Notorious pedophile dies in prison

Kenneth Parnell, one of California's most infamous child molesters, died Monday night of natural causes, bringing to a close a strange and warped story in the annals of pedophilia.

I recall Parnell's trial vividly, as it was top news back in 1981, when I was a journalism student. I even wrote a term paper analyzing coverage of the case. Parnell was convicted of abducting 7-year-old Steven Stayner and keeping the boy confined for more than 7 years, until his escape in 1980.

Stayner became something of a hero for freeing Parnell’s next would-be victim, 5-year-old Timmy White. But Stayner went on to tragedy, dying in a motorcycle accident in 1989.

Stranger yet, Stayner's brother Cary Stayner went on to become a serial killer of women in Yosemite National Park; he's currently on San Quentin's Death Row.

(A little stream of consciousness here - I was just over at San Quentin this morning, and happened to observe filming of an upcoming Clint Eastwood movie, "The Changeling," about the bizarre events surrounding a man sentenced to hang for the murder-rape-kidnaps of little boys back in the 1920s. Very cool vintage taxi they had driving up and down by the main prison gate; I believe star Angelina Jolie will be riding in it in the movie, although neither she nor Eastwood were in evidence at the prison today.)

Anyway, back to the Parnell case. After serving his time, Parnell was paroled to Berkeley. A sickly and doddering 71-year-old, in 2004 he tried to buy a 4-year-old child from his caretaker for yet another round of child molestation. So much for the hope that old age and infirmity automatically preclude sexual reoffending.

"Kenneth Parnell's death brings to a close his long criminal history of victimizing young children," said Alameda County deputy district attorney Tim Wellman, who prosecuted Parnell in the 2004 case.

He died at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville after a long illness.

The Crime Library has a detailed case history; Wikipedia also has a biography.

Meanwhile, shocking revelations by Canadian pathologist

Let's turn now from the Masters to a case of expert witness malfeasance that's been sending shockwaves through the criminal justice system up in Canada. Back in November, I blogged a couple of times about forensic pathologist Charles Smith, whose decades of expert testimony for the government compounded the misery of grieving parents by sending many to prison for the accidental deaths of their children.

This week, Dr. Smith took the stand in the ongoing judicial inquiry and made a couple of shocking revelations:

1. Biased for prosecution

Most shockingly, he admitted that, far from being the neutral scientist he portrayed himself to be, he actually was biased in favor of the prosecutors who hired him.

"I honestly believed it was my role to support the Crown attorney. I was there to make a case look good," he admitted in his first day of testimony before an ongoing judicial inquiry into what went wrong in the cases.

2. "Ignorant"

Second, he admitted that he was "profoundly ignorant" of the criminal justice system. In stating this, he apologized for the "mistakes" he made during some two decades of performing child autopsies in cases of suspicious death.

3. Trained others experts

Despite now admitting to bias and ignorance, back in the day Dr. Smith lectured other doctors on how to be an expert witness in court. In court today, he was shown a speech he delivered entitled, "See You in Court: The Invitation You Can't Refuse," in which he cautioned doctors never to be an advocate for one side or the other. How's that for hypocrisy.

Among those whose lives were torn apart by Smith’s "mistakes" are several mothers who spent years in jail until the cases against them fell apart, and a man who was finally exonerated after spending more than a decade in prison for the death of his niece.

One commonality among many of the cases was the socioeconomic status of the accused, who included racial minorities, aboriginals, and single mothers. Although the adversarial system is premised on an equal fight between the accused and the government, economically disadvantages defendants do not have the wherewithal to obtain their own experts to challenge the government's experts. This is especially dangerous when the expert – as in Smith’s case - appears neutral, well qualified, and scientific.

These multiple emerging scandals - which include the Colorado case of Tim Masters, the British case of Sir Roy Meadows (who falsely accusing dozens of mothers of so-called "Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy") and the Mississippi case of forensic odontologist Michael West - are driving home the fact that experts are not infallible and should not be accepted without skepticism.

More on the Smith hearings, including video coverage, is at the Toronto Star and the Charles Smith Blog. My prior posts on the case are here and here. My blog post on forensic odontologist Michael West (a bite-mark expert) is here.

