Pennsylvania governor and family attacked by man with Molotov cocktails and hammer

A Harrisburg man walked an hour from his home with gasoline-filled beer bottles and a hammer before setting fire to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s official state residence early Sunday, then fled the scene and later turned himself in, reported The Associated Press.

The suspect, 38-year-old Cody Balmer, allegedly confessed during a police interview and said if he had confronted Shapiro inside the historic Susquehanna riverfront residence, he would have beaten the governor with the hammer, court records released Monday state.

Balmer was charged with attempted criminal homicide, arson, burglary, terrorism, and other offenses, according to the criminal complaint obtained by Spotlight PA. Court records state Balmer was fueled by “hatred” towards Shapiro, though it does not elaborate on the reason for those feelings.

The attack came during the Jewish holiday of Passover, just after Shapiro had held a Seder in his residence with family and guests.

Of the possibility that Balmer’s arson could have been a hate crime, Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo told Spotlight PA, “It's something we’d look at — we’re not there yet. We haven’t made a determination, but we’re looking at that because of the timing.”

Balmer was initially scheduled to be arraigned Monday, but a spokesperson for Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement that “due to a medical event not connected to this incident or his arrest, Balmer was transported to an area hospital where he is currently receiving treatment.”

According to the State Police, he remains under their supervision and will be arraigned when he is released from the hospital.

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Fire science under scrutiny in review of 40 year old conviction

The  man who has been serving consecutive life sentences for the 1984 rooming house fire in Beverly has the opportunity for a new trial, according to WBGH in Boston.

Last week, Essex County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Karp overturned James Carver’s convictions for second-degree murder and arson. In the decision, Karp wrote a new trial was necessary because advances in fire science and eyewitness testimony “cast real doubt on the justice of his convictions.”

The fire killed 15 people. During the trial in 1989, prosecutors claimed Carver acted out of jealousy when he discovered a tenant of the rooming house was dating his ex-girlfriend. An investigator said the fire started from a stack of gasoline-soaked newspapers aflame in the only exit of the building. Witnesses said they saw Carver by the newspapers before the blaze.

Carver, 60, has maintained innocence and appealed, claiming new evidence would prove that other people set the fire. He has multiple chronic conditions and has used a wheelchair since 2006. He sought medical parole in 2021 but was denied.

This year, the court heard testimony from fire science and memory experts.

Karp’s decision mentions the fire marshal failed to “adequately rule out an electrical source.” On eyewitness memory, he noted experts revealed “the risk of misidentification significantly increases each time a witness is exposed to a suspect or the suspect’s photograph.” His decision mentions one witness was shown Carver’s photo three times before identifying him in a lineup.

Attorney Charlotte Whitmore of the Boston College Innocence Program said over 25 students have worked on Carver’s case in the past nine years.

“A lot of the evidence that the prosecution used in the 1980s to attempt to prove that this fire was an arson are now outdated, you know, sort of myths that fire scientists no longer rely on,” said Whitmore.

She and attorneys Lisa Kavanaugh, director of the Innocence Program at Committee for Public Counsel Services drove to Old Colony — where Carver is currently housed at — on Christmas Eve to let him know of Karp’s decision.

“Charlotte and I each took one of his hands and told him, 'we’re here with really good news,'” said Kavanaugh. “His face sort of lit up and he was like, 'Really?’ Then we told him 'the judge allowed your motion for new trial.’ It was a very emotional moment. He started crying. He was really just completely overwhelmed.”.

Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker has 30 days to decide whether to retry the case. In a statement, he said his office has received the court’s decision allowing Carver’s motion for a new trial.

“This was the defendant’s fifth such motion,” Tucker wrote. “His four prior motions were denied. We are carefully reviewing the ruling and exploring options. We are also attempting to locate and notify the families of the fifteen victims who were killed in the fire.”

A CVS and memorial stand at the rooming house site. Amanda Mazzaglia of the Elliott Chambers Fire Memorial Foundation said the foundation has “always been about the victims and never served as an interest in the legalities of the crime,” but declined further comment.

Within the next few weeks the court will also likely hear “the issue of his release conditions,” said Kavanaugh, who said they’re working on a release plan for Carver, in hopes that can occur during the time the commonwealth decides whether the case can be tried.

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Japan seeks death penalty for arsonist responsible for fire that killed 36 people

Prosecutors in Japan are seeking the death penalty for the suspect in an arson attack in 2019 that killed 36 people in one of the country’s deadliest crimes for decades, reported The Guardian.

Shinji Aoba, who was not arrested until he had recovered from the burns he sustained in the attack on an animation studio in Kyoto, admitted in court in September 2023 to starting the fire.

However, lawyers for Aoba, who underwent a psychiatric evaluation before standing trial, entered a plea of not guilty, claiming a psychological disorder had rendered him incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong.

He faces five charges, including murder, attempted murder and arson.

The deaths of dozens of people at the Kyoto Animation studio in July 2019 sent shock waves through Japan and prompted an outpouring of grief among fans of the company’s output.

