Was there an eyewitness?
There are many examples of detectives from the Christian County Sherrif’s office making mistakes in the investigation of the Pembroke murders. From contaminated evidence to false testimony to mistakes made at the crime scene. Detective Noisworthy testified that they had canvassed the neighborhood the day after the murders. Neighbor Billy Watkins, who lived next door […]
One Autopsy, Two Stories
The bodies of Pam Phillips and Ed Dansereau were burned in the car fire off of Rosetown road. X-ray evidence as well as recovered bullets in the skulls of both victims and the thoracic region of Ed Dansereau indicated that both had been killed by shots from a 22 caliber weapon. Calvin Phillips’ body was […]
A Missed Opportunity
As a defense lawyer, you need to be able to think on your feet. You need to be ready for possible objections. In Kit’s trial, there was one specific objection by the prosecution that actually had no merit and should have been overrulled. Prosecutors Barbara Whaley and Alex Garcia were so afraid to have Joan […]
A detective’s sleight of hand
Detective Scott Smith was the lead detective in the Pembroke triple homicide. He spent over two years trying to solve the crime. Everything about the crime pointed to more than one individual being involved. But Smith couldn’t find any connections between his prime suspect and any other person. He had no DNA. He had no […]
Hearsay
In my last post, the first nail in the coffin, I showed how Judge Atkins made (in my opinion) an incorrect ruling regarding hearsay evidence. In this post, you can listen to the damaging hearsay evidence that ultimately convinced a jury to ignore all exculpatory evidence and convict the wrong person. As you listen to […]
The first nail in the coffin
There are a lot of ways wrongful convictions happen: faulty expert testimony, false confessions, bad police work, prosecutorial misconduct, etc. In the case of Christian “Kit” Martin, the most damaging testimony at trial, and the testimony most likely to have led to a guilty verdict, involved hearsay evidence. In a later post, I will show […]