Michaud, David
Millard, Brad
Miller, Peg
Miller, Phil
Miller, Robert
Mills, David
Minard, Michael
Monteleone, James
Montgomery, Lael
Monych, Perry
Morgan, Grady “Bryan,”
Morlock, Grace
Morris, Michael
Morrissey, Mitch
Morrow, Mike
Mullins, Joe
Mullis, Kary
Nagel, Bill
Neef, Tracy
Nelson-Schneider, Dee Dee
Nichols, Terry
Nicholson, Kieran
Norris, Donna
Norton, Gale
Novack, Patty
O’Keeffe, Mike
Opell, Brent
Osteen, Dodie
Palmer, Polly
Pankratz, Howard
Parker, Kevin
Patterson, Fred
Paugh, Don
Paugh, Nedra
Paugh, Pam
Paugh, Polly
Peck, Pat
Pepin, Robert
Perkins, Jason
Perry, Greg
Peters, Jim
Petersen, Jana
Petrocelli, Daniel
Pettipiece, Jay
Phelan, Mike
Phillips, Judith
Phillips, Lindsey
Phillips, Robert
Pickering, John
Pierce, Martin
Pitt, Steve
Please, James
Polson, Tammy
Polzin, Ken
Poppen, Julie
Porfido, Meg
Pozner, Larry
Prentup, Steve
Preston, Ann
Pringle, Cpt.
Propst, Jay
Pudim, Rob
Raburn, Caroline
Raburn, Kevin
Ramsey, Beth (step-sister, deceased)
Ramsey, Burke (brother)
Ramsey, James (grandfather)
Ramsey, Jeff (uncle)
Ramsey, John Andrew (father)
Ramsey, John Andrew 2nd (step-brother)
Ramsey, JonBenét
Ramsey, Mary Jane Bennett (grandmother)
Ramsey, Melinda (step-sister)
Ramsey, Patricia “Patsy” (mother)
Ready, Mike
Redford, Shauna Jeannnn
Reichenbach, Paul
Reno, Janet
Resnikoff, Loretta
Ressler, Robert
Rhodes, Dave
Rianoshek, Richard
Richardson, Marcia
Richart, Susan
Richtel, Murray
Rile, Howard
Ripmaster, Joel
Ritter, Bill
Rivera, Geraldo
Roberts, Joann
Robinson, Marilyn
Rodriguez, Christopher
Romer, Roy
Rose, Shelley
Rosen, Mike
Rothwax, Harold J.
Russ, Allison
Russell, Charlie
Ryckman, Lisa
Rysavy, Jirka
Sachs, Richard
Sahagun, Louis
Sandstead, Morris
Sandy, Lloyd
Savage, Suzanne
Sawyer, Brett
Sawyer, Diane
Schanfield, Moses
Scheck, Barry
Schild, Peter
Schoettler, Gail
Schuler, Dan
Schulte, Paula
Scott, Brian
Scott, Rex
Sears, Todd
Sebastian, Matt
Secrist, Ron
Shapiro, Jeff
Shoeny, Allison
Shomaker, Cpt.
Silverman, Craig
Simons, Randy
Simpson, Nicole
Simpson, O. J.
Singular, Stephen
Sirotnak, Andrew
Smartt, Annie
Smartt, Bob
Smiles, Harry
Smika, Thayne
Smit, Lou
Smith, James
Smith, Kerri S.
Smith, Lawrence Shawn
Smith, Susan
Solano, Henry
Spitz, Werner
Spurlock, Nicole
Stack, John
Stanley, Chris
Stanton, Melody
Stavely, John
Stevens, Don
Stewart, Kim
Stine, Doug
Stine, Glen
Stine, Susan
Stobie, Jane
Stout, Chuck
Sutton, Leonard
Talkington, Tim
Thomas, Dave
Thomas, Karena Jesaitis
Thomas, Robert, Jr.
Thomas, Steve
Thompson, James (aka J. T. Colfax)
Tigar, Michael
Torke, Dave
Towle, Patricia
Tracey, Michael
Trujillo, Tom
Ubowski, Chet
Vallad, Tracey
Van Fossen, Theresa
Vann, Patrick and Mary
Vargas, Elizabeth
Vasquez, Nathan
Veitch, Karl
Vernon, Mary Ellen
Verrengia, Joseph
Wagner, Laurie
Walker family
Walker, Ron
Walker, Roxy
Walters, Barbara
Webb, Jonathan N.
