Wednesday, September 8, 2010

MELANIE MCGUIRE WRONGLY CONVICTED

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MELANIE MCGUIRE
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FIND OUT WHAT THE

STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW
ABOUT THE TRUE CASE FACTS
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"MELANIE MCGUIRE
WRONGLY CONVICTED"
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Melanie McGuire was wrongly convicted for the murder and dismemberment of her husband William T. McGuire. If you have information that will exonerate Melanie please send a private message to 12AngryMen at http://12AngryMen.u.yuku.com/.
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¤ ABOUT MELANIE MCGUIRE ¤
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Melanie Lyn McGuire (née Slate) (born October 8, 1972, in Ridgewood, New Jersey) is an American convicted murderer. McGuire was convicted of the murder of her husband William T. McGuire among other charges.
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¤ EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION ¤
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McGuire graduated from Middletown High School South in 1990 in the top 5% of her class and was a member of both the National Honor Society and the Spanish National Honor Society. She obtained a B.A. from Rutgers University in 1994 with studies in statistics and psychology. Melanie obtained her nursing diploma from the Charles E. Gregory School of Nursing in 1997, graduating second in her class.
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As a nursing student, McGuire became interested in the OBGYN field, specifically, the field of infertility. As a professional nurse coordinator for two of the largest infertility programs on the East Coast, McGuire has functioned as coordinator/recruiter for all different forms of third party reproduction, including ovum donation, and most notably, gestational surrogacy.
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¤ MARRIAGE TO AND DEATH OF WILLIAM T. MCGUIRE ¤
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Melanie and William were married in West Orange, New Jersey in 1999. William was a programmer analyst and adjunct professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey. William had just declared bankruptcy several weeks before the marriage. Melanie had described her marriage to be troublesome and abusive in a divorce complaint filed on May 25, 2004. This complaint mirrored the divorce complaint of William's first wife, Marci Paulk. The complaint had been filed after her husband had disappeared and been killed, the same day the body had been identified. Weeks earlier on May 5, 2004, a fisherman found a suitcase that had washed ashore of Chesapeake Bay. Over the next nine days, two more suitcases followed containing human remains. The suitcases contained the dismembered remains of William T. McGuire. William had been shot at least twice with what authorities believed to be a firearm consistent with a .38 caliber handgun, and he was subsequently dismembered using what was believed to be a combination of a scalpel, a reciprocating saw or an electric carving knife or both. The actual tools used have never been determined. William disappeared on or about April 29, 2004, the day he and wife closed on their first home, a $500,000 colonial in Warren Township, New Jersey.
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Following the closing her husband assaulted her, according to the complaint filed by McGuire. He stuffed a dryer sheet used to cut down on static cling into her mouth, slapped her and mocked her for failing as a mother, and fled vowing "never to return", according to that complaint. McGuire also stated in her divorce complaint that the home was a manic obsession for her husband and his behavior turned increasingly bizarre around the time of the purchase. There were spells of paranoia and one night he woke up in a mad bout of scratching himself. McGuire also stated that William would go through periods of not sleeping for 48 hours, literally spending every minute that he was not at work looking at real estate listings.
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William's body wasn't identified until May 21, 2004 when a sketch of the body was released by Virginia law enforcement and recognized by William's best friend and former navy buddy, Jonathan Rice of Virginia. Mr. Rice testified that his wife thought a police sketch of the then-unidentified victim resembled their friend. His wife said, "It could be Billy." Rice dismissed the image, thinking the victim to be a black man. After his wife contacted a toll-free tip line, Rice met with Virginia Beach detectives to discuss the possibility the victim could be McGuire. Even after seeing photos of the victim's face he said the face looked "too bloated" to be McGuire. A positive identification was eventually made after Virginia authorities did a fingerprint comparison, and found McGuire's fingerprints matched prints on file from a prior arrest in Virginia.
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Throughout the summer of 2004, New Jersey authorities believed the crime did not occur in New Jersey, while Virginia authorities believed the murder must have happened in New Jersey. In October 2004, the Commonwealth of Virginia handed over the investigation to New Jersey after concluding the crime did not happen in Virginia. The New Jersey State Police and the Attorney General's Office collected wiretaps and secret recordings as evidence used during the trial during the early part of 2005.
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An arrest warrant was issued on June 1, 2005 for McGuire. She was arrested the next day on charges of first degree murder. Her house as well as her parents house were searched for evidence which would be used in the trial. Her bail was set at $750,000 and she was released on June 7, 2005, after posting bail.
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¤ TRIAL AND VERDICT ¤
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On October 12, 2005 McGuire was formally indicted on charges of murder, desecration of human remains, perjury and weapons charges. Her bail was then set at $2 million. She was able to post bail in December 2005 and retained a new attorneys Joseph Tacopina and Stephen Turano. On October 31, 2006 McGuire was indicted on additional charges of hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence and filing false reports, but she remained free after posting additional bail, for a total of $2.1 million. Authorities believed McGuire wrote anonymous letters, sent to New Jersey newspapers and the Attorney General's office to throw detectives off her trail and interfere with the investigation. It was further thought by authorities that the letters placed the blame for William's death on a member of his family.
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The Attorney General's only motive for their charge of murder was a 3 year affair that was carried on with a doctor at her work named Bradley Miller. No other motives were ever discussed and it was believed by the prosecutors that McGuire had an accomplice to their claim of murder, although no one was ever formally charged. William McGuire was often referred to as a "felon" throughout the trial, by defense attorneys. William's conviction had been the result of a 1994 perjury charge in relation to interfering with a witness, his future wife, Melanie.
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The trial began on March 5, 2007 and on April 23, 2007, after 13 hours of deliberation, the jury reached a verdict. In the courtroom McGuire was visibly upset and shaken, which was a change from the little to no emotion she showed during most of the trial. The jury foreman was first asked about the verdict on the charge of unlawful possession of a firearm, and the foreman replied, "guilty". Then the foreman was asked about the verdict on the charge of first degree murder and the foreman replied, "guilty". At that point McGuire burst into tears and clung to her attorney, Joe Tacopina. McGuire was also found guilty of desecration of human remains and perjury. However, the jury did not find her guilty on the additional charges of hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence, and filing false reports. Under New Jersey law, the 1st degree murder charge alone would have carried a mandatory sentence of at least 30 years in prison.
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McGuire was sentenced to life imprisonment on July 19, 2007. She will not be eligible for parole until she reaches 101 years of age. At the sentencing, the presiding judge remarked that "the depravity of this murder simply shocks the conscience of this court" and "One who callously destroys a family to accomplish her own selfish ends must face the most severe consequences that the law can provide." McGuire is now serving her sentence at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, New Jersey.
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Joe Tacopina spoke to the press and said that he was "disappointed with the verdict. It's just not Melanie McGuire who should be sentenced. She's just not the right person. She didn't show remorse because she didn't do it." He also said that he was looking to get a resolution saying, "a sentence will not be a resolution". Joseph Tacopina and Stephen Turano have teamed up with Jamie S. Kilberg, a respected and talented appellate lawyer, to work on her appeal. The attorneys said they are planning to appeal on several grounds, including jury misconduct involving Internet blogs, a note, territorial jurisdiction and the Brady material.
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¤ CASE UPDATE ¤
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An opening brief was filed with the New Jersey Appellate Court on Monday June 8, 2009. The brief includes a motion to supplement the trial record with "new facts" about the alleged murder weapon. It is now known that the number of grooves found on the bullets, six (6), does not match the number that the gun's barrel would have produced after being fired, five (5). It is now an indisputable fact that the gun, which Melanie McGuire purchased for her husband, was not the gun used in commission of the crime. Melanie McGuire is innocent and wrongly convicted.
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¤ THE APPELLATE PHASE ¤
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On October 27, 2010 respected attorney Jamie S. Kilberg presented a series of impressive oral arguments before a panel of three New Jersey Appellate Court Judges on behalf of his client, Melanie McGuire. The Court's decisions regarding the legal elements contained in the Defense's opening brief were expected within six months.
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On March 16, 2011 the NJ Appellate Court published their opinion and failed to overturn Melanie McGuire's conviction, upheld the sentence, and refused to remand the case for a retrial.

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Subsequently, Ms. McGuire petitioned the NJ Supreme Court to review the Appellate Court's decisions. As expected, on September 20, 2011 the NJ Supreme Court denied certification of Melanie's case thus paving the way for her to continue exercising all available legal options to prove her absolute innocence.
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¤ APPELLATE BRIEF EXCERPTS ¤
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The trial in this case was so permeated with error -- including prosecutorial misconduct, jury contamination, and the exclusion of highly exculpatory proof -- as to preclude faith in the accuracy and fairness of the jury's verdict. Each of the errors standing alone warrants reversal. In combination, they compel it." "Whether considered individually or in combination, those errors denied Ms. McGuire her right to a fair trial under New Jersey law and the U.S. Constitution."
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