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EdinburghFringeFest_2011

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performed_At_Greenside_Venue_Click-Here-For-More_Great_Greenside-Venue-Fringe-Shows
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DogEared_Collective_Received_A_100_Star_USA_Weekly_News_Award_For-Their_Show
It's_As_Good_As_It-Gets_Performed_At_The_UnderBelly_Venue_4PM_3rd_27th_August_2011

Sophie_Gatacre_Received_A_USA_Weekly_News_For_Her_Self_Penned_Show_Samanthas_Hotine
Performed_At_Jury'sInn_Space_Venue_At_8PM_3rd_To_27th_August_2011
http://www.samanthashotline.com/

Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2011 programme unveiled -

The Dog-Eared Collective is hear again

at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

performing at the UnderBelly

John Malkovich Hands Out Flyers for His Play at Edinburgh Fringe Fest

8/5/2011 by Ralf Ludemann

Lucian Capellaro

Malkovich-directed play "A Celebration of Harold Pinter" stars Julian Sands.

LONDON -- John Malkovich has been handing out flyers to astonished passers-by at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, according to the Scotsman.

The actor and director was raising the profile of his play, A Celebration of Harold Pinter, starring Julian Sands, who appeared alongside Malkovich in The Killing Fields.

But unlike many a weary leaflet tout, Malkovich, accompanied by Sands, had no problem dishing out flyers to a throng of delighted fans.

Dressed in a light blue patterned jacket, the star - who counts Dangerous Liaisons, Empire of the Sun and Con Air among his screen credits - was hugged and kissed as he posed for pictures.

Asked by the Scotsman what prompted the pair to bring the personal touch to promotion, Malkovich declared: "We've got to reach the punters."

"It's business," said Sands, "We come here with a theatre play and we want people to come and see it.

"Everyone else is handing out flyers and we have to compete."

The play is made up of personal anecdotes and reflections drawn from Sands' work with Pinter, combining his poems and political prose to create an insight in to his literary legacy.

Sands worked with the Nobel Prize-winning playwright shortly before his death in 2008 after he was called in to replace Pinter at a London poetry reading.

"It's a celebration of Harold Pinter's work, not his plays, pretty much the development of his work as a poet and of his life," said Malkovich.

Malkovich has been in productions of Pinter's plays, appearing as Deeley in the BBC production of Old Times.

He said: "I had heard a CD of Jules' reading of the poetry and then he kind of worked that up in to a slightly different form, that became nearly a theatrical piece."

Great News on the filming of the first Fringe Shows Have Talent TV Entertainment Show Case..Filmed by David Granato's Australian film production company Polygranate Films

Special Fringe Shows Have Talent TV Xtravaganza Entertainment Show Case

was filmed at the The Caves, in Cowgate. Edinburgh ..

watch out for this first Fringe Shows Have Talent Show case on your TV network around the world.....

Special Fringe Shows Have Talent Xtravaganza Entertainment Show Case

The now Famous Dog Eared Collective first discovered by the Fringe Shows Have Talent Team at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival will be appearing one of the Fringe Shows Have Talent TV Entertainment Show Case Shows

Opening Night to be held on the 28^th April, 2011
OPENING NIGHT PERFORMERS
The following acts have agreed to headline opening night of the

Special Fringe Shows Have Talent Xtravaganza Entertainment Show Case to give provide a sample of the quality performances that can be expected every Thursday Night at the Special Fringe Shows Have Talent Xtravaganza Entertainment Show Case, which will be filmed and recorded by Australian Film Company..

Polygranate Films for a new TV Show called

“Fringe Shows Have Talent”:

SKIRLIE, a Scottish Folk Band,
SHER WATSON, a singer-songwriter from Fife who also heads up as lead singer -front man of the popular Das Contras Jazz Rock Fusion Band, Das Contras will also appear live as a special guest

Angharad Vaughan singer songwriter and friends,

"Victor The Dancer"- Amazing unique Dancer from Romania..

MuteFish ... absolutely one of the most talented up tempo Irish Folk Bands emerging out of Dublin in 2011

Johnny Mullins and Chirs Lucas ... discovered singing in the famous Grafton Street in Dublin-Guitar and vocal duo songing original Irsh Ballads at their best

Halcyon Daze playing Happy Funk...these guys are happy little vegemites and listing to Halcyon Daze's absolutely unique brand of Happy Funk Music will make you happy too....

Rob Young ..... discovered in the famous Royal Mile - High Street in Edinburgh ... Rob young plays original blues on a steel guitar ... the blues as it is meant to sound...

Plus other surprise guests……..

The MC and compare for the evening will be RONNIE PROUTY from Los Angeles.

A frequent visitor to Edinburgh who has appeared in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in previous years..

who will be presenting his show -

RONNIE PROUTY & GUESTS WITH A TASTE OF THE FRINGE .. during this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. RONNIE PROUTY

the dog-eared collective's 'joyride'

Category	Comedy
Genres	sketch show
Group	Dog-Eared Collective
Venue	Underbelly, Cowgate
Event Website	www.dogearedcollective.co.uk
Date	26-29 August
Time	15:10
Duration	50 minutes
Suitability	12+

Fun-junkies The Dog-Eared Collective set a sketch comedy crash course to Cloud 9! Morris dancing with missiles, falafel freefall and Team GB's Olympic dragon - whatever flips your switch and fires up your funny bone, join the DEC for a full throttle thrill ride. Strap in punks, we're not leaving without you. 'It's 'The Mighty Boosh' meets 'The League of Gentlemen'' (Fest); 'I'll be recommending it to everyone I know' ***** (ThreeWeeks); 'More laughs than any other three Fringe shows put together' (Stage)

Sam is Back at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe

SOPHIE GATACRE IS BACK
AT THE 20011 EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL WITH HER UNIQUE SHOW
SAMANTHA'S HOTLINE...APPEARING AT THE SPACE ..
DON'T MISS THIS ONE .... YOU WILL BE SORRY....SOPHIE IS ONE ACTRESS THAT IS HEADING FOR THE BIG TIME AND MAY NEVER APPEAR AT THE EDINBURGH FRINGE AGAIN....MORE THAN LIKLEY NEXT YEAR SOPHIE GATACRE WILL BE WORKING IN HOLLYWOOD..STARING IN A BOLCK BUSTER MOVIE...SO MAKE THE MOST OF SEEING SOPHOIE GATACRE AT THE 2011 EDINBURGH FRONGE FESITAL... THIS MAY BE YOUR ;AST OPPORTUNITY TO SEE THIS AMAXING AND PROVOCATIVE PERFORMANCE...SOPHIE RECEIVED AT USA WEEKLY NEWS 100 STAR AWARD AT THE 2009 AMD 2010 EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL FOR HER SELF PENNED AND SELF PERFORMED SAMANTHA'S HOTELINE

SOPHIE GATACRE'S SHOW...
SAMANTHA'S HOTLINE IS PROUDLY SPONSORED BY
BARON PHILIPPE DE ROTHCHILD S.A. MOUTON CADET

Samantha's Hotline
Sponsored by Baron Philippe de Rothschild S.A.
Mouton Cadet Wine... Free bottle of wine for lucky dozen

To be performed at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Next Performances
Camden Fringe then the Edinburgh Fringe...

Don't miss this amazing show

Samantha's Hotline - Part of the Camden Fringe
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaZ4__1LDZ0

Samantha's Hotline - Part of the Camden Fringe

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaZ4__1LDZ0&feature=player_embedded

Samantha's Hotline at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2009
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahlmlBbx8ZU&feature=related

Pre Election Night Comedy Show

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjBdXqNKhKs&NR=1

Sophie invites you to becone one of Sophie's facebook freinds
please click on the below link to become one of Sophie's FaceBook Friends
//www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1477122671&k=Z2B2X3U4R6TF6BD1PFY5TSTWPTIB4U5E3WFWK&oid=1159973535354

Halcyon Daze

set to take the World by Storm...

appearing in Hunters square for the 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival check out Halcyon Daze before they leave on their world tour..

Also back by public demand at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe is Dog Eared Collective

Dog Eared Collective..

the funniest gang in the comedy business have a brand new show called..

You're Better Than This.... will be performing at the Famous Underbelly in Cowgate, Edinburgh

You will regret if you miss Dog Eared Collective, you have been selected to be involved in a new comedy show being made in Australia, so it may be the last time you see this crazy Gang live in Edinburgh

The Dog-Eared Collective: You’re Better Than This »

Category	Comedy
Genres	sketch show
Group	Dog-Eared Collective
Venue	Underbelly, Cowgate
Times	16:00
Suitability	14+
Duration	1 hour

Anarchic sketch troupe The Dog-Eared Collective change your life. One sketch at a time. Fly on the cape tails of a Diddy Man Vigilante, champion the power of Snooker: The Musical and answer the smell of the wild. Pour homme. Supercharged silliness that will scrub you up the right way. 'Sublimely surreal' **** (Chortle.co.uk) ‘Make no mistake these comedians are very funny’**** (Hairline.org.uk) 'They possess the downright gutsy balls not seen since Jam, the silliness of Bottom and the honest comedy ride that was Smack the Pony.' (Leeds Guide).

Halcyon Daze Live at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Video One)

Halcyon Daze has built a reputation as a great live act, and gained an international fan base that extends across Europe and even over to the U.S.who's sound has morphed and mutated into many different musical styles - spacey psychedelic soundscapes, wahwah and sunshine soaked funk, crunching rock and metal, folk, prog, dance, surf, porn and country music, off the wall improvised jams, and many other things that don't have words - the trio just play whatever comes out of them. The sound has been described as "mesmerizing", "tidal" and "hypnotic" by listeners and it is not unusual to see people breaking into dance or even start screaming at the top of their voice in joy as they pass the band on the street.

Halcyon Daze - Video Two Live at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Halcyon Daze now consists of

guitarist/singer Podge and drummer Jay and drummer Jay Daragh Kinch on bass

the Fringe Shows Have Talent Team was organising Amy

Winehouse to team up with the boys in Hacyon Daze

to do an new album together which fell apart

with Amy WineHouse's tragic Death/ Halcyon Daze

now plan a tribute Album to Amy Winehouse

who is considered by the boys in Halcyon Daze as

"one of the greatest modern singers of all time.."

http://www.halcyondaze.mobi/

discovered by the Fringe Shows Have Talent Team on the

Streets of Dublin in Dublin's famous Temple Bar District where

Bono and his U2 Band were discovered..

Halycon Daze feature in the First

Fringe Shows Have Talent Show Case TV Show...

secretly filmed on the 27th April, 2011 by

David Grantos' well known Australian film company

Polygranate Films at the Caves

in the famous Cowgate in Edinburgh the capital city of Scotland well know for its Edinburgh Fringe Festival which has in the last 60 years developed into the largest arts festival in the world.

Halcyon Daze well be playing at the 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August before Halcyon Daze set off to Australia, Europe and the USA to their first world tour since since being discovered by the Fringe Shows Have Talent Team in April 2011

Halcyon Daze - "The blues had a baby, and they did call it rock and roll." - General Manager: Monica Martinez - Booking Agent: Black Mamba Promotions ...

Halcyon Daze Upcoming Gigs

30 Jul 2011	17:00	Somewhere in Wicklow Town!, Comming Soon!	Free Mini-Fest, Wicklow Town
8 Aug 2011	20:15	Hunter's Square, Edinburgh	Edinburgh Fringe Festival
11 Aug 2011	19:45	Hunter's Square, Edinburgh	Edinburgh Fringe Festival
16 Aug 2011	20:15	Hunter's Square, Edinburgh	Edinburgh Fringe Festival
20 Aug 2011	20:15	Hunter's Square, Edinburgh	Edinburgh Fringe Festival
23 Aug 2011	20:15	Hunter's Square, Edinburgh	Edinburgh Fringe Festival
25 Aug 2011	20:15	Hunter's Square, Edinburgh	Edinburgh Fringe Festival
27 Aug 2011	20:15	Hunter's Square, Edinburgh	Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Halcyon is a name for a bird of Greek legend which is commonly associated with the kingfisher. The phrase comes from the ancient belief that fourteen days of calm weather were to be expected around the winter solstice - usually 21st or 22nd of December in the Northern Hemisphere. as that was when the halcyon calmed the surface of the sea in order to brood her eggs on a floating nest. The Halcyon days are generally regarded as beginning on the 14th or 15th of December.

