GIUSTIZIATO UN ANNO FA, FORSE ERA INNOCENTEANALISI DI SANGUE E SPERMA ERANO FALSE

   (di Margery Friesner) - WASHINGTON,  - Malcolm Rent Johnson,giustiziato un anno fa in Oklahoma -Stato degli Usa con lapercentuale maggiore di esecuzioni in rapporto allapopolazione-, era forse innocente. Potrebbe essere stato vittimadella famigerata perito Joyce Gilchrist, sospesa all'iniziodell'anno per una serie di errori e false testimonianze.    Al processo contro Johnson, messo a morte il 6 gennaio 2000dopo essere stato condannato nel 1982 per lo stupro e l'omicidiodi una donna di 76 anni, Gilchrist aveva testimoniato che seicampioni di sperma e sangue raccolti nella camera da letto dellavittima coincidevano con quelli dell'imputato.   Il 30 luglio scorso, una collega di Gilchrist, Laura Schile,ha risaminato i campioni e non ha scoperto alcuna traccia disperma. Prima di dimettersi il 2 agosto ''a causa dell'ambienteostile di lavoro'', Schile ha messo per iscritto la sua scopertain un memorandum.   Nel documento, di cui l'agenzia di stampa Associated Press haottenuto una copia, Shile afferma che altri tre ricercatori delsuo laboratorio hanno convalidato i suoi risultati.   Se il risultato non scagiona Johnson, mette in dubbio che siacolpevole di una delle accuse: stupro. E senza l'aggravante diviolenza carnale, secondo l'avvocato d'ufficio che lo difese alprocesso, Garvin Isaacs, c'era la possibilita' di una condannaall'ergastolo e non a morte.   Nel memorandum, Shile ricorda che le testimonianze della suaex collega sulle prove di stupro erano gia' state messe indubbio anche in altri casi. Ben due tribunali hanno di recenteconfermato che la Gilchrist aveva reso falsa testimonianza suun'analisi di sperma in un processo del 1992 a carico di AlfredBrian Mitchell. Lo stato dell'Oklahoma ha annullato all'iniziodel mese la sua condanna a morte.   Secondo il pubblico ministero, contro Johnson c'erano ampieprove anche senza la testimonianza di Gilchrist. ''L'ha fatto,non ci sono dubbi'', ha sentenziato il portavoce della procura,Richard Wintory. Ma il responsabile della 'squadra' di difensorid'ufficio della contea di Oklahoma, Robert Ravitz, non e'convinto. ''Il memorandum -ha detto- pone un graveinterrogativo: se lo Stato dell'Oklahoma abbia giustiziato unuomo innocente''.      

Venne condannato a morte un anno fa ma il perito rilasci� una falsa testimonianza

OKLAHOMA -- E' stato forse giustiziato per errore Malcom Johnson, condannato a morte l'anno scorso in Oklahoma per violenza carnale e omicidio, in base alla testimonianza del perito Joyce Gilchrist.

 Secondo Gilchrist - sospesa dalla professione mesi fa per una serie di errori e false testimonianze - sei campioni di sperma e sangue raccolti nella camera da letto della vittima coincidevano con quelli dell'imputato.

 Ma un attento riesame dei campioni di laboratorio compiuto da una collega di Gilchrist, Laura Schile, ha mostrato che in realt� non era presente "alcuna traccia di sperma".

 Johnson, messo a morte il 6 gennaio 2000, era stato condannato nel 1982 per l'omicidio di una donna di 76 anni, Ura Thompson.

 Schile si � dimessa dal laboratorio scientifico della polizia di Oklahoma City il 2 agosto ''a causa dell'ambiente ostile di lavoro'', ma non prima di aver messo per iscritto la sua scoperta in un memorandum, poi ottenuto dall'agenzia stampa Associated Press.

 Schile cita i nomi altri tre colleghi che confermano i risultati della sua ricerca scientifica.

