It’s been almost a decade since Amanda Knox was accused of killing her roommate in Italy. Now the widely publicized case is the subject of a Netflix documentary called “Amanda Knox.” Filmmaker Rod Blackhurst tells TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie it took two years to get Knox to agree to an interview with him and fellow filmmaker Brian McGinn, but once she did, she was “very open” talking about the case.
Jeff Havard currently sits wrongfully convicted on death row in Mississippi for a crime that never happened. He has recently been granted an evidentiary hearing based on new evidence in his favor, but the hearing is not set to take place until August of 2017. The Committee to Free Jeff Havard, a group I am a part of, has set up a gofundme account with the hope of helping to fund Jeff’s prison canteen as he waits for his hearing.
Jeff has had the support of his family since the beginning. Throughout Jeff’s life, he developed a special relationship with his grandparents, Billy and Ruby. Jeff went to live with them when he was 13-years-old, spending his crucial teen years gaining positive influence from two people that he will forever cherish.
For 13 years, Billy and Ruby saw to it that Jeff had money in his prison canteen. Unfortunately, Jeff’s grandfather passed away in March of 2015. His grandmother has done everything in her power to continue funding Jeff’s canteen on her own, but she is currently unable to continue doing so.
Jeff spends 23 ½ hours a day locked up alone in his prison cell. The living conditions at Mississippi State Penitentiary are rough. The food is often unbearable. The poor sanitary conditions of the prison kitchens made headlines in July, when the prison’s largest kitchen was shut down by the state after reports of roaches, rodents, flooding, dirty rusty food trays and general uncleanliness.
The goal of the gofundme campaign is to make sure that Jeff continues to have access to basic necessities as he eagerly awaits his chance to prove his innocence. When Jeff has money in his canteen, he can purchase packaged food that he can eat in his cell. He can also purchase hygiene items, writing instruments, and other basic supplies. Our $2000 goal will properly fund Jeff’s canteen until his hearing in 2017.
Jeff’s Case
Jeff Havard was wrongfully convicted in 2002 and sent to death row for a crime that never happened. The charges against Jeff are disturbing but have no merit. Jeff’s conviction was secured on the false premise that he sexually assaulted his girlfriend’s infant daughter, which resulted in the child’s death due to Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS). The truth is the infant slipped from Jeff’s arms while lifting her from the tub, causing her head to hit the nearby toilet. The blunt force trauma caused a fatal brain hemorrhage. There was absolutely no evidence of a sexual assault or SBS. The death was an accident, not a murder.
There are currently 6 well qualified experts who support Jeff’s claims. There are currently no experts who support the prosecution’s theory.
There is new evidence to show that the infant’s death may have resulted from a preexisting subdural hemorrhage resulting from a traumatic birth. This preexisting medical condition left Chloe vulnerable to illness or injury from a minor impact.
There is also new evidence regarding Shaken Baby Syndrome that was not available at the time of Jeff’s trial. Cases of subdural hemorrhage and injury from short falls have been notably misdiagnosed as SBS in past cases. Multiple experts have now reviewed Jeff’s case that have concluded that the infant’s death was not the result of violent shaking.
This extensive new expert evidence along with a new revelation of Brady violations committed by the prosecution, completely crumbles the case against Jeff Havard. Thankfully, this new evidence has led to an evidentiary hearing. But for now, Jeff continues to wait.
Please visit www.freeJeffreyHavard.org to learn more about Jeff’s case.
Jeff greatly appreciates the support that he receives. If you are able, please consider helping Jeff continue to cope with daily prison life by making a donation to fund his canteen: https://www.gofundme.com/jeffhavard.
All funds collected, minus the 5% gofundme fee, will go directly to Jeff’s commissary account (canteen). All funds from this campaign are managed by the Committee to Free Jeff Havard, in association with Injustice Anywhere.
Netflix has released two new trailers for its original documentary ”Amanda Knox,” which is set to debut on September 30. The two conflicting trailers titled, “Believer Her” and “Suspect Her”, are designed to encourage viewers to choose between guilt or innocence.