Halcyon means calm and tranquil, or 'happy or carefree'. It is rarely used now apart from in the expression halcyon days. The name of the legendary bird was actually alcyon, the 'h' was added in regard to the supposed association with the sea ('hals' in Greek).

The source of the belief in the bird's power to calm the sea originated in a myth recorded by Ovid. The story goes that Aeolus, the ruler of the winds, had a daughter named Alcyone, who was married to Ceyx, the king of Thessaly. Ceyx was drowned at sea and Alcyone threw herself into the sea in grief. Instead of drowning, she was carried to her husband by the wind. The rest of the story is, in a translation of Ovid:

The Gods their shapes to winter-birds translate, But both obnoxious to their former fate. Their conjugal affection still is ty'd, And still the mournful race is multiply'd: They bill, they tread; Alcyone compress'd, Sev'n days sits brooding on her floating nest: A wintry queen: her sire at length is kind, Calms ev'ry storm, and hushes ev'ry wind; Prepares his empire for his daughter's ease, And for his hatching nephews smooths the seas.

The legendary bird is usually identified with the kingfisher. That was also said to nest on the sea and was believed to be able to calm the sea for the seven days before and seven days after the winter solstice.

In 1398, John Trevisa translated Bartholomew de Glanville's De proprietatibus rerum into Middle English:

"In the cliffe of a ponde of occean, Alcion, a see foule, in wynter maketh her neste and layeth egges in vii days and sittyth on brood ... seuen dayes."

In Henry VI, Part I, 1592, Shakespeare refers to halcyon days:

JOAN LA PUCELLE: Assign'd am I to be the English scourge. This night the siege assuredly I'll raise: Expect Saint Martin's summer, halcyon days, Since I have entered into these wars.

Note: Saint Martin's summer is what we now know as an Indian summer.

The kingfisher is associated with other powers relating to the weather. In mediaeval times it was thought that if the dried carcase of a kingfisher was hung up it would always point its beak in the direction of the wind [don't try this at home]. Shakespeare also refers to this in King Lear, 1605:

Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods; Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks With every gale and vary of their masters

Our current use of halcyon days tends to be nostalgic and recalling of the seemingly endless sunny days of youth.

"Halcyon Days" may also refer to:

Halcyon Daze the Band playing happy funk music

which now consists of

guitarist/singer Podge and drummer Jay and drummer Jay Daragh Kinch on bass

In 2003, two young lads played together in what was the first incarnation of the band Halcyon Daze. For years, musicians came and went from the group, but the duo of guitarist/singer Podge and drummer Jay was a constant, and formed a solid foundation for Halcyon Daze. As Jay and Podge were both still in school, the band was very on and off, that is until the pair finally realised that music was all they should be doing and quit college to take the band to the next level.

Having already played a lot of the venues on the Dublin gig circuit, they decided it made more sense to do something different to their peers, who seemed to be going around in circles, by playing free gigs on the streets. Instantly the band began to build a real following, and even more so with the addition of Daragh Kinch on bass in October 2010. Since then the group has jammed out on street corners, at college balls, flea markets, parks and even a haunted castle! By playing gigs in England and Scotland, and especially by playing on the streets around Ireland to masses of people, Halcyon Daze has built a reputation as a great live act, and gained an international fanbase that extends accross Europe and even over to the U.S.

In the seven years of the bands existence, Halcyon Daze's sound has morphed and mutated into many different musical styles - spacey psychedelic soundscapes, wahwah and sunshine soaked funk, crunching rock and metal, folk, prog, dance, surf, porn and country music, off the wall improvised jams, and many other things that don't have words - the trio just play whatever comes out of them. The sound has been described as "mesmerizing", "tidal" and "hypnotic" by listeners and it is not unusual to see people breaking into dance or even start screaming at the top of their voice in joy as they pass the band on the street. (No joke)

2011 has been a great year for Halcyon Daze so far, the busy group continue to spread their message on the streets and in venues around Ireland, and in August they will make their first ever festival appearance at the world famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, where earlier in the year they were filmed for a soon to be aired Australian TV show showcasing undiscovered musicians from around the world

David Granato and Cloudye Carew-Reid the founders of Polygranate Films are in Edinburgh to film a TV Special featuring Halcyon Daze, Das Contras, an exciting new Rock Jazz Funk Band from Fifth in Scotland getting ready to tour Australia with Halcyon Daze and other new exciting

talent discovered around

the world by Wijat Records such as Michael Scot Parker (the girl) and her Creature Rock Band from San Francisco,

Ian Pummell's Trip Tyle, Skirlie

a Scotish Folk Band and

Another great show not to miss is Sophie Gatacre performing in her self penned comedy drama

Samantha's Hotline ,,,

where the line is so hot it is burning..

Canadian Fire Juggler Royal Mile 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival _INLNews.com ( Video One)

The 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival has arrived with ever increasing crowds and more great shows

The Australian Media Conspiracy is being made into a feature film with one of the leading roles being offered to well known London Actress

Sophie Gatacre.

Sophie Gatacre will pay the role of Elisabeth Murdoch which Australian Media Conspiracy shows that unknown to the general public, Rupert Murdoch has planned for a long time for Elisabeth Murdoch to play a major role in News Corporation when Rupert Murdoch retires to smell the roses in Australia.

Sophie Gatacre has in recent times re-invented herself with her self penned one woman character comedy play called Samantha's Hotline

www.samanthashotline.com,

This may be the last time you can see Sophie Gatacre Live in Samanthas Hotline

do not miss this opportunity.. seat are limited and selling fast.....

where Sophie Gatacre plays upper class London Society Wife that has resorted to making a living doing phone sex, after her multi millionaire husband runs off with his secretary.

Sophie Garacre is performing Samantha's Hotline

www.samanthashotline.com,

at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the Space Venue at Jury's Inn, Jeffrey Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1DH from the 5th to 27th August 2011 at 8.05 pmto 8.55 pm. This is likely to be the last time you will see Sophie Gatacre perform Samantha's Hotline

www.samanthashotline.com

live on stage because Sophie's film career looks like taking off in a big way, with an lot more film roles being offered to Sophie Gatacre after Sophie's completes her performance as Elisabeth Murdoch in Australian Media Conspiracy.

Collaborating Director with Sophie Gatacre for Samantha's Hotline at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival will be Linda Manfredini

Videos and Photos of the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Fesitval

Halcyon Daze have a crowd in a trance during the Royal Mile Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2011

Halcyon Daze _ Explosive new Happy Funk Band from Dublin ( Clip One fropm Halcyon Daze)

Halcyon Daze _ Explosive new Happy Funk Band from Dublin ( Clip Two fropm Halcyon Daze)

Halcyon Daze were first discovered bythe Fringe Shows Have Talent Team in the same place where Bono and U2 were discovered in Dublin
Halcyn Daze are also about to take the music world by storm

Photos of the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Fesitval

Canadian Fire Juggler Royal Mile 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival _INLNews.com ( Video One)

Canadian Fire Juggler Royal Mile 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival _INLNews.com ( Video Two)

Canadian Fire Juggler Royal Mile 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival _INLNews.com ( Video Three)

Australian Juggler and Whip Artist- Royal Mile 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival - inlnews.com Video One

Australian Juggler and Whip Artist- Royal Mile 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival - inlnews.com Video Two

Australian Juggler and Whip Artist- Royal Mile 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival - inlnews.com Video Three

Australian Juggler and Whip Artist- Royal Mile 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival - inlnews.com Video Four

Australian Juggler and Whip Artist- Royal Mile 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival - inlnews.com Video Five

Australian Juggler and Whip Artist- Royal Mile 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival - inlnews.com Video Six

Australian Juggler and Whip Artist- Royal Mile 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival - inlnews.com Video Seven

Australian Juggler and Whip Artist- Royal Mile 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival - inlnews.com Video Eight

Fringe Shows Have Talent Team will be at the 2001 Edinburgh Fringe to find new talent for their Fringe Shows Have Talent TV Entertainment Show Case. Exciting talent from previous Edinburgh Fringe Festivals was selected for the filming of the first Fringe Shows Have Talent TV Entertainment Showcase, which was secretly filmed at the Caves at the Cowgate on the 27th April, 2011 by David Granato's Polygranate Films form Brisbane Australia in association with the Fringe Shows have Talent Team.

In an exclusive interview AWN had with the Fringe Shows Have Talent Team while they were filming their Fringe Shows Have Talent TV Entertainment Showcase, at the Caves at the Cowgate, a famous entertainment area in Edinburgh. on the 27th April, 2011, they said they will be attending the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival to eye out new talent for the next series of Fringe Shows Have Talent TV Entertainment Showcases. You may not know who they are as they mingle in and out of performances trying to find that special performance that would be high enough entertainment standard to be selected for a Fringe Shows Have Talent TV Entertainment Showcase

Each year in August thousands of Australians travel to Edinburgh the Capital city of Scotland to attend the famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Many are just spectators to enjoy the over 3,000 acts that perform each day at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but many also perform in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival started over 60 years ago and has developed into the biggest arts festival in the world.

Unlike a lot of other arts festivals, performers at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival are not chosen by an arts director to perform, they just invite themselves, find a place to perform and then come to Edinburgh to do their thing... to show the world their particular amazing talent.

There is the Paid Fringe where one pays up front to see a show.

Then there is the Free Fringe...where the performer does not charge up front, however hopes at the end of the show will receive a donation from the public if they like the performance..

Then there is the amazing variety of Street Theatre being performed all over Edinburgh .. which is also free, but again the performer hopes to receive a donation at the end of the performance in appreciation of the entertainment provided...

The main purpose the performers attend the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is int he hope of some world recognition for their performance and hope it helps to kick start their career.

There are more and more entertainment industry people attending the Edinburgh Fringe Festival each year to to try and find the next great talent that is ready to take off on the world stage.

Enjoy the photos below of previous Edinburgh Fringe Festivals

AWN will be posing reviews from various Edinburgh Fringe Festivals on this page..so keep an eye on this space for find out what is a great show to see at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival...

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Lynne Hanson talented singer song writer from Ottawa, Canada supporting artist to
New York Folk Rock Star Dar Williams at Dar's Borderline, London gig on the 18th November, 2009

USA's most loved Folk Rock Singer Dar Williams is performing at the following Dates in the UK
You will be sorry if you miss out on seeing Dar Williams on this rare UK
Check out Dar Williams at Club Volaire, Edinburgh in 2007 singing her most loved favourite
"The Baby Sitter" that is bound to requested on this UK tour..we don't think Dar will be allowed home till she sings this one

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Lynne Hanson talented singer song writer from Ottawa, Canada supporting
wel known ns muxch loved folk rock artist from New York State, Dar Williams at Borderline, London UK 18-11\-09

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Dar Williams singing and telling her amazing zany and entertainiing stories at Borderline, London, Uk 18-11-09

Dar Williams one of the best emerging folk Rock singers this century supported by talented Ottawa, Canada singer songwriter Lynne Hason both sing to a packed house at Borerline, London UK on 18th November, 2009

The crowd went wild and refused to let Dar Williams leave the stage at her Borderline Gigin London on the 18th November, 2009. Dar had to come back to the stage three times to sing and entertain the demanding crowd with an unending appetite for Dar's soulful story telling songs, sung only the way Dar can do it with her magical unique voice. Dar was supported by Lynne Hanson, a very talented singer songwriter from Ottawa, Canada, with a very soulful voice and real stories to tell. Lynne sings porch music that merges universal themes with Texas soul-country..

