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(UPDATED) Paul House: Innocent and Handicapped on TN Death Row
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by duo | May 28, 2008 at 01:33 pm
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Attached is an article about a man on death row, and despite the high court ruling that he is probably innocent, important folks apparently intend to have themselves an execution!
Multiple sclerosis victim, Paul House, remains on death row two years after the Supreme Court has determined that if information available now had been available at the time of his conviction, he would likely not have been found guilty. In discussions regarding Mr. House's current justice issues, it is prudent to consider two other Tennessee cases that resulted in death to incarcerated persons. In both instances, Ex-Chief Medical Examiner O.C. Smith, of Memphis, Tennessee, played an important role.
Philip Ray Workman - EXECUTED
Dr. Smith seemed to go to great lengths to cast doubts on his sworn testimony in the trial of Philip Ray Workman, a man who had received the death sentence largely off Dr. Smith's testimony regarding bullet trajectory. In 2005, time was running out for this Tennessean who was facing the death penalty for murdering a policeman. The accused man claimed the victim was actually shot by another policeman while Mr. Workman was trying to escape police after a botched robbery attempt). (See links below.) Other witness testimony used to prosecute Mr. Workman also lost its ring of truth during the years following his murder conviction.
With Mr. Workman's execution imminently pending, Dr. Smith is alleged to have staged a kidnapping -- of himself. Dr. Smith allegedly wrote notes (which he claimed were written by his kidnappers) accusing himself of lying during Mr. Workman's murder trial! Despite Dr. Smith's alleged antics (which may have been geared toward withdrawing his own testimony against Workman without coming right out and saying "I lied about the bullet trajectory"), Mr. Workman was nevertheless executed in 2007.
If Dr. Smith did indeed stage his own kidnapping, no one can say that he did not try to cast doubt on his testimony against Mr. Workman and save the likely innocent man. If Dr. Smith did what his federal indictment alleged, he even went so far as to tie barbed wire around his head and strap explosives to his person along with notes wherein the good doctor ACCUSED HIMSELF OF LYING TO FAVOR POLICE in Mr. Workman's murder trial. Although Dr. Smith was indicted by the feds for charges related to his alleged faked kidnapping, etc., he was not sentenced. See his indictment on the website regarding the alleged wrongful death of Larry Neal at http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com. It is under the DOCUMENTS tab. Reports said that several USDOJ attorneys who tried to prosecute Smith were dissatisfied with the outcome of his conviction and quit the DOJ after these events.
LARRY MORRIS NEAL - MYSTERIOUS DEATH
Interestingly, Dr. Smith was also Chief Medical Examiner in 2003, when Larry Neal’s body went to that facility for autopsy. Larry, a mentally ill heart patient, died in the custody of Shelby County Jail, where he had been held under secret arrest for approximately 18 days until death by heart attack, presumably without his heart drugs. Since Larry's family has been denied all reports and any investigation in the ensuing 4.5 years, this writer cannot say definitely what was done to Larry Neal, 54-year-old mentally ill heart patient. His family feels strongly that there cannot be an acceptable explanation for Larry's secret arrest and jail death, or reports and an investigation would not be withheld from his family. If the Ex-Chief Medical Examiner is found to be a man who lied in favor of police (as it would appear he may have done in Mr. Workman's case), should Larry's autopsy report say, "Death by Taser," or "Death by Restraint Chair" or "Death by Strangulation," or "Death by Starvation and Dehydration," or just plain "Murder"?
Unfortunately, Larry's family contracted with the (Johnny) Cochran Firm as their wrongful death attorneys following Larry's demise, and the managing partner of The Cochran Firm's Memphis office was himself a Shelby County Commissioner. The law firm kept that secret from Larry's family members, of course, and conducted no discovery regarding Larry’s death, which would have necessitated an explanation by Shelby County Government regarding what happened to this life-long mental patient, which the jail had falsely denied having incarcerated until his death. When Larry's family attempted to sue this law firm, bringing suit in Georgia Superior Court, Judge Wendy Shoob dismissed their fraud case against the law firm, upholding a Motion to Dismiss filed by the advertised Atlanta office of The Cochran Firm wherein it denied being any part of the (Johnny) Cochran Firm! However, neither this representation in court nor Judge Shoob's order ever stopped this Atlanta law office from being represented as an office of The Cochran Firm to the American public.