Weber, Melissa
Wecht, Cyril
Wegman-French, Morton
Weinheimer, Carey
Weiss, Barry
Weiss, Kristen
Wells, Sid
Wesson, Marianne
Westmoreland, Rod
White, Daphne
White, Fleet
White, Fleet, Jr.
White, Priscilla
Whiteside, Carl
Whitson, Bob
Wickman, Tom
Wilcox, Linda
Williams, Brian
Williams, Dave
Wilson, Mark
Wise, Bill
Wise, Diane
Wolf, Chris
Wolf, Denise
Womack, Burt
Woodall, Iris
Woodbury, Dick
Woodward, Paula
Wright, David
Wright, Ronald
Wyton, Pat
Yamaguchi, Kerry
Yoshihara-Daly, Jo-Lynn
Zales, Joan
Zaret, Elliot
Ziemer, Eugene
Zimmer, Rachelle
About the Author
LAWRENCE SCHILLER was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Southern California. He published his first of nine books in 1966 while working as a photojournalist for Life and The Saturday Evening Post. His television films have won seven Emmys. He has collaborated with Norman Mailer on several books, including The Executioner’s Song and Oswald’s Tale. Recently, he has written for The New Yorker and George. His last book, American Tragedy, was a New York Times bestseller. He lives in Los Angeles.
CHARLES BRENNAN assisted Mr. Schiller in research and interviews. He grew up in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and works for The Rocky Mountain News as its legal Writer. He lives in Boulder.
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PERFECT MURDER PERFECT TOWN. Copyright © 1999 KLS Communications, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means,
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* Victim assistance advocates serve crime victims but are employees of law enforcement. Their job is to minimize the victims’ trauma. They are trained to recognize and meet the emotional needs of victims and/or their loved ones, whether it is to listen to their story or create an emotionally safe environment.
* A phone tap provides direct access to a conversation so that it can be recorded or monitored. A phone trap collects data from the telephone company, which includes the telephone number called or caller ID and the names that are listed in association with the number.
* Sudden infant death syndrome.
* Before any interrogation of a person taken into custody, the person must be warned 1) that he has a right to remain silent; 2) that any statement he makes can be used as evidence against him; 3) that he has the right to the presence of an attorney; 4) that if he cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for him prior to any questioning if he so desires; 5) that he may end the questioning at any time. The instruction stems from a case in which a suspect, Ernesto Miranda, was tricked into confessing by being told that he had been picked out of a lineup.
* Case: Schmerber v. California, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1966 [384 U.S. 757, opinion by Justice Brennan, 5-4 decision]. The Colorado Rules of Criminal Procedure [Rule 41.1] authorize any judge to issue an order requiring a person to supply such non-testimonial materials if there are reasonable grounds to believe the person committed a criminal offense. Reasonable grounds is a lenient standard, amounting to less than probable cause.
* DNA is the abbreviation for deoxyribonucleic acid, the genetic material that is the “blueprint” for the development of every living thing. Except in the case of identical twins, every individual’s DNA is unique and unchanging throughout life. It is found in cells from skin, blood, hair follicles (although not the shaft), saliva, and semen. In 1984 researchers at Leicester University in England invented a technique for recording segments of DNA in a pattern resembling a grocery bar code.
* Barry Scheck is codirector of the Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, which uses DNA testing to exonerate inmates wrongfully convicted of crimes. Mr. Scheck is also commissioner of New York’s Forensic Science Review Board, an agency charged with creating the states’s DNA databank. “In 11 cases where DNA testing has exonerated a wrongly convicted person,” Scheck wrote in Newsweek on November 16, 1998, “DNA has also led to finding the real perpetrator.”
* An RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism) test is a sophisticated DNA test measuring varying lengths of DNA strands produced by their reaction to a specific enzyme. The results can yield ratios demonstrating that the likelihood of two people having the same genetic patterns is hundreds of millions to one.
PCR (polymerase chain reaction) typing (also known as molecular Xeroxing) is a process in which tiny bits of DNA are replicated thousands of times to allow analysis and comparison. Once the DNA is amplified, it can be typed through genetic probes. While hundreds of genes can be examined, not all are suitable for forensic analysis. In the Ramsey case, the DQ-alpha and D1S80 genes were among those compared. The genes analyzed through PCR are not the same as those examined through RFLP testing, but PCR results can also yield ratios demonstrating that the likelihood of two people having the same combination of genetic markers is hundreds of millions to one.
** The greatest risk of contamination of DNA comes from other DNA samples. Material is collected with disposable tweezers by police officers and lab techicians, who are required to change gloves each time they pick up a sample. At a complex crime scene, an officer might use fifty or more pairs of gloves.