Don't miss Dar Williams in Edinburgh on the 21st November, 2009, presented by
Lonesome Highway Promotions http://www.lonesomehighway.co.uk/

Other events coming up at Borderline, Orange Yard, off Manette Street, Soho, London, W1D 4AR
... walking distance from the Tottenham Road Tube

Thursday 19 November 2009 , Mean Fiddler presents Trace Bundy and Megafaun
Friday 20th Novemebr 2009, Mean Fiddler presents PINEY Gir plus Kami Thompson, John Mckeon, and Jason Street
Saturday 21st November 2009 , Mean Fiddler presents Nancy Elizabeth plus Cate Le Bon and Messasge to Bears
Tuesday 24th November 2009, Barfly presents Fight Like Apes
Wednesday 25th November 2009, Mean Fiddler presents Suzanna & The magical orchestra plus Susanne Sundfoer
Thursday 26th Novmber 2009, Mean Fiddler presents Sarah Gillespie and Grad Alzmon
Friday 27th November 2009 CJC & The Borderline presents The Penny Black Remedy and guests
Saturday 28th November 2009 Mead Fiddler presents Sham 69 plus Alternatuve TV asnd Shagasty
Tuesday 1st December 2009, Club Uncut presents Deer Tuck and Megafaun
Wednesday 2nd December 2009, Mean Fiddler presents James Grant
Thursday 3rd December Live Nation presents Of A Revolution and special guests
Friday 4th December 2009, Mean Fiddler presents Gay For Johnny Dep plus Outcry Collective
Saturday 6th December 2009 Mean Fiddler presents Kevin Tuffy & The Coldharbour Band plus Belle Grande and Attoy Ark
Sunday 6th December 2009 SJM Concerts presents Kevin Devine plus special guests
Tuesday 8th December 2009 Mean Fiddler presents Paul Barrere & Fred Tackett (from Little Feat) plus Juliah Dawson
Wednesday 9th December 2009, Mean Fiddler presents Acoustic Ladyland
Thursday 10th December 2009 DHP Converts presents Lowline
Friday 11th December 2009 Barfly presents Kate Miller Heidke
Saturday 12th December 2009 Wildplum Live presents Doctor Fonda plus Pandora and 6 Second Silence
Sunday 13rh December 2009 Mean Fiddler presents Ian Broudie ( of Lightning Seeds) & James Walsh (of Starsailor) plus Matthew P
Tuesday 15th December Curious Generation presents Jay & The Boys plus Will Can Sing and Olivia Sebastianelli
Thursday 17th December 2009, Mean Fiddler presents Deathray Trebuchay plus Klezma Villanova
Friday 18th December 2009 CIC & The Borderline presents 12 Dirty Bullets
Saturday 19th December 2009 VPMG presents APSE and special guests
Thursday 31st December 2009, 10pm The Borderline presents Christmas Clubs' New's Eve Party

Justin Butcher
Assembly presents another set of outstanding shows at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest
Justin Butcher, his director-producer Guy Masterson and Assemby presented one of the most outstanding performances at 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest with the one man play Scaramouche Jones.
" Justin Butcher performed well within the standard of a royal variety perfomance in his one man play Scaramouche Jones, and there was no hesitation in awarding Justin Butcher and his director-propducer Guy Masterson a USA Weekly News 100 Star Award for Scaramouch Jones....those that were lucky enough to see the one and only performance of Scaramouch Jones were very fortunate indeed....".....USA Weekly News . .
However, these is another play with Justin Butcher to see at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest that is also a show not to be missed called Go To Gaza, Drink The Sea, at Assembly at 2.30 pm being performed from the 6th August till the 30th August, 2009.
In Go To Gaza, Drink The Sea, Justin Butcher (Scaramouche Jones) and Ahmed Masoud conjure up a multi media Palestinian-British theatre alchemy. ' a harrowing joiurney into a very modern heart of darkness' (Stage') 'Profane witty, poetic, a voice form Gaza Beach itself ' (Tribune)

Scaramouche Jones ....Assemby Goerge Street one and only show....Monday 24th August

'I went to see Scaramouche Jones. One man and a few props. The energy and accents ranging from his beginning of life, being born to a black mother and an unknown English Man. Justin Butcher is totally brilliant at imitating a brilliant Trinidanian accent and then an extremely posh English Gentlemans accent. From his birth and extremely early learnings of sitting in on his mothers brothel business. She, His mother, the Madame and prostitiute. He the inquisitive child, trying to find which of his mother's customers could be his father. Scaramouche's rabid energy takes him world wide being carried by impressed princes for his beautiful white skin. Scaramouche slaves himself to the princes demands but manages to keep intact a noble and proud spirit. He never finds his father and has so much sympathy to human kind as he amuses children who are about to be shot by nazi officers. As the shot is aimed the childs last breath of life is down to a smile given to them by Scaramouche's clown antics as he digs graves for the dead to be burried in.

Whirling through life from childhood to 51 no one would envy his life for a slave, he has always had to be but a romantic non complaining inquisitve slave, who never complains and ends his life with a bunch of reprobates who like himself have been the subject of slavery but the others who he meets to tell the story of his life to are too drunk on alcohol with their unhappiness of their lives and Scaramouche has avoided this for had he been a slave to self destruction he would never have appreciated all he saw.

A brilliant piece that lasts an hour and a half. I could not move for the duration as I followed Justin's breathtaking movements and changes in history form 1900 to 1951.' Sophie Gatacre INL News

'There seems no doubt that all the shows at Assembly are all top shelf quality and
all Assemby shows are a must see at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest.....' .....USA WeeklyNews . .

Other shows on at Assemby include:

Patti Plinko and Her Boy

Where: Assembly @ George Street Wildman Room When: Sat 29th Aug - Mon 31st Aug
Entrancing, gloriously throaty, joyous vocals with twisted guitars and washboards. This manic engaging Chanteuse and her Boy are the ones to look out for this year, causing a storm with sell-out shows across the UK and Europe. Receiving rave 5 star reviews for their highly original songs and enthralling, passionate and occasionally deranged performances. Delivering savage and sensual ruminations of love and revenge. Likened to Tom Waits, Edith Piaf and Kurt Cobain. Time Out London Critics’ Choice. Tipped to be the hottest new music act of the year. A vivid dream of maddening freakish talent ***** - Music News. www.myspace.com/pattiplinkoandherboy. www.fletchproductions.com. 'A performance so raw, so gripping, so enthralling. A performer whose sheer brilliance leaves you breathless. Utterly wonderful.' FEST 'Enthralling entertainment. A remarkable chanteuse combined with such accomplished musicianship.' STAGE 'Blowing audiences away with astounding performances' CULTURE MAGAZINE

Adam Hills: Inflatable Off the Kerb Productions: Where: Assembly @ George Street Music Hall When: Tue 25th Aug - Mon 31st Aug Comedy 20:50 - 22:00

Adam, Jason & Friends: Assembly Assembly Hall No further performances

Comedy 22:30 - 23:40 Ali McGregor's Late-Nite Variety-Nite Night Ali McGregor Where: Assembly @ George Street Supper Room (Cabaret Format) When: Tue 25th Aug - Sun 30th Aug

Comedy 16:40 - 17:40 Alistair McGowan and Charlotte Page: Cocktails With Coward Off the Kerb Productions Where:Assembly @ George Street Edinburgh Suite Tue 25th Aug - Sun 30th Aug

Comedy 19:20 - 20:20 Alistair McGowan: The One and Many Off the Kerb Productions Where: Assembly @ Assembly Hall Rainy Hall Tue 25th Aug - Sun 30th Aug

Music: The Ambassadors Of Swing Jason Isaacs & the Greg Francis Orchestra

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Theatre 23:25 - 00:25  An Audience with John Smeaton John Smeaton Where: Assembly @ George Street Edinburgh Suite Tue 25th Aug - Sun 30th Aug

Theatre An Audience with Tappy Wright - Rock Roadie: Backstage and Confidential James 'Tappy' Wright  Where: Assembly @ George Street  Supper Room  Supper Room No further performances
Click here to see and book all shows on at Assembly for the Edinburgh Fringe Festhttp://www.assemblyfestival.com/webpages/whatson.php?date=all

Click here for more previews of Edinburgh Fringe Fest Showshttp://www.festivalpreviews.com/edinburgh2008/

Dana Gillespie and Joachim Paklen
USA Weekly News 100 Star Award winner two years running...."What more can one say..simply the authentic best Blues duo in the world"... USA Weekly News . .
USA Weekly News 100 Star Award Winners for the 2008 and 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest....

Dana Gillespie the Legend

Dana Gillespie, Sal Bashir who performs his Elvis Tribute at 2008 ClubWest-Invasian Fest, World Famous Austrian wizard boogie-woogie player, Joachim Paklen who supports Danna Gillespie

Venue Club West at the Edinburgh Hilton does it again
at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest with all Club West Shows receiving USA Weekly News 100 Star Awards
The Picture of Dorian Gray August 15th to August 22nd 6.00 pm nightly ..Club West Venue, Hilton Hotel, Grosvenor Street, Edinburgh..Wild's tale pf a handsome man's descent into vice..whilst retaining his beauty has been adapted many times but this accclaimed performance uses Wilde's own magnificent words to shock, amuse and surprise. Oscar worthy and unmissable...USAWeekly News 100 Star Awards Winner

Phil Cool - Who's He?August 15th to August 22nd 7.30 pm nightly ..Club West Venue, Hilton Hotel, Grosvenor Street, Edinburgh
the world's only 'Stand-up Chameleon' can be shocking, funny or shockingly funny. Dexterous impressions and surreal comic sketches take us into a world where anything seems possible and the adsurd seems credible. Phil Cool is the ultimate in Cool..."definately the coolest Kat in Town and well deserved his USA Weekly News 100 Star Award Winner"...USA Weekly News . .  USA Weekly News 100 Star Award Winner
Dana Gillespie and Joachim Paklen

August 15th to August 22nd 8.40 pm nightly ..Club West Venue, Hilton Hotel, Grosvenor Street, Edinburgh
The Sell-Out Fringe Award wining Blues Diva returns with Joachim Palden, the fastest boogie-woogie player in the West. They'll have you shimmying, shaking, clapping your hands and stamping your feet. Sexy, sassy and wonderfully musical. Sure to be a sell-out at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest
"What more can one say..simply the authentic best Blues duo in the world"... USA Weekly News . .   USA Weekly News 100 Star Award Winner
The Jive Aces

August 15th to August 22nd 9.45 pm nightly ..Club West Venue, Hilton Hotel, Grosvenor Street, Edinburgh
the Sell-Out fringe Award-weinning top UK Swing and Jive Band will make you dance the nigth way. The Jive Aces move as crazily as they play, and they will blow you away with their sheer energy. With guest Toni-Elizabeth Prima. Booky early for this one..." A High Energy World Class Jive Swing Band" USA Weekly News . .   USA Weekly News 100 Star Award Winner


Above: The Jive Aces rocking at August 15th to August 22nd 9.45 pm nightly ..Club West Venue, Hilton Hotel, Grosvenor Street, Edinburgh

Sophie Gatacre who plays Samanta in Samatha's Hotline, caugh dancing her little heart heart at August 15th to August 22nd 9.45 pm nightly ..Club West Venue, Hilton Hotel, Grosvenor Street, Edinburgh see www.samanthashotline.com

USA Weekly News 100 Star Award winner Samatha's Hotline (Sophie Gatacre), with her show planned to be showing at Club West in 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Fest, caught jiving her little heart out to the Jive Aces at Club West Venue at the Hilton Hotel, Grovenor Street, Edinburgh....world famous Sell-Out Fringe Award-winning UK Swing and Jive Band Jive Aces are appearing from the 17th till the 22nd August, 2009 a Club West Venue, Hilton Hotel, Grovenor Street, Edinburgh. The Jive Aces will make you dance the night away. The Jive Aces move a crazy as they play, and they blow you way with their crazy energy. The Jive Aces are appearing with guest star, the famous Toni-Elizebeth Prima.
Book early to make sure you obtain a ticket for one of the most sought after shows at the 2009 Einburgh Fringe Festival
Click here for more photos of the above shows http://www.usaweekendnews.com/EdinburghFringeFest2009.html
Death of a Samurai
is the winner of a USA Weekly News 100 Star Award at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest
.
Death of a Samurai is a on at the Vault Venue (29) 11 Merchant Street, Edinburgh at 8.30 pm

Click here to see more great photos a nd stories on the Spirit of the Edinburgh Fringe Fest
Click here to see more great photos of the Spirit of the Edinburgh Fringe Fest
Local Edinburgh Boy - Edinburgh Royal Mile Street Blues singer-Muscian Ronnie Rootsie a USA Weekly News 100 Star Award Winner
Ronnie Tootsie performs every night during the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest in the Royal mile between about 7pm till 10 pm
Crowds leaving the Military Tatoo to see their favourite blues singer-musician Ronnie Rootsie of the Rootsie Tootsie Blues Band performing his award winning blues music in the Royal Mile.
BataFada Crimlin, Ireland performing in the Royal Mile at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest
Nick Coppin a USA Weekly News Award Winner at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest for his showLoguacious performed at 7.20pm at the Espionage venue 185, 4 India Buildings, Victoria St
Click here to see more great photos and stories on the Spirit of the Edinburgh Fringe Fest

Above: The many charactersa and faces of the famous Lynn Ruth Miller winner of a USA WeeklyNews 100 Star Award,.

