(UPDATED) Handicapped Tennessee Man on Death Row Despite Strong Likelihood of Innocence! by Mary Neal

Attached is an article about a man on death row, and despite the high court ruling that he is probably innocent, important folks apparently intend to have themselves an execution!

Multiple sclerosis victim, Paul House, remains on death row two years after the Supreme Court has determined that if information available now had been available at the time of his conviction, he would likely not have been found guilty.  In discussions regarding Mr. House's current justice issues, it is prudent to consider two other Tennessee cases that resulted in death to incarcerated persons.  In both instances, Ex-Chief Medical Examiner O.C. Smith, of Memphis, Tennessee, played an important role.

PAUL WORKMAN - EXECUTED
Dr. Smith seemed to go to great lengths to cast doubts on his sworn testimony in the trial of Philip Ray Workman, a man who had received the death sentence largely off Dr. Smith's testimony regarding bullet trajectory.  In 2005, time was running out for this Tennessean who was facing the death penalty for murdering a policeman.  The accused man claimed the victim was actually shot by another policeman while Mr. Workman was trying to escape police after a botched robbery attempt).  (See links below.)  Other witness testimony used to prosecute Mr. Workman also lost its ring of truth during the years following his murder conviction.

With Mr. Workman's execution imminently pending, Dr. Smith is alleged to have staged a kidnapping -- of himself.  Dr. Smith allegedly wrote notes (which he claimed were written by his kidnappers) accusing himself of lying during Mr. Workman's murder trial!  Despite Dr. Smith's alleged antics (which may have been geared toward withdrawing his own testimony against Workman without coming right out and saying "I lied about the bullet trajectory"), Mr. Workman was nevertheless executed in 2007.  

If Dr. Smith did indeed stage his own kidnapping, no one can say that he did not try to cast doubt on his testimony against Mr. Workman and save the likely innocent man.  If Dr. Smith did what his federal indictment alleged, he even went so far as to tie barbed wire around his head and strap explosives to his person along with notes wherein the good doctor ACCUSED HIMSELF OF LYING TO FAVOR POLICE in Mr. Workman's murder trial.  Although Dr. Smith was indicted by the feds for charges related to his alleged faked kidnapping, etc., he was not sentenced.  See his indictment on the website regarding the alleged wrongful death of Larry Neal at http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com.  It is under the DOCUMENTS tab.  Reports said that several USDOJ attorneys who tried to prosecute Smith were dissatisfied with the outcome of his conviction and quit the DOJ after these events.

LARRY MORRIS NEAL - MYSTERIOUS DEATH
Interestingly, Dr. Smith was also Chief Medical Examiner in 2003, when Larry Neal’s body went to that facility for autopsy.  Larry, a mentally ill heart patient, died in the custody of Shelby County Jail, where he had been held under secret arrest for approximately 18 days until death by heart attack, presumably without his heart drugs.  Since Larry's family has been denied all reports and any investigation in the ensuing 4.5 years, this writer cannot say definitely what was done to Larry Neal, 54-year-old mentally ill heart patient.  His family feels strongly that there cannot be an acceptable explanation for Larry's secret arrest and jail death, or reports and an investigation would not be withheld from his family.  If the Ex-Chief Medical Examiner is found to be a man who lied in favor of police (as it would appear he may have done in Mr. Workman's case), should Larry's autopsy report say, "Death by Taser," or "Death by Restraint Chair" or "Death by Strangulation," or "Death by Starvation and Dehydration," or just plain "Murder"?

