STATE V. JOHNSON 2022 OHIO 1739

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For years I have been trying to tell the appellate that testimony provided by the Warrensville Heights Police Department that they lifted a partial fingerprint of mine off the passenger side door of the victim’s van was a blatant lie. Testimony stating fingerprints belonging to my co-defendant were lifted off the drivers side door of the victim’s van was also a blatant lie. 

The Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court allowed the prosecution to put an UNLICENSED FINGERPRINT EXAMINER, Ms. Barbara Kusznir, on the witness stand to testify that she made a positive identification matching my prints and my co-defendants prints to the prints recovered. The court allowed unethical and unlicensed testimony to be presented during my trial. 

My court appointed trial attorney, Mary K. Tylee, objected to Barbra Kusznir’s testimony because she was not a professional, licensed fingerprint examiner. Ms. Tylee’s objection was overruled by the court. She was reprimanded during my trial while trying to defend my 13th and 14th Amendment rights to a fair trial. 

My public defender stood in front of the all-white jury and asked the UNLICENSED FINGERPRINT “EXPERT” while on the stand, “Where is the physical evidence now? Where are the fingerprints in question?” The unlicensed fingerprint “expert” told the judge, my public defender, and the jury that she “… didn’t bring the fingerprints because (she) felt that it would have been TOO CONFUSING for the jury”. What the unlicensed fingerprint expert FELT was allowed by the court during my trial. 

It is frightening to know that public officials will stoop so low as to exchange a man’s life and liberty just to taste a judicial victory. However, this is the case with my trial as well as many other inmates who are incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. 

This is the current situation I’m working to shed light on. I have made several attempts as a pro se litigant to appeal based on fraudulent fingerprint evidence. 

To this day, the state prosecutor continues to state my fingerprints were lifted off the victim’s van. I have never seen the victim in my life, no one can testify that they have ever seen me with the victim, and I have never been near the victim’s van or his property. Neither myself nor my co-defendant were ever in the same location as the victim, including at the time of his untimely death. 

Warrensville Heights Police Department Evidence Technician, Don Spera, testified that he lifted the fingerprints in questions off the victim’s van. However, there was no mention of any other prints being lifted and no other prints were investigated. WHY IS THAT? The victim’s van was a business vehicle so many other people would have touched the victim’s van. I have been incarcerated for more than 18 years because of the illusion of physical evidence, the supposed fingerprints. 

The prosecutor continues to say this fingerprint evidence is real, however, it cannot be produced. It was NEVER produced in my trial either. 

This lie continues to be told by using evidence that DOES NOT EXIST. This “evidence” was used to paint the picture of a lie that I was in contact with a victim that I’ve never met. I’ve had no contact with the victim, whether direct or indirect. That is a fact and I will continue to state that fact. 

NO CONTACT WITH THE VICTIM MEANS THERE IS NO FINGERPRINT EVIDENCE!

In the 18 years of my wrongful incarceration, I have never seen a case that exposed the fake credentials and lack of qualifications of “fingerprint experts” until STATE V. JOHNSON 2022 OHIO 1739. 

This case is a post-conviction ruling that lines up perfectly with my unlawful conviction and shows precedent.

A precedent is something that precedes, or comes before. The Supreme Court relies on precedents—that is, earlier laws or decisions that provide some example or rule to guide them in the case they're actually deciding.  

State vs. Johnson is a post-conviction ruling out of Hamilton County, Ohio, that shows and proves there is a systemic problem within the Ohio courts and that fingerprint testimony is a matter of OPINION, at best.  My fiancé and I have hired an attorney to represent me concerning my wrongful conviction. We are hoping that, with legal representation, we can have the court review my conviction and subsequently have it overturned based on the facts and the precedent that now exists in Ohio.  

Kevin Johnson’s conviction was overturned in Hamilton County, Ohio. 

HERE IS A SUMAMRY OF HAMILTON COUNTY COURT’S DECISION HANDED DOWN IN MAY 2022:

ON MAY 25, 2022. THE OHIO SUPREME COURT RUILED IN STATE V. JOHNSON 2022 - OHIO -1739, that the trial court abused its discretion by denying defendant's (KEVIN JOHNSON) petition for postconviction relief under R.C 2953.21 on the basis of res judicata because res judicata did not operate as bar to defendant's postconviction claims since the record demonstrated that defendant's claims could not have been fully litigated on direct appeal without resort to evidence outside the record; Defendant presented substantive grounds for relief because the fingerprint evidence was pivotal and defendant submitted a latent-print examiners affidavit as well as the Scientific Working Group on Friction Ridge Analysis, Study and technology guidelines demonstrating that the detectives testimony that she was 100% certain in her identification of defendant's print was misleading to the extent that it overstated the probative value of her identified.

There was never a licensed fingerprint examiner on the stand during my trial. IF THE OHIO STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER’S OFFICE COUNSEL, TIMOTHY YOUNG, CAN HAVE HIS CLIENTS CONVICTION REVERSED AND REMANDED BASED ON THE OPPOSITION OF A LICENSED FINGERPRINT EXAMINER’S TESTIMONY, I FEEL AS THOUGH MY CHANCES OF REVERSAL ARE EVEN STRONGER, CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT NO FINGERPRINTS EVER EXISTED IN MY CASE.
 

Please stay tuned to this website so you can be informed of the innerworkings of yet another fight for freedom by a man who’s been wrongfully convicted. 

I WILL NEVER STOP FIGHTING TO BE FREED FROM HIS UNLAWFUL AND ILLEGAL SEVITUDE.
 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME
 

WRONGLY CONVICTED HARRY BRISCOE #530252