1. Street Pole Theater on the Royal Mile at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest 2. Strange Music on the Royal Mile at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest
3. Death by Samuri on the Royal Mile at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest 4. Hey Sister The Musical on the Royal Mile at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest
4. The BiteSize'd 'Breakfast In Bedlam 10 minutes plays form the world's most talented writers
Click here for more of the above exciting photos of the Royal Mile at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest

The many charactersa and faces of the famous Lynn Ruth Miller winner of a USA Weekly News 100 Star Award,.

Above: The many charactersa and faces of the famous Lynn Ruth Miller winner of a USA Weekly News100 Star Award,.
Lynn Ruth Miller is a multi talented actress, comedian and even does a great strip tease show
as seen above with the lucky young man have this young star-let, Lynn Ruth Miller, ending on his lap after her strip tease shows as part of one of the three Lynn Ruth Miller's fringe shows Caberet Gone Wild
Lynn Ruth Miller's three shows at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest are: All About me: 3.45pm to 4.45pm Counting House, Caberet Gone Wild 9.10pm to 10.10 pm Counting House, Aging Is Amazing 11pm till Midnight -The Counting House.
Who is the lucky young man with star-let Lynn Ruth Miller on his lap....we asked the investigation team at www.EdFringeNews.com and they came up with
Ben Lerman,

who also happens to have a show at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Fest called: Ben Lerman's Size Matters. who is a gay guy from New York (looking at the photo with star-let Lynn Rth Miller on his lap and the big smaile on his face....maybe Ben has just realised he is by, not just gay.... Ben is a ukelele player who writes and performs smart, funny twisted songs about love. American idols, pirates and more..."Sick and brilliant"
..(NY Time Out); "Tiny Instrument..Big Balls..so Dam Funny"(Time Out -Chicargo)

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Australian Weekend News Exclusive

Australian Weekend News special London reporter Richard Lake discovers the birth of Flash Cam

Canadian Fire Juggler in the Royal Mile a- 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Canadian Fire Juggler Royal Mile 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival _INLNews.com ( Video Four)

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Yahoo News 06 July, 2011

Preview of The Great American Novel-The Film-

Secret USA Government Underground bases

The USA Government is preparing for something major

look at those big thick steal doors on the secret underground bases

The Great American Novel The Film _Music Clip One

Prisoner found in wife's suitcase

A Mexican woman has been arrested for trying to sneak her husband out of prison in a suitcase. Particularly bulky

Australia cops to get burqa removal powers

New powers will mean cops in one state can demand the removal of burqas and other veils to identify people. More

Australia police able to demand removal of burqas

Police in the Australian state of New South Wales are to be allowed to demand the removal of burqas and other face veils so they can identify people.

The state government approved the move late Monday after the high-profile recent case of a Muslim woman being acquitted when a judge ruled she could not be positively identified because was wearing a burqa.

"I don't care whether a person is wearing a motorcycle helmet, a burqa, niqab, face veil or anything else, the police should be allowed to require those people to make their identification clear," Premier Barry O'Farrell said.

"I have every respect for various religions and beliefs but when it comes to enforcing the law the police should be given adequate powers to make a clear identification."

Anyone who refuses to show their face could be jailed for up to a year or fined Aus$5,500 ($5,900).

The move comes in the wake of a case in November when a woman was sentenced to six months jail for falsely accusing police of forcibly trying to remove her burqa when she was stopped for a traffic offence.

But her sentence was quashed last month when a magistrate said he could not be 100 percent sure it was the same woman who made the complaint because officers were not able to see the face of the accuser.

New South Wales state Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione demanded a clarification of the law and O'Farrell said the new powers should help prevent a recurrence of such issues.

Police previously had the power to ask women to remove face veils during the investigation of serious offences, but not on more routine matters.

The wearing of full-face niqab veils by some Muslim women has become a contentious issue in parts of Europe, where France has banned them in public.

In New Zealand, Prime Minister John Key on Tuesday said Muslim women wearing veils should not face discrimination, after two Saudis were reportedly ordered off buses due to their attire.

The Islamic Council of New South Wales said it accepted O'Farrell's decision.

"If you're asked to do something by a police officer and it's legitimate, then you do it," council chairman Khaled Sukkarieh told ABC radio.

The Muslim Women's Association said it would prefer that a female police officer was on hand when the veils were removed, but if that happened then "nobody could really complain".

The Police Association of New South Wales welcomed the move, saying it was a loophole that had to be closed.

"It will provide clarity and certainty for both the public and for police officers," the union's acting president Pat Gooley said in a statement.

While Queensland state said it would not go down the same path, Western Australia indicated it may follow suit with the state's police minister meeting the police commissioner on the issue Tuesday.

"I'm concerned at the idea of police not having the power to request drivers to remove helmets or other face coverings for ID purposes at the roadside," WA Police Minister Rob Johnson said.

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Defense attorney Jose Baez was criticized for his strategy, but the burden of proof wasn't on him. Weaknesses

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Barclays 'the Ryanair of British banking'

Focusing on nothing more than the bottom line means banks are causing huge problems.

'Ethic-free operations'

Barclays – ‘The Ryanair of British banking’

Barclays is just one of the banks passing on escalated fees to rude and aggressive collection agencies - it s important to remember you don t have to respond to their telephone approaches.

My son ran up an unauthorised overdraft a couple of years ago - or, rather, he inadvertently exceeded his agreed overdraft limit by £200.

The bank slammed some usurious penalty charges on his account and the sum he owed soon multiplied to a figure that he couldn't possibly afford to repay. He tried to talk to the bank about repaying the original overdraft, plus appropriate interest, but it ignored him.

So instead he waited for the High Court ruling on whether banks should be allowed to charge whatever they like on unauthorised borrowing, hoping it would solve his problems. But it went against him - and many other thousands in the same boat. Meanwhile, the sum had escalated wildly into a four-figure debt.

His bank is our old friend Barclays, which is fast becoming the Ryanair of British banking when it comes to customer service - although I gather all the banks are at it.

No co-operation

Now, I accept that customers, like my son, who run up debts have only themselves to blame - it's all in the small print, blah, blah, blah. But my point is that he wanted to repay the original sum and tried to do so. The bank could have had its money back, if it had co-operated.

Instead, it has invented a ludicrous debt that it has no hope of seeing repaid.

More extraordinarily, Barclays sold the debt on to a credit agency some time ago. What is Kafka-esque in its absurdity here is that, in doing so, the bank has made an entirely notional sum of money into a real one. This debt never existed, other than in the fevered imagination of some clerks in the Bank of Lilliput.

By capitalising it and selling it on, this invented money has become commoditised. And there must be loads of it out there. I fully expect some wünderkind of the financial markets to securitise all this bogus debt and flog it to a US bank to fuel the next sub-prime housing boom.

Anyway, this means for us that a series of entertaining credit agents periodically phone up. The names of the agencies change weekly, as the debt is passed around the market, like the plate of cocktail sausages that no one wants at a party.

One spiv told my son that he'd knock 25% off the debt if he paid it off by credit card over the phone immediately. Unsurprisingly, he resisted this temptation, as there would have been no record of the agreement.

Financial charlatans

I fear that there may be some borrowers who do deal with these charlatans of the financial world. After all, they threaten that they're about to come round to your house and impound everything from your clothes to your pets in order to settle the debt.

This is nonsense. The Citizens Advice Bureau advises that under no circumstances should anyone ever respond to a telephone approach from a credit agent. That seems like sound advice.

But there are other factors at play too. These debt collectors phone and, first of all, ask you to identify who you are and where you live. Excuse me, do they really think we're that dumb? No one has the right to phone and demand information about you.

These giants of credit control, however, are evidently a few beads short of a full abacus. One phoned the other day. Apparently, they couldn't speak to me unless I identified myself. Fine by me.

A firm called RMA Partners, for example, told me I had to provide personal information for security purposes. I had to prove that I was who I said I was. I asked him to identify himself and to prove he was from the company he said he was, otherwise I couldn't deal with him "for security reasons".

There was silence at the other end. It was like a fuse had blown in his head. I wished him well and gently hung up.

But the problem is that the high street banks allow these agents to operate under the banks' brand names. I have had people on the line claiming that they are from Barclays. They are rude, aggressive and unprofessional.

Credit is really the issue. Does a bank like Barclays really think that these ethic-free operations do its brand and reputation any credit? But, then again, perhaps brand values and reputation have long since ceased to be a valid currency for our banks.

Reverend George Pitcher is a former industrial editor of the Observer. He is the Archbishop of Canterbury's secretary for public affairs and curate at St Bride's, Fleet Street.

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The Great American Novel- The Film_ Your Story of Your Enslavement Part One

Parts Two, Three and Four are continued on this page

World's first 150-year-old already born?

An expert on aging thinks doctors could have all the tools they need to "cure" getting old. Hotly debated subject

Who wants to live forever? Scientist sees aging cured

By Health and Science Correspondent Kate Kelland | Reuters – Mon, Jul 4, 2011

LONDON (Reuters) - If Aubrey de Grey's predictions are right, the first person who will live to see their 150th birthday has already been born. And the first person to live for 1,000 years could be less than 20 years younger.

A biomedical gerontologist and chief scientist of a foundation dedicated to longevity research, de Grey reckons that within his own lifetime doctors could have all the tools they need to "cure" aging -- banishing diseases that come with it and extending life indefinitely.

"I'd say we have a 50/50 chance of bringing aging under what I'd call a decisive level of medical control within the next 25 years or so," de Grey said in an interview before delivering a lecture at Britain's Royal Institution academy of science.

"And what I mean by decisive is the same sort of medical control that we have over most infectious diseases today."

De Grey sees a time when people will go to their doctors for regular "maintenance," which by then will include gene therapies, stem cell therapies, immune stimulation and a range of other advanced medical techniques to keep them in good shape.

De Grey lives near Cambridge University where he won his doctorate in 2000 and is chief scientific officer of the non-profit California-based SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) Foundation, which he co-founded in 2009.

He describes aging as the lifelong accumulation of various types of molecular and cellular damage throughout the body.

"The idea is to engage in what you might call preventative geriatrics, where you go in to periodically repair that molecular and cellular damage before it gets to the level of abundance that ispathogenic," he explained.

CHALLENGE

Exactly how far and how fast life expectancy will increase in the future is a subject of some debate, but the trend is clear. An average of three months is being added to life expectancy every year at the moment and experts estimate there could be a million centenarians across the world by 2030.

To date, the world's longest-living person on record lived to 122 and in Japan alone there were more than 44,000 centenarians in 2010.

Some researchers say, however, that the trend toward longer lifespan may falter due to an epidemic of obesity now spilling over from rich nations into the developing world.

De Grey's ideas may seem far-fetched, but $20,000 offered in 2005 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Technology Review journal for any molecular biologist who showed that de Grey's SENS theory was "so wrong that it was unworthy of learned debate" was never won.

The judges on that panel were prompted into action by an angry put-down of de Grey from a group of nine leading scientists who dismissed his work as "pseudo science."

They concluded that this label was not fair, arguing instead that SENS "exists in a middle ground of yet-to-be-tested ideas that some people may find intriguing but which others are free to doubt."

CELL THERAPY

For some, the prospect of living for hundreds of years is not particularly attractive, either, as it conjures up an image of generations of sick, weak old people and societies increasingly less able to cope.

But de Grey says that's not what he's working for. Keeping the killer diseases of old age at bay is the primary focus.

"This is absolutely not a matter of keeping people alive in a bad state of health," he told Reuters. "This is about preventing people from getting sick as a result of old age. The particular therapies that we are working on will only deliver long life as a side effect of delivering better health."

De Grey divides the damage caused by aging into seven main categories for which repair techniques need to be developed if his prediction for continual maintenance is to come true.

He notes that while for some categories, the science is still in its earliest stages, there are others where it's already almost there.

"Stem cell therapy is a big part of this. It's designed to reverse one type of damage, namely the loss of cells when cells die and are not automatically replaced, and it's already in clinical trials (in humans)," he said.

Stem cell therapies are currently being trialed in people with spinal cord injuries, and de Grey and others say they may one day be used to find ways to repair disease-damaged brains and hearts.

NO AGE LIMIT

Cardiovascular diseases are the world's biggest age-related killers and de Grey says there is a long way to go on these though researchers have figured out the path to follow.

Heart diseases that cause heart failure, heart attacks and strokes are brought about by the accumulation of certain types of what de Grey calls "molecular garbage" -- byproducts of the body's metabolic processes -- which our bodies are not able to break down or excrete.

