[Vision2020] The High road

Sat Apr 21 15:29:23 PDT 2007

For an article on something much closer to home that involves either
prosecutorial misconduct or police misconduct or both, in an Idaho
murder case that appears to be yet another instance of the conviction
of an innocent man, see the following news story from today's papers,
also reprinted below my signature.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/ID_ASHTON_MURDER_IDOL-?SITE=IDMOS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

I have also provided a link to the stunning oral argument in which a
panel of the US Court of appeals for the Ninth Circuit, including the
brilliant, conservative, United States Court of Appeals Judge for
the Ninth Circuit, Judge Alexander Kozinski, takes the Idaho Deputy
Attorney General to task for even appealing the federal district
judge's decision that a likely innocent man was convicted based on
evidence altered by theState.  The case is Grube v. Blades.  If you
go to the following link on the Ninth Circuit web site:

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/media.nsf/Media+Search?OpenForm&Seq=1

and then plug in the case number:  06-35132 

you will be taken to a tape of the oral argument which took place on
Thursday April 12, 2007.

In the Grube v Blades argument, Judge Kozinski references the Duke
lacrosse case and the NC Attorney General's determination of innocence
in that case one day earlier.  Judge Kozinski also tells the Idaho
Deputy Attorney General, arguing on behalf of the State, to inform
Attorney General Wasden that Wasden's credibility in all cases from
Idaho was diminished in the Ninth Circuit for even pursuing the
case,and that if the Idaho Attorney General did not "do the right
thing" and dismiss the appeal within one week, an opinion would be
issued and the Ninth Circuit would "pull no punches."  

In today's papers, wire service articles announced that the Idaho
Attorney General dismissed the appeal of the Grube case, though the
State is insisting on putting Mr. Grube through another trial, rather
than investigate the apparently criminal activity of those who
altered the evidence in a way that hid the apparent involvement of the
more likely suspect in the murder, one of the police themselves.

Idaho Federal District Judge Winmill's thoughtful and detailed opinion
granting a new trial in Grube v. Klauser, no. 1:01-cv-00357-BLW, may
be found here:

http://www.id.uscourts.gov/dc_decisions.htm

but registration is required to obtain the 59 page opinion.  I will
be happy to provide a pdf copy off-list to any that are interested in
reading it.

Bruce Livingston

Apr 20, 9:12 PM EDT

Idaho AG: Grube should be retried in '83 slaying 

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) -- The stateattorney general's office says a
man convicted in the 1983 slaying of a 15-year-old girl, but set free
on bond after a judge found problems with the original prosecution,
should be retried.

Rauland J. Grube was convicted of first-degree murder in 7th District
Court and sentenced to life in prison in 1991 in the slaying of Amy
Hossner.

In June 1983, the girl was found dead in her bed from a shotgun blast
fired through the window of her basement bedroom in Ashton in eastern
Idaho.

In 2006, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered that Grube be
released or get a new trial after Winmill determined investigators had
withheld a key witness at trial and that police logs had been tampered
with.

The attorney general's office appealed the order for a new trial, but
was rebuked earlier this week by another federal judge.

Alex Kozinsky, who serves on a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle, said Grube would likely be
acquitted if he were tried again.  Kozinsky also said that Idaho
Attorney General Lawrence Wasden might instead consider prosecuting
the people who handed in tainted evidence "instead of holding onto a
conviction that is incredibly thin on the facts and undermined by just
unspeakable misconduct."

Wasden's office disagreed.  "We have carefully reviewed the entire
case anddetermined the proper course of action is to retry Rauland
Grube," Bob Cooper, Wasden's spokesman, told the Post Register on
Thursday.

Grube has been free on $250,000 bond and has lived in eastern Idaho
since the spring of 2006.

"Now that the case has been remanded back, my client is entitled to
the presumption of innocence that every citizen enjoys," said Grube's
attorney, Greg Moeller of Rexburg.  "A retrial will bequite different
from the first trial, given the suppressed evidence we now possess and
the new scientific evidence now available. We are prepared to
vigorously defend him."

In 1991, prosecutors focused on forensic analysis of lead shotgun
pellets in Hossner's body that were compared with pellets in shells
found in Grube's garage.  Prosecutors also said a mark on a shotgun
barrel was made when it hit the window frame of Hossner's bedroom
after being fired.  Winmill said the ballistic evidence has since
been disavowed by the FBI.

Grube's appeal focused in part on evidence that a key witness had not
been disclosed to defense lawyers.

