Highlights Archives - Page 2 of 4

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Highlights

Attorney General Nessel Announces Vacated Wrongful Convictions in Calhoun County

The convictions of Louis Wright, 65, have been vacated pursuant to a collaborative review by the Michigan Department of Attorney General’s Conviction Integrity Unit, the Calhoun County Prosecutor’s Office, the Michigan State Police Forensic Science Division, and the Western Michigan University Cooley Law School Innocence Project. This review concluded that Mr. Wright was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault and breaking and entering in 1988 for which Mr. Wright was sentenced to 25-50 years in prison. DNA testing of the sexual assault kit in 2023 excluded Mr. Wright as the perpetrator and his sentence was subsequently vacated.

November 2023

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Highlights

The City of Charlotte’s Coverdell funds help support evidence documentation that led to a U.S. Postal Worker being indicted for stealing business checks worth over $1.9 million

In 2023, the DCS5 Fingerprint Enhancement System, which was funded by the City of Charlotte’s Coverdell award, was used to document processed evidence in a case involving financial crimes and fraud. The case involved 1.9 million USD in checks that were stolen and fraudulently deposited. A single fingerprint impression developed from the evidence led to the arrest of a United States Postal Service employee.

October 2023

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Bureau of Justice Assistance

Broward County, Florida Fellow hired as a staff Forensic Pathologist following successful completion of Fellowship Program

The fellow started promptly on July 1, 2018, and successfully completed all phases of the program. She completed over 200 autopsies, attended training from NAME and the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS), and presented a well-received poster concerning a very rare cause of sudden death. In the spring, she attended courses on forensic anthropology, forensic botany, and forensic entomology. Over the course of the year, she consulted with and learned forensic toxicology from an in-house laboratory and board-certified PhD toxicologist. With the opioid epidemic, this was a lot to undertake and master, and she became well versed in the properties, analysis, and interpretation of hundreds of prescription and nonprescription drugs. She received more than 30 hours of training from the staff pathologist, as well as hands-on training while doing cases. She was eventually hired as a staff forensic pathologist.

October 2023

Bureau of Justice Assistance

Montgomery County, Texas uses grant funding to make facility improvements and support medicolegal death investigation training and certification

Thanks to the grant funds, the county was able to make the necessary improvements to a facility, increase storage capabilities with the purchase of a high-density mobile shelving unit, and send two death investigators to medicolegal death investigation training who subsequently achieved certification. The marked increase in caseload, internal staffing challenges, and continued changes in the death investigation process affected the county’s ability to complete all the goals within the timeframe; however, it is still on task to complete them.

October 2023

Bureau of Justice Assistance

Fellow at Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, Ohio leads to decreased full-time forensic pathologist overall caseload average

The performance of autopsies by a fellow reduced the overall caseload average for the full-time forensic pathologists, helping to keep them below 325 annual autopsies and preserving critical criteria that must be met for National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) accreditation. The fellowship was an affordable and cost-effective approach to solving concerns regarding record autopsy numbers, as well as bolstering forensic pathology in the future, by providing two well-trained forensic pathologists to an understaffed field.

October 2023

Bureau of Justice Assistance

Hiring of Fellow at Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office, Wisconsin leads to increase of forensic autopsy services and support

With the hiring of a fellow, the office was able to increase the number of autopsies performed by 6 percent when compared with the 12 months prior, which allowed the office to offer support to surrounding jurisdictions in need of forensic autopsy services. During this timeframe, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office was able to provide autopsy support to 14 other jurisdictions, which is an increase of more than 100 percent from years prior.

