Description of Innocence Cases

Year of Release: 2024 ⌃

---

Larry Roberts

California — Conviction: 1983 , Charges Dismissed: 2024

Larry Roberts (pic­tured mid­dle) was sen­tenced to death in 1983 for the mur­ders of a fel­low pris­on­er Charles Gardner and prison offi­cer Albert Patch at California Medical Facility based large­ly on the eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny of fel­low pris­on­ers. Although Mr. Roberts was sen­tenced to death, his co-defen­dant Larry Menefield, who was like­wise found guilty in a joint tri­al, was sen­tenced to life with­out parole. In 1992, the California Supreme Court reversed Mr. Roberts’ con­vic­tion for Mr. Patch, as well as the mul­ti­ple-mur­der spe­cial-cir­cum­stance find­ing. Years lat­er, one of the state’s eye­wit­ness­es admit­ted to per­jury, explain­ing that he was threat­ened by inves­ti­ga­tors at the time of the inci­dent, and infor­ma­tion regard­ing the com­pe­ten­cy of anoth­er eye­wit­ness, who had been declared insane by three court-appoint­ed psy­chi­a­trists, was dis­cov­ered to have been with­held from the defense. After a U.S. District Court ordered a new tri­al for Mr. Roberts, the California Attorney General said that a ​“retri­al is not rea­son­ably fea­si­ble” due to a lack of avail­able wit­ness­es, many of whom are deceased or of old age. On June 29, 2024 (filed July 1, 2024), the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California vacat­ed his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence, mak­ing Mr. Roberts the 200^th per­son exon­er­at­ed from U.S. death row.

---

Kerry Max Cook

Texas — Conviction: 1978 , Appellate Acquittal: 2024

Mr. Cook, who was tried three times, was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death for the 1977 mur­der of Linda Jo Edwards. His orig­i­nal 1978 con­vic­tion was vacat­ed by the U.S. Supreme Court and remand­ed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which then reversed the con­vic­tion in 1991. In 1992, a mis­tri­al was declared dur­ing Mr. Cook’s sec­ond tri­al due to the jury’s inabil­i­ty to reach a unan­i­mous ver­dict. Despite the dis­clo­sure of evi­dence pre­vi­ous­ly with­held dur­ing the first tri­al, Mr. Cook was tried a third time, result­ing in a con­vic­tion and death sen­tence in 1994. Once again, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found Mr. Cook’s right to due process was vio­lat­ed, reversed the con­vic­tion in 1996, and remand­ed the case to the tri­al court. Prior to what would have been his fourth tri­al in 1999, Mr. Cook pled ​“no con­test” in exchange for a 20-year sen­tence and was released from prison for time-served. Following an alter­nate suspect’s recan­ta­tion of his false tes­ti­mo­ny, the tri­al court held hear­ings regard­ing a ​“Stipulation and Settlement Agreement” between the state and Mr. Cook in 2016. On August 16, 2016, the tri­al court rec­om­mend­ed Mr. Cook be grant­ed relief based on the false tes­ti­mo­ny but found that the new evi­dence did not prove his inno­cence. ​“Marked by book­ends of decep­tion span­ning over 40 years,” the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has now found Mr. Cook to be inno­cent. 

---

Daniel Gwynn

Pennsylvania — Conviction: 1995 , Charges Dismissed: 2024

On February 27, 2024, Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara A. McDermott approved a motion from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office to dis­miss first-degree mur­der, arson, and aggra­vat­ed assault charges against 54-year-old death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Daniel Gwynn. Mr. Gwynn is the 197^th per­son exon­er­at­ed after being sen­tenced to death since 1973, accord­ing to DPIC’s Innocence Database. Pennsylvania is now the fourth state with 13 exon­er­a­tions and Philadelphia is now the sec­ond coun­ty to lead U.S. death-row exon­er­a­tions since 1973.

“[T]he exon­er­a­tion of Daniel Gwynn today frees a man who is like­ly inno­cent. Sadly, it also exem­pli­fies an era of inex­act and, at times cor­rupt, polic­ing and pros­e­cu­tion that has bro­ken trust with our com­mu­ni­ties to this day,” said District Attorney Larry Krasner, whose office has sup­port­ed the exon­er­a­tion of 41 wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed peo­ple. ​“The pub­lic expects the right con­se­quences for those who com­mit vio­lent crimes, and wants the inno­cent to be free. When law enforce­ment wrong­ly arrests, pros­e­cutes, and impris­ons the inno­cent, the guilty go free and are embold­ened to do more harm.”

Mr. Gwynn’s wrong­ful 1995 con­vic­tion for the 1994 death of Marsha Smith was based on false con­fes­sion and mis­tak­en eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny. Assistant District Attorney David Napiorski, who led the fed­er­al habeas relief inves­ti­ga­tion, explains that key details of Mr. Gwynn’s con­fes­sion con­tra­dict­ed phys­i­cal evi­dence, includ­ing how and where the fire start­ed and which exit of the house was used. Mr. Gwynn has also explained that his con­fes­sion was coerced, writ­ing on Art for Justice that ​“During the inter­ro­ga­tion, as I was with­draw­ing from cocaine, the Detectives took advan­tage of my addled brain. They lied, manip­u­lat­ed infor­ma­tion and made ges­tured threats to hurt me. Beaten by the police in the past, I felt their threats were real.” The pho­to array police showed to wit­ness­es did not include a pho­to of Mr. Gwynn, accord­ing to the DA’s office, and were nev­er dis­closed to defense coun­sel. Prosecution also failed to dis­close addi­tion­al evi­dence point­ing to a different suspect.

Year of Release: 2023 ⌃

---

Noel Montalvo

Pennsylvania — Conviction: 2003 , Charges Dismissed: 2023

On December 18, 2023, Pennsylvania dropped all homi­cide charges against Noel Montalvo, twen­ty years after he was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in York County. Mr. Montalvo pled guilty to one count of tam­per­ing with evi­dence in exchange for release and one year on probation.

Mr. Montalvo’s broth­er Milton was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 2000 for the 1998 mur­ders of his estranged com­mon-law wife, Miriam Ascencio, and her new boyfriend, Nelson Lugo. A neigh­bor found Ms. Ascencio and Mr. Lugo stabbed to death the morn­ing after the cou­ple had gone out togeth­er to a local bar. DNA test­ing of over 70 items at the scene matched blood and hair to Milton but found no trace of Noel. Another neigh­bor saw Milton alone at Ms. Ascencio’s door that night and heard him shout­ing. Nonetheless, pros­e­cu­tors lat­er tried Noel for the mur­ders and he was sen­tenced to death in 2003. Only one wit­ness linked Noel to the crime, tes­ti­fy­ing that he had told her he mur­dered Ms. Ascencio, but the wit­ness admit­ted on cross-exam­i­na­tion that a detec­tive had threat­ened her with jail time if she didn’t implicate Noel. 

In 2019, a judge over­turned Noel’s con­vic­tion and sen­tence based on his attorney’s inef­fec­tive­ness in sev­er­al respects, includ­ing fail­ing to present key mit­i­ga­tion evi­dence and chal­lenge the tri­al judge’s error in jury instruc­tions. That deci­sion was upheld on appeal by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2021. Instead of pur­su­ing a new tri­al for Noel, the par­ties even­tu­al­ly reached the plea agree­ment for his release. Under the agree­ment, Noel admit­ted only to leav­ing the state with his broth­er on the night of the mur­ders. The phys­i­cal evi­dence has been retest­ed mul­ti­ple times over the years and experts have defin­i­tive­ly excluded Noel.

Noel main­tained his inno­cence for his entire incar­cer­a­tion, and Milton him­self said that his broth­er was not involved. Interviewed out­side of York County Prison after his release, Noel said that the carcer­al sys­tem need­ed to change because ​“too many peo­ple are real­ly inno­cent” and ​“proof has sus­tained the innocence.” 

---

Glynn Simmons

Oklahoma — Conviction: 1975 , Charges Dismissed: 2023

Glynn Simmons, who was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in Oklahoma in 1975, has been exon­er­at­ed after Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna dropped charges against him. Mr. Simmons told The Black Wall Street Times, ​“I’m hap­py, and I’m free. It’s a long, long strug­gle. … We need to reimag­ine jus­tice and how we do it.” DA Behenna said of the case, ​“One of the things that I stand by very strong­ly is a defen­dan­t’s right to a fair tri­al, where he has all the evi­dence to defend him­self. That did­n’t happen here.”

Mr. Simmons was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of Carolyn Sue Rogers and wound­ing of anoth­er woman at a liquor store. Prosecutors said the sur­viv­ing vic­tim iden­ti­fied Mr. Simmons out of a line up, but nev­er told the jury or defense team that she had also iden­ti­fied oth­er peo­ple in the line up. In 1977, his sen­tence was reduced to life in prison as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

In July 2023, at the request of DA Behenna, Judge Amy Palumbo vacat­ed Mr. Simmons’ con­vic­tion and ordered a new tri­al. Mr. Simmons was released on bond. On September 11, 2023, DA Behenna announced she was request­ing dis­missal of the case against Mr. Simmons. In a press release, she said, ​“the District Attorney deter­mined the state will not be able to meet its bur­den at tri­al and prove beyond a rea­son­able doubt that Simmons was respon­si­ble for Ms. Rogers’ mur­der.” She explained that there was no longer any phys­i­cal evi­dence in the case, wit­ness­es and detec­tives were deceased or unavail­able, and ​“The defense alleges that their alter­nate sus­pect was iden­ti­fied in one of the line­ups.” On September 19, 2023, Judge Palumbo grant­ed DA Behenna’s request, dis­miss­ing the charges against Mr. Simmons.

---

Jesse Johnson

Oregon — Conviction: 2004 , Charges Dismissed: 2023

On September 5, 2023, Jesse Johnson was released from Marion County Jail in Oregon when pros­e­cu­tors for­mal­ly declined to retry him for the 1998 mur­der of Harriet Thompson. Mr. Johnson was con­vict­ed of Ms. Thompson’s mur­der in 2004 and sen­tenced to death. In ask­ing the Marion County Circuit Court to dis­miss the case against Mr. Johnson, the coun­ty District Attorney’s office stat­ed that ​“based upon the amount of time that has passed and the unavail­abil­i­ty of crit­i­cal evi­dence in this case, the state no longer believes that it can prove the defendant’s guilt.” Mr. Johnson was housed on death row at Oregon State Penitentiary until 2021, when the Oregon Court of Appeals over­turned his case, agree­ing that he had inad­e­quate defense coun­sel who failed to inter­view a key wit­ness. Patricia Hubbard, one of victim’s neigh­bors, claims that police repeat­ed­ly ​“dis­missed her attempts to give them infor­ma­tion” about an alter­nate sus­pect, and also claims a detec­tive said a Black woman was mur­dered and Black man was ​“going to pay for it.”

Since his arrest, Mr. Johnson has main­tained his inno­cence and lack of involve­ment in Ms. Thompson’s mur­der, refus­ing to accept any plea deals dur­ing his 25 years behind bars. There was no DNA evi­dence direct­ly con­nect­ing Mr. Johnson to the mur­der and the pros­e­cu­tion relied heav­i­ly on cir­cum­stan­tial evi­dence that placed him in the victim’s home. Fingerprints were found belong­ing to Mr. Johnson, but his attor­neys note that this only proves they knew each oth­er, which Mr. Johnson had pre­vi­ous­ly admit­ted. Ms. Hubbard spoke with defense inves­ti­ga­tors in 2013 while they were rein­ves­ti­gat­ing the case and told them that she saw a white man flee Ms. Thompson’s apart­ment on the night of her mur­der after she heard loud argu­ing. Mr. Johnson’s orig­i­nal defense attor­neys nev­er spoke with Ms. Hubbard and made lit­tle effort to speak with addi­tion­al neigh­bors. Prosecutors knew about Ms. Hubbard’s tes­ti­mo­ny and the addi­tion­al DNA evi­dence point­ing towards oth­er sus­pects pri­or to the 2021 Oregon Court of Appeals decision.

---

John Huffington

Maryland — Conviction: 1981 , Pardoned: 2023

John Huffington has been exon­er­at­ed of all the charges that sent him to death row over 40 years after his ini­tial wrong­ful con­vic­tion in 1981. On January 13, 2023, out­go­ing Maryland Governor Larry Hogan grant­ed a full par­don to Huffington, stat­ing that evi­dence con­clu­sive­ly showed that his ​“con­vic­tions were in error.”

After many appeals and two death sen­tences, Huffington even­tu­al­ly entered an ​“Alford Plea” in 2017, which led to a reduced sen­tence and even­tu­al­ly his release. This type of plea is used when a defen­dant main­tains their inno­cence but con­cedes that exist­ing evi­dence might result in their being found guilty.

Joseph Cassilly, the for­mer pros­e­cu­tor in Huffington’s case, was dis­barred in 2021 for his actions in this and oth­er cas­es. In Huffington’s case, hair found at the scene of the crime was iden­ti­fied using a dis­cred­it­ed method that false­ly con­clud­ed it was micro­scop­i­cal­ly iden­ti­cal to Huffington’s hair. The FBI and the Department of Justice reviewed Huffington’s case and deter­mined that the foren­sic evi­dence was sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly inac­cu­rate. Cassilly, how­ev­er, with­held this excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence from Huffington’s attorneys.

Attorneys from the Ropes & Gray law firm rep­re­sent­ed Huffington on a pro bono basis for more than 30 years. When the par­don was final­ly grant­ed, Huffington stat­ed, ​“I have fought for over 40 years for this day, and I feel a deep sense of clo­sure and vin­di­ca­tion. This par­don offi­cial­ly acknowl­edges that I was wrong­ly con­vict­ed and impris­oned for crimes I never committed.”

Year of Release: 2022 ⌃

---

Marilyn Mulero

Illinois — Conviction: 1993 , Charges Dismissed: 2022

Marilyn Mulero and two teenage girls, 15-year-old Jacqueline Montanez and 16-year-old Madeline Mendoza, were charged with lur­ing two gang mem­bers to a Chicago park where they were shot to death, alleged­ly in retal­i­a­tion for a pri­or gang killing. Mulero, who was 21, was inter­ro­gat­ed by dis­graced for­mer Chicago detec­tive Reynaldo Guevara, who has been impli­cat­ed in fram­ing more than fifty inno­cent peo­ple for mur­der, and for­mer Chicago Police Detective Ernest Halvorsen. Over the course of a 20-hour peri­od, she was denied sleep and access to coun­sel and threat­ened with the death penal­ty and with hav­ing her chil­dren tak­en away. Mulero even­tu­al­ly signed a state­ment pre­pared by the detec­tives con­fess­ing to one of the murders.

Mulero’s fam­i­ly retained a pri­vate lawyer to rep­re­sent her who had nev­er han­dled a death penal­ty case. The lawyer, Jeremiah Lynch, did not con­duct any inves­ti­ga­tion into the mur­der and met with Mulero three times. After the tri­al court denied her motion to sup­press the con­fes­sion, Lynch advised her to plead guilty to first-degree mur­der, with­out first obtain­ing an agree­ment from the pros­e­cu­tion to drop the death penal­ty. Mulero pled guilty on September 27, 1993, and Lynch with­drew from the case. Cook County pros­e­cu­tors con­tin­ued to pur­sue the death penal­ty against her, and at a cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing tri­al in November 1993, she became the first woman in the mod­ern era of the U.S. death penal­ty to be sen­tenced to death in Illinois.

In May 1997, the Illinois Supreme Court over­turned her con­vic­tion because her tri­al pros­e­cu­tor had improp­er­ly cross-exam­ined her about the sup­pres­sion motion and then argued to the jury that her answers indi­cat­ed a fail­ure to express remorse. The jury in her November 1998 cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing retri­al sen­tenced her to life with­out parole. In January 2017, Montanez admit­ted that she had com­mit­ted both mur­ders and that Mulero had no involve­ment in the crimes. In 2019, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker com­mut­ed Mulero’s sen­tence to time served, and she was released on April 9, 2020. In August 2022, Cook County pros­e­cu­tors moved to dis­miss all charges against eight peo­ple, includ­ing Mulero, whom Guevara had framed for mur­der. The tri­al court for­mal­ly dis­missed the charges against Mulero on August 9, 2022.

---

Samuel Randolph, IV

Pennsylvania — Conviction: 2003 , Acquitted: 2022

Sam Randolph was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in May 2003 on charges that he had mur­dered two men in a shoot­ing in a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania bar in 2001. He was rep­re­sent­ed at tri­al by appoint­ed coun­sel, Allen Welch, who was at the same time run­ning for dis­trict attor­ney in a neigh­bor­ing coun­ty. Randolph repeat­ed­ly expressed con­cern to the tri­al court that Welch was not pre­pared for tri­al and did ​“not have [his] best inter­est” in mind, and that they had irrec­on­cil­able dif­fer­ences regard­ing the approach to the case.

By the time of tri­al, Randolph and Welch were not speak­ing, and the court appoint­ed anoth­er lawyer, who had no cap­i­tal case expe­ri­ence, to act as an inter­me­di­ary between the two. Randolph’s fam­i­ly attempt­ed to sell assets so they could retain pri­vate coun­sel, but the sale did not go through until a week before tri­al. Retained coun­sel sought a con­tin­u­ance to pre­pare for tri­al, which the tri­al court denied. The court then refused coun­sel’s request to delay jury sec­tion for a few days to per­mit coun­sel to review the dis­cov­ery in the case, and ulti­mate­ly refused to delay the start of jury selec­tion more than hour even though retained coun­sel had a pre-sched­uled pro­ceed­ing in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that morn­ing. Represented by Welch, Randolph was con­vict­ed. Randolph rep­re­sent­ed him­self in the penal­ty phase. Saying he had been denied coun­sel of choice at tri­al, he refused to present any mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence and was sen­tenced to death.

In fed­er­al habeas cor­pus pro­ceed­ings, Randolph alleged that the mur­ders were actu­al­ly com­mit­ted by one local group of drug deal­ers in retal­i­a­tion for a pri­or killing by a rival group. Police and pros­e­cu­tors with­held excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence that, dur­ing a search of a house owned by one of the drug deal­ers, they had recov­ered cloth­ing resem­bling what eye­wit­ness­es said the killers had worn dur­ing the shoot­ing. Another wit­ness came for­ward with evi­dence that the sec­ond vic­tim killed in the bar had been shot by acci­dent when one of his asso­ciates returned fire at the gunmen.

The fed­er­al dis­trict court held an evi­den­tiary hear­ing on Randolph’s inno­cence claim, but did not reach the issue, instead grant­i­ng him a new tri­al on his claim that he had been denied coun­sel of choice. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed that rul­ing on July 20, 2021. On April 4, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court denied pros­e­cu­tors’ peti­tion for review and, two days lat­er, on April 6, 2022, the Dauphin County District Attorney filed an appli­ca­tion to dis­con­tin­ue the pros­e­cu­tion.

Year of Release: 2021 ⌃

---

Sherwood Brown

Mississippi — Conviction: 1995 , Charges Dismissed: 2021

n August 2021, Sherwood Brown was exon­er­at­ed of a triple mur­der that sent him to Mississippi’s death row in 1995.

Brown was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of 13-year-old Evangela Boyd and received two life sen­tences for the mur­ders of her moth­er and grand­moth­er. His con­vic­tions and death sen­tence rest­ed in sub­stan­tial part on false expert foren­sic tes­ti­mo­ny, as well as the per­jured tes­ti­mo­ny of a jail­house infor­mant. The infor­mant was fac­ing seri­ous charges for car theft when he claimed Brown had con­fessed to the mur­ders. Prosecutors argued that blood found on the sole of one of Brown’s shoes came from the vic­tims, and two foren­sic bitemark ana­lysts false­ly claimed that a cut on Brown’s wrist was a bitemark that matched the girl’s bite pattern.

