Taken from The Register Citizen, written by Andy Thibault; writer, columnist, whistle - blower extraordinaire.
The first thing I thought of when the title of this article immediately caught my attention was a little addendum I personally would have added to the characteristically unflinching honesty of Mr.Andy Thibault,
I would have tagged on....." and long- immune to Media or legislative microscope
(We could start with some genuine oversight.)
It’s got to be rough diving in to the intricacies of a politically-driven, self-serving and unjustifiable murder prosecution.
Suppose you are diligent and discover the case was used primarily as a career enhancer, a stepping stone – and a human being was stepped on for no other plausible reason.
The easy thing is to look away – or not to look at all. Far too many of those who swear to uphold justice in Connecticut are practiced and extremely talented in this regard. If you actually do your job, you might offend colleagues. If you do your job, you might even read the trial transcript and learn something about a case in which, like Caesar in the Coliseum, you alone decide whether a person is free or given the ultimate thumbs down.
Couldn’t the judge, Hadley W. Austin, have at least read the trial transcript?
Here is an exchange between Austin and Dr. Evan Stark, a professor at Rutgers and an expert on domestic violence, on April 9, 1996:
Austin: “How about the – Did you ever have an opportunity, or were you exposed to, or did you have occasion to look at or review the transcript?”
Stark: “Yes, I did.”
Austin: “Of the trial?”
Stark: “Yes, I did, your honor, quite carefully.”
Austin: “All right. No small task I observe.”
Stark: “That’s correct, your honor.”
Austin: “ … Dr. Stark, you understand of course as counsel do that I have not had any opportunity to read the transcript.”
Stark: “Then you have a formidable task as well.”
Austin goes on to say that at least Stark read it and then the judge stumbles through a series of questions that a diligent person would have researched beforehand.
The scene was New London Superior Court, April 9, 1996, Bonnie Jean Foreshaw versus Commissioner of Correction, CV94-0530489. Judge Austin, who died 10 years later, had just admitted he didn’t do his job. Austin would go on to rule that Foreshaw actually had a fair trial, despite compelling evidence and arguments by attorneys John Williams and Diane Polan.
For mysterious and perhaps diabolical reasons, the notorious 5-page “Blue Note” – delineating “disturbing” and “shocking” malpractice by Foreshaw’s trial lawyer – had not surfaced.
Was the Blue Note http://tinyurl.com/k7wmd2w hidden in a file? Was it removed for a time? How many state employees – robed and unrobed – dropped the ball on the Blue Note while Bonnie Foreshaw rotted in jail?
Anyone and everyone who knew of the Blue Note had an affirmative duty to produce it. Otherwise, let’s not pretend that we’re practicing any level of justice here in Connecticut.
Just last week, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles cited the Blue Note as the reason to reverse a decision http://tinyurl.com/mntf87o and grant Foreshaw a clemency hearing in October. Board Chair Erika Tindill told the Associated Press: “Had it not been for the surfacing of that memo, which we had no idea about, we would not have reconsidered her case.”
The memo was written by then-public defender Jon Blue at the request of the agency’s chief appellate lawyer at the time, Joette Katz. I reached out last week to Katz, who went on to become a state Supreme Court justice and is now commissioner of the state Department of Children and Families. Now off the bench, Katz is free to do some explaining. Continued...
Foreshaw, 65, has served more than 27 years for what many legal experts – including Blue and perhaps Katz – believe should have been a manslaughter charge. Had she faced a manslaughter prosecution, Foreshaw would have been free years ago. Instead, Foreshaw faced a charge of first degree murder for shooting at a man she had just encountered and who was harassing her and threatening to [f---] her up on March 27, 1986. At the last moment, the man admitted he pulled a pregnant woman in front of him as a human shield. A fatal shot entered the upper left chest and traveled toward the lung of Joyce Amos, who had been trying to restrain Hector Freeman.
Foreshaw wrote of her remorse in a volume of redemptive memoirs, “Couldn’t Keep It To Myself,” edited by the novelist Wally Lamb http://tinyurl.com/l3nkvxu and featured http://tinyurl.com/jvmtuef on 60 Minutes: “I never lost sight of the fact that I still had my life and Joyce Amos, the lady who tried to help me that night, had lost hers. She had been someone’s mother and someone’s daughter, same as me. A powerful sadness was closing in. I began to ask myself how I could survive – or if I even wanted to … .”
Foreshaw, a battered and abused woman, gave birth to her first child after being raped at age 12. The abuse has continued throughout her life.
“A great deal of [this] relevant material was never produced [at trial] at all,” Blue wrote. “ … A former husband had beaten Foreshaw on the head with a baseball bat … and she had spent two weeks in the hospital. No hospital records were produced ... She did not have an effective defense.”
Katz and others must explain how and why the Blue Note was buried. Why did Katz request this memo? What did she do with it upon receipt? Who dropped the ball? Why?
The commissioner’s spokesman said she was out of state Friday and was expected to return Tuesday. He sent her an email about the case.
Andy Thibault is a contributing editor for Journal Register Co.’s Connecticut publications and the author of Law & Justice In Everyday Life. He formerly served as a commissioner for Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Commission. Reach Thibault by email at tntcomm82@cs.com. Follow him on Twitter @cooljustice.