Below is a link to a radio show with Larry Neal's sister, Mary Neal, as the guest speaker.
Real Talk with Brothas Keepa BlogTalk radio broadcast
http://www.blogtalk radio.com/ nbbta/2008/ 05/28/Real- Talk-With- Brothas-Keepa
Links to news articles below give information regarding Dr. O.C. Smith -- perhaps a doctor with a delayed sense of justice (unless, of course, there really is a mad, kidnapping bomber at large)
O. C. SMITH’S KIDNAPPING ORDEAL
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/18/48hours/main688910.shtml
. . . it was front-page news when Smith was brutally attacked by a phantom assailant as he was leaving work in June 2002. Now, as Correspondent Troy Roberts reports, the medical examiner is at the center of a bizarre mystery that would puzzle Memphis for years.
5/4/07
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/02/workman.sidebar/index.html
A witness, an ex-convict named Harold Davis, said under oath that he had lied when he testified at Workman's trial that he saw Workman fire a .45 at Lt. Ronald Oliver. Also, fresh ballistics information surfaced that suggested one of the two other officers who answered the restaurant's silent alarm had accidentally shot Oliver.
5/28/08 -- WILL THERE BE A NEW TRIAL FOR DR. SMITH?
http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/Content?oid=35378
. . . the attack on O. C. Smith is the ultimate Memphis cold case. But it shouldn't be. The case, which was once the top priority nationally of the BATF, should be reopened because only two conclusions are possible, and neither is acceptable: Either Smith was attacked by a mad bomber who is still at large and apt to strike again against Smith or some other public official. Or a medical examiner who gave key testimony in hundreds, if not thousands, of criminal cases had severe mental problems, sent investigators on an expensive wild goose chase, and endangered the lives of the men who disarmed the homemade bomb around his neck.
PAUL HOUSE - WRONGLY CONVICTED?
A man, handicapped by multiple sclerosis, remains on Tennessee's death row TODAY despite strong possibilities of his innocence!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/28/AR2008052800328.html?nav=rss_nation/special
Tenn. man on death row despite high court ruling
By ROSE FRENCH
The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 28, 2008; 2:51 AM
CROSSVILLE, Tenn. -- Multiple sclerosis has Paul House in a
wheelchair. A tenacious prosecutor has him on death row, deemed too
dangerous to be released two years after the U.S. Supreme Court said
he likely isn't guilty.
********************
5/28/08 7:40 p.m. EST --- UPDATE
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080528/ap_on_re_us/death_row_limbo
By ROSE FRENCH, Associated Press Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A federal judge has ordered prosecutors to retry or free a death row inmate who, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded, no juror would have found guilty based on evidence that emerged years after his trial.
*******************
UPDATE – June 25, 2008
FOUR ADDITIONAL INMATES REMOVED FROM TENN. DEATH ROW
http://www.wreg.com/Global/story.asp?S=8553802
Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Tennessee Supreme Court announced Wednesday five inmates have been removed from the state's death row.
*******************
Death Penalty Information Center
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
May 12, 2009
PAUL HOUSE IS FREE! CHARGES DROPPED
The state of Tennessee has dropped all charges against Paul House, a death row inmate first convicted in 1986. House was accused of the rape and murder of Carolyn Muncey based largely on circumstantial evidence. DNA evidence used against him at trial was later found to belong to Muncey's husband. In House v. Bell, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the new DNA tesing and questions about blood stains on House's clothes. In 2006, the Court held that no reasonable juror would have found House guilty based on this new evidence, thus entitling him to raise constitutional issues that led to a reversal of his conviction.
In 2008, a Tennessee judge ordered House released from prison, pending a new trial.
Read more at the link above.
************************************************
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. ~ John 8:36
Mary Neal
Website: http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://Care2.com/c2c/groups/AIMI
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (8)
at 08:39 on May 29th, 2008
GEE! That was fast! This is history in the making -- a breaking story! Things are IMPROVING for Mr. House. He will either get a new trial based on things that have come to light since his death penalty judgment, or he must be released. Do you think having his news so widely reported helped him? Thank you, Ms. French! Responsible journalism can be a powerful tool in the interest of justice, although mainstream media often fails to exercise this principal. For instance, Larry Neal's secret arrest and wrongful death, which was apparently followed by an elaborate cover-up by the family's wrongful death attorneys and others, and even the declaration in Georgia Superior Court by The Cochran Firm's advertised Atlanta office denying its public identity to have Larry's family's fraud suit dismissed by Judge Wendy Shoob in May 2006 have never been reported by mainstream news media. Of course, Larry's family does not buy advertising from the media, as The Cochran Firm does.