DNA evi­dence lat­er con­tra­dict­ed the prosecution’s nar­ra­tive. The evi­dence showed that bloody foot­prints in and around the mur­der scene con­tained only female DNA and the blood spot on Brown’s shoe con­tained only male DNA. DNA test­ing on a swab of Boyd’s sali­va did not con­tain Brown’s DNA, refut­ing the claim that she had bit­ten Brown. DNA tests on the sex­u­al assault kit col­lect­ed dur­ing the autop­sy found no DNA from Brown but showed that Evangela Boyd’s pubic hair and her bra con­tained DNA from uniden­ti­fied males. A foren­sic sci­en­tist from the Mississippi Crime Laboratory found that none of the hair evi­dence recov­ered from the cloth­ing and bod­ies of the vic­tims had any micro­scop­ic char­ac­ter­is­tics sim­i­lar to Brown’s hair. A crime lab fin­ger­print ana­lyst also found that none of the fin­ger­prints found at the scene belonged to Brown.

Based on this evi­dence, the Mississippi Supreme Court over­turned Brown’s con­vic­tion and death sen­tence in October 2017. However, Brown remained in cus­tody fac­ing pos­si­ble cap­i­tal retri­al as pros­e­cu­tors attempt­ed to build anoth­er case against him. With Brown in coun­ty pre­tri­al cus­tody, four more lab­o­ra­to­ries test­ed the DNA evi­dence over the course of three more years. Each came back with the same results. ​“Every time, there was noth­ing incrim­i­nat­ing Sherwood,” said one of Brown’s attor­neys after his exon­er­a­tion. ​“The state was try­ing to find some­thing to incrim­i­nate Sherwood, but every time they did, it kind of stumped them deeper.”

Finally, on August 24, Mississippi Circuit Court Judge Jimmy McClure grant­ed a pros­e­cu­tion motion to dis­miss charges against Brown. He was released lat­er that day after hav­ing spent 26 years on death row or fac­ing the prospects of a capital retrial.

---

Eddie Lee Howard

Mississippi — Conviction: 1994 , Charges Dismissed: 2021

Eddie Lee Howard was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1994 for the alleged rape and mur­der of an 84 year-old white woman. He rep­re­sent­ed him­self at tri­al. The Mississippi Supreme Court over­turned his con­vic­tion in 1997 and ordered a new tri­al. He was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death again in a retri­al in 2000 at which foren­sic odon­tol­o­gist Dr. Michael West tes­ti­fied that Howard was the source of bite marks West claimed to have found on the victim’s body dur­ing a post-autop­sy, post-exhuma­tion exam­i­na­tion. Forensic pathol­o­gist Dr. Steven Hayne con­duct­ed the autop­sy in the case and claimed that the vic­tim had been beat­en, stran­gled, stabbed, and raped. His ini­tial autop­sy report did not men­tion bite marks.

Howard’s lawyers pre­sent­ed DNA evi­dence dur­ing post-con­vic­tion evi­den­tiary hear­ings in 2016 that evis­cer­at­ed the prosecution’s false foren­sic tes­ti­mo­ny. DNA test­ing showed no evi­dence of semen or male DNA on the victim’s cloth­ing, bed­sheets, or body and no male DNA on the loca­tions on the victim’s body where she sup­pos­ed­ly had been bit­ten. None of the blood or oth­er items test­ed con­tained Howard’s DNA. Male DNA found on the knife used by the mur­der­er exclud­ed Howard as the source.

The Mississippi Supreme Court over­turned Howard’s con­vic­tion in August 2020, 26 years after he was first sen­tenced to death. In an 8 – 1 deci­sion, the court held that the dis­cred­it­ed bite-mark tes­ti­mo­ny, excul­pa­to­ry DNA evi­dence, ​“and the pauci­ty of oth­er evi­dence link­ing Howard to the mur­der” enti­tled him to a new trial.

Howard was freed pend­ing retri­al in December 2020 and on January 8, 2021, the tri­al court grant­ed a motion by Lowndes County District Attorney Scott Colom to dis­miss all charges against Howard. ​“After read­ing the supreme court’s opin­ion, read­ing the tri­al tran­scripts from the two tri­als, review­ing the inves­tiga­tive files and case files of the case, I decid­ed that we didn’t have even remote­ly close to suf­fi­cient evi­dence to con­vict Mr. Howard beyond a rea­son­able doubt,” Colom said.

---

Barry Williams

California — Conviction: 1986 , Charges Dismissed: 2021

Barry Williams was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1986 for an alleged­ly gang-relat­ed mur­der in Los Angeles. His con­vic­tion rest­ed on the false tes­ti­mo­ny of two prison infor­mants, Arthur Cox and John Gardner, who claimed that Williams had admit­ted to involve­ment in the mur­der, and false tes­ti­mo­ny from an alleged eye­wit­ness. Both infor­mants lat­er recant­ed. Cox said that pros­e­cu­tors threat­ened to pros­e­cute him as an acces­so­ry to anoth­er mur­der for which Williams was also charged, as well as for an unre­lat­ed rob­bery. In exchange for his tes­ti­mo­ny against Williams, the pros­e­cu­tion gave him cash, grant­ed him immu­ni­ty in the unre­lat­ed mur­der case, and arranged for ear­ly release from a mar­i­jua­na charge. But at tri­al, he denied the exis­tence of any deal. Gardner lat­er said that pros­e­cu­tors had pres­sured him into tes­ti­fy­ing and coached his false tes­ti­mo­ny, telling him ​“either Barry was going to do time for the mur­der or I was going to do time for the robbery.”

During fed­er­al habeas cor­pus pro­ceed­ings, Williams’ lawyers pre­sent­ed evi­dence that pros­e­cu­tors had with­held sig­nif­i­cant excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence includ­ing that: a taped inter­view with the alleged eye­wit­ness con­tra­dict­ed much of her tri­al tes­ti­mo­ny and that pros­e­cu­tors threat­ened to charge her when she expressed reluc­tance to iden­ti­fy Williams; numer­ous doc­u­ments that under­mined both the sub­stance of Gardner’s tes­ti­mo­ny and memo­ri­al­ized undis­closed favor­able treat­ment he received for his tes­ti­mo­ny; numer­ous undis­closed ben­e­fits Cox received for his coop­er­a­tion in the case; evi­dence relat­ed to both infor­mants’ drug usage; threat­en­ing anoth­er wit­ness with the death penal­ty if he did not coop­er­ate with the pros­e­cu­tion; and false tes­ti­mo­ny by sev­er­al Los Angeles police detec­tives and a Los Angeles county judge.

On March 29, 2016, the fed­er­al dis­trict court over­turned Williams’ con­vic­tion because of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. The court found that the pros­e­cu­tion had pre­sent­ed per­jured tes­ti­mo­ny in a pre­tri­al hear­ing in which Williams’ tri­al coun­sel had moved to bar Cox’s tes­ti­mo­ny on the grounds that Cox was an agent of the state who attempt­ed to obtain infor­ma­tion for police and pros­e­cu­tors in vio­la­tion of Williams’ right to coun­sel. It fur­ther found that pros­e­cu­tors had pre­sent­ed per­jured iden­ti­fi­ca­tion tes­ti­mo­ny from the alleged eye­wit­ness. In both instances, the court found that pros­e­cu­tors knew or should have known the tes­ti­mo­ny had been false.

On January 15, 2021, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office dis­missed the case against Williams, exon­er­at­ing him of all charges. He remains incar­cer­at­ed on an unre­lat­ed murder conviction.

Year of Release: 2020 ⌃

---

Roderick Johnson

Pennsylvania — Conviction: 1997 , Charges Dismissed: 2020

Roderick Johnson was exon­er­at­ed on December 1, 2020, when Berks County Court of Common Pleas Judge Eleni Dimitriou Geishauser dis­missed all charges against him in the 1996 dou­ble-mur­der of cousins Damon and Gregory Banks in Reading, Pennsylvania and issued an order dis­charg­ing him from cus­tody. Judge Geishauser called the pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct in Johnson’s case ​“egre­gious” and ​“con­temp­tu­ous.“

Johnson was con­vict­ed based large­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of drug deal­er and police infor­mant, George Robles, who had repeat­ed­ly avoid­ed hav­ing crim­i­nal charges filed against him by coop­er­at­ing with law enforce­ment in oth­er cas­es. Though Johnson admit­ted being present at the crime scene, he denied any involve­ment in the mur­ders. Robles claimed that Johnson owned a hand­gun like the one used in the crimes and that Johnson had con­fessed to wip­ing it down and dis­pos­ing of it on the night the Bankses were killed. District Attorney Mark Baldwin sup­pressed police records doc­u­ment­ing Robles’ uncharged crim­i­nal activ­i­ty and his coop­er­a­tion with police, and, accord­ing to Judge Geishauser, ​“bla­tant­ly lied about his knowl­edge of the reports direct­ly to the court.”

​“Had these acts been com­mit­ted by a wit­ness,” Judge Geishauer wrote, ​“the indi­vid­ual could have been, and in all like­li­hood would have been, charged with obstruc­tion of jus­tice. Had these acts been com­mit­ted by defense coun­sel, in addi­tion to charges, a dis­ci­pli­nary action would have been ini­ti­at­ed that would poten­tial­ly result in the sus­pen­sion or loss of legal license. Mr. Baldwin’s posi­tion as District Attorney seems to have pro­tect­ed him from such cen­sure. But in this mat­ter, all men are equal before the law and this court ren­ders judg­ment of Mr. Baldwin’s egregious behavior.”

---

Paul Browning

Nevada — Conviction: 1986 , Charges Dismissed: 2020

Paul Browning was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1986 for the rob­bery and mur­der of Las Vegas jew­el­er, Hugo Elson. Browning was rep­re­sent­ed at tri­al by a lawyer who had been prac­tic­ing crim­i­nal defense for less than a year and failed to inter­view the police who respond­ed to the scene, exam­ine the evi­dence against Browning, or inves­ti­gate the crime. The Nevada Supreme Court over­turned Browning’s death sen­tence in 2004 as a result of counsel’s inef­fec­tive assis­tance in the penal­ty phase of tri­al, but a sec­ond jury — hear­ing the same evi­dence against him — resen­tenced him to death in 2007.

In his post-con­vic­tion appeal, Browning pre­sent­ed evi­dence that police and pros­e­cu­tors had with­held evi­dence of a bloody foot­print found at the scene that did not match Browning’s shoes or foot size, mis­rep­re­sent­ed blood evi­dence in the case, manip­u­lat­ed eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny, failed to dis­close ben­e­fits it offered to a key wit­ness who may have com­mit­ted the mur­der and framed Browning, and that the stab wounds suf­fered by the vic­tim were incon­sis­tent with wounds that would have been pro­duced by the knife pros­e­cu­tors claimed Browning had used to com­mit the killing. Browning also argued that a min­i­mal­ly com­pe­tent defense inves­ti­ga­tion would have revealed the flaws in the prosecution’s evi­dence and the fal­si­ty of the rep­re­sen­ta­tions the pros­e­cu­tion had made to the jury.

The prosecution’s case unrav­eled in the post-con­vic­tion pro­ceed­ings. Prosecutors told the jury that Elsen’s blood had been found on a tan jack­et owned by Browning. Elsen, how­ev­er, had sur­vived long enough to give police a descrip­tion of his assailant, whom he said had worn a blue jack­et. Later DNA test­ing showed that of the blood on Browning’s jack­et was not Elsen’s. Elsen also said his assailant had shoul­der-length Jheri curls, which was com­plete­ly incon­sis­tent with Browning’s Afro-styled hair. Elsen’s wife failed to iden­ti­fy Browning in a line­up, but lat­er tes­ti­fied at tri­al that he was the killer. A white wit­ness who worked near the crime scene told police she had seen a man run by after the mur­der and thought it could have been Browning, but when police asked if she could be ​“more sure” about whom she had seen, she said, ​“No, I wouldn’t think so. No … They all look the same, and that’s just what I think when I see a black per­son, that they all look the same.” At tri­al, though, she unhesi­tat­ing­ly tes­ti­fied that Browning was the man she had seen.

In 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over­turned Browning’s con­vic­tion. Then, in March 2019, Clark County District Judge Douglas Herndon ­dis­missed the charges against Browning say­ing the deaths of key wit­ness­es made it impos­si­ble for him to receive a fair tri­al. The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed Judge Herndon’s deci­sion on January 24, 2020.

---

Walter Ogrod

Pennsylvania — Conviction: 1996 , Charges Dismissed: 2020

Walter Ogrod was exon­er­at­ed from Pennsylvania’s death row on June 10, 2020, 28 years after being arrest­ed for the mur­der of four-year-old Barbara Jean Horn and 23 years after being wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. Barbara Jean Horn was mur­dered in 1988, her body dis­cov­ered in a card­board box the killer placed on the street for trash col­lec­tion. The case was unsolved for four years before being reas­signed to Detectives Martin Devlin and Paul Worrell, two Philadelphia homi­cide detec­tives who had undis­closed his­to­ry of coerc­ing false con­fes­sions. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked Ogrod to the mur­der, but after being sleep deprived over the course of 14 hours of inter­ro­ga­tion, he con­fessed to hav­ing beat­en the young girl to death with an exercise barbell.

Even with the con­fes­sion, the pros­e­cu­tion case was weak, and the jury in Ogrod’s 1993 tri­al was pre­pared to acquit him. However, as the court was prepar­ing to read the ver­dict, one juror changed his mind. With the jury hung at 11 – 1, the court declared a mis­tri­al. Before Ogrod’s sec­ond tri­al in 1996, pros­e­cu­tors engaged the assis­tance of John Hall, a noto­ri­ous jail­house infor­mant whom they nick­named ​“the Monsignor,” who gath­ered news­pa­per arti­cles about the case and had his wife write to Ogrod, pos­ing as a strip­per, try­ing to obtain infor­ma­tion. Hall then fed infor­ma­tion to anoth­er jail­house infor­mant, Jay Wolchansky, who also false­ly claimed that Ogrod had con­fessed to him. Based on the con­fes­sion and the infor­mant tes­ti­mo­ny, Ogrod was sen­tenced to death.

After review­ing the case, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit report­ed that Ogrod’s con­vic­tion had been ​“a gross mis­car­riage of jus­tice,” marred by police and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, false foren­sic tes­ti­mo­ny, and fab­ri­cat­ed infor­mant tes­ti­mo­ny. The CIU said pros­e­cu­tors had known at the time of tri­al that Barbara Jean had died of asphyx­ia and had not been beat­en to death, but with­held the med­ical exam­in­er’s report and pre­sent­ed false tes­ti­mo­ny on the cause of death. They also failed to dis­close what the CIU called a ​“snitch scheme” to fab­ri­cate a con­fes­sion, and with­held infor­ma­tion on ben­e­fits pro­vid­ed to the infor­mants, Wolchansky’s men­tal ill­ness, and Hall’s infor­mant his­to­ry. New DNA test­ing was con­duct­ed on the phys­i­cal evi­dence, which ​“pro­duced a full male DNA pro­file suit­able for com­par­i­son” that exclud­ed Ogrod as a con­trib­u­tor. The CIU and defense coun­sel joint­ly moved the court to over­turn Ogrod’s con­vic­tion. He was grant­ed a new tri­al and released on bail on June 5, 2020, and all charges against him were dropped on June 10.

---

Kareem Johnson

Pennsylvania — Conviction: 2006 , Charges Dismissed: 2020

Kareem Johnson was exon­er­at­ed on July 1, 2020, when a Philadelphia tri­al court for­mal­ly entered an order dis­miss­ing all charges against him in his cap­i­tal case. On May 19, 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had barred his repros­e­cu­tion because of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct that it said exhib­it­ed a con­scious and reck­less dis­re­gard for his right to a fair trial.

Johnson’s wrong­ful con­vic­tion and death sen­tence were a prod­uct of offi­cial mis­con­duct, false foren­sic evi­dence, and inef­fec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion. He was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 2007 based upon evi­dence and argu­ment false­ly inform­ing the jury that DNA evi­dence had linked him to the mur­der. The pros­e­cu­tion, police, and a pros­e­cu­tion foren­sic ana­lyst told the jury that Johnson had shot the vic­tim, Walter Smith, at such close range that Smith’s blood spat­tered onto a red base­ball cap Johnson was wear­ing that sup­pos­ed­ly had been recov­ered at the mur­der scene. Philadelphia homi­cide pros­e­cu­tor Michael Barry false­ly linked Johnson to the mur­der through the hat, telling jurors in his open­ing state­ment that it ​“was left at th[e] scene in the mid­dle of the street [and] has Kareem Johnson’s sweat on it and has Walter Smith’s blood on it.”

Officer William Trenwith then tes­ti­fied that he had found the hat lay­ing 8 – 10 feet from Smith’s body. He fur­ther told the jury that, in his years of inves­ti­gat­ing homi­cide, he had nev­er seen blood trav­el that far a dis­tance from a victim’s body. Based on that tes­ti­mo­ny, Barry told jurors: ​“We know that he [Kareem Johnson] got in real close, with­in 2½ feet, close enough so that Walter Smith’s blood could splash up onto the bill of the cap he was wear­ing.” Barry argued: ​“Do you know who says the killer wore the hat? Walter Smith says the killer wore the hat. He says it with his blood.”

In fact, there was no blood on the red hat, nor did the police prop­er­ty receipt for the hat con­tain any indi­ca­tion of blood. Smith’s blood was actu­al­ly on a sec­ond hat — a black hat he was wear­ing at the time he was shot in the head. The DNA reports for the red hat also raised ques­tions about the sweat stain attrib­uted to Johnson. The ini­tial DNA report on the sweat stain — which was sup­ple­ment­ed twice with­out expla­na­tion — did not link the hat to Johnson.

When post-con­vic­tion coun­sel for Johnson dis­cov­ered the dis­crep­an­cies in the evi­dence, police and pros­e­cu­tors claimed to have mixed up the hats. The Philadelphia DA’s office agreed that Johnson’s con­vic­tion should be over­turned but stip­u­lat­ed to its rever­sal in April 2015 based only ​“on inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel at the guilty-inno­cence phase of tri­al.” Prosecutors insist­ed at the time of the stip­u­la­tion that Johnson ​“agree[ ] to with­draw all oth­er claims … includ­ing claims alleg­ing pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct of District Attorney Michael Barry.”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on May 19, 2020 that the pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct in the case vio­lat­ed the dou­ble jeop­ardy pro­tec­tions of the Pennsylvania con­sti­tu­tion. The court ruled that Philadelphia pros­e­cu­tors had engaged in mis­con­duct that denied Johnson a fair tri­al and was ​“under­tak­en reck­less­ly, that is, with a con­scious dis­re­gard for a sub­stan­tial risk that such will be the result.”

---

Curtis Flowers

Mississippi — Conviction: 1997 , Charges Dismissed: 2020

On September 4, 2020, fol­low­ing six tri­als marred by pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct and racial prej­u­dice, Curtis Flowers was exon­er­at­ed of the July 1996 mur­ders of four employ­ees of a white-owned fur­ni­ture store in Winona, Mississippi. Fifth Circuit Court District Attorney Doug Evans tried all six cas­es before with­draw­ing from the case in January 2020. After an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion, the Mississippi Attorney General’s office filed a motion on September 4, 2020 to dis­miss all charges against Flowers, with prej­u­dice, and the tri­al court grant­ed the motion.

Evans first pros­e­cut­ed Flowers for the mur­der of one of the vic­tims in October 1997. An all-white jury sen­tenced Flowers — who is African American — to death. While Flowers’ appeal of his con­vic­tion in that tri­al was pend­ing, Evans tried Flowers in March 1999 for the mur­der of a sec­ond vic­tim. Just before that tri­al, Flowers’ par­ents’ house burned down and his moth­er was told of a threat made by a white res­i­dent that, ​“If they let that n — — - go, anoth­er house is going to burn.” This time, a jury of 11 white jurors and one black juror con­vict­ed Flowers and sen­tenced him to death.

In sep­a­rate rul­ings in 2000 and 2003, the Mississippi Supreme Court over­turned both con­vic­tions, both times cit­ing pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. Evans pro­ceed­ed to try Flowers a third time in February 2004, again with a jury com­posed of 11 white jurors and one black juror. Flowers was again con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. The Mississippi Supreme Court then over­turned that con­vic­tion, this time cit­ing Evans’ dis­crim­i­na­to­ry use of jury strikes against African Americans.