"The garbage accumulates inside the cell, and eventually it gets in the way of the cell's workings," he said.

De Grey is working with colleagues in the United States to identify enzymes in other species that can break down the garbage and clean out the cells -- and the aim then is to devise genetic therapies to give this capability to humans.

"If we could do that in the case of certain modified forms of cholesterol which accumulate in cells of the artery wall, then we simply would not get cardiovascular disease," he said.

De Grey is reluctant to make firm predictions about how long people will be able to live in future, but he does say that with each major advance in longevity, scientists will buy more time to make yet more scientific progress.

In his view, this means that the first person who will live to 1,000 is likely to be born less than 20 years after the first person to reach 150.

"I call it longevity escape velocity -- where we have a sufficiently comprehensive panel of therapies to enable us to push back the ill health of old age faster than time is passing. And that way, we buy ourselves enough time to develop more therapies further as time goes on," he said.

"What we can actually predict in terms of how long people will live is absolutely nothing, because it will be determined by the risk of death from other causes like accidents," he said.

"But there really shouldn't be any limit imposed by how long ago you were born. The whole point of maintenance is that it works indefinitely."

The Great American Novel- The Film_ Your Story of Your Enslavement Part Two

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The Innoncense Project

Kenny Waters with the help of his dedicated sister

Betty Ann Waters
freed from a wrongful convection after wrongly spending 17 years in Jail
because of a corrupt police officer who just wanted a conviction at all costs just to help her career

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Contact Us

http://www.innocenceproject.org/
http://www.innocenceproject.org/about/Contact-Us.php

Innocence Project
40 Worth St., Suite 701
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info@innocenceproject.org
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To submit a case to the Innocence Project

http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/conviction/About-Kenny-Waters.php

http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/conviction/About-Betty-Anne-Waters.php

http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/non-dna-exonerations.php

The Causes of Wrongful Conviction

Each of the 266 wrongful convictions overturned through DNA testing is unique, but they all originate from common flaws in the criminal justice system. Innocence Project research into wrongful conviction cases helps pinpoint weaknesses within the system. Learn about the major causes of injustice, including misidentification, improper forensics, false confessions and informant testimony.

As the pace of DNA exonerations has grown across the country in recent years, wrongful convictions have revealed disturbing fissures and trends in our criminal justice system. Together, these cases show us how the criminal justice system is broken – and how urgently it needs to be fixed.

We should learn from the system’s failures. In each case where DNA has proven innocence beyond doubt, an overlapping array of causes has emerged – from mistakes to misconduct to factors of race and class.

Countless cases
Those exonerated by DNA testing aren’t the only people who have been wrongfully convicted in recent decades. For every case that involves DNA, there are thousands that do not.

Only a fraction of criminal cases involve biological evidence that can be subjected to DNA testing, and even when such evidence exists, it is often lost or destroyed after a conviction. Since they don’t have access to a definitive test like DNA, many wrongfully convicted people have a slim chance of ever proving their innocence.

Common Causes
Here you will find further information about seven of the most common causes of wrongful convictions:

These factors are not the only causes of wrongful conviction. Each case is unique and many include a combination of the above issues. Review our case profiles to learn how the common causes of wrongful convictions have affected real cases and how these injustices could have been prevented.

To stop these wrongful convictions from continuing, we must fix the criminal justice system. Click here to learn about Innocence Commissions, a reform that can help identify and address the fundamental flaws in the criminal justice system that lead to wrongful convictions.

The chart below represents contributing causes confirmed through Innocence Project research. Actual numbers may be higher, and other causes of wrongful convictions include government misconduct and bad lawyering.

Click for previous examination of cases based on other criteria.

The Innocence Project is not equipped to handle case applications or inquiries by email or over the phone. All case submissions and follow-up correspondence will be handled by mail or overnight delivery services only.

If you are seeking legal assistance, please read the following guidelines for submitting your case.

All cases for consideration should be mailed (to the address above) with a brief factual summary of the case, including the specific charges and convictions and a list of the evidence used against the defendant. No other documents should be submitted for initial review. The Innocence Project is not equipped to handle telephone or electronic (email) applications.

The Innocence Project only accepts cases on post-conviction appeal in which DNA testing can prove innocence. If the case does not involve biological evidence or DNA, visit the Other Innocence Organizations page to see if there is a program in your area that provides broader legal and investigative assistance.

Click here to join our online community by signing up for our e-mail newsletter.

Kenny Waters

Incident Date: 5/21/80

Jurisdiction: MA

Charge: Murder, Robbery

Conviction: Murder, Robbery

Sentence: Life

Year of Conviction: 1983

Exoneration Date: 6/19/01

Sentence Served: 18 Years

Real perpetrator found? Not Yet

Contributing Causes: Informants/Snitches

Compensation? Yes

About Kenny Waters

Kenny Waters served 18 years in prison for murder he didn’t commit before DNA testing proved his innocence. His sister, Betty Anne Waters, put herself through college and law school in order to help with her brother’s case. She worked with the Innocence Project to bring about his exoneration in 2001.

Sadly, Waters passed away six months after his release. He was 47 years old and had spent more than a third of his life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Kenny Waters’ case is the subject of the film “Conviction,” in which Sam Rockwell plays Waters.

Read more on Waters’ wrongful conviction and his exoneration.

Watch the trailer and find showtimes in your area.

View key documents from the case, inlcuding Waters’ mugshot, a photo of the murder weapon and more.

See a slideshow of Waters family photos.

About Betty Anne Waters

Betty Anne Waters was 29 years old when her brother Kenny Waters was convicted of a murder in Ayer, Massachusetts. He swore he was innocent and Betty Anne vowed to do everything she could to help overturn his wrongful conviction.

For two decades, she fought for justice in Kenny’s case, putting herself through college and law school in her pursuit. Finally, in 2000 Betty Anne and the Innocence Project obtained access to DNA testing on evidence from the crime scene in Kenny’s case. The results proved his innocence and led to Kenny’s release in March of 2001.

Today, Betty Anne lives in Bristol, Rhode Island, and works as the general manager of a pub. She works to help the Innocence Project spread the word about wrongful conviction by speaking out about her story and the cause of wrongful conviction.

Read Betty Anne’s first letter to the Innocence Project seeking assistance with Kenny’s case.

See a slideshow of Waters family photos.

Read more about Kenny’s case and the true story behind “Conviction.”

Kenny Waters served 18 years in prison for murder he didn’t commit before DNA testing proved his innocence. His sister, Betty Anne Waters, put herself through college and law school in order to help with her brother’s case. She worked with the Innocence Project to bring about his exoneration in 2001.

Sadly, Waters passed away six months after his release. He was 47 years old and had spent more than a third of his life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Waters’ case is the focus of the film “Conviction,” which was released in October 2010.

• Visit our “Conviction” page for videos, resources and the story behind the film.

• View a slideshow of Waters family photo s and pictures from the day Kenny was freed

• View original documents and images from the case

• Watch a 3-minute video on the story behind “Conviction,” featuring Betty Anne Waters, Kenny Waters and Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck

More on Kenny Waters’ wrongful conviction and exoneration:

The Crime
On the morning of May 21, 1980, Katherina Reitz Brow was stabbed to death in her Ayer, Massachusetts, home. Her body was found at 10:45 a.m. — she had been stabbed more than 30 times and her linen closet had been ransacked. There were bloodstains throughout the house and the kitchen faucet was running. Her purse, some jewelry and an envelope where she kept cash were all missing.

The Investigation
Investigating officers responded to the victim’s house shortly after her daughter-in-law discovered her body. Crime scene investigators recovered hairs, blood and fingerprints in the house, including two fingerprints in blood — one on a toaster in the kitchen and the other on the running faucet — that were considered potentially tied to the perpetrator. The apparent murder weapon, a bloody paring knife, was collected from a wastebasket in the house.

Kenny Waters became a suspect because he lived next to the victim, with his girlfriend, Brenda Marsh. He worked at the Park Street Diner in Ayer, where Brow was a frequent customer. It was apparently known to diner employees that Brow kept a large amount of cash in her home.

Waters was questioned by police on the day after the crime and provided an strong alibi that he had worked until 8:30 a.m. on the day Brow was killed and a coworker had driven him home. He changed clothes and had been in the Ayer courthouse for a 9 a.m. appearance with his attorney. He said he left the courthouse after 11 a.m. and returned to the diner, where he stayed until 12:30 p.m. Officers examined his clothes and body and did not see any apparent blood stains or cuts. He was fingerprinted and questioned further but not charged. Four months later, officers asked Waters to submit to a voice stress test, which he did voluntarily and passed.

The case remained open for more than two years. In October 1982, a man named Robert Osborne, who was living with Marsh, Waters’ ex-girlfriend, approached the Ayer Police Department and allegedly offered to provide information on the murder in exchange for money.

Osborne said Marsh had told him that Waters confessed to her that he had killed a woman. It is unknown whether Osborne was ever compensated for the information he provided. Officers then interrogated Marsh and allegedly threatened to charge her as an accessory to murder and take away her children if she didn’t corroborate Osborne’s claim. She initially refused, saying Osborne’s statements were untrue. Eventually, however, she agreed to corroborate the details provided by Osborne. She told police that Waters had returned home on the morning of the murder with a long, deep scratch on his face. Based on these statements, Waters was charged with murder.

The Trial
Waters’ trial began in Ayer in May 1983. Although police had collected and analyzed fingerprint evidence in the case and had used fingerprints from the toaster and faucet to exclude Waters and several other suspects during the investigation, these records were apparently not provided by police to prosecutors. Therefore, the prosecution and defense proceeded with the trial under the false assumption that no fingerprints of value had been collected at the scene of crime.

The state’s case relied heavily on the statements of three witnesses. Marsh testified that she had seen the defendant with a scratch on his face and that he had admitted to her that he had killed Brow. Roseanna Perry, another former girlfriend of Waters’, also initially told police that she had no information about the crime but after more than three hours of interrogation and threats of arrest, told them Waters had told her something about stabbing a woman and stealing her money and jewelry. She testified to this statement. A friend of Brow’s who worked with Waters at the Park Street Diner said Waters had sold her a ring that had belonged to the victim. She said she paid $5 for the ring and gave it to police. Workers from the packing company where Waters had previously worked stated that a knife similar to the one found at the crime scene had gone missing. The knife was manufactured by the company where the victim’s husband worked, however.

A forensic analyst also testified for the state about test results on blood from the crime scene. Blood types O and B were found in the apartment. The victim was type B and Waters and the victim’s husband were both type O. The analyst told the jury that 48% of the population has Type O blood. The analyst also testified that three hairs collected from the crime scene — including one in the victim’s hand and one on the murder weapon — did not match the victim or Waters.

Waters raised an alibi defense, saying that he was at work at the Park Street Diner until 8:30 a.m. and then at court until 10:45 a.m. His time card from that week, however, had gone missing and wasn’t presented as evidence. Although it has been revealed that police indepently confirmed Waters’ work schedule during the investigation, this evidence wasn’t presented during trial.

Waters was convicted on May 11, 1983, and sentenced to life in prison.

Appeals and DNA Testing
Waters appealed his conviction several times between 1983 and 1999. Although Roseanna Perry recanted her trial testimony that Waters had admitted guilt, his appeals for a new trial and for federal habeas corpus relief were denied. Several times during this period, Waters and his representatives requested complete documents in the case from the Ayer police department, but were given the same incomplete documents used at trial. Critical evidence of Waters’ innocence, including the fingerprints and the timecards, was withheld.

After Waters’ conviction, his sister, Betty Anne Waters, sought to prove his innocence. She put herself through college and law school, all with the goal of exonerating her brother. In 1999, she located the Type O blood evidence collected from the scene of the crime and obtained a court order to preserve the evidence for possible DNA testing. In 2000, she began working with the Innocence Project on the case. Together Betty Anne Waters and the Innocence Project reached an agreement with the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office to allow a private lab to conduct DNA testing on the evidence. The results excluded Waters and the victim’s husband, proving that Waters was not the perpetrator.

Reinvestigation and Exoneration
In March 2001, the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab verified the DNA results, and Waters’ conviction was vacated two days later. After nearly 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Waters was freed while prosecutors considered whether to retry him.

The Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office opened a new investigation of the case to determine whether to retry Waters. The reinvestigation was led by a state police officer, who found the police reports to be incomplete, and contacted Ayer police officers who had been involved in the original investigation. At this point, for the first time, the police turned over complete records from the case — including a police report confirming Waters’ work schedule and extensive documentation on the fingerprint evidence that had been collected before trial.

On June 19, 2001, the District Attorney’s office dropped all charges against Waters and his exoneration became official. Sadly, after only six months of freedom, Waters died in a tragic accident on September 19, 2001. He was 47 years old.

Since his death, representatives of his estate have settled a civil lawsuit with the town of Ayer, and the case was the subject of a 2010 feature film, “Conviction.”

Non-DNA Exonerations

The Innocence Project provides pro bono legal representation on behalf of people seeking to prove their innocence post-conviction. Since its inception in 1992, the Innocence Project has only taken cases where DNA testing can prove innocence. For more on our criteria for taking cases and the process for submitting a case for consideration, click here.

In some rare circumstances, however, the Innocence Project has helped exonerate clients through evidence other than DNA testing. We often have to close cases because the biological evidence is missing or destroyed, making DNA testing impossible. In some of those cases, strong evidence of innocence is discovered during the search for biological evidence, and we are able to secure our clients' freedom without DNA testing. In other cases, DNA test results alone are not enough to free our clients, but can help exonerate people when coupled with other evidence of innocence. In all of these cases, new evidence of innocence resulted in our clients' convictions being vacated and indictments against them being dismissed, fully exonerating them.

These cases underscore a critical point: DNA testing alone cannot overturn most wrongful convictions. In fact, experts estimate that DNA testing is possible in just 5-10% of all criminal cases. That is why a growing number of organizations in the Innocence Network handle cases regardless of whether DNA testing is possible. For a directory of these organizations, click here.

Below is a list of five Innocence Project cases, with links to full profiles, in which clients were exonerated through evidence other than DNA testing.

Ralph Armstrong

Incident Date: 09/02/1984

Jurisdiction: WI

Charge: First-degree murder, first-degree sexual assault

Conviction:First-degree murder, first-degree sexual assault

Sentence: Life plus 16 years

Conviction Date: 03/24/81

Exoneration Date: 08/19/09

Sentence Served: 25.5 Years

Real perpetrator found?No

Contributing Causes: Government Misconduct, Eyewitness Misidentification, Unvalidated or Improper Forensic Science

Compensation? Not Yet

Ralph Armstrong served more than 28 years in Wisconsin prisons for murder before a judge overturned his conviction in 2009 based on evidence that a prosecutor had deliberately withheld evidence of his innocence more than a decade earlier.

The Crime
On the afternoon of June 24, 1980, Charise Kamps, a 19-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin was found strangled to death in her Madison, Wisconsin, apartment. She was naked and face-down in her bed with a bathrobe belt draped across her back.

The Investigation
Investigators collected clothing and other evidence from the victim's apartment, including fingerprints and hairs.

The victim had drunk alcohol and used drugs with Ralph Armstrong, his brother Steve Armstrong and others on the night she died. Ralph Armstrong told police that he had used cocaine with Kamps that night and that the two had been in her apartment alone for a short time around 9:15 p.m. before joining friends elsewhere. Police learned that Armstrong owed Kamps's boyfriend $400, and witnesses said they saw him hand her cash on the night of the crime.

The Identification
A neighbor of Kamps' told police he was sitting on his porch that night and saw a lean, muscular man with long, dark hair drive up to the area in a black and white vehicle around 12:30 a.m. and park out of sight. The witness said the man ran into and out of Kamps' building three times before finally disappearing to the area where his car may have been parked.

Before an identification procedure was conducted, police arranged for the witness to be hypnotized. A detective and the hypnotist viewed photographs of Armstrong and his car during the videotaped hypnosis session, but the detective testified that the witness did not see the photos. The witness later disagreed, saying he did see Armstrong's photo in the hypnosis room. The witness allegedly described the perpetrator as having a long nose and bushy eyebrows, and said the perpetrator was 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 5 inches tall. He changed the height estimate to six feet at the prodding of the hypnotist. Armstrong, who had long, dark hair at the time, is six-feet, two-inches tall.

Ten days after the crime, police conducted a "pseudo re-enactment" lineup near the crime scene with Armstrong and four other participants who were police officers wearing wigs. At the advice of his attorney at the time, Armstrong passively resisted what his attorney felt was a rigged lineup, so he went limp during the lineup and had to be carried by two officers. The witness identified Armstrong as the perpetrator, but also pointed out to police that the other participants were clearly wearing wigs. He would later confirm that he said at the time the lineup was "fixed."

The Trial and Physical Evidence
Armstrong was arrested and charged with raping and killing Kamps. He was tried before a jury in 1981. The state's case rested on forensic evidence, eyewitness identification testimony and an alleged motive involving the money Armstrong owed Kamps' boyfriend.

A forensic analyst testified that several head hairs collected from the bathrobe belt draped across the victim's body and the bathroom sink were "consistent" or "similar" to Armstrong's hair. She also identified several pubic and head hairs that she said came from neither Kamps nor Armstrong. In closing arguments, however, the prosecutor exaggerated the importance of her findings, saying "two of the defendant's hairs were on this robe."

Similarly, a forensic analyst found a positive reading for the presence of chemicals in human blood on several of Armstrong's fingers and toes, but she wasn't able to determine any characteristics of the blood. The prosecutor exaggerated this finding as well in his closing argument, saying "that was Charise Kamps' blood."

Armstrong's fingerprints were also found on a bong in Kamps' apartment, but the defense argued that Armstrong had moved the bong when he was in the apartment earlier on the night of the murder.

The forensic analyst testified that semen was detected on the bathrobe, and that it came from a Type-A secretor (a person whose blood type is found from bodily fluids like semen). Armstrong is a Type-A secretor.

The eyewitness who been hypnotized identified Armstrong in court as the man he saw run in and out of the victim's apartment building for ten minutes around 12:30 a.m. on the night of the crime.

Prosecutors also sought to show that Armstrong's claimed whereabouts on the night of the murder were unrealistic. They said he could not have been at the victim's house at 9:30 p.m. because the route he said he drove allegedly could not have allowed for a stop at the victim's apartment. Instead, they argued that he came to her apartment after midnight, saying that was when he left the fingerprints and murdered the victim.

The state argued that Armstrong had allegedly paid the victim $400 in cash toward a loan her boyfriend had given Armstrong on the night in question. The cash was not discovered in the apartment the next day, and Armstrong deposited $315 into his bank account the next day.

Armstrong's defense attorneys challenged the prosecution's case on many fronts — from the timeline of the night to the eyewitness identification and the forensic evidence. Defense attorneys called an expert in hypnosis and questioned the validity of the eyewitness identification, presented evidence that the hair and blood evidence were being used improperly and offered a timeline of the night's events according to Armstrong. The defense argued that Armstrong had received $315 from his brother on the day after the crime.

Despite these efforts, Armstrong was convicted and sentenced to life in prison plus 16 years.

Post-Conviction Appeals
Armstrong filed several unsuccessful appeals in the years after his conviction. In 1991, he sought a new trial based on DNA test results showing that he could not have been the source of the semen on the bathrobe belt. His appeals were denied, however, with a state appeals court calling the semen evidence "an insignificant piece of circumstantial evidence linking Armstrong to Kamps and to her apartment."

The Innocence Project became involved in Armstrong's case in 1993, working with Wisconsin attorneys Jerome Buting and Keith Belzer. More advanced DNA testing was conducted in 2001, excluding Armstrong and the victim's boyfriend as the source of the head hairs on the bathrobe belt, and finding that the semen stain used against Armstrong at trial was connected to the victim's boyfriend. Based on these results, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 2005, granting him a new trial.

While a new trial was pending, a woman testified at a hearing that she had called Dane County Assistant District Attorney John Norsetter in 1995 to report that Armstrong's brother, Steve, confessed that he, not Ralph, was guilty of the crime, and that he feared Ralph would be exonerated by DNA and come after him if he found out Steve was the real guilty party. The woman said she described Steve's gruesomely detailed confession to Norsetter, who did not report this evidence to defense attorneys and did not pursue the lead. Steve Armstrong had disappeared shortly after the crime and never again contacted his brother Ralph. Steve died in 2005.

In 2006, more forensic testing was done on the crime scene evidence — including mitochondrial (mtDNA) tests, an advanced technique that can develop DNA profiles from degraded samples and hair follicles. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) tests of hairs from the crime scene excluded Ralph Armstrong. Because mtDNA is inherited from one's mother, Ralph and Steve Armstrong would be expected to have the same mtDNA profile.

Six forcibly removed pubic hairs, found on the bedspread on which the victim's body lay, were tested for mitochondrial DNA. Those tests proved they did not come from Ralph Armstrong , the victim or her boyfriend. Another semen stain was found, this time on the bathrobe belt found draped across the victim's body. Further DNA tests of the semen stain from the robe belt excluded Ralph Armstrong again, as well as the victim's boyfriend. Despite those exculpatory results, the state announced it would retry Armstrong for the crimes. Then, despite a court order requiring prosecutors to notify defense attorneys any time evidence in the case was moved or analyzed, Norsetter secretly ordered additional DNA tests. These illegal tests used up the biological evidence, preventing any further testing. Moreover, the Y-STR DNA testing Norsetter ordered in 2006 focuses on the Y chromosome and would not have distinguished genetic material between males with the same father.

The defense did not learn about the woman's 1995 call to Norsetter until 2007. At that point, the defense argued that Norsetter's decision to order Y-DNA tests may have indicated that he was trying to get a conviction against Ralph even if his brother's indistinguishable Y-DNA was found. At a subsequent court hearing Norsetter admitted under oath that he did get a call in 1995 from a woman claiming to have heard a confession in a big case, and that it could have been about Ralph Armstrong, but his memory was vague. He admitted he never told the defense or any court because, in his opinion, the information wasn't credible enough to do so.

Based on the destruction of evidence and the prosecutor's suppression of potentially exculpatory evidence for more than a decade, there was proof that Armstrong's due process rights had been irreparably compromised. A state circuit court judge dismissed the case against Armstrong in July 2009, saying it was clear that the prosecutor in the case had acted "in bad faith." Prosecutors announced in August 2009 they wouldn't appeal the dismissal, and Armstrong was officially cleared. As of October 2009, Armstrong was incarcerated in New Mexico on a parole violation.

Levon Brooks

Incident Date: 9/15/90

Jurisdiction: MS

Charge:Capital Murder, Sexual Battery

Conviction:Capital Murder, Sexual Battery r

Sentence: Life

Conviction Date: 1/20/92

Exoneration Date:03/13/2008

Sentence Served:16 Years

Real perpetrator found?Yes

Contributing Causes: Government Misconduct, Unvalidated or Improper Forensic Science

Compensation? Not Yet

Levon Brooks served 16 years in Mississippi prisons for a 1990 rape and murder of a three-year-old girl he didn't commit. In 2008, DNA testing cleared another man, Kennedy Brewer, who had been sentenced to death for a nearly identical murder that happened in the same town less than two years after the crime for which Brooks was convicted. The DNA results implicated the perpetrator of that crime, and he confessed to committing both murders, clearing Brooks.

The exonerations of the two men, both Innocence Project clients, revealed troubling problems with autopsies and forensic oversight in Mississippi, and the underlined the shortcomings of bite mark comparison evidence.

The Crime
Late at night on September 15, 1990, three-year-old Courtney Smith was abducted from her Brooksville, Mississippi, home. The girl shared a bedroom with her two sisters, ages six and one. Her 26-year-old uncle was asleep in the next room when she disappeared.
Her body was found two days later in a pond 80 yards from her house. She had been sexually assaulted and murdered.
The Investigation
Levon Brooks became a suspect because he was an ex-boyfriend of Smith's mother.

Another man, Justin Albert Johnson, was also briefly a suspect in the case. His ex-wife and son lived next to the Smith residence and he had been inside the Smith house on the day of the abduction.

Dr. Steven Hayne, a Mississippi pathologist, performed an autopsy on the victim shortly after her body was found. He determined that she had been sexually assaulted. He also found possible bite marks on her wrist and referred the case to Dr. Michael West, a forensic dentist in Mississippi who had worked with Hayne on other cases in the past.

West determined that the marks on the victim's body were indeed from human bites, and he took dental impression samples from 12 possible suspects -- including Justin Albert Johnson but not including Levon Brooks.

