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12th August 2020, 01:54 PM | #161 |
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Although I was in the UK at the time I don't remember a lot about the reporting of the case. More recently I saw he stated he was put on anti-depressants and sedatives by his GP.
There is evidence that being emotionless can affect perceptions of guilt and culpability. "Research findings have shown that offenders who exhibit stronger emotion are favoured with fewer convictions and more lenient sentences, whereas offenders whose level of emotional display is low are perceived as more culpable and less credible. The influence of emotional displays on sentencing was most pronounced when the strength of the evidence against the defendant was weak". Goodman-Delahunty, J., & Sporer, S. L. (2010). |
20th August 2020, 07:43 PM | #162 |
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the second time around
I am almost finished with my second reading of Innocents Betrayed, by Sandra Lean. I would not have thought it to be possible, but I am if anything more shocked and appalled by the way that Luke and his family members were treated the second time around. I would be more inclined to wag my finger at Scotland, but in the interim I did a little bit of reading about the interrogation of Brendan Dassey (see the Avery/Dassey thread for more on that case).
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21st August 2020, 11:08 AM | #163 |
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Wag your finger at Scotland all you like.
By the way, the preliminary hearing into the Lockerbie appeal started today. |
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21st August 2020, 05:18 PM | #164 |
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A few lines from Scotland CCRC in this article about NZ CCRC
By Mike White: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/cri...onviction-body After seeing their work on Luke Mitchell I see no comfort anywhere, except Carruthers is married to an ex ACT party mp, which is somewhat relevant as I will expand in the Lundy thread later. |
18th February 2021, 12:26 PM | #165 |
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If anyone's free to watch Channel 5 at nine o'clock, they're showing the first in a series of investigative programmes about this case.
https://www.channel5.com/show/murder-in-a-small-town-2/ |
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18th February 2021, 12:27 PM | #166 |
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TV programme on Channel 5 (UK) about the murder;
https://www.channel5.com/show/murder-in-a-small-town-2/ "Questioning whether the real killer of teenager Jodi Jones was brought to justice." EDIT - Rolfe is a ninja! |
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18th February 2021, 12:34 PM | #167 |
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18th February 2021, 01:53 PM | #168 |
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Oh wait, it says Wednesday and this is Thursday. Was it yesterday? Now I'm confused.
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18th February 2021, 01:56 PM | #169 |
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18th February 2021, 02:03 PM | #170 |
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Yes, I've just been told it's next Wednesday. There wasn't a date on the web page. I'll set the alarm.
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18th February 2021, 05:03 PM | #171 |
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TV worth watching
How would us out-of-towners watch it?
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18th February 2021, 05:17 PM | #172 |
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Unfortunately I don't think it's viewable outside the UK.
Some people are apparently angry that Luke Mitchell was interviewed.. |
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18th February 2021, 06:05 PM | #173 |
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There is a very well-established guilter community on this one as well, which might even give the Knox guilters a good run for their money. Human nature. Sigh.
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19th February 2021, 04:08 AM | #174 |
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Yes.
Mark Lundy was randomly picked. |
19th February 2021, 05:26 AM | #175 |
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Not random. For much the same reason as Luke Mitchell was picked. The police have "intimate partner murder" engraved on their hearts. Because so often it is the husband or the boyfriend who did it.
Just not always. Luke was unlucky two ways, because the other thing the police jump at is the person who found the body. Luke both found the body and was the victim's boyfriend. They made up their minds right then and there and didn't look any further. |
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19th February 2021, 06:25 AM | #176 |
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no surprise
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23rd February 2021, 07:09 PM | #177 |
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two part documentary
There is an article about the two-night documentary behind a paywall at heraldscotland. I was only able to read a paragraph or two, but it sounds intriguing. From what I can gather elsewhere, Dr. Sandra Lean played some part in the making of it, but I do not know what role.
EDT The Times also has an article behind a subscription. "Private detectives who have re-examined the murder of a schoolgirl 17 years ago have identified five potential suspects who they believe were overlooked by police. John Sallens and Michael Neil, who are former police officers, claim to have uncovered evidence that they say casts doubt on the conviction of Jodi Jones’s boyfriend Luke Mitchell who was jailed in 2005 for her murder." |
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24th February 2021, 07:13 AM | #178 |
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Oh Chris, open the Herald article in a private browsing window and you'll get the lot. (I don't know how to get round the Times paywall though.)