Mary
at 15:31 on May 16th, 2009
This is one of those articles I was not allowed to personally update. I have to ask Amy to do it. The cyberstalkers hate my death penalty advocacy worse than they do the prison profiteering articles. Or perhaps I am not allowed to update it because of the information re: Larry and the Shelby County medical examiner's apparent willingness to enter false testimony in a capital murder case to save MPD (head of the same ME office that autopsied Larry and faxed us that incomplete autopsy report). Smith is a man who apparently lied to protect police in the Workman case, if one believes Workman's testimony that another police officer shot the officer he is accused of killing while law enforcement attempted to apprehend Workman for a failed robbery attempt.
I bet lots of police officers are killed that way - sometimes accidentally, and sometimes not. It may be one reason the "brotherhood' is so strong. No one wants to get killed in a conflict by "friendly" fire.
at 15:22 on May 16th, 2009
Thanks, Amy, for posting the final update to the Paul House article. Don't know why the cyberstalkers did not want me to update my own article - I kept getting an EMPTY EDIT FIELD when I hit "submit." I am blessed to have a free speech and free press advocate in you. And thanks for changing the title. If I had tried, the whole article would likely have been stuck behind the Iron Curtain. I don't see what is so unique about this article. Maybe the Medical Examiner twist.
YES, SHELBY COUNTY, TN's CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER STAGED HIS OWN KIDNAPPING TO TRY AND RECANT HIS LYING TESTIMONY THAT WAS USED TO EXECUTE A MAN. SMITH FELT BAD AFTER THE WORKMAN HAD SAT ON DEATH ROW FOR YEARS AND YEARS AND HIS EXECUTION WAS IMMINENTLY PENDING. Either the capitalized portion of this paragraph is true, or we have a mad bomber running around who captures unsuspecting Medical Examiners and locks them in their own stairwells, wraps them in barbed wire, and sticks explosives to their bodies with duck tape securing accusatory notes about the doctors. MEs everywhere should be alarmed!
I have heard of other Medical Examiners being caught lying on their reports, and one Medical Examiner was ordered by a judge to change her report and delete all mention of death by Taser. The more you know about criminal "justice," the more convinced you are likely to be that we must say DEATH TO THE DEATH PENALTY. Folks in charge of justice in the U.S. (and probably all over the world) cannot be trusted with such power over life and death. Corrupt higher-ups are everywhere!
at 20:56 on May 17th, 2009
DID TENNESSEE EXECUTE AN INNOCENT MAN - PHILIP WORKMAN?
Excerpts from Salon.com News
http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2000/09/14/tennessee/index1.html
Seven of the original eight jurors who condemned Workman now say they doubt he shot Oliver. Five of them have signed sworn statements that they would decided the case differently had they known then what has come to light today. But it is Paula Dodillet, Oliver's daughter, who has attracted national attention for joining those jurors in their pleas for granting Workman clemency.
- In 1999 the defense finally tracked Davis down in a Phoenix motel room ( a "vagabond alcoholic" who testified as an eye-witness for the prosecution at Workman's trial). He tearfully confessed on videotape that he saw nothing, but was bullied by members of the Memphis Police Department to testify otherwise.
-An X-ray (which was not used in Workman's trial, but surfaced 17 years later) shows that the bullet that killed Officer Oliver did not fragment inside his body. This is significant because it most likely was not a .45 bullet - the kind of ammunition Workman's gun used.
[There was a hearing to determine if Workman deserved a new trial.]
-It looked as if the majority of judges would vote in favor of granting Workman a new trial [based on new evidence]. But at the last minute, two senior, or retired, judges - both appointed by Republicans - decided that they wanted to be part of the panel. Senior judges have the right to join deliberations when they choose. Those same judges also happened to be on the three-judge panel that had already denied Workman's request for a new trial. The senior Republican judges swung the en banc vote to a tie.