Ten days after the victim was killed, police interviews the victim's six-year-old sister. The girl's sister said she had seen the perpetrator abduct the victim and identified the perpetrator as Levon Brooks, her mother's ex- boyfriend. Based on the girl's identification, Brooks was arrested.

On the same day, September 25, West took a sample of Brooks' teeth at the local jail. West testified at Brooks' trial that he compared Brooks' sample to the marks on the victim's body and found that two of Brooks' teeth "matched" the marks on the victim's body. He said Brooks made the marks with his two top front teeth. Brooks was charged with capital murder.

The Trial
Brooks was tried before a jury in Noxubee County, Mississippi, in January 1992. The victim's sister testified that she saw Brooks abduct her sister, although her testimony had several contradictions. In addition to the child's unreliable testimony, the state's case rested on the bite mark evidence presented by Dr. West, who testified that "it could be no one but Levon Brooks that bit this girl's arm."

Brooks' defense attorneys presented an alibi defense, that he was working a club on the night of the murder and did not have an opportunity to commit the crime. The defense also challenged West's credentials and findings. After deliberating for about nine hours, the jury convicted Brooks of capital murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Post-Conviction Appeals and Exoneration
Just four months after Brooks was convicted, another young girl was abducted, raped and killed in Brooksville. The facts were startlingly similar, a three-year-old girl taken from her home at night and found in a creek. But the similarities between the cases did not end there. Police focused on Kennedy Brewer, the boyfriend of the victim's mother. Dr. Steven Hayne conducted the autopsy and said he found bite marks on the victim's body. West was called to analyze the bite marks. He confirmed that the marks were from a human bite, and determined that they came from Brewer. Based on this evidence, Brewer was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death.

The Innocence Project became involved in Brewer's case in 2001, consulting with Brewer's attorneys on DNA testing issues. DNA test results showed that semen from the victim's body excluded Brewer as the perpetrator of the crime and his conviction was overturned. He remained behind bars for six more years, however, awaiting a new trial. Another round of testing matched the profile of Justin Albert Johnson, who had been a suspect during the initial investigations of both Brewer's and Brooks' cases. Johnson was interviewed by law enforcement officials and he admitted to committing both murders, but adamantly denied biting either victim. Following his confession, Brewer and Brooks were both freed on February 15, 2008. Brooks was officially cleared on March 13.

Forensic Fallout
In the wake of the exonerations of Brewer and Brooks, the Innocence Project and several other organizations and individuals began to call for investigations into the work of Hayne and West. For years, Hayne claimed to conduct 1,200 to 1,800 autopsies a year across the state of Mississippi (six times the professional standard), earning him more than a million dollars a year.

Hayne had served as Mississippi's chief medical examiner in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but couldn't fill the position permanently because the state required the official to be properly board-certified, which he is not. The position has been vacant for more than 15 years, however, and Hayne was essentially filling the role on a de facto basis. In August of 2008, just months after the Brewer and Brooks exonerations, the state announced that it was severing all ties with Hayne.

Investigations into several other cases involved Hayne and West are ongoing

Barry Gibbs

Incident Date: 11/04/86

Jurisdiction: NY

Charge: Second-degree murder

Conviction:Second-degree murder

Sentence: 25 Years to Life

Conviction Date: 03/25/88

Exoneration Date:9/29/05

Sentence Served:17.5 Years

Real perpetrator found?No

Contributing Causes: Government Misconduct, Eyewitness Misidentification, Informant / Snitch

Compensation? Yes

Barry Gibbs was convicted in New York City of committing a murder he didn't commit based on misconduct by a NYPD detective later convicted of arranging and committing several murders and cover-ups on behalf of an organized crime family. Gibbs served 17 years in prison before new evidence led to his release.

The Crime
On the afternoon of November 4, 1986, the body of an African-American woman was found lying under a blanket near a busy Brooklyn highway. She had been strangled to death.

The Investigation and Identification
The lead New York Police Department detective assigned to the case was Louis Eppolito.

A witness told Eppolito that he had been jogging on the day of the crime and had seen a white man and a black woman sitting in a gray car parked by the highway. The man said he then watched the white man walk to the passenger side of the car and pull out a body, lay it on the ground and place a blanket over it. The jogger said the perpetrator noticed him after just three seconds and ran back to the driver side.

Eppolito apparently learned that Barry Gibbs knew the victim. Gibbs voluntarily participated in a line-up and consented to a police search of his apartment. During the search, police found a pair of red jeans that matched eyewitness testimony of what the perpetrator was wearing during the crime; however, the jeans did not fit Gibbs. Police also discovered that Gibbs owned a gray car similar to the perpetrator's car but Gibbs' car was inoperable, had two flat tires, and had not been driven for a substantial amount of time.

During the police lineup, the witness who observed the perpetrator dispose of the victim's body identified Gibbs as the perpetrator despite physical differences in stature and weight. Additionally, a park police officer told responding officers he had seen the perpetrator but was never asked to identify the suspect in a police line-up.

An autopsy was performed on the victim's body. Testing conducted on hair samples found on the victim revealed Caucasian characteristics.

The Trial
The prosecution's case was based on both eyewitness testimony and snitch testimony.

The jogger testified about seeing a white man dump the body. Another state witness was a jailhouse informant who had a very close relationship with a criminal investigator in the Department of Corrections and an extensive arrest record. The informant, who had testified for the state in several other cases, testified that he spoke to Gibbs while he was in jail awaiting trial and Gibbs admitted to killing the victim. A defense witness, who was also incarcerated with Gibbs pre-trial, offered contrary testimony that in conversations with Gibbs over a 4-month period, Gibbs always maintained his innocence. Based on the eyewitness and snitch testimony, Gibbs was convicted and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Post-Conviction Appeals and Exoneration
Nine years after his conviction, Gibbs contacted the Innocence Project for assistance in obtaining DNA testing to prove his innocence. In response to an Innocence Project motion, a Brooklyn judge ordered the State to search for the evidence — including the caucasion hairs and rope used to strangle the victim, DNA testing on any found items. Despite repeated searches for physical or biological evidence in the case, none could be found. Some of the evidence in the case had been reported as destroyed, other items were never found. Read more about New York City's problems with evidence storage and retention here.

Gibbs' police investigation file was also missing at the time. In 2004, after exhausting all possible searches for evidence, the Innocence Project began the process of referring the case to another project. The next year, police began investigating Eppolito, who had retired from the NYPD, for alleged ties to organized crime. In a search of Eppolito's house in Las Vegas, officers found Gibbs' police file. The Innocence Project once again began working on his case, and requested the US Attorney's office investigate Gibbs' claim of innocence. That re-investigation led to further evidence of Gibbs' innocence.

Eppolito and another former NYPD detective have since been convicted of eight murders and several other charges based on evidence that they plotted and carried out murders on behalf of the Mafia.

In 2005, the eyewitness who had testified at Gibbs' trial that he had seen the perpetrator while jogging in the area recanted his testimony. He said Eppolito had threatened his family if he didn't identify Gibbs in the lineup and again in court.

Based on the witness's recantation, Gibbs was freed from prison in 2005 and cleared. He had served more than 17 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

Paul House

Incident Date: 7/13/1985

Jurisdiction: TN

Charge: First-degree murder

Conviction:First-degree murder

Sentence: Death

Year of Conviction: 1986

Exoneration Date:05/12/099

Sentence Served: 22 Years

Real perpetrator found?No

Contributing Causes: Unreliable/Limited Science, Forensic Science Misconduct, Bad Lawyering

Compensation? Not Yet

Paul House served 22 years on Tennessee's death row before evidence of his innocence — and the intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court — cleared him of murder and led to his release.

The Crime
In the summer of 1985, Carolyn Muncey was found dead near her home in rural Luttrell, Tennessee. Dressed in a nightgown and house coat, her bloodied body was found under some brush on the bank of a creek. She had been raped and beaten.

The Arrest
A few months before Muncey's murder, Paul House had moved into his mother's nearby home. Almost immediately after the incident, police suspected that House, an outsider with a criminal record, was responsible for Muncey's death.

The Conviction
At trial, two witnesses for the state testified that they had seen House wiping his hands on the night of the crime near where Muncey had been found. A pair of jeans collected from House had blood on them, and a forensic expert testified at trial that the blood matched Muncey's ABO blood type. A forensic expert also testified that that House's blood type matched the semen found on Muncey's underwear.

In February 1986, the jury convicted House of first-degree murder, sentencing him to death.

Post-Conviction
While House's attorneys were appealing his conviction, several witnesses came forward with evidence that the victim's abusive husband had killed her. Two women claimed that Mr. Muncey had confessed to the crime at a party one night. A third woman saw him hitting his wife at a dance. A fourth said he had asked her to provide an alibi for him on the night his wife was killed.

Further analysis of the blood on House's jeans cast doubt on whether the blood was actually deposited during the course of the crime. This included testimony from a former Tennessee State Medical Examiner, who stated that in his view, the the blood on the jeans showed enzyme decay — which, he testified, was consistent with blood taken at Mrs. Muncey's autopsy and transported in vials without preservative or refrigeration. The decay would not be expected to be found in blood that came in direct contact with House's pants while the victim was alive.

Additional evidence supported the theory that blood collected at Muncey's autopsy had spilled on House's jeans after they were collected as evidence, whether accidentally or deliberately. The blood vials were not sealed, and were driven 10 hours to the FBI lab by two law enforcement officers. The blood spoiled during the trip due to heat exposure, and FBI records showed that a significant amount of blood from the autopsy vials was missing when the officers arrived at the lab.

More exculpatory evidence came in the late 1990s, after House had spent over a decade in prison. Advanced DNA testing revealed that the semen from Muncey's underwear and nightgown belonged to her husband, not House — contrary to the testimony of an FBI expert at trial, who had incorrectly told the jury that only House's blood group antigens could have been the source of the semen stains.

Release and Exoneration
House's appeals, which called for his conviction to be overturned in light of the array of new evidence, was rejected by several courts before his case was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. The Innocence Project filed a friend-of-the-court brief on his behalf in the Supreme Court. On June 12, 2006, the court ruled that any "reasonable juror" would probably not have convicted House had they been aware of the new evidence in his favor, and sent his case back to the district court in Tennessee for a full review.

In Tennessee, U.S. District Court Judge Henry Mattice Jr. overturned House's conviction and ordered the state to either release House or to retry him within 180 days. The state appealed the decision, but lost. Bail was set at $500,000 — then reduced to $100,000. An anonymous donor paid the 10% bond, and House, who suffers from chronic multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair, was released from the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility on July 2, 2008. He had served 22 years on death row.

Prosecutors requested permission to conduct further DNA testing in the case while House was on bail. The results, from testing conducted on a hair found at the crime scene, material from under the victim's fingernails and other items, pointed to at least one other unknown suspect. Additional investigation conducted by House's new trial team (Assistant Public Defender Dale Potter of Tennessee and Linda Kenney Baden of New York, who agreed to assist House pro bono) cast further doubt on the state's evidence against House. In light of the DNA test results and other evidence, Prosecutors dropped all charges against House on May 12, 2009.

Walter Swift

Incident Date: 09/02/1984

Jurisdiction: MI

Charge: 1st degree criminal sexual conduct, robbery

Conviction:1st degree criminal sexual conduct, robbery

Sentence: 20-40 Years

Conviction Date: 11/10/82

Exoneration Date: 5/21/08

Sentence Served: 25.5 Years

Real perpetrator found?No

Contributing Causes: Eyewitness Misidentification, Unvalidated or Improper Forensic Science, Government Misconduct, Bad Lawyering

Compensation? Not Yet

Walter Swift served 26 years in Michigan prisons for rape before evidence of his innocence led to his exoneration and release in 2008. He was wrongfully convicted based in part on a highly questionable eyewitness identification and incomplete forensic testimony.

The Crime
On September 2, 1982, a woman was playing with her seven-month-old son in her Detroit home when an intruder grabbed her from behind. He dragged her to her upstairs bedroom, where he removed her clothing and raped her. He allowed her to cover herself with a robe before leading her downstairs to locate her purse. He took $60 from her purse, as well as her wedding band and another $100 in cash from the house. The perpetrator raped the victim again on a rug on the first floor. He then told the victim to close her eyes and fled.

The Investigation
When police arrived at the victim's house, they collected the robe she was wearing and the sheet from her bed. She was taken to a local hospital, where a rape kit was collected. The victim described the perpetrator as a clean-shaven African-American man between 15 and 18 years old, about 5'10'' tall, with an unusual hairstyle with very small braids.

