Lindsay Partin

Lindsay Partin was with Hannah Wesche for a matter of seconds or minutes on March 8, 2018, before she collapsed.

The child’s father, Jason Wesche, who dropped her off that morning, could have caused her injury, or it could have been a fall.

In an appeal filed October 2019 Linday’s appellate attorney Neal Schuett said the state should have disclosed to the defense that Jason had a friend staying at his home on March 7, 2018, and that he “lied to investigators that he did not go to Walmart with Hannah to get milk on March 7, 2018, and that he lied to investigators for over a year.

News Report October 2019: https://www.journal-news.com/news/crime–law/linday-partin-appeals-conviction-death-toddler/Qe8Pw3y32hfKQApEDI133I/

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Kim Hoover-Moore

In 2002 – five days before Christmas , Columbus police arrested baby-sitter Kim Hoover-Moore for the shaken baby death of 9-month-old Samaisha Benson a month earlier.

She maintained her innocence, but was convicted or murder and other charges.

At trial, in the original autopsy, the coroner determined that the child had no previous brain injuries.

However, when asked by Assistant State Public Defender Joanna Sanchez to re-examine the evidence recently, the same coroner found an old brain injury that the child had suffered – probably about a month before she died – and evidence that the injury re-bled about 4-5 days before she died causing the fatal injuries.

Source: https://www.10tv.com/article/babysitter-convicted-9-month-olds-death-hopeful-new-trial-newfound-evidence

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Pamela Lanier

Dorian Lanier died in hospital on 19 November 1997 of chronic and acute arsenic poisoning. His wife Pamela was subsequently convicted of his murder.

According to a 2004 ruling denying an appeal:

“Dorian and defendant had a contract to grow turkeys for Nash Johnson and Son Farms. Dorian used a turkey medication called Nitro-3 on his turkeys, which was administered through the turkeys’ water supply. Dorian had a proportional medication system between his house and his turkey houses, where Nitro-3 was mixed with water in a bucket called a proportioner;  the mixture then ran through a water hose to the turkey house. The hose had a bypass valve that allowed one to draw fresh water, without Nitro-3, out of the hose.  Nitro-3 contains arsenic and stains yellow any object with which it comes in contact.”

and

“Although Dorian knew the turkey medication contained arsenic, several defense witnesses, including defendant’s son, nephew, mother, father and a family friend, testified that they had seen Dorian drink from the hose attached to the turkey medication.   Defendant’s son, defendant’s father and an EMT testified that Dorian told them at the hospital on 19 November “he had done [this] to himself.””

The central question in the case is whether the turkey medication could have been responsible for his death. The case has been featured on “Undisclosed Podcast”. In Episode 4, the conclusion is that it’s very plausible that the turkey medication was the cause, and Dorian ingested the medication. Based on new expert opinions, a new appeal should be filed.

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Victoria Rickman

In the early morning hours of Sept. 13, 2013, Victoria Rickman called 911 to report she had repeatedly shot her boyfriend, Will Carter Jr. She said he raped her. Rickman said she shot to stop the attack.

Defense attorney Amanda Clark Palmer says”She didn’t invite him over. She didn’t want him over there. She didn’t plan to kill him. And she didn’t murder him. I 110-percent believe she shot him in self-defense.”

Source: 48 hours, Nov 11, 2017

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Dana Chandler

Dana Chandler was convicted in 2012 of the murder of her ex-husband, Michael Sisco, and his girlfriend, Karen Harkness, on July 7, 2002.

The prosecution case was entirely speculative. There was no evidence to place her at the scene, no forensic evidence to link her to the crime. She did make a credit-card purchase of two gas cans on the day before the murders, which the prosecution suggested were to help conceal her long trip to commit the murder, however they would not have been sufficient to complete the round trip. Police could not confirm her alibi, but videos of the locations she visited were not complete.

In addition, the prosecutor told the trial jury that Sisco secured a court protective order in 1998 to shield him from Chandler, but this was completely untrue.

The prosecutor made other claims that were either false or unsupported by evidence.

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Update April 6, 2018 Conviction Overturned Ruling

Update May 20, 2020 Prosecutor disbarred due to violation of professional ethics

Donna Hockman

Donna Hockman shot and killed Dustin Stanley in self-defense on July 25, 2008.

Stanley was a criminal informant, and had a record of 12 arrests for property destruction, assault and battery, disorderly conduct and annoying phone calls. He was also violent and had been stalking Donna for many months after being released from jail in February 2008 after signing a Confidential Informant Agreement.