******************
Despite Dr. Smith's apparent attempts to cast doubt on his damning testimony about bullet trejectory during Oliver's murder without making an outright admission of perjury, and despite other new evidence presented above, Workman was denied a new trial and executed by the State of Tennessee on May 9, 2007, after having spent 17 years on death row and saying final goodbyes to his daughter 4 times.
I suppose Workman's execution was pretty important to those two retired judges for some reason.
DEATH TO THE DEATH PENALTY.
at 07:43 on May 18th, 2009
Innocent men and women are locked up all the time and when you try and fight and bring out the truth all hell breaks lose, I have been fighting for 9 years for my son Donald Bradish who was given 25L for a murder he did not do.The DA is very corrupt and puts innocent people in prison all the time, and when we fight back all kinds of things goes wrong in our life but I will not stop till I see justice for my son JoAnn..
at 08:42 on May 18th, 2009
Thanks for your comments, JoAnn. I am sorry for what you and Donald endure.
The corruption in the U.S. system of justice will not be allowed to continue if enough of us stand against it. It makes a dangerous atmosphere in the country for the Justice Department to be ruled by criminals, and I hope that has ended. I have read many concerns about martial law someday being needed in America. There is no need for worry about people protesting against JUSTICE. But when corruption reigns in the place of justice, people eventually rebel. I hope authorities are not training militia for homegrown uprisings because they don't really intend to Change.
We appreciate your input. NowPublic has many fine writers, and I hope you will read some more while you are here. Please comment on any of my articles at this link: http://NowPublic.com/duo
Blessings!
at 04:01 on May 28th, 2009
The Innocence Project
Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva Unversity
100 Fifth Ave., 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10011
http://us.mc544.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=info@innocenceproject.org
After 22 Years on Death Row, Paul House is Cleared
Paul House’s name has finally been cleared, bringing to an end two decades of struggle for freedom after a wrongful conviction in Tennessee. House (pictured above with his mother, Joyce) served more than two decades on Tennessee’s death row before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that he was entitled to a new hearing. He was freed last July, but was under house arrest facing a new trial until charges were dropped May 12.
House, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair, is looking forward to a trip to California for his grandfather’s 90th birthday. He was 23 when he was sent to death row and is 47 today. "This gives me a life,” he told CNN last week. “The only life I had was prison life, and that was nothing to be happy about."
The Innocence Project has worked with House’s attorneys on forensic issues for several years and filed a brief in his Supreme Court case. Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld said House’s exoneration highlights the need for courts to look closely at appeals based on new evidence of innocence.
"The Supreme Court was right to make sure all the evidence was fully considered in this case," Neufeld said. “The five justices who ruled in Paul House’s favor had the wisdom to recognize that there was enough evidence of his innocence to allow a full hearing and more investigation which ultimately proved he did not commit this crime. This is a profoundly important legal principle, but it also saved Paul House’s life. This case should give the Supreme Court great pause, and it should cause them to look more closely at cases like this.”
Read more about House’s case here, and read below for more on other clients around the country seeking access to DNA testing to prove their innocence.
at 10:45 on June 12th, 2009
I just discovered that 653 people went to the photo of Larry Neal at this article thinking they were reading my article. They were not. They only had access to the photo and my first draft. None of the updates or comments are at the photographs. Several times, particularly with the Duanna Johnson articles and this one as well as some others, I get comments from the public. When follow the link to respond, I find the readers are commenting at the site of the photo rather than the main article. I only noticed a few weeks ago that in many cases, my articles were surplanted on the Internet with only a photo that is associated with the article. No - the right margin does not always carry a link to get to the main article as it should. In fact, the photo of Larry's on this article did not until about 10 minutes ago. I have a picture of what was there before I complained if anyone would like me to email you a copy.
My readers are being deprived of the updates that I do to my articles and the opportunity to read any comments. Since cyberstalkers OFTEN deny me the opportunity to comment and add updates to anything other than the comment field, they miss quite a good deal of data being directed to the initial publication with no link provided to access the main article.
It is far wiser to reject my submissions (officially, not by sending me bogus spam messages)than to allow me to publish work thinking that it is made available to the public like other NowPublic writers' work is available and find out later that this is not the case. Anything that is done different with my articles is very unwise indeed. Keep in mind that with me, delayed does not mean never.
Mary Neal
http:/./wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com