October 2023

Bureau of Justice Assistance

Kittitas County Coroner’s Office purchases portable X-ray machine that enables enhanced investigations and saves county thousands of dollars from autopsy and X-ray fees

The portable X-ray machine has truly been an asset to the Kittitas County Coroner’s Office (KCCO) and to KCCO’s investigations. In the past, those cases requiring X-rays had to be transported to a local hospital for imaging, at considerable expense to KCCO. As a result, KCCO was very selective when it came to scheduling cases for imaging. Since KCCO has received their portable X-ray machine, they have enhanced their investigation to support their forensic pathologists by providing X-rays on any case in which it appeared they would be advantageous to have. In several cases, the KCCO pathologist has been able to certify cause and manner of death by reviewing scene photos and X-rays, thereby avoiding a costly autopsy which would have been required in the absence of the images. In a recent gunshot death, KCCO was able to locate projectiles in an area they did not expect them to be found based upon their initial review of the wounds. This saved a considerable amount of time at autopsy. Overall, having access to their own dedicated X-ray machine has enabled KCCO to perform better investigations with more accurate results, while, at the same time, saving their county thousands of dollars in autopsy fees and hospital X-ray fees. The convenience of being able to obtain images at KCCO’s facility without having to transport back and forth to the hospital is a great advantage as well.

October 2023

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Highlights

Texas State University’s Operation Identification uses MUHR funding to assist rural jurisdictions with unidentified human remains cases

Operation Identification (OpID) within the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University started ten years ago with the aim of locating, exhuming, and working towards identification for long-term unidentified human remains (UHRs) in South Texas. These UHRs represent border crossing deaths that had no DNA samples in CODIS, and little attention given to investigation efforts. While OpID still works with long-term UHRs, OpID is also now assisting rural jurisdictions with more recent deaths thanks to the FY 2022 MUHR award. With the continual rise in migrant deaths, many counties are overwhelmed with UHRs and have little resources to process them and work towards identification. To ensure these UHR are not buried and forgotten, OpID proposed to work with local jurisdictional authorities to remotely assist with identification efforts. Recently, OpID was able to put this prosed work into action with funding from the MUHR Program. OpID was contacted by the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) on May 9, 2022, regarding the discovery of a recent UHR that was decomposed beyond recognition. Two Guatemalan identification cards were found within clothing on the remains; however, this cannot be considered an identification. The consulate was notified and contacted the family to obtain several familial reference samples (FRS). BCSO does not take DNA samples from UHRs nor do other jurisdictional authorities within the county, therefore an OpID team member traveled a few hours to Brooks County to obtain a DNA sample from the UHR in the BCSO refrigerated storage unit. Due to the strong identification hypothesis, following county protocols and chain of custody procedures, the OpID team sent the FRS and UHR DNA sample to a private laboratory for comparison at the request of the consulate. Two weeks later, OpID was notified of a positive genetic association that was then compared to all circumstantial information. The appropriate jurisdictional authority signed off on the identification and the repatriation process began. The MUHR funding allowed OpID to hire more staff allowing OpID members to travel to Brooks County for DNA collection and to provide a quick turnaround for this case. Without the capability of assisting Brooks County, previous turnaround times for DNA comparisons have been anywhere from six months to two years.

October 2023

CNN

DNA testing leads to exoneration of California man imprisoned nearly 3 decades on kidnapping and sexual assault convictions

In January 1995, a man and woman were robbed at gunpoint by two men who had also sexually assaulted the woman. Days after the crime, Gerardo Cabanillas, who was 18 at the time, was arrested because he generally matched the description of one of the suspects. Mr. Cabanillas was coerced by the investigating detective into giving a false confession after 7 hours of interrogation and promises of leniency. Mr. Cabanillas was sentenced to 87 years to life in prison for kidnapping, sexual assault, carjacking, and robbery. After 28 years in prison, DNA was shown not to match Mr. Cabanillas, and instead pointed to other perpetrators. The court used this information to dismiss the case and declare Mr. Cabanillas factually innocent.

September 2023

Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (CT)

The State of Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s Fellows Make large impact at agency and contribute to the expansion of the profession

Through the support of their Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner System Program grant, the State of Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has graduated three Forensic Pathology Fellows over the past two years. These fellows completed over 700 autopsies, participated in and published research projects, presented at the National Association of Medical Examiners Annual Meeting, and took an active role in teaching over 150 visiting Pathology Residents and medical students with hands-on autopsies and lectures on topics in Forensic Pathology, contributing to the expansion of the profession. Over the past year, their most recent Fellow graduate completed over 225 autopsies on a wide variety of causes and manners of death, including 34 homicides; assisted in the investigation of 23 scenes; and testified in two trials.

September 2023

Category: Highlights