Jurors dead­locked in Flowers’ fourth and fifth tri­als in November 2007 and September 2008, split along racial lines. Evans again per­son­al­ly pros­e­cut­ed both tri­als. The sev­en white jurors in the fourth tri­al and the nine white jurors in the fifth tri­al vot­ed for death. The five black jurors in the fourth tri­al and three black jurors in the fifth tri­al vot­ed for life. Only one black juror served on the sixth jury in 2010 — again pros­e­cut­ed by Evans — and Flowers was sen­tenced to death a fourth time in that trial.

While it was work­ing its way through the appeals process, the Flowers case became the sub­ject of an American Public Media pod­cast, APM Reports’ In the Dark. The pod­cast uncov­ered new evi­dence ques­tion­ing Flowers’ guilt, includ­ing evi­dence point­ing to anoth­er sus­pect and a taped admis­sion from jail­house infor­mant Odell Hallmon — the state’s star wit­ness who had tes­ti­fied that Flowers had con­fessed to the mur­ders — that ​“He ain’t nev­er tell me that. That was a lie. … Everything was all make-believe on my part.”

APM also con­duct­ed a study of pros­e­cu­tors’ exer­cise of dis­cre­tionary jury strikes in 225 tri­als between 1992 and 2017 dur­ing Evans’ tenure as Fifth Circuit Court District Attorney, find­ing that pros­e­cu­tors in Evans’ office exclud­ed African Americans from jury ser­vice at near­ly 4½ times the rate at which they struck white jurors. On June 21, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court over­turned Flowers’ con­vic­tion again based on Evans’ racial­ly dis­crim­i­na­to­ry jury selec­tion prac­tices. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that Evans’ ​“relent­less, deter­mined effort to rid the jury of black indi­vid­u­als strong­ly sug­gests that the State want­ed to try Flowers before a jury with as few black jurors as pos­si­ble, and ide­al­ly before an all-white jury.”

---

Robert DuBoise

Florida — Conviction: 1983 , Charges Dismissed: 2020

A Hillsborough County, Florida tri­al court exon­er­at­ed Robert DuBoise on September 14, 2020, dis­miss­ing all charges against him 37 years after he was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for rape and mur­der. 

DuBoise was con­vict­ed of rap­ing and mur­der­ing 19-year-old Barbara Grams based on junk-sci­ence bite-mark evi­dence and false tes­ti­mo­ny from a prison infor­mant. The jury unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed that DuBoise be sen­tenced to life, but his tri­al judge, Henry Lee Coe III, over­rode their rec­om­men­da­tion and sen­tenced DuBoise to death. In February 1988, the Florida Supreme Court over­turned DuBoise’s death sen­tence, rul­ing that the tri­al court should not have over­rid­den the jury’s sen­tenc­ing rec­om­men­da­tion and direct­ing that DuBoise be resen­tenced to life impris­on­ment. 

DuBoise remained wrong­ly incar­cer­at­ed until August 27, 2020, one day after Hillsborough pros­e­cu­tors and lawyers from the nation­al Innocence Project and the Innocence Project of Florida pre­sent­ed Circuit Judge Christopher Nash with evi­dence of his inno­cence. Working with State Attorney Andrew Warren’s Conviction Integrity Unit, the par­ties told the court that there was in fact no bite mark and that DNA evi­dence from an untest­ed rape kit exclud­ed DuBoise and impli­cat­ed two oth­er men. Judge Nash reduced DuBoise’s sen­tence to time served and set a September 14 hear­ing date for the pre­sen­ta­tion of evi­dence to over­turn his conviction.

Year of Release: 2019 ⌃

---

Christopher Williams

Pennsylvania — Conviction: 1993 , Charges Dismissed: 2019

On December 23, 2019, cor­rect­ing what it char­ac­ter­ized as ​“decades” of mis­con­duct, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office dropped all charges against Christopher Williams, who had been on death row for 26 years. Williams and a 17-year-old co-defen­dant, Theophalis Wilson, had been wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed in August 1993 of a triple mur­der com­mit­ted in North Philadelphia in 1989.

The two men’s con­vic­tions rest­ed on the per­jured tes­ti­mo­ny of a Commonwealth infor­mant and the delib­er­ate sup­pres­sion of excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence by for­mer Philadelphia pros­e­cu­tors. The state’s key wit­ness was James White, who coop­er­at­ed with the pros­e­cu­tion in exchange for avoid­ing cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion for six dif­fer­ent mur­ders. White pro­vid­ed pur­port­ed­ly eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny that Williams had shot one of the vic­tims in the face and that sev­er­al men threw the bod­ies of the vic­tims out of a mov­ing car. White lat­er recant­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny, say­ing that pros­e­cu­tors had met with him sev­er­al times before Williams’ and Wilson’s tri­als and pro­vid­ed him with fab­ri­cat­ed infor­ma­tion for his testimony.

In December 2013, a Philadelphia tri­al court over­turned Williams’ con­vic­tion based upon foren­sic and med­ical evi­dence show­ing that White’s ver­sion of how the mur­der occurred was phys­i­cal­ly impos­si­ble. It found that Williams’ tri­al lawyer had failed to inves­ti­gate the crime scene or retain nec­es­sary foren­sic experts and inef­fec­tive­ly failed to present expert evi­dence to chal­lenge White’s ​“eye­wit­ness” tes­ti­mo­ny. On appeal, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court wrote that “[t]his [expert] tes­ti­mo­ny, if believed by the jury, cou­pled with the oth­er evi­dence impeach­ing White’s cred­i­bil­i­ty, would like­ly have changed the jury’s mind and result­ed in Williams’ acquit­tal of the three murders.”

While Williams was await­ing retri­al, Philadelphia elect­ed a new dis­trict attor­ney who cre­at­ed an active Conviction Integrity Unit. The CIU began inves­ti­gat­ing Wilson’s case and lat­er expand­ed its review to Williams’ tri­al. In 2019, the CIU pro­vid­ed defense lawyers more than 40,000 pages of doc­u­ments in the case, most of which had pre­vi­ous­ly been with­held from the defense at tri­al and through­out the appeals process. In its motion to drop the charges against Williams, the CIU wrote that the pri­or pros­e­cu­tors in the case, who had been fired, had with­held ​“a pletho­ra of sig­nif­i­cant mate­r­i­al, excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence,” includ­ing ​“evi­dence that con­tra­dict­ed White’s account; impeached oth­er wit­ness­es; incul­pat­ed oth­er spe­cif­ic indi­vid­u­als; and indi­cat­ed that the vic­tims in this case were caught in an ongo­ing dis­pute between two extreme­ly vio­lent gangs, either of which may have been respon­si­ble for their deaths.”

The tri­al court grant­ed the pros­e­cu­tion’s motion to ​“nolle pros” the charges against Williams, and, on January 21, 2020, charges were also dropped against Wilson. Williams remains in cus­tody for a sep­a­rate mur­der con­vic­tion obtained by the same homi­cide pros­e­cu­tor with tes­ti­mo­ny from the same informant.

---

Charles Ray Finch

North Carolina — Conviction: 1976 , Charges Dismissed: 2019

Charles Ray Finch, wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1976 based upon false foren­sic tes­ti­mo­ny and an eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion manip­u­lat­ed by police mis­con­duct, was exon­er­at­ed June 14, 2019. In July 1976, Finch had been con­vict­ed by a Wilson County, North Carolina of shoot­ing a store clerk to death dur­ing an attempt­ed rob­bery. The charges car­ried an auto­mat­ic death sen­tence. The same day he was for­mal­ly sen­tenced, the U.S. Supreme Court decid­ed Woodson v. North Carolina, which declared manda­to­ry death sen­tences uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Based on that deci­sion, the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed Finch’s death sen­tence and direct­ed that he be resen­tenced to life without parole.

Finch was iden­ti­fied by an eye­wit­ness, Lester Floyd Jones, in three sug­ges­tive police line-ups in which police had him wear a three-quar­ter length jack­et that was the same style of cloth­ing that a store employ­ee had said the per­pe­tra­tor was wear­ing. No oth­er per­son in the line-up was sim­i­lar­ly dressed. Finch did not resem­ble the ini­tial descrip­tion that Jones — an alco­holic with cog­ni­tive impair­ments and prob­lems with short-term mem­o­ry — had giv­en police. At the time of the mur­der, Finch had a long beard and dis­tinc­tive side­burns, and by the time of his tes­ti­mo­ny, he changed his descrip­tion of the shoot­er to match Finch.

Jones also had told police that the killer had been armed with a sawed-off shot­gun and a state foren­sic wit­ness tes­ti­fied at the tri­al that the vic­tim had died from two shot­gun wounds. When police arrest­ed Finch, they found a shot­gun shell in his car and the pros­e­cu­tion claimed that this shell matched the bul­let cas­ings found at the mur­der scene. A review of the autop­sy evi­dence decades after the crime dis­closed that the vic­tim had been killed with a pis­tol, not a shot­gun and new bal­lis­tics evi­dence con­tra­dict­ed the pros­e­cu­tion tes­ti­mo­ny that the bul­lets at the scene matched the shot­gun shell from Finch’s car.

Three ali­bi wit­ness­es tes­ti­fied that Finch had been play­ing pok­er with them at the time of the shoot­ing. Several wit­ness­es for the pros­e­cu­tion lat­er indi­cat­ed they had been pres­sured into pro­vid­ing false tes­ti­mo­ny implicating Finch.

On January 25, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found Finch ​“actu­al­ly inno­cent” of the mur­der and remand­ed his case to the fed­er­al dis­trict court to con­sid­er evi­dence that the pros­e­cu­tion had with­held excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence in the case. The fed­er­al dis­trict court vacat­ed Finch’s con­vic­tion on May 23, 2019 and ordered the 81-year-old’s imme­di­ate release from prison, giv­ing the state 30 days to decide whether to retry him. On June 14, 2019, the Wilson County District Attorney dis­missed all charges in the case, com­plet­ing Finch’s exoneration.

---

Clifford Williams, Jr.

Florida — Conviction: 1976 , Charges Dismissed: 2019

Forty-two years after he and his nephew were wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed of mur­der in Florida and he was sen­tenced to death, Clifford Williams, Jr. has been exon­er­at­ed. Submitting a report from its Conviction Integrity Unit that found ​“no cred­i­ble evi­dence of guilt and … cred­i­ble evi­dence of inno­cence,” Duval County pros­e­cu­tors asked a Jacksonville tri­al court to dis­miss all charges against Williams, now 76 years old, and his nephew, Nathan Myers, now 61. Williams is the 165^th for­mer death-row pris­on­er to be exon­er­at­ed in the United States since 1973.

Williams and Myers were tried and con­vict­ed in 1976 for the mur­der of Jeanette Williams and the wound­ing of her girl­friend, Nina Marshall. Marshall told police that two men had entered their bed­room at night and fired shots from the foot of the bed. She iden­ti­fied Williams and Myers as the shoot­ers. However, the phys­i­cal evi­dence — nev­er pre­sent­ed by defense coun­sel — revealed that the bul­lets had been fired from out­side, through the bed­room win­dow, and had come from a sin­gle gun. Defense coun­sel also ignored forty ali­bi wit­ness­es whom Williams and Myers had indi­cat­ed would be able to tes­ti­fy that they had been next door at a birth­day par­ty at the time the shoot­ing occurred. The defense pre­sent­ed no wit­ness­es. The first tri­al result­ed in a mis­tri­al. In the sec­ond tri­al, which last­ed two days, pros­e­cu­tors argued, with­out pre­sent­ing any sup­port­ing evi­dence, that the men com­mit­ted the mur­der because Jeannette Williams sup­pos­ed­ly owed them a $50 drug debt. The jury con­vict­ed Williams and Myers but rec­om­mend­ed that they be sen­tenced to life. Judge Cliff Shepard — a noto­ri­ous­ly harsh tri­al judge — over­rode the jury’s sen­tenc­ing rec­om­men­da­tion for Williams and sen­tenced him to death. Shepard accept­ed the life rec­om­men­da­tion for 18-year-old Myers.

Prosecutors began rein­ves­ti­gat­ing the case after new­ly elect­ed State Attorney Melissa Nelson cre­at­ed the first Conviction Integrity Unit in the state in 2018. The unit issued its report, authored by Conviction Integrity Review Director Shelley Thibodeau, in February. The report not­ed that no phys­i­cal evi­dence linked Williams or Myers to the shoot­ing and that ​“the phys­i­cal and sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence actu­al­ly con­tra­dicts [Marshall’s] tes­ti­mo­ny about what hap­pened.” The report also found that anoth­er man, Nathaniel Lawson, had con­fessed to sev­er­al peo­ple that he had com­mit­ted the killings and that a 1976 police report not­ed his pres­ence near the crime scene around the time of the mur­der. Thibodeau con­clud­ed that “[t]he cul­mi­na­tion of all the evi­dence, most of which the jury nev­er heard or saw, leaves no abid­ing con­fi­dence in the con­vic­tions or the guilt of the defendants.”

Williams had been try­ing unsuc­cess­ful­ly for years to get any­one inter­est­ed in the case, and respond­ed emo­tion­al­ly after the hear­ing. ​“My moth­er died while I was on death row,” he told Florida Times-Union reporter Andrew Pantazi. Through tears, he said, ​“I just want­ed to get out and see my kids. There wasn’t nobody but them.”

Twenty-nine wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed death-row pris­on­ers have been exon­er­at­ed in Florida, the most in the nation. In 21 of the 23 Florida exon­er­a­tions for which the jury’s sen­tenc­ing vote is known, judges imposed the death penal­ty by over­rid­ing a jury rec­om­men­da­tion for life or fol­low­ing a non-unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tion for death. Florida now requires a unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tion before a judge can impose a death sentence.

Year of Release: 2018 ⌃

---

Clemente Javier Aguirre

Florida — Conviction: 2006 , Charges Dismissed: 2018

With new­ly dis­cov­ered con­fes­sions and DNA evi­dence point­ing to the prosecution’s chief wit­ness as the actu­al killer, Seminole County, Florida pros­e­cu­tors dropped all charges against Honduran nation­al Clemente Javier Aguirre. Aguirre was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 2006 of the mur­der of two neigh­bors — an elder­ly woman and her adult daugh­ter — in 2004. He stead­fast­ly main­tained his inno­cence, say­ing he had dis­cov­ered the women after they had been killed. He did not report the mur­ders to author­i­ties, he said, because he was an undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grant and feared depor­ta­tion. The pros­e­cu­tion’s chief wit­ness against Aguirre was Samantha Williams, the men­tal­ly ill daugh­ter and grand-daugh­ter of the vic­tims. During the post-con­vic­tion process, Aguirre’s lawyers dis­cov­ered that Williams had con­fessed to at least five dif­fer­ent peo­ple that she had killed her rel­a­tives. None of the DNA found on the 84 items from the crime scene that were test­ed matched Aguirre. Most blood sam­ples matched the two vic­tims, and Samatha Williams’s DNA was found on eight blood­stains col­lect­ed from four dif­fer­ent rooms — includ­ing in the bath­room where the state had argued at tri­al that the killer would have cleaned up. Each of Williams’s sam­ples was found inch­es away from the vic­tims’ blood. On October 27, 2016, the Florida Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly vacat­ed Aguirre’s con­vic­tion and grant­ed him a new trial.

Aguirre was sen­tenced to death by the tri­al judge despite non-unan­i­mous 7 – 5 and 9 – 3 jury votes for death in the two mur­ders. 20 of the 22 Florida exon­er­a­tions for which researchers have been able to deter­mine the jury vote have involved judges impos­ing the death penal­ty despite a jury rec­om­men­da­tion for life or after a non-unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tion for death.

---

Vicente Benavides

California — Conviction: 1993 , Charges Dismissed: 2018

Vicente Benavides Figueroa, wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1993 on charges that he had raped, anal­ly sodom­ized, and mur­dered his girlfriend’s 21-month-old daugh­ter, was exon­er­at­ed on April 19, 2018. A tri­al court in Kern County, California for­mal­ly dis­missed all charges against Benavides, a Mexican nation­al, two days after Kern District Attorney Lisa Green said her office would not be seek­ing a retri­al. The California Supreme Court had grant­ed the for­mer farm­work­er a new tri­al in March 2018, call­ing his con­vic­tions for sex­u­al­ly assault­ing and mur­der­ing Consuelo Verdugo a prod­uct of ​“exten­sive,” ​“per­va­sive,” ​“impact­ful,” and ​“false” foren­sic tes­ti­mo­ny. The girl, the court said, had nev­er been sex­u­al­ly assault­ed and may actu­al­ly have died from being hit by a car. At tri­al, the pros­e­cu­tion pre­sent­ed tes­ti­mo­ny that the tod­dler had died from ​“blunt force pen­e­trat­ing injury of the anus” caused by rape and mul­ti­ple arm injuries, inter­nal trau­ma, dilat­ed pupils, and com­pres­sion rib frac­tures ​“caused by tight squeez­ing dur­ing a sex­u­al assault.” In post-con­vic­tion pro­ceed­ings, Benavides’s lawyers pre­sent­ed evi­dence from a lead­ing expert on child abuse char­ac­ter­iz­ing the prosecution’s asser­tion that the child’s injuries had been the prod­uct of sex­u­al assault as ​“so unlike­ly to the point of being absurd. … No such mech­a­nism of injury has ever been report­ed in any lit­er­a­ture of child abuse or child assault.” Rather, Dr. Astrid Heger said, the inter­nal injuries the tod­dler sus­tained were com­mon­ly seen in vic­tims of auto­mo­bile acci­dents. Hospital records that were nev­er pre­sent­ed at tri­al showed that the exam­in­ing physi­cians from Consuelo’s ini­tial hos­pi­tal­iza­tion had not seen any signs of bleed­ing when she was brought to the emer­gency room, and a nurse who helped treat the child report­ed that nei­ther she nor any of her col­leagues had seen evi­dence of anal or vagi­nal trau­ma when the Consuelo arrived at the hos­pi­tal. The med­ical records reflect­ed that the injuries to Consuelo’s gen­i­talia and anus that the pros­e­cu­tion expert had attrib­uted to sex­u­al assault were actu­al­ly a prod­uct of unsuc­cess­ful med­ical inter­ven­tion, includ­ing repeat­ed failed efforts to insert a catheter and the improp­er use of an adult-sized catheter on the small child. During oral argu­ment, Associate California Supreme Court Justice Carol Corrigan — a for­mer pros­e­cu­tor — described the foren­sic tes­ti­mo­ny that Benavides had bru­tal­ly raped and anal­ly sodom­ized Consuelo as ​“among the most hair-rais­ing false evi­dence that I’ve encoun­tered in all the time that I’ve been look­ing at criminal cases.”

Year of Release: 2017 ⌃

---

Rodricus Crawford

Louisiana — Conviction: 2013 , Charges Dismissed: 2017

The Caddo Parish, Louisiana, District Court for­mal­ly dis­missed all charges against against Rodricus Crawford on April 17, 2017, exon­er­at­ing him in a con­tro­ver­sial death penal­ty case that had attract­ed nation­al atten­tion amid evi­dence of race dis­crim­i­na­tion, pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al excess, and actu­al inno­cence. The Louisiana Supreme Court had ordered a new tri­al for Crawford in November 2016, find­ing that pros­e­cu­tor Dale Cox had uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly struck black jurors on the basis of race. Crawford had been sen­tenced to death in 2012 on charges he had mur­dered his one-year-old son. Despite autop­sy results that showed per­va­sive bron­chop­neu­mo­nia in the baby’s lungs and sep­sis in his blood, the pros­e­cu­tion pre­sent­ed tes­ti­mo­ny from a local doc­tor who claimed the infant had been suf­fo­cat­ed. After the tri­al, Crawford’s appeal lawyers obtained addi­tion­al evi­dence from experts in the fields of pedi­atric pathol­o­gy, pedi­atric neu­ropathol­o­gy, and pedi­atric infec­tious dis­ease that the child had died of nat­ur­al caus­es. In drop­ping the charges against Crawford, James Stewart, who was elect­ed Caddo Parish District Attorney in 2015, said, ​“New evi­dence pre­sent­ed after the tri­al raised ques­tions about the degree of pneu­mo­nia togeth­er with bac­te­ria in the child’s blood indica­tive of sep­sis” required recon­sid­er­a­tion of the charges against Crawford. A 2015 study doc­u­ment­ed pat­tern of racial­ly biased jury selec­tion by pros­e­cu­tors in Caddo Parish, and data from 22 felony tri­als pros­e­cut­ed by Cox showed he had struck black jurors at a rate 2.7 times high­er than oth­er jurors. Cox wrote an inter­nal memo on the Crawford case in 2014 stat­ing that Crawford ​“deserves as much phys­i­cal suf­fer­ing as it is human­ly pos­si­ble to endure before he dies” and attract­ed nation­al crit­i­cism for ques­tion­able com­ments and prac­tices, includ­ing telling The Shreveport Times that he believed the state needs to ​“kill more peo­ple.” Cox per­son­al­ly pros­e­cut­ed 1/​3 of all the cas­es in which Louisiana juries returned death sen­tences between 2010 – 2015. Ben Cohen, an attor­ney for Crawford, said, ​“This case has always been about injus­tice and the dis­pro­por­tion­ate use of the death penal­ty in Caddo Parish. In decid­ing not to retry Rodricus Crawford, the Caddo Parish District Attorney’s office is right­ing this injus­tice, restor­ing integri­ty to their office.”

