Alaska

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Shaw was convicted in 1973 of aiding in the theft of merchandise from a store.  Another man had stolen 17 pairs of pants from a men’s store where both he and Shaw worked as janitors.  That wrongful conviction led to Shaw being separately convicted of two other crimes: Failing to Appear for Sentencing in 1980, and for being a Felon in Possession of a Firearm in 1981.  He was imprisoned separately for all three convictions.

Shaw's public defender, David Backstrom, had a conflict of interest by also representing Shaw's codefendant, who freely admitted his guilt, but who also insisted Shaw had nothing to do with the thefts.  The codefendant was prevented from testifying by Backstrom.  Backstrom also prevented several witnesses for Shaw from testifying because by exonerating Shaw they would be implicating the attorney's other client, Shaw's codefendant.  (Shaw v. PD)  [7/05]

After 28-year-old Laura Henderson Ibach disappeared, her ex-husband, Jack Anton Ibach, was charged with her murder. It was alleged that Jack employed Donald “Mac” McDonald and James Kerwin to commit the actual murder. Laura was last seen with these men, and they were charged with her murder as well. Jack and Laura shared custody of their daughters, an arrangement Jack approved of. Laura was seeking full custody of the daughters, so she could take them to Oregon. Two of Laura’s coworkers stated that she talked about picking up a “tape” on the day of her murder to use against her ex-husband in the custody dispute.

McDonald was friendly with Laura, but only knew Jack on sight. Kerwin was a close acquaintance of McDonald. McDonald had a plausible explanation of why Laura had been with him in his van, along with Kerwin, for a short period on the night of her disappearance. No direct evidence existed that Jack had paid money to McDonald or Kerwin, or conspired with them in any way.

Clothes similar to those worn by Laura had been found along a two-mile stretch of Monashka Bay on the Pacific Ocean. None of the clothes were positively identified as hers and it is possible that none belonged to her. The prosecution theorized that McDonald and Kerwin tossed Laura’s body off a particular cliff into the bay. The ocean currents then carried Laura away. It was not explained how the clothes, if Laura’s, could have come off her discarded body.

A purse was found on the beach, containing Laura’s old identification. Laura had been wearing “pinkish” tennis shoes prior to her disappearance. She had recent wart surgery on her foot and was wearing Band-Aids until her wounds healed. After this information became known, a pink shoe was found on the beach with a Band-Aid inside. If these items belonged to Laura, the evidence did not explain how her sock disappeared. Even more mysterious was the fact that the found shoe was a left one, but medical records showed that Laura had surgery on her right foot. One might suspect that evidence was being planted.

Police impounded McDonald’s van and searched it twice, but found no incriminating evidence. Months later, Kodiak Police Corporal Andre reportedly called a Chicago area psychic to ask for help in the case. He said the psychic told him to “look for something in the van.” Nine days before trial, police checked McDonald’s van, then unsecured, and found an earring in plain sight near the gas pedal. The found earring was porcelain with a purple flower painted on it, consistent with the earrings Laura had been described as wearing. The prosecution theorized that Laura’s earring had been violently knocked off her during a struggle in the van. It then had gone down the front window defroster slot and had remained in the heater/defroster system during the first two searches. Subsequent towing had jarred the earring enough to fall through to the floor.

Laura weighed about 150 lbs. prior to her disappearance. McDonald’s lawyer arranged for a reenactment of the prosecution theory that McDonald and Kerwin tossed Laura’s body off a cliff into the bay. He had two men about the size of McDonald and Kerwin attempt to toss a 150 lb. sack from the location into the bay. The high tide line was 50 feet straight out and the two men could not throw the sack anywhere close to it. The defendants’ trial judge would not allow the results of the reenactment to be presented at trial. Inside Edition, a national TV show, later performed a similar reenactment, with identical results.

At trial, Kerwin retained a private lawyer and was acquitted of all charges. McDonald was found guilty of kidnapping Laura, but the jury hung on his murder charge as well as the charges against Laura’s husband, Jack. At retrial, McDonald was convicted of Laura Ibach’s murder. It is not known whether Jack Ibach was convicted. McDonald exhausted his state and federal appeals in 2004.  (http://freemac.us)  (JD26 p.3)  [2/08]

In 1996, Richard Bingham made a videotaped confession to the rape and murder of 17-year-old Jessica Baggen.  He was acquitted at his 1997 trial because jurors saw on tape that he kept missing all the cues the interrogators fed him as they steered him to the correct details.  DNA testing excluded Bingham as the source of the semen found in the victim.  The foreign hair found on the victim's body was not Bingham's nor was the fingerprint found on a cigarette pack at the crime scene.  Bingham was also unable to describe the unusual properties of the physical scene where the body was found nor the unusual way in which the victim had been silenced.  [3/06]