's not clear from the supporting statement, statement of legal authorities, or regulatory assessment submitted by the State Department to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) why declining to discuss one's siblings or to provide the phone number of your first supervisor when you were a teenager working at McDonalds would be a legitimate basis for denial of a passport to a U.S. citizen.
The new questions also ask for the names and contact information of all witnesses to your birth.
Reads like a tool to allow the State Department to turn down a passport when they can't find a more legitimate reason.
(Via boingboing.)]]>


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Campus Dining:
All meals are edible. I do think that they should mix up the options but overall I believe that they do well!
Campus Dining:
Same food over and over, its all you can eat but you see a lot of them food repeated week in and week out.
Campus Dining:
i give our cafeteria a C+ because the food isnt that great. there are days when food can be really good but i normally dont look foward going to the cafeteria. the breakfast is always the same, boxed eggs, hash browns, and leftovers after leftovers. in the other hand mayvilles snack bar as all kinds of food from double cheeseburgers to wings, chicken fingers, cheese sticks, waffle fries, curly fries, grilled cheese sandwhiches, etc. there are some other places to eat likem la catina and a couple of pizza joints.
Campus Dining:
It Was Decent – I never really had a problem with the food. I at off-campus a lot because of my schedule. They only thing I had trouble with were the dining hours. Sometimes my schedule wouldn't allow for the time that I am used to eating. That was a little inconvenient.
Campus Dining:
Anything New? At the college here the food is the same thing every other week. There isn't much of an option which isn't really good when a person only has a meal plan. The food get's old fast but some of the times it is good.
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Kansas State University athletic director John Currie is surrounded by members of the media at the conclusion of a press conference regarding the departure of men's basketball coach Frank Martin. Martin resigned at Kansas State to take a job at the University of South Carolina. (March 27, 2012)
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SALISBURY, Md.- Salisbury police have launched an investigation after a weekend shooting that occurred following a street fight involving several people.
At around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, officers responded to a reported shooting that had occurred on the 600 block of Smith Street. Police said detectives determined that one projectile entered the front door of a home and exited through a rear window. The detectives recovered a shell casing and ammunition from the scene. No one was injured during the incident.
Police said the investigation revealed that prior to the shooting, several unknown people were involved in a fight in the street.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact the Salisbury Police Department at (410) 548-3165 or Crime Solvers at (410) 548-1776. Crime Solvers will pay up to $1,000 for tips that lead to arrest.
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CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Laboratory-equipment maker Waters Corp. /quotes/zigman/131375/delayed/quotes/nls/wat WAT +0.78% saw its shares fall 7% after its report first-quarter earnings fell 6% on decreased sales to pharmaceutical companies.
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Author Archive
Commentary: I have not stopped believing
Singing, acting, playing piano and, of course, writing are basically my passions in life. Without any one of those, I know I may just go insane with boredom. I have always had two major dreams in life: one, to become a journalist at a newspaper or magazine and two, to pursue acting and singing. When I was in high school, I spent three years in journalism and theatre, both of which became complete addictions.
Class of '14 gets taste of La Verne
Prospective Leopards roamed the University of La Verne campus learning about their potential school for higher education during Spotlight Weekend last week.
Commentary:Opera is no longer intimidating
Five and a half hours of opera in pure German is not how I usually spend my Wednesday afternoons, but I made an exception on March 31.
Leopard Scoreboard
Sports results, schedules and standings for April 16, 2010.
News Briefs
A symposium on the future of Afghanistan is scheduled for April 15-17.
Haitian film exposes deeper issues
Using viewpoints from various experiences of life in Haiti, five women told their unique stories of living in the nation's social and economic strife during the time before the tragic earthquakes.
Commentary: Haiti still needs attention
After attending the screening of "Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy," I was writing my article to report on the event and I found myself wanting to put my own opinions into the article, which is not allowed.
Leopard Scoreboard
At the Buzzer Women's Tennis, March 26 Master's — 4 La Verne — 5 Women's Water Polo, March 27 (game one) Cal Tech — 4 La Verne — 13 Women's Water Polo, March 27 (game two) La Verne — 7 Claremont Mudd Scripps — 10 Schedule Friday Baseball @ Caltech, 3 p.m. Women's tennis vs. […]
Commentary: Getting around with Google
Google Maps is a great help to anyone needing directions walking, driving, using public transits, and now, bicycling. My experience has always been an easy and efficient one, until I started playing around with the Web site.
