On January 27, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit granted habeas petitioner Han Tak Lee the right to discovery so that he can challenge his Pennsylvania arson-murder conviction in federal court. This is an extremely important development for Mr. Lee and other inmates that have been wrongly convicted based upon bad science. The Court recognized that it would be a violation of due process for an inmate to be incarcerated based upon fundamentally unreliable expert testimony.
In December of 2010, I tried a complex arson-murder habeas corpus case in a Connecticut court that raised the same federal due process claim. With the extraordinary assistance of a fire scientist from Massachusetts, I presented evidence that completely disproved the prosecuting authority’s case against my client. The evidence was based upon actual fire tests that proved that there was an alternative innocent explanation for the evidence that the prosecuting authority’s expert claimed could only have been caused by someone pouring a liquid accelerant on the floor. The so-called “science” that had been used to convict my client was proven to be wholly and fundamentally unreliable. Unfortunately, the habeas judge did not recognize the constitutional violation. The case is now on appeal. Hopefully, the Han Tak Lee decision is a harbinger of good news for my client.
