INNOCENT MAN SPENDS 28 YEARS IN PRISON FROM FLAWED FBI ANALYSIS MISTAKING DOG HAIR AS HUMAN

Clearwater Criminal Defense Lawyers are often astounded at the manufactured evidence that expert witnesses testify to while being cross-examined during trial which leads to needless convictions of people who are later proven innocent. Testimony from witnesses of agencies such as the FBI are given great weight by Jurors during trial and by Judges during sentencing.

Matisse, Self Portrait Jail Shirt, 1906

Yet forensic laboratory evidence from the FBI has been found to be tainted, unreliable and based on flawed forensic techniques in polygraph cases, fingerprint cases, DNA cases and handwriting cases. Often courts even in Florida will allow expert lab reports to be read to a jury without allowing cross examination of the expert who wrote the report. 


The Washington Post notes that American Courts are reviewing questions of innocence in over 21,000 cases of failed expert testimony and lab results just from the FBI's hair and fibers unit. The startling numbers have even more impact when you consider the actual lives destroyed. 
Santae Tribble spent 28 years of his life in prison for a murder he didn't commit. New DNA tests established that the 'expert' testimony and evidence from the FBI matching his hair to that of hair found at the murder seen was wrong. In fact the FBI examiner even failed to find that some of the hair examined belonged to a dog. 

The Judge signed a Certificate of Innocence stating that the Trial results must be vacated and the Post gives some insight into why:

A hair match also was critical evidence at his trial...Hair analysis was subjective and lacked scientific research into how often hairs of different people might appear to match, and the FBI lab lacked protocols to ensure that agent testimony was scientifically accurate.

The FBI agent testified at trial that the hair from the stocking matched Tribble’s “in all microscopic characteristics.” In closing arguments, the federal prosecutor went further: “There is one chance, perhaps for all we know, in 10 million that it could [be] someone else’s hair.” 

Court ordered DNA testing by a private lab confirmed that none of the 13 hairs retrieved from the crime scene shared Tribble’s genetic profile.  

One came from a dog; facts over which the FBI-trained examiners disagreed or missed outright at the trial.

The exploding scandal in forensic laboratories undermines American Justice. But so does the method by which the lab results were used. As often happens in Criminal Trials, the Federal Prosecutor argued far beyond the actual evidence in the closing argument. Isn't this a clear example of prosecutorial misconduct?

Yet worse where is the voice of our United States Supreme Court on one of the most important issues of our time, that goes directly to America's standards of justice, due process and fairness - the convictions of those who are actually innocent. 
Here's Justice Scalia taking the other Justices to task for taking a Defendant's actual innocence into account in Murder Cases:

This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is “actually” innocent.   

Quite to the contrary, we have repeatedly left that question unresolved, while expressing considerable doubt that any claim based on alleged “actual innocence” is constitutionally cognizable.

A Clearwater Criminal Attorney would remind Justice Scalia over a bottle or two of wine that when it comes to 'actual innocence' in criminal cases, the Supreme Court's first duty is finding Justice. 

HOW SHIRTLESS FBI INVESTIGATIONS ARE INITIATED IN TAMPA BAY FLORIDA TO DESTROY GENERALS' CAREERS

Many years ago when I was a Prosecutor in Florida, I received an unusual call from a local Judge who had an excellent reputation. The Judge said he was the victim of a crime. He didn't want it to be public. He asked if I would draw up an arrest warrant based on his statement and submit it to another Judge. 
I understood that even those who are a direct part of the Florida Criminal Justice System often don't have a full grasp of the role others have within the system.
What I told him was this - every victim of a crime must first go thru the police, they'll investigate, then a prosecutor will be randomly assigned to your case, otherwise the entire prosecution will be tainted because it began in a questionable manner. 

Caravaggio, David  or Shirtless FBI. 1609

I thought of that Judge's call during the recent email scandal enveloping the CIA and the American Military. The scandal began as all good scandals should, right here in Tampa Bay, Florida. But when a local 'civilian liaison' to the Air Force base complained to a friend in the FBI (a friend on good enough terms with her to have emailed shirtless pictures of himself to her) about possibly harassing emails the FBI agent seems to have forgotten how the Criminal Justice System in America should work.
Clearwater Criminal Attorneys familiar with how the FBI typical operates in the Middle District of Florida are surprised that a Federal investigation could be initiated as press reports have described. 
Here is what he should have told his friend about how the criminal justice system works not unlike what I said to that Judge so many years ago:

1. He could not be objective. Because he had some kind of friendly relationship with the victim his involvement should have ended immediately upon telling her with whom and how to make a proper complaint.

