Oklahoma City

female Mayor of Oklahoma City
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Oklahoma Baptist mayor.Patience Latting

Oklahoma Baptist Mayor Patience Latting (Baptist Murderess)

Sister Ruth opened Jesus House in 1975 with co-founder Sister Betty Adams, in a storefront building at Reno and Walker Avenues.




Patience Latting,  This Oklahoma City Mayor was elected the city’s mayor in 1971, serving several terms until 1983. During her tenure, Oklahoma City was the largest city in the United States with an elected female mayor.Patience Latting was elected Mayor of Oklahoma City and served several terms ... She was active in the murders of the poor and homeless in the Jesus House, ...In 1971 Patience Sewell Latting was elected mayor of Oklahoma City, at that time the largest city in the nation with a woman mayor. Being a Hard-Shell Southern Baptist, Mayor Latting set out to "cleanse" 'her city' of USELESS EATERS; she   BEGAN THE MURDERS at the JESUSHOUSE.

One of their hardest trials took place in the very beginning, even before the storefront on Reno, when the ministry was housed in an old Hospital, the Capital Hill Clinic on 15th Street and South Walker.

It was January or February, and bitterly cold, when the nightly gospel music was interrupted by armed men at the door. Mayor Patience Latting had initiated a campaign to get the transients out of town, and suddenly Sisters Ruth and Betty were facing officers of the Oklahoma Police Department and Fire Department, who barged in the door and began shutting down the shelter. Men and women were forced out into the cold, and when Sister Betty protested, she was thrown against the wall and held there while the evacuation took place. Some of the women were taken to other shelters in Oklahoma City, but when the shelters were full, several men spent the night outside in the cold. By morning,at least three of them had frozen to death, others never found.

They are Neighbourhoods, the white trash say we are low down bums and such. with co-founder Sister Betty Adams, in a storefront building at Reno and Walker Avenues. The Jesus House in 1973 Taught Me that Treating Winos, drunks, and Railroad Hobos like Humans and Indians Mostly these were Banned from Salvation Army and Gospel Mission, because they Drank liquor and The  Liquor Laws made us Drink "Green-Lizard" which was After Shave!

.When I was a Wino i was in Jail Often with The King of the Winos, Willie Hargo and worked at Old Jesus House, in Capital Hill, when Police Raid us in Blizzard and Throw The People out & Many Froze to Death & Die.

http://oklahomabaptistfemalemayor.blogspot.com/2033/



Sister Ruth opened Jesus House in 1975 15th. street & Walker.


 Patience Latting,This Oklahoma City native was elected the city’s mayor in 1971, serving several terms until 1983. During her tenure, Oklahoma City was the largest city in the United States with an elected female mayor.Patience Latting was elected Mayor of Oklahoma City and served
several terms ... She was active in the murders of the poor and homeless in the Jesus House, ...In 1971 Patience S. Latting was elected mayor of Oklahoma City, at that time the largest city in the nation with a woman mayor. Being a Hard-Shell Southern Baptist, Mayor Latting set
out to cleanse 'her city' Drunken Indians;


One of their hardest trials took place in the very beginning, even before the storefront on Reno, when the ministry was housed in an old Hospital, the Capital Hill Clinic on 15th Street and South Walker. 

 It was January or February, and bitterly cold, when the nightly gospel music was interrupted by armed men at the door. Mayor Patience Latting had initiated a campaign to get the transients out of town, and suddenly Sisters Ruth and Betty were facing officers of the Oklahoma Police
Department and Fire Department, who barged in the door and began shutting down the shelter. Men and women were forced out into the cold, and when Sister Betty protested, she was thrown against the wall and held there while the evacuation took place. Some of the women were taken to other shelters in Oklahoma City, but when the shelters were full, several men spent the night outside in the cold. By morning,thirty three of them had frozen to death




Patience Latting

April 13, 1971 - April 12, 1983

Patience Latting was born in Texhoma, Oklahoma, on August 27, 1918. She received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Oklahoma and a master’s degree in economics from Columbia University in New York. She and her husband Trimble had four children.

Latting was the first woman to serve on the Oklahoma City Council and she is the only woman elected Mayor of Oklahoma City. She was also the first woman to be elected Mayor of an American city with a population exceeding 350,000 and the second City mayor to serve three consecutive terms.

Mayor Latting had an active interest in all aspects of City government and did not hesitate to share her opinions on how it should be run. Under her leadership, the construction of the Myriad Gardens in downtown Oklahoma City began and ground was broken for the Galleria development and the Sheraton Century Center complex. The Myriad Convention Center, now the Cox Business Services Convention Center, was completed during her first term.

Several new downtown buildings were constructed during her administration including the 36-story Liberty Bank Tower (now Chase Tower), Fidelity Plaza (now Bank of Oklahoma), the 30-story Kerr-McGee Tower (now Sandridge Energy), and the Mummers Theater building that was later renamed Stage Center.

Latting received numerous awards and honors for her public and community service both during and after her term as Mayor. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1980. Also, the street on the east side of City Hall was renamed in her honor as “Patience Latting Circle.”

BAPTIST MURDERESS

<

Oklahoma Baptist mayor.Patience Latting

Oklahoma Baptist Mayor Patience Latting (Baptist Murderess)

Sister Ruth opened Jesus House in 1975 with co-founder Sister Betty Adams, in a storefront building at Reno and Walker Avenues.




Patience Latting,  This Oklahoma City Mayor was elected the city’s mayor in 1971, serving several terms until 1983. During her tenure, Oklahoma City was the largest city in the United States with an elected female mayor.Patience Latting was elected Mayor of Oklahoma City and served several terms ... She was active in the murders of the poor and homeless in the Jesus House, ...In 1971 Patience Sewell Latting was elected mayor of Oklahoma City, at that time the largest city in the nation with a woman mayor. Being a Hard-Shell Southern Baptist, Mayor Latting set out to "cleanse" 'her city' of USELESS EATERS; she   BEGAN THE MURDERS at the JESUSHOUSE.

One of their hardest trials took place in the very beginning, even before the storefront on Reno, when the ministry was housed in an old Hospital, the Capital Hill Clinic on 15th Street and South Walker.

It was January or February, and bitterly cold, when the nightly gospel music was interrupted by armed men at the door. Mayor Patience Latting had initiated a campaign to get the transients out of town, and suddenly Sisters Ruth and Betty were facing officers of the Oklahoma Police Department and Fire Department, who barged in the door and began shutting down the shelter. Men and women were forced out into the cold, and when Sister Betty protested, she was thrown against the wall and held there while the evacuation took place. Some of the women were taken to other shelters in Oklahoma City, but when the shelters were full, several men spent the night outside in the cold. By morning,at least three of them had frozen to death, others never found.
Sister Ruth opened Jesus House in 1975 15th. street & Walker.


 Patience Latting,This Oklahoma City native was elected the city’s mayor in 1971, serving several terms until 1983. During her tenure, Oklahoma City was the largest city in the United States with an elected female mayor.Patience Latting was elected Mayor of Oklahoma City and served
several terms ... She was active in the murders of the poor and homeless in the Jesus House, ...In 1971 Patience S. Latting was elected mayor of Oklahoma City, at that time the largest city in the nation with a woman mayor. Being a Hard-Shell Southern Baptist, Mayor Latting set
out to cleanse 'her city' Drunken Indians;


One of their hardest trials took place in the very beginning, even before the storefront on Reno, when the ministry was housed in an old Hospital, the Capital Hill Clinic on 15th Street and South Walker. 