---

Gabriel Solache

Illinois — Conviction: 2000 , Charges Dismissed: 2017

Former Illinois death-row pris­on­er Gabriel Solache, a Mexican nation­al whose death sen­tence was one of 157 com­mut­ed by Governor George Ryan in January 2003, was exon­er­at­ed on December 21, 2017 after twen­ty years of wrong­ful impris­on­ment, but imme­di­ate­ly seized by agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. Cook County pros­e­cu­tors dropped charges against Solache and his co-defen­dant Arturo DeLeon-Reyes after Circuit Court Judge James Obbish over­turned their con­vic­tions, find­ing that dis­graced Chicago detec­tive Reynaldo Guevara had told ​“bald-faced lies” under oath when he tes­ti­fied to hav­ing no mem­o­ry of inter­ro­gat­ing Solache and DeLeon-Reyes and denied hav­ing beat­en false con­fes­sions out of the men. Solache and DeLeon-Reyes were con­vict­ed in sep­a­rate tri­als, and Solache was sen­tenced to death, for the 1998 stab­bing deaths of Jacinta and Mariano Soto dur­ing a home rob­bery. No phys­i­cal or bio­log­i­cal evi­dence linked either man to the mur­der, but they were con­vict­ed based upon con­fes­sions they have long said were coerced by Guevara over the course of three days of inter­ro­ga­tion in which they were denied their right to con­sular assis­tance by the Mexican gov­ern­ment, deprived of sleep, and giv­en lit­tle food or drink until they false­ly impli­cat­ed them­selves. Solache’s pur­port­ed con­fes­sion was writ­ten entire­ly in English by an assis­tant state attor­ney who did not speak Spanish. Solache did not speak or read English and said that Guevara nev­er trans­lat­ed the writ­ten state­ment for Solache before get­ting him to sign it. Guevera has been accused of fram­ing defen­dants of mur­der in 51 cas­es. Judge Obbish wrote in his rul­ing, ​“The accounts of the unre­lat­ed incidents…are suf­fi­cient­ly sim­i­lar to the accounts tes­ti­fied to by (Solache and DeLeon-Reyes) in that they all include threats, abuse and coer­cion to secure state­ments and occurred with­in a range of time so as to con­sti­tute a pat­tern and practice.”

---

Rickey D. Newman

Arkansas — Conviction: 2002 , Charges Dismissed: 2017

An Arkansas tri­al judge dis­missed all charges against for­mer death-row pris­on­er, Rickey Dale Newman on October 11, 2017, after near­ly 16 years in prison for the February 2001 mur­der of a tran­sient woman in a ​“hobo park” on the out­skirts of Van Buren, Arkansas. A for­mer Marine with major depres­sion, chron­ic post­trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der from child­hood abuse, and an IQ in the intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled range, Newman was seri­ous­ly men­tal­ly ill and home­less at the time he was charged with mur­der­ing Marie Cholette. After false­ly con­fess­ing to inter­roga­tors, the court found him com­pe­tent to stand tri­al and to rep­re­sent him­self. He was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in June 2002 after a one-day tri­al in which Newman told the jury he had com­mit­ted the mur­der and asked them to impose the death penal­ty. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked Newman to the mur­der and DNA evi­dence on the blan­ket on which the vic­tim was found exclud­ed Newman, but a pros­e­cu­tion expert false­ly tes­ti­fied that hair found on Newman’s cloth­ing had come from the vic­tim. Newman sub­se­quent­ly sought to waive his appeals and be exe­cut­ed. However, four days before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion on July 26, 2005, Newman per­mit­ted fed­er­al pub­lic defend­ers to seek a stay of exe­cu­tion and the lawyers obtained DNA test­ing of the hair evi­dence that dis­proved the prosecution’s tri­al tes­ti­mo­ny. They also dis­cov­ered that pros­e­cu­tors had with­held from the defense evi­dence from the mur­der scene that con­tra­dict­ed what Newman had described in his con­fes­sion. A fed­er­al court hear­ing also pro­vid­ed evi­dence that the state’s men­tal health doc­tor had made sig­nif­i­cant errors in admin­is­ter­ing and scor­ing tests he had relied upon in tes­ti­fy­ing that Newman had been com­pe­tent to stand trial.

The Arkansas Supreme Court sub­se­quent­ly ordered new hear­ings on Newman’s com­pe­ten­cy and on the evi­dence the pros­e­cu­tion had with­held from the defense. After those hear­ings, it wrote that ​“the record over­whelm­ing­ly illus­trates that Newman’s cog­ni­tive deficits and men­tal ill­ness­es inter­fered with his abil­i­ty to effec­tive­ly and ratio­nal­ly assist coun­sel” and over­turned his con­vic­tion. In September 2017, it issued anoth­er rul­ing bar­ring the use of Newman’s incom­pe­tent con­fes­sions in any retri­al. The pros­e­cu­tion then asked for the charges to be dis­missed, not­ing that, with­out the false con­fes­sion, pros­e­cu­tors lacked suf­fi­cient evi­dence to obtain a con­vic­tion and ​“it would be a waste of tax pay­ers mon­ey to retry [Newman].”

---

Ralph Daniel Wright, Jr.

Florida — Conviction: 2014 , Acquitted: 2017

On May 11, 2017, the Florida Supreme Court direct­ed that Ralph Daniel Wright, Jr.(pictured) be acquit­ted of the mur­der charges for which he had been sen­tenced to death in 2014. The court unan­i­mous­ly vacat­ed Wright’s con­vic­tions for the mur­ders of his ex-girl­friend and their son, rul­ing that the ​“pure­ly cir­cum­stan­tial” evi­dence against him was insuf­fi­cient to con­vict. A major­i­ty of the court joined a con­cur­ring opin­ion by Justice Charles Canady hold­ing that ​“no ratio­nal tri­er of fact could have found … beyond a rea­son­able doubt” that Wright was the killer. Prosecutors accused Wright of mur­der­ing Paula O’Conner — a white woman with whom he had an affair — and their 15-month-old son Alijah sup­pos­ed­ly to ​“avoid a child sup­port oblig­a­tion and … main­tain a ​‘bach­e­lor lifestyle.’” The court not­ed that ​“none of the evi­dence pre­sent­ed at tri­al direct­ly tied Wright to the mur­ders” and that the victim’s young-adult daugh­ter, who had a volatile rela­tion­ship with the vic­tim, also had a finan­cial motive, hav­ing received more than $500,000 in life insur­ance ben­e­fits as a result of her mother’s and half-brother’s deaths. Much of the state’s case relied on the pres­ence of a black mil­i­tary glove in the home of the mur­der vic­tims. While Wright, a mem­ber of the Air Force, had access to that type of glove, ​“the State could not prove that Wright ever wore the glove, that he left it on Paula’s couch, that it came from MacDill [the base where Wright was sta­tioned], or that it was even used in the mur­ders.” DNA tests by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement report­ed the results as incon­clu­sive, but inde­pen­dent analy­sis by the DNA Diagnostic Center and Bode, the pri­vate labs hired by the defense and pros­e­cu­tion, respec­tive­ly, exclud­ed Wright as a con­trib­u­tor of the DNA found on the glove. The DNA analy­sis did not test for the pres­ence of the victim’s daugh­ter, whom police did not inves­ti­gate. Wright was con­vict­ed of the mur­ders, and the tri­al court sen­tenced him to death after a bare 7 – 5 major­i­ty of the jury vot­ed to rec­om­mend the death penal­ty. The Florida Supreme Court later declared death sen­tences based upon non-unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tions to be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Wright is the 27^th per­son to be exon­er­at­ed from death row in Florida. Nineteen of the 21 exon­er­a­tion cas­es from Florida in which the jury vote is known have involved a non-unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tion of a death sen­tence or a judi­cial over­ride of a jury rec­om­men­da­tion of life.

---

Isaiah McCoy

Delaware — Conviction: 2012 , Acquitted: 2017

Isaiah McCoy was exon­er­at­ed on January 19, 2017, when Kent County Superior Court Judge Robert B. Young acquit­ted him of all charges in a retri­al ordered by the Delaware Supreme Court. McCoy had been con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 2012, but the Court over­turned his con­vic­tion in 2015 as a result of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct in which the tri­al pros­e­cu­tor, Deputy Attorney General R. David Favata belit­tled McCoy in front of the jury for choos­ing to rep­re­sent him­self, made intim­i­dat­ing com­ments to McCoy dur­ing a break in pro­ceed­ings, then lied to the judge about hav­ing made those com­ments. McCoy waived his right to a jury for his retri­al, but was rep­re­sent­ed by coun­sel. In acquit­ting McCoy, Judge Young not­ed that there was no phys­i­cal evi­dence link­ing McCoy to the mur­der and that two alleged accom­plices had giv­en con­tra­dic­to­ry tes­ti­mo­ny. One of the accom­plices, Deshaun White, received a sen­tence reduc­tion for tes­ti­fy­ing against McCoy. Upon his release, McCoy said, ​“I just want to say to all those out there going through the same thing I’m going through ​‘keep faith, keep fight­ing. Two years ago, I was on death row. At 25, I was giv­en a death sen­tence – and I am today alive and well and kick­ing and a free man.” Favata was tem­porar­i­ly sus­pend­ed from the prac­tice of law as a result of his mis­con­duct in the case.

Year of Release: 2015 ⌃

---

Derral Wayne Hodgkins

Florida — Conviction: 2013 , Acquitted: 2015

On October 12, 2015, the Circuit Court for Pascal County, Florida, entered a judg­ment of acquit­tal and the Florida Department of Corrections released Derral Hodgkins from cus­tody after the Florida Supreme Court denied the prosecution’s motion to recon­sid­er its June 18, 2015 deci­sion acquit­ting Hodges of all charges in the stab­bing death of his for­mer girl­friend. The tri­al judge imposed a death sen­tence for the con­vic­tion fol­low­ing a 7 – 5 vote by the jury to rec­om­mend death. No eye­wit­ness­es placed Hodgkins in the vicin­i­ty at or around the time of the mur­der and the evi­dence against him was com­plete­ly cir­cum­stan­tial. None of the 21 sets of fin­ger­prints lift­ed from the crime scene belonged to Hodgkins and no evi­dence linked him to a bloody bot­tle found at the scene. Although his DNA was found in scrap­ings tak­en from under­neath the victim’s fin­ger­nails, the Florida Supreme Court found that, even when viewed most favor­ably to the pros­e­cu­tion, this evi­dence ​“equal­ly gen­er­ates the the­o­ry” that Hodgkins’ DNA was present ​“through inno­cent con­tact.” The Court found that there were no defen­sive wounds on the victim’s body that would have sug­gest­ed she had scratched her assailant, and that the clos­est Hodgkins had come to mak­ing any admis­sions about the mur­der was lying to police about the last time he had sex­u­al con­tact with the vic­tim, which he said he did because he did not want his wife to find out about his infi­deli­ty. Ultimately, the Court held that the evi­dence in the case was insuf­fi­cient to con­vict and direct­ed that the tri­al court enter a judg­ment of acquittal.

---

Lawrence William Lee

Georgia — Conviction: 1987 , Charges Dismissed: 2015

On June 8, 2015, the Wayne County Georgia Superior Court grant­ed the prosecution’s motion to dis­miss all charges against Larry Lee, after he had spent more than 27 years in prison (more than 20 on death row) for a triple mur­der dur­ing a home rob­bery. (See Order of Nolle Prosequi, Wayne County, GA, Superior Court, June 8, 2015). In May 2008, the state supe­ri­or court grant­ed Lee a new tri­al, find­ing that pros­e­cu­tors had engaged in a ​“full spec­trum of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct,” accom­pa­nied by prej­u­di­cial inves­tiga­tive fail­ures by his tri­al coun­sel. (Lee v. Terry, Butts County, GA, Superior Court, May 1, 2008). As described by the Superior Court, Lee was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death based upon ​“a weak pros­e­cu­tion case depen­dent for its suc­cess on the believ­abil­i­ty of two wit­ness­es unfa­vored in the law and by the pub­lic – a jail­house snitch and a co-con­spir­a­tor – with absolute­ly no foren­sic evi­dence to link [him] to the crime scene.” The court found that the pros­e­cu­tion affir­ma­tive­ly mis­rep­re­sent­ed to the defense and the court that it had no excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence in its files, while con­ceal­ing evi­dence that con­tra­dict­ed the tes­ti­mo­ny or under­mined the cred­i­bil­i­ty of every one of its key wit­ness­es. It also manip­u­lat­ed the tri­al pro­ceed­ings by first deny­ing the defense access to the phys­i­cal evi­dence and then pre­sent­ing evi­dence and argu­ment it knew to be false that sug­gest­ed Lee had been in pos­ses­sion of guns stolen from the vic­tims’ home. The pros­e­cu­tion also con­cealed evi­dence that linked two oth­er sus­pects to the mur­ders and sub­se­quent­ly lost or destroyed 47 latent fin­ger­prints and 15 unknown hairs recov­ered from the scene that did not match Lee, pre­vent­ing Lee’s post-con­vic­tion lawyers from exam­in­ing this excul­pa­to­ry phys­i­cal evi­dence to iden­ti­fy the actu­al per­pe­tra­tors. In February 2015, the Superior Court barred the pros­e­cu­tion from pre­sent­ing the pri­or tes­ti­mo­ny of two now-deceased wit­ness­es, rul­ing that pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct had pre­vent­ed Lee from ade­quate­ly cross-exam­in­ing these wit­ness­es at tri­al (see Order Concerning Admissibility of Evidence, Wayne County, GA, Superior Court, February 19, 2015), and lead­ing to the deci­sion to drop the charges against Lee.

---

Alfred Brown

Texas — Conviction: 2005 , Charges Dismissed: 2015

On June 8, 2015, Harris County, Texas pros­e­cu­tors dis­missed charges against Alfred Dewayne Brown, who had been wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 2005 for the mur­ders of a Houston police offi­cer and a store clerk dur­ing a rob­bery. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had over­turned Brown’s con­vic­tion in 2014 because pros­e­cu­tors with­held a phone record that sup­port­ed Brown’s ali­bi. Prosecutors in 2013 said that the phone record had been inad­ver­tent­ly mis­placed. Brown had long main­tained that he had been alone at his girlfriend’s apart­ment at the time of the mur­der, and that he had called her after see­ing reports of the shoot­ing on tele­vi­sion. Defense lawyers argued that the time of the phone call estab­lished that Brown could not have been at the store when the mur­der occurred. There was no phys­i­cal evi­dence against Brown, and a series of Pulitzer prize-win­ning columns by Houston Chronicle writer Lisa Falkenberg dis­closed irreg­u­lar­i­ties in the grand jury process, that Brown’s girl­friend had faced intim­i­dat­ing ques­tion­ing and threats of per­jury by a police offi­cer who was the grand jury fore­man, and that she had been jailed for sev­en weeks until she changed her tes­ti­mo­ny to impli­cate Brown. In respond­ing to a 2018 doc­u­ment request filed by Brown in a civ­il suit against Harris County, Harris County District Attorney, Kim Ogg — elect­ed in 2016 — dis­closed an email from a Houston detec­tive to Assistant District Attorney Dan Rizzo, the pros­e­cu­tor in Brown’s case, alert­ing Rizzo that he had obtained the phone records from the morn­ing of the mur­der in an attempt to refute the girlfriend’s grand jury tes­ti­mo­ny, but found that they sup­port­ed her tes­ti­mo­ny and Brown’s ali­bi. Prosecutors nev­er­the­less sup­pressed the records, jailed Brown’s girl­friend, and con­tin­ued to pros­e­cute him. Since 2007, Brown’s attor­neys have com­piled evi­dence that strong­ly sug­gests the mur­der was com­mit­ted by anoth­er man who had both a his­to­ry of rob­bery and con­nec­tions to the co-defen­dants in the crime. Despite a 2008 motion to test the alter­nate suspect’s DNA, such a test has not been carried out.

---

Willie Manning

Mississippi — Conviction: 1994 , Charges Dismissed: 2015

On April 21, 2015 Oktibbeha County (Mississippi) District Attorney Forrest Allgood announced that he would drop charges against death row inmate Willie Manning. (See Order of Nolle Prosequi, Cir. Ct. Oktibbeha Cty. MS (April 20, 2015)). In February 2015, the Mississippi Supreme court grant­ed Manning a new tri­al, say­ing that key evi­dence was with­held. (Manning v. State, en banc (Feb. 12, 2015)). Justice Michael K. Randolph wrote, ​“The State vio­lat­ed Manning’s due-process rights by fail­ing to pro­vide favor­able, mate­r­i­al evi­dence.” A wit­ness tes­ti­fied that he saw Manning enter the vic­tims’ apart­ment, but police records that were with­held from the defense show the apart­ment from which he claimed to have seen Manning was vacant at the time, and records from the apart­ment com­plex did not list the wit­ness as a ten­ant. The wit­ness lat­er recant­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny, say­ing he feared he would be charged with the crime if he didn’t tes­ti­fy. Manning remains on death row for a sep­a­rate crime, but the evi­dence against Manning in that case is hair and bal­lis­tics analy­sis from the FBI that was recent­ly iden­ti­fied as seri­ous­ly flawed. Manning came with­in hours of being exe­cut­ed in that case, receiv­ing a stay of exe­cu­tion only after the FBI sent sep­a­rate let­ters dis­clos­ing flaws in its bal­lis­tics and hair comparison testimony.

---

Anthony Ray Hinton

Alabama — Conviction: 1985 , Charges Dismissed: 2015

Anthony Ray Hinton was exon­er­at­ed after spend­ing near­ly 30 years on Alabama’s death row. He was released on April 3, 2015. Hinton was con­vict­ed of the 1985 mur­ders of two fast-food restau­rant man­agers based upon the tes­ti­mo­ny of a state foren­sic exam­in­er that the bul­lets in the two mur­ders came from a gun found in Hinton’s house. The pros­e­cu­tor, who had a doc­u­ment­ed his­to­ry of racial bias, said he could tell Hinton was guilty and ​“evil” just by look­ing at him. Hinton was arrest­ed after a vic­tim in a sim­i­lar crime iden­ti­fied him in a pho­to line­up, even though Hinton had been work­ing in a locked ware­house 15 miles away when that crime was com­mit­ted. Hinton’s lawyer did not know the law and mis­tak­en­ly believed that fund­ing to hire a qual­i­fied firearms expert was not avail­able. Instead, he hired an expert he knew to be inad­e­quate, and as a result failed to present any cred­i­ble evi­dence to rebut the state’s claim that the bul­lets were fired from Hinton’s gun. In 2002, three top firearms exam­in­ers tes­ti­fied that the bul­lets could not be matched to Hinton’s gun, and may not have come from the a sin­gle gun at all. In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly held that Hinton had been pro­vid­ed sub­stan­dard rep­re­sen­ta­tion and returned his case to the state courts for fur­ther pro­ceed­ings. (HINTON V. ALABAMA, No. 13 – 6440 (2014)). Prosecutors decid­ed not to retry him after the state’s new experts said they could not link the bul­lets to Hinton’s gun. (See State’s Motion for Order of Nolle Prosequi, Ala. v. Hinton, No. CC1985-3363, 10^th Judic. Cir., Jefferson Cty. (Apr. 1, 2015)). Bryan Stevenson, Hinton’s lead attor­ney, said, ​“Race, pover­ty, inad­e­quate legal assis­tance, and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al indif­fer­ence to inno­cence con­spired to cre­ate a text­book exam­ple of injus­tice. I can’t think of a case that more urgent­ly dra­ma­tizes the need for reform than what has hap­pened to Anthony Ray Hinton.”