In 1994, Lynn Gifford approached defense lawyers and told them he had
informed investigators in 1991 that he had reported seeing a local
police officer - an early suspect in the crime - driving a patrol car
within a few blocks of the Hossner home about 2:30 a.m. on the night
of the slaying.  None of what Gifford told defense lawyers had been
disclosed by prosecutors, so Grube filed a request for a new trial
because of that alleged denial of due process and because Gifford's
information led to the discovery that Ashtonpolice logs for the night
of the slaying appeared to have been altered.  "Not only were they
altered, they were altered by the police, including the one who was
the other suspect," Moeller told The Associated Press on Friday.

According to Winmill's 2006 ruling concerning the police logs, "police
officers actually manufactured false evidence and submitted it to
Grube's attorneys as true evidence."  Those alterations, Winmill
said, included changing the number of miles traveled and inserting a
false time on the log at a later date.

-----Original message-----
From: lfalen lfalen at turbonet.com
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 200710:58:21 -0700
To: "Tom Hansen" thansen at moscow.com, "Vision 2020"
vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] The High road

> Tom
> This was a good article, thanks for posting. These girls seem first
class. As for Duke, Nifong should be disbarred,
> Roger
> -----Original message-----
> From: "Tom Hansen" thansen at moscow.com
> Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 19:52:22 -0700
> To: "Vision 2020" vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: [Vision2020] The High road
> 
> > >From today's (April 20, 2007) Sports Illustrated -
> > 
> >
--------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > The High Road
> > 
> > Depth of character from Robinson to Rutgers
> > By Terry McDonell
> > 
> > The countdown to the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's
firstday in the
> > major leagues was unfortunately shot through with the inevitable
anger and
> > melancholy that comes with every moment of racism in sports.
> > 
> > Don Imus was a little boy the day Robinson broke baseball's color
line.
> > Sixty years later, as host of a nationally syndicated radio show,
he was
> > mocking the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos."
Rarely
> > do you hear such naked racism (as opposed to code-talking or
show-off
> > political incorrectness) but there it was, dominating the news in
a vortex
> > of argument among athletes, politicians and pundits over not only
racism and
> > sexism, but also- hip-hop, free speech, shock radio, civil rights,
Borat and
> > God.
> > 
> > The one sure thing as volume rose was that Imus was going down.
Troubling
> > was the whiff of self-promotionthat settled over everyone involved
- except
> > the Rutgers' players and coaches. Almost unknown despite nearly
winning a
> > national championship, the depth of their character began to show
when Aditi
> > Kinkhabwala's first story about the controversy on SI.com, where
she writes
> > a weekly column. 
> > 
> > In that piece we learned that junior point guard Matee Ajavon's
mother
> > cleaned houses until she had enough money to bring Matee and her
sisters to
> > the U.S. from Liberia; that freshman forward Myia McCurdy is a
science whiz
> > and former Girl Scout; that junior guard Essence Carson, who last
summer
> > lost the grandmother who raised her, plays four instruments and
writes
> > poetry.
> > 
> > Kinkhabwala, who interned at SI and now also covers Rutgers sports
for "The
> > Record" of Bergen County, NewJersey, stayed on the story, and her
exclusive
> > report taking you inside the Scarlet Knights' meeting with Imus
leads the
> > magazine.
> > 
> > In an obvious irony, the fallout from Imus dampened the reaction
to the
> > declaration by North Carolina attorney general Roy Cooper that the
three
> > white Duke lacrosse players accused of raping an African-American
woman were
> > innocent in a case so charged with racial content that it has left
Duke
> > scarred and reeling. The rush to judgment by ethically impaired
prosecutor
> > Mike Nifong shredded many lives as is underlined by Rick Reilly's
column on
> > former Duke coach Mike Pressler, who was forced to resign before
his players
> > were charged.
> > 
> > What would Jackie Robinson think of all this? Writing about
Robinson for
> > SI.com last week, senior writer Phil Taylorsuggested that the Hall
of Famer
> > "would undoubtedly have been heartened that the outrage over Imus'
comments
> > has crossed racial and ethnic lines." Then Taylor laid out an
obvious
> > truth: "Jackie Robinson didn't tell the public about the content
of his
> > character, he showed it, over time, through the way he behaved."
The women
> > of Rutgers are following in his footsteps on that same high road.
> > 
> >
--------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > Seeya round town, Moscow.
> > 
> > Tom Hansen
> > Moscow, Idaho
> > 
> > "If not us, who?
> > If not now, when?"
> > 
> > - Unknown
> > 
> > 
> > =======================================================
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> > serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. 
> > http://www.fsr.net 
> > mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> > =======================================================
> 
> =======================================================
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