 It was January or February, and bitterly cold, when the nightly gospel music was interrupted by armed men at the door. Mayor Patience Latting had initiated a campaign to get the transients out of town, and suddenly Sisters Ruth and Betty were facing officers of the Oklahoma Police
Department and Fire Department, who barged in the door and began shutting down the shelter. Men and women were forced out into the cold, and when Sister Betty protested, she was thrown against the wall and held there while the evacuation took place. Some of the women were taken to other shelters in Oklahoma City, but when the shelters were full, several men spent the night outside in the cold. By morning,thirty three of them had frozen to death




Patience Latting

April 13, 1971 - April 12, 1983

Patience Latting was born in Texhoma, Oklahoma, on August 27, 1918. She received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Oklahoma and a master’s degree in economics from Columbia University in New York. She and her husband Trimble had four children.

Latting was the first woman to serve on the Oklahoma City Council and she is the only woman elected Mayor of Oklahoma City. She was also the first woman to be elected Mayor of an American city with a population exceeding 350,000 and the second City mayor to serve three consecutive terms.

Mayor Latting had an active interest in all aspects of City government and did not hesitate to share her opinions on how it should be run. Under her leadership, the construction of the Myriad Gardens in downtown Oklahoma City began and ground was broken for the Galleria development and the Sheraton Century Center complex. The Myriad Convention Center, now the Cox Business Services Convention Center, was completed during her first term.

Several new downtown buildings were constructed during her administration including the 36-story Liberty Bank Tower (now Chase Tower), Fidelity Plaza (now Bank of Oklahoma), the 30-story Kerr-McGee Tower (now Sandridge Energy), and the Mummers Theater building that was later renamed Stage Center.

Latting received numerous awards and honors for her public and community service both during and after her term as Mayor. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1980. Also, the street on the east side of City Hall was renamed in her honor as “Patience Latting Circle.”

Oklahoma a State of Hateful Murderious Cretins

NORMA KRISTIE, INC. v. CITY OF OKLAHOMA CITY
No. CIV 83-2059-R.

572 F.Supp. 88 (1983)

NORMA KRISTIE, INC., an Arkansas Corporation, Plaintiff, v. The CITY OF OKLAHOMA CITY, a Municipal Corporation, Oklahoma City Public Property Authority, a Public Trust, and Scott Johnson, Defendants.

United States District Court, W.D. Oklahoma.
September 1, 1983.
Roland Tague, Groves, Bleakley & Tague, Oklahoma City, Okl., for plaintiff.
Diane L. Davis, Asst. Municipal Counselor, Oklahoma City, Okl., for defendants.
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
DAVID L. RUSSELL, District Judge.
This cause came on for hearing on August 31, 1983, on Plaintiff's Motion for a Preliminary Injunction. By agreement of the parties, trial of the action on the merits was advanced and consolidated with the hearing on the Preliminary Injunction.
[572 F.Supp. 90]
The following shall constitute the Court's findings of fact and conclusions of law.
Plaintiff is an Arkansas corporation with its principal place of business in Little Rock, Arkansas. Defendant Oklahoma City Public Property Authority (OCPPA) is a public trust organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Oklahoma and is charged with, inter alia, management of the Myriad Convention Center (Myriad) in Oklahoma City. The Myriad is leased on a more or less regular basis for public and private use. Defendant Scott Johnson is the Manager of OCPPA and is also City Manager of the City of Oklahoma City. The City of Oklahoma City was dismissed as a party Defendant at the close of Plaintiff's evidence.
Plaintiff's president and sole stockholder is N.R. Jones. Jones testified that he visited in Oklahoma City in late June, 1983, and contacted officials of the Myriad to inquire about renting the facility. Jones wished to produce a national contest for female impersonators entitled the "Miss Gay America Pageant." The pageant is apparently an annual event which began in 1972. According to Jones contestants are not necessarily homosexual.
Jones stated to the Myriad officials the purpose of the production and his requirements for the production. The official with whom he talked suggested the Great Hall of the Myriad. Jones and the official inspected the Great Hall and the rental was tentatively reserved for September 18, 1983.
Jones contacted a Mr. Zeigler, the booking agent for the Myriad four to five days later and was assured that he would be able to book the Great Hall and a contract would be mailed. Zeigler told Jones he could start his publicity campaign. Jones did begin the promotion of the event, including advertising, printing and catering arrangements.
On July 18, 1983, Jones was notified by Zeigler that the Myriad would not accommodate the event and a permit would not be issued. No reason was given for the rejection.
On July 28, 1983, counsel for Plaintiff wrote the Office of City Manager requesting that a written contract be issued. On August 2, 1983, Defendant Johnson without giving any reasons confirmed that the permit would not be issued.
Defendant Johnson testified that rental of public facilities such as the Myriad is done by permit issued by Defendant OCPPA. Meetings of the OCPPA are not held to approve use. Defendant Johnson regularly grants or denies such permits and he made the ultimate decision to not issue a permit to Plaintiff. He made his decision on the information that the event was to be a national contest for female impersonators entitled the "Miss Gay America Pageant." He did not investigate further into the nature of the event and discussed his decision only with legal counsel. He did not hold a hearing in order to determine the content of the event. Defendant Johnson testified he thought the event to be an open expression of homosexuality which he believed violated prevailing community standards. He concluded the event was therefore obscene. Defendant Johnson knew of no printed standards for determining obscenity nor did he rely on any city ordinances in making his decision. He did not know then nor does he know now of any city ordinances prohibiting a man dressing as a woman. Defendant Johnson testified that had a homosexual group wanted to book the Myriad for a closed meeting not open to the public a permit would be issued because such a meeting would not display homosexuality to the public in a public place.
Jones testified that the pageant would have 50 contestants from 23 states and that contestants are selected in preliminary competitions throughout the year. Contestants are judged in several categories and compete in female attire in a talent competition, evening gowns and sportswear. The event is to be open to the public. Jones testified the competition is based on the way a person transforms himself through the "art of illusion" to look like a woman.
The Supreme Court, in Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad, 420 U.S. 546, 95 S.Ct. 1239,
[572 F.Supp. 91]
43 L.Ed.2d 448 (1975) set forth the definitive standards by which a city may refuse the use of a public forum without violating First Amendment rights of expression. In that case, the directors of a municipally-owned theater in Chattanooga, Tennessee, refused a permit to a promoter who wished to present a production of the musical "Hair." The directors based their refusal on their judgment of the musical's content, acting on information from "outside reports" without reading the script or libretto. The directors refused a permit because the musical was "not in the best interest of the community," and not "clean and healthful and culturally uplifting." The production was later found by a jury to be obscene under city ordinances and the laws of Tennessee.
The Supreme Court in Conrad did not address the issue of obscenity, finding that the denial of the permit was an unlawful prior restraint on free expression.
Prior restraints on expression come before the courts bearing a heavy presumption against their constitutional validity. The Supreme Court in Conrad reiterated the rule that the "presumption against prior restraints is heavier — and the degree of protection broader — than that against limits on expression imposed by criminal penalties. Behind the distinction is a theory deeply etched in our law; a free society prefers to punish the few who abuse rights of speech after they break the law than to throttle them and all others beforehand. It is always difficult to know in advance what an individual will say, and the line between legitimate and illegitimate speech is often so finely drawn that the risks of freewheeling censorship are formidable." 420 U.S. at 559, 95 S.Ct. at 1246.
Only where a system of prior restraint takes place under procedural safeguards designed to obviate the dangers of a censorship system does such prior restraint avoid Constitutional infirmity. Freedman v. Maryland, 380 U.S. 51, 58, 85 S.Ct. 734, 739, 13 L.Ed.2d 649 (1965). The Supreme Court in Conrad reaffirmed the requirements of such a system of prior restraint: First, the burden of instituting judicial proceedings, and of proving that the material is unprotected, must rest on the censor. Second, any restraint prior to judicial review can be imposed only for a specified brief period and only for the purpose of preserving the status quo. Third, a prompt final judicial determination must be assured. 420 U.S. at 560, 95 S.Ct. at 1247.
In the case at bar, the Court finds that the Myriad Convention Center is a public forum. Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 459 F.2d 282, 283 (10th Cir.1972). As a public forum, the Myriad is designed for and dedicated to expressive activities and therefore subject to the strictures of the First Amendment.
Defendants contend the "Miss Gay America Pageant" is not accorded Constitutional protection because it is a commercial enterprise and not a noteworthy artistic endeavor such as a play or musical. Defendants contend that a blatant showing of men parading in women's apparel is not artistic.
Such a judgment is subjective. While this Court may agree that such a "pageant" may not rise to the level of artistic endeavor that "Hair" or "La Cage aux Folles" represent, it is still expression. Defendants have failed to produce evidence, authority or argument that evaluations of the degree of "art" in entertainment make a difference in the extent of constitutional protection. The First Amendment is not an art critic. Plaintiff's production includes a talent competition with singing and dance, expression which the Supreme Court cited in Conrad as protected. Any inequality in aesthetic value between Plaintiff's pageant and a musical or play is a distinction without a difference.
Defendants next contend the "pageant" is obscene and therefore unprotected by the First Amendment. Obscene material is unprotected by the First Amendment. Kois v. Wisconsin, 408 U.S. 229, 92 S.Ct. 2245, 33 L.Ed.2d 312 (1972); Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, 77 S.Ct. 1304, 1 L.Ed.2d 1498 (1957). In determining what is obscene material, the basic guidelines
[572 F.Supp. 92]
for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether the "average person, applying contemporary community standards" would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 24, 93 S.Ct. 2607, 2615, 37 L.Ed.2d 419 (1973).
While Plaintiff's pageant arguably may fall within the terms of standards (a) and (c) above, Defendants have not produced a shred of evidence that the pageant includes depictions of sexual conduct in violation of state law. Defendants conceded at the hearing of this cause that they had no evidence that contestants would engage in lewd exposure of the body in violation of 21 O.S. § 1021 or 11 O.S. § 22-110. Defendants have no evidence that contestants will engage in depiction of sexual conduct in violation of 21 O.S. 886. Defendants merely argue that the exposure of a male in female attire is immoral. There are no state laws prohibiting a man dressing as a woman. Defendants have not satisfied their burden of showing the production to be obscene. Inasmuch as Defendants have not produced evidence of obscenity, this Court declines to find Plaintiff's production legally obscene.
Whether the pageant is an open expression of homosexuality is irrelevant. In view of acclaimed performances by Dustin Hoffman, Julie Andrews, Flip Wilson, Harvey Korman, Tony Curtis and Milton Berle in the roles of female impersonators, such impersonations may not be necessarily equated with homosexuality. In any event, homosexual expression is protected. Gay Activists Alliance v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, 638 P.2d 1116 (Okl.1981). The First Amendment values free and open expression, even if distasteful to the majority, including personally distasteful to this Court. As Voltaire said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Particularly disturbing to this Court is Defendants conduct in dealing with Plaintiff's application. Defendants made no effort to follow the clear dictates of the U.S. Supreme Court, even after discussion with legal counsel and even though reminded of the pertinent cases by Plaintiff's counsel in his letter of July 28, 1983. Instead, in the face of clear-cut mandates, Defendant Johnson unilaterally rejected the application without investigation and based only on his own opinion.
Providing wholesome entertainment is an admirable motive, but government officials at all levels must shoulder the responsibility of following the law and upholding the Constitution, even when to do so is unpopular. Based upon the facts before it the Court has no alternative but to grant Plaintiff's motions for preliminary and permanent relief.
Defendants are ordered to rent the Great Hall of the Myriad Convention Center to the Plaintiff at the customary rental rate and on customary terms on September 18, 1983. Plaintiff is awarded attorney's fees and costs of this action against Defend