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24th February 2021, 07:57 AM | #179 |
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Was Jodi's body moved?
From the Scottish Sun, there are some quotes from the two private investigators:
“The amount of evidence you can get from a crime scene if handled properly is incredible. It would have been a bloodbath, the injuries were horrendous. “We think she was murdered elsewhere and dragged there. The person who murdered her would have been covered in blood." |
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24th February 2021, 08:23 AM | #180 |
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Well presumably they know more about it than I do, but I understand that the scene in the wood was indeed a bloodbath. There was evidence that a bleeding Jodi had broken free from her attacker and started to escape but been overtaken and pulled back again. The point isn't that the scene of the crime wasn't a bloodbath, because it was, but that Luke Mitchell didn't have a speck on him, even though there was evidence that he hadn't washed.
It can be a problem when subsequent supporters of innocence latch on to a theory that's patently wrong, because that can be used to discredit their basic premise that a miscarriage of justice has taken place. I hope that isn't happening here. And somebody please tell me why Stephen Kelly didn't do it? I mean maybe he didn't but there's a stonking amount of evidence to explain away. ETA: Have you read the Herald article yet? There's a shocking revelation in the middle of it, from the journalist. Private browsing window gets past the paywall.
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As far as I can make out, Luke Mitchell wasn't anything out of the ordinary as regards weird teens. He says himself that he was "the local weirdo", but there are no pictures of him even looking like a Goth. Back then it was hard to find a t-shirt that wasn't black! He had his own horse and went riding regularly, he was learning dog training from an ex-police dog handler who was training his own dog, and he was into camping and the outdoor lifestyle. He was a good pupil studying for his O grades, who had written a couple of things to shock his teachers because he was an unbeliever attending a Catholic school. He wasn't even into Marilyn Manson as claimed, he was into Eminem. This isn't another Damian Echols, this is a 14 year old boy with a range of interests who had never been in any sort of trouble with the police, although he might have been of course if he'd been caught smoking pot or reported for having sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend, but neither of these things is even unusual, never mind a pointer to a murderer. |
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24th February 2021, 10:12 AM | #181 |
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I've told my students to watch this. Hopefully it will illustrate some issues around biases in investigation.
According to this article, "...prison chiefs are probing how Mitchell was able to speak with documentary makers about the murder from behind bars. The Scottish Prison Service told the newspaper that the programme makers twice asked for permission to interview Mitchell and were refused both times." Not clear why there would be an absolute prohibition on interviewing a prisoner. |
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24th February 2021, 10:17 AM | #182 |
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Oh how terrible for the victim's family to allow this man who committed such an appalling crime to say anything in public. Except, he's trying to put the case that he didn't do it. I'm afraid I have to side with the prisoner here. He's in jail. He's being punished and treated as guilty. That should be sufficient for the victim's family. There should never be any edict in place that prevents a convicted man from protesting his innocence. And I'd say the same in the case of David Gilroy whom I believe is as guilty as hell.
