PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "On Aug. 8, 1997, 16-month-old Nakeavia Rivers was rushed to the hospital minutes after she began showing signs of sickness. She died the same day from significant internal bleeding caused by a liver injury. Police questioned Burgess, who was dating the child's mother, and he maintained his innocence. But after a second two-hour interview five days after the child's death, during which officers threatened Burgess, physically stopped him from leaving the interrogation and "indicated (he) could not afford counsel and denied him counsel," Burgess signed a written confession, according to the lawsuit. Giles County chose Harlan to perform the child's autopsy, despite his being suspended and terminated from other positions in the state, including as Tennessee's chief medical examiner, based on critical problems with his work. The lawsuit describes Harlan as "the scum Defendants used to shore up Mr. Burgess’ coerced confession and continue to maliciously prosecute him."
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GIST: "Wayne Burgess, a man wrongfully imprisoned 24 years on the testimony of a disgraced medical examiner, has filed a lawsuit against the county, city and police officers that investigated and prosecuted him.
Burgess, 59, was released from prison in May last year after a Giles County judge overturned the first-degree murder conviction he received in 1999, which was reached in large part due to the flawed testimony of former medical examiner Charles Harlan. Judge David L. Allen found that new scientific evidence showed Burgess was innocent of the 1997 death of his then-girlfriend's daughter.
On April 12, Burgess filed a federal lawsuit against Giles County, the Pulaski Police Department and Joel Robison and John Dickey, the two officers he says illegally coerced a confession from him. Dickey is now the police chief of Pulaski.
"As a result of this wrongful conviction Wayne spent an unimaginable 24 years in prison, unjustly plucked from society in the prime of his life," the lawsuit states.
Burgess is seeking compensation from the defendants in an amount to be determined at trial, but he asks that the amount exceed the limits of lower courts. Burgess' attorney John Morris said money awarded through the lawsuit would allow Burgess to live more independently following nearly a quarter century of incarceration.
"I think that's the least the system owes him for stealing 24 years of his life from him," Morris said. He said Burgess is a kind-hearted man and does not hold animus toward the system.
People who are exonerated or pardoned can submit a claim to the Tennessee Department of Treasury, although state law caps the amount paid out at $1 million.
Burgess has not yet filed a claim, treasury department communications director Shelli King said. Morris explained that before Burgess will be able to submit a claim, he must first be exonerated by the governor. To begin that process he must submit paperwork to the Tennessee Board of Parole.
On Aug. 8, 1997, 16-month-old Nakeavia Rivers was rushed to the hospital minutes after she began showing signs of sickness. She died the same day from significant internal bleeding caused by a liver injury.
Police questioned Burgess, who was dating the child's mother, and he maintained his innocence. But after a second two-hour interview five days after the child's death, during which officers threatened Burgess, physically stopped him from leaving the interrogation and "indicated (he) could not afford counsel and denied him counsel," Burgess signed a written confession, according to the lawsuit.
Giles County chose Harlan to perform the child's autopsy, despite his being suspended and terminated from other positions in the state, including as Tennessee's chief medical examiner, based on critical problems with his work. The lawsuit describes Harlan as "the scum Defendants used to shore up Mr. Burgess’ coerced confession and continue to maliciously prosecute him."
In September 2022, lawyers with the Tennessee Innocence Project filed a petition to review his case. Several medical professionals testified that Harlan's theory of the case, used to convict Burgess, was scientifically impossible.
Burgess' conviction was overturned on April 13, 2023, and he was released from prison on May 23, 2023. The state chose not to prosecute him again on July 25, 2023, according to an employee at the Giles County Circuit Court Clerk's office.
Harlan lost his medical license for good in 2005. He died in 2013.
Giles County Executive Graham Stowe said the county does not yet have a response because it was only served with the lawsuit on Monday.
A lieutenant at the Pulaski Police Department did not return The Tennessean's voicemail left Monday seeking comment, and the person who answered the phone said that Dickey was not available for comment. A voicemail was left Monday with a phone number believed to belong to Robison found through an online database.
This story was updated April 23, 2024 at 4 p.m. with comment from Morris, Burgess' attorney. Parts of the story regarding potential payments from local governments and deadlines for Burgess to submit a claim to the Tennessee Department of Treasury were edited following clarification from Morris.