Oklahoma Murderious Gilcrest & Bob Macy

• YES:be a part of history making earth better protected (google map) (yahoo map) Joyce Gilchrist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Joyce Gilchrist is a former forensic chemist who had participated in over 3,000 criminal cases in 21 years while working for the Oklahoma City police department,[1][2] and who was accused of falsifying evidence.[1][3] Her evidence led in part to 23 people being sentenced to death, 11 of whom have been executed.[1] After her dismissal, Gilchrist alleged that she was fired in retaliation for reporting sexual misconduct.[4] Contents 1 Biography 2 Aftermath 3 References 4 External links Biography Gilchrist earned the nickname "Black Magic" for her ability to match DNA evidence that other forensic examiners could not.[1] She was also known for being unusually adept at testifying and persuading juries, thus obtaining convictions.[1][5] In 1994, Gilchrist was promoted to supervisor from forensic chemist after just 9 years on the job,[1] but her colleagues began to raise concerns about her work.[1][6][7] Gilchrist was dismissed in September 2001 due to "flawed casework analysis" and "laboratory mismanagement".[7] Concerns about Gilchrist's actions were first raised when a landscaper, Jeffrey Todd Pierce, who had been convicted of rape in 1986 largely based on Gilchrist's evidence despite a clean criminal record and good alibi, was exonerated based on additional DNA evidence. Pierce, a husband and the father of two infant children, was misidentified in a police line-up. After voluntarily giving hair and blood samples to the police investigators in an attempt to clear his name, he was arrested and charged with the rape. Gilchrist claimed his hair samples were "microscopically consistent" with the hairs found at the crime scene. Pierce was cleared of the crime in 2001 after DNA evidence was re-examined, and released after 15 years in prison. Pierce subsequently filed a lawsuit against Oklahoma City, seeking $75 million and charging that Gilchrist and Bob Macy, a now-retired district attorney, conspired to produce false evidence against him.[4][8] The suit was settled for $4 million in 2007, with one Oklahoma City councilman noting that the city could have had to pay much more.[9] Aftermath Other cases from individuals convicted on Gilchrist's testimony continue to work their way through the courts. Michael Blair was sentenced to die for the murder of a young girl in 1993.[10] The evidence leading to his conviction included shafts of hair found near the girl's body and in Blair's car.[10] New DNA evidence showed that the hair matched neither the girl, nor Blair.[10] During the early 1990s, Oklahoma state law did not allow defense attorneys to use government funds to hire other forensic scientists to verify Gilchrist's claims. However, during appeals of Malcolm Rent Johnson's death penalty case, two forensic experts hired by the defense were critical of Gilchrist's testimony, particularly as it relied upon several "blue-colored hairs" that seemed too "ubiquitous" to be useful evidence.[11] Curtis McCarty was released in 2007 after spending nearly 20 years on death row. The courts found that Gilchrist acted to either alter or intentionally lose evidence. In 2009 McCarty's lawsuit reached a settlement in which Gilchrist was responsible for a payment of over $16 million, an amount that she is attempting to force Oklahoma City to pay.[12] Over 1,700 cases in which Gilchrist's evidence was significant to a conviction were reviewed by the state of Oklahoma.[4][8] Gilchrist's attorney stated that, "The criticism of [Joyce Gilchrist] around here is second only to that of Timothy McVeigh."[1] After her dismissal, Gilchrist filed a lawsuit seeking $20.1 million, claiming that her firing was actually motivated by revenge, after she reported sexual misconduct by her supervisor.[4] References Police Chemist Is Rebutted After Man's Execution Published: August 30, 2001 A now-scrutinized Oklahoma City police chemist whose testimony helped convict a man later executed for murder cited scientific evidence that does not exist, a Police Department memorandum says. The memorandum, written by another chemist in the Oklahoma City police laboratory and obtained by The Associated Press, refers to the case of Malcolm Rent Johnson, who was convicted in 1982 of rape and murder and was executed on Jan. 6, 2000. At trial, the testifying chemist, Joyce Gilchrist, said six samples taken from the victim's bedroom showed semen consistent with Mr. Johnson's blood type. But a re-examination of those slides this July 30 showed that ''spermatozoa is not present,'' says the memorandum, dated July 31, addressed to the city attorney's office and signed by Ms. Gilchrist's colleague Laura Schile. Ms. Schile resigned from the city's embattled forensics laboratory on Aug. 2, citing a hostile work environment. But her memorandum said the laboratory's three other scientists -- aside from Ms. Gilchrist, who is suspended -- agreed with her that sperm was not present. One of those chemists, Kyla Marshall, confirmed that when the slides were retested, they revealed no sperm, just a few fibers from the victim's bedspread and pillowcase. Sperm does not deteriorate for decades, Ms. Marshall said. The memorandum is the latest turn in the events surrounding Ms. Gilchrist, who has been accused of repeatedly overstating courtroom testimony and performing shoddy forensic analysis. She has previously denied any wrongdoing, and her lawyer did not return calls seeking comment on Ms. Schile's memorandum. Luscombe, Belinda (May 13, 2001). "When The Evidence Lies". Time Magazine. Archived from the original on May 8, 2009. Retrieved May 9, 2009. Yardley, Jim (May 2, 2001). "Inquiry Focuses on Scientists Employed by Prosecutors". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 8, 2009. Retrieved May 8, 2009. Franklin E. Zimring (2003). The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517820-3. Retrieved May 8, 2009. "Police Chemist's Suit Says Firing Was Retaliatory". The New York Times. April 26, 2002. Archived from the original on May 9, 2009. Retrieved May 9, 2009. Fuhrman, Mark (2003). Death and Justice. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-073208-3. Retrieved May 8, 2009. Dwyer, Kevin; Fiorillo, Juré (2006). True Stories of Law & Order: The Real Crimes Behind the Best Episodes of the Hit TV Show. New York: Berkley Boulevard. ISBN 0-425-21190-8. Retrieved May 8, 2009. "Police Chemist Accused of Shoddy Work Is Fired". The New York Times. September 26, 2001. Archived from the original on May 9, 2009. Retrieved May 9, 2009. "Under The Microscope". CBS News. July 24, 2002. Archived from the original on May 8, 2009. Retrieved May 9, 2009. "Man gets $4 million over wrong rape conviction". MSNBC. January 24, 2007. Retrieved July 19, 2009. Scheck ;=, Barry; Neufeld, Peter (May 11, 2001). "Junk Science, Junk Evidence". The New York Times. Retrieved May 9, 2009. Yardley, Jim (September 2, 2001). "Oklahoma Retraces Big Step in Capital Case". The New York Times. pp. 1--2. Archived from the original on May 9, 2009. Retrieved May 9, 2009. "Former DA Bob Macy, ex-forensic chemist Joyce Gilchrist settle case". Oklahoma Gazette. June 17, 2009. Retrieved July 18, 2009. External links New York Times Police Chemist Is Rebutted After Man's Execution New York Times In Rape Case Gone Awry, New Suspect New York Times Court Overturns Death Sentence New York Times Oklahoma Will Study Capital Cases New York Times Death Penalty Cases Reviewed New York Times Man Is Reunited with Family New York Times Oklahoma Governor Weighs Independent Inquiry on Lab New York Times Flaws in Chemist's Findings