* A Colorado statute, C.R.S.16-3-309, generally authorizes the use of laboratory testing procedures by the prosecution, so long as procedures are in place to preserve possible exculpatory evidence (evidence that points to the possible innocence of a person). The statute hints, however, that “when a suspect has been identified or apprehended,” the suspect or his counsel may have a right to be present at destructive procedures that will not leave enough evidentiary material for later defense testing. The statute does not provide for a definition of “suspect” or explain what degree of suspicion is necessary before one is deemed to have been “identified.” Whiteside apparently took the view that a person was not a suspect until he had been named by police as such, charged or arrested in connection with a crime.
* The presence of facts or circumstances strong enough to produce a reasonable belief that the person charged with a crime is guilty. It does not indicate proof beyond a reasonable doubt but is enough to force the accused to stand trial. Also, in cases of search and seizure, it indicates the presence of sufficient evidence that the property subject to seizure is at a specified place.
** The level of certainty a juror needs in order to make a legal finding of guilt for a criminal defendant. This phrase is employed in jury instructions during a criminal trial, indicating that the defendant’s innocence is presumed unless the jury can see no reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the person charged. This standard does not require that proof be so convincing that no chance of error exists. It means that evidence must be conclusive enough that all reasonable doubt is removed from the mind of an ordinary person.
* There is no Colorado law mandating that the police department cooperate with the district attorney.
* Pete Hofstrom, who was present during the conversation with Patsy, was familiar with the Michael Manning case discussed on page 281. In that case the child’s mother, Elizabeth Manning, was told she would be treated “as a witness” rather than as a suspect. She then disclosed that her child was beaten to death by her companion. When she was prosecuted for murder, the Colorado courts held that because of what a deputy had promised, neither Manning’s disclosure nor anything the police learned from following up on it could be used as evidence against her. It is likely that the sheriff’s officers interviewing Patsy Ramsey assumed that what she told them on that occasion could never be used against her. That was probably wrong.
* Evidence that points to the possible innocence of a person.
* Hair has thirty-five characteristics, some of which are pigmentation, medulla, scales on the outside of hair, and the channel that runs through the center of each strand.
* The steps in DNA testing are as follows: Blood, semen, saliva, skin, or hair is labeled and shipped to a forensics lab. Only minute amounts—a single hair root, for example—are required. Then the sample is mixed with detergent and enzymes, which break open the cells and let out their DNA. The cell fragments are removed, and the remaining mixture is spun in a centrifuge tube. Pure DNA settles at the bottom. The DNA is then amplified. Its double helix is separated into two strands. Technici
ans add twenty-six short pieces of DNA, called primers: sequences of the chemicals C, A, T, and G that link to the beginning and end of thirteen different places on a person’s DNA. Then replication takes place. When a primer attaches to the beginnings of one of the thirteen sites, it acts like the start button on a photocopying machine, turning on cellular machinery that makes a million copies or more of each site. Copies of the thirteen sites, each about one hundred to six hundred chemical letters long, are separated by size through gel electrophoresis. In this process, a drop containing millions of DNA fragments is placed at one end of a sheet of gel. Electric current pulls the fragment across the gel; the larger the fragment, the more slowly it moves. The fragments, tagged with dye, show up as colored bands under ultraviolet light. The lab compares the length of the thirteen markers to the lengths of a suspect’s thirteen markers. The more markers that match, the greater the odds are that it is a definitive match. If all thirteen strands in one person’s DNA are identical to all the lengths in another person’s, the odds are one in trillions that it isn’t a match.
** Test results can take from several days to weeks using the PCR method of testing. RFLP typing takes months. In some cases it can take up to ten months to obtain test results because the lab is so backlogged.
* A D1S80 test is a PCR-based test that measures the genetic marker known as D1S80 on the DNA strand.
* A prima facie case is one where there is sufficient evidence to shift the burden of proof to the other party. The amount of evidence needed to make a prima facie case varies with the context: in some settings, proof beyond a reasonable doubt is required, in others only proof by a preponderance, or probable cause.
* When a defendant pleads guilty, the prosecution may consent to a deferred sentence; in such cases, the defendant is ordinarily placed on probation, with conditions to be negotiated between the prosecution and defense. The probation may last as long as four years. If the defendant completes the probationary period successfully, the guilty plea is withdrawn and the original charges dismissed. If he fails to complete the probation successfully, his earlier guilty pleas will allow the court to enter a judgment of conviction and sentence him to any sentence authorized by law.
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