CAB sponsors St. Patty's lunch
Davenport Dining Hall was active with hungry students and faculty with bluegrass Celtic music playing March 10 at the St. Patty's Day Celebration put on by the Campus Activities Board.


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It's Throw Poop at Ben Bernanke Day!
Will beardly Ben Bernanke win a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve? Yes he will, because even with gajillion percent unemployment nobody in the Obama administration is about to write that help wanted ad ("ISO chief executive to become symbol of everything that is wrong with the economy, management exp. necessary, whiskers preferred").
But we can still have a little fun with today's confirmation hearings, thanks to Sen. Bernie Sanders (Rogue-VT), who has "put a hold" on Ben. Hold him closer, Bernie …
Sanders's action means that Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) will have to win the assent of 60 senators before a vote can be taken on the nomination. Typically, 51 votes are needed to confirm.
In other words, everyone will have more time to grandstand and holler at Ben, who will respond by… hmm, how will he respond?
"He has to stand up and connect the dots between what the Fed has done to help Wall Street and the economy on Main Street, and that's a difficult thing to do," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial.
Ah, but not if you look the other way while a huge bubble of dots builds up in the market and then try to take credit for stepping in at the last minute to clean up the aftermath of the massive dot explosion.
This'll be no sweat.
Tags: Ben Bernanke, Bernie Sanders, Economy, Federal Reserve, Senate
About Us
Comedy Central's Indecision is the network's digital hub for news, politics and other jokes: we're here, we're everywhere. We're not affiliated with any television show. We're affiliated with ourselves.


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Adam Troxtell
The Express-Star
1. Alex (boys)
Head coach Isaac Byrne understands what lies ahead for his team in this tournament, saying after their big win over Stratford to win the Longhorn Classic last weekend that his team has a "target on their back."
There is a difference, of course, between seeing the target and hitting it. The Longhorns bring a mix of size and outside shooting to their game. Leading the way is senior Shaedon Castor, an explosive point guard that also poses a threat from long range.
Daton Payne showed he can support the long-range game with an important nine points in the second half of that win against Stratford. When the shots aren't falling, Jacob Otey helps balance the team with his work on the low block. This along with a vast supporting cast capable of changing the game makes the Longhorns the boys' tournament favorite.
1. Rush Springs (girls)
The Lady Redskins are hands-down favorites for the girls' title, and Jordan Brooks is a big reason for that.
Performances like the one she had in Alex, where her 39 points led Rush Springs past the Lady Longhorns, make it hard to believe the 5' 9" forward is only a freshman. There's more to the Rush Springs girls that youthful enthusiasm. A senior class that includes Kaylee Large, Rikki Brown, Samantha Dennis and Kaylin Renneker provides the backbone, and junior Jacy Cullers provides more experience to a highly rated team.
Such experience could prove vital, and head coach Rick Parrish has many players that know what it takes to get by in this knockout tournament.
2. Minco (boys)
As 2012 champions, the Bulldogs will be out to take back the title and stand a good chance as the second seed.
The Bulldogs enter the tournament off the back of a homecoming game against Geary and a midweek win against Okarche in which they had four players in double digits. Head coach Robert Duvall's Minco appears to be getting in the top gear at the right time, as he called their win over Okarche their best performance of the season so far.
In that game, Blake Schenberger led the way with 16 points. But with two players on 15 points and one other on 14, the Bulldogs show signs of a team that can spread the ball around and score from multiple angles.
3. Am-Po (girls)
Perennial champions Amber-Pocasset girls face their toughest test yet to retain their title, which they have won now for the last eight years.
They do return a strong lineup, as last year's team had only one senior, Dontasia McAfee, who never knew what it was like to go to a girls' final with Am-Po and lose. The addition of guard Suzanne Parker further boosts this Lady Panthers team.
First year head coach Steve Pelzer will hope to resurrect that tournament magic once again to make a run in what is a competitive girls bracket.
4. Alex (girls)
The Lady Longhorns made a statement in winning their Longhorn Classic tournament, but a fourth seed draw shows just how competitive this girls' bracket is.
If the shots are falling for Alex, they can score from anywhere on the court. Senior point guard Holly Anderson sank three from beyond the arc on her way to 23 points in the Longhorn Classic final, while junior Ashley Williams has a habit of getting open around the lane and has a consistent jump shot. Then there's always senior Jordan Washburn, who can change a game with a few three pointers.