Free Man at Center of Inquiry New York Times Capital Case Re-Examined do NOT contact me with unsolicited services or offers post id: 4787518516 posted: an hour ago updated: 27 minutes ago email to friend ♥ best of [?] When The Evidence Lies By Belinda Luscombe Sunday, May. 13, 2001 Print Email Share Reprints Jim Fowler has been struck twice by lightning. A retired house painter in Oklahoma City, Okla., Fowler lived through his 19-year-old son Mark's arrest in 1985 for murdering three people in a grocery-store holdup. Mark was sentenced to death. A year later Fowler's mother Anne Laura was raped and murdered, and a man named Robert Lee Miller Jr. was sentenced to die for the crime. The same Oklahoma City police department forensic scientist, Joyce Gilchrist, testified at both trials. But DNA evidence later proved she was wrong about Miller. He was released after 10 years on death row, and a man previously cleared by Gilchrist was charged with the crime. Fowler can't help wondering if Gilchrist's testimony was equally inept at the trial of his son Mark, who was executed in January. Last week gave Fowler even more reason to wonder. A state judge ordered a man named Jeffrey Pierce released after serving 15 years of a 65-year sentence for rape. Gilchrist placed him at the scene of the crime, but DNA evidence proved he was not the rapist. In response, Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating launched a review of every one of the thousands of cases Gilchrist touched between 1980 and 1993, starting with 12 in which death sentences were handed down. But in another 11 of her cases, the defendants have already been put to death. The state is giving the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System $725,000 to hire two attorneys and conduct DNA testing of any evidence analyzed by Gilchrist that led to a conviction. A preliminary FBI study of eight cases found that in at least five, she had made outright errors or overstepped "the acceptable limits of forensic science." Gilchrist got convictions by matching hair samples with a certainty other forensic scientists found impossible to achieve. She also appears to have withheld evidence from the defense and failed to perform tests that could have cleared defendants. It's a bitter convolution of fate that Gilchrist should be based in Oklahoma City, the last place one would expect to find compelling arguments against the death penalty. Her story can't help but give Oklahomans pause about the quality of justice meted out by their courts. Says Gilchrist's lawyer, Melvin Hall: "The criticism of her around here is second only to that of Timothy McVeigh." But the allegations also underscore a national problem: the sometimes dangerously persuasive power of courtroom science. Juries tend to regard forensic evidence more highly than they regard witnesses because it is purportedly more objective. But forensic scientists work so closely with the police and district attorneys that their objectivity cannot be taken for granted. Gilchrist told TIME in an interview last week that she's bewildered by her predicament. "I'm just one entity within a number of people who testify," she says. "They're keying on the negative and not looking at the good work I did." In her 21-year career with the Oklahoma City police, she had an unbroken string of positive job evaluations and was Civilian Police Employee of the Year in 1985. Her ability to sway juries and win convictions earned her the nickname "Black Magic." In 1994 she was promoted from forensic chemist to supervisor. Until recently, Hall says, she did not have "a bad piece of paper in her file." Now Gilchrist is on paid leave; in June she will face a two-day hearing to decide whether the police department should fire her. Meanwhile, her reputation has been shattered. The hammer blow came when Pierce, a landscaper who was convicted of rape in 1986, was released last week after DNA testing exonerated him. He had been found guilty despite a clean record and plausible alibi largely because of Gilchrist's analysis of hair at the crime scene. "I'm just the one who opened the door," said Pierce. "There will be a lot more coming out behind me." Pierce lost 15 years, his marriage and the chance to see his twin boys grow up. But some fear there were others who paid even more dearly: the 11 executed defendants. The Oklahoma attorney general has temporarily shut the gate on execution of the 12 still on death row in whose trials Gilchrist was involved. While the D.A.'s office believes that the convictions will stand, these cases will be the first to be reconsidered. Defense lawyers fear that the innocent who took plea bargains in the face of her expertise will never come to light. Gilchrist told TIME, "There may be a few differences because of DNA analysis," but she is confident most of her findings will be confirmed. "I worked hard, long and consistently on every case," she says. "I always based my opinion on scientific findings." She insists she didn't overstate those findings to please the D.A.'s office or secure convictions. "I feel comfortable with the conclusions I drew." But defense lawyers say the Gilchrist investigation is long overdue. Her work has been making colleagues queasy for years. In January 1987, John Wilson, a forensic scientist with the Kansas City police crime lab, filed a complaint about her with the Southwestern Association of Forensic Scientists. (The association declined to take action.) Jack Dempsey Pointer, president of the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, says his group has been fighting for an investigation "almost since the time she went to work" at the lab. "We have been screaming in the wind, and nobody has been listening." 1 | 2 Next » I CANNOT RETRIVE SECOND PAGE.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oklahoma Gazette Former DA Bob Macy, ex-forensic chemist Joyce Gilchrist settle case Wednesday, June 17, 2009 By Scott Cooper As more cases involving former Oklahoma City Police Department forensic chemist Joyce Gilchrist make their way through the legal system, the inner workings of the police lab and the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s office are revealed layer by layer. When Curtis Edward McCarty was released from custody in 2007 after spending nearly 20 years on death row, the courts found that Gilchrist acted to either alter or intentionally lose evidence. With Bryson, attorneys looked more into the abilities of Gilchrist as a scientist and the hands-off approach the police department and the district attorney’s office took to their controversial chemist. A trial was set to begin later this month which would have been the first public testimony of Gilchrist, former District Attorney Bob Macy and several of Macy’s prosecutors as well as police officials. It would have been an opportunity for the public to hear firsthand the explanations as to why a man who was found to have no biological evidence linking him to a crime spent more than decade in prison. But at a last-ditch settlement conference meeting in the chambers of U.S. Magistrate Robert Bacharach on June 3, the opposing sides came to an agreement. Gilchrist agreed to hand over $16.5 million, according to court records. Bryson also worked out a deal with Macy, but the details of their settlement are sealed. The case file is not sealed, however, and the depositions of Gilchrist and Macy include hundreds of documents and other testimonials that provide a keen glimpse into how one man’s life can be altered by science or ethics. CONVICTION AND EXONERATION Bryson was convicted in 1983 of raping and kidnapping Theresa Taylor and sentenced to 85 years in prison. Taylor, a legal secretary