The shock was compounded by the ages of the victims, many of whom were young employees, including a 21-year-old woman. Thirty-two of the studio’s 70 employees and others in the building were injured.

Aoba, 45, who is accused of breaking into the studio’s building and setting light to gasoline he had poured on the ground floor, apologised for the first time on Wednesday. “I feel tremendously sorry and the feeling includes a sense of guilt,” he told the court, according to public broadcaster NHK.

Aoba, who reportedly yelled at his victims to “die” as he started the fire, alleged that the studio had plagiarised his work – a claim prosecutors described as “delusional”.

The studio, commonly known as KyoAni, is known internationally for anime that include K-On! and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Aoba suffered more than 90% burns and had to undergo 12 operations, according to media reports. He reportedly wept after a successful procedure to restore his ability to speak.

Japan is one of several dozen countries that retain the death penalty, which it reserves for people found guilty of committing multiple murders or aggravated murder.

Although capital punishment has high levels of public support in Japan, authorities have been criticised for their treatment of condemned inmates, most of whom spend years in solitary confinement before being hanged.

The mother of one of the KyoAni victims, a 26-year-old woman, said she wanted her daughter back. “I wish I could go back to that day and die with her, and at least be by her side,” she told NHK.

The court is due to deliver its verdict on 25 January.

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Police in Illinois charge 9-year-old with five counts of first-degree murder

A 9-year-old has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder in connection with a lethal mobile-home fire in April near Goodfield, IL, reported the Peoria Journal Star.

The juvenile also has been charged with two counts of arson and one count of aggravated arson, Woodford County State’s Attorney Greg Minger said.

The identity of the suspect was not revealed, given that person’s age. Minger would not divulge additional details about the suspect, including a possible relationship to the victims.

Minger’s decision to prosecute came six months following the blaze April 6 that killed two adults and three children in a residence at Timberline Mobile Home Park.

The fire at 14 Cypress Court began shortly after 11 p.m. on a Saturday. The trailer was engulfed in flames by the time firefighters arrived a few minutes later.Kathryn Murray, 69; Jason Wall, 34; Rose Alwood, 2; Daemeon Wall, 2; and Ariel Wall, 1, died of smoke inhalation, autopsies revealed.

There were two survivors — Katrina Alwood, who was 27 at the time of the fire, and her juvenile son.

Katrina Alwood and Jason Wall, who were engaged to be married, were parents of Ariel Wall and Daemeon Wall. Rose Alwood was a niece. Murray was Katrina Alwood’s grandmother.

Minger said he went through various authoritative reports about the blaze numerous times before he decided to proceed with prosecution.

“It was a heavy decision,” he said. “It’s a tragedy, but at the end of the day it’s charging a very young person with one of the most serious crimes we have.

“But I just think it needs to be done at this point, for finality.”

He said the aggravated-arson charge suggests the suspect knew others were present when the fire was set.

Earlier, Woodford County Coroner Tim Ruestman ruled the fire was started intentionally.

The fire site is just northeast of Goodfield. The village of about 1,000 residents is located along Interstate 74 between Peoria and Bloomington-Normal.

No arrest warrant is to be issued for the suspect, Minger said. He wasn’t certain about the minimum age threshold for imprisoning a minor.

The suspect is to be appointed an attorney and will be subject to a bench trial, in front of a judge, according to Minger. No jury is to be empaneled.

If convicted, the suspect could be placed on probation for at least five years but not beyond the age of 21, the state’s attorney said. Therapy, counseling and psychological evaluation would be likely.

Incarceration is not an option, Minger suggested.

“Probation, given the age, is about the only outcome that could happen here,” he said.

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Some long accepted forensic evidence being denounced

Hundreds of people have been  convicted in whole or in part on forensic science that has come under fire during the past decade, reported The Associated Press.

Some of that science — analysis of bite marks, latent fingerprints, firearms identification, burn patterns in arson investigations, footwear patterns and tire treads — was once considered sound, but is now being denounced by some lawyers and scientists who say it has not been studied enough to prove its reliability and in some cases has led to wrongful convictions.

Even so, judges nationwide continue to admit such evidence regularly.

“Courts — unlike scientists — rely too heavily on precedent and not enough on the progress of science,” said Christopher Fabricant, director of strategic litigation for the Innocence Project. “At some point, we have to acknowledge that precedent has to be overruled by scientific reality.”

Defense lawyers and civil rights advocates say prosecutors and judges are slow to acknowledge that some forensic science methods are flawed because they are the very tools that have for decades helped win convictions. And such evidence can be persuasive for jurors, many of whom who have seen it used dramatically on “Law & Order” and “CSI.”

Rulings in the past year show judges are reluctant to rule against long-accepted evidence even when serious questions have been raised about its reliability:

— A judge in Pennsylvania ruled prosecutors can call an expert to testify about bite marks found on a murder victim’s body, despite 29 wrongful arrests and convictions nationwide attributed to unreliable bite mark evidence since 2000.