On June 7, 2008, at a wedding, Stanley’s family told Donna that he had abused “every woman he’s ever dated”. Shortly after, a fight broke out between Stanley and his family, and later that night Stanley beat Donna bloody, bashed her head into her headboard and threw her onto the floor kicking her repeatedly.

Despite complaints to police, Stanley was not arrested, and Donna could not obtain any protection from him, apparently due to his status as a paid police informant.

On July 25, Donna shot Stanley at her home after he threatened to kill her and her son.

Donna was convicted of first degree murder on the basis of the testimony of six jailhouse informants who claimed she gave different accounts of events on July 25 and sentenced to life without parole.

More information at http://commonwealthcoverup.com/

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Brenda Fay Nelson

Brenda Nelson was convicted of the murder of her husband.

No murder weapon was ever found, and neither was the supposed trigger man identified. Brenda maintains her innocence. The case was entirely circumstantial, and no forensic or eyewitness evidence connects Brenda to the murder.

Police claim that cellphone evidence placed her at the scene, but the cell phone tower covers a wide area. An alternative suspect was not investigated by the defense.

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Kimberly Renee Poole

Kimberly Renee Poole was celebrating her third wedding anniversary with her husband Brent Poole, when the couple were robbed on a beach soon before midnight on June 9th, 1998. Brent was shot twice in the head, and died soon after.

Police rapidly focussed on a theory that the shooter was John Boyd Frazier, and Kimberly had conspired with John to have her husband murdered. Kimberly had briefly left her husband and gone to live with John a month earlier, before reconciling with her husband.

Kimberly was subject to extremely coercive Reid interrogation tactics, and after many hours, after being accused of “obstructing justice”, on being told the only way she could keep her two year old child Katie was to agree to the police theory, she made damaging admissions.

The police built their case on

(i) A questionable eyewitness identification from a couple who were paid a substantial amount of money by Brent’s family.

(ii) A witness who saw a car resembling John’s car parked outside the Poole home on three nights before the murder.

(iii) The testimony of alternative suspect Bruce Wolford, who was a friend of John, and a bartender at the Silver Fox where Kimberly worked. Wolford testified that John tried to fight Brent on May 30 in the parking lot of the Silver Fox. Wolford also claimed that he overheard Kimberly telling John of her plans to go to Myrtle Beach with Brent on June 9.

However, eyewitness Chris Hensley who had seen the shooter close-up (ten feet), told police the composite he made didn’t resemble John in any way. Instead, it resembled alternative suspect Bruce Wolford.

Kimberly and John were convicted in separate trials. A juror at Kimberly’s trial has written about how jurors were coerced into reaching a verdict. John’s conviction was overturned, due to him being denied an expert to challenge the eyewitness identification, but he was again convicted after a retrial. Kimberly was sentenced to life without parole.

It has recently been discovered that Wolford was stalking Kimberly, he had installed spyware on the Poole’s computer. Kimberly’s attorney has since been disbarred. A recently filed appeal cites ineffective assistance of counsel, based on several grounds.

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Belynda Goff

In 1994 Belynda, then 32 years old, lived in Green Forest, Arkansas and worked at the local Tyson plant. She was a mother of three – Stephen Lee, 3 years old, Mark, 7, and Bridgette, 15.

On the night of June 11, 1994 she was home with her husband, Stephen, and their son, Stephen Lee. Around 9:00 pm Stephen received a phone call and told Belynda he was going out for cigarettes even though, as Belynda told him, the store was closed. She headed to bed around 10:00 or 10:30 pm. Stephen was still not home. During the night Stephen Lee crawled into bed with her.

At about 2:00 am her upstairs neighbors heard a knock on the Goffs’ door, and then shortly later, what sounded like banging on the ceiling.

Between 4:00 and 4:30 am Belynda’s alarm went off. She went into the bathroom, then the living room. It was there that she saw Stephen, in the corner of their doorway, bloodied. His blood spattered keys lay nearby. She became hysterical and dialed the Operator for help. The paramedics and police arrived shortly thereafter.

The police could not find bloody weapons or clothing in Belynda’s home so they surmised she must have cut up the clothing and flushed it down the toilet. While the police failed to find evidence to corroborate their theory, evidence that someone else had killed Stephen began to emerge.

On the morning her trial was to begin, Belynda, facing the prospect of a life sentence, was offered a plea deal of 10 years. She rejected it.

More at Huffington Post

Featured case #165 | Proposal Post

Update June 27, 2019

Arkansas woman found guilty of killing husband in 1996 ordered freed
Paltry evidence would merit murder acquittal, judge says.

