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Thursday, November 20, 2008 | 
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1 Comment [ View ]Griffin avoids death penalty; jury recommends life without parole
LOGAN — Glen Howard Griffin should not receive the death penalty, jurors in the case recommended Thursday.The 12-member jury instead recommended Griffin be sentenced to life without parole for the May 26, 1984, stabbing and bludgeoning death of Bradley Newell Perry at a Brigham City gas station.
Jurors deliberated for a little under two hours before returning with the decision at 11:45 a.m.
Griffin was linked to the case after DNA evidence was discovered on a dollar bill given as change to two University of Utah college students at the gas station the night of the crime.
Griffin had the choice of being prosecuted under Utah’s homicide statute as it was in 1984, or under the 1992 version, which gives juries the life-without-parole option.
It’s been widely reported that Griffin had decided against having life without parole on the table.
But attorneys in the case Wednesday said Griffin changed his mind during the proceedings.
First District Court Judge Ben Hadfield will formally sentence Griffin on Dec. 3.
Officials said this is only the fifth time in 11 years that a death penalty case has gone to a sentencing hearing in Utah.
Griffin was arrested in 2005, 21 years after the crime.
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Whenever I find that DNA testing is being done, I want to know:
What were the DNA tests that were run? In the CODIS database of Maryland, of fewer than 30,000 profiles, 32 pairs matched at nine or more loci. Three of those pairs were “perfect” matches, identical at 13 out of 13 loci. Experts say they most likely are duplicates or belong to identical twins or brothers, but they did not establish that.
A study of the Arizona CODIS database carried out in 2005 showed that approximately 1 in every 228 profiles in the database matched another profile in the database at nine or more loci, that approximately 1 in every 1,489 profiles matched at 10 loci, 1 in 16,374 profiles matched at 11 loci, and 1 in 32,747 matched at 12 loci.
In a recent case against a Murillo-Sosa, a jury was told the match was 5 of 13. They had to say he was not guilty. SO, what kind of match are they going to make?
How about doing it right the first time and take the time to get a FULL DNA testing of Y chromosome DNA and mitochondrial DNA, as well as autosomal (CODIS) DNA?
Is it a mitochondrial DNA test which matches everyone who descended from the same maternal ancestor in the last 20 generations as THE DEFENDENT(S)? Is it just a "high resolution test" which the FBI performs or a real full genome sequencing of the mitochondrial DNA?
Is it a Y Chromosome test which matches everyone who has the same paternal lineage for the past 400 years? If so, is it 12 markers, which could be one to fifty percent of the population, or is it a 67 marker test that can pin it down to a surname?
There may be a way to combine all of these that will resolve the identity to one person, but is what they have beyond a reasonable doubt unless they do FULL testing?
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DNA match claims are being used to extract confessions, but they cannot turn over results to the Defense? This sounds like a Brady Violation.
John Trainum, a 25 year detective, is now recommending that interrogations be videotaped because of how they are extracting confessions.
On 1/24/08, in the LA TIMES, he wrote, "I've been a police officer for 25 years, and I never understood why someone would admit to a crime he or she didn't commit. Until I secured a false confession in a murder case."
So, a confession in a case is NOT a sign that it is a done deal. It goes back to the DNA testing. Again, DNA testing is not magic, but it is being treated as such. The only power of DNA testing that is absolute is in EXCLUDING suspects.
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