Today’s Worcester Telegram & Gazette contains a letter from a BMG poster (okay, me) that calls Worcester District Attorney John Conte to task for misrepresenting (that’s the polite word) the record on the Benjamin LaGuer case. Read the letter here or here.
The problem for Conte (after 30 years in office he should be the poster boy for DA term limits) is that his dogged quest to protect a 23-year-old conviction in spite of mounting evidence that it was tainted by sloppy (again, a polite word) police work and an outrageously inadequate trial may finally come undone. He can’t be too happy that The Supreme Judicial Court is going to take a close look at the case this fall.
LaGuer, who has been proclaiming his innocence since the day he was arrested in July 1983, has been an irritant to the famously secretive DA for more than two decades.
Now that the legal spotlight is about to shine on this conviction the famously press averse DA is coming out of the shadows to twist, turn and obfuscate the truth in this case.
The mainstream media has been shy about really delving into what happened here. It has failed to ask why the justice system took such a tragically wrong turn.
So this is a plea to the blogosphere to pay some attention to this case as the SJC hearing (not yet scheduled) approaches. The new media will have a crucial role to play in making sure that the disinfecting powers of sunlight will keep the arguments presented honest and to the point. (More on that to follow.)
For a primer on the case go to www.BenLaGuer.com. You’ll find a lot of information. All the motions and filings leading up to the SJC hearing will be posted there.
…on the NDA testing issue. I’m sure my memory is faulty, but I thought it was mostly likely his?
…test that was released in March 2002 did indeed reveal that his DNA was in the evidence. This shocked his many supporters who knew that the original investigation was chock full of problems. The problem for LaGuer was that he himself had been asking for DNA testing for years and in fact it took two years of litigation (because the DA threw up every road block he could) to get to testing once the defense team got access to the evidence. So if he really was innocent, how could his DNA have gotten into the evidence? It was a question many of his erstwhile supporters couldn’t get past. But those of us willing to give the case another look found a paper trail that not only pointed to contamination, but also pointed to a host of irregularities in how evidence was obtained and handled.
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The short of it is that the police searched LaGuer’s apartment the day after the crime. They had a warrant which enumerated a specific set of items (related to the crime) that they were authorized to seize. They didn’t find any of those items and indicated on the warrant return that they took “nothing.” But subsequent inventories (aka, chain of custody documents) show that the police illegally took his socks and underwear and then mixed it with the rest of the evidence.
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The contamination theory is complicated at first glance, but the more you learn the more obvious it becomes. Last year State Representative Ellen Story of Amherst asked some reputable DNA experts to look at the DNA results in conjunction with the chain of custody documents. Two responses, in addition to an earlier letter from a third expert, point up serious problems with the DNA results. You can read them at the BenLaGuer web site.
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This is what makes this case such a fascinating public policy lesson. For one thing, it gives the lie to the Romney notion of a “fool proof” death penalty.
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LaGuer’s pro bono legal team led by James C. Rehnquist are going to court on the basis of an exculpatory fingerprint report that the prosecution hid from the defense for 18 (!) years. They are arguing that the conviction can’t hold because LaGuer’s constitutional right to a fair trial was trampled because the basic principle that the commonwealth is required to disclose exculpatory evidence was violated. You can read all the filings at http://www.BenLaGuer.com.
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If the SJC grants LaGuer a new trial, as it should, the reliability of the DNA test will get a full and thorough airing there.
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The lower courts didn’t have the guts to overturn the verdict, probably because of the psychological power of the DNA results and because the mainstream press refused to pay close attention to the proceedings. That is why it it is so important for the blogosphere to do what it does best (tread where established old media organizations won’t go) and help keep this case in the spotlight as the SJC hearing approaches.
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It would be scary to think that police and prosecutors could just pick and choose the evidence that suits their case and ditch the rest. If the SJC won’t uphold this important legal principle, then who will?