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/jun/27/widow-found-guilty-in-1996-ordered-free/

Mary Jane Kimberly Lee Johns

Mary Jane Kimberly Lee Johns was found guilty on March 21, 2017 of kidnapping her former girlfriend, Laura Westphal, in May 2000.

According to a pre-trial ruling, Kim and Laura were in a romantic relationship from the summer of 1999 through April 2000. They lived in different states and used AOL instant messaging and e-mail to communicate.

Following their breakup, Kim appeared at Laura’s parent’s home in May 2000. When Laura returned to the home, the women departed on a drive to Iowa.

The prosecution allege Kim held Laura at gunpoint, forcing her to drive, and holding her hostage for eight days, threatened to kill Laura and would not let Laura out of her sight.

The defense say Kim did not kidnap Laura, saying that Laura left her home and traveled with Kim to avoid having her family discover her same-sex relationship and to ensure that Kim did not commit suicide.

Receipts were recovered showing they visited motels and shops, making it implausible that Kim could have held Laura at gunpoint for this length of time. The defense cite messages where Laura lied, was deceptive and concealed the same sex relationship.

Sentencing was set for August 17, 2017.

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Holly McFeeture

Holly McFeeture was convicted in 2013 for killing Matthew Podolak, the father of two of her children with antifreeze in 2006.

At sentencing, Holly’s family members said she was a loving parent and a loyal and trustworthy person, who coached little league and raised her children the best she could as a single mother. “My mom is the greatest mom in the world because she is sweet and kind…I miss her,” said message from Podolak’s two younger children. Holly’s 15-year-old daughter said her mother raised three beautiful and loving children and was always there for them.

Holly was a suspect in Podolak’s death since 2006 when a pathologist concluded he died from chronic intoxication by ethylene glycol, the active ingredient in antifreeze. She was not charged until 2012, after Cleveland police received a tip that the poisoning was not an accident or a suicide.

Podolak’s family always maintained that he didn’t kill himself and that he was suffering from medical problems in the months before his death that caused him pain.

Before the sentencing hearing, McFeeture’s attorneys asked that Corrigan overturn the jury verdicts and acquit McFeeture or grant her a new trial.

They argued that state had failed to tell them that a former boyfriend of McFeeture’s, who was a key witness against her, had testified in another murder trial that sent a man to prison last year.

Jordan argued that attorneys should have been able to question him about it so jurors could weigh it in terms of his credibility. Corrigan, however, denied the requests citing plenty of evidence and testimony that the jury heard questioning the Jamison Kennedy’s credibility — or lack of credibility.

Source: News report August 28, 2013

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Amber Hilberling

Amber Hilberling admitted to pushing her husband, an Air Force veteran, out of their 17th-floor apartment in Tulsa during an argument in June 2011.

But she claimed in court she did not intend to kill him, and blamed his fatal fall on “dangerously unsafe” window glass that was too weak to stop his plunge.

Amber, who was seven months pregnant when her husband died, cited self-defense and even rejected a plea deal that would have given her only five years behind bars.

But a jury convicted her of second-degree murder in 2013, after only three hours of deliberation. A judge sentenced her to 25 years in prison.

Amber still stuck by her self-defense claim, repeating it in a televised prison interview with Dr. Phil.

“There was an altercation in which I defended myself,” she told Dr. Phil, adding that her husband flew into a rage after she called him a coward.

She also claimed in the interview that her husband abused her through their 11-month marriage, and she always kept quiet about it.

“I was really good at lying,” Hilberling said.

“That was our relationship: Josh getting in trouble over and over again and me saying, ‘Oh, no, it’s not his fault. That’s my fault. I did that.’

In October 2016, Amber committed suicide in her prison cell.

Sources:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/okla-woman-convicted-killing-husband-found-dead-cell-article-1.2844093

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/10/25/woman-who-pushed-husband-to-his-death-from-a-25th-floor-window-found-dead-in-prison-cell/

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Angelika Graswald

Angelika Graswald was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Vincent  Viafore, whose body was recovered from the Hudson River in April 2015. 

Prosecutors said Graswald removed a nickle-sized drain plug on the top of the kayak to allow it to fill with water, however experts say the amount of water entering a small hole on the top of the kayak could be minimal compared to the amount of water splashing into Viafore’s open cockpit.

In a nearly 12-hour taped interrogation by police 10 days after Viafore disappeared, Graswald repeatedly denied killing her fiance and said her desperate calls to 911 were real.