It all started back in November 2007, when Meredith Kercher was murdered in a hilltop cottage in Perugia, Italy. In a series of missteps, police initially arrested a slightly different trio than the three who would eventually be charged for the crime. The arrests came shortly after an all-night coercive interrogation session with Amanda Knox that produced faulty information, as coercive interrogations often do. Details from the interrogation would later be deemed inadmissible but the damage was already done.
On November 6, 2007, Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito, and Patrick Lumumba were taken into custody. The prosecution put forth a wild theory of a sex game gone wrong committed by three perpetrators, declaring “case closed,” before any forensic analysis had been completed.
When crime scene evidence came back pointing solely to another man, Rudy Guede, the authorities squandered an opportunity to correct their hasty arrests which were based on nothing more than a rush to judgment. Instead, in an attempt to save face, they simply removed Lumumba from their theory and plugged in Guede.
From that point on, authorities would work tirelessly attempting to build a case against Knox and Sollecito. Their misguided efforts led to one of the greatest miscarriages of justice witnessed in modern history.
On March 27, 2015, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were fully exonerated by the Italian Supreme Court, after enduring over seven years of pain and suffering. The high court finally put an end to their nightmare, giving them both a new lease on life.
Netflix is the latest network to explore the story of Amanda Knox. As mentioned above, the trailers suggest that they are asking the audience to pick a side, but I suspect that the documentary will set out to tell the truth once and for all about this case. If my hunch is correct, the side of innocence will be the only logical conclusion to be had.
In the “Suspect her” trailer, Amanda tells the audience: “Either I’m a psychopath in sheep’s clothing, or I am you.” Those who know Amanda and her family are well aware of the fact that Amanda was just an ordinary student from Seattle who got caught up in a seemingly never-ending nightmare. Her family was a typical American family, much like mine, and likely much like yours. They too were swept into a nightmare. Their story could have easily been your family’s story. Amanda’s story could have easily been your story or the story of your child.
The Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito case was an Injustice Anywhere Featured Case. We are thankful that they have now been exonerated and set free. Unfortunately, many more innocent people continue to fight for their freedom from prison cells every day. It is imperative for your livelihood and the livelihood of your family to educate yourself on the topic of wrongful convictions. Death Row exoneree Debra Milke summed it up well when speaking about her ordeal in a press conference after her release, when she said: “This could happen to any one of you. If you don’t believe it could happen, you are either misinformed or in a state of deep denial.”
Please visit AmandaKnoxCase.com and InjusticeinPerugia.org to learn more about the Amanda Knox case.
Supporters for Melissa Calusinski gathered Monday in Zion, Illinois, to take part in the Jubilee Days Labor Day parade. The event was organized on Facebook, where supporters interact frequently to keep up to date with Calusinski’s case. Helen Barrett, one of the parade participants, posted on the support group page that the parade was “another step for Melissa’s voice to be heard.”
Calusinski was convicted of murder in 2011 and was sentenced to 31 years in prison in Illinois. Calusinski was accused of throwing a child to the floor, causing fatal injuries, while working as a teacher’s aide at a day care center.
Calusinski has long maintained her innocence, and evidence now shows that she was wrongfully convicted based on false medical testimony and a coerced confession. In 2013, Eupil Choi, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on the child, stated in a sworn affidavit that he had missed an old injury. Choi’s statement was a major breakthrough in the case, because it supported the defense’s longstanding argument that the child’s death was the result of a pre-existing injury. But the real bombshell came last year, which blew the case wide open. Lake County’s coroner, Dr. Thomas Rudd, reclassified the child’s death from a homicide to undetermined, after a new set of X-rays was discovered by his office. These X-rays show no sign of fresh injuries on the child at the time of death.
https://thinkprogress.org/overzealous-prosecutors-are-losing-elections-6dad096118e1#.z8d7tck2o
Together they have disproportionately targeted black defendants, tried juveniles as adults, condemned schoolchildren to prison, and let police get away with murder. And over the past year, they have lost their bids for reelection.