— A Connecticut judge allowed prosecutors to present evidence that a footprint was made by a specific shoe belonging to a man accused of murder, despite a 2016 finding by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology that such associations are “unsupported by any meaningful evidence or estimates of their accuracy.”

— In Chicago, a federal judge rejected a request to exclude testimony of government experts to describe firearm and tool-mark comparisons they performed on bullets collected at crime scenes in the trial of Hobos gang members. The judge reasoned that defense lawyers were free to cross-examine the government’s experts.

Two reports by scientific boards have sharply criticized the use of such forensic evidence, and universities that teach it are moving away from visual analysis — essentially, eyeballing it — and toward more precise biometric tools.

But some defense lawyers fear any progress on strengthening forensic science may be lost under President Donald Trump.

a serious problem.”

The National Registry of Exonerations at the University of California Irvine has documented more than 2,000 exonerations since 1989. Nearly one-fourth list “false or misleading forensic evidence” as a contributing factor.

And a report last fall from the President’s Council criticized several “feature-comparison” methods, which attempt to determine whether a sample from a crime scene is associated with a sample from a suspect by comparing patterns. The council said those methods — including analysis of shoeprints, tire tracks, latent fingerprints, firearms and spent ammunition — need more study to determine their reliability and error rates.

When the reliability of forensic evidence is challenged through DNA testing or other new evidence, it often results in the granting of a new trial, even if there is other strong evidence against a

 Science, an independent panel of scientists, researchers, judges and attorneys that had been studying how to improve the reliability of forensic practices.

Some forensic methods have been questioned by defense lawyers for years, but it wasn’t until 2009 that the National Academy of Sciences, a nonprofit consisting of some of the nation’s most distinguished researchers, released a report that found that with the exception of DNA, many methods had not been tested enough to be considered valid.

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Texas considers review of discredited evidence

In Texas lawmakers are backing a renewed push to streamline the appeals process for those who were convicted based on science that has since been discredited.

Senate Bill 344 would establish a statute expressly allowing Texas courts to overturn convictions in cases where the forensic science that originally led to the verdict has changed. There a companion bill filed in the Texas House.

Though the proposal has failed twice before, several recent Court of Criminal Appeals decisions may make it more likely to pass, and that prosecutors who have opposed it in the past should come around.

Currently, people convicted of a crime in Texas can submit a writ of habeas corpus to the Court of Criminal Appeals, in which they ask for a new trial based on evidence that was not available when they were originally convicted. If the science used to convict them has changed, there is no special guideline allowing the court to grant them a new trial, and the judges often disagree about whether to do so.

The advent of more reliable scientific evidence like DNA has exposed or helped discredit long accepted forms of evidence.  Some of the newly discredited evidence includes arson analysis, bite marks, handwriting, toolmarks, hair & fiber even fingerprint analysis.

To read more:
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/02/04/criminal-justice-advocates-renew-call-flawed-scien/

Long Accepted Evidence Being Challenged in Court

Fingerprints, Eye Witnesses and Arson Investigations all Subject to Scrutiny

A recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer explores the potential problems with evidence used in criminal trials. The article explores several forms of evidence including eye witness testimony, fingerprints and arson investigation techniques.

According to the Inquirer, the legal challenges around the country are an outgrowth of the revolutionary impact of DNA testing, which has freed 267 prisoners nationwide, including 10 in Pennsylvania and five in New Jersey.

Eyewitness testimony was a factor in the convictions of 75 percent of those exonerated through DNA testing, according to the New York-based Innocence Project. Faulty forensic evidence contributed to 50 percent of the convictions. The project said that 25 percent of the defendants later found innocent had confessed or pleaded guilty, and that jailhouse informants were a factor in 15 percent of the overturned cases, reported the Inquirer.

The Inquirer suggested that eye witness evidence, always thought to be the gold standard of evidence, can be influenced by the race of the alleged offender and witness, use of weapons, time elapse between offense and testimony and trauma. The article laments that Pennsylvania does not permit the challenge of an eye witness by expert testimony.

Fingerprints long accepted as conclusive evidence of guilt are being challenged.In a recent Philadelphia case an attorney cited 21 cases of mistaken identifications by print examiners since 1990, including a Delaware County murder case in which a defendant, jailed for two years, was freed after a panel of experts agreed that his fingerprint was not at the crime scene, reported the Inquirer.

Arson investigations are another area of concern. A National Academy of Sciences report found serious deficiencies in how fire investigators decide whether a fire had been intentionally set. In Texas, Cameron Willingham was convicted of murder and executed for the deaths of his three young children as the result of an arson.

Willingham's case gained national attention in 2009 when an article in The New Yorker examined the arson investigation through experts and demonstrated that, contrary to the claims of the prosecution, there was no evidence that the house fire was intentionally set.

Pennsylvania convened a wrongful conviction committee which is expected to proposed that all confessions obtained by police be video taped, police departments implement a new lineup procedure and that the state create a forensic board to set standards for evidence analysis in Pennsylvania.

To read more: http://articles.philly.com/2011-03-21/news/29171675_1_dna-testing-wrongful-convictions-validity/4