Like other teams around them, the Lady Longhorns lack size to balance out their attacking threat. Perfection on defense and a few hot hands are important for Alex to progress.
5. Verden
The defending champions may have fallen down the pecking order to five, but to underestimate them is a serious risk.
Trystan Morgan provides the main attacking threat for the Tigers. He opened up 2014 with 27 points to lead them past Binger-Oney at home. Even with Morgan and Dusty Keil, it'll be a tough task for Verden with the path they've been given.
6. Am-Po (boys)
The Panthers haven't been as fortunate as the girls in past tournaments, but first-year head coach Drew Miller is looking to change that, as is point guard Tyler Miller.
He showed just exactly what he can do when the Panthers are on top, sinking six threes in Am-Po's 55-31 demolition of Wayne earlier this month. While they may not have a lot of size, Murphy Douglas provides balance by popping up inside the perimeter to get some valuable jump shots that keep the Panther run going.
6. Ninnekah (girls)
It's a middle-of-the-road kind of year for both Ninnekah basketball teams. The Lady Owls have Erin Cheek, Cheyenne Morris and Ciara Garrett providing the bulk of the points on offense. Garrett and Cheek also provide the bulk of the rebounds for Ninnakah, with both tallying multiple double-doubles already this season.
7. Ninnekah (boys)
Clay and Cody Chaney are among the Ninnekah boys players to watch. Both top the scoring list regularly, and Cody provides some hard work down low. In a recent loss to Union City, he still brought down six offensive rebounds, an underrated skill.
Blake Daggs can also pop up to give the Owls and extra offensive boost.
7. Minco (girls)
A recent coaching change and the loss of a key player has the Lady Bulldogs reshuffling ahead of the tournament.
Alesha Brummel, who served as an assistant to the now departed Bruce Hobgood for many years, now sits at the helm of Minco girls basketball. But she'll be without six-foot center Sydni Hutchinson, who is struggling to return from a back injury. As a result, Minco will have to switch to a more fast-paced game that "creates offense through defense", Brummel said.
This puts the spotlight more on guards like Corey Phelts, a strong long-range shooter and Minco's best free-throw shooter, and Natalie Blevens.
8. Rush Springs (boys)
Rounding out the boys' bracket is Rush Springs, in stark contrast to the girls' side of things.
The Redskins have had a tough time this season, but they still hold some key threats. Hunter Trusty, a six-foot junior, will need to be watched closely as he has the skills to cause trouble down low. The same can be said for Jace Jones. Their first round game against Alex is a rematch from December, when the Longhorns prevailed 76-42.
8. Verden (girls)
The Lady Tigers have also had a tough season so far.
Cheyenne Hannah is the player to watch for Verden, with the ability to score from both outside and inside the perimeter. The best chance for the Lady Tigers will come if she is in top form.


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A collection of news and information related to Rebecca Lobo published by this site and its partners.
Top Rebecca Lobo Articles
Displaying items 23-33
UConn Women Beat LSU, 81-51; Streak At 84
She's Done It Maya Way
Maya Moore: Top Of The ChartsStory | Nov 11, 2010 | 12:08 PMMaya Moore leads or is in the top five of many significant UConn program records even before she plays the first game of her senior season. Among them: Points (career) Tina Charles: 2,346 Nykesha Sales: 2,178 Kerry Bascom: 2,177 Moore: 2,168 Diana...
Rebecca Lobo: Empowered By Title IX
60 Years Of Memories For The Travelers Championship
Baby Steps: Five Women's Freshmen Who Made A Difference
NCAA Championship Capsule: UConn Vs. StanfordStory | Apr 6, 2010Site: Alamodome, San Antonio Time: 8:30 p.m. TV: ESPN (Dave O'Brien, Doris Burke, Rebecca Lobo, Holly Rowe) Radio: WTIC-AM 1080 (Bob Joyce, Kara Wolters) Series history: Tied, 5-5 Last meeting: UConn, 80-68, Dec. 23, 2009, XL Center, Hartford...
Geno Had Immediate ImpactStory | Jan 18, 2009Surely it was a sign of things to come - the first seven games of Geno Auriemma's coaching career at UConn were victories. His first regular season game was Nov. 23, 1985, a 73-67 victory at Iona. Lori Kulo scored 24 and Peggy Walsh, now Peggy Walsh-...
