Friday Roundup: Prosecutorial Misconduct and Junk Science

A group of former federal prosecutors is

asking the Supreme Court for time to argue

on behalf of a Louisiana man in a case to support his right to hold cities liable for causing wrongful convictions through a failure to properly train prosecutors. The case,


Connick v. Thompson


, will be heard Oct. 6.

A California assistant medical examiner testified before a grand jury on Monday that she was

51 percent sure

that a car crash victim died of blunt force injuries but that there was a 49 percent likelihood he died of a heart problem resulting from hardened arteries and an enlarged heart; prosecutors are now seeking a second opinion from the Chief Medical Examiner.

A Texas man convicted of murder based on unreliable forensics is

seeking a new hearing

.

Harris County, Texas, which has been plagued by wrongful convictions,

will receive more than $4 million

to create a much-needed public defender office that aims to improve representation of indigent defendants. The beleaguered North Carolina state crime lab continued to face new accusations of misconduct and faulty testing as officials

searched for a new crime lab director

.

The Task Force on Indigent Defense in Texas voted on Wednesday to

send a report

by the Timothy Cole Panel on Wrongful Convictions Issues detailing recommendations to prevent wrongful convictions to the Governor, legislative leaders, and the Texas Judicial Council.

Following news that Los Angeles and other cities had backlogs of thousands of untested rape kits, California lawmakers

passed a bill

requiring law enforcement agencies to keep detailed records of biological evidence collected in sexual assault cases.

DNA evidence cleared men suspected of sexual assaults in

Alaska

and

California

.

 

Hat tip to

Stand Down Texas

for pointing us to several stories this week.