Let Mitchell speak and put his case. Let Gilroy speak and put his case. Let people judge on the merits of the case that is put. Do not ever prevent an imprisoned man from protesting his innocence. I have to say I have found Gilroy's protestations of innocence very unconvincing. But I would defend to the death his right to have these protestations heard. |
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24th February 2021, 11:43 AM | #183 |
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Yes, in E&W at least there is at least an attempted prohibition on convicted prisoners giving media interviews. However - as we've also seen in the case of Jeremy Bamber - it's really very easy to get round any such prohibition. There are two ways: firstly, prisoners are allowed to make phone calls from public phones. Prisoners have to have the numbers to be dialled vetted in advance, and even some of the conversations themselves are meant to be monitored. But of course in practice this is impossible. So it's not too hard for a prisoner simply to arrange for a media contact to go to the home of one of the people whose number is on that prisoner's list, and for the prisoner then to call that number and speak to the media contact (who records the conversation). The other way is probably even easier and more readily available: most prisons (in E&W at least, and I imagine also in Scotland) are awash with contraband mobile phones. They get into the prison via (usually) low-level corruption of prison officers, and any prisoner can get hold of a mobile for the right "price". I would imagine it'll almost certainly be one of those two methods which will have been used to get the (audio) interview with Mitchell from behind bars. |
24th February 2021, 11:50 AM | #184 |
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Well...... I'd say that there are official channels for protesting one's innocence and requesting an appeal against one's conviction. And there are sound reasons why it's not really in the overall interests of justice (and particularly the public perception of justice) for any & all convicted prisoners to have a public platform on demand for protesting their innocence. To take the matter to a logical extreme: imagine if literally every convicted prisoner had the ability/facility to protest their innocence to a media organisation (and, through the media, to the general public). The public would potentially witness a veritable flood of "I'm innocent! I was wrongfully convicted!" stories. It's not very hard to see how this might serve to undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system. Especially given that only a very, very small proportion of convicted prisoners truly are the victims of a miscarriage of justice. |
24th February 2021, 12:01 PM | #185 |
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I understand your point, but nevertheless I believe it is a matter of principle. As you say yourself, it's not that hard to get around a prohibition, and yet there is not at present a continuous flood of stories about prisoners protesting their innocence.
And whether things are better in England I can't say, but the level of corruption, favouritism and sheer backside-covering at every level in the Scottish criminal justice system is not really conducive to any belief that going through official channels is an adequate provision. Gilroy has had a shot at it, and we even had that impinge on the forum thread, but very little has come of that and it hasn't flooded anywhere, for the simple reason I think that most journalists and commentators can see that his story is extremely flimsy and aren't prepared to run with it. |
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24th February 2021, 12:22 PM | #186 |
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Samuel Gross and the number of false convictions
There was a study of wrongful convictions involving the death penalty performed by Samuel Gross and colleagues at the University of Michigan. It was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2014. They came up with a number of 4.1% wrongfully convicted. We can agree or not on how representative this sample is, as well as whether it is a very, very small number. I would call this a small number, but I would go no further.
EDT Specifically with respect to this case, I am all for Mr. Mitchell's protesting his innocence. This case is unusual in that there are more than one alternative suspects, certainly including Mr. Kelly, against whom a better case can be put than against him. |
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24th February 2021, 04:18 PM | #187 |
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They wouldn't have a platform 'on demand' though - somebody has to think it worthwhile to give them one. Nobody is going to bother with a trivial offence or clear case of guilt.
Quote:
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Given the difficulty of overturning a wrongful conviction, the limitations of the appeals process, and in the interests of transparency, I think prisoners should have the opportunity to be interviewed by those genuinely researching a case. |
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24th February 2021, 04:29 PM | #188 |
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It would appear that this was a telephone interview. We only heard Luke's voice, with an exterior shot of Shotts prison as a background.
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24th February 2021, 04:36 PM | #189 |
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I forgot how many ads channel 5 shows. I'm overloaded with work at the moment and didn't really give it full attention. I requested a recording through a service we have at the university and I think I'll wait for that for the second episode.
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24th February 2021, 07:53 PM | #190 |
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The Forensic Institute
"Sara Gomes, a forensic scientist at The Forensic Institute, says: “Innocent or guilty, there is something wrong with this conviction.”" link
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25th February 2021, 01:55 AM | #191 |
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25th February 2021, 04:20 AM | #192 |
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I found it unfocussed and woolly, also with too much emphasis on other possible suspects. But then I usually think that about these programmes. I think my mind works in a different, more analytical way when tackling detective work, and I want them to show the logic of the deductive process and the flaws in that logic, which they tend to gloss over.
The witness sighting that was talked about was the one at the west side of the path after the presumed time of the murder, which is much less important than the one at the east side of the path allegedly before the presumed time of the murder. Sure, that wasn't Luke either, but even if it was it's less incriminating than the earlier sighting, as all it would show was that he'd walked about half a mile further down the road than he said he did, and that he was lounging against a gate doing nothing very much, at a time when according to the police he should have been racing around frantically changing clothes, getting his mother to burn a bloodstaned parka, and bullying her into covering up for him. The other guy they mentioned, Mark someone, certainly seems to have looked a bit like Luke, and to have been around the area at the time, and to have been behaving in a way that would draw suspicion to him, but to me that's for later. Show the case the police had against Luke, show how utterly ludicrous it was, and after that talk about other possible suspects - of whom, as the detectives said, Mark was only one. |
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25th February 2021, 08:35 AM | #193 |
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Where have I heard this formulation before?