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2024/04/23/wayne-burgess-murder-conviction-overturned-sues-pulaski-police-giles-county/73412940007/Dr. Adele M. Lewis, chief medical examiner for the state of Tennessee, reviewed the autopsy report and concluded that based on the amount of blood found in the child, it was “physiologically impossible” for Nakeavia to “suddenly, in a matter of minutes (the supposed time between injury and the onset of unresponsiveness in this case), internally bleed twice their total blood volume…Instead it is more likely that the child sustained the lethal injury hours or even days” before she arrived at hospital.
Dr. Thomas P. Rauth, a pediatric surgeon, said that the injury that Dr. Harlan said was a “fairly significant laceration” was in fact “a low grade, superficial non-penetrating injury.” Nearly 100 percent of these types of injuries are treated without a surgical procedure, Dr. Rauth said. The rate of blood loss is so slow that the body’s natural clotting system usually stops the bleeding, he said. Dr. Rauth said Nakeavia likely died from “severe hypovolemia,” a condition where the body loses a significant amount of fluid or blood which causes the organs to stop functioning and shut down. The girl died because of some prior trauma for which she did not get treatment.
Dr. Brandon Baughman, a neuropsychologist, conducted cognitive testing on Burgess and concluded that his full-scale IQ was 69, placing Burgess in the second percentile. The petition noted that Burgess had been mischaracterized as a B or C student. Had his defense lawyers obtained Burgess’s academic records, they would have seen that in his junior and senior years of high school, Burgess received nine Fs, three Ds, two Cs, and two As [both of these were in physical education]. His college transcript showed he took 11 classes worth 34 hours of credit. He received 5 Fs, two Ds, one C, two C minuses, and one A [in conditioning exercises.].
Dr. Brian L. Cutler, an expert in forensic psychology and false confessions, reviewed the evidence and concluded that Burgess was susceptible to making a false confession, in particular since he was threatened with violence during the interrogation.
The petition cited in painstaking detail the history of Dr. Harlan and how intense investigative scrutiny and disciplinary hearings had revealed bizarre and unsettling findings. In May 2005, following two years of hearings, the State of Tennessee permanently revoked Harlan’s medical license, citing 20 counts of misconduct while serving as Medical Examiner. This was a highly unusual action. Denise McNally, then-director of the National Association of Medical Examiners, remarked “I’ve been doing it 26 years, and I haven’t had a member yet have their license revoked."
The Board of Medical Licensure based its revocation on findings that Harlan had been guilty of five instances of unprofessional conduct, three instances of dishonest conduct, two instances of making false statements, eight instances of negligence, one instance of fraud or deceit involving medical practice, one instance of signing a certificate known to be false, two instances of malpractice, and five instances of incompetence.
The facts bordered on ghoulish: Harlan once replied to a bank’s request for proof of a client’s death that "M.L. is dead. She is green and has maggots crawling on her." In another case, a tenant renting a house from Harlan discovered body parts in a jar and tissue samples in a chocolate box. Harlan’s wife, Gretel, also a pathologist, once explained while testifying that the tissue samples belonged to her two pet dogs upon whom she had performed an autopsy.
In 1993, Davidson County Medical Examiner, Dr. Julia Goodin, had prohibited her office from conducting private autopsies, which had caused a backlog of autopsy cases. Charles Harlan violated this policy and performed private autopsies without permission, for which he was suspended without pay. In 1995, Harlan was barred from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations crime laboratory and his contract as state medical examiner was terminated, although he retained private contracts with various Tennessee counties.
The petition noted that Harlan had falsified an autopsy report in the 2001 case of James Suttle, who had been accused of first-degree murder. Suttle claimed his cousin, Stevie Hobbs, had suffered a seizure and fallen through a glass table, but Dr. Harlan insisted that Hobbs had been stabbed to death, opining that the stab wounds had occurred shortly before death. Forensic expert Dr. Bill Bass proved that Dr. Harlan's theory was false—the murder weapon would have had to turn at a right angle inside Hobbs's body, a medical impossibility which set Suttle free. This sparked a review of Dr. Harlan's cases that revealed serious misconduct, including:
—Dr. Harlan had falsely identified a body as belonging to an escaped convict, Bruce Allen Littleton, who was discovered alive two years later in connection with another crime.
—Dr. Harlan also determined that two children had died of SIDS when, in fact, a parent had murdered them.
—Dr. Harlan listed a 10-year-old 's cause of death as natural when the child weighed only 18 pounds, a clear case of neglect.
—Dr. Harlan also allowed his dog into the autopsy room on one occasion; the dog consumed some of the remains of a murder victim.
A hearing on the petition was held in March 2023. On April 13, 2023, Giles County Circuit Court Judge David Allen granted the petition and vacated Burgess’s conviction.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
