News About The Oklahoma Scandal...
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Joyce Gilchrist
WHEN WILL JOYCE GILCHRIST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE ?
| Sign The Petition - Hold Joyce Gilchrist Responsible |
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.
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
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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