Packer Engineering Helps Save Innocent Death Row Inmate

Over the last few years, news reports have increased surrounding the validity of convictions of several death row inmates. A local attorney asked Packer Engineering to review an investigation surrounding one of these arson-based convictions. Packer has a long history of performing scientific investigations and we used our 40 years of engineering and investigative experience to evaluate this arson fire.

The original investigation determined the alleged perpetrator deliberately set the fire in a Chicago apartment building in 1987. This incendiary fire killed seven people. The investigation and subsequent trial resulted in the conviction of a tenant for the crime of arson and murder, for which he subsequently received a death sentence.

After Packer Engineering’s review of the file, it became apparent there were serious technical errors in the investigation and its findings. Even though this was an old fire scene, it was well documented through photographs, testimony, and reports.

Several Packer engineers plus a Certified Fire Investigator from our Chemical, Fire & Explosion Group spent hundreds of hours studying the fire scene photographs, witness testimony, expert reports and opinions of both the prosecution and defense experts. The prosecution expert's opinions were contrary to the fire scene evidence and the science of fire dynamics. We employed the standard metric "Scientific Method" to evaluate all of this material and technical issues from which we were able to form our final opinions.

Packer Engineering submitted a technical report and testimony asserting this was an incendiary fire with no physical evidence that the convicted man set the fire. This analysis and the subsequent opinions were a factor in the State of Illinois’ decision to commute the sentence and pardon Mr. Madison Hobely.