2.  Although using the internet for harassment by sending threatening messages may constitute a federal crime, the FBI rarely if ever initiates investigations for such low level crime, but would file the charge incident to other larger offenses such as Conspiracy to Traffic in Cocaine or Complex Scheme to Defraud involving millions of dollars. 

What seems to have happened is that an FBI agent forgot about the need to be objective, instead launching a bulldog Electronic Surveillance for a friend, without considering the loss of privacy that investigation could cause to others. His failures in good judgment have done more to destroy American defenses than any actual spy network, something which should cause real concern within the Government. 
Clearwater Criminal Lawyers urge agents at the FBI to remember that investigations and security concerns must always be balanced with our constitutional rights to privacy.

GOVERNMENT GONE WILD: FBI LISTS FANS OF HEAVY METAL RAP BAND AS GANG MEMBERS

The music group Insane Clown Posse has found that their fans have been listed as gang members by the FBI. The fans of the group are known as JUGGALOS and they're having too much fun, damn them. 
The successful Band plays music that's a potent brew of heavy metal rap with rhyming hard rock played while the singing duo wears their trademark clown faces. My knowledge is limited as your favorite Clearwater Criminal Defense Lawyer's musical tastes tends toward Miles Davis jazz, so if any FBI investigators are reading this law blog please keep that in mind before placing me on your gang member list. 

Of course the FBI has a long history of harassing cultural icons in this country, not only making life difficult for some of the great jazz musicians, but with hundreds of pages of FBI investigations and secret eavesdropping of John Lennon, the leader of a Liverpool band that played a hedonistic subversively scuffled - yea yea yea - music, from what I understand. For fourteen years the FBI refused to release the investigative reports because it would infringe on national security. Oh those were the glory years for law enforcement and especially for the FBI. Yet until now now at least being a fan was safe with little risk other than tinnitus or not hearing what you wouldn't want to know anyway. 


It must be a real time saver for the FBI to simply list all of the  fans of branded bands as a 'gang members' placing entire subcultures under strict scrutiny just because of the music they happen to enjoy or in irony might pretend to enjoy. In Florida the FBI list must be a helpful to local law enforcement, like the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, the St. Petersburg Police Department and the Largo Police Department as they can groom ever more youth to become future defendants by labeling them as gang affiliates and gang members angering parents. Now more Detectives will search an ever expanding network of lists of culturally suspect poets, writers and Liverpool bands by looking for the tale-tell signs of gang subversion in bumper stickers, facebook pages and downloaded itunes songs from the foolish fans, who thought their cultural tastes were part of what it means to be free in America. 
The Insane Clown Posse are suing the FBI for turning their fans into criminal suspects. There's at least one Clearwater Criminal Defense Attorney who hopes this goes to a federal jury trial so that it will be FBI under close scrutiny for a change.

POLICE OFFICERS CAUGHT DOING CRIMES ARE NOT BEING ARRESTED CHARGED NOR PROSECUTED IN TAMPA CLEARWATER & ST. PETERSBURG PINELLAS FLORIDA

You'd think Florida Law Enforcement Officers would be held to a higher standard. You'd hope Officers caught doing crimes would not only be prosecuted to the full extent of the law but be drummed out of service.  If that's what you believe - you're wrong, as the this recent and ongoing series of articles, How Florida's Problem Officers Remain on the Job from the Herald Tribune make clear: officers are getting away with every crime under the sun, crimes for which every other citizen is brought before judges and juries and if convicted punished with jail time.

Among the Herald-Tribune's findings:

One in 20 active law enforcement officers in Florida has committed a moral character violation serious enough to jeopardize his or her career. Nearly 600 have two or more such acts of misconduct on their record and 30 current officers and prison guards continue to wear a badge despite four or more offenses.

