Also on today’s menu:
Israel Responds To Attack By Striking Back At Iran
Ocean Spray Contains High Levels Of PFAS
Assistant Attorney General Charles Bucca has filed a motion in Hillsborough County Superior Court North to allow DNA testing which the state previously opposed, that may exonerate Jason E. Carroll, 53, in the 1988 murder of Sharon Johnson. Bucca’s motion “reserves the right to challenge the import or significance of any analysis” in the case.
Lawyers with the New England Innocence Project filed the petition for post-conviction DNA testing in November 2022, but the state objected until “upon a review of the evidentiary items and reports of the expert witnesses” it became clear that Carroll might have been coerced into his confession when he was 19 years old. Carroll had given a series of conflicting statements during more than 13 hours of interrogation over four days, without a defense attorney present, and eventually said that Sharon’s husband, Ken Johnson, had paid him $5,000 to stab her. Carroll quickly recanted his confession and pleaded not guilty, but, after two trials, he was convicted of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and was sentenced to 46 years to life in 1992.
Sharon Johnson, an engineer and mother who was seven months pregnant with her second child, was found stabbed and strangled to death in a rural construction site in Bedford in 1988. Alleged co-conspirator Tony Pfaff, also 19 at the time, also confessed after a long interrogation and later recanted and pleaded not guilty. Pfaff was found not guilty after a 16-day trial that same year. Prosecutors dropped all charges against Ken Johnson in 1991, citing a lack of evidence.
Discussion: The American Psychology-Law Society/Division 41 of the American Psychological Association published an article in 2009 that found that police procedures that included excessive interrogation time, presentations of false evidence, and “minimization” had led to many false convictions that were overturned upon DNA testing. By repeatedly asserting certainty about a suspect’s guilt and implying leniency in return for a confession, suspects — especially juveniles and young adults — often confessed to end their ordeal. New Hampshire seems to have come around to admitting the possibility of false convictions based on such methods, and that DNA testing may provide evidence that police were wrong.
Israel Responds To Attack By Striking Back At Iran
Officials in the United States say Israel hit the Isfahan region of Iran with a retaliatory missile strike overnight, and other explosions were reported in Iraq and Syria, where armed groups backed by Iran operate.
Hossein Dalirian, a spokesman for Iran’s National Centre of Cyberspace, said there was “no air attack from outside borders” but Iranian officials and media claimed there was an “attempted strike” involving small drones, and there were no reports of casualties.
The Syrian defense ministry said an air defense site in the south of Syria was hit by an Israeli missile in the early hours of Friday morning, local time, but Israel has not confirmed it was behind the strike.
Discussion: Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said that Israel informed the United States “at the last minute of the attack” and “There was no involvement on the part of the United States; it was only information that was provided.” President Joe Biden Jr. had previously warned about risking a wider war in the Middle East, but has not spoken about the most recent strike, taken in response to Iran launching hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel last week. Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, said it is “high time to stop the dangerous cycle of retaliation in the Middle East”.
Ocean Spray Contains High Levels Of PFAS
New research has found that ocean spray from waves crashing on the shore emit more PFAS into the air than industrial polluters. The study measured the levels of PFAS released from the bubbles that burst when waves crash, spraying aerosols into the air. It found that PFAS levels in sea spray were hundreds of thousands times higher than the levels in the water.
Ian Cousins, a Stockholm University researcher and the study’s lead author, said the contaminated spray is likely to affect groundwater, surface water, vegetation, and agricultural products near the coastlines.
Some PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) contribute to liver disease, increased cholesterol, impaired response to vaccines, thyroid disease, asthma, lowered fertility, and high blood pressure in pregnant women, as well as elevated risks of testicular and kidney cancer.
Discussion: There has been concern about PFAS in drinking water and on nonstick cookware, but this is a new source of concern. While drinking water contamination is a big concern, there are ways to get around the problem, and there are ceramic coatings for cookware that offer a relatively nonstick surface without the toxic chemical — although they are known for having short useful lifespans. With sea levels rising, however, avoiding PFAS could be a bigger problem. What a way to discourage enjoying a day at the beach!