The first thing I thought of when the title of this article immediately caught my attention was a little addendum I personally would have added to the characteristically unflinching honesty of Mr.Andy Thibault,
I would have tagged on....." and long- immune to Media or legislative microscope
(We could start with some genuine oversight.)
It’s got to be rough diving in to the intricacies of a politically-driven, self-serving and unjustifiable murder prosecution.
Suppose you are diligent and discover the case was used primarily as a career enhancer, a stepping stone – and a human being was stepped on for no other plausible reason.
The easy thing is to look away – or not to look at all. Far too many of those who swear to uphold justice in Connecticut are practiced and extremely talented in this regard. If you actually do your job, you might offend colleagues. If you do your job, you might even read the trial transcript and learn something about a case in which, like Caesar in the Coliseum, you alone decide whether a person is free or given the ultimate thumbs down.
Couldn’t the judge, Hadley W. Austin, have at least read the trial transcript?
Here is an exchange between Austin and Dr. Evan Stark, a professor at Rutgers and an expert on domestic violence, on April 9, 1996:
Austin: “How about the – Did you ever have an opportunity, or were you exposed to, or did you have occasion to look at or review the transcript?”
Stark: “Yes, I did.”
Austin: “Of the trial?”
Stark: “Yes, I did, your honor, quite carefully.”
Austin: “All right. No small task I observe.”
Stark: “That’s correct, your honor.”
Austin: “ … Dr. Stark, you understand of course as counsel do that I have not had any opportunity to read the transcript.”
Stark: “Then you have a formidable task as well.”
Austin goes on to say that at least Stark read it and then the judge stumbles through a series of questions that a diligent person would have researched beforehand.
The scene was New London Superior Court, April 9, 1996, Bonnie Jean Foreshaw versus Commissioner of Correction, CV94-0530489. Judge Austin, who died 10 years later, had just admitted he didn’t do his job. Austin would go on to rule that Foreshaw actually had a fair trial, despite compelling evidence and arguments by attorneys John Williams and Diane Polan.
For mysterious and perhaps diabolical reasons, the notorious 5-page “Blue Note” – delineating “disturbing” and “shocking” malpractice by Foreshaw’s trial lawyer – had not surfaced.
Was the Blue Note http://tinyurl.com/k7wmd2w hidden in a file? Was it removed for a time? How many state employees – robed and unrobed – dropped the ball on the Blue Note while Bonnie Foreshaw rotted in jail?
Anyone and everyone who knew of the Blue Note had an affirmative duty to produce it. Otherwise, let’s not pretend that we’re practicing any level of justice here in Connecticut.
Just last week, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles cited the Blue Note as the reason to reverse a decision http://tinyurl.com/mntf87o and grant Foreshaw a clemency hearing in October. Board Chair Erika Tindill told the Associated Press: “Had it not been for the surfacing of that memo, which we had no idea about, we would not have reconsidered her case.”
The memo was written by then-public defender Jon Blue at the request of the agency’s chief appellate lawyer at the time, Joette Katz. I reached out last week to Katz, who went on to become a state Supreme Court justice and is now commissioner of the state Department of Children and Families. Now off the bench, Katz is free to do some explaining. Continued...
Foreshaw, 65, has served more than 27 years for what many legal experts – including Blue and perhaps Katz – believe should have been a manslaughter charge. Had she faced a manslaughter prosecution, Foreshaw would have been free years ago. Instead, Foreshaw faced a charge of first degree murder for shooting at a man she had just encountered and who was harassing her and threatening to [f---] her up on March 27, 1986. At the last moment, the man admitted he pulled a pregnant woman in front of him as a human shield. A fatal shot entered the upper left chest and traveled toward the lung of Joyce Amos, who had been trying to restrain Hector Freeman.
Foreshaw wrote of her remorse in a volume of redemptive memoirs, “Couldn’t Keep It To Myself,” edited by the novelist Wally Lamb http://tinyurl.com/l3nkvxu and featured http://tinyurl.com/jvmtuef on 60 Minutes: “I never lost sight of the fact that I still had my life and Joyce Amos, the lady who tried to help me that night, had lost hers. She had been someone’s mother and someone’s daughter, same as me. A powerful sadness was closing in. I began to ask myself how I could survive – or if I even wanted to … .”
Foreshaw, a battered and abused woman, gave birth to her first child after being raped at age 12. The abuse has continued throughout her life.
“A great deal of [this] relevant material was never produced [at trial] at all,” Blue wrote. “ … A former husband had beaten Foreshaw on the head with a baseball bat … and she had spent two weeks in the hospital. No hospital records were produced ... She did not have an effective defense.”
Katz and others must explain how and why the Blue Note was buried. Why did Katz request this memo? What did she do with it upon receipt? Who dropped the ball? Why?
The commissioner’s spokesman said she was out of state Friday and was expected to return Tuesday. He sent her an email about the case.
Andy Thibault is a contributing editor for Journal Register Co.’s Connecticut publications and the author of Law & Justice In Everyday Life. He formerly served as a commissioner for Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Commission. Reach Thibault by email at tntcomm82@cs.com. Follow him on Twitter @cooljustice.