Officers in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Sarasota have been accused of violence acts such as aggravated battery, grand theft, possession of drugs and sexual battery enough to keep your favorite Clearwater Defense Attorney busy for years. Five years ago in an earlier blog post I wrote about the systemic corruption in a bargaining sex for drug reduction scandal at the Clearwater State Attorney's Office, now it appears corruption still exists in many Florida law enforcement agencies as can be seen in case studies of officer corruption.
For the law to be an effective deterrent to crime every citizen especially those sworn under oath to protect us, to defend us and to uphold our law must be subject to the law.

These corrupt officers should immediately be fired. A grand jury should be convened to indict those responsible at the highest levels of each law enforcement agency and each state attorney's office who coddled these criminals. 
If you believe that you are the victim of a crime at the hands of a Florida law enforcement officer you'll want to contact a Pinellas Crime Lawyer immediately to determine what action to take including reporting the crime to federal watchdogs such as the FBI Tampa Anti-corruption Squad which can conduct complex undercover operations investigating any corruption in law enforcement agencies in Clearwater, St. Petersburg and Pinellas.


At least Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife was honest, incorruptible, loyal and kept his one bullet ready to defend - Barney we need you...

Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife

• Favorite Quotations from Officer Barney Fife:
• "Floyd, if you would keep your mind outta Washington and stick to your barbering, I might get a better haircut. Now, what did you do with my sideburns?", paying Floyd, "Here, go buy a barber book!" 
• "If a chicken hawk is hanging around, a wise rooster doesn't bury his head...he keeps his eye on the chicken" (advice for Andy on keeping Andy's girlfriend safe from another man)
• "I'm sorry about this, but us lawmen can't take chances!" --Barney (as he frisks an Older Woman at a roadblock, searching for an escaped convict) --"But Barney! I'm your mother!" 

CORRUPT SENTENCING CORRUPTS PROSECUTORS IN PINELLAS

Mandatory minimum drug sentences not only destroy those who are sentenced but corrupt those who must determine when they will be applied. Because the Florida legislature has taken the decision-making process away from Florida judges, the decisions have been left to prosecutors or those given that authority by elected prosecutors. Your Clearwater Criminal Defense Attorney strongly believes that Florida Judges, not Florida prosecutors should be given discretion to go below mandatory minimum sentences, below I'll show you why.

While I was a prosecutor in the Pinellas Sixth Judicial Circuit in Clearwater, a man named Murphy who was assigned the tasks of watching the attorneys at trial, evaluating their performances as well as determining when the state attorney's office would amend the charging document to allow a judge to give a sentence below the the minimum mandatory range.

Murphy was trusted as the often green behind the ears attorneys in the office not only because he was the chief investigator, but because he had a long storied career of excellent service, judgement and achievment. I liked him a great deal. He was an affable irishman, always laughing, always ready to slap you on the back at the end of a successful drug trial. He'd always be there at sentencing to make sure neither you nor the judge dropped the ball and later he'd be at the bar buying a celebratory drink or two.

One day a young couple was arrested by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office for forging scripts also known as prescription fraud for oxycodone they'd become addicted to after a horrific automobile accident a year or so before. The handful of pills triggered three year minimum mandatory sentences for each of them.

Not surprisingly Murphy recommended probation rather than jail in their cases. Without his recommendation neither the judges nor the attorneys would have been able to go under the three years.
Murphy had set up a hotel encounter with the wife, a quid pro quo for the mercy only he could give. Just as Murphy had taken off his clothes they heard a pounding at the door, the wife unlocked it and the husband burst into the room breaking things up.

Later taped conversations by FDLE and the FBI revealed that Murphy - the chief investigator and the man in charge of who could get less than the harsh drug sentence statutory mandatory - continued to solicite sex for a reduction of the sentence even after the hotel incident.

This obvious Prosecutorial Misconduct with the ensuing whirlwind of publicity aged Murphy and may have helped usher in Pinellas County Drug Court. Clearwater Criminal Lawyers will never forget seeing this once respected man humbled, jobless and ruined. At his sentencing with hands shaking, his health broken as he sat in his second-hand wheelchair with torn leather begging the judge to give him a period of probation rather than the lockup he surely deserved--- where those prisoners serving their dull dark minimum mantory years would certainly have murdered him...