Indiana house exdplosion update

[clare]

Explain the missing evidence. And today's science is proving a lot of what "the law" "KNEW" is just not so.

[HeyBub]

The ability of the Governor of Texas to interfere in an execution is severely restricted. On his own motion, he can issue ONE stay for, I believe, thirty days. Anything else, up to and including remission of sentence, pardon, or additional stays have to be initiated by the state board of Pardons & Parols. If the board does vote for a stay, the governor may consent to the stay or decline the recommendation.

Courts, both federal and state, have their own policies, but, by far, more stays are issued by the courts than the governor's office.

[clare]

What's that got to do with the price of chicken milk in Omaha??

[krw]

Only on Sunday.

[Robert Green]

"Breathtaking?" Either you are easily impressed or you watch too many shows on Lifetime. Please don't start to "giggle" like a geisha next. (-:

The comment was meant to illustrate that accident investigation theory is undergoing a profound change and that principles that had been accepted for decades are being cast aside. If there was any sort of fire, plastic melting could be a factor depending on what kind of ignition system was used.

If you followed the investigation of the San Bruno blast of the 30" high pressure main, you'd know that the forensics of gas explosions is undergoing change as well. It took quite some for experts to discover the possible causes of the failure and ongoing civil litigation reveals there's still doubt about whether it was a failed weld or corrosion (caused by impurities and condensation that pooled in an improperly sloped section of the pipe). As always, the potentially negligent parties deny any role in the explosion.

You were there? (-: In my experience the larger the crime scene, the harder it is to control. Whenever fire and rescue are involved searching the scene for possible survivors, a good attorney can cast doubt on any evidence found perhaps days later. Look at the Travon Martin shooting. Not a very well-secured crime scene and that's become a big issue in that case.

Accidental contamination of the crime scene is sadly the rule, not the exception. At least from what I've seen. Neighbors, EMT's, lookie-lous, etc. Remember, I'm talking about *good* lawyers. The odds are if this was an arson-for-profit crime the defendants don't have any money to pay a real attorney. Most likely they'll get a public defender with no budget to rebut the state's expert witnesses.

Arsonists are inventive. In Boston, investigators were stumped for quite some time by a professional arsonist who used gasoline soaked rats in a cage that he lit on fire as he released them into a building he wanted to burn. Very, very little in the way of forensics because almost all abandoned buildings harbor rats and there was no mechanical igniter. The gasoline used was not enough per rat to trigger the hydrocarbon "sniffers" used by arson investigators.

The case broke only because a cop saw a flaming rat running across the street in front of his patrol car just *before* a building erupted into flame and saw the arsonist's van peel out. Usually the rats would run into the building looking for hole or some sort of cover, but this rat ran out of the building instead. Of course, he was a professional (the arsonist, not the rat!). The Indiana people are likely amateurs who often fold under interrogation. These are the kinds of cases where the DAs really, REALLY want a confession because of the evidentiary problems that arson cases often present.

-- Bobby G.

[HeyBub]

Texas recently did away with the "last meal" tradition. Formerly, a condemned prisoner could request anything for his last meal, with some exceptions such as alcohol or cigarettes, whose cost to the prison system did not exceed fifty dollars.

Now, the prisoner gets, for his last meal, the same thing as everybody else in the place.

Considering the number of executions that take place in Texas, fifty bucks per adds up to a nifty sum pretty quickly.

[HeyBub]

I considered constructing a web site:

thelastmeal.org.

It's purpose would be to solicit donations to provide this last meal of virtually anything the condemned wanted*. I'd have to get the state's prison officials on board, but I don't see any real problem with that. In the first place, they'd save a little money, but more importantly, they'd get atta-boys for being the compassionate public servants we all know deep-down they are.

Those who contribute would bask in the certain knowledge they are helping the soul of an unfortunate transition from worldly pain into the loving arms of baby Jesus (with suitable substitutions for Muslims, Jews, and vegetarians).

Of course there would probably be significant expenses involved: administration, supervision, correspondence, etc., that would accrue to thelastmeal.org's clerical staff (me), but I wouldn't take more than half the salary of the United Way's CEO.

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• Alternatively, the inmate could choose from a comprehensive menu provided by thelastmeal.org

[Robert Green]

Give yourself some creadit. You heard about the case. That's more than a lot of people know.

I would say "is moving more into the realm of science" because there's plenty of just awful accident reconstruction out there, whether fire, explosion or collision. The advent of easy-to-use simulation programs make it very easy for someone who's not really an experienced professional to make a presentation that impresses the hell out of a jury, even if it's a total fabrication.

I once had the pleasure of watching a crusty old one-armed judge from North Carolina eject an alleged forensic expert. The expert had never been to the site and only had a pack of drugstore color prints taken by an insurance investigator to work from.

It will take a while for the new methodologies to "ripple" through the profession. Sometimes it takes a generation for the old guys to retire and new guys to come up trained in the modern way of doing things. When DNA first became prevalent, evidence techs used to saturate a crime scene with Luminol to make blood spatter appear under UV light. It also contaminated the living hell out of the DNA, rendering it useless for matching purposes.

It has taken a while for investigators to understand how to preserve and collect DNA. I was surprised to learn that as of the OJ case, some big-city homicide detectives still didn't get it right.

Rick will make a wonderful President of the Republic of Texas when they secede from the Union.

I thought he was the most electable of the field and was surprised to see him knocked out of the box so early. So he forgot stuff and froze - running a state as large as Texas seems to me to be good OJT for a would-be POTUS.

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

Accident reconstruction is more art than science in my experience. Lots of people think the debris leaves an unequivocal trail of clues that always points to the right culprit. Not so. Anyone recall the story of the California fire investigator/author/arsonist John Orr?

-- Bobby G.