Wrongful Conviction Lawsuit

The story below softpedals official guilt but, as previously pointed out here on 19th March, Ken Marsh was freed last summer when the Cal Western Innocence Project produced medical evidence pointing to accidental death of the child he was accused of killing. One hopes he gets a huge damages award. 21 years in jail for nothing!

A man who had his murder conviction set aside last year after serving 21 years in prison filed a federal lawsuit against San Diego County, Childrens Hospital and its former director, Dr. David Chadwick. Kenneth Marsh was freed Aug. 10, 2004 after San Diego prosecutors said a review of the medical evidence cast reasonable doubt that he was guilty of killing his then-girlfriend's toddler son in 1983. Marsh's attorney Thor Emblem said the suit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Diego.

In a report last year, Dr. Sam Gulino of Hillsborough County, Fla., said while Phillip Buell's head injury might have been the result of deliberately inflicted trauma, that couldn't be ascertained beyond a reasonable doubt or to a reasonable degree of medical certainty.

Marsh maintained that he walked out of the room in April 1983 while baby-sitting the child, heard a crash and returned to find the child on the ground, presumably from a fall. He was convicted in November 1983 of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison.

Report from here



(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)