at the time, testified she was attacked walking to her car from the Liberty Tower in downtown Oklahoma City, forced into a car and driven to a remote area where she was brutally raped. Taylor escaped after biting the attacker’s penis, who then ran away screaming in pain. The victim then made her way to a nearby house and called police. The key pieces of evidence used against Bryson were hair, blood and semen samples, eyewitness testimony from the victim and another person in the area of the attack, and injuries to Bryson’s penis after he went to a doctor for treatment. Gilchrist testified at the 1983 trial that the hair and blood samples were consistent to Bryson. She told a jury the blood type from the sample was the same as Bryson’s, and the hair was consistent with Bryson’s hair. The key pieces of evidence used against Bryson were hair, blood and semen samples, eyewitness testimony from the victim and another person in the area of the attack, and injuries to Bryson’s penis after he went to a doctor for treatment. Gilchrist testified at the 1983 trial that the hair and blood samples were consistent to Bryson. She told a jury the blood type from the sample was the same as Bryson’s, and the hair was consistent with Bryson’s hair. But other scientists who looked into Gilchrist’s original work claim that, had the chemist conducted her science correctly, Bryson should have been excluded before the 1983 trial, regardless of DNA testing. Brian Wraxall, chief forensic serologist at the Serological Research Institute in California, looked over Gilchrist’s lab notes last November and found serious flaws from his former student. Gilchrist received some of her training at the institute. Of particular note was the robe the victim wore after escaping to a nearby house. Semen stains were found on the robe which Gilchrist tested and concluded could have come from Bryson. But Wraxall said Gilchrist did not conduct the tests properly and that Bryson would have been excluded as a donor. “Ms. Gilchrist failed to run a substrate or background control from the robe as she was taught in my laboratory,” Wraxall wrote in his report. But Wraxall’s pupil took a hard stance on her testing during her deposition on March 6, 2008. “Just because that wasn’t his DNA in that semen found in her vagina does not mean he’s not the rapist,” Gilchrist said. “Now, if you can exclude him using … DNA testing on those hairs, then I would agree with you then that he’s not the rapist, but until that happens, I stand by the results of my analysis.” DEBUNKED However, the hair analysis has also been debunked. In 2001, the FBI conducted reviews of Gilchrist’s work and concluded the hair evidence did not match Bryson. But during her deposition, Gilchrist shrugged off conclusions of other analysts: “That happens all the time. Hair examination is very subjective, and experts may or may not agree on the conclusions that are reached. So if someone else disagrees with my findings, I don’t put much weight in that.” Gilchrist and her attorney, Melvin Hall, refused to comment for the story, as did Bryson and his attorney Mark Barrett, along with Macy and his attorney. Whether Gilchrist was even qualified to conduct such tests became a topic for Bryson’s attorneys. Records of Gilchrist’s college transcript and early training at FBI labs show the chemist had difficulty with some of her science classes. According to her transcripts from the University of Oklahoma and University of Central Oklahoma, Gilchrist was placed on academic probation more than once, as well as academic suspension. At OU, she received a grade of D in general chemistry. At UCO, she earned C and D grades in chemistry courses like general physics and quantitative analysis. During her deposition, Gilchrist was questioned about the marks she received while training with the FBI. Barrett pointed out several instances where Gilchrist misidentified hair samples during tests. But Gilchrist contended mistakes were to be expected as it was her first week in training. She received a certificate stating she had completed the FBI course. During the deposition, city attorney Richard Smith tried to make light of Barrett’s line of questioning: Smith: “Did you get 100 percent on every spelling test you’ve ever took?” Gilchrist: “No.” GILCHRIST REFLECTS Through the years, as one former convict gets exonerated after another, Gilchrist did reflect on any mistakes she had made, particularly when it came to hair analysis, and not letting a jury think she could identify a person through hair samples. “There’s a lot of things I probably regret during the course of my lifetime. I probably regret not expounding a little further instead of just answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a question and not being able to qualify my answer, taking that opportunity to do so. Yeah, I regret that.” But regardless of what mistakes Gilchrist made, she had the full backing of the district attorney’s office, even in the face of criticism from other forensic scientists and high court judges. “I observed Joyce Gilchrist on numerous occasions in the courtroom testifying and being cross-examined, and it was my opinion that she was very professional, very thorough in her work,” Macy said during his deposition on Oct. 24, 2008. “I don’t know how much more investigation would need to have been done than what I was seeing daily in the courtroom.” John Wilson with the Kansas City police lab was one of the scientists sounding alarm bells about Gilchrist’s work. Wilson had testified in some of the cases as an expert witness to rebut Gilchrist. Macy said he thought Wilson’s behavior was unethical. “I thought Wilson was … one of the forensic chemists for a law enforcement agency there,” Macy said. “They had trained him and given him all his education and background, and he was out for hire to the defense. I expressed not only to Wilson but to his supervisor that I had a kind of an ethical problem with it.” In the original filing of the lawsuit, Bryson named not just Gilchrist and Macy as defendants, but the city and several former police chiefs as well. The chiefs and the city were dismissed from the case on the grounds their actions had nothing to do with Bryson’s wrongful conviction. A judge also tossed out most of the complaints Bryson filed against Macy save one, which the two sides settled on. Toward the end of his deposition, Macy took offense to some of the questions which dealt with evidence either being tampered with, falsified or intentionally lost, allegations raised by other courts in some of Gilchrist’s cases. “I spent my entire life in law enforcement or prosecution, and I found that they’re probably the most dedicated, honest bunch of people in the world. … Why would a person want to hide evidence?” The proceedings are still not over yet, according to court records. With Gilchrist agreeing to pay Bryson $16.5 million — a sum she does not have — a battle is to unfold as to who will pay that money. Gilchrist claims the city should pay since the action took place when she was employed with the police department. The city disagrees, saying Gilchrist violated city policies and therefore should not be indemnified by the city. The city does have a policy to pay up to $10 million for damages inflicted by an employee. The issue between Gilchrist and the city is set for court later this month. —Scott Cooper Read the Records for Yourself: Bob Macy Deposition 1 Bob Macy Deposition 2 Bob Macy Deposition 3 Brian Waxall Report Joyce Gilchrist College Transcript Joyce Gilchrist Deposition 1 Joyce Gilchrist Deposition 2 Joyce Gilchrist Deposition 3 Joyce Gilchrist Deposition 4 Judge Marcus Report Junk Science Truth in Justice

