By The Vanguard Staff
HARTFORD, CT – A federal judge here last week found famed forensic scientist Henry Lee liable for fabricating evidence in a murder case that sent two Connecticut men to prison for decades for a crime they did not commit, according to an Associated Press story.
The ruling Friday sends the case against the police and the town to trial. In granting a motion for summary judgment against Lee, the only outstanding issue for a jury in his case will be the amount of damages, said AP.
The Associated Press wrote Lee, 84, “rocketed to fame after his testimony in the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder trial, in which he questioned the handling of blood evidence.”
Lee also worked on other high-profile cases, including the 2004 murder trial of Scott Peterson, who was accused of killing his pregnant wife Laci; 1996 slaying of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey in Colorado; and the 2007 murder trial of record producer Phil Spector.
A judge vacated the felony murder convictions in 2020, and the men filed a federal wrongful conviction lawsuit naming Lee, eight police investigators and the town of New Milford.
Ralph “Ricky” Birch and Shawn Henning were convicted in the 1985 killing of Everett Carr, based in part on testimony about what Lee said were bloodstains on a towel found in the 65-year-old’s home in New Milford, 55 miles (88.5 kilometers) southwest of Hartford, said AP.
Lee is the former chief of the state’s forensic laboratory and is now a professor emeritus at the University of New Haven’s Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences.
The AP wrote, “When Birch and Henning were put on trial in 1989, jurors heard about an extremely bloody crime scene. Carr had been stabbed 27 times, had his throat cut and suffered seven blows to the head.
“No forensic evidence existed linking Birch and Henning to the crime. No blood was found on their clothes or in their car. The crime scene included hairs and more than 40 fingerprints, but none matched the two men.”
According to trial excerpts, prosecutors presented evidence from Lee that it was possible for the assailants to avoid getting much blood on them, and that a towel, which could have been touched by the killers while cleaning up, was found in a bathroom near the crime the scene with stains that he tested and were consistent with blood.
Tests done after the trial, when the men were appealing their convictions, showed the substance was not blood.
“In his ruling Friday, which was first reported by The Hartford Courant, U.S. District Judge Victor Bolden ruled that Lee presented no evidence to back up his testimony,” said AP.
“Other than stating that he performed the test, however, the record contains no evidence that any such test was performed,” the judge wrote. “In fact, as plaintiffs noted, Dr. Lee’s own experts concluded that there is no ‘written documentation or photographic’ evidence that Dr. Lee performed the TMB blood test. And there is evidence in this record that the tests actually conducted did not indicate the presence of blood.”
The judge also ruled that Lee failed to properly use an immunity defense that could have shielded him from damages and was no longer eligible to use that argument.
AP said Birch “served more than 30 years of a 55-year sentence for felony murder before being released in 2019 after a judge ordered a new trial. Henning, who was 17 when the crime occurred, was granted probation in 2018.”
Lee defended his conduct in the investigation, said AP, after their convictions were overturned in 2020, arguing, “In my 57-year career, I have investigated over 8,000 cases and never, ever was accused of any wrongdoing or for testifying intentionally wrong. This is the first case that I have to defend myself.”
The Associated Press said, “Lee’s work in several other cases has come under scrutiny, including in the murder case against Spector, in which he was accused of taking evidence from the crime scene.”
