After 15 years in prison, man cleared in deaths of 5 kids

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By ED WHITE

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — Murder charges were dismissed Thursday against a man who spent 15 years in prison for the fire-related deaths of five children in suburban Detroit, the climax of an investigation that found misconduct by police and prosecutors.

Juwan Deering will not face a second trial, Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said. A judge granted her request to close the case a week after Deering’s convictions and life sentences were thrown out at her urging.

Wearing a three-piece suit, Deering, 50, walked into court shackled at the waist but departed as a free man with no restraints.

“It’s been a hard uphill battle. ... The sun couldn’t shine on not a brighter day. This is the brightest for me,” Deering said moments later as family members clung to him on a cloudless morning and other Detroit-area men exonerated of crimes stood nearby.



Juwan Deering gets a hug outside the courthouse in Pontiac, Michigan, on Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021, after murder charges were dropped in a fire that killed five children in suburban Detroit in 2000. Deering served 15 years in prison. Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said Deering was the victim of misconduct by law enforcement when he was charged and convicted in 2006. (AP Photo/Ed White)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/fires-trials-michigan-detroit-pontiac-80a14e691d5148182ad32dfe054fb2a8

[George McGovern]

1. Justice delayed. Justice nevertheless.

[greenjar_01]

2. Here are some pseudo-scientific bullshit "forensic" evidence categories:

1) Bite mark evidence. Fuck outta here with that bullshit.
2) Blood spatter evidence.
3) Burn pattern evidence. Total bullshit.

Don't convict people on this kind of fake science.

[obamanut2012]

6. Firing pin/rifling marks, too

Very much called into doubt, and non-DNA hair evidence.

[greenjar_01]

10. I'd add fabric evidence to that

Listen, Wayne Williams definitely killed some of those kids in Atlanta, but the carpet evidence that led to his conviction was a total joke.

[obamanut2012]

13. I will say he didn't kill any CHILDREN children

He killed the men and the older male teens. Even John Douglas and others who were there said Williams didn't kill most of them. And, most people don't even know he wasn't convicted of any of those murders, either! They just closed the cases. The "Mindhunter" Netflix series did a decent job with this, I think.

All to say: fiber evidence is also sketchy! Agreed!

[Jedi Guy]

15. Blood spatter analysis does have its uses.

It can be used to gauge where a person was standing and estimate how hard they were struck, among other things. It can't prove that a specific person did the striking, though.

It's mainly helpful in reconstructing the scene, and that's pretty much it. If a prosecutor is hinging their case on it, though, that's one hell of a weak case.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

21. There is no scientific proof that bite marks in human skin can be matched to a person.

https://innocenceproject.org/bite-mark-evidence-deemed-unreliable/

Despite a lack of scientific proof that teeth can be matched to a bite in human skin, some forensic dentists still perform bite mark analyses for the prosecution in criminal trials, earning as much as $5,000 per case. The practice is not recognized by the American Dental Association or the FBI. If a New York City judge rules later this month that bite mark analysis cannot be admitted as evidence, it could be out of courtrooms for good, reported the Associated Press.

(snip)

Fabricant, of the Innocence Project, said what’s most troubling about bite mark evidence is how powerful it can be for jurors.

“It’s very inflammatory,” he said. “What could be more grotesque than biting someone amid a murder or a rape hard enough to leave an injury? It’s highly prejudicial, and its probative value is completely unknown.”

[WhiskeyGrinder]

20. It doesn't, actually. It doesn't do much of anything except muddy the waters.

The guy who established it admits himself that results drawn from his techniques can't be quantified. It's an absolute mess.

https://features.propublica.org/blood-spatter-analysis/herbert-macdonell-forensic-evidence-judges-and-courts/

Although the reliability of blood-spatter analysis was never proven or quantified, its steady admission by courts rarely wavered, even as the technique, along with other forensic sciences, began facing increasing scrutiny.

In 2009, a watershed report commissioned by the National Academy of Sciences cast doubt on the whole discipline, finding that “the uncertainties associated with bloodstain pattern analysis are enormous,” and that experts’ opinions were generally “more subjective than scientific.”

