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Cold Case Files  DNA Tags "Nonviolent" Criminal for Murder:  California's DNA database helped San Francisco police identify a suspect in the 1991 rape and murder of a Richmond woman.  Jaxon Van Derbeken of the SF Chronicle reports that the DNA sample taken from habitual burglar Otis Hughes after his October release from prison linked him to the brutal murder of 39-year-old Karen Wong.  The victim was found hog-tied and stabbed to death with a kitchen knife.  Hughes' wife said that while her husband committed burglaries because he needed money, he had never been violent.  A rape/murder conviction would make Hughes eligible for a death sentence, except in San Francisco where, as a matter of policy, DA Kamala Harris does not seek it. 

Ninth Circuit Overturns Murder Conviction:  In a ruling announced Tuesday, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned the 1994 conviction of Roger Chambers for the first degree murder of a man in a Reno motel. The Court's divided opinion rejects Nevada's exhaustion rule argument, and holds that a flawed jury instruction prejudiced Chambers' case.  The court also held that based upon its assessment of the facts Chambers should have been convicted of second degree murder. A brief Associated Press story on the case is here.    

Defendant Judge Wants Polygraph Evidence: In a trial in federal district court in Texas, U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent is the defendant, charged with abusive sexual contact of a court employee. He wants to admit polygraph evidence, which is generally considered inadmissible. In United States v. Scheffer, 523 U.S. 303 (1998), a military case where there was a categorical rule of exclusion, the Supreme Court rejected the argument that there is a constitutional right to introduce this evidence. CJLF filed an amicus brief supporting the rule. "U.S. Senior Judge Roger Vinson of Florida, who is overseeing the case, said he believes a properly conducted polygraph examination could be presented to a jury with the instruction that it is merely a tool. But Vinson ruled in Houston today that there are deficiencies in the Kent polygraphs," reports Mary Flood in the Houston Chronicle.

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