Masters scandal highlights need for oversight of prosecutors

Revelations of official malfeasance such as occurred in the Tim Masters case cause a massive erosion of public confidence in the judicial system. The potential upside is reforms to safeguard other citizens from being similarly railroaded.

For example, "Masters is free, but justice not yet served" is the headline of a hard-hitting editorial in the Coloradoan, calling for just such reforms.

But reforms will not come easy. As a new book explains, prosecutors in the United States wield ever-growing power under new laws granting them unfettered "prosecutorial discretion" in charging and sentencing decisions.

Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor is the book, authored by public defender Angela J. Davis (no, she's not the same Angela Davis you're probably thinking of).

Arbitrary Justice does two things:

• It exposes the "dangerous shift in power from judges to prosecutors" (in the words of law prof Barry Schenk of Innocence Project fame) happening in the courthouse trenches.

• It provides a detailed agenda for reforms aimed at safeguarding defendants, victims, and the public at large.

Hat tip: Corrections Sentencing. Photo is of author Angela J. Davis. See more about the book at its dedicated web site. More blog posts on the Tim Masters case are listed here.

Japanese may record police interrogations

A series of highly publicized wrongful conviction cases in the Western world has led to vigorous debate over coercive police tactics and whether all interrogations should be recorded. Now, with its own recent revelations of coerced confessions, the Japanese criminal justice system is confronting the same issues.

The debate in Japan centers around next year's introduction of a lay-judge system, in which citizens will begin serving in juror-like capacities for the first time. The new system will require police to present to these non-professionals what suspects said during police questioning.

The Supreme Court, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, the Justice Ministry and the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office have set up a panel to discuss filming interrogations, with the bar federation demanding the introduction of cameras.

The full story is in today’s Daily Yomiuri online.

Teen male violence linked to aggressive sports

The sports culture surrounding football and wrestling may be fueling violence among teen male players and also among their male friends, according to a Penn State study released this week.

"Sports such as football, basketball, and baseball provide players with a certain status in society," said Derek Kreager, assistant professor of sociology in the Crime, Law, and Justice program. "But football and wrestling are associated with violent behavior because both sports involve some physical domination of the opponent, which is rewarded by the fans, coaches and other players."

Analyzing data from about 7,000 male students at 120 schools, the researchers found that football players and wrestlers were especially likely to get into serious fights. Perhaps more startingly, just having football-playing friends predicted violence among boys who were not athletes.

The Penn State press release is here.

Hat tip: Kirk Witherspoon

Killing time: Dead men waiting on Oregon's death row

Today's Willamette Week of Portland, Oregon has a hard-hitting expose of capital punishment in that northwestern mecca, complete with an interactive display of the 35 men on death row. Here are excerpts; the complete story is here.

. . . Whether you’re for or against capital punishment, you should be outraged by what's happening. To please the tough-on-crime crowd, we keep the death penalty. But to appease progressives, or to assuage our own conscience, nobody actually gets killed. . . .

Yet for the most part, this shameful situation stays hidden. Death row is tucked away on the third floor of a building deep inside the Oregon State Penitentiary. The rarely used execution chamber is behind locked doors in the same prison. And no executions means no front-page headlines.

"A lot of people aren’t even aware that we have a death penalty here," says Rachel Hardesty, a Portland State University criminal justice professor who has spent a decade studying capital punishment in Oregon. . . .

Nationwide, experts say capital cases are 20 times more expensive to prosecute because of the length of appeals. Oregon officials don't make guesses about how much it will cost here, because after 24 years of letting juries sentence killers to death, not a single case has yet gone all the way through the appeals system.

But Bill Long, a Willamette University law professor and death penalty opponent who wrote the only book on capital punishment in Oregon, has estimated Oregon's oldest cases could end up costing more than $10 million per defendant (the national average for capital cases is around $3 million). . . . Added up for all 35 capital-punishment cases, that totals $35.7 million in public-safety money. . . .

Meanwhile, there are about 50 more defendants currently charged with death penalty crimes in Oregon, which will suck more than $50 million more out of the state budget if the defendants are sentenced to death. Despite the expense, they may never see execution. Nationwide, only 12 percent of people who are sentenced to death are actually executed.

That leaves even death penalty proponents questioning whether the cost is worth it.

Hat tip: Sentencing Law & Policy