Bio: Hall Of Fame Coach Geno AuriemmaStory | Feb 26, 2009 | 1:49 PMIt hardly seems possible UConn could have realized what was in store in 1985 when it hired an Italian immigrant, just 31 years old, with a college coaching resume just five-years thick, to lead its women's basketball team into the 1990s. Geno Auriemma?...
UConn Women's Big East AwardsStory | Feb 5, 2009 | 3:36 PMBig East Player of the Year Maya Moore 2009 Maya Moore 2008 Diana Taurasi - 2004, 2003 Sue Bird 2002 Shea Ralph 2000 Svetlana Abrosimova 1999 Nykesha Sales 1998 Kara Wolters 1997 Jennifer Rizzotti 1996 Rebecca Lobo 1995, 1994 Kerry Bascom 1991,...
UConn's National Player of the Year AwardsStory | Feb 5, 2009 | 3:36 PMMaya Moore (2009) Diana Taurasi (2003, 2004) Sue Bird (2002) Kara Wolters (1997) Jennifer Rizzotti (1996) Rebecca Lobo (1995)


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It features components made of ABS-Carbon, a composite material created by the infusion of carbon fiber into our highly respected ABS Styran. ABS-Carbon is incredibly sturdy and rigid, which allows the creation of action parts that are lighter without sacrificing strength. The result is a stronger, faster action that offers more power, better control and greater stability than conventional all-wood actions.


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Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, December 06, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version
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ULFA chief rules out talks with handcuffs on
Dialogue only way out, says Mirwaiz
Hurriyat leader Qureshi continues to be critical
Manmohan to attend climate meet
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will attend the climate change summit at Copenhagen on December 18. Dr. Singh will be in the Danish capital on the 17th and 18th, the Prime Minister's Office said here on Saturday. U.S. ...
TV report on TRS chief's health sparks violence
HYDERABAD: Trouble erupted in some parts of the Telangana region and in Hyderabad, where students went on the rampage near the vicinity of the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences following unfounded reports about a sudden deterioration ...
Where will cash-for-news take us?
South Asian Free Media Association panel discusses phenomenon of paid news
A brief reunion after decades of separation
Bangladesh behind conspiracy in arrest, says Rajkhowa and Raju Barua
Dinakaran meets CJI, says Collector's report is false
Collegium to take final decision in a week
K.V.Prasad to head Press Association
NEW DELHI: Press Association now has a new head. K.V. Prasad of The Hindu was chosen as President of the organisation for 2009-10 at an election held here on Saturday. The other office-bearers elected are Rajiv Ranjan ...
26/11 hearing adjourned to December 12
ISLAMABAD: The hearing in the Mumbai attacks case in an anti-terror court in Rawalpindi was adjourned on Saturday by a week to December 12. There were no proceedings at Saturday's hearing as the judge was called away for a meeting ...
India moves closer to Test summit
Sri Lankan captain Sangakkara's unbeaten century frustrates the host
Karunanidhi to "leave politics aside" after June
CHENNAI: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Saturday said after June 2010 he would "leave politics and ministerial posts aside" and devote the rest of his life to work closely with the poor and the oppressed communities, such as ...
Call off fast: Rosaiah
HYDERABAD: Making a fervent appeal to Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K. Chandrasekhar Rao to call off his indefinite fast, Chief Minister K. Rosaiah expressed willingness to hold negotiations with the TRS leaders on any issue that was ...
TRS workers go berserk in city
HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) party workers went berserk attacking shops, buses and vehicles on Saturday following rumours over deteriorating health of their fasting president K. Chandrasekhar Rao, leading to a bandh-like ...
IIST to conduct its own entrance test now
It will be modelled on IIT-JEE and AIEEE
Autonomous regulator needed for broadcast issues: Simcon
NEW DELHI: The day-long State Information Ministers' Conference (Simcon) held here on Saturday ended with a consensus on the need for an independent, autonomous and credible regulator for broadcast issues. Some stakeholders, ...
Online CAT fiasco turns the focus back on virus
Effective security solutions are a crucial line of defence for organisations
Indians googled budget a lot more than Twitter
Kambakth Ishq came second in the list, and IRCTC third
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TV Fashion Roundup: January 07, 2013
Check out what some of your favorite small-screen stars wore on TV this week!
Emily VanCamp's Halter Dress on 'Revenge'
Emily VanCamp had us craving sunny days on Revenge in this lightweight coral number. Since spring will be here soon enough, prepare your wardrobe early with Vince Camuto's similar "Halter Dress."
See more looks from Revenge
Official site: Revenge
See more looks from Revenge
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