UPDATE
May 24, 2008
It's been an interesting year. "Project Unplugged" is in the development and production stage. It's coming along very nicely. We expect to have it completed and ready for release by April, 2009. We've still got a lot to do, but the work and dedication of those involved so far in this production is remarkable.
As for the Cobain Investigation, "Project Unplugged" must be my main focus for now. That's why you haven't heard much from me lately.
It's always easy to tell when we start shaking things up. As the news of "Project Unplugged" has started to spread by word of mouth, our hate mail has suddenly increased!
I've watched this happen over the years. When something new and effective is about to break, like a book, a magazine article, or a nationally syndicated radio or television interview, someone seems to put out the word… "attack."
That's actually quite encouraging! It indicates we're doing a good job here as our world-wide support base continues to grow.
Some who write with supportive comments also wonder why this is taking so long. I realize many of our supporters have not been with us from the beginning, so there's a lot they've missed.
One of the most frequent comments I've made over the years has been, "This is going to be a long, slow process." I've written that on our websites, in e-mails and I've been saying it during radio interviews that date back to early 1995.
I would encourage those who are a bit impatient to watch television shows like "Dateline" and "48 hours." They're constantly doing stories that have similarities to this case. In the past couple of weeks alone, I've watched episodes involving "Suicide" rulings that were later determined to be murders.
I've also seen story after story about cases where the police originally did a sloppy investigation. It's usually the persistence of a cold-case investigator or one or two family members that eventually gets the case reinvestigated and the murder suspect(s) arrested and convicted, often 25 years or more after the crime occurred.
Stories like this are being aired almost every week!
Long term cases are not at all unusual. That may be easier for me to say than for you to believe, but I've seen this happen, time and time again throughout my 38 year career as an investigator. Patience and timing is everything here.
THE CHALLENGE
Of course, I do believe we've proven murder beyond a reasonable doubt based on the heroin, (morphine) blood levels alone. After 14 years, not one person has answered my, "Show me just one similar case" challenge.
Those who have failed to refute by example, include at least one suspect who has millions of dollars to spend on research. If her research proved me wrong, the revival of media attention and the sympathy she would gain from being wrongly accused would cause her popularity and fan base to grow. She'd easily recoup her research investment… IF I could be proven wrong.
CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
In addition to the medical evidence in the Cobain case, there's a ton of circumstantial evidence. I realize many have not followed this investigation from the beginning and have missed a lot of the updates and comments I've made in the past. I once did an update explaining the relevance of different types of evidence.
I can't leave everything on the www.cobaincase.com website forever. I don't own enough bandwidth. As a result, questions and comments from readers often get duplicated. Items of interest often need to be re-examined and explained again.
I recently read a post from of one members of a popular forum, ("KCWM"), regarding Kurt Cobain's death. One sentence read in part; "I know circumstantial evidence can't convict people…"
I realize this is the accepted opinion of many, if not most people in the United States and other countries with a legal system similar to ours. The reason most people believe this is because they've heard comments from defense attorneys during televised court trials and from talking heads on the nightly news.
The misleading comment usually goes something like this; "All they have is circumstantial evidence," or, "The evidence they've presented is purely circumstantial."
A clever defense attorney will often use this phrase while addressing a jury. Since the average jurist doesn't know any better, they accept this comment as if they were just told, "They've presented no real evidence!"
When a news reporter or media writer uses the phrase, it's also perceived by most to mean, "There's no real evidence. It's all circumstantial."
WHICH IS BETTER?
If I were to ask you which is better, "eyewitness testimony" or "circumstantial evidence", most would reply, "eyewitness testimony."
If that's what you would answer, you'd be wrong. Eyewitness testimony has been proven to be extremely unreliable.
Law students are often exposed to the "eyewitness experiment" where someone runs into the classroom, shouts a comment, and runs out. Each student is then asked to write what they observed.
Now, law students are usually smarter than the average person, but their answers always vary. They might describe a color where red became black, where a female became a male, or a hat became long hair. And the comment heard by these smarter than average students can vary from, "Give me your money" to "Who stole my purse?"
So most professionals involved in the criminal justice system are aware that eyewitness testimony is not the most reliable evidence and usually can be discredited by any decent attorney.
Believe it or not, more people have been convicted purely on "circumstantial" evidence than any other single type of evidence available. The U.S. has executed murderers who have been convicted solely on "circumstantial" evidence.
Thousands of criminals in prison today were convicted entirely on circumstantial evidence.
I recently watched one of those investigative televisions shows mentioned above. In that episode, a woman was convicted of murder by a jury. The jury ruling was based entirely on her actions AFTER her husband was found dead. This was confirmed by interviews with jurists after the trial.
But the convicted wife had a breast augmentation and began dating soon after her husband's death. She also had sex with several other men within months of that terrible day. However, there was no evidence she had a boyfriend or an affair at any time while she was married to her deceased husband.
Her "partying" activity would have added to the evidence pool IF there was more, but there was no other evidence indicating this woman had murdered her husband. And…she had no motive!
This was a case where the jury of average citizens used very poor judgment. But the woman went to prison, (for a few years if I remember correctly), until she finally found an attorney who won a new trial for her.
Before the new trial began, the District Attorney called a news conference and announced they were dropping the charges.
Personally, I think the District Attorney should have been sent to prison for even bringing charges against this woman with such flimsy evidence.
That case only proves how little circumstantial evidence is needed in a jury trial to obtain a conviction for murder. I do believe, however, that there should be a substantial amount of circumstantial evidence before charges are brought in a felony case of any kind.
With the Cobain Case, we have established more than a substantial amount of circumstantial evidence, both before and after Cobain's death, as well as medical evidence that proves Kurt Cobain was murdered.
No matter what you personally believe, anyone should be able to see that this case was not investigated properly by the authorities. That's all we're really after here. When it happens, (and it will happen), I'm confident that I know who will be charged in the murder of Kurt Cobain.
BACK TO "PROJECT UNPLUGGED"
This will be the last update until after "Project unplugged" is released. We will be releasing promos and trailers throughout the next year, so please keep checking the websites and spreading the word. And feel free to copy promos and trailers to add to your own sites.
We are currently seeking the short term volunteer services of a graphic designer to help us design the logo for "Project Unplugged." Please message us at www.myspace.com/tomgrantpi if you'd like to discuss this further.
Once again, I want to thank you for your continued moral support. Even though I can't respond, I do read your comments and e-mails. You are all deeply appreciated.
Tom Grant
| 