---

Debra Milke

Arizona — Conviction: 1990 , Charges Dismissed: 2015

On March 23, 2015, a Phoenix judge dis­missed all charges against Debra Milke. Previously, on March 17, 2015 the Arizona Supreme Court denied a request by pros­e­cu­tors that it review a low­er court’s order that dis­missed the charges against Debra Milke as a result of ​“egre­gious” police and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct and bar­ring her retri­al. The court’s deci­sion effec­tive­ly ends pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al efforts to rein­state mur­der charges against Milke. Milke spent 23 years on death row for alleged­ly arrang­ing for two men to kill her 4‑year-old son so she could col­lect an insur­ance pay­out. The two men who were con­vict­ed of com­mit­ting the killing remain on death row. In 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit over­turned Milke’s con­vic­tion *because the pros­e­cu­tor had with­held evi­dence that under­mined key tes­ti­mo­ny in the case. (Milke v. Ryan, No. 07 – 99001). Arizona’s pros­e­cu­tors have been *accused of mis­con­duct in more than half of all cas­es in which the state has imposed death sen­tences. In this case, Detective Armando Saldate tes­ti­fied that Milke had con­fessed to him, but there was no record­ing, nor any wit­ness­es to the con­fes­sion, and Milke stead­fast­ly denied hav­ing con­fessed. Saldate’s per­son­nel record, which pros­e­cu­tors with­held from the defense, revealed that the detec­tive had com­mit­ted seri­ous mis­con­duct in pri­or cas­es, includ­ing lying under oath. In December 2014, the Arizona Court of Appeals barred pros­e­cu­tors from retry­ing Milke. The state sought to appeal that deci­sion to the Arizona Supreme Court, which the court reject­ed on March 17, 2015. The tri­al court for­mal­ly dis­missed the charges on March 23, 2015, mak­ing Milke the 151^st per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row since 1973 and the first in 2015. She became the ninth per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row in Arizona and the sec­ond female in the U.S.

Year of Release: 2014 ⌃

---

Glenn Ford

Louisiana — Conviction: 1984 , Charges Dismissed: 2014

Ford had spent 30 years on Louisiana’s death row and was freed after pros­e­cu­tors filed motions to vacate his con­vic­tion and sen­tence. Louisiana Judge Ramona Emanuel ordered Glenn Ford to be ​“uncon­di­tion­al­ly released from the cus­tody of the Louisiana Department of Corrections” on March 11, 2014*. * Prosecutors said they had received ​“cred­i­ble evi­dence” that Ford ​“was nei­ther present at, nor a par­tic­i­pant in, the rob­bery and mur­der” of which he was con­vict­ed in 1984. Ford, who has always main­tained his inno­cence, was tried and sen­tenced to death by an all-white jury. One of the wit­ness­es against him said at tri­al that police had helped her make up her sto­ry. A state ​“expert” who tes­ti­fied about the victim’s time of death had not even exam­ined the body. Ford’s lead tri­al attor­ney had nev­er tried a jury case before. A sec­ond attor­ney, two years out of law school, worked at an insur­ance defense firm. They failed to hire any experts to rebut the prosecution’s case because they believed they would have to pay for the experts them­selves. The Louisiana Supreme Court ear­li­er said it had ​“seri­ous ques­tions” about the out­come of the tri­al, but did not reverse Ford’s con­vic­tion. Ford may have been involved in try­ing to pawn jew­el­ry from the vic­tim that he received from one of the original codefendants.

(A. Cohen, ​“After 30 Years on Death Row, an Innocent Man in Louisiana is About to Go Free,” The Atlantic, March 11, 2014. KTAL NBC News, Mar. 11, 2014).

*UPDATE: *After Ford’s exon­er­a­tion, the lead pros­e­cu­tor on his case, A.M. ​“Marty” Stroud III, issued a pub­lic apol­o­gy, express­ing his belief in Ford’s com­plete inno­cence, say­ing, ​“There was no tech­ni­cal­i­ty here. Crafty lawyer­ing did not secure the release of a criminal…Pursuant to the review and inves­ti­ga­tion of cold homi­cide cas­es, inves­ti­ga­tors uncov­ered evi­dence that exon­er­at­ed Mr. Ford. Indeed, this evi­dence was so strong that had it been dis­closed dur­ing of the inves­ti­ga­tion there would not have been suf­fi­cient evi­dence to even arrest Mr. Ford!”

*UPDATE: *Ford died of can­cer at age 65 on June 29, 2015. His case was cit­ed by Justice Breyer in a dis­sent­ing opin­ion in Glossip v. Gross the same day.

---

Carl Dausch

Florida — Conviction: 2011 , Acquitted: 2014

On June 12, the Supreme Court of Florida (6 – 1) over­turned the con­vic­tions and death sen­tence of Carl Dausch because the state pre­sent­ed insuf­fi­cient evi­dence of his guilt at tri­al. The Court direct­ed that he be acquit­ted of all offens­es, stat­ing, “[T]he record lacks suf­fi­cient evi­dence of the perpetrator’s iden­ti­ty.” Dausch was con­vict­ed pri­mar­i­ly on fin­ger­prints and DNA from a cig­a­rette butt that were found in the victim’s car. DNA evi­dence tak­en from the vic­tim was less defin­i­tive. Dausch said he had hitch­hiked while return­ing home from a fam­i­ly vaca­tion, and the per­son who picked him up was like­ly the actu­al killer. Because the evi­dence against Dausch was cir­cum­stan­tial, the court applied a ​“spe­cial stan­dard of review,” which required ​“that the cir­cum­stances lead ​‘to a rea­son­able and moral cer­tain­ty that the accused and no one else com­mit­ted the offense charged. It is not suf­fi­cient that the facts cre­ate a strong prob­a­bil­i­ty of, and be con­sis­tent with, guilt. They must be incon­sis­tent with inno­cence.” The Court said the evi­dence only linked Dausch to the victim’s car, not to the murder itself.

(B. Farrington, ​“Supreme Court throws out con­vic­tion in ​‘87 killing,” see Dausch v. Florida Associated Press, June 12, 2014

No. SC12-1161 (June 12, 2014), per curiam).

Dausch remains in prison in anoth­er state on unrelated charges.

---

Henry McCollum

North Carolina — Conviction: 1984 , Charges Dismissed: 2014

The two broth­ers who were con­vict­ed of mur­der and sen­tenced to death in 1984, were freed because of evi­dence uncov­ered by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission. McCollum was 19 and Brown was 15 when they con­fessed to the rape and mur­der of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie. Both men are intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled — McCollum has an IQ in the 60s and Brown has scored as low as 49 on IQ tests. McCollum and Brown have main­tained their inno­cence since their tri­al, say­ing they were unaware they were sign­ing a con­fes­sion. ​“I’d nev­er been under such pres­sure, peo­ple yelling and scream­ing at me,” McCollum said of his inter­ro­ga­tion. ​“I was scared, and was just try­ing to get out of that police sta­tion and go home.” In 2010, Brown, who is now serv­ing a life sen­tence for rape after his mur­der con­vic­tion was thrown out, con­tact­ed the Innocence Commission about his case. The Commission found DNA evi­dence near the crime scene belong­ing to anoth­er man, Roscoe Artis, who was sen­tenced to death for a crime sim­i­lar to the one for which McCollum and Brown were sen­tenced to death. (Artis’ sen­tence was lat­er reduced to life with­out parole.) On September 2, a Robeson County judge freed both men based on DNA evi­dence. (M. Biesecker ​“NC half broth­ers freed after 3 decades in prison,” News and Observer, September 3, 2014).

UPDATE: On June 4, 2014, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory for­mal­ly par­doned Brown and McCollum, there­by mak­ing them eli­gi­ble for com­pen­sa­tion relat­ed to their wrong­ful con­vic­tions. B. Mims, ​“McCrory par­dons for­mer death row inmates cleared in 1983 mur­der,” WRAL, June 4, 2015.

---

Leon Brown

North Carolina — Conviction: 1984 , Charges Dismissed: 2014

The two broth­ers who were con­vict­ed of mur­der and sen­tenced to death in 1984, were freed because of evi­dence uncov­ered by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission. McCollum was 19 and Brown was 15 when they con­fessed to the rape and mur­der of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie. Both men are intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled — McCollum has an IQ in the 60s and Brown has scored as low as 49 on IQ tests. McCollum and Brown have main­tained their inno­cence since their tri­al, say­ing they were unaware they were sign­ing a con­fes­sion. ​“I’d nev­er been under such pres­sure, peo­ple yelling and scream­ing at me,” McCollum said of his inter­ro­ga­tion. ​“I was scared, and was just try­ing to get out of that police sta­tion and go home.” In 2010, Brown, who is now serv­ing a life sen­tence for rape after his mur­der con­vic­tion was thrown out, con­tact­ed the Innocence Commission about his case. The Commission found DNA evi­dence near the crime scene belong­ing to anoth­er man, Roscoe Artis, who was sen­tenced to death for a crime sim­i­lar to the one for which McCollum and Brown were sen­tenced to death. (Artis’ sen­tence was lat­er reduced to life with­out parole.) On September 2, a Robeson County judge freed both men based on DNA evi­dence. (M. Biesecker ​“NC half broth­ers freed after 3 decades in prison,” News and Observer, September 3, 2014).

UPDATE: On June 4, 2014, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory for­mal­ly par­doned Brown and McCollum, there­by mak­ing them eli­gi­ble for com­pen­sa­tion relat­ed to their wrong­ful con­vic­tions. B. Mims, ​“McCrory par­dons for­mer death row inmates cleared in 1983 mur­der,” WRAL, June 4, 2015.

---

Wiley Bridgeman

Ohio — Conviction: 1975 , Charges Dismissed: 2014

All charges against Wiley Bridgeman were dis­missed, mak­ing him the 149^th per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row since 1973. Bridgeman once came with­in three weeks of exe­cu­tion, but his and Ajamu’s death sen­tences were struck down when Ohio’s death penal­ty was found uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 1978.

---

Kwame Ajamu

Ohio — Conviction: 1975 , Charges Dismissed: 2014

At a hear­ing on December 9, Kwame Ajamu (for­mer­ly Ronnie Bridgeman) was for­mal­ly exon­er­at­ed of the 1975 mur­der for which he was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. Ajamu joined his broth­er, Wiley Bridgeman, and co-defen­dant, Ricky Jackson, in being freed. He became the 151^st death row exoneree since 1973. Upon his exon­er­a­tion, Ajamu said, ​“The impor­tant part is that we have been unit­ed while we are stand­ing for­ward and upward and that we are not look­ing at each oth­er in the grave­yard,” adding, ​“I feel vin­di­cat­ed. I feel free.” The three men are expect­ed to file for com­pen­sa­tion for their many years of wrong­ful impris­on­ment. Cuyahoga County pros­e­cu­tors said they will not object to efforts to obtain com­pen­sa­tion, say­ing that the men were ​“vic­tims of a ter­ri­ble injus­tice.” (J. Caniglia, “‘My bat­tle is over!’ Judge throws out the 1975 mur­der con­vic­tion of Ronnie Bridgeman,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 9, 2014). Ajamu had been released from prison in 2003, but Jackson and Bridgeman spent 39 years in prison. Judge Richard McMonagle, who presided over the hear­ing con­sid­er­ing the case, said, ​“Life is filled with small vic­to­ries, and this is a big one.”

---

Ricky Jackson

Ohio — Conviction: 1975 , Charges Dismissed: 2014

Former death row inmate Ricky Jackson was exon­er­at­ed on November 21 in Ohio, after spend­ing 39 years in prison. A judge in Cleveland dis­missed all charges against Jackson, with the pros­e­cu­tion in agree­ment. Jackson was one of three men con­vict­ed of the 1975 mur­der of Harold Franks. The oth­er two defen­dants, Ronnie (now Kwame Ajamu) and Wiley Bridgeman, were also sen­tenced to death and have filed a peti­tion for a new tri­al. Jackson’s death sen­tence was vacat­ed ear­li­er, and the Bridgeman broth­ers’ sen­tences were over­turned when Ohio’s death penal­ty was found uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 1978. The men were con­vict­ed on the tes­ti­mo­ny of a 12-year-old boy who lat­er recant­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny, and who now has said he did not wit­ness the crime at all. Several peo­ple con­firmed the boy was on a school bus at the time of the crime. No oth­er evi­dence linked the men to the mur­der. A gun and car seen at the crime scene were linked to a man who was arrest­ed in 1978 for anoth­er mur­der, but he was nev­er charged in Franks’ mur­der. In drop­ping the charges against Jackson, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said, ​“The state is con­ced­ing the obvi­ous.” Ricky Jackson became the sev­enth per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row in Ohio since 1973. Upon his release, Jackson said, ​“The English lan­guage doesn’t even fit what I’m feel­ing. I’m on an emo­tion­al high. You sit in prison for so long and think about this day but when it actu­al­ly comes you don’t know what you’re going to do, you just want to do something.

Year of Release: 2013 ⌃

---

Reginald Griffin

Missouri — Conviction: 1983 , Charges Dismissed: 2013

Missouri dis­missed all charges relat­ed to his death sen­tence on October 25. (Associated Press, ​“Ex-death row inmate exon­er­at­ed in prison stab­bing,” Oct. 30, 2013. Missouri’s Attorney General Chris Koster said it was ​“the appro­pri­ate and eth­i­cal deci­sion at this time.”). Griffin had been sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of a fel­low inmate in 1983. His con­vic­tion was over­turned in 2011 by the Missouri Supreme Court (Griffin v. Denney, No. SC91112, Aug. 2, 2011) because the state had with­held crit­i­cal evi­dence. Griffin’s con­vic­tion relied on the tes­ti­mo­ny of two jail­house infor­mants who received ben­e­fits in exchange for their tes­ti­mo­ny. Prosecutors with­held evi­dence that guards had con­fis­cat­ed a sharp­ened screw­driv­er from anoth­er inmate, Jeffrey Smith, imme­di­ate­ly after the stab­bing. Both of Griffin’s co-defen­dants con­sis­tent­ly said the third per­son involved in the crime was Smith, not Griffin. Cyndy Short, the cur­rent lead attor­ney for Griffin, said, ​“Reggie and his fam­i­ly are over­joyed. This has been a mas­sive weight upon them all for three decades.”

In over­turn­ing Griffin’s con­vic­tion, the Missouri Supreme Court said, ​“There is no phys­i­cal evi­dence con­nect­ing Griffin to the weapon found in the gym­na­si­um. There is no phys­i­cal evi­dence demon­strat­ing any con­tact between Griffin and Bausley. Instead, Griffin’s con­tin­ued incar­cer­a­tion for Bausley’s mur­der is premised on the recant­ed tes­ti­mo­ny of inmate Curtis and the impeached tes­ti­mo­ny of deceased inmate Mozee. Overlaying the entire case is the rev­e­la­tion that the State failed to dis­close evi­dence that tend­ed to impli­cate Smith, impeach Curtis and Mozee, and bol­ster the tri­al tes­ti­mo­ny of inmate Rogers, who main­tained that the inmate flee­ing the crime scene was not Griffin.” (at 9).

See also DPIC’s Press Release.

Year of Release: 2012 ⌃

---

Seth Penalver

Florida — Conviction: 1999 , Acquitted: 2012

On December 21, Seth Penalver was acquit­ted of all charges and will be freed from Florida’s death row, 13 years after being sen­tenced to death. He was orig­i­nal­ly charged with a triple mur­der and armed rob­bery that occurred in Broward County in 1994. His first tri­al end­ed with a dead­locked jury. At his sec­ond tri­al in 1999, he was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. In 2006, the Florida Supreme Court (Penalver v. Florida, No. SC00-1602, Feb. 2, 2006) over­turned his con­vic­tion because the pros­e­cu­tion had intro­duced improp­er evi­dence at his tri­al. A co-defen­dant, Pablo Ibar, was also sen­tenced to death and remains on death row. A video from the crime scene helped con­vict Ibar, but images show­ing anoth­er sus­pect were incon­clu­sive. Penalver has always main­tained his inno­cence. At Penalver’s most recent tri­al, which began 5 months ago, the jury was dead­locked 10 – 2, and both the pros­e­cu­tion and defense agreed to replace two jurors with alter­nates who had attend­ed the pro­ceed­ings. The new­ly con­sti­tut­ed jury began delib­er­a­tions afresh and found Penalver not guilty of all charges. Penalver is the 142^nd per­son to be exon­er­at­ed and freed from death row since 1973, and the 24^th such per­son in Florida, the most of any state.

---

Damon Thibodeaux

Louisiana — Conviction: 1997 , Charges Dismissed: 2012

On September 28 2012, Damon Thibodeaux was freed from death row in Louisiana after an exten­sive inves­ti­ga­tion, includ­ing DNA test­ing and the coop­er­a­tion of Jefferson Parrish District Attorney Paul Connick. Thibodeaux was sen­tenced to death for the 1996 rape and mur­der of his cousin. He at first con­fessed to the attack after a nine-hour inter­ro­ga­tion by detec­tives. He recant­ed a few hours lat­er and claimed his con­fes­sion was coerced. In releas­ing Thibodeaux, Connick said, ​“I have con­clud­ed that the pri­ma­ry evi­dence in this case, the con­fes­sion, is unre­li­able. Without the con­fes­sion the con­vic­tion can’t stand, and there­fore in the inter­est of jus­tice, it must be vacated.”

Thibodeaux spent 15 years on death row in Angola. The rein­ves­ti­ga­tion of the case cost more than $500,000, an expense shared by the defense and pros­e­cu­tion. Regarding his ear­ly state­ment to the police, Thibodeaux not­ed, ​“They look for vul­ner­a­ble points where they can manip­u­late you, and if you’re sleep-deprived or pan­icked, or you’re on some­thing or drunk, it makes it that much eas­i­er to accom­plish what they want to accom­plish…. I was will­ing to tell them any­thing they want­ed me to tell them if it would get me out of that interrogation room.”

---

Joe D’Ambrosio

Ohio — Conviction: 1989 , Charges Dismissed: 2012

On January 23, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the state of Ohio chal­leng­ing the uncon­di­tion­al writ of habeas cor­pus and bar to the re-pros­e­cu­tion of Joe D’Ambrosio (pic­tured), thus end­ing the cap­i­tal case. He has now been freed from death row with all charges dis­missed. A fed­er­al District Court had first over­turned D’Ambrosio’s con­vic­tion in 2006 because the state had with­held key evi­dence from the defense. The fed­er­al court orig­i­nal­ly allowed the state to re-pros­e­cute him, but just before tri­al the state revealed the exis­tence of even more impor­tant evi­dence and request­ed fur­ther delay. Also the state did not divulge in a time­ly man­ner that the key wit­ness against D’Ambrosio had died. In 2010, the District Court barred D’Ambrosio’s re-pros­e­cu­tion because of the pros­e­cu­tors’ mis­con­duct. The court con­clud­ed that these devel­op­ments biased D’Ambrosio’s chances for a fair tri­al, and hence the state was barred from retry­ing him. District Court Judge Kathleen O’Malley wrote: ​“For 20 years, the State held D’Ambrosio on death row, despite wrong­ful­ly with­hold­ing evi­dence that ​‘would have sub­stan­tial­ly increased a rea­son­able juror’s doubt of D’Ambrosio’s guilt.’ Despite being ordered to do so by this Court … the State still failed to turn over all rel­e­vant and mate­r­i­al evi­dence relat­ing to the crime of which D’Ambrosio was con­vict­ed. Then, once it was ordered to pro­vide D’Ambrosio a con­sti­tu­tion­al tri­al or release him with­in 180 days, the State did nei­ther. During those 180 days, the State engaged in sub­stan­tial inequitable con­duct, wrong­ful­ly retain­ing and delay­ing the pro­duc­tion of yet more poten­tial­ly excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence… To fail to bar retri­al in such extra­or­di­nary cir­cum­stances sure­ly would fail to serve the inter­ests of justice.”

