Genuine Wrongful Convictions

I have recently watched an episode of 48 hrs that I find a bit troubling. I'm posting it here for several reasons.

1. There is not a board for this case on WS

2. I think it is a good example where LE has actually only focused on one suspect and just took the word of an equally potential suspect without investigating.

...and

3. This is the type of case people like KZ & LN should be looking into.

They could well have the right person in prison, I don't know, because there doesn't seem to be much info online anywhere plus the jury must know something that wasn't presented on the show.

Feel free to post your thoughts if you watch it.

https://youtu.be/dXZxFj-R7nE

Hi Limaes,

I'll make a point to watch it. BTW, a new thread can be set up on WS outside of this sub-forum to discuss since the case is not related to the TH murder.

I watched the video, and it does look like a hinky case.

I watched it, interesting story. Wish there was more information out there. Found an interesting forum with some interesting comments from people that say they are close to someone and one that even said they were on the first jury.

https://polishforums.com/usa-canada/grace-pianka-case-injustice-citizen-45318/

Will have a look later to see what else I can find. Looks like the recording they did in the hospital of the wife (found guilty), might have been what did her in. She asked if he was in the hospital and not sure how she knew he was hurt at all? And was only upset for mere seconds when told he had passed away. BUT without hearing all of it, no idea if they did editing or not.

Madeleine74 said:

Hi Limaes,

I'll make a point to watch it. BTW, a new thread can be set up on WS outside of this sub-forum to discuss since the case is not related to the TH murder.

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I was hoping someone here from the U.S had heard about it and had more info than they showed on the show before I did that.

missy1974 said:

I watched it, interesting story. Wish there was more information out there. Found an interesting forum with some interesting comments from people that say they are close to someone and one that even said they were on the first jury.

https://polishforums.com/usa-canada/grace-pianka-case-injustice-citizen-45318/

Will have a look later to see what else I can find. Looks like the recording they did in the hospital of the wife (found guilty), might have been what did her in. She asked if he was in the hospital and not sure how she knew he was hurt at all? And was only upset for mere seconds when told he had passed away. BUT without hearing all of it, no idea if they did editing or not.

Click to expand...

That is all I have found too. There has to be more to the story. The person who says they were a juror didn't give any info though. She did run away afterwards as well but the mistress seems dodgy too and requested to be put in charge of his estate. I will keep searching, it is bizarre.

I watched it this evening. Dateline only has 43 minutes to tell their story in a 1 hour show and they do leave out a lot of detail, by necessity of time and storytelling license.

The jury would have heard more than what viewers of Dateline did.

The glaring mistake right off the bat was not testing the wife's hands to determine if she had fired a weapon that night. And then letting the mistress go wash her hands and not testing her either (I do remember she had a broken nail which could indicate she had fired a pistol).

The wife's demeanor would have looked hinky, though part of that is, I think, due to her being Polish. The wife seemed to know something had happened to her husband as she kept asking about him and that did look suspicious.

The mistress absolutely should have been investigated as a POI as well.

No information about the bullet or bullets that would have been recovered during autopsy from the husband's body, nothing said about the whereabouts of the 357 magnum gun the mistress owned (where is that gun?), nothing said about whether the bullet in the wife's car, found on the floor was ever tested.

Hard to say if this was a "wrongful conviction" or not. I ended up with more questions than answers.

Madeleine74 said:

Hard to say if this was a "wrongful conviction" or not. I ended up with more questions than answers.

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This sentiment sounds REALLY familiar. It reminds me of this one case...

I worked with the Kentucky Innocence Project for a while when I was working for the Department of Public Advocacy only 1 case was overturned while I was there (2011) and that was due to DNA. It was still a super long process to get him out of prison. He was the number one suspect because he was the husband. He kept saying he was "set up" by someone and "the cops took the bait". He was in prison for over 15 years.


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Tssiemer said:

I worked with the Kentucky Innocence Project for a while when I was working for the Department of Public Advocacy only 1 case was overturned while I was there (2011) and that was due to DNA. It was still a super long process to get him out of prison. He was the number one suspect because he was the husband. He kept saying he was "set up" by someone and "the cops took the bait". He was in prison for over 15 years.


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It's crazy how long it takes. Looking into some of the other cases that Zellner is working on, other lawyers involved have been working on, and cases that other posters mention.... it is a very slow process. I can't see SA's case being any quicker than most cases out there. It took years his first go around. IIRC experts were reaching out to Zellner and were more than willing and able to do some of the scientific tests, so that might make the process a bit quicker (depending on the results), but it still has to go through the courts, and they are slowwwwwwwww!