Graswald also said during that interrogation, which she punctuated with yoga and hopscotch, that she was “OK” with Viafore’s death and “wanted him dead.”

Graswald told ABC News’ Elizabeth Vargas in a November 2015 jailhouse interview that she was at her “breaking point” during the taped interrogation.

“Well they kept me asking me the same questions like a hundred times. I knew that I was innocent,” Graswald told Vargas. “I was at my breaking point. I just, I had it so I just gave ’em what they wanted.”

She also denied in the interview that she removed the plug from Viafore’s kayak with the intent to kill him, saying, “No, I did not.”

Graswald’s attorney, Richard Portale, said in a court hearing that Graswald may have miscarried a baby during an interrogation. He also claimed that his client asked investigators who “Miranda” was after she was read her Miranda rights, according to The Associated Press.

Sources:

• New Twist in Case of NY Woman Accused of Fiance’s Kayak Murder June 2016
• Trial for Angelika Graswald, Accused of Kayak Murder of Fiancé, Set for Valentine’s Day December 2016.

Trial is set for February 14, 2017.

See also “Death on the Hudson“, 48 hours, Sep 12, 2015.

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News

July 24, 2017 Plea deal agreed  According to her attorney, Richard Portale, Graswald “will be home in December.”

 

Rhonda Orr

Rhonda Orr was convicted of first-degree arson resulting in the death of her husband, James Orr.

The fire marshal that investigated the case has been fired for wrongdoing.

The police sergeant that charged Rhonda has been fired for wrongdoing.

Featured case #155 | Proposal Post

 

Vanessa Cameron

Vanessa Cameron was convicted of murder of her son’s father in 2012. She was sentenced to 70 years. There was no physical evidence. Just a false confession from Vanessa and the testimony of the co-defendant Lakisha Brown. The alleged shooter was acquitted of murder. The real shooter plead guilty and received 25 years. The real shooter is Vanessa’s older sister Susan Sutton. All facts of the case can be read on www.freevanessa.com.

Featured case #152 | Proposal Post

 

Sarah Jo Pender

During the night of October 24th, 2000, around 11.30 pm in Indianapolis, Sarah Jo’s former boyfriend, Richard Hull, killed their roommates, Andrew Cataldi and Patricia Nordman.  Cataldi and Nordman were fugitives from Nevada.  To commit the murder, he used a gun Sarah Jo had legally purchased on that very morning as a mean of self defense.  The shooting occurred during a heated argument between Hull and Cataldi, while Sarah Jo was gone from the house to take a walk.  Cataldi, Nordman and Hull were three drug dealers.  Sarah Jo was the only one who held a regular job.   She had only dated Richard Hull for two months.  It was him who had introduced Cataldi and Nordmann to her.

By the time Sarah Jo came back, Richard Hull had already wrapped the bodies in blankets and loaded them in a pick up truck he had borrowed from a friend.  Finding herself in the middle of a bloody crime scene, Sarah Jo, disoriented, accompanied him to a place located four blocks away where he got rid of the bodies, throwing them in a dumpster.  Richard Hull then drove a car-wash to clean the pick up.  The couple then came back to the house.  Sarah Jo refused to sleep there so where they picked up a few personal belongings and went to Lapel, Indiana, where they slept briefly at a friend’s place.

They came back the following morning.  Hull tried cleaned up the house while Sarah Jo went to work. The bodies were discovered on October 25, 2000 and the couple was arrested in Noblesville on October 26, 2000.

Sarah Jo later explained : “After he committed these murders, I did not call the police, but instead stayed with him out of love, fear,loyalty and sheer stupidity.”

Source

Featured case #148 | Proposal Post | Facebook Page

Lorinda Swain

Lorinda Swain was convicted in 2002 for sexually abusing her adopted son.

But her son later told the court he’d lied about the abuse. After more than seven years in prison, Swain was let out on bond when a judge ruled she deserved a new trial.

But the Court of Appeals overruled that decision two separate times.

Source: What does an innocent person have to do to get their conviction overturned? April 4, 2016

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Calhoun Co. prosecutor won’t retry Lorinda Swain May 19, 2016
“In an order issued Wednesday, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that Swain was entitled to a new trial. Later the same day, Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert told 24 Hour News 8 that his office would not move forward with the retrial.”