In 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the bar to re-pros­e­cu­tion. (D’Ambrosio v. Bagley, No. 10 – 3247, Aug. 29, 2011). Even the dis­sent referred to the state’s ​“remark­able inabil­i­ty to com­pe­tent­ly pros­e­cute D’Ambrosio.” The state appealed this deci­sion to the U.S. Supreme Court main­ly on juris­dic­tion­al grounds, but was denied cer­tio­rari on Jan. 23. (Bagley v. D’Ambrosio, No. 11 – 672, denying cert.).

D’Ambrosio is 140^th for­mer death row inmate to be exon­er­at­ed since 1973 and the 6^th from Ohio. He was first indict­ed for the offense in 1988.

Year of Release: 2011 ⌃

---

Gussie Vann

Tennessee — Conviction: 1994 , Charges Dismissed: 2011

Vann was orig­i­nal­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1994 for a sex­u­al assault and mur­der of his own daugh­ter, Necia Vann, in 1992. However, in 2008 fol­low­ing state post-con­vic­tion review, Circuit Court Senior Judge Donald P. Harris held that Vann was enti­tled to a new tri­al because his defense attor­neys failed to hire foren­sic experts to chal­lenge the state’s alle­ga­tions of sex­u­al abuse. (Vann v. State, Order, Post-con­vic­tion No. 99 – 312, 10^th Judicial Dist., McMinn Cty., May 28, 2008). Judge Harris wrote that this fail­ure led to Vann being con­vict­ed on ​“inac­cu­rate, exag­ger­at­ed and spec­u­la­tive med­ical tes­ti­mo­ny.” (Id. Memorandum, at 23). At the post-con­vic­tion hear­ing, foren­sic experts con­tra­dict­ed the state’s ear­li­er tes­ti­mo­ny and said there were no signs of recent sex­u­al abuse on the vic­tim. Judge Harris described the fail­ings of Vann’s orig­i­nal attor­neys as ​“not only prej­u­di­cial, but dis­as­trous.” (Id.) The state elect­ed not to appeal this rul­ing, though it did try to find grounds for a con­vic­tion on a less­er offense. Ultimately all charges were dropped by the state on September 22, 2011.

Year of Release: 2010 ⌃

---

Anthony Graves

Texas — Conviction: 1994 , Charges Dismissed: 2010

Anthony Graves (pic­tured) was released from a Texas prison on October 27 after Washington-Burleson County District Attorney Bill Parham filed a motion to dis­miss all charges that had result­ed in Graves being sent to death row 16 years ago. Graves was con­vict­ed in 1994 of assist­ing Robert Carter in mul­ti­ple mur­ders in 1992. There was no phys­i­cal evi­dence link­ing Graves to the crime, and his con­vic­tion relied pri­mar­i­ly on Carter’s tes­ti­mo­ny that Graves was his accom­plice. Two weeks before Carter was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in 2000, he pro­vid­ed a state­ment say­ing he lied about Graves’s involve­ment in the crime. He repeat­ed that state­ment min­utes before his exe­cu­tion. In 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit over­turned Graves’s con­vic­tion and ordered a new tri­al after find­ing that pros­e­cu­tors elicit­ed false state­ments and with­held tes­ti­mo­ny that could have influ­enced the jurors. (Graves v. Dretke, No. 05 – 70011, U.S. 5^th Cir. Mar. 6, 2006). After D.A. Parham began to reassem­ble the case and review the evi­dence, he hired for­mer Harris County assis­tant dis­trict attor­ney Kelly Siegler as a spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor. Siegler soon real­ized that mak­ing a case against Graves would be impos­si­ble: ​“After months of inves­ti­ga­tion and talk­ing to every wit­ness who’s ever been involved in this case, and peo­ple who’ve nev­er been talked to before, after look­ing under every rock we could find, we found not one piece of cred­i­ble evi­dence that links Anthony Graves to the com­mis­sion of this cap­i­tal mur­der. This is not a case where the evi­dence went south with time or wit­ness­es passed away or we just couldn’t make the case any­more. He is an inno­cent man,” Siegler said.

Year of Release: 2009 ⌃

---

Daniel Wade Moore

Alabama — Conviction: 2002 , Acquitted: 2009

Daniel Wade Moore was acquit­ted of all charges by a jury in Alabama on May 14. Moore was orig­i­nal­ly found guilty of the mur­der and sex­u­al assault of Karen Tipton in 2002. The judge over­ruled the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion of a life sen­tence and instead sen­tenced him to death in January 2003, call­ing the mur­der one of the worst ever in the coun­ty. A new tri­al was ordered in 2003 because of evi­dence with­held by the pros­e­cu­tion. (See State V. Moore, No. CR-04 — 0805, Ala. Ct. of Crim. App. (2206) (pro­vid­ing pro­ce­dur­al sum­ma­ry at pp.2 – 3; the cir­cuit judge’s order for a new tri­al was upheld by the Ala. Supreme Court, State v. Moore, No. Ms. 1030218, Nov. 6, 2003)). A sec­ond tri­al in 2008 end­ed in a mis­tri­al with the jury dead­locked at 8 – 4 for acquittal.

Judge Glenn Thompson, who orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced Moore to death, ordered a retri­al upon dis­cov­ery that the pros­e­cu­tion had with­held impor­tant evi­dence. ​“Orders were entered in any cap­i­tal case, that what­ev­er the state has, what­ev­er the pros­e­cu­tor has, what­ev­er the inves­ti­ga­tion has they should pro­vide that to the defen­dant,” said Judge Thompson. The evi­dence miss­ing was a 256-page F.B.I. report. ​“The pros­e­cu­tion, Mr. Valeska specif­i­cal­ly, looked me in the eye and said, quote, ​‘there ain’t no such thing as an F.B.I. report.’ Well, there prob­a­bly wasn’t a report, but there were 256 pages of infor­ma­tion col­lect­ed by Decatur police offi­cers that were sent to the F.B.I.,” said Judge Thompson. According to Judge Thompson, Assistant Attorney General Don Valeska lat­er came to him con­fess­ing there was with­held infor­ma­tion. ​“Mr. Valeska came for­ward with the infor­ma­tion after the con­vic­tion,” said Judge Thompson. ​“Clearly, the only rem­e­dy was to grant him a new tri­al and I did,” he said. ​“It frus­trat­ed and angered me that he would be will­ing to lie to the court,” he con­tin­ued. Meanwhile, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ordered Judge Thompson to stand down from the tri­al and con­tin­ued to let Valeska prosecute Moore.

Upon hear­ing the jury’s not guilty ver­dict, Judge Thompson respond­ed, ​“I felt like it was the only con­clu­sion that a jury could reach if they actu­al­ly fol­lowed the law.” Thompson also said that the prob­lems with the pros­e­cu­tion with­hold­ing evi­dence con­tin­ued through­out the 10 years of the case. Just days before the cur­rent tri­al start­ed, the pros­e­cu­tion called the defense say­ing they had just found new evi­dence from the victim’s home computer.

---

Robert Springsteen

Texas — Conviction: 2001 , Charges Dismissed: 2009

On October 28, 2009, Travis County, Texas, pros­e­cu­tors moved to dis­miss all charges against Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen, who had been con­vict­ed of the mur­der of four teens in an Austin yogurt shop in 1991. (Springsteen was con­vict­ed in 2001; Scott in 2002.) Springsteen had been sen­tenced to death and Scott was sen­tenced to life in prison. The con­vic­tions of both men were over­turned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals because they had not been ade­quate­ly allowed to cross exam­ine each oth­er. (See Springsteen v. Texas, No. AP-74,223 (May 24, 2006)). State District Judge Mike Lynch had released the defen­dants on bond in June, pend­ing a pos­si­ble retri­al by the state. However, sophis­ti­cat­ed DNA analy­sis of evi­dence from the crime scene did not match either defen­dant and the pros­e­cu­tion announced it was not pre­pared to go to tri­al. The judge accept­ed the state’s motion to dis­miss all charges. Prosecutors are still try­ing to match the DNA from crime with a new defendant.

“This has been a long time com­ing,” said Scott, once charges were dropped, ​“and I’m hap­py to be here.” Both Scott and Springsteen impli­cat­ed them­selves at the time of their arrest, 8 years after the crime. However, both claimed that their state­ments had been coerced by police. The police inves­ti­ga­tion had been com­pro­mised from the start because the build­ing had been set on fire, and thou­sands of gal­lons of water were poured on the crime scene before an inves­ti­ga­tion was car­ried out. Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg issued a state­ment that said in part: ​“Make no mis­take, this is a dif­fi­cult deci­sion and one I would rather not have to make.”

---

Paris Powell

Oklahoma — Conviction: 1997 , Charges Dismissed: 2009

Oklahoma District Attorney David Prater dropped charges against Yancy Douglas, 35, and Paris Powell, 36, after decid­ing the state’s key wit­ness was unre­li­able. ​“Ethically, and on my duty, I could not pro­ceed in this case and had to dis­miss it,” Prater said. Derrick Smith, a rival gang mem­ber to the defen­dants and the state’s main wit­ness, was one of the appar­ent tar­gets in the shoot­ing. A fed­er­al appeals court in 2006 found that Smith had received a deal from the pros­e­cu­tors that was not revealed to the defense and over­turned the con­vic­tion of Powell but denied relief to Douglas. Smith tes­ti­fied against Powell and Douglas in their sep­a­rate tri­als, but lat­er admit­ted he nev­er saw who shot him, that he was drunk and high that night, and that he tes­ti­fied only because pros­e­cu­tors had threat­ened him with more prison time.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10^th Circuit reviewed the District Court’s find­ings in 2009. With respect to Mr. Powell, the Circuit Court affirmed the low­er court, stat­ing, ​“we agree with the dis­trict court that Mr. Powell’s tri­al did not yield a ver­dict wor­thy of con­fi­dence.” (Slip opin. at 39, cita­tion below). With respect to Mr. Douglas, the Circuit Court held, ​“Assessing the prosecutor’s egre­gious con­duct in light of the tri­al record leaves us with grave doubt about the valid­i­ty of the jury’s ver­dict and per­suades us that Mr. Douglas is enti­tled to habeas relief from his cap­i­tal mur­der con­vic­tion.” (Slip opin. at 83).

At the time of their release, the District Attorney added, ​“We all came to the opin­ion that with­out Derrick Smith, we did not have a case we could prove beyond a rea­son­able doubt.” Jack Fisher, Powell’s attor­ney, said his client has always main­tained his inno­cence and that Powell’s release is ​“bit­ter­sweet. It should have hap­pened a long time ago. It’s unfor­tu­nate that he had to spend 16 years of his life in jail. What it boils down to is they had no evi­dence he was guilty. The tes­ti­mo­ny that they used to con­vict him was false.”

---

Yancy Douglas

Oklahoma — Conviction: 1995 , Charges Dismissed: 2009

Oklahoma District Attorney David Prater dropped charges against Yancy Douglas, 35, and Paris Powell, 36, after decid­ing the state’s key wit­ness was unre­li­able. ​“Ethically, and on my duty, I could not pro­ceed in this case and had to dis­miss it,” Prater said. Derrick Smith, a rival gang mem­ber to the defen­dants and the state’s main wit­ness, was one of the appar­ent tar­gets in the shoot­ing. A fed­er­al appeals court in 2006 found that Smith had received a deal from the pros­e­cu­tors that was not revealed to the defense and over­turned the con­vic­tion of Powell but denied relief to Douglas. Smith tes­ti­fied against Powell and Douglas in their sep­a­rate tri­als, but lat­er admit­ted he nev­er saw who shot him, that he was drunk and high that night, and that he tes­ti­fied only because pros­e­cu­tors had threat­ened him with more prison time.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10^th Circuit reviewed the District Court’s find­ings in 2009. With respect to Mr. Powell, the Circuit Court affirmed the low­er court, stat­ing, ​“we agree with the dis­trict court that Mr. Powell’s tri­al did not yield a ver­dict wor­thy of con­fi­dence.” (Slip opin. at 39, cita­tion below). With respect to Mr. Douglas, the Circuit Court held, ​“Assessing the prosecutor’s egre­gious con­duct in light of the tri­al record leaves us with grave doubt about the valid­i­ty of the jury’s ver­dict and per­suades us that Mr. Douglas is enti­tled to habeas relief from his cap­i­tal mur­der con­vic­tion.” (Slip opin. at 83).

At the time of their release, the District Attorney added, ​“We all came to the opin­ion that with­out Derrick Smith, we did not have a case we could prove beyond a rea­son­able doubt.” Jack Fisher, Powell’s attor­ney, said his client has always main­tained his inno­cence and that Powell’s release is ​“bit­ter­sweet. It should have hap­pened a long time ago. It’s unfor­tu­nate that he had to spend 16 years of his life in jail. What it boils down to is they had no evi­dence he was guilty. The tes­ti­mo­ny that they used to con­vict him was false.”

---

Michael Toney

Texas — Conviction: 1999 , Charges Dismissed: 2009

Toney was released from jail on September 2, 2009 after the state dropped all charges against him for a 1985 bomb­ing that killed three peo­ple. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals over­turned Toney’s con­vic­tion on December 17, 2008 because the pros­e­cu­tion had sup­pressed evi­dence relat­ing to the cred­i­bil­i­ty of its only two wit­ness­es. (Ex parte Toney, AP-76,056 (Tex. Crim. App. December 17, 2008)).

The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office sub­se­quent­ly with­drew from the case based on the mis­con­duct find­ings. In September 2009, the Attorney General’s Office, which had been spe­cial­ly appoint­ed to the case in the wake of Tarrant County’s with­draw­al, dis­missed the indict­ment against Toney. He had con­sis­tent­ly main­tained his inno­cence. The case had gone unsolved for 14 years until a jail inmate told author­i­ties that Toney had con­fessed to the crime. The inmate lat­er recant­ed his sto­ry, say­ing he had hoped to win ear­ly release. The state said it is con­tin­u­ing its inves­ti­ga­tion into the mur­ders. Toney was killed in an auto­mo­bile acci­dent one month after his release.

---

Herman Lindsey

Florida — Conviction: 2006 , Acquitted: 2009

In a unan­i­mous deci­sion, the Supreme Court of Florida ren­dered a judg­ment of acquit­tal for Herman Lindsey who was con­vict­ed in 2006 of the mur­der of the clerk at the Big Dollar Pawn Shop, a mur­der that hap­pened 12 years ear­li­er. Lindsey had been on Florida’s death row since his conviction.

The Court held that the evi­dence in the case was not suf­fi­cient to con­vict Lindsey. They not­ed that the case was based com­plete­ly on cir­cum­stan­tial evi­dence and that a spe­cial stan­dard of review applies. “[T]he State failed to pro­duce any evi­dence in this case plac­ing Lindsey at the scene of the crime at the time of the mur­der…. Indeed, we find that the evi­dence here is equal­ly con­sis­tent with a rea­son­able hypoth­e­sis of inno­cence.” Lindsey v. State, No. SC 07 – 1167 (Fla. 2009). The Court also found that the tri­al court had erred in deny­ing Lindsey’s motion for a judg­ment of acquit­tal at the con­clu­sion of the pre­sen­ta­tion of evidence.

Three of the jus­tices con­curred with the Court, but went fur­ther and stat­ed that the State’s line of ques­tion­ing of the defen­dant dur­ing the penal­ty phase improp­er­ly exceed­ed the per­mit­ted scope of cross-exam­i­na­tion. ​“The prosecution’s com­ments were not only improp­er, but were also prej­u­di­cial and made with the appar­ent goal of inflam­ing the jury.” These Justices found that the inflam­ma­to­ry state­ments made dur­ing cross-exam­i­na­tion would have affect­ed the jury’s deci­sion to impose the death penalty.

Ron Ishoy, a spokesman for the Broward County State Attorney’s Office, said the pros­e­cu­tion will not appeal the unanimous decision.

---

Ronald Kitchen

Illinois — Conviction: 1988 , Charges Dismissed: 2009

On July 7, 2009 Ronald Kitchen was exon­er­at­ed and released from Illinois prison after spend­ing twen­ty-one years in prison, includ­ing thir­teen on death row. His death sen­tence had been com­mut­ed to life with­out parole by for­mer Illinois Governor George Ryan in 2003 as part of a blan­ket clemency grant.

Kitchen and a co-defen­dant were found guilty of the mur­ders of two women and three chil­dren in 1988. His con­vic­tion was based pri­mar­i­ly on a con­fes­sion he gave to detec­tives under the com­mand of dis­cred­it­ed for­mer Police Commander Jon Burge after hours of beat­ing and threats by police. Prosecutors also relied on the tes­ti­mo­ny of a friend of the defen­dants who was in prison for bur­glary. This wit­ness lat­er recant­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny, and the pros­e­cu­tors with­held from the defense that they released this wit­ness from prison ear­ly in return for his testimony.

The Chicago Sun-Times report­ed that ​“Illinois Assistant Attorney General Richard Schwind told Criminal Court Judge Paul Biebel that after an exhaus­tive review of both cas­es, the office deter­mined it could not ​‘sus­tain its bur­den of proof.’” The Attoney General’s office fur­ther said, ​“In this case it became extra­or­di­nar­i­ly clear that jus­tice required the release of these two men.”

Kitchen was reunit­ed with his sons, one of whom was born while he was in prison, and his fam­i­ly. He was rep­re­sent­ed by attor­neys from the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University School of Law.

---

Nathson Fields

Illinois — Conviction: 1986 , Acquitted: 2009

Nathson Fields, 55, and a co-defen­dant were sen­tenced to death for the 1984 mur­ders of two rival gang mem­bers. The orig­i­nal tri­al, how­ev­er, was marred by cor­rup­tion, as the the judge in the case, Circuit Judge Thomas Maloney, accept­ed a $10,000 bribe dur­ing the tri­al. Thomas Maloney, who died in 2008, was ulti­mate­ly con­vict­ed and spent 13 years in prison for fix­ing murder trials.

As a result, Fields and co-defen­dant Earl Hawkins were grant­ed new tri­als in 1998. Hawkins, who had admit­ted to killing 15 to 20 peo­ple, tes­ti­fied against Fields in exchange for a less­er sen­tence. However, at Fields’ retri­al, Judge Vincent Gaughan found Hawkins ​“incred­i­ble,” say­ing that ​“If some­one has such dis­re­gard for human life, what regard will he have for his oath?”

Fields spent almost twen­ty years in prison, includ­ing 11.5 years on death row. He was released on bond in 2003 while await­ing retri­al and has been resid­ing out­side of Chicago. This is the 19^th exon­er­a­tion from death row in Illinois since 1973, which is sec­ond only to Florida in the num­ber of exon­er­a­tions. Following the not guilty ver­dict hand­ed down by Judge Gaughan, Fields said,* *”I feel like my prayers have been answered…It’s been 24 years of this ordeal for my fam­i­ly and my friends, and now with it com­ing to an end, it’s like a dream come true.”

M. Walberg, ​“23 years after judi­cial mis­con­duct, ex-gang leader freed”, Chicago Tribune, April 9, 2009.

R. Hussain, ​“Man for­mer­ly on death row acquit­ted in retri­al,” Chicago Sun-Times, April 8, 2009.

See also People v. Hawkins, et al., 181 Ill.2^d 41 (January 29, 1998) (uphold­ing a cir­cuit court’s rever­sal of Fields’ and Hawkins’ convictions).

---

Paul House

Tennessee — Conviction: 1986 , Charges Dismissed: 2009

The state of Tennessee dropped all charges against House, who was charged with the 1985 mur­der of Carolyn Muncey. The state alleged kid­nap­ping or rape as aggra­vat­ing fac­tors, and House was sen­tenced to death. Biological evi­dence from the victim’s clothes used against him at tri­al was lat­er found through DNA test­ing to belong to Muncey’s hus­band. In House v. Bell, the U.S. Supreme Court con­sid­ered new DNA test­ing and ques­tions about the victim’s blood stains on House’s clothes. In 2006, the Court held that no rea­son­able juror would have found House guilty based on this new evi­dence, thus enti­tling him to raise con­sti­tu­tion­al issues that then led to a rever­sal of his con­vic­tion. The case was remand­ed to the District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, where Judge Harry Mattice vacat­ed House’s con­vic­tion and sen­tence, but allowed Tennessee to pur­sue a new tri­al against him. In 2008, a Tennessee judge ordered House released from prison, pend­ing a new tri­al. The state dis­missed all charges on May 12, 2009 while express­ing reser­va­tions about House’s complete innocence.

