Smoking gun? More like a lame duck. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most significant pieces of evidence that were meant to help convict defendants but, either during trial or upon appeal, actually played a pivotal role in their acquittal.
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00:00At this time, the people would ask that Mr. Simpson step forward and try on the glove
00:05recovered at Bundy as well as the glove recovered at Rockingham.
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most significant pieces
00:13of evidence that were meant to help convict defendants, but either during trial or upon
00:18appeal actually played a pivotal role in their acquittal.
00:21When you apply real science, justice is done, but they didn't do that in the beginning.
00:25They jumped to some conclusion based on a fraud.
00:29CALLING CARD – THE HALL-MILLS MURDER TRIAL
00:36On September 16, 1922, the bodies of Reverend Edward Hall and his choir member Eleanor
00:41Mills were discovered in a field in Somerset, New Jersey.
00:44The cruel nature of the crime, plus the fact that both victims were having an affair, placed
00:48suspicion on Hall's wife, Frances.
00:50At the crime scene, police found a calling card, later determined to contain the fingerprints
00:55of Frances' brother, Willie.
00:57Police charged Frances and her brothers with the murders, making this calling card the
01:01main physical evidence during their trial.
01:04However, the card had been mishandled by the police.
01:07It was passed around among reporters and curious onlookers at the crime scene, severely contaminating
01:12it.
01:13Consequently, the jury acquitted the defendants, leaving the case unsolved to this day.
01:18A hundred years later, fascination with the case endures.
01:22NEEDLE TAINTED WITH INSULIN – KLAUS VON BULO ATTEMPTED MURDER TRIAL
01:26When American socialite Sonny von Bulo was found unconscious on her bathroom floor in
01:30December 1980, suspicion fell on her husband Klaus.
01:34Medical tests soon revealed that Sonny had low blood sugar but a high insulin level.
01:39While Sonny lay in a coma, Klaus was convicted of her attempted murder.
01:48The prosecution's evidence included a needle allegedly containing traces of insulin, which
01:53they claimed Klaus injected Sonny with.
02:06Klaus appealed this conviction, and during his second trial, expert witnesses testified
02:11that the needle was coated with insulin on the outside but had none inside.
02:15They argued that if Klaus had indeed injected Sonny, the needle would have been wiped clean
02:19of the insulin.
02:20The jury bought this argument, and ultimately acquitted Klaus.
02:35NUMBER EIGHT – BLOODSTAINED UNDERWEAR – LLOYD E. MILLER JR.
02:39MURDER TRIAL
02:40The phrase gross miscarriage of justice has never been more fitting than in this case.
02:45In 1955, taxi driver Lloyd E. Miller Jr. was arrested for the murder of Janice May
02:50in Canton, Illinois.
02:52The main physical evidence against him was a pair of, quote, blood-stained underwear
02:56found near the crime scene.
02:58The prosecution convinced the jury that this blood belonged to Miller, leading to his conviction
03:02and death sentence.
03:04Miller remained on death row for years, once coming within hours of execution, when a federal
03:09judge ordered a re-examination of the evidence.
03:12It turned out that these supposed bloodstains were actually paint.
03:16Even worse, the prosecution knew this all along.
03:19Miller's conviction was overturned, and he was freed after 11 years behind bars.
03:25NUMBER SEVEN – POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION BY VICTIM – RONALD COTTON SEXUAL ASSAULT TRIAL
03:30It's a cliché of courtroom dramas.
03:33That moment when the eyewitness is asked, do you see the person who committed the crime
03:37here in this courtroom before you?
03:39In July 1984, a man broke into the apartment of Jennifer Thompson and sexually assaulted
03:45her at knifepoint.
03:46During the ordeal, Thompson memorized her attacker's physical appearance, determined
03:50to identify him later.
03:52What is his voice?
03:53Does he have an accent?
03:55Does he have a scar?
03:56Is there a tattoo?
03:57In both a photo array and police lineup, Thompson picked out Ronald Cotton as the assailant.
04:02I can remember almost feeling like I was at an SAT test, you know, where you start narrowing
04:07down your choices.
04:08You can discount A and B and…
04:10Oh, like multiple choice.
04:11Exactly.
04:12Her testimony in court was pivotal in securing a conviction.
04:15Cotton later appealed this decision and was granted a second trial.
04:18However, before this trial began, a felon named Bobby Poole reportedly confessed to
04:23the crime.
04:24The defense presented Poole to Thompson during the trial, but she insisted that Cotton was
04:28the culprit.
04:29Bobby Poole is in the courtroom.
04:32You look over there.
04:34What happens inside you?
04:36Nothing.
04:37Thompson was subsequently sentenced to life.
04:39Nearly a decade later, DNA analysis proved Thompson wrong.
04:43Bobby Poole was the real attacker.
04:45You're walking out here today as a free man.
04:47Number 6.
04:48SIDS Statistics – The Trial of Sally Clark
04:51Sally Clark was a solicitor in Cheshire, England, who faced criminal charges for the deaths
04:56of her two sons, Christopher in December 1996 and Harry in January 1998.
05:02Clark's defense argued that both deaths were due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS,
05:06but the prosecution insisted this was extremely unlikely.
05:10Their star witness was Sir Roy Meadow, a professor of pediatrics, who testified that the chances
05:15of that happening was 1 in 73 million.
05:18This staggering statistic convinced the jury to return a guilty verdict.
05:22But Meadow's numbers were deeply flawed.
05:24We don't know the cause of SIDS, but if it's even in part genetic or environmental,
05:29it could be possible for babies in the same family to have similar risks.
05:33Even the Royal Statistical Society issued a statement rejecting his claims.