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                                                     Joyce Gilchrist

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       WHEN WILL JOYCE GILCHRIST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE ?
 

Sign The Petition - Hold Joyce Gilchrist Responsible

To:  GOVERNOR FRANK KEATING, Room 212, State Capitol Bldg,
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73105, USA.
PERFECT JUSTICE ??
FORMER OKLAHOMA CITY FORENSIC CHEMIST JOYCE GILCHRIST'S ANALYSIS
AND TESTIMONY SENT AT LEAST ONE INNOCENT PERSON TO DEATH ROW
*Defense Attorney Files Suit to Investigate if an Innocent Man was Executed
*Alfred Brian Mitchell's Death Sentence Overturned - Re-sentencing Ordered
Gilchrist has been repeatedly accused of false testimony and shoddy results in her work during the past 15 years. She has been involved in approximately 3,000 cases, including at least 23 cases where defendants were eventually sentenced to death and
have either been executed or remain on death row. 11 of those people were executed during the past two years, including Marilyn Plantz and Randall Cannon who was executed on July 23rd - despite strong doubts as to his guilt because of Joyce Gilchrist's testimony.
Oklahoma County District Attorney Robert Macy, who often relied on testimony from Gilchrist, announced his resignation effective June 30, 2001
A 101-page report about the death penalty in Oklahoma was released by Amnesty International. A copy of the report is available on its web site.
Both Gilchrist and Macy are cited in the Amnesty International report. (4/30/01)
Read the May 1, 2001 CNN report on the Joyce Gilchrist investigation, titled "FBI reviewing cases forensic expert handled".
http://www.cnn.com/2001/LAW/05/01/oklahoma.evidence/index.html
Read the July 18, 2001, Shawnee News-Star article, Three death row cases due review about the ongoing investigation into death sentences that may have resulted from Joyce Gilchrist'stestimony. http://www.news-star.com/stories/071801/new_row.shtml
SO WHEN WILL JOYCE GILCHRIST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE?
OR WILL SHE?
We, as members of an increasingly concerned public, would like it  known that we do not want innocent people executed in our name.  Nor do we believe that professionals such as Joyce Gilchrist or Joan Wood (see Florida) should be exempt from punishment. False and inaccurate testimony deliberately given with the express
purpose of removing another's Right to Life is premeditated MURDER as much as picking up a gun or knife.
We ask that you join us in expressing your concern and requesting that Joyce Gilchrist be held as accountable in a Court of Law as much as any other she has placed in that position.
 
HOW TO CONTACT GOVERNOR FRANK KEATING:
MAIL: Room 212, State Capitol Bldg, OKLAHOMA CITY,
OK 73105, USA.
PHONE: 001 - 405 - 521 - 2342
FAX: 001 - 405 - 521 - 3353
E-MAIL: governor@gov.state.ok.us
We thank you for your concern and interest.
Relevant websites:
www.ccadp.org/joycegilchrist.htm
www.truthinjustice.org/gilchrist2.htm
www.ocadp.org/news/2001/jgilchrist_new
 
ADDENDUM:
May 13: Oklahoma City Police Chemist Joyce Gilchrist, who is currently under investigation by the OSBI, provided testimony or work on the cases of the following current death row inmates: Stephen Lynn Abshier; Randall Eugene Cannon; Ernest Marvin Carter Jr; Cyril Wayne Ellis; Yancey Lyndell Douglas; John Michael
Hooker; Victor Wayne Hooks; Michael Edward Hooper; Curtis Edward McCarty; Alfred Brian Mitchell; George Ochoa and Osbaldo Torres. Gilchrist also provided testimony or work on the cases of the following inmates who have been executed: Roger James Berget; William Clifford Bryson; Malcolm Rent Johnson; James Glenn Robedeaux; Michael Donald Roberts; Eddie Leroy Trice; Dion Athanasius Smallwood; Mark Andrew Fowler and Billy Ray Fox; and Loyd Winford Lafevers.