Amanda Brumfield

This nightmare began on the evening of October 3, 2008 when Amanda’s goddaughter, whom she was caring for, climbed out of her Pack ‘n Play and fell to the floor in Amanda’s home. She seemed fine after a brief period of fussing then played and had a snack before going to bed for the night. She actually was injured far more than anyone could have suspected and died a few hours later in her sleep. Her death was devastating, but this accidental tragedy turned into the unthinkable when Amanda was arrested the following June and subsequently charged with Capital Murder, Aggravated Child Abuse, and Manslaughter of a Child.

Amanda’s biological father is Billy Bob Thornton. We believe his Hollywood celebrity status had adverse influence on the police and Medical Examiner investigations, which ultimately influenced the filing of charges in the first place and led to inaccurate sensationalized press reporting.

Amanda’s trial began May 23, 2011, the day before and in the same courthouse as Casey Anthony’s trial. We believe the heinous facts associates with the Anthony case and its vast media coverage created a powerful public awareness that impacted the ability for Amanda to have a fair trial. The notoriety of the Anthony case led to a community mindset with far reaching adverse influence that greatly overshadowed Amanda’s innocence.

We believe these wrongful charges were based on medical opinions that have no evidentiary basis and defy common sense. Furthermore,recent acknowledgements within the legal and medical communities support the fact that the theory  behind Shaken Baby Syndrome is junk science.

Amanda was acquitted of Murder and Aggravated Child Abuse, but found guilty of Aggravated Manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. No motive, no eyewitness testimony, no prior record, no physical evidence that Amanda ever harmed her goddaughter in any way, yet Amanda is in in prison.

Amanda is now represented by The Innocence Projects of Florida and Wisconsin. A motion for Post Conviction Relief was filed in January, 2015.

We believe Amanda was falsely accused, egregiously charged, and wrongfully convicted. Amanda is innocent and did not receive a fair trial.

Copied from website https://freeamandabrumfield.wordpress.com/

Featured case #131 | Facebook page | Proposal Post

Pamela Smart

Pamela Smart was convicted of conspiring with her 16-year-old lover, William Flynn, and three of his friends to kill her 24-year-old husband, Greggory Smart, on May 1, 1990, in Derry, New Hampshire.

This was largely as a result of the testimony of Flynn and his friends, who were treated leniently in exchange for their testimony, and secretly taped conversations in which Pamela appeared to contradict her claims of having wanted to reconcile with her husband and having no knowledge of the plot. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole.

Supporters say the taped conversations via wiretap were inaudible. For that reason the court had them transcribed by a secretary, not an expert, and therefore they were not transcribed properly and the person who transcribed the tapes cannot be named or found. Sentences spoken by Cecilia Pierce were attributed to Pamela Smart and vice versa.

Pamela did say incriminating things on the tapes, but there is an obvious innocent explanation – she pretended to be in the conspiracy to try to get an admission from one of the guilty parties (Cecilia Pierce), but it back-fired big-time. She knew the conversation was being recorded.

Bill Flynn was a drug addict and petty thief , Patrick Randall an aspiring hitman. Pamela only knew Bill Flynn, she admitted having an affair with him, this would doubtless not have gone down well with the jury.

Bill Flynn was no innocent. He was having sex with another woman at the same time he was having the affair with Pamela.

Pamela was implausibly accused of seducing 15-year-old Flynn and threatening to stop having sex with him unless he killed her husband.

The judge permitted the murderers to be housed together, giving them ample time and opportunity to coordinate their stories and even watch each other testify in live time on televisions in the jail.

Appeal rulings : State-v-Smart  | Smart-v-Goord

Featured case  #134 | Website | Discussion | Proposal Post | Petition | Facebook Page

 

Connie Oakes

Connie Oakes was wrongly convicted of fatally stabbing Casey Armstrong in the neck while he sat in the bathtub of his Medicine Hat trailer in May 2011.

The conviction was based on a confession from Wendy Scott, who has an IQ of 50 and had accused three others of the murder.

Scott subsequently retracted her confession, and her conviction has been overturned, due to a lack of corroborative physical evidence.

In January 2016, one of Connie’s lawyers told an appeal court “This verdict was not supported by any reasonable use of evidence, this is a person who has a history of blaming other people of murder. She has provided sworn testimony once again. This is troubling.”

Source: ‘I want to see her set free’: Defence seeks new trial for Connie Oakes in fatal Medicine Hat stabbing Calgary Herald, 12 January 2016.

Featured case #126 | Discussion | Proposal Post

News

April 6, 2016 Connie Oakes’ murder conviction quashed over ‘unreliable’ testimony from low-IQ witness

April 28, 2016 ‘She’s coming home’: Connie Oakes free after murder charge stayed by Alberta Crown