Wrongful Conviction

Early on the morning of August 11, 1979, an intruder broke into a Manchester, GA home to find a 74-year-old woman asleep on her couch. The man beat and sexually assaulted the woman and then demanded all her money. She gave the attacker cash from her purse and then he left through the back door. 

The victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but no rape kit was collected due to the extent of her injuries. At the victim’s house, Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) crime scene investigators collected pubic hairs from a bed sheet that had been on the couch at the time of the rape. Police then created a composite sketch of the attacker from the victim’s description, and a GBI agent who was investigating John Jerome White on another charge thought he resembled the sketch. White was convicted on May 30, 1980 of rape, assault, burglary, and robbery. 

To learn more about the junk science of hair microscopy evidence:

Kate Judson, Executive Director of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences, updates Josh Dubin's exploration of Shaken Baby Syndrome on Wrongful Conviction: Junk Science. 

Shaken Baby Syndrome isn’t a foolproof diagnosis. There are in fact many other causes for the symptoms of Shaken Baby Syndrome that do not arise from intentionally shaking a baby at all.

Learn more and get involved:

On October 3, 2004, in Port Huron, MI, Terry Ceasor was at home alone with his girlfriend Cheryl’s 1 year old son, Brenden. Terry and Brenden had been playing a game that consisted of Terry chasing Brenden behind the couch when Terry briefly stepped away from the room to use the bathroom. After he left the room, Terry heard a loud thud and found Brenden unconscious on the living room floor. The medical professionals at the hospital believed that Brenden was a victim of Shaken Baby Syndrome and Terry was subsequently convicted of child abuse and sentenced to 2 to 15 years in prison. Jason talks to Terry Ceasor and Dave Moran, Terry's attorney.

To learn more and get involved, visit:

https://michigan.law.umich.edu/academics/experiential-learning/clinics/michigan-innocence-clinic-0

https://lavaforgood.com/podcast/269-jason-flom-with-temujin-kensu/

https://lavaforgood.com/podcast/172-wrongful-conviction-junk-science-shaken-baby-syndrome/

Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

Josh Dubin discusses Eyewitness Testimony with renowned psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, a professor at the University of California, Irvine. She studies human memory, specifically the malleability of memory, a huge factor in cases where eyewitness testimony is used as evidence.

It turns out that memories, just like other forms of evidence, can be manipulated, contaminated, and planted.

Kate Judson, Executive Director of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences, updates Josh Dubin's Wrongful Conviction: Junk Science. 

Learn more and get involved:

http://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/junk-science

Wrongful Conviction: Junk Science is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

Just after midnight on July 25, 1990, a man was shot and killed in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Oakland, CA. Shortly after the shooting, police picked up 17-year-old Jerome Dixon, who had been hanging out with his friends nearby, and drove him to the crime scene and then to the police station. Police interrogated Jerome for 25 hours eliciting a confession. Despite no physical evidence linking him to the crime, Jerome accepted a plea deal for second-degree murder and was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison.

To learn more about false confessions: