Physical Evidence

How much money should a man get for being locked in a maximum-security prison for a crime he did not commit? A million dollars? Two million? Ten?For Anthony Gray Jr., the Calvert County man who was freed from prison this week after serving more than seven years, the financial compensation may be this: zero.Legal experts say that a successful malpractice case against his former attorneys may be a long shot and that Gray has almost no chance of winning a lawsuit for the government's wrongful prosecution.

THE EXONERATION of Sgt. Maj. Gene C. McKinney on charges of sexual misconduct -- though surprising, given that six females independently claimed he groped and crudely propositioned them -- may be seen as a bad moment for women, but it should not necessarily be viewed as a step backward for women in the armed services.The Army took this case seriously, suspending McKinney, its highest-ranking enlisted man, when complaints were lodged. Then it prosecuted him in a court-martial it called the most important in 20 years.

The verdict seemed stunningly clear: Staff Sgt. Delmar G. Simpson raped six female trainees on his office couch, bathroom floor, and in his apartment on the Aberdeen Proving Ground.But the message contained in Tuesday's verdict -- which concluded the biggest sexual misconduct case in Army history -- was subject to broad interpretation yesterday by political interests vying for influence over the modern American military.Conservatives in Congress used it to question mixed-gender training in three branches of the armed services.

A Howard County jury deadlocked over whether to convict a Prince George's man of rape Friday, after the alleged victim testified in Circuit Court that she fabricated the accusation.After deliberating four hours, the jury decided to convict Alvin Crook, who now lives in Landover, of battery and lesser sex offense charges. He could receive up to 31 years in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 2.His girlfriend initially told police that Crook had raped and beaten her -- at one point, behind Abiding Savior Lutheran Church in Owen Brown in August.

In March, an informant's tip led to four arrests in the 1978 murder of a Baltimore man who was apparently thrown from a bridge over the waters of the Gunpowder River in Baltimore County to his death.Now, as a January trial date approaches, veteran Baltimore County prosecutor James O'C. Gentry Jr. must find a way to breathe life into that cold case, nearly two decades later.In doing so, he must rely on the dated memories of witnesses, anticipate that evidence could have been lost in the intervening years and wonder if jurors will care about a crime so old.And Gentry, the assistant state's attorney most often called upon to prosecute cold cases, also has the delicate task of letting the victim's relatives know that he is confident of winning, while preparing them for the possibility that he'll lose.

Baltimore police charged a man yesterday in the 1993 bludgeoning death of an elderly woman, apparently solving an emotional case in which detectives and the victim's son shared a personal and professional bond.The son, Pete O'Neal, a veteran cameraman for a local television station, has filmed nearly 2,000 slaying scenes and is well-known and liked by homicide investigators.The fatal beating of his mother, Jeromia O'Neal, 74, and the strangulation of a nun at her convent three days later rocked the city in the middle of its deadliest year on record.

At the beginning, the case against O. J. Simpson seemed so overwhelming that prosecutors were telling jurors about a "mountain of evidence," from DNA and hair fibers to a barking dog and bloody gloves.But over the next nine months, the case about which prosecutors had been so confident disintegrated.Yesterday, as Mr. Simpson walked away from the Los Angeles County Courthouse, acquitted of two murders, prosecutors and defense lawyers across the country weighed in on the reversal.They said the strength of the prosecution's case had been the mounds of physical evidence collected from the crime scene, Mr. Simpson's car and home.

Maryland's Court of Special Appeals has overturned a Carroll County man's conviction for the sexual abuse of children. The XTC man's 145-year prison term was one of the longest abuse sentences in state history.The state's second-highest court ruled Thursday that the trial judge should not have allowed a doctor to testify that most children don't lie about such abuse.The man -- whose name is being withheld to protect the privacy of his victims -- was convicted in July 1994 of molesting nine children, two of them his own, over a five-year period.

In the trial of a Baltimore police officer yesterday on charges of raping a woman while searching her home for a suspect, TC condom wrapper emerged as a key piece of physical evidence -- for both sides.The prosecution suggested that Officer George S. Cannida III's fingerprint on the wrapper supports the woman's claim that he wore a condom and raped her.The defense, on the other hand, suggested the wrapper backs up the officer's claim that he was searching for the woman's boyfriend, who was wanted for auto theft.

Teddy C. Ryan Jr. -- briefly a top city official in Cumberland earlier this year -- is today a man without a job, without a house and without money.Even so, Mr. Ryan, who was acquitted two weeks ago of charges related to the kidnapping and $100,000 robbery of a Florida coin and pawnshop owner, is content to attend to personal needs, spend time with his family and breathe the exhilarating air of freedom."

A Naval Academy midshipman has been cleared of charges that he raped a female student in her dorm room in October, the military college announced yesterday, pointing to a Navy investigative report that found an "almost complete lack of physical evidence." Midshipman Mark A. Calvanico, 21, of Secaucus, N.J., will not face a court-martial on charges of rape, indecent assault, indecent acts and conduct unbecoming an officer, the academy said in a news release. Calvanico could still face disciplinary action through the academy's administrative conduct system, a college spokeswoman said.

An investigating officer for the Navy has recommended dropping rape charges against a Naval Academy student accused of assaulting a female midshipman in her dormitory room, pointing to what he called "an almost complete lack of physical evidence" in the case. Midshipman Mark A. Calvanico, 21, of Secaucus, N.J., should not face a court-martial, Lt. John E. Clady wrote in a May 5 report, released yesterday by the defendant's lawyer. Clady instead recommended an administrative hearing for Calvanico that could result in his dismissal from the academy for failing to meet curfew, being drunk and disorderly, and other offenses.

Of course, those contentions are that McNamee injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone 16 times in 1998, 2000 and 2001. The physical evidence that McNamee is said to have handed over to investigators are syringes and gauze pads with traces of Clemens' blood. Reportedly, McNamee produced the material about a month ago. It's all vaguely reminiscent of Monica Lewinsky preserving Bill Clinton's DNA evidence on the infamous blue dress that helped prove the two had inappropriate moments together.

Brian McNamee's lawyers said yesterday that they gave federal prosecutors physical evidence backing the personal trainer's allegation that Roger Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs. "I think this is a significant point in the case. We believe that this is significant corroboration," said McNamee's lead lawyer, Earl Ward. McNamee's side turned over syringes with Clemens' blood to Internal Revenue Service Special Agent Jeff Novitzky in early January, a person familiar with the evidence said, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

You don't know what it's like, and neither do I. But we can imagine. I've always thought it must feel like being buried alive. Lungs starving, lying in blackness, pounding on the coffin lid with dirt showering down, no one hearing your cries. Or maybe it's like locked-in syndrome, a condition where you lose muscle control - can't move a finger, turn your head, speak. Your body entombs you. You scream within, but no one hears. Something like that, I think. Something where you're trapped, claustrophobic, unable to believe what is happening, unable to make anyone hear you. That's how it must feel to be an innocent person on death row as execution day draws close.

ATLANTA -- It was a Friday night in a rough part of town when Officer Mark A. MacPhail of the Savannah Police Department showed up to work his second job, moonlighting as a security officer for the Greyhound bus station. A few hours later, early on a Saturday morning in August 1989, MacPhail was shot and killed as he tried to break up a fight over a can of beer. He never drew his weapon. The man convicted of shooting the officer that night in 1989, Troy A. Davis, is likely to be the focus of an unusual clemency hearing before the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon paved the way for trials of detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay yesterday, issuing new rules that activate the nation's controversial law on interrogating and prosecuting terrorism prisoners. With the rules in place, the military plans to charge between 60 and 80 of the about 395 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Trials are likely to begin this spring, officials said, but it is unlikely the so-called "high value" detainees formerly held by the CIA will be among the first to be given a hearing.

A correctional officer testified in Baltimore Circuit Court yesterday that he saw one of his former co-workers stomping a detainee during a melee at the downtown booking center last year that ended with the prisoner beaten to death. The officer, Okechkwu Okeke, said he yelled at Dameon C. Woods to back off from Raymond K. Smoot in the May 25 fracas at the Central Booking and Intake Center. Woods, along with Nathan D. Colbert and James L. Hatcher, have been charged with second-degree murder.

The Dundalk man accused of killing two prostitutes and dumping their naked bodies on city streets will testify today, the only defense witness expected in a case built largely on circumstantial evidence. John Patrick Garcia, 36, of the 7400 block of Alvah Ave. is on trial in Baltimore Circuit Court in the strangulation of Melody Brock, 33, in April 2002 and Danielle Fell, 18, a month later. Brock's body was found propped against a dirt hill in the 2200 block of Newkirk St. Fell's body was sprawled over a curb in the 1300 block of Baylis St. If convicted, Garcia could be sentenced to life without parole.

EAGLE, Colo. - The Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant, one of the most talented and dynamic basketball players of his generation, was charged yesterday with the felony sexual assault of a 19-year-old hotel worker who came to his room at an exclusive resort and later accused him of forcing her to have sex. In a nationally televised news conference, Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert, announced the charges, saying Bryant had "caused sexual penetration...