05:37Clark's conviction was eventually overturned in a second appeal, after it was also revealed
05:41that Harry had, quote, lethal levels of bacterial infection.
05:45When we do statistics, we often only consider one or possibly two different hypotheses.
05:50But it's important to remember that there are other options out there.
05:53When possible, we should try to consider those other options.
05:57Number 5.
05:58Blood in the Car – The Trial of Lindy Chamberlain Creighton
06:01Publicly, all over the world, we've been acclaimed as murderers and had that thrust
06:08in our face.
06:09One of Australia's most infamous murder trials, Lindy Chamberlain Creighton stood accused
06:13of killing her daughter Azaria during a family camping trip.
06:16Azaria's body was never found, and Chamberlain Creighton insisted a dingo had taken her.
06:21An initial inquiry backed the story, but a second inquest suggested otherwise, claiming
06:26to have found blood in the family car.
06:29An expert testified that this blood contained fetal hemoglobin, indicating it belonged to
06:34a baby.
06:35Chamberlain Creighton was ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
06:38The cheering that went on that night was just unbelievable.
06:42It was like being in a Roman gladiatorial stadium.
06:46She had spent three years behind bars before being freed when it was revealed that the
06:50supposed blood was actually a chemical compound from manufacturing paint.
06:54Chamberlain Creighton was later pardoned and received $1.3 million in compensation
06:59from the Australian government.
07:01In 24 hours, you've got, in effect, proof positive that Mrs. Chamberlain was telling
07:06the truth on a really significant aspect.
07:12As bombshell moments go, they don't get any bigger than this.
07:16Do you recall doing any types of searches that might include chloroform?
07:22The Casey Anthony case revolved around allegations that she had killed her daughter Kaylee to
07:26escape parental responsibilities.
07:29Although physical evidence was scant, prosecutors argued that she used chloroform to commit
07:33the crime.
07:34They invited software designer John Bradley, who testified that someone had searched for
07:38chloroform on the family computer not once, not twice, but 84 times.
07:43Somebody did a search, a specific search for the term chloroform, and then subsequently
07:50went to a different website.
07:52The prosecution suggested it was Anthony, but that theory shattered when her mother
07:56Cindy testified that she mistakenly searched for chloroform while sourcing information
08:01about chlorophyll.
08:02Even the medical examiner confirmed that Kaylee's remains tested negative for volatile chemicals.
08:07It was revealed that Bradley's software had malfunctioned, and the search for chloroform
08:11happened only once.
08:13How many times does it show that that website was visited?
08:16One, sir.
08:17So MySpace was visited 84 times according to the net analysis report?
08:21That's correct.
08:22By then, Anthony had already been acquitted.
08:26Number 3.
08:27Phone Bill.
08:28The Murder Trial of David Cam.
08:29Regardless of where you stand on this issue, it has been a long road to freedom for David
08:33Cam.
08:34On September 28, 2000, retired Indiana State Trooper David Cam returned home from a basketball
08:39game to find his wife and two children dead.
08:42He soon became the prime suspect.
08:44The murders were estimated to have occurred around 8 p.m., but Cam claimed he was at his
08:49game between 7 p.m. and 9.30 p.m.
08:52His alibi seemed solid until investigators discovered a phone bill that showed Cam made
08:57a call from the house at 7.19 p.m.
09:00This voided his alibi, leading to his conviction.
09:03However, there was a catch.
09:05Because Indiana has two different time zones, this call was later determined to have been
09:09made an hour earlier, at 6.19 p.m.
09:13Cam spent 13 years in prison, enduring two convictions, before being acquitted in a third
09:19When you apply real science, justice is done, but they didn't do that in the beginning.
09:22They jumped to some conclusion based on a fraud.
09:24Number 2.
09:25Kitchen Knife, The Amanda Knox Trial
09:28The latest chapter in Amanda Knox's six-year-long legal battle may just be taking a turn in
09:33her favor.
09:34No matter what people say, I didn't do it.
09:36In 2007, Amanda Knox was an American student living in Italy when her flatmate, Meredith
09:41Kircher, was murdered.
09:43Little did Knox know that this incident would spark a decades-long legal saga.
09:47He was charged with Kircher's murder, alleged to have killed her in a botched sex game.
09:52Despite little physical evidence, prosecutors fixated on a knife from her boyfriend's house,
09:57claiming it held DNA from both Knox and Kircher.
10:00This knife became the centerpiece of the prosecution's case, and helped secure Knox's conviction.
10:05I had panic attacks and just broke down and I couldn't breathe.
10:08However, on appeal, the knife was re-examined, revealing that the DNA mostly belonged to
10:14Knox, with the remaining traces likely due to cross-contamination.
10:18Knox was ultimately acquitted, but the shadow of this case continues to loom over her.
10:22It's ordered that they be, that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Solicito be immediately released.
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10:47Number 1.
10:48Bloodied Gloves – The Murder Trial of O.J. Simpson
10:52The 1995 trial of O.J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her
10:56friend Ronald Goldman is perhaps the most publicized criminal trial in history.
11:02While there were multiple pieces of evidence linking Simpson to the crime, the most unforgettable
11:06was a pair of bloodied gloves found at the scene.
11:09During the trial, Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Darden asked Simpson to try on the gloves,
11:14hoping to show they fit him perfectly.
11:25But in a dramatic twist, Simpson struggled to put them on, indicating to the jury that
11:30they were too small.
11:32Simpson's defense team capitalized on this, arguing that since the gloves didn't fit,
11:36he couldn't have been the killer.
11:38The jury agreed, and acquitted him of the murders.
11:47What did you think of these notorious legal blunders?
11:50Share your thoughts in the comment section.