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                                            From The News :                            Dallas Morning News - October 22, 2001
           Chemist's Errors Stir Fear: Did Oklahoma Execute Innocent?
         http://www.dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/STORY.e9b24bfda7.b0.af.0.a4.aa715.html
By Arnold Hamilton - Staff writer Diane Jennings in Dallas contributed to this report.
OKLAHOMA CITY -- In a 21-year career, Oklahoma City police chemist Joyce Gilchrist was
a prosecutor's dream: She delivered supportive lab analysis and convincing testimony that
helped send hundreds to prison – at least 23 people to death row.
Ms. Gilchrist may turn out to be a prosecutor's worst nightmare: So much of her work was
questioned by appeals courts and forensics experts that she was suspended and fired.
Investigators are digging through 1,197 of her cases to see whether anyone is behind bars
because of false or misleading testimony.
And now – in a year when Oklahoma leads the nation in carrying out the death penalty, and
with suspect convictions being reviewed even beyond the Gilchrist cases – some are
pondering the unthinkable: Has Oklahoma executed the innocent?
"I think there's a real concern that that has happened," said Jim Bednar, a former state and
federal prosecutor and state judge who now heads the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System.
"I think we've got to ensure that nobody else gets executed until we take a thorough look at
this."
Ms. Gilchrist has denied wrongdoing. Her lawyer, Melvin Hall, describes her as a "scapegoat,"
noting she "had absolutely not a single piece of negative paper in her 21-year personnel file."
Ms. Gilchrist declined to be interviewed.
Defense attorneys and forensic scientists questioned Ms. Gilchrist's work – particularly hair
and fiber analysis – as early as the mid-1980s. Earlier this year, an FBI review of eight cases
revealed significant flaws in her analysis. Since then, state lawmakers provided $650,000 for
DNA testing, and Gov. Frank Keating ordered the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to
review all criminal cases involving Ms. Gilchrist.
Already, the state task force – including the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the
attorney general and the indigent defense system – has targeted for independent DNA testing
two death row cases involving Ms. Gilchrist's work.
The state crime lab has completed an initial review of 817 files from Ms. Gilchrist's cases,
turning up problems significant enough in about 16 percent of them – 130 – to warrant a more
extensive review.
Although Ms. Gilchrist's work is the primary target of the state task force, Oklahoma's
problems with pre-DNA forensic science have shadowed other cases as well, including some
handled by the OSBI itself.
Just three weeks ago, a judge in Wagoner County threw out the murder conviction of Albert
Wesley Brown, who served 18 years of a life sentence. A former OSBI chemist testified that
hairs found at the scene belonged to Mr. Brown, but recent DNA tests proved otherwise.
Separately, the Oklahoma City Police Department has asked the task force to review as
many as 10 cases handled by a second former police chemist, the late Janice Davis. In one
such case, Ms. Davis used hair and fiber analysis to link Dewey George Moore to a 1984
murder. The task force ordered DNA tests to determine whether Mr. Moore has wrongly spent
16 years on death row.
In 1999, two men who had spent 12 years in prison – one on death row – were released after
DNA tests cleared them in an Ada rape-murder. The cases had been reviewed by the New
York-based Innocence Project.
"I'm very concerned that there may be anybody serving time or facing execution who may be
actually innocent of the charges," said Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, a
former Muskogee County prosecutor. "And that's why I'm very interested in reviewing all of
these cases."
Mr. Edmondson, however, opposes a blanket moratorium on executions, similar to one
ordered by Illinois Gov. George Ryan after he learned that 13 death-row inmates had been
exonerated since 1987.
"Our office determined nearly two years ago we would not seek an execution date if there
remained unanswered questions of guilt or innocence that could be resolved with a forensic
test," Mr. Edmondson said. "I think that's a far more appropriate approach than a blanket
moratorium that would include cases where DNA is not even a factor."
The questions arising in Oklahoma are similar to concerns raised in other states in recent
years. Since the death penalty resumed in 1976, 98 death row inmates across the country –
including seven in Texas – have been cleared by new evidence, according to the Death
Penalty Information Center. In 11 of those cases DNA testing played a role.
In that time, 736 people have been executed nationwide.
Executions slowed
Illinois is the only state to have declared a moratorium, but efforts have been, or are being,
made to get moratoriums in 36 of the 38 states with the death penalty, according to the
American Bar Association.
In Texas, a moratorium proposal died after making it out of committee in this year's legislative
session. The state's death penalty system, which has executed more people than any other,
came under harsh scrutiny last year during the presidential campaign of Gov. George Bush.
The execution pace has slowed in Texas this year – to 13 so far, compared with 40 in 2000.
In Oklahoma, the 12 pending death row cases that Ms. Gilchrist worked on are being
reviewed first by the state task force, according to OSBI spokeswoman Kym Koch. Those
with sentences of life without parole will be reviewed next, followed by those with lesser
sentences. The 11 Gilchrist cases in which inmates have already been executed will be
considered last, if at all.
"There's some opposition to our testing people already executed," said Mr. Bednar, the
indigent defense system chief. "I think it would be a horrible mistake for us not to do that."
Some defense attorneys are convinced that such testing would prove that shoddy, possibly
corrupt science was used to secure convictions.
"The prosecutors and the police get the white-hat syndrome – that they know what's best for
society," said defense attorney Steve Presson, a former Norman, Okla., police officer. "In
doing so, the end justifies the means."
Complaints about Ms. Gilchrist's work arose while former Oklahoma County District Attorney
Bob Macy was the chief prosecutor. Mr. Macy retired early in late June and could not be
reached for comment, but he earlier defended Ms. Gilchrist.
Ms. Gilchrist joined the Oklahoma City Police Department in 1980 as a crime lab chemist,
trained at the FBI academy in Quantico, Va., and the Serological Research Institute in
Emeryville, Calif. She was the Civilian Employee of the Year in 1985.
Two years later, she was the target of a complaint to the Southwestern Association of
Forensic Scientists, filed by John T. Wilson, the chief forensic scientist in the Kansas City,
Mo., regional crime laboratory. Mr. Wilson asserted that Ms. Gilchrist's testimony in four
cases amounted to opinion that could not be supported by science.
The professional group declined to discipline her, but it did warn her to avoid mixing "personal
opinions" and "opinions based upon facts derived from scientific evidence."
Ms. Gilchrist was promoted in 1994 to supervisor. According to a Police Department memo in
mid-January, she continued to have problems with professional organizations: She was
expelled from the Association of Crime Scene Reconstruction for "ethical violations."
Chemist defends work
In an interview last spring, Ms. Gilchrist told Time, "I worked hard, long, and consistently on
every case. I always based my opinion on scientific findings.
"I feel comfortable with the conclusions I drew."
The courts weren't so certain.
For instance, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in 1988 overturned the murder
conviction of Curtis Edward McCarty, ruling in part that Ms. Gilchrist testified beyond her
expertise. Mr. McCarty was retried and convicted again in the 1982 murder. Even so, the
state task force believes the case is ripe for independent DNA testing.
In another case, a federal judge in 1999 in Oklahoma City overturned the rape conviction of
Alfred Brian Mitchell, ruling that Ms. Gilchrist's testimony was "terribly misleading, if not false."
Mr. Mitchcell's murder conviction and death sentence were upheld, but a federal appeals
court this year vacated the death sentence, citing Ms. Gilchrist's testimony.
Then last May, a state judge ordered Jeffrey Todd Pierce released after he had served nearly
15 years on a rape conviction. An FBI chemist who re-examined the evidence concluded Ms.
Gilchrist wrongly testified that Mr. Pierce's hair was "microscopically consistent" with the
rapist's. The OSBI subsequently matched a semen sample from the crime scene with
another prison inmate serving a 45-year sentence for rape and robbery.
Mr. Bednar said he believes Ms. Gilchrist's failings point to a "culture" that suggests neither
prosecutors nor police "understand the function of the expert."
"It's very obvious she was not an independent arbiter of fact," he said. "If she was, this
wouldn't have happened. They [police and prosecutors] basically had an advocate and not a
scientist in Joyce Gilchrist. That's tragic."
Ms. Gilchrist was transferred to the police equine lab in March 2000. She was placed on paid
administrative leave last February. Police Chief M.T. Berry, who requested the FBI review of
her work, said the decision to terminate Ms. Gilchrist came after a police review board
hearing.
Ms. Gilchrist's attorney, Mr. Hall, said she is weighing a possible legal challenge.
Death-row cases
Meanwhile, the state task force reviewing Ms. Gilchrist's files has ordered DNA testing on two
death row cases: John Michael Hooker, who was convicted in the 1987 stabbing deaths of his
girlfriend and her mother; and Michael Edward Hooper, convicted in the 1993 shooting deaths
of his former girlfriend and her two young children.
Once the OSBI completes its initial review of Ms. Gilchrist's cases, it will compare her
scientific analysis with her testimony. Then, the attorney general's office and the Oklahoma
Indigent Defense System will decide which of the cases will be selected for DNA testing. The
decisions will depend largely on whether the attorneys believe Ms. Gilchrist's analysis and
testimony played a significant role in the convictions – or whether other evidence was more
pivotal.
Ms. Gilchrist said she is not opposed to such scientific review.
"I look forward to that.," she told CBS' 60 Minutes II in May. "I would accept responsibility if I'm
wrong, but I've never intentionally done anything wrong in a case I've ever been involved in."
 
 
                                                                          Joyce Gilchrist
                                                    
                 How Many More Are Innocent?
           Oklahoma City Scandal Exposes Shoddy Police Work
                   By Alice Kim -The New Abolitionist - July 2001, Issue 20
                   "My heart goes out to all the other people I know that
                   are in here who are innocent because of the Oklahoma
                   County District Attorney’s Office and the Oklahoma
                   City Police Department," said Jeffrey Todd Pierce
                   after he was freed from prison on May 7.
                   "I hope you all won’t forget about them, too, because
                   there are more. I’m just the one that opened the door,
                   and I feel there will be a lot more coming out behind
                   me."
                   Pierce sat behind bars for 15 long years before DNA
                   tests proved his innocence. Oklahoma City police chemist Joyce Gilchrist,
                   who is currently under investigation for falsifying, withholding and failing to
                   test evidence in criminal cases, testified against Pierce.
                   Now authorities are reexamining 1,448 cases that Gilchrist worked on --
                   including 12 death penalty convictions. But in 11 cases that Gilchrist worked
                   on, the defendants have already been executed -- including Marilyn Plantz,
                   who was executed on May 1, 2001, despite the recent revelations about
                   Gilchrist’s shoddy performance.
                   A preliminary FBI investigation found that in at least five cases that ended
                   with convictions, Gilchrist testified "beyond the acceptable limits of forensic
                   science" and that Gilchrist misrepresented hair and fiber analysis in court to
                   get convictions.
                   What’s more, the Oklahoma City Police Department can’t even keep its
                   records straight. The investigation won’t be able to review cases for three
                   years -- 1980, 1981, and 1990 -- because they can’t be found.
                   According to the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty,
                   Gilchrist’s analysis and testimony has sent at least one innocent person,
                   Robert Miller Jr., to death row. Gilchrist examined hairs obtained from the
                   crime scenes and testified that they belonged to Miller.
                   But 10 years after he was convicted and sentenced to death, DNA testing
                   proved Miller’s innocence. In 1998, he became the 76th innocent person
                   freed from death row.
                   The DNA evidence also showed that a man named Ronnie Lott was the
                   perpetrator of the crime. At the first trial, Gilchrist had discounted Lott based
                   on her analysis!
                   Gilchrist has been working for years with the district attorney’s office to win
                   convictions. Finally, prosecutors in Oklahoma City are feeling the heat.
                   How many other wrongful convictions resulted from Gilchrist’s shoddy work
                   remains to be seen.
 
FORMER OKLAHOMA CITY FORENSIC CHEMIST JOYCE GILCHRIST'S ANALYSIS AND
          TESTIMONY SENT AT LEAST ONE INNOCENT PERSON TO DEATH ROW
             +Ron Williams Exonerated - Conviction Based on Faulty Forensics
         +Defense Attorney Files Suit to Investigate if an Innocent Man was Executed
         +Alfred Brian Mitchell's Death Sentence Overturned - Re-sentencing Ordered
                                  An investigation initiated by the FBI into former
                                  Oklahoma County forensic chemist Joyce Gilchrist
                                  continues. Gilchrist has been repeatedly accused of false
                                  testimony and shoddy results in her work during the past
                                  15 years. She has been involved in approximately 3,000
                                  cases, including at least 23 cases where defendants were
                                  eventually sentenced to death and have either been
                                  executed or remain on death row.  11 of those people were
                                  executed during the past two years, including Marilyn
                                  Plantz (upper left a few days before her death).  A lawsuit
                                  has been filed to re-examine the case of Malcolm Rent
                                  Johnson, who was executed in January 2000.  On
September 25, 2001, Joyce Gilchrist was fired due to "laboratory mismanagement, criticism from
court challenges and flawed casework analysis'', according to Police Chief M.T. Berry.
Alfred Brian Mitchell was convicted of the 1991 murder as well as rape and sodomy of Elaine Scott.  In
1999 a Federal Court in Oklahoma overturned the rape and sodomy convictions as the jury in the
original trial had not been informed a FBI agent refuted Joyce Gilchrist's test results and testimony.
There was no DNA evidence indicating Mitchell had raped Scott contrary to Gilchrist's testimony. Now in
August, 2001 a three judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned the death
sentence and ordered a re-sentencing of Mr. Mitchell on only the murder conviction.  The judges wrote
"We simply cannot be confident that the jury would have returned the same sentence had no rape
evidence been presented to it".
Robert Miller, Jr., was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1986 rapes and murders of Zelma
Cutler and Anna Laura "Goldie" Fowler.  Forensic chemist Joyce Gilchrist examined hairs
obtained from the crime scenes and attributed them to Miller.  She discounted a man named Ronald
Lott as a possible suspect based on her conclusions.
Rob spent seven years on death row and another three years fighting for his freedom after DNA testing of
these hairs determined his innocence.  The DNA evidence shows Ronnie Lott to be the perpetrator of
this crime.  His trial is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2001.
                       Gilchrist also testified about hair evidence in the trial of Goldie Fowler's
                       grandson, Mark.  Three months prior to her death, Mark was convicted
                       and sentenced to death for the murders of three grocery store
                       employees.  Mark always maintained he was the lookout man when the
                       murders occurred and never killed anyone.  Gilchrist's testimony about
                       hair evidence implicated him as a killer.  He was executed January 23,
                       2001.
                       Goldie's son, Jim Fowler, and his wife Ann (at left with a picture of
                       Mark), now have too many unanswered questions about Gilchrist's
                       forensic examination and testimony and why their son is dead and why
                       they were led to believe for a total of 10 years that an innocent man
                       raped and murdered their loved one.
But there is one thing they do not question...their commitment to their family and ending all of the
unnecessary death that haunts them.
Oklahoma County District Attorney Robert Macy,  who often relied on testimony from Gilchrist,
announced his resignation effective June 30, 2001. He proudly claims to have tried at least 60 capital
cases and is known as America's Deadliest DA.
More Information:
Read the story of exonerated death row inmate Ron Williamson.
Faulty hair analysis and testimony by Oklahoma State Bureau of
Investigation criminalist Melvin R. Hett sent Ron to his death sentence
and co-defendant Dennis Fritz to a sentence of life without parole.  Both
men spent 10 years in prison before being exonerated by DNA evidence in
1999.
A 101-page report about the death penalty in Oklahoma was released by Amnesty International. A
copy of the report is available on its web site.  Both Gilchrist and Macy are cited in the Amnesty
International report. (4/30/01)
 http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/AMR510552001?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES/USA
Read the May 1, 2001 CNN report on the Joyce Gilchrist investigation, titled "FBI reviewing cases
forensic expert handled".
 http://www.cnn.com/2001/LAW/05/01/oklahoma.evidence/index.html
Read the July 18, 2001 Shawnee News-Star article titled "Three death row cases due review",
about the ongoing investigation into death sentences that may have resulted from Joyce
Gilchrist's testimony - including Alfred Brian Mitchell's conviction and death sentence.
 http://www.news-star.com/stories/071801/new_row.shtml
Read the reports about the Federal Appeals Court overturning Alfred Brian Mitchell's death sentence:
August 15, 2001 ABCNews report titled "Oklahoma Death Sentence Overturned",
 http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/abc/20010814/ts/deathpenaltyreversal_010814_1.html
or the August 14, 2001 Daily Oklahoman report titled "Death sentence stricken".
 http://www.oklahoman.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=735954&TP=getarticle
Read the September 25, 2001 Reuters article, titled "Oklahoma Fires Police Chemist Over
Shoddy Lab Work", regarding Joyce Gilchrist.
 http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010925/ts/crime_chemist_dc_1.html

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Oklahoma City police chemist faked the crucial evidence The innocent man they put to death
                                                                                                 by ERIC RUDER - September 14, 2001                               "I'M INNOCENT, and I've got peace in my heart, and I'm
                               ready to go home." Those were among the last words uttered by
                               Malcolm Rent Johnson before the state of Oklahoma took his
                               life on January 6, 2000.
                               A year and a half later, his innocence is nearly proven. But it
                               will come too late.
                               Johnson is one of 12 people executed in Oklahoma who were
                               convicted on the basis of testimony by Oklahoma City police
                               chemist Joyce Gilchrist. Gilchrist was exposed earlier this year
                               for mishandling evidence and lying under oath in thousands of
                               criminal cases over a 25-year period.
                               Johnson's case--and his near-certain innocence--came to light
                               after state officials ordered a review of 1,700 convictions where
                               Gilchrist's testimony played a part.
                               At Johnson's trial, Gilchrist testified that Johnson's blood type
                               matched sperm collected from the apartment of Ura Thompson,
                               a 76-year-old woman killed in 1981. But a reexamination last
                               month of Gilchrist's "evidence" found that the slides she
                               prepared contained no sperm at all!
                               The reexamination was conducted by Oklahoma City police
                               DNA laboratory manager Laura Schile and endorsed by three
                               other chemists. But after issuing the report, Schile
                               resigned--following a confrontation with the lab's chief. "She
                               was intimidated by the Oklahoma City Police Department and
                               some of the lawyers involved in this case," said Schile's lawyer,
                               Gavin Isaacs.
                               State officials are claiming that Johnson would have been
                               convicted without Gilchrist's testimony. What garbage! The only
                               other evidence against him was circumstantial.
                               Oklahoma authorities aren't willing to admit that they executed
                               an innocent man. "We have used for the last 25 years bad
                               science in this state to convict people, and we have stretched
                               the truth," said James Bednar, head of Oklahoma's Indigent
                               Defense System and a former assistant state attorney general.
                               "It's got to stop."
                               Gilchrist's willingness to lie in order to get convictions is only the
                               tip of the iceberg in the U.S. criminal injustice system. In West
                               Virginia, forensic "specialist" Fred Zain is facing five felony
                               fraud charges for false testimony. In Idaho, Charles Fain walked
                               off death row last month after DNA tests proved that the
                               forensic evidence used against him 17 years ago was faulty.
                               And in Illinois--in a case remarkably similar to
                               Gilchrist's--officials are reopening at least nine cases in which
                               police forensic scientist Pamela Fish gave either false or
                               misleading testimony. The most stunning revelation so far is that
                               Fish withheld evidence in a 1986 murder trial of four Black
                               teenagers--who may now be released.
                               Every example of overzealous prosecutors and lying police
                               scientists helps to make our case against the death penalty--and
                               the rest of the rotten injustice system.
 

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This page was last updated July 29, 2002      Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty
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