Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Dark

I haven't posted in more than a couple days, and it will be more than a couple of days hence before I post again. I am out of state and deeply involved in a case.

For those of you who wish to read a remarkable work on wrongful execution, specifically the case of Carlos DeLuna, I recommend the astonishingly well done effort by Columbia Human Rights Law Review. I wrote of Carlos DeLuna early in my still young blogging "career", back in May of 2010. I scored him as having an 83% chance of being factually innocent.  Since I have yet to work my way all the way through the Columbia review of the case, I do not yet know whether or not I would change that estimate.

For those of you awaiting my response to Brain Teaser #2, I have nothing to offer in this post. I will respond sometime after I return home.

For those of you following the case of Preston Hughes III, I offer another paragraph from Shandra's autopsy report. It's sad in its own way, but I believe it may help identify the person who actually killed her. (I'll give you a hint. That person was not Preston Hughes III.)
EXTERNAL APPEARANCE: The body was that of a 15 year old black female, appearing older than the stated age, measuring 65 inches in length and weighing 127 pounds. The body was well developed and well nourished in appearance. There was total body rigidity and fixed postmortem lividity posteriorly. The head was normocephalic with a normal amount of kinky black hair which was beaded, measuring 12 inches in length. The eyes were covered with corneal caps. The ears and nose were unremarkable. The mouth contained natural teeth. The neck was symmetrical and stable. There was a stab wound in the left upper side at the left submandibular area. The thorax was symmetrical in shape and contour with unremarkable breasts bilaterally. There was a stab wound on the left side. The abdomen was flat. The external genitalia were those of a normal adult female with unremarkable pubic hair in normal distribution. There was no injury to the mucosa or submucosa of the vagina. The perineum was intact. The lower extremities showed no edema. The toenails were partially covered with red nail polish. The upper extremities showed recent needle punctures in the left and right cubital areas. The fingernails were covered with pink nail polish. The back was unremarkable. The cerebrospinal fluid was clear.
Shandra was using. I suspect that use led to her death at the hands of those involved with drugs.

I refer you to my previous posts Weed and The 99 Cent Coin.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It could very possibly be that she was using intravenous drugs, but I would urge caution in reaching a conclusion so quickly. Without knowing how "recent" the punctures were and how many there were, they could be as innocent as markings left behind by EMTs.

With as much blood as she had lost by the time EMTs arrived, they would have undoubtedly attempted to introduce as much fluid back into her body as possible. This would have most likely included bilateral IVs. With the victim being unconscious, there would be no reason to avoid placing them in the cubital area. There could be multiple markings due to personnel "missing" the veins due to vasoconstriction in response to the blood loss, and/or due to "blown veins" requiring a re-stick.

I have nothing to back this up as I obviously was not there nor did I perform or observe the autopsy, just playing devil's advocate on this one.

- Lando

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