Fort Bend has no plans to stop controversial lineups
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WHAT IS A SCENT LINEUP?
To conduct lineups, investigators swab suspects to capture their scents. That sample is then put in a line with scents from five other people. A dog sniffs another item - typically evidence from the crime ...
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WHAT IS A SCENT LINEUP?
To conduct lineups, investigators swab suspects to capture their scents. That sample is then put in a line with scents from five other people. A dog sniffs another item - typically evidence from the crime scene, then smells all six scent samples to find a match.
Randy Morse, Pikett's attorney, says his client has successfully used this technique for 20 years. Critics say the lineups are filled with error caused by poor evidence collection and human interaction with the dogs.
RICHMOND - Scent identification lineups won't end, the sheriff here said Wednesday, as a deputy became a defendant in a fourth lawsuit.
Sheriff Milton Wright defended the work of Deputy Keith Pikett as a valuable tool for building criminal cases.
The latest complaint alleges Pikett used fraud to pin crimes including murder and burglary on three Houston men. With no evidence beyond the hounds' identification, the cases against Ronald Curtis, Cedric Johnson and Curvis Bickham collapsed, according to a complaint filed by Houston attorney Katherine Scardino.
Criticism of Pikett's methods started in 2008, when former Victoria County Sheriff's captain Michael Buchanek, 55, filed suit claiming civil rights violations by Pikett and other investigators. Buchanek's home was searched after Pikett's dogs walked from the site where Sally Blackwell's body was found, to her home, then to Buchanek's nearby house.
The dogs also picked Buchanek's scent in a series of lineups. Another man later confessed to the murder, and is spending life in prison.
Then came a suit by 43-year-old Calvin Lee Miller. The Yoakum man spent two months in jail, accused of robbery and aggravated sexual assault based on scent evidence.
DNA evidence cleared Miller, but he still felt forced to move from his hometown after his release.
Since those suits were filed, lawyers have seen scent lineups as a juicy peach, and everyone wants a bite, Wright said.
"I think once they lose they'll pack up their tents and go," Wright said.
Jeff Blackburn, the chief counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas, doesn't plan to abandon the fight. Blackburn authored a scathing study of Pikett's practices in September and called for legislators and law enforcement to halt to the lineups.
Scent lineups are just one example of junk science that's been allowed into Texas courtrooms, Blackburn said.
According to the report, Pikett doesn't keep accurate records, nor does he conform to accepted scientific practices.
"That is a perfect example of irresponsibility of law enforcement and proof of why we're going to have to keep fighting for criminal justice reform in this state," Blackburn said in response to Wright's defense of Pikett.
Pikett is a responsible deputy who operates according to department policy, Wright said. The sheriff's office only uses scent identification as one piece of evidence to establish probable cause.
"Just because the dog says this is it, that's not a conviction," Wright said.
But the cases against Pikett suggest some investigators relied almost exclusively on scent lineups to make arrests. A lineup and an unidentified witness' word Miller bought drugs with cash led to his arrest, according to an affidavit.
Wright hadn't read the affidavit, which was prepared by a Yoakum police officer.
"I think this will go away," Wright said.
Comments
Ya he comes to small towns and thinks he is helping. I am going to wait and see what happens here with this act. His dogs don't do justice!
November 8, 2009 at 6:44 p.m.The following is copied from an incident in Florida
Dillon and Wolfinger both place some blame on John Preston, a dog handler who claimed his animals could track scents months after a suspect was present. He testified his dog found Dillon's scent on the shirt and at the crime scene. He was later discredited and died last year. Preston's testimony was also used against Wilton Dedge, convicted in Brevard in the early 1980s of sexual assault. DNA evidence freed him in 2004, and the Legislature awarded him $2 million
The whole article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091106/a...
Inconvenienced???? Justice Served????
REDXIII, You can't be serious???? I would love to see you inconvenienced for two months, while you sat in a jail cell for something you didn't do and the only reason you were there was because some dog trainer said you were guilty.
Every minute that an innocent person sits in jail because of this insanity, should be doubled and applied to the dog trainer, judge, DA's and Jury that found these poor folks guilty based on this, for lack of a better word, evidence.
Inconvenienced!!!??? REDXIII I hope you were joking!!!
November 6, 2009 at 9:47 a.m.Police might as well go ahead and use tarot cards, runres, ouija boards, and pshychic readings to compliment the scent I.D. and their gut feeling and intuition. And if they get it wrong, gee, the guy has the judicial system to protect him. No apologies ever from the people who practice witchcraft and call it science.
November 5, 2009 at 5:22 p.m.REDXIII...Before you jump on me, I re-read the story and realized that Miller wasn't the one who was charged with murder. Gee, HE was only charged with robbery and aggrevated sexual assault. It was ANOTHER INNOCENT PERSON who was accused of murder and still other innocent people accused of other felonies. BECAUSE A FREAKIN' DOG SAID SO! Makes me wonder if the Fort Bend Sheriff's Department also uses Tarot cards and ouiji boards. Maybe the Magic 8 Ball -- "Oh, Magic 8 Ball, tell us who done it."
November 5, 2009 at 4:46 p.m.REDXIII..."The individual was inconvienced however justice was eventually served and he was released."
INCONVIENCED!?!? Red, the man was charged with MURDER and spent two months in jail for something he DIDN'T DO! This is OKAY with you? You call it an INCONVIENCE? This is an OUTRAGE. This is NOT law enforcement. This is draconian; like something out of Kafka. How do you measure the damage to a person's reputation when the state falsely accuses him of murder? How do you compensate for that?
In another thread yesterday, I wrote to BubbleheadJones that most of us would like to support our local police but a lot of us don't trust them to be doing their jobs to our benefit; in our best interest. And that was talking about traffic enforcement! This is so far removed from reasonable investigative techniques as to be unbelieveable -- except that it happened. I guarantee that if this had happened to YOU, YOU would NOT consider it a mere inconvience. My most sincere hope for the outcome of this case is for Mr. Miller to be awarded a vast fortune at the expense of the Sheriff's Department, the Sheriff personally, and Deputy Pikett and that the award is affirmed upon appeal. I have little expectation this will happen, however. The power of the state is seldom successfully challenged.
November 5, 2009 at 4:36 p.m.That is why we have checks and balances within the justice system to protect you until the evidence shows you are guilty. The method used by scent has been utilized by PD's for many years and should continue to be utilized to track crimnals until their are none to track.
The individual was inconvienced however justice was eventually served and he was released.
Nothing man does or ever will do is fool proof and we have to understand that. The individual involved should not have felt guilt after the fact was settled unless there is more to the story than what has been told.
November 5, 2009 at 3:16 p.m.well said wayward.
November 5, 2009 at 12:11 p.m.I hope the jurys come back with HUGE awards for the plaintiffs. That seems to be the only way to convince the idiot sheriff that Pikett's dogs aren't the way to go in a criminal investigation. Especially when the dogs provide the ONLY "evidence" against someone. Until somebody figures out how to cross examine a pooch, they should be limited to tracking lost children, if indeed they are qualified to do that.
November 5, 2009 at 10:46 a.m."Sheriff Milton Wright defended the work of Deputy Keith Pikett as a valuable tool for building criminal cases." OMG, this is like continuing to use a broken clock proclaiming it is right twice a day.
November 5, 2009 at 8:33 a.m.