[Jedi Guy]

22. To be fair, all I know of it was what I was told by a forensic tech when I worked for the cops.

Their take was that it can be used to say Person A was standing here and was likely struck from the right side, things like that. So not what I'd call deep deductions and probably not what's meant by "blood spatter analysis." It's probably more accurately called making logical deductions from blood evidence. But like, looking at a blood spatter and saying, "Ah yes, the attacker was clearly enraged, you can tell by the..." Not so much.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

23. The forensic tech was educated on techniques that have no basis in science.

[Jedi Guy]

26. Again, you can make logical deductions from blood and other physical evidence at the scene.

Detectives have been doing that sort of thing for decades. I can look at blood spattered on a wall and conclude that it's likely that the person injured/killed was standing in front of the wall at the time. In shooting cases, a detective can correlate blood spatter on the ground with exit wounds to conclude which way the person was facing. That sort of deduction can absolutely be used to build a picture of the scene and where the participants were within that scene.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

27. Sure, detectives make guesses from available evidence all the time. And some guesses are closer to

what actually happened than others. Pretending blood spatter is a science that can be calculated and replicated, however, is straight-up garbage.

[Jedi Guy]

28. Right...

And as I said from the beginning, it has its uses, primarily in scene reconstruction. I'm not sure why you felt a need to argue a point I wasn't making, because I never asserted that blood spatter analysis can do everything its proponents claim it can do.

[iluvtennis]

3. Great news! n/t

[cadoman]

4. 15 years, I cannot even imagine

It sounds like The Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan played a huge role in making this happen. Thanks to them and Juwan for hanging in there all this time.

[exboyfil]

5. Reminds me a lot of Cameron Todd Whitman

Of course since he was executed there is no way to make it right. In fact Texas has done everything possible to ensure that the facts of the case aren't reexamined.

Again junk science. The prosecutor also had a Brady violation where he didn't disclose a deal with one of the witnesses. Other witnesses like his ex-wife have changed their stories several times.

[obamanut2012]

7. My first thought, too

Cameron was innocent.

[greenjar_01]

11. Executed on nonsense science ... horrific

Remember that these junk science categories aren't just silly mistakes: they are whole industries of law enforcement conferences and boondoggles, junket visits to vacation destinations, ridiculous bonuses for workshops and other garbage. And massive extra pay for testifying as an "expert." A total racket.

[NurseJackie]

8. I hope he gets more than "bus fare out of town and a new suit"...

... are these types of wrongful incarceration settlements automatic? Or will he need to get a good team of lawyers to seek restitution along with some punitive damages. Will anyone be held responsible and accountable?

[Johnny2X2X]

9. In Michigan they get $50K for every year behind bars

Nothing more. So this man will walk with $750K. Enough to buy a home and a car and start a new life, but not enough to make up for his lost decade and a half.

[NurseJackie]

16. That's WRONG! A million per year, at minimum.

That would certainly cause enough pain for the state and be a fair compensation for the suffering caused to this man and his family... and for a life-not-fully-lived; and not fully-realized; and everything else he missed out on.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

18. I like the idea, but if you make it really budget-busting for the area

You might get judges being more reticent to overturn convictions, thinking about how much it'll cost the government that pays their salary.

I mean I'd HOPE they wouldn't think that way, but I worry that some might.

Also if the payout were that big you'd probably start seeing scammers purposefully tricking the cops. I'd bet there's a number of people out there who'd risk a 1 year stint for a $1M payout.

Just sayin. $50K seems low but I think $1M could be problematic. Maybe if that only gets triggered after 10 years or some such?

[PerceptionManagement]

12. Thanks Gods the corrupt prosecutors were not inconvenienced in the slightest

"Favorable evidence, including statements by a fire survivor, was not shared with his defense lawyer before the 2006 trial, and jurors didn’t know that jail informants were given significant benefits for their testimony against Deering"

[Bengus81]

14. Can't use lie detector results at a trial but you can use stoolies who are paid. Go figure....

If Deering would have been in Texas he would have been fried by now. Sentence the prosecutors and cops who LIED to 15 years each.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

19. So much this! (nt)

[Grins]

24. "...misconduct by police."

Let them now serve 15-years in the slammer.

[Igel]

29. After due process and trial.

Otherwise it's a person saying, "This happened--on that basis, lock them up."

Monarchical, in the worst use of the term.

[jcgoldie]

25. How did I know without a shred of doubt this guys complexion before I ever clicked the thread?