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Bulletin: Santae Tribble; Flawed FBI hair match testimony: Momentous decision: Judge awards $13 million to this exonerated man: Link to excellent Washington Post story by Spencer Hsu; "The D.C. Public Defender Service uncovered a pattern in which prosecutors exaggerated claims about the reliability of forensic hair testing. The city government has been ordered to pay $39 million in damages over the past year. The cases led to a federal review and a disclosure by the Justice Department that FBI examiners overstated testimony in nearly all criminal cases involving forensic hair evidence for two decades before 2000. Tribble was convicted in 1980. At his trial, prosecutors suggested that it would be a "1 in 10 million" coincidence if hairs found in a stocking near the crime scene were not Tribble's. The person who killed the taxi driver reportedly had worn a stocking mask."

Next: Maria Shepherd: Exoneration (11): Globe and Mail report: The Crown apologizes to Maria and her family: 'Acquittal ends 25-year nightmare after forensic pathologist is discredited'..."Tears ran down Maria Shepherd’s face as she embraced her lawyer in the moments after being exonerated. More than two decades after Ms. Shepherd was convicted of manslaughter in the death of her three-year-old stepdaughter, Kasandra, a judge in Ontario’s Court of Appeal has cleared her name, throwing out the guilty plea she had reluctantly made and delivering an acquittal. It is another belated win for the victims of Charles Smith, the forensic pathologist whose medical opinions secured at least a dozen criminal convictions, including that of Ms. Shepherd, before his methods were discredited in 2007."... "“This is a tragic case,” Crown counsel Howard Leibovich said. “The flawed opinion of Dr. Smith fundamentally altered the investigation and prosecution of the case, and took it on a path it should not have gone. Kasandra deserved better. Her family deserved better, and of course the appellant deserved better. The Crown apologizes to all of them for this.” Reporter Eric Andrew-Gee...Reporter Wendy Gillis: Toronto Star: AIDWYC says more Smith cases are on the way to the Ontario Court of Appeal. (Must Reads; HL);
Previous: Maria Shepherd: (Exoneration 10): Momentous development; After 25 years the load is finally lifted; The Ontario Court of Appeal strikes her almost quarter century old guilty plea and enters an acquittal; Most importantly, Ontario's highest court makes loud and clear that she never assaulted her 3-year-old step-daughter Kasandra - or in any way caused her death. (As in all of the 20 criminal cases in which it was found that Smith had made serious errors, Maria's guilt existed only in the sorely flawed mind of former pathologist Charles Smith. HL); "The evidence from Smith “was fundamentally flawed,” wrote Howard Leibovich, counsel for the Attorney General of Ontario. New evidence from forensic experts establishes Kasandra may have died of natural causes, and that her death should have been classified as “undetermined.” One expert called Smith’s theory that Shepherd killed Kasandra with a blow to the head so hard it left an impression from her watch “complete nonsense.” Another called it “pseudoscience.” “I hope that the world can now know,” Shepherd wrote in an affidavit to court, “that I did not assault or abuse Kasandra and did not cause her death.” Reporter Wendy Gillis. Toronto Star.
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"A judge has awarded $13.2 million to a man who was convicted of murder in Washington and spent 28 years in prison based on forensic hair analysis that was later discredited. D.C. Superior Court Judge John Mott awarded the money on Friday to 55-year-old Santae Tribble, who was convicted in the 1978 slaying of a taxi driver, The Washington Post (http://tinyurl.com/zbxma5b) reported. Trimble was exonerated in 2012 and released after DNA analysis revealed that hairs found near the scene of the crime were not his. Tribble is the third District of Columbia man who has received a multimillion-dollar judgment in his favor after being wrongly convicted based on hair analysis. The D.C. Public Defender Service uncovered a pattern in which prosecutors exaggerated claims about the reliability of forensic hair testing. The city government has been ordered to pay $39 million in damages over the past year. The cases led to a federal review and a disclosure by the Justice Department that FBI examiners overstated testimony in nearly all criminal cases involving forensic hair evidence for two decades before 2000. Tribble was convicted in 1980. At his trial, prosecutors suggested that it would be a "1 in 10 million" coincidence if hairs found in a stocking near the crime scene were not Tribble's. The person who killed the taxi driver reportedly had worn a stocking mask."
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/df1a2b72defc4f05b871bbb3a8c9185c/judge-awards-13-million-exonerated-dc-man

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