Year of Release: 2008 ⌃

---

Kennedy Brewer

Mississippi — Conviction: 1995 , Charges Dismissed: 2008

Charges Dismissed: 2008 (released on bail in 2007)

Kennedy Brewer, who spent 12 years on Mississippi’s death row for the 1992 mur­der and rape of his girlfriend’s 3‑year-old daugh­ter, has been exon­er­at­ed of the charges, and anoth­er man, Justin Johnson, has been arrest­ed for the same crime. A 2001 inves­ti­ga­tion by the Innocence Project found that the semen on the victim’s body did not match Brewer’s DNA, but did match Johnson’s. Johnson was a sus­pect ear­ly in the case, and his blood was col­lect­ed and pre­served in the Mississippi State Crime Laboratory for more than 10 years. In 2007, Brewer was released on bond, pend­ing a new tri­al after the Innocence Project and his attor­ney pushed for an appeal based upon the DNA test results. Despite the results of the 2001 DNA test­ing, the Mississippi Supreme Court denied Brewer’s request for a new tri­al in 2002. Brewer even­tu­al­ly won a retri­al from a Lowndes County judge. According to the New York Times, District Attorney Ben Creekmore of Oxford, Mississippi, who took over the case when the pre­vi­ous D.A. recused him­self, ​“is prepar­ing to file a motion dis­miss­ing all charges against Mr. Brewer.” Brewer’s attor­ney, Carrie Jourdan, said that Brewer is try­ing to get back into a nor­mal life. She said, ​“He’s gain­ful­ly employed. He’s work­ing and he’s liv­ing with his elder­ly, dis­abled moth­er, who he assists in tak­ing care of. He has had no prob­lems from a crim­i­nal legal stand­point” since he was released.

“Man charged in child slay­ing for which anoth­er sen­tenced to death,” by Holbrook Mohr, Associated Press, February 7, 2008

“New Suspect Is Arrested in Mississippi Killings,” New York Times February 8, 2008

Innocence Project’s Press Release, February 15, 2008

---

Glen Edward Chapman

North Carolina — Conviction: 1994 , Charges Dismissed: 2008

Glen Edward Chapman, a North Carolina man who was sen­tenced to death for the 1992 mur­ders of Betty Jean Ramseur and Tenene Yvette Conley, was released from death row on April 2, 2008 after pros­e­cu­tors dropped all charges against him. In 2007, North Carolina Superior Court Judge Robert C. Ervin grant­ed Chapman a new tri­al, cit­ing with­held evi­dence, ​“lost, mis­placed or destroyed” doc­u­ments, the use of weak, cir­cum­stan­tial evi­dence, false tes­ti­mo­ny by the lead inves­ti­ga­tor, and inef­fec­tive assis­tance of defense coun­sel. There was also new infor­ma­tion from a foren­sic pathol­o­gist that raised doubts as to whether Conley’s death was a homi­cide or caused by an over­dose of drugs.

Chapman’s lawyers, Frank Goldsmith and Jessica Leaven, were pleased with their client’s release. ​“Edward has always main­tained, and we have always believed in, his inno­cence,” said Goldsmith. ​“Justice has not been served for the fam­i­lies of Ms. Ramseur and Ms. Conley, and we hope their deaths will be rein­ves­ti­gat­ed.” The state has also called for a re-open­ing of the investigation.

Judge Ervin found fault with Chapman’s defense attor­neys at the orig­i­nal tri­al in 1994, one of whom has been dis­ci­plined by the North Carolina State Bar. The oth­er defense attor­ney, Thomas Portwood, admit­ted drink­ing 12 shots of alco­hol per day dur­ing a dif­fer­ent death penal­ty tri­al. The defen­dant in that case, Ronald Frye, was exe­cut­ed in 2001.

(​“Death Row Inmate Freed After 15 Years,” WRAL​.com, April 2, 2008; also Press Release from attor­neys Goldsmith and Leaven, April 2, 2008).

---

Levon “Bo” Jones

North Carolina — Conviction: 1993 , Charges Dismissed: 2008

The state of North Carolina dropped all charges against Levon Jones, and he was freed May 2, 2008 after spend­ing 13 years on death row. U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle over­turned Jones’s con­vic­tion two years ago, but he was held in prison await­ing a pos­si­ble retri­al until pros­e­cu­tors announced that they were dis­miss­ing all charges. Judge Boyle crit­i­cized Jones’s defense attor­neys for ​“con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly defi­cient” per­for­mance, not­ing their fail­ure to research the his­to­ry and cred­i­bil­i­ty of Lovely Lorden, the prosecution’s star wit­ness. The judge not­ed, ​“Given the weak­ness of the prosecution’s case and its heavy reliance on the tes­ti­mo­ny of Lovely Lorden, there is a rea­son­able prob­a­bil­i­ty that, but for counsel’s unpro­fes­sion­al errors, the result of the pro­ceed­ing would have been different.”

In April, Jones’s new defense team filed an affi­davit in which Lorden said, ​“Much of what I tes­ti­fied to was sim­ply not true.” She also stat­ed that a detec­tive coached her on what to say. Additionally, she col­lect­ed $4,000 from the governor’s office for offer­ing the clues that led to the arrest of Jones.

Jones’s retri­al was set to begin May 12^th, 2008. Duplin County District Attorney Dewey Hudson decid­ed to ask the judge in the case to drop all charges. Jones was orig­i­nal­ly con­vict­ed of rob­bing and shoot­ing a boot­leg­ger named Leamon Grady.

Mandy Locke, ​“Death Row Inmate to go Free,” The News and Observer, May 2, 2008

see also J. Temple, ​“The Last Lawyer: The Fight to Save Death Row Inmates,” Univ. Press of Mississippi 2009.

---

Michael Blair

Texas — Conviction: 1994 , Charges Dismissed: 2008

Michael Blair was sen­tenced to death for the 1993 mur­der of 7‑year old Ashley Estell. In May 2008, fol­low­ing a re-inves­ti­ga­tion of the case by the Collin County prosecutor’s office, District Attorney John Roach announced that in light of the results of advanced DNA test­ing and the absence of any oth­er evi­dence link­ing him to the crime, Mr. Blair’s con­vic­tion could no longer be upheld.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the deci­sion of the Collin County tri­al court that:

“The post con­vic­tion DNA results and the evi­dence dis­cov­ered in the State’s new inves­ti­ga­tion have sub­stan­tial­ly erod­ed the State’s tri­al case against [appli­cant]. This new evi­dence in light of the remain­ing incul­pa­to­ry evi­dence in the record, has estab­lished by clear and con­vinc­ing evi­dence that no rea­son­able juror would have con­vict­ed [appli­cant] in light of new­ly discovered evidence.”

Although the court rec­om­mend­ed that a new tri­al be grant­ed, the pros­e­cu­tion, in light of the evi­dence, chose not to pur­sue a retri­al. In a dis­missal motion filed in August 2008, pros­e­cu­tors deter­mined that ​“this case should be dis­missed in the inter­est of jus­tice so that the offense charged in the indict­ment can be fur­ther inves­ti­gat­ed.” All charges against Mr. Blair in this case were dis­missed in August 2008. He remains in prison serv­ing out life sen­tences for other crimes.

“Court Dismisses Ashley’s Killer, cites DNA Test,” Associated Press, The Houston Chronicle, September 17, 2008; Ex Parte Michael Nawee Blair, Nos. AP-75,954 & AP-75,955, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, June 25, 2008 at 3.

Year of Release: 2007 ⌃

---

Curtis Edward McCarty

Oklahoma — Conviction: 1986 , Charges Dismissed: 2007

Curtis McCarty was released in May 2007 after District Court Judge Twyla Mason Gray ordered that the charges against him be dis­missed. McCarty had spent the last 22 years behind bars for the mur­der of a police officer’s daugh­ter in 1982; he spent 16 of those years on Oklahoma’s death row. Judge Gray ruled that the case against McCarty was taint­ed by the ques­tion­able tes­ti­mo­ny of for­mer police chemist Joyce Gilchrist, who gave improp­er expert tes­ti­mo­ny about semen and hair evi­dence dur­ing McCarty’s trial.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said his office will not appeal Gray’s deci­sion. According to the New York-based Innocence Project, an orga­ni­za­tion that assist­ed McCarty in his efforts to prove his inno­cence, Gilchrist false­ly tes­ti­fied that hairs and oth­er bio­log­i­cal evi­dence showed that McCarty could have been the killer. In both tri­als, the juries con­vict­ed him and he was sen­tenced to death. In Gilchrist’s orig­i­nal notes, hairs from the crime scene did not match McCarty. She then changed her notes to say the hairs did match him. When the defense request­ed retest­ing, the hairs were lost. A judge has said Gilchrist either destroyed or will­ful­ly lost the hairs. DNA test­ing in recent years has also shown that anoth­er per­son raped the vic­tim. McCarty’s has main­tained his inno­cence since his arrest.

Upon return­ing to his parent’s home in Moore, Oklahoma, McCarthy not­ed that his home­com­ing was like ​“land­ing on a new plan­et” and that he had ​“missed the entire­ty” of his adult life.
 

(The Oklahoman, May 11, 2007 and The Innocence Project)

---

Michael L. McCormick

Tennessee — Conviction: 1987 , Acquitted: 2007

On December 5, 2007, a Tennessee jury acquit­ted Michael Lee McCormick of the 1985 mur­der of Donna Jean Nichols, a crime for which McCormick spent 16 years on death row. In his first tri­al, the pros­e­cu­tion intro­duced hair evi­dence from Nichols’ car that the FBI said matched McCormick. DNA test­ing lat­er found that the hair did not match McCormick and this evi­dence was not per­mit­ted in the new tri­al. His orig­i­nal con­vic­tion was over­turned in McCormick v. Tennessee (Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, CCA no 03C01-9802-Cr-00052), when the court found that his orig­i­nal defense coun­sel was inadequate.

Two years after his con­vic­tion, evi­dence sur­faced that an under­cov­er offi­cer had secret­ly record­ed Mr. McCormick’s con­fes­sion dur­ing a fake car theft. In his clos­ing state­ment, Mr. McCormick’s attor­ney empha­sized the prosecution’s reliance on a record­ed con­fes­sion by a man who ​“they knew to be an alco­holic and a noto­ri­ous liar.” A juror, Anita Jinette admit­ted after the tri­al that McCormick’s rep­u­ta­tion as a liar was impor­tant due to the fact that ​“we basi­cal­ly had noth­ing except his confession.”

McCormick’s attor­ney, Karla Gothard said after the tri­al, ​“We have been liv­ing with this case for years, and we are immense­ly relieved. I can’t imag­ine what Michael McCormick is feel­ing.” Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood com­ment­ed, ​“The way this case has lin­gered on, there has not been clo­sure for Michael McCormick for 20 years. This sys­tem is not per­fect, but some­how it works itself out.”

“Jury Finds McCormick Not Guilty Of Killing Jeannie Nichols: Man Who Spent Years On Death Row To Go Free,” The Chattanoogan, December 5, 2007.

---

Jonathon Hoffman

North Carolina — Conviction: 1995 , Charges Dismissed: 2007

Prosecutors in North Carolina on December 11, 2007 dropped all charges against Jonathon Hoffman, who had been con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the 1995 mur­der of a jew­el­ry store­own­er. Hoffman won a new tri­al in 2004 (Order of the General Court of Justice Superior Court Division: 95-CRS-15695 – 97) because infor­ma­tion favor­able to Hoffman was with­held from the defense. During Hoffman’s first tri­al, the state’s key wit­ness, Johnell Porter, received immu­ni­ty from fed­er­al charges for tes­ti­fy­ing against his cousin. In fact, Porter received thou­sands of dol­lars for his tes­ti­mo­ny. Neither the defense attor­ney nor the judge knew of this deal — an omis­sion that result­ed in the crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion of Ken Honeycutt and Scott Brewer, the pros­e­cu­tors in the original trial.

Porter has since recant­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny, stat­ing that he lied in order to get back at his cousin for steal­ing mon­ey from him. Defense attor­ney Joseph Cheshire stat­ed, ​“I think in the last five to six years, there’s a fair­ly well-demon­strat­ed pat­tern of wrong­ful con­vic­tions in North Carolina that are only now com­ing to light because of our new open discovery law.”

Hoffman, a black man charged with killing a white man, was tried and con­vict­ed by an all-white jury despite the fact that no phys­i­cal evi­dence con­nect­ed him to the mur­der of Danny Cook. He has been wait­ing for his new tri­al since in 2004, when alle­ga­tions of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct first arose. Charges were final­ly dis­missed in 2007 when the new District Attorney, John Snyder dropped the case due to ​“insuf­fi­cient admis­si­ble evi­dence.” Jonathon Hoffman spent 12 years on death row.

(​“Prosecutor Drops Charges Against Former Death Row Inmate”, by Martha Waggoner, Associated Press, December 11, 2007).

Year of Release: 2006 ⌃

---

John Ballard

Florida — Conviction: 2003 , Acquitted: 2006

The Florida Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly over­turned the con­vic­tion of death row inmate John Robert Ballard and ordered his acquit­tal in the 1999 mur­ders of two of his acquain­tances (Ballard v Florida, No. SC03-1012, February 23, 2006). The Court con­clud­ed that the cir­cum­stan­tial evi­dence against Ballard was insuf­fi­cient to sus­tain his con­vic­tion. The state’s pri­ma­ry evi­dence pre­sent­ed against Ballard was a hair and a fin­ger­print, both of which he could have left dur­ing his many vis­its to the vic­tims’ apart­ment. Bloody fin­ger­prints and 100 oth­er hair sam­ples were found asso­ci­at­ed with the crime scene, none of them belong­ing to Ballard, who has always main­tained his inno­cence. The Supreme Court’s acquit­tal in this case was rare. In fact, since 1976 the Florida Supreme Court has acquit­ted only three peo­ple of all charges.

Jennifer Jones, one of the vic­tims in the case, was a known drug deal­er, and had been the tar­get of gang vio­lence in the past. However, the State Attorney nev­er pre­sent­ed evi­dence rul­ing out gang vio­lence, nor did the pros­e­cu­tors address the sus­pect­ed motive of rob­bery. The State Attorney General’s office said that it would not seek a rehear­ing in the case. At Ballard’s tri­al, only 9 of the 12 jurors rec­om­mend­ed a death sen­tence. Yet the judge decid­ed to sen­tence Ballard to death, com­ment­ing: ​“You have not only for­feit­ed your right to live among us, but under the laws of the state of Florida, you have for­feit­ed your right to live at all.” The Florida Supreme Court, in over­turn­ing this deci­sion, held that the cir­cum­stan­tial evi­dence used in the case was insuf­fi­cient to sup­port an infer­ence of guilt ​“to the exclu­sion of all oth­er infer­ences.” (Ballard v Florida, No. SC03-1012, February 23, 2006).

(Associated Press, Feb. 23, 2006; Miami Herald, Feb. 24, 2006; Ballard v. Florida, No. SC03-1012, Feb. 23, 2006).

Year of Release: 2005 ⌃

---

Derrick Jamison

Ohio — Conviction: 1985 , Charges Dismissed: 2005

On February 28, 2005, Ohio Common Pleas Judge Richard Niehaus dis­missed all charges against Derrick Jamison for the mur­der of a Cincinnati bar­tender after pros­e­cu­tors elect­ed not to retry him in the case. (Associated Press, March 3, 2005). On death row for 17 years, Jamison was a grant­ed a new tri­al in 2002 when a court ruled that the pros­e­cu­tion had with­held crit­i­cal eye­wit­ness state­ments and oth­er evi­dence from the defense. Jamison was orig­i­nal­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1985 based in part on the tes­ti­mo­ny of Charles Howell, a co-defen­dant who received a less­er sen­tence in exchange for his tes­ti­mo­ny against Jamison. The pros­e­cu­tion with­held state­ments that con­tra­dict­ed Howell’s tes­ti­mo­ny and that would have under­mined the prosecution’s the­o­ry of how the vic­tim died, and would have point­ed to oth­er pos­si­ble sus­pects for the mur­der. A fed­er­al judge ordered a new tri­al for Jamison in 2000, hold­ing that Hamilton County Prosecutors with­held key evi­dence. The 6^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the deci­sion in 2002 (Jamison v. Collins, 291 F.3^d 380 (6^th Cir. 2002)).

One of the with­held state­ments involved James Suggs, an eye­wit­ness to the rob­bery. Suggs tes­ti­fied at tri­al that he had been unable to make a pos­i­tive iden­ti­fi­ca­tion when the police showed him a pho­to array of sus­pects. In fact, police records show that Suggs iden­ti­fied two sus­pects, nei­ther of which was Derrick Jamison. Additional with­held evi­dence con­sist­ed of a series of dis­crep­an­cies between Jamison’s phys­i­cal char­ac­ter­is­tics and the descrip­tions of the per­pe­tra­tors giv­en to police inves­ti­ga­tors by eye­wit­ness­es. The co-defen­dant, Howell recent­ly tes­ti­fied that he could not remem­ber any­thing about the crime, and state pros­e­cu­tors decid­ed not to pro­ceed against Jamison. He remains incar­cer­at­ed on oth­er unrelated charges.

(See also, K. Perry, “‘85 Murder Conviction Dismissed,” Cincinnati Post, Mar. 1, 2005).

---

Patrick Croy

California — Conviction: 1979 , Acquitted: 2005

Acquitted of Homicide Charges: 1990; Non-Capital Charges Vacated, Not Retried: 2005

Patrick ​‘Hooty’ Croy was exon­er­at­ed on March 20, 2005, after spend­ing 19 years in prison, sev­en of them on death row. He was con­vict­ed of the July 14, 1978 killing of Yreka, California police offi­cer Jesse ​‘Bo’ Hittson dur­ing a shootout between police and five peo­ple, includ­ing Croy, who were sus­pect­ed of rob­bing a near­by liquor store. Croy was con­vict­ed in 1979 and sen­tenced to death. In 1985, the California Supreme Court over­turned Croy’s con­vic­tions for mur­der, rob­bery, and attempt­ed mur­der, but affirmed his con­vic­tions for con­spir­a­cy and assault with a dead­ly weapon. He was retried on the over­turned charges in 1990, and tes­ti­fied that he had act­ed in self-defense because Hittson had shot him twice in the back, and Croy believed he would not have the option to sur­ren­der because of prej­u­dice against Native Americans. He was acquit­ted of all charges, and the tri­al court indi­cat­ed that Croy also would have been acquit­ted of the con­spir­a­cy and assault charges if they had been includ­ed among the charges at issue in his retri­al. Because the con­spir­a­cy and assault charges remained in place, the court reluc­tant­ly resen­tenced Croy to ten years pro­ba­tion. For the same rea­son, he was not placed on DPIC’s exon­er­a­tion list at that time. In 1997, Croy was returned to prison for a vio­la­tion of his pro­ba­tion. He then filed a peti­tion for writ of habeas cor­pus seek­ing to vacate the remain­ing por­tions of the judg­ment against him from his 1979. A fed­er­al dis­trict court judge grant­ed Croy’s peti­tion in 2005 and vacat­ed the remain­ing charges. Siskiyou County pros­e­cu­tors did not appeal that deci­sion and elect­ed not to retry him, com­plet­ing his exoneration.

Note: Patrick Croy was added to DPIC’s Exoneration List on August 30, 2018. His case had been over­looked because the less­er con­vic­tions had remained in place at the time of his acquit­tal on the cap­i­tal mur­der charges and DPIC was not aware of the sub­se­quent dis­po­si­tion of the remain­ing charges against him in 2005.

(Maurice Possley, Patrick Croy, National Registry of Exonerations.)

---

Harold Wilson

Pennsylvania — Conviction: 1989 , Acquitted: 2005

More than 16 years after a Pennsylvania jury returned three death sen­tences against Harold Wilson, new DNA evi­dence led to his acquit­tal. Wilson was arrest­ed the day after the April 10, 1988, slay­ings of Dorothy Sewell, 64; her nephew, Tryone Mason, 33; and Mason’s girl­friend, Cynthia Goines Mills, 40. The three were mur­dered with a carpenter’s ax inside Sewell’s home. At his 1989 tri­al, police tes­ti­fied that they found a jack­et spat­tered with the vic­tims’ blood in the base­ment of Wilson’s home. Wilson was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. Wilson’s tri­al was con­duct­ed by Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Jack McMahon, a man best known for his role in a train­ing video that advised new Philadelphia pros­e­cu­tors on how to use race in select­ing death penalty juries.

