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Questionable Criminal Cases

Desert Fox

Philosopher
Desert Fox
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Messages
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I wanted to discuss come cases which are more questionable.
Wanted this also separate from the AK/RS thread

Want to start with Murder of Derek William Reginald Haysom and Nancy Astor Langhorne (Benedict) Haysom.

Jens Söring was convicted but when tested in 2009, 42 items of evidence from the crime scene were tested and none had his DNA.
As well, the vehicle he was suppose to use had no blood in it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Söring
http://wvtf.org/post/jens-soering-back-spotlight

Thoughts on this case?
 
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Sorry if I'm missing something, but how is this thread different from your other thread about bad murder cases?
 
Desert Fox said:
Jens Söring was convicted but when tested in 2009, 42 items of evidence from the crime scene were tested and none had his DNA.
As well, the vehicle he was suppose to use had no blood in it.
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Perhaps he really didn't do it. But his purported reason for confessing to the crime was to protect his girlfriend, whom he knew to be the real killer. For this deliberate lie and successful attempt to thwart justice he deserves to do the time.

I have no sympathy for him. If what he now says is true then he freely gave up his own freedom so that his girlfriend would get a lesser sentence. What if she got let out early, and killed someone else? That death would be on his hands.
 
Doghouse Reilly said:
Sorry if I'm missing something, but how is this thread different from your other thread about bad murder cases?
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I thought it might be different because i though there might be some who argue guilt in these cases in a meaningful manner.
 
Roger Ramjets said:
Perhaps he really didn't do it. But his purported reason for confessing to the crime was to protect his girlfriend, whom he knew to be the real killer. For this deliberate lie and successful attempt to thwart justice he deserves to do the time.

I have no sympathy for him. If what he now says is true then he freely gave up his own freedom so that his girlfriend would get a lesser sentence. What if she got let out early, and killed someone else? That death would be on his hands.
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Kind of part of how I feel. . . .I think he had something to do with this case.
I do not think however he was the actual attacker or was in close proximity of the killing.
 
Doghouse Reilly said:
Ah, I understand now. I wasn't seeing the difference at first but now I do.
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When they had Jens Söring talking and confessed,
I don't understand why once they had the confession that they did not try to get more of what happened. They would not have known about the DNA evidence but they would have know about the rental vehicle having no blood in it. Why did the detectives not ask about it?
 
What do people make of the conviction of Michael Stone for the murders of Lynn and Megan Russell?

He was initially suspected when his psychiatrist contacted the police about his resemblance to the photofit made by the survivor of the attack (and the fact that he was a psychopath with violent fantasies). The main evidence he was convicted on was that he supposedly confessed to other prisoners whilst on remand. After his conviction, one of those prisoners admitted he had made the confession up. The conviction was quashed, but he was again found guilty at the retrial. The remaining confession evidence was presented at trial as containing details of the crime supposedly not in the public domain, however it turns out that those details had appeared in tabloids that the prisoners had access to on the day of the supposed confession.

There is no physical evidence that links Stone to the crime, and the photofit and description of the perpetrator as "tall like my dad" better fits a man (Levi Bellfield) who was later convicted of other killings which are very similar (use of a hammer). Bellfield drove a car similar to one seen by witnesses which he sold shortly afterwards.
 
That one was running in my mind too. Have you read David Wolchover's piece on it? (I've fallen out with David Wolchover over his muscling into the Lockerbie case without getting up to speed properly, but that doesn't necessarily detract from his paper on Stone.)

The evidence seems very dubious indeed for all sorts of reasons, not least why would Stone specifically request to be moved to solitary to prevent himself being the victim of a made-up jailhouse snitch confession, and then immediately start confessing to somenoe through some sort of tin-can-and-string communication system?

The only doubts I have are that he was in the area on the day, and he was a dangerous nutter. Two dangerous nutters on the loose in the same place at the same time? Also, as more time passes and the actual murderer doesn't re-offend, one does wonder where he went. And nasty cases reported in Australia in recent years? Any blond guys with close haircuts in custody?

ETA: I hadn't read to the end of your post when I typed the above (silly me). I didn't know about this Bellfield guy. Do tell. (Disclaimer, it's been a while since I read the Wolchover article and I may be misremembering details.)

Rolfe.
 
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Rolfe said:
Also, as more time passes and the actual murderer doesn't re-offend, one does wonder where he went.

Any blond guys with close haircuts in custody?

Rolfe.
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Well if it is Levi Bellfield, he's in prison.

ETA Levi Bellfield is the killer of Milly Dowler, Marsha McDonnell and Amélie Delagrange, and attempted murder of Kate Sheedy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Bellfield

Also note that he sold his car shortly after one of the murders; he also sold his car (fitting description of one seen) shortly after the Russell murders.

I haven't read that Wolchover article yet, but I will do.
 
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That's an interesting piece of the puzzle. The article I read is actually relatively old, although very detailed. Stone seems like the sort of guy juries would be reluctant to acquit even if the evidence wasn't good. However, Wolchover makes a very persuasive case for his innocence.

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe said:
That's an interesting piece of the puzzle. The article I read is actually relatively old, although very detailed. Stone seems like the sort of guy juries would be reluctant to acquit even if the evidence wasn't good. However, Wolchover makes a very persuasive case for his innocence.
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Cameron Todd Willingham does not seem to have been a very nice guy but I am pretty damn sure that he is NOT guilty of arson and murder.
 
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Matthew Best said:
Really? What makes you so sure? The case against him seems rather flimsy, especially as some experts have said that no arson actually took place.
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I am sorry, I made a horrid typo
I mean that he is NOT guilty of arson and murder.
 
Or Jeremy Bamber.

Jeremy Neville Bamber (born 13 January 1961) is serving life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in the UK after being convicted by a 10–2 majority in October 1986 of the White House Farm murders, which took place in Essex, England in August 1985. He was told by the Home Secretary in 1994 that he would never be released. He is the only whole-life prisoner in the UK who is known to protest his innocence.[1]

Bamber was 25 years old when he was convicted of having shot and killed his adoptive father, mother, sister and her six-year-old twin sons in his parents' home at White House Farm. The prosecution argued successfully that, after carrying out the murders to secure a large inheritance, Bamber had placed the gun in his 28-year-old sister's hands to make it look like a murder–suicide. She had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and for several weeks after the murders the police and media believed she was the killer.[2]
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Prepare to abandon all your other interests if you decide to get into this one. It is complicated.
 
The one thing I did note is that he passed a polygraph. . . .

I take little stock in that because I read of people that the evidence seems to show as being guilty passing and those that the evidence shows as innocent as showing guilt with a polygraph

I think they should be disallowed completely from law enforcement use.
 
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