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Karlyn Eklof was convicted of the murder of James Salmu.  After eight to ten hours of daily interrogation for nine days, Eklof recited on videotape a police invented scenario in which she stabbed Salmu with a plastic knife.  Eklof was prosecuted for Salmu's murder based on this “confession.”  Following Eklof's indictment, Salmu's body was found.  At trial, testimony was presented indicating that Salmu had been stabbed.  The prosecution then presented Eklof's confession, which appeared to agree with the cause of death as she confessed to stabbing Salmu.  The prosecution also presented the testimony of two witnesses who made incriminatory statements against Eklof.

On appeal it was discovered that DA Fred Hugi had engaged in multiple Brady violations involving the withholding of exculpatory evidence.  Salmu's cause of death was bullet wounds and there was no evidence that he had been stabbed.  It was also not revealed that the two witnesses who testified did so in order to avoid prosecution themselves.  One of these witnesses was under indictment for molesting his daughter, and the DA went to extraordinary efforts to conceal this fact.  As of 2007, Eklof is using the Brady violations to appeal her conviction.  Eklof's complete story is written in Improper Submission: Records of a Wrongful Conviction by Erma Armstrong.  (JD35 p3)  [7/07]

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