In 1999, Wilson’s death sen­tence was over­turned on state post-con­vic­tion review when a tri­al-lev­el court deter­mined that his defense coun­sel had failed to inves­ti­gate and present mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence dur­ing his orig­i­nal tri­al. (Commonwealth v. Harold C. Wilson, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Nos. 3267 – 73, Aug.19, 1999). At that time, the court denied Wilson an evi­den­tiary hear­ing on his chal­lenges to his con­vic­tions and dis­missed his guilt-stage claims. On appeal, hav­ing been pre­sent­ed evi­dence of the jury selec­tion train­ing tape, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court sent the case back to the tri­al court for a hear­ing on whether McMahon had used racial­ly dis­crim­i­na­to­ry prac­tices in strik­ing black jurors in the case. In 2003, the tri­al court found that McMahon had improp­er­ly exer­cised his peremp­to­ry strikes to elim­i­nate poten­tial black jurors and grant­ed Wilson a new tri­al. The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office did not appeal that deci­sion. Because mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence was unavail­able to Wilson as a result of the pas­sage of time fol­low­ing the prosecutor’s mis­con­duct, the tri­al court barred the pros­e­cu­tion from seek­ing the death penal­ty on retri­al. The first retri­al result­ed in a mis­tri­al, when the pros­e­cu­tion left high­ly inflam­ma­to­ry pho­tographs of the mur­der scene in view of the jury. The sec­ond retri­al — before a new jury that did not have to be ​“death-qual­i­fied” and was cho­sen with­out the race bias from the orig­i­nal tri­al — acquit­ted Wilson of all charges on November 15, 2005. The defense relied heav­i­ly on new DNA evi­dence from blood on the killer’s jack­et, which the prosecution’s expert admit­ted con­tained blood from the three vic­tims and a fourth per­son who was not Wilson, sug­gest­ing the involve­ment of anoth­er assailant. The type of DNA test­ing that was per­formed in 2005 was not avail­able at the time of the original trial.

(Associated Press, Nov. 18, 2005).

UPDATE: Mr. Wilson died in 2019 at age 61.

Year of Release: 2004 ⌃

---

Alan Gell

North Carolina — Conviction: 1998 , Acquitted: 2004

Alan Gell was arrest­ed for a 1995 rob­bery and mur­der of a retired truck dri­ver named Allen Ray Jenkins. The two key wit­ness­es pre­sent­ed by pros­e­cu­tors were Gell’s ex-girl­friend and her best friend, who were both teenagers. Both girls, who were at Jenkins’ house and pled guilty to involve­ment in the mur­der, tes­ti­fied that they saw Gell shoot Jenkins on April 3, 1995. However, pros­e­cu­tors with­held valu­able evi­dence that might have cleared Gell in the ini­tial tri­al, includ­ing an audio tape of one of the girls say­ing she had to ​“make up a sto­ry” about the mur­der. (News and Observer, December 10, 2002) In 2002, a State Superior Court Judge found that the pros­e­cu­tors with­held evi­dence ​“favor­able” to Gell, and vacat­ed Gell’s con­vic­tion. (North Carolina v. Gell, No. 95 CRS 1884, Order (Superior Court of Bertie County, December 16, 2002) (Vacating con­vic­tion and grant­i­ng new tri­al.) Gell was re-tried in February 2004. The defense team was able to present evi­dence that Gell was out of state or in jail at the time of Jenkins’ mur­der, which was placed clos­er to April 14^th. This refut­ed the April 3^rd claim by the orig­i­nal pros­e­cu­tors. Also chal­leng­ing the state’s timetable was a series of state­ments by as many as 17 wit­ness­es who told inves­ti­ga­tors that they had seen Jenkins alive between April 7^th and April 10^th. The most impor­tant new evi­dence was the taped con­ver­sa­tion men­tioned above, in which the state’s key wit­ness referred to mak­ing up a sto­ry about the mur­der. Gell was orig­i­nal­ly con­vict­ed in 1998 and spent the next four years on death row until a new tri­al was ordered. On February 18, 2004, a jury found Gell not guilty on all counts, and he left the court with his fam­i­ly. (PHOTO: Alan Gell (Center), leaves the Courthouse in Bertie Countie, North Carolina, with his sis­ter Frankie and moth­er Jeanette fol­low­ing his exon­er­a­tion for the 1995 mur­der of Allen Ray Jenkins. Photo cour­tesy Scott Lewis, News & Observer.) (News and Observer, February 18, 2004)

Read ​“Time of Death: A Murder Mystery,” by Joseph Neff in The News and Observer

Read ​“Gells Files Suit Over Prosecution,” by Joseph Neff in The News and Observer

---

Gordon “Randy” Steidl

Illinois — Conviction: 1987 , Charges Dismissed: 2004

Gordon ​“Randy” Steidl was freed from an Illinois prison May 28, 2004, 17 years after he was wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the 1986 mur­ders of Dyke and Karen Rhoads. An Illinois State Police analy­sis in 2000 found that local police had severe­ly botched their inves­ti­ga­tion, result­ing in the wrong­ful con­vic­tion of Steidl and his co-defen­dant Herbert Whitlock. Due to the poor rep­re­sen­ta­tion Steidl received at tri­al, a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing was grant­ed in 1999. An appeals court reduced his sen­tence to life with­out parole. In 2003, fed­er­al judge Michael McCuskey over­turned Steidl’s con­vic­tion com­plete­ly and ordered a new tri­al, stat­ing that if all the new evi­dence would have been pre­sent­ed at the orig­i­nal tri­al, it was ​“rea­son­ably prob­a­ble” that Steidl would have been acquit­ted by the jury (267 F. Supp. 2^d 919 (C.D. Ill 2003)). The state rein­ves­ti­gat­ed the case, test­ing DNA evi­dence, but was not able to link Steidl to the crime.

The lack of con­crete DNA evi­dence, cou­pled with the fact that the prosecution’s eye­wit­ness to the mur­der recant­ed her state­ment, forced State Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Edgar County pros­e­cu­tors to drop the charges against Steidl. (Chicago Tribune, May 27, 2004).

Read Judge Michael McCuskey’s 2003 Retrial Order (PDF)

Read ​“The Snitch System,” by Northwestern University School of Law Center on Wrongful Conviction

---

Laurence Adams

Massachusetts — Conviction: 1974 , Charges Dismissed: 2004

Laurence Adams left a Massachusetts prison 30 years after his con­vic­tion for the 1972 rob­bery and mur­der of a tran­sit work­er in Boston. Superior Court Judge Robert Milligan over­turned Adams’ con­vic­tion in 2004 because police had with­held impor­tant evi­dence. The District Attorney rec­om­mend­ed that Adams be released on his own recog­ni­zance. (Boston Globe, May 20, 2004). Charges against Adams were for­mal­ly dropped on June 7, 2004. (New York Times, June 8, 2004). Adams had been con­vict­ed at age 19 on the tes­ti­mo­ny of two wit­ness­es, both of whom had unre­lat­ed charges against them dropped after their tes­ti­mo­ny. The government’s key wit­ness tes­ti­fied that Adams had admit­ted to the offense in a dis­cus­sion in a pri­vate home, but sub­se­quent­ly dis­cov­ered records indi­cat­ed that the wit­ness was actu­al­ly incar­cer­at­ed at the time that he alleged the con­ver­sa­tion took place. The wit­ness was in fact incar­cer­at­ed with one of a pair of broth­ers who were sus­pects in the case. The sec­ond wit­ness recant­ed her tes­ti­mo­ny against Adams just pri­or to her death. The court-appoint­ed attor­ney for Adams was also rep­re­sent­ing one of the two broth­ers at the same time he was rep­re­sent­ing Adams. (Boston Globe, May 21, 2004). Adams was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death in 1974, but the Massachusetts Supreme Court reduced his sen­tence to life impris­on­ment after declar­ing the state’s death penal­ty statute uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 1975. Adams had always main­tained his inno­cence. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology while in prison. Adams’ appel­late attor­ney, J. J. Barter, said ​“it’s not a mat­ter of him being there but not being cul­pa­ble. He wasn’t there.” (Boston Globe, April 30, 2004).

---

Dan L. Bright

Louisiana — Conviction: 1996 , Charges Dismissed: 2004

In 1996, Dan L. Bright was con­vict­ed of first-degree mur­der in Louisiana and was sen­tenced to death. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Louisiana found the evi­dence insuf­fi­cient to sup­port his con­vic­tion of first-degree mur­der and ren­dered a judg­ment of guilty of sec­ond-degree mur­der. (State v. Bright, 776 So.2^d 1134 (La. 2000)). The tri­al court imposed a sen­tence of life with­out parole at hard labor. On May 25, 2004, the Supreme Court of Louisiana reversed Bright’s con­vic­tion, vacat­ed the sen­tence, and remand­ed for a new tri­al hold­ing that the state sup­pressed mate­r­i­al evi­dence regard­ing the crim­i­nal his­to­ry of the prosecution’s key wit­ness, Freddie Thompson. The court not­ed that there was no phys­i­cal evi­dence against Bright, and that Thompson’s tes­ti­mo­ny was the only evi­dence that served to con­vict him. Thompson was very drunk on the day of the crime. Moreover, the pros­e­cu­tion failed to dis­close that he was a con­vict­ed felon and in vio­la­tion of his parole. The court held that the spe­cif­ic facts of Thompson’s crim­i­nal record and the fact that he was still on parole when he tes­ti­fied against Bright raised ques­tions about the verac­i­ty of his tri­al tes­ti­mo­ny: ​“This con­vic­tion, based on the facts of this case which include a fail­ure to dis­close what the State now admits is sig­nif­i­cant impeach­ment evi­dence, is not wor­thy of con­fi­dence and thus must be reversed.” Because mate­r­i­al evi­dence had been with­held by the state, Bright’s con­vic­tion was over­thrown. (See State of Louisiana v. Bright, No. 02-KP-2793, May 25, 2004). The pros­e­cu­tion sub­se­quent­ly dis­missed all charges and Bright was freed. (See Associated Press, April 15, 2004; also con­ver­sa­tion with Ben Cohen, attor­ney for Dan Bright, July 21, 2004).

Read ​“Name Dropping” by Katy Reckdahl in The Gambit Weekly

---

Ryan Matthews

Louisiana — Conviction: 1999 , Charges Dismissed: 2004

On Monday, August 9, 2004, Jefferson Parish pros­e­cu­tors dropped all charges against 24-year-old Ryan Matthews, mak­ing him the 14^th death row inmate freed with the help of DNA test­ing. Shortly after his 17^th birth­day, Matthews was arrest­ed for the mur­der of a local con­ve­nience store own­er. Three indi­vid­u­als inter­viewed by police were unable to defin­i­tive­ly iden­ti­fy Matthews, and wit­ness­es described the mur­der­er as short — no taller than 5’8”. Matthews is at least 6 feet tall. Matthews’ court appoint­ed tri­al attor­ney was unpre­pared, and unable to han­dle the DNA evi­dence. On the third day of the tri­al, the judge ordered clos­ing argu­ments, and sent the jury to delib­er­ate. When they could not agree on a ver­dict after sev­er­al hours, the judge ordered the jury to resume delib­er­a­tions until a ver­dict was reached. Less than an hour lat­er, the jury returned a guilty ver­dict and Matthews was sen­tenced to death two days later.

In March 2003, Matthews’ attor­neys had the phys­i­cal evi­dence (includ­ing a ski mask) re-test­ed. It was the fifth round of DNA test­ing in his case. The DNA results exclud­ed Matthews, and this time they point­ed direct­ly to anoth­er indi­vid­ual — one serv­ing time for a mur­der that hap­pened a few months after the con­ve­nience store mur­der and only blocks away. In April of 2004, based on the new DNA test­ing and find­ings that the pros­e­cu­tion sup­pressed evi­dence, District Attorney Paul Connick agreed that Matthews was enti­tled to a new tri­al (Los Angeles Times, August 10, 2004). Released into his mother’s care after she post­ed bond, Matthews was offi­cial­ly exon­er­at­ed on August 9, 2004 when Connick dropped all of the charges against him. Prosecutors con­ced­ed that charges should nev­er have been brought and stat­ed that Matthews’ exon­er­a­tion was ​“in the inter­est of jus­tice.” (New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 9 – 11, 2004; Associated Press, August 11, 2004)

---

Ernest Ray Willis

Texas — Conviction: 1987 , Charges Dismissed: 2004

Ernest Ray Willis was sen­tenced to death for the 1986 deaths of two women who died in a house fire that was ruled an arson. Seventeen years lat­er, Pecos County District Attorney Ori T. White revis­it­ed the case after a fed­er­al judge over­turned Willis’ con­vic­tion. (Willis v. Cockrell, 2004 WL 1812698 (W.D.Tex.)) White hired an arson spe­cial­ist to review the orig­i­nal evi­dence, and the spe­cial­ist con­clud­ed that there was no evi­dence of arson. Willis, who was stay­ing briefly at the house where the fire occurred, escaped from the house. Investigators believed they found an ​“acceller­ant” in the car­pet. Officers at the scene of the blaze said that Willis had act­ed strange­ly, and pros­e­cu­tors had Willis arrest­ed. Despite lim­it­ed evi­dence, Willis was indict­ed for mur­der and arson. Prosecutors used Willis’ dazed men­tal state at tri­al — the result of state-admin­is­tered med­ica­tion — to char­ac­ter­ize Willis as ​“cold­heart­ed” and as a ​“satan­ic demon.” Willis’ court-appoint­ed lawyers, one of whom lat­er sur­ren­dered his law license fol­low­ing drug charges, offered lit­tle defense. The attor­neys spent a total of three hours with Willis, and as a result, Willis was found guilty and sen­tenced to death.The state’s new arson spe­cial­ist revealed, how­ev­er, that the ​“acceller­ant” ini­tial­ly sus­pect­ed of caus­ing the fire was in fact ​“flashover burn­ing,” con­sis­tent with elec­tri­cal fault fires. U. S. District Judge Royal Ferguson held that the state had admin­is­tered med­ical­ly inap­pro­pri­ate antipsy­chot­ic drugs with­out Willis’ con­sent; that the state sup­pressed evi­dence favor­able to Willis; and that Willis received inef­fec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion at both the guilt and sen­tenc­ing phas­es of his tri­al. He ordered the state to either free Willis or retry him. The state attor­ney general’s office declined to appeal, and pros­e­cu­tors dropped all charges against Willis. White, whose pre­de­ces­sors pros­e­cut­ed Willis, said that Willis ​“sim­ply did not do the crime. … I’m sor­ry this man was on death row for so long and that there were so many lost years.” (Los Angeles Times, October 7, 2004). Willis, who had no pri­or record, was released on October 6, 2004 with $100, ten days of med­ica­tion, and the clothes on his back. (Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle, and Dallas Morning News, October 7, 2004).

Read ​“Death Isn’t Fair,” by Michael Hall in Texas Monthly

Read ​“After 17 Years…,” by Maureen Balleza in The New York Times

Year of Release: 2003 ⌃

---

Aaron Patterson

Illinois — Conviction: 1986 , Pardoned: 2003

Aaron Patterson spent 17 years on death row and always main­tained his inno­cence in the stab­bing deaths of an elder­ly cou­ple in 1986. (Chicago Tribune, January 10, 2003). During his pre-tri­al inter­ro­ga­tion, Patterson etched the fol­low­ing words on an inter­ro­ga­tion room bench:* I lied about mur­ders police threat­ened me with vio­lence slapped and suf­fo­cat­ed me with plas­tic — no phone — no dad signed false state­ment to mur­ders (Tonto) Aaron.* (State v. Patterson, 735 N.E.2^d 616, 627 – 28 (Ill. 2000)). In addi­tion, pho­tographs of the inter­ro­ga­tion room revealed the phrase ​“Aaron lied” etched in the door of the room. (Id.). There was no phys­i­cal evi­dence tying Patterson to the crime, and fin­ger­prints recov­ered from the scene did not belong to him. In addi­tion, Patterson’s for­mer girl­friend tes­ti­fied that she was with Patterson on the night the of the mur­ders. In 2000, the Illinois Supreme Court grant­ed Patterson an evi­den­tiary hear­ing to deter­mine whether his attor­ney was inef­fec­tive for fail­ing to present evi­dence that the con­fes­sion was coerced. The Court stat­ed: ​“Evidence iden­ti­fy­ing defen­dant as per­pe­tra­tor con­sist­ed of (1) the oft-chang­ing tes­ti­mo­ny of a teenag­er [Marva Hall] whose cousin had been a sus­pect in the crime; and (2) the tes­ti­mo­ny from the police offi­cers and assis­tant State’s Attorney con­cern­ing defendant’s con­fes­sion.” (Id. at 633). After Patterson’s con­vic­tion, Marva Hall swore in an affi­davit that pros­e­cu­tors pres­sured her into impli­cat­ing Patterson. ​“It was like I was read­ing a script,” she said of her tes­ti­mo­ny. Hall told Northwestern University jour­nal­ism stu­dents who were inves­ti­gat­ing the case: ​“I helped send [an] inno­cent man to jail.” (Newsweek, May 31, 1999).

---

Madison Hobley

Illinois — Conviction: 1987 , Pardoned: 2003

Madison Hobley was con­vict­ed of set­ting fire to an apart­ment build­ing in 1987 that claimed the lives of sev­en ten­ants, includ­ing his wife and child. Hobley main­tained his inno­cence, claim­ing that his con­fes­sion was the prod­uct of police tor­ture. At tri­al, the evi­dence against Hobley con­sist­ed of the tes­ti­mo­ny of Andre Council, a sus­pect­ed arson­ist who claimed to have seen Hobley buy­ing gaso­line before the fire, and a gas sta­tion atten­dant who could not iden­ti­fy Hobley in a line­up and could only state that Hobley ​“favored” the man who pur­chased the gaso­line. Hobley’s tri­al was marred by pros­e­cu­tio­r­i­al and juror mis­con­duct. The Illinois Supreme Court con­clud­ed that ​“despite [Hobley’s] pre­tri­al requests for pro­duc­tion, the State failed to dis­close to him the evi­dence of two pieces of excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence: (1) a report that defendant’s fin­ger­prints were not on the gaso­line can intro­duced against him at tri­al, and (2) a sec­ond gaso­line can found at the fire scene.” (State v. Hobley, 696 N.E.2^d 313, 331 (Ill. 1998) (empha­sis in orig­i­nal)). Records also showed that police destroyed the sec­ond gaso­line can after the defense issued a sub­poe­na for it, a move the Illinois Supreme Court said sup­port­ed a find­ing that the destruc­tion was ​“moti­vat­ed by bad faith.” (Id.). In addi­tion, post-con­vic­tion affi­davits of jurors stat­ed that some jurors were intim­i­dat­ed by non-jurors while they were sequestered at a hotel, and that they were prej­u­diced by the acts of the jury foreper­son, a police-offi­cer who believed Hobley was guilty. The affi­davits also stat­ed that jurors brought news­pa­pers with arti­cles about the case into the jury room and that they repeat­ed­ly vio­lat­ed the tri­al court’s seques­tra­tion order. (Id. at 338). The Court remand­ed the case for an evi­den­tiary hear­ing on the issue of whether pros­e­cu­tors vio­lat­ed Hobley’s con­sti­tu­tion­al rights by with­hold­ing evi­dence, and on the issue of whether the jurors were intim­i­dat­ed dur­ing delib­er­a­tions. (Id. at 345). In remand­ing the case, the Court stat­ed: ​“we stress that we are deeply trou­bled by the nature of the alle­ga­tions in this case.” (Id. at 338).

Read ​“The Snitch System,” by Northwestern University School of Law Center on Wrongful Conviction

---

Leroy Orange

Illinois — Conviction: 1984 , Pardoned: 2003

Leroy Orange was con­vict­ed in 1985 of four counts each of mur­der and con­ceal­ment of a homi­ci­dal death. He was found guilty and sen