In a year with renewed attention on the corrosive and discriminatory effects of harsh sentencing, notorious, tough-on-crime local prosecutors are increasing being held accountable for perpetuating an overzealous style of law and order.
Until recently, these elections were battles of who could appear harsher on crime. The same hysteria over crime and illegal drugs that drove mass incarceration in the late 1980s and 1990s also created intense political pressure. Racially-charged fearmongering, exemplified by the infamous ‘Willie Horton’ ad that attacked presidential candidate Michael Dukakis for backing criminal rehabilitation, boosted scores of district attorneys and judges who promised to crack down and pursue the toughest sentences available.
But not anymore. In March, Chicago area prosecutor Anita Alvarez was voted out of office after she covered up the police shooting of Laquan McDonald and condemned the innocent. That same day, Tim McGinty, a Cleveland prosecutor who refused to charge Tamir Rice’s shooter, also lost reelection. And on Tuesday, Jacksonville, Florida state attorney Angela Corey was defeated in her primary after criminal justice advocates exposed her propensity to try juveniles as adults and to sentence defendants to die.
“This could be a sea change and might mean that prosecutors might become more accountable to the public.”
And those were just the most high-profile losses. Across the country, hard-line district attorneys are losing races that were once considered shoo-ins for incumbents.
“The era of tough-on-crime rhetoric is coming to a close as voters realize that overzealous prosecutors have abused their power for too long,” said law professor Daniel Medwed. “This could be a sea change and might mean that prosecutors might become more accountable to the public.”
This year, 935 prosecutors across the country are up for election — 40 percent of all elected local prosecutors. In all but four states, prosecutors are elected to office.
Read more >>
Harsh Justice is an organization working to stop the suffering of nonviolent inmates who have been inhumanely over-sentenced. The inmates highlighted on their website are not victims of wrongful convictions but rather victims of a system in dire need of reform. Injustice Anywhere fully supports their efforts and we encourage all of our readers to visit their website to learn more about the important work they are doing.
Many of the inmates highlighted by Harsh Justice are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole. Most crimes deal with drug addiction and poverty. No inmates supported by Harsh Justice have ever committed a violent crime.
Harsh Justice provides profiles for each inmate they support and they provide instructions for those who would like to help. With the guidance of Harsh Justice, you can help an inmate today by:
Please visit www.HarshJustice.org today to learn more about this outstanding organization.
With extraordinary access to the now exonerated suspects—and the prosecutor who charged them—documentary filmmakers Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn get at the core of a murder case that gripped the world.
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/08/amanda-knox-netflix-documentary
“The whole world knew who I had sex with: seven men! And yet I was some heinous whore: bestial, sex-obsessed, and unnatural. . . . And if I’m guilty, it means I am the ultimate figure to fear. On the other hand, if I’m innocent, it means everyone’s vulnerable. And it’s everyone’s nightmare.”
That extraordinary bit of monologue comes from Amanda Knox, a young, pretty American student who was studying in Perugia, Italy, and leading a carefree life abroad—until the morning in November 2007 when her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, was found in the house they shared, brutally slaughtered, her neck practically severed from her body. The beautiful Renaissance Italian town became, overnight—and in full view of a world panting for more and more details from the media—the venue of three major nightmares: the Kercher family’s, of course, and Amanda’s and Raffaele Sollecito’s, her Italian boyfriend, who were summarily arrested, convicted, and thrown in prison for four years for a murder neither committed, as I reported for Vanity Fair in 2008.
In January 2014, after much wooing, a pair of thirtysomething filmmakers, Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn, got Knox, now 29, to speak on film bluntly and with icy precision about the pain, lies, and excruciatingly inventive worldwide headlines surrounding her travails. A few months later, they received the cooperation of Sollecito, who had endured six months of solitary confinement after his conviction.
Most astonishing of all: last July, Blackhurst and McGinn also managed to persuade Giuliano Mignini, the Italian prosecutor who brought the tabloid-ready case to trial, to appear in their documentary Amanda Knox, which will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival before being released by Netflix on September 30. It is this last get that offers viewers one of the most astonishing scenes, when he blandly reveals an especially imaginative scenario. Amanda’s motive for the murder of a girl she scarcely knew, says the prosecutor, was her “lack of morality,” her desire for “pleasure at any cost,” which led her to wield a large knife “that teases then plunges” into her roommate’s neck.
Despite such lurid theorizing, Amanda Knox, unlike the bulk of nearly a decade’s worth of global press coverage around the case, refuses to editorialize, praise, or rebuke any of its protagonists, and that objective stance is precisely the strength of the film. Read more >>
After a quarter century behind bars, Jimmy Dennis is one step closer to freedom, now that an appellate court has affirmed his petition for habeas relief. The state of Pennsylvania now has 90 days to decide whether they want to put Dennis back on trial or set him free. Dennis’s supporters are hopeful that the State will move quickly to release Dennis in light of this week’s decisive ruling.
Dennis was convicted and sentenced to death in 1992 for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old high school student Chedell Ray Williams in North Philadelphia, in 1991. The shooting took place at a bus stop over an apparent theft of a pair of earrings. Dennis’s conviction was secured by questionable eyewitness testimony. Three eyewitnesses claiming to see Dennis, described a perpetrator that was 5’10” or taller, weighing between 170 and 190 pounds. Jimmy is 5’4″ and weighed 130 pounds at the time of the murder.
Evidence shows that Dennis was deprived of a fair trial, due to egregious misconduct by the prosecution. The prosecution committed multiple Brady violations by withholding evidence from the defense which was highly favorable to Dennis. The evidence included a receipt corroborating Dennis’s alibi, an inconsistent statement by the State’s key eyewitness, and documents suggesting that another person committed the murder. This suppressed evidence shatters the prosecution’s case against Dennis, leaving little doubt that the outcome of the trial would have gone much differently if the prosecution had acted in accordance of the law. Read more >>
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/pamela-hupp-charged-with-murder-in-alleged-frame-up-tied/article_916845ac-de2f-5d1e-ae5d-2b11a25b7287.html
O’FALLON, Mo. • Pamela Hupp thought she found the “patsy” who could help get “some heat off her” related to a 2011 murder near Troy, Mo., officials said Tuesday.
She somehow lured a gullible, brain-damaged man into her car last week and took him to her home in O’Fallon, then called 911 and emptied a revolver into his body as an operator listened, they said.
Officials speculate that Hupp told Louis R. Gumpenberger, 33, that she was a producer for NBC’s “Dateline” program, and was willing to pay $900 to $1,000 for him to help her re-enact a 911 call.
When police arrived at her house to find Gumpenberger dead, Hupp told police that he had jumped into her vehicle and held a knife to her neck, demanding that she take him to her bank to get “Russ’ money.”
She claimed she broke away and ran into her house, grabbed a gun from her nightstand, and shot him when he entered the room.
Investigators later found a note in Gumpenberger’s pocket purporting to be instructions on how to kidnap Hupp to get “Russ’ money,” in exchange for $10,000. He also had $900 in cash in his pocket, but police don’t believe he put those things in his pockets himself.
“The evidence seems to indicate she hatched a plot to find an innocent victim and murder this innocent victim in an apparent effort to frame someone else,” St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar said at a news conference. Read more >>
With Bombshell Testimony, Calusinski Dares To Dream Of Freedom
Attorneys on Friday continued sparring in court over whether Melissa Calusinski deserves a new trial in the 2011 death of a toddler at a daycare center.
CBS 2’s Roseanne Tellez reports from Lake County Court.
Calusinski isn’t just sad. She is angry, she says.
In a “48 Hours” interview this week, she reacted to word that a key prosecution witness may have lied during her murder trial.
“I just can’t believe people like that could get away with something like what he did,” she says.
Dr. Manuel Montez testified that he’d examined and felt the skull fracture. But a deputy coroner testified Montez never examined the body, and experts say enhanced X-rays show there was no skull fracture.
The bombshell offered hope. Calusinski dares to imagine freedom.
“I would be the happiest person,” she says. “I’d just cry.” Read more >>