 Le accuse precedenti contro Gilchrist

Il memorandum non � sufficiente da solo a scagionare Johnson, ma mette in dubbio almeno che sia colpevole dell'accusa di stupro.

 Gilchrist era stata sospesa all'inizio dell'anno quando l'Fbi aveva scoperto che la donna aveva trattato in maniera scorretta le prove o commesso altri errori importanti in sei casi su otto a lei assegnati.

 Nel suo memorandum, Schile sottolinea che la testimonianza di Gilchrist era stata gi� criticata in precedenza. Due corti d'appello avevano stabilito che il perito aveva reso reso falsa testimonianza sui campioni di sperma del processo per violenza carnale e omicidio di Alfred Mitchell, nel 1992.

 Come conseguenza di questa scoperta, la condanna a morte di Mitchell � stata revocata all'inizio di questo mese.

 Tre altri uomini, che avevano passato lunghi in carcere, tra cui un condannato a morte, sono stati scarcerati, dopo la scoperta di altri errori nelle perizie di Gilchrist.

 Nel caso di Johnson, la pubblica accusa sostiene che le prove fossero sufficienti per condannare l'uomo. Ma Robert Ravitz, avvocato di Johnson, non ne � convinto.

 ''Il memorandum - ha detto il legale - pone un grave interrogativo: se lo Stato dell'Oklahoma abbia giustiziato un uomo innocente''.

 L'avvocato di Gilchrist non ha risposte alla richiesta di un commento dell'Associated Press e la sua assistita - che ha sempre negato le accuse - ha rifiutato di commentare il memorandum di Schile. 

Oklahoma Retraces Big Step in Capital Case

The Rev. Charles Story has been a spiritual adviser for several death row inmates in Oklahoma, counseling them in the hours before their executions. In all but one of those cases, Mr. Story said, the inmates confessed their crimes and asked for forgiveness. The exception was Malcolm Rent Johnson.

 "He said, `I'm innocent, and I've got peace in my heart, and I'm ready to go home,'" said Mr. Story, a part-time chaplain who was among the last people to speak with Mr. Johnson before his execution on Jan. 6, 2000.

 The question of Mr. Johnson's guilt or innocence, and the possibility that he was wrongly executed, is one of the issues arising from a broad investigation of Joyce Gilchrist, the Oklahoma City police scientist whose work in roughly 1,200 cases is being scrutinized by state officials.

 Ms. Gilchrist, who has denied any wrongdoing, has been the focus of the expansive inquiry since March, when a report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation criticized her work. In May, Jeffrey Pierce, who was imprisoned for 15 years on a rape conviction, was released after DNA testing disproved Ms. Gilchrist's pivotal testimony against him.

 Mr. Johnson is 1 of 12 people who have been put to death in Oklahoma after Ms. Gilchrist's testimony helped convict them. Another 11 inmates she testified against remain on death row. Attorney General Drew Edmondson expressed confidence in May that none of the executed inmates had been wrongly put to death, with 1 exception: he said he wanted to review Mr. Johnson's case. He later said the evidence had convinced him that Mr. Johnson was guilty, too.

 This week, though, internal police memorandums have raised questions about Ms. Gilchrist's testimony in Mr. Johnson's 1982 trial. During the trial, Ms. Gilchrist said Mr. Johnson's blood type matched sperm collected from a bedspread and a pillowcase in the victim's apartment. The samples were on 6 slides.

 But an examination of the slides on July 30 contradicted Ms. Gilchrist's findings, one memorandum said, and concluded that the slides actually contained no sperm at all. The memorandum, 1st reported by The Daily Oklahoman and The Associated Press, was written by the Oklahoma City Police Department's DNA laboratory manager, Laura Schile, and was endorsed by 3 other chemists in the laboratory. Ms. Schile resigned this month because of what her lawyer has described as a hostile work environment.

 "It certainly does concern me when you have different chemists saying different things," said Mr. Edmondson, who played down the significance of Ms. Gilchrist's testimony in winning the conviction. "It does not shake my confidence that Malcolm Rent Johnson was guilty of that murder. The other evidence is overwhelming."

