I'm doing a copy and paste here.
The tape must exist and Samford has seen it or intimates he has seen it.
Applicant claims her trial team was ineffective because it did not offer the police surveillance video of a prayer service held prior to the silly string party at the murdered boys grave.
The Court finds that Applicants trial team adduced testimony that Applicant mourned appropriately during a graveside service earlier in the day of the birthday party at the grave, and therefore the surveillance video was cumulative of other evidence admitted at trial.
Samford states in his Affidavit that the jury watched the silly string video 8 or 9 times during jury deliberations. Samford states that he had subsequently seen what was represented to be the surveillance video. Samford states that, had he seen the surveillance tape, he would not have voted to convict Applicant.
Are you saying the tape was shown to the jury?
Are you saying the witnesses who testified about her behavior at memorial are in error?
Samford seems to have viewed the tape but not at trial. At a later date he viewed it.
The jury also never heard exculpatory evidence that the State knowingly did not disclose to the defense even though constitutionally required to do so evidence that one of its key witnesses, Charles Linch, had a long history of depression and alcoholism, caused in part by job-related stress from working at crime scenes and testifying at capital trials. The State also never corrected certain misimpressions created by or false statements made in the testimony of Linch, James Cron, and Alan Brantley. Linch falsely testified that at the time he received the kitchen knives from 5801 Eagle Drive, only two had been dusted neither of which was Knife Number 4 from which he recovered the fiber that he claimed came from the garage window screen. C.R.R. Vol. 37, p. 144:17 145:6. Linch now admits that, in fact, all of the knives had been dusted, before he received them for testing. This constitutes further evidence that Knife Number 4 was contaminated in the course of dusting the scene for fingerprints, and thus the fiber is not evidence of a staged crime scene.
I think everyone messed up here. The police, the prosecution, the defense. Legal wrangling aside I don't know why the defense didn't show the tape?
Alan Brantley gave the jury the misimpression that he had investigated whether there had been similar crimes in the area. See C.R.R. Vol. 40, pp. 53:24-54:5. In fact, a spree of crimes that started in December 1995 and ended around the time of the attack at the Routiers residence was not disclosed to the jury. The assailants modus operandi included using implements from the homes of his victim as weapons and using tube socks like the one found three houses down from the Routiers home (C.R.R. Vol. 32, p. 71:3-6) to gag his victims. Brantley misleadingly suggested that criminal offenders never use objects found in victims homes as weapons.
See C.R.R. Vol. 40, p. 84:5-9.
652. In support of her argument, Applicant tendered five police reports from the Dallas Police Department. (Applicants Writ Exhibits A E). Applicant argues that the police reports constitute favorable impeachment evidence that directly contradicts Agent Brantleys crime-scene analysis testimony because: 1) these crimes are similar to this offense and occurred in the year immediately preceding it; 2) in one of the offenses, the intruder held a small knife from the victims kitchen against the victims throat prior to the sexual assault; 3) in another case, the assailant threatened a child with a kitchen fork; and 4) in four of the cases, the assailant used a single tube socksimilar to the sock found in the alley behind the Routier residenceto gag his victims and to conceal fingerprints. (Application at 103).
653. The Court finds that each of the five police reports involved: 1) a sexual assault, 2) with no additional serious bodily injury, 3) committed inside an apartment or at an apartment complex, 4) in the city of Dallas, 5) by an African-American male, Sammie Luckas Cook, Jr., who was apprehended through DNA testing, and 6) a demand for credit cards and cash from his victims. In the one offense involving a child witness, Cook did not sexually assault or physically harm the child.
654. The Court finds that the Dallas sexual assaults as set out in the tendered police reports are significantly dissimilar to the instant offense for the following reasons
I am on the fence about her guilt. I give no weight to her "weird" behavior, her boob job, the silly string tape or the fiber evidence ( reasons given above). The blood drops on her nightshirt I am researching now.
Just to ask your opinion- if the DNA evidence comes back proving an "unknown" source for it, would it change anything?
I have read a lot of the appeals and it seems like any person wrongfully convicted has to solve the crime and prove they didn't do it in order to gain their freedom.
Would DNA findings prove her innocent, or just that a 3rd person was in the home.