Connecticut’s attorney general has agreed to a $25.2 million settlement with two men who spent decades in prison for murder. Their convictions were based partly on evidence presented by famed forensic scientist Henry Lee, which a judge later found to be fabricated. Ralph “Ricky” Birch and Shawn Henning were convicted in the Dec. 1, 1985, slaying of Everett Carr after Lee testified that there were stains consistent with blood on a towel found in the victim’s home. However, testing in 2020 revealed that the towel was free of blood, leading to the vacation of their convictions. In response, Birch and Henning filed a federal wrongful-conviction lawsuit against Lee, eight police investigators, and the town of New Milford.
US District Court Judge Victor Bolden ruled in July that there was no evidence Lee ever conducted any blood tests on the towel, and a summary judgment was issued against him. If approved by the General Assembly, the settlement will award each of the men $12.6 million. State Attorney General William Tong’s office expressed satisfaction with the agreement, stating, “We are pleased to have reached an agreement in principle to resolve these matters in the best interest of all parties.” However, comments from Lee have not been obtained as of yet.
In July, Lee released a lengthy statement denying any fabrication of evidence. He instead suggested that traces of blood may have degraded over the 20-year period between the crime and the time the defense experts tested the towel. Furthermore, Lee emphasized that his chemical testing of the towel did not directly implicate Birch and Henning as suspects in the crime, and that his testimony included exculpatory evidence that served to exonerate them. Notably, there was no forensic evidence linking Birch and Henning to the crime, and the crime scene contained hairs and more than 40 fingerprints that did not match the two men. Their clothes and car were also found to be free of blood.
During the trial, Lee testified that it was theoretically possible for the assailants to avoid getting much blood on them. Currently 84 years old, Lee was formerly the head of the state’s forensic laboratory and is now a professor emeritus at the University of New Haven’s Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences. He gained fame for his involvement in the 1995 OJ Simpson murder trial, where he questioned the handling of blood evidence. Lee has also worked as a consultant in other high-profile investigations, such as the 1996 slaying of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey and the 2004 murder trial of Scott Peterson. However, his work has faced scrutiny, including in the case against record producer Phil Spector, where he was accused of tampering with evidence from the crime scene.
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