 However, Robert Ravitz, who represented Mr. Johnson during his trial, said Ms. Gilchrist's testimony was essential because the other evidence was largely circumstantial.

 "I don't know if Malcolm Johnson committed the crime or not," said Mr. Ravitz, who now leads Oklahoma City's public defender office. "I know that absent of Gilchrist's testimony, there would have been no way he would have been convicted."

 The crime in question was the rape and murder of Ura Alma Thompson, a 76-year-old woman who lived alone in an Oklahoma City apartment. Her nephew discovered her body in the apartment on Oct. 27, 1981. Initially her death appeared to have been from natural causes, but the medical examiner ruled that it was a homicide after discovering bruises and evidence of rape.

 Mr. Johnson was arrested the same day on a weapons charge. In his apartment, officers discovered 2 sets of keys, a wristwatch, a necklace and a hand-painted vase - all items that belonged to Ms. Thompson. Investigators also learned that Mr. Johnson had twice been convicted of rape in Illinois. Finally, 2 other elderly women identified him as the man who had raped them, while 3 other people said he had attacked them.

 It was a seemingly strong case, but circumstantial. Ms. Gilchrist's testimony, however, enabled prosecutors to put Mr. Johnson inside the apartment during the rape. She said that the semen samples matched Mr. Johnson's blood type and that hairs found at the apartment matched his. She also said a blue coloration on hairs found at the apartment matched cotton fibers collected from Mr. Johnson's shirt.

 In his closing argument, the Oklahoma County district attorney, Robert H. Macy, defended Ms. Gilchrist's testimony, saying Mr. Ravitz had unfairly sought to undermine her credibility. "He had to attack Joyce Gilchrist, because Joyce Gilchrist gave him the testimony that firmly erased any reasonable doubt, any doubt at all in this case," Mr. Macy said.

 "You look at her testimony," he added. "And sure she's young; you've got to start sometime. But she's good and she's thorough, and you heard her."

 At the time, Ms. Gilchrist was in her second year as chemist for the police; in 1994 she was promoted to a supervisory position and stopped doing laboratory work.

 Mr. Ravitz asked the judge to authorize money for the defense to hire a forensic expert to counter Ms. Gilchrist's testimony. He was denied. At the time, Oklahoma law did not authorize such expenditures, though it does today.

 During Mr. Johnson's later appeals, 2 forensic experts hired by the defense were harshly critical of Ms. Gilchrist's conclusions, particularly on the blue-colored hairs.

 "An assessment such as this has little value due to the ubiquitous nature of blue cotton," one of the experts, Dr. Peter R. DeForest of Ardsley, N.Y., wrote in 1997. "Inexplicably Gilchrist's testimony seems to confound, confuse," Dr. DeForest added, noting that matching the shirt with blue-tinged hairs "seems doubtful."

 Evidence in Mr. Johnson's case is expected to be analyzed by a private laboratory.

 In July, a local defense lawyer, Douglas Parr, sued the Police Department on the Johnson case, seeking to open additional records, and he has requested that DNA tests be conducted on the evidence. For now, Mr. Parr and city officials are sparring over which private laboratory will analyze the evidence, assuming there is enough evidence to analyze.

 Mr. Edmondson, the district attorney, said he did not "think we're in disagreement that there needs to be some testing." He said the local police would turn over the evidence to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for safekeeping. The immediate emphasis, Mr. Edmondson said, was to examine current cases to make certain that no inmates are wrongly incarcerated.

 Today, state officials announced that 600 of the roughly 1,200 cases linked to Ms. Gilchrist had received initial reviews. Of that total, 99 have been marked for further examination, including the cases of 3 death row inmates. Meanwhile, Ms. Gilchrist, who is on administrative leave, is in the midst of a confidential personnel hearing to determine whether she will be fired. It is expected to last until next week.

 "She was extremely important to the Oklahoma County district attorney's office," Mr. Parr said. "She was one of their star witnesses."