"Jodi's family have always maintained a dignified silence about the case." Scottish Sun.
There is nothing undignified about protesting one's innocence. |
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25th February 2021, 09:31 AM | #194 |
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Jodi's family have in fact done nothing of the sort. They make the behaviour of John Kercher and his family look positively restrained in comparison.
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25th February 2021, 10:01 AM | #195 |
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25th February 2021, 10:25 AM | #196 |
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Yes, part 2 is tonight. If I'd been making this programme I'd have spent part 1 describing in detail what evidence the police relied on in making a case against Luke, and then tearing the facts and the logic of that case to bits.
I'd have kept the whole thing about who else might have done it until part 2. Maybe that's why I'm not a documentary-maker, I don't know. They always do it like this and I'm never happy. I can see why they included all the human interest, I was really heart-sorry for Corinne and indeed for Luke and I appreciated that their plight got an airing. For someone coming to the case cold though, that took up time, and there wasn't much examination of the actual case against Luke. |
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25th February 2021, 09:11 PM | #197 |
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I watched both parts tonight and I'm afraid I rather agree with Rolfe that it wasn't a great programme. I went back and re-read this thread and the case for innocence is far better explained here.
The problem with the programme is that, as an uninformed viewer, I would have been left with the impression that nobody really gave a good case for guilt. The only case we heard for guilt was that given by people who believe in Mitchell's innocence, so of course they're not going to be very convincing. Having read quite a bit more now, I can see that there really isn't much more of a case to be made, but not having someone present such a case (however flimsy it may be) as though they meant it, will definitely leave the viewer with an impression that there may well be more that wasn't mentioned - otherwise how did the police, and the jury, and all the appeals end up with the same decision? If any of that makes sense (it's 4am so I may not be terribly clear). |
26th February 2021, 05:19 AM | #198 |
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The long drawn out shenanigans with the girl driver did convey something, but she was driving in the wrong direction. She was driving south when she passed the couple at the end of the path. If Andrina Bryson had been driving south at the time of the sighting, it would have place it at about quarter to six, half an hour after Jodi was killed according to the police theory.
Andrina Bryson originally testified that she was driving south when she saw the couple, but after a bit the cops realised this timing was no use to them and started trying to prove that she'd seen them on the outward leg of her journey, when she was driving north, because that time could be made to work. The reconstruction showed that it's unlikely she would have noticed much of the detail she later attested to even if she saw them (as I'm sure she did) while she was driving south. But the fact is, it's even harder, verging on the impossible, to see what she said she say while driving north. And if she wasn't driving north, she didn't see them at five to five. Nobody even asked the bloody woman, when you saw these two people, were they on your left or your right as you passed them in your car? Sandra knows all this, she confirmed it earlier in the thread, but somehow it didn't make it into the documentary. Neither was it made clear at any point what the crucial importance of this sighting was. (It's the only thing that contradict's Luke's alibi, and so allowed them to brand him and his mother and brother as liars.) These documentaries always seem to do this. I don't understand it. The Lockerbie ones are even worse. I once spent a day being filmed explaining stuff to a guy making a Lockerbie documentary, confident that he could cut the film so that an audience would understand it. Instead I was reduced to a couple of minutes of vague hand-waving at some pictures of suitcases. Sigh. |
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27th February 2021, 12:22 PM | #199 |
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I'm doing this partly for my own benefit, to remind me what the salient points of the case are.
The jury in the case was composed of local people who had been exposed to these headlines, and to the very strong feeling locally that resulted from that publicity, that Luke was guilty. One jury member gave Jodi's family a thumbs-up sign as they filed back into court to deliver their verdict. |
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27th February 2021, 12:50 PM | #200 |
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One thing I didn't gather from the programme - what happened to the charges against Luke's mother? Did they ever come to court?
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