We are raising funding for Darlie Routier's defense. She was wrongfully convicted of the murder of her sons on the basis of unreliable evidence and sits on death row awaiting DNA testing of evidence at the crime scene.
Like the case of David Camm who was finally exonerated after serving
13 years in prison, Darlie Routier was accused and convicted of the
brutal murders of her two precious children--based solely on
controversial forensic evidence known as bloodstain pattern analysis.
She suffered the trauma of having been awakened by an intruder who
slit her throat. This unknown assailant also stabbed her two boys
sleeping next to her. Darlie's 911 call is chilling and horrific.
Stricken with panic, fear, and the shock of having to watch the life
drain out of the bodies of her two small boys, she nearly bled to death
waiting for help to arrive. And to make matters worse, she was tried,
convicted and sentenced to death based on the testimony of Tom Bevel, a
hired bloodstain pattern expert. Bevel testified that he magnified small
patterns of stains on the mother's nightshirt that he interpreted as
“cast-off” patterns, which to him suggested that it was the mother who
wielded the knife that killed her two children.
Bevel was the same bloodstain expert who was responsible for the
wrongful conviction of David Camm. Camm, a ten year veteran of the
Indiana State Police, was acquitted and set free on Oct. 24, 2013, after
spending 13 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. A
reconstruction of the crime scene, including a palm print and DNA,
proved that the murder of his wife and two children was committed by a
career criminal who was motivated by shoe fetish. Bevel interpreted
eight tiny dots of blood on Camm’s t-shirt and concluded these were
created by high velocity impact spatter from having fired the gun that
killed his family. Some of the most respected bloodstain analyst in the
county came to a different conclusion—that these stains were
transferred from the hairs of his daughter when David attempted CPR on
his son.
Bloodstain scientists Terry Laber and Bart Epstein, who assisted with
the defense of David Camm, were hired by Darlie Routier’s public
defenders. They analyzed the bloodstain interpretations of Bevel and
came to a different conclusion about these patterns. They provided a
favorable report to her defense attorneys. However, the testimony of
the prosecution’s bloodstain expert, Tom Bevel, went unchallenged. A
private attorney was hired by Darlie’s family a month before trial and
failed to call Laber or Epstein. He told the family he thought he could
handle this through his cross-examination of Bevel. The attorney kept
the retainer for himself, and spared the family the expense of flying
the experts to Dallas.
Darlie’s case is very similar to another
mother who was wrongfully convicted of stabbing her 10 year-old son. On
Oct. 13, 1987, in Lawrenceville, IL, Julie Rea was awaked at 4 a.m. to
the sound of her son’s scream. When she rushed to his room across the
hall, in the dark of the night, she collided with a child serial killer,
Tommy Lynn Sells. He dropped the knife on the floor, and began beating
her with his fists. Despite physical injuries, including a gash on her
arm, a black eye, bruises and abrasions, Julie became the prime
suspect. She was charged with capital murder three years later, after
the elected prosecutor who resisted pressure to arrest her left office.
A new prosecutor hired bloodstain “expert” Rodney Englert, who examined
Julie’s nightshirt and found what he interpreted as evidence of
“cast-off”. After she was convicted in March of 2002, True crime
author Diane Fanning published Through the Window: The Terrifying True
Story of Cross-Country Killer Tommy Lynn Sells. Sells told Fanning
about a murder in Illinois in which he had killed a child and was
startled by the mother who came into the room. Two years later, Texas
Ranger John Allen provided an affidavit in support of Julie’s petition
for a new trial. The Illinois Innocence Project had corroborated the
serial killer’s confession. Julie was acquitted in a new trial, and the
courts have issued her a Certificate of Innocence.
Darlie Routier, however, remains on death row in Texas, awaiting
execution based on the same bloodstain interpretation evidence that
convicted Julie Rea. Private investigator Gary Dunn commented after the
release of his client, David Camm: “Bloodstain evidence is mostly
subjective. One bloodstain expert said it’s like looking at the clouds,
they all see something different”.
In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences released a critique of
forensic science practices in U.S. courtrooms, noting that since the
introduction of DNA testing in 1989 that “faulty science” was found to
be responsible for the wrongful convictions in a number of
post-conviction DNA exonerations. Bloodstain Pattern Analysis (BPA) was
one of the disciplines that was criticized because of the interjection
of “examiner bias”. The report noted “many sources of variability arise
with the production of bloodstain patterns, and their interpretation is
not nearly as straightforward as the process implies”. The report
found, “some experts extrapolate far beyond what can be supported”, and
went on to conclude that “extra care must be given to the way in which
the analyses are presented in court. The uncertainties associated with
bloodstain pattern analysis are enormous”. (Source: Strengthening
Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward, The National
Academies Press, Washington DC (2009), pp. 42, 177-179.)
With
this much uncertainty and doubt about the reliability of the
interpretations of bloodstain experts like Tom Bevel, can we tolerate
the execution of a woman who has always maintained her innocence. Can
we tolerate the execution of Darlie Routier, who by all appearance, was a
crime victim, along with her children who died that night?
Supporters
Because Darlie needs to be home .. She did not do this...
Apparently for Devon & Damon, justice has long been forgotten thanks to a shotty investigation, bought testimony, and unethical tactics just to obtain a conviction. It's time to bring Darlie home to Drake and the rest of her family & the time is NOW!
I support Darlie Routier and the DNA testing.
I believe Darlie is innocent and we will prove it. I support her and the DNA testing to prove it.
Because I know in my heart Darlie Lynn is innocent and she deserves to be home with her family
my friend Darlie Lynn Routier is INNOCENT
Because she is innocent and I would do anything between my possibilities to support her and to help rise awareness about this injustice. I know some day soon we are going to celebrate her exoneration.