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Bulletin: National Registry of Exonerations: (Part Six); (Pittsburg Post-Gazette); It's encouraging to see that the Registry's 2015 report has prompted such a powerful editorial. It ran under the heading: "Justice derailed: Wrongful convictions put too many in prison."..." Americans need to ask hard questions about the fairness of their criminal justice system and actively root out the practices and biases that lead to false convictions. If justice isn’t capable of standing up to scrutiny, then it isn’t justice at all."

Next: Motherisk: The CBC's Ron Charles reports that "(the) Motherisk scandal highlights risk of deferring to experts without questioning credentials," - as he skillfully points out that "(the) Lab's flawed hair testing echoes Charles Smith scandal, with similarly devastating effects."..."Early in Smith's career, a judge in a murder trial admonished him for his poor work and faulty autopsy conclusions. In Koren's case, he had a public spat with his colleagues over research into an experimental drug in the 1990s, sent them nasty, anonymous letters, then lied about it, resulting in a one-week suspension. Both Smith and Koren nevertheless went on to become the go-to forensics experts on certain types of cases; In both instances, the hospital that housed their labs was found to have exercised scant oversight to ensure the labs were run by qualified experts and met international standards for forensics. "That SickKids failed to exercise meaningful oversight over MDTL's (Motherisk Drug Testing Laboratory) work must be considered in the context of the hospital's experience with Dr. Charles Smith," Lang wrote in her report. She also pointed out how in both situations, the association with the hospital bolstered the doctors' reputations and others' assumptions about their qualifications. "Just as the SickKids name assisted in positioning Dr. Smith to become a leading expert in pediatric forensic pathology, that name likely gave credibility to the work of MDTL, as well," Lang wrote." (Must, Must Read. HL);
Previous: Bulletin: National Registry of Exonerations: Part Five; The Huffington Post takes on the recently released report which concludes that: "A record number of people were exonerated in 2015 for crimes they didn’t commit" - and observes that,"Making A Murderer" isn't just a problem in Manitowoc, Wisconsin."..."Many of last year's exonerations involved flawed or invalid forensic evidence. According to the Innocence Project, improper forensic science is a leading cause of wrongful conviction. Too often, the group says, forensic experts speculate when they testify, asserting conclusions that stretch the science. Further, some forensic techniques aren't backed by research, but are nevertheless presented to juries as fact. And there are honest mistakes. The FBI has admitted that from 1972 to 1999, almost every examiner in the bureau's elite forensics unit gave flawed testimony in nearly every trial in which they presented evidence."
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Bravo to the Post-Gazette for its powerful editorial. Although it is  focused on the American criminal justice system,  it is relevant to  Canada and many other countries as well. If only other newspapers would pay attention (or could be encouraged to pay attention)  to the "sobering and infuriating' National Registry of Exonerations  report" and highlight the need to bring justice up to scrutiny in their respective jurisdictions.

Harold Levy. Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

EDITORIAL: "Justice derailed: Wrongful convictions put too many in prison," published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on February 5, 2016.



GIST:  "A frustrating thing about America’s criminal justice system is that some police and prosecutors seem more interested in arrests and convictions than justice. Institutional indifference to actual guilt can lead to outcomes that are, well, unjust. This is why the report by the National Registry of Exonerations, at the University of Michigan Law School, is sobering and infuriating..........Even though law students, various Innocence Projects and conviction integrity units in district attorney’s offices around the country deserve credit for unearthing these legal miscarriages, no one knows how many cases fall through the cracks.  Americans need to ask hard questions about the fairness of their criminal justice system and actively root out the practices and biases that lead to false convictions. If justice isn’t capable of standing up to scrutiny, then it isn’t justice at all." 
 
The entire editorial can be found at:
 
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2016/02/05/Justice-derailed-Wrongful-convictions-put-too-many-in-prison/stories/201602290006

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: 
 
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
 
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: 
 
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
 
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html

Harold Levy: Publisher;


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