Unfortunately, Larry's family contracted with the (Johnny) Cochran Firm as their wrongful death attorneys following Larry's demise, and the managing partner of The Cochran Firm's Memphis office was himself a Shelby County Commissioner.  The law firm kept that secret from Larry's family members, of course, and conducted no discovery regarding Larry’s death, which would have necessitated an explanation by Shelby County Government regarding what happened to this life-long mental patient, which the jail had falsely denied having incarcerated until his death.  When Larry's family attempted to sue this law firm, bringing suit in Georgia Superior Court, Judge Wendy Shoob dismissed their fraud case against the law firm, upholding a Motion to Dismiss filed by the advertised Atlanta office of The Cochran Firm wherein it denied being any part of the (Johnny) Cochran Firm!  However, neither this representation in court nor Judge Shoob's order ever stopped this Atlanta law office from being represented as an office of The Cochran Firm to the American public.

Below is a link to a radio show with Larry Neal's sister, Mary Neal, as the guest speaker.
Real Talk with Brothas Keepa BlogTalk radio broadcast
http://www.blogtalk radio.com/ nbbta/2008/ 05/28/Real- Talk-With- Brothas-Keepa

Links to news articles below give information regarding Dr. O.C. Smith -- perhaps a doctor with a delayed sense of justice (unless, of course, there really is a mad, kidnapping bomber at large)

O.  C. SMITH’S KIDNAPPING ORDEAL
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/18/48hours/main688910.shtml
. . . it was front-page news when Smith was brutally attacked by a phantom assailant as he was leaving work in June 2002. Now, as Correspondent Troy Roberts reports, the medical examiner is at the center of a bizarre mystery that would puzzle Memphis for years.

5/4/07
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/02/workman.sidebar/index.html
A witness, an ex-convict named Harold Davis, said under oath that he had lied when he testified at Workman's trial that he saw Workman fire a .45 at Lt. Ronald Oliver.  Also, fresh ballistics information surfaced that suggested one of the two other officers who answered the restaurant's silent alarm had accidentally shot Oliver.

5/28/08 -- WILL THERE BE A NEW TRIAL FOR DR. SMITH?
http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/Content?oid=35378
. . . the attack on O. C. Smith is the ultimate Memphis cold case.  But it shouldn't be. The case, which was once the top priority nationally of the BATF, should be reopened because only two conclusions are possible, and neither is acceptable: Either Smith was attacked by a mad bomber who is still at large and apt to strike again against Smith or some other public official. Or a medical examiner who gave key testimony in hundreds, if not thousands, of criminal cases had severe mental problems, sent investigators on an expensive wild goose chase, and endangered the lives of the men who disarmed the homemade bomb around his neck.

PAUL HOUSE - WRONGLY CONVICTED?
A man, handicapped by multiple sclerosis, remains on Tennessee's death row TODAY despite strong possibilities of his innocence!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/28/AR2008052800328.html?nav=rss_nation/special

Tenn. man on death row despite high court ruling
By ROSE FRENCH
The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 28, 2008; 2:51 AM

CROSSVILLE, Tenn. -- Multiple sclerosis has Paul House in a
wheelchair. A tenacious prosecutor has him on death row, deemed too
dangerous to be released two years after the U.S. Supreme Court said
he likely isn't guilty.

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5/28/08 7:40 p.m. EST --- UPDATE
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080528/ap_on_re_us/death_row_limbo

By ROSE FRENCH, Associated Press Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A federal judge has ordered prosecutors to retry or free a death row inmate who, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded, no juror would have found guilty based on evidence that emerged years after his trial.

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UPDATE – June 25, 2008

FOUR ADDITIONAL INMATES REMOVED FROM TENN. DEATH ROW

http://www.wreg.com/Global/story.asp?S=8553802

Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Tennessee Supreme Court announced Wednesday five inmates have been removed from the state's death row.

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UPDATE - July 1, 2008

PAUL HOUSE TO BE RELEASED ON BAIL!
http://www.charlotte.com/nation/story/695037.html
Associated Press - Nashville, TN

A former Tennessee death row inmate is scheduled to be freed from prison on bail for the first time in nearly 23 years.  The Tennessee Department of Correction confirmed Tuesday that House would be released. House's mother says she was able to make her son's $100,000 bail and will pick her son up in Nashville on Wednesday.

SUBMITTED BY:  Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
Website:  http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com