Eight days after the crime, the investigating officer, Janice Paavola, showed the victim several hundred photos of black men between 15 and 25 years old. The victim selected seven photos based on various characteristics in common with the perpetrator. At this time, Paavola decided that the person in the next photo the victim chose would be included in a live lineup. Walter Swift's photo happened to be the eighth she chose, saying his eyes were similar to those of the perpetrator. Paavola wrote in a 2003 affidavit that the victim did not say Swift was the perpetrator and didn't place any emphasis on his photo compared to the other seven photos. The officer "was confident that she would not identify Mr. Swift as the perpetrator in the lineup."

Officers learned that Swift did not have braids, had a mustache and had a black eye at the time of the crime. Despite these inconsistencies, the lineup was conducted a few days later. Swift and four other men participated; they ranged in age from 20 to 34 and ranged widely in height and build. The officer told the victim that the man whose photo she chose would be included. The victim tentatively selected Swift, saying "I believe it is number 2." In her 2003 affidavit, the officer said she did not consider this a positive identification and scheduled a polygraph test for Swift to further investigate his possible role in the crime.

Paavola scheduled the polygraph examination, but would soon learn that it had been cancelled by a sergeant and a warrant had been issued for Swift's arrest. The sergeant told Paavola that "Mr. Swift may not have done this crime but [the sergeant] was sure that he did some crime before and had gotten away with it." Based almost exclusively on the victim's questionable identification, Swift was charged with sexual assault and robbery.

The Trial and Forensic Evidence
Swift was tried before a jury in Detroit two months later. He was represented by a court-appointed attorney.

The state's case focused on the victim's identification of Swift and presented an incomplete account of how the victim identified him. Most critically, during trial, the jury was led to believe that the victim was shown hundreds of photographs at the police station of men who fit her description of the perpetrator, that she selected only Walter Swift's photo out of that photo array, and that she later confirmed the selection in a live lineup. As a result of suppression by state witnesses, and defense counsel's failure to investigate, the jury never learned that the victim selected the photographs of seven other men as well and only identified Swift as the perpetrator after a highly tainted lineup.

Strong biological evidence of Swift's innocence that existed before trial was also never presented to the jury. Prior to trial, defense counsel was provided with a report showing that Swift was a secretor (an individual whose blood group is evident from bodily fluids like semen and saliva) and that testing on semen stains from the robe and the sheet indicated that the semen stains may have been deposited by a non-secretor. Prosecutors called one of the two forensic analysts who conducted tests in the case. The analyst testified that semen was detected on the victim's robe and sheet, but that he did know whether the person who deposited the semen was a secretor. He said that the other analyst on the case had knowledge of this result. The defense did not cross-examine the analyst presented at trial, and waived the testimony of the other analyst entirely.

Swift's attorney, however, was not solely responsible for the failure to provide the jury with complete information about the forensic analysis. A second version of the lab report, which included additional lab results, was withheld by the police and never released to the prosecution or defense. The updated report provided further evidence that the source of the semen was likely a non-secretor and therefore unlikely to have been Walter Swift.

Swift's defense consisted mainly of an alibi. His girlfriend at the time testified that he was with her when the crime occurred. Swift's defense attorney, Lawrence R. Greene, failed to reveal serious flaws in the identification procedure, declined to cross-examine the forensic analyst who testified and did not call the other analyst as a witness. The attorney has been suspended from practicing law several times in the last decade based on misconduct and inadequate representation in other cases and his license was eventually revoked in Michigan.

After a two-day trial, Swift was convicted. Before his sentencing, Officer Paavola visited the judge to explain that she thought he had been wrongfully convicted. Later the same week, Paavola was transferred from the Sex Crimes Unit to patrol duty. Swift was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison.

Post-Conviction Appeals and Exoneration
The Innocence Project accepted Swift's case in 1998 and began requesting searches for the biological evidence in the case. Although all evidence in the case had been lost or destroyed, the investigation began to uncover solid evidence of Swift's innocence. In addition to staff attorneys and clinic students at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, a student from Ireland named Niamh Gunn was assigned to work on the case in 2003, and she would play a significant role in Swift's exoneration.

Gunn won a competition at her college in Ireland to work at the Innocence Project in the summer of 2003; she extended her stay as she became more involved in Swift's case and continued to work on his case for five years after returning to Ireland. In part because of her efforts, the police officer and lab analyst who worked on the case before Swift's trial supported his quest for exoneration.

The cooperation that brought about Swift's exoneration was unprecedented. The prosecutor who originally convicted him and Janice Paavola, the former police officer who testified at his trial, filed affidavits in support of vacating his conviction. The Innocence Project presented all of the evidence it had developed in the case to Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney Kym Worthy, whose office investigated the case thoroughly. Worthy's office joined the Innocence Project on May 21, 2008, in asking a Michigan judge to vacate Swift's conviction and dismiss the indictment. He was freed that afternoon after 26 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Innocence_Project_MidAtlantic_Innocence_Project_and_Hogan_Lovells_US_
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Innocence Project, Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and Hogan Lovells US LLP Ask Virginia Appeals Court to Exonerate a Richmond Man Who Has Served Nearly 27 Years for Rapes He Didn’t Commit

a Richmond Man Who Has Served Nearly 27 Years for Rapes He Didn’t Commit-haynesworth.jpg

Attorney General and Richmond and Henrico Commonwealth Attorneys Support His Claim of Innocence

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 3, 2011

The Innocence Project, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and Hogan Lovells US LLP is filing legal papers before the Virginia Court of Appeals today asking the court to exonerate a Richmond man who has been incarcerated nearly 27 years for three rapes that DNA and other evidence now show were committed by the notorious “Black Ninja” rapist. After an extensive investigation that included DNA testing, an exhaustive review of the evidence and polygraph tests, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Herring and Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney Wade Kizer are both calling for Mr. Haynesworth’s exoneration and return to freedom. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has also announced that he is supporting the writ seeking a declaration of innocence.

“This a tragic miscarriage of justice that occurred because law enforcement let the pressure of making an arrest in high profile crimes get in the way of finding the real perpetrator,” said Shawn Armbrust, director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project. “What’s particularly upsetting in this case is that after our client was arrested and behind bars, rapes matching the same MO continued, yet it didn’t occur to anyone that our client could have been innocent even though he insisted on his innocence throughout four trials.”

Peter Neufeld, Co-Director of the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law, added, “Forty years of social science research—much of it available when these crimes occurred—has concluded that identifications are often unreliable, especially in cross racial crimes. We hope this case will spur the legislature to demand that all departments across the state enact formal policies that are designed to prevent misidentification. ”

Between January 3 and February 1, 1984, five white women were the victims of rapes or attempted rapes by a young black male in the East End of Richmond, a small area overlapping both the City of Richmond and Henrico County. On February 5, 1984, Thomas Haynesworth, an 18-year-old Richmond resident with no prior record, was arrested after one of the victims identified him. The other four victims later picked his photo out of a photo array. Haynesworth was eventually convicted for crimes that occurred on January 3, 30 and February 1, 1984 and sentenced to 36 years in prison. He was acquitted of the crime that occurred on January 21, and the charges were dropped in a January 27 incident.

Rapes in the same general area continued throughout 1984 after Haynesworth was arrested, with more than 10 young white women being attacked by a young black male who began to refer to himself to his victims as the “Black Ninja.” On December 19, police arrested Leon Davis, who was charged with about a dozen rapes that took place during the last nine months of 1984. Davis was eventually convicted of at least three of those crimes and sentenced to multiple life terms.

After five men were exonerated through DNA testing of biological evidence in the case files of the Department of Forensic Science, Gov. Mark Warner ordered a review of all the cases between 1973 and 1988 where there was evidence suitable for DNA testing. As a result of this review, it was discovered that the semen recovered from the victim of Haynesworth’s January 3 rape conviction matched Davis, not Haynesworth.

At this point, the Innocence Project, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and Hogan Lovells US LLP reached out to the Richmond and Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorneys to review Haynesworth’s other convictions. While there was no physical evidence for his two remaining convictions, DNA testing proved that Davis was the perpetrator in the case for which Haynesworth was acquitted.

After additional review, the Richmond and Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorneys now agree that Haynesworth is also innocent of the other two crimes. Haynesworth and Davis are similar in appearance – DNA evidence now proves that the victims in two of Haynesworth’s cases misidentified him as Davis. However, Haynesworth is not quite 5’7” in height, while Davis is 5’10”. The victims in the two cases without physical evidence described their attacker as 5’9” or 5’10”. (Interestingly, after he was convicted, Haynesworth ran into Davis in the Richmond County Jail, and Davis asked him to appear at his trial in hopes of confusing the victim of his identity. Haynesworth refused.) Haynesworth also passed polygraph tests about both of the cases that were administered in the presence of the respective Commonwealth’s Attorneys. Additionally, the MO (modus operandi) in all of the cases is strikingly similar, including:

• Davis committed his crimes either in the early morning or early evening.

• Davis would generally approach his victims casually on the street and then force them to a secluded area.

• All of Davis’ victims were white females between 15 and 30. (According to U.S. Department of Justice data only 12% of forcible rapes are committed by perpetrators who rape women of other races. http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/ascii/SOO.TXT /)

• Davis robbed each of his victims, usually before sexually assaulting them.

• Davis typically engaged in the same sex acts with his victims.

• Davis was unusually talkative during his attacks.

• All of Davis’ attacks occurred in close proximity. The crimes that we now know he committed in the beginning of 1984 occurred within a five block radius of his then address on National Street in the East End of Richmond. Most of his later attacks occurred further west in the Fan District and the Museum District, consistent with the fact that he married and moved to Parham Road in Henrico. His wife worked at 2900 Kensington Avenue in Richmond, which is in the Fan District.

• Davis was armed during his attacks, usually with a knife. The attacker in the Henrico case used a gun but told his victim that he usually used a knife, and 36 hours later the attacker in the Richmond case matching the same description used a gun.

In the papers that will be filed today, Haynesworth asks the court to grant him a Nonbiological Writ of Actual Innocence. Even though his petition is supported by the Attorney General and both Commonwealth’s Attorneys now believe he is innocent, Haynesworth will likely remain incarcerated while the court decides the case. There are no mandatory deadlines for the court to reach a decision.

Misidentification is the cause of 75% of the wrongful convictions that have been overturned because of DNA testing. In 2005, the Virginia legislature passed a law requiring that each law enforcement agency in the state adopt written eyewitness identification policies, but the Virginia State Crime Commission found that, as of November 2010, at least 25% of the 134 departments across the state still did not have written identification policies and many of the departments with policies use procedures that fall short of best practices. While the Virginia State Crime Commission has vowed to continue seeking improvements, this case demonstrates why the legislature should act now to implement uniform, best practices across the state. Identification procedures that eliminate suggestion by requiring that the identification procedure be administered by an officer not assigned to the case, telling the witness that the perpetrator may not be in the lineup or photo array and asking the witness their level of confidence in the identification have proven effective in reducing wrongful convictions. Additional information about misidentification is available at www. http://www.innocenceproject.org/fix/Eyewitness-Identification.php.

“After five years of delay, it’s clear we need the legislature to step up and demand action. Mistaken identifications don’t just hurt the people who are wrongly identified. They hurt all of us because the real perpetrator goes uncaught,” said Olga Akselrod, a staff attorney with the Innocence Project.

Haynesworth would be the fourth person to be exonerated from the state’s review of 210 cases that occurred between 1973 and 1988 where there was sufficient evidence to conduct DNA testing. (There is also an exoneration pending for a Newport News man before the Virginia Supreme Court.) Funding for the review is being paid for largely through money from the federal government.

Download a copy of the writ filed today.

Review a timeline of the case.

The legal team includes Hogan Lovells US LLP partner Ellen Kennedy and associates Thomas Widor and Aaron George.

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CONTACTS: Paul Cates,pcates@innocenceproject.org
Alana Salzberg, asalzberg@innocenceproject.org

(Photo: Jay Paul)

About “Conviction” The Movie

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“Conviction,” an inspiring new film about a woman’s two-decade fight to overturn her brother’s wrongful conviction, opened in select theaters October 15, 2010 and will expand to screens around the world through the month of October.

Learn more about the true story behind the movie here.

The film, directed by Tony Goldwyn and written by Pamela Gray, was eight years in the making. Watch an interview with Goldwyn below, see media coverage of the film, read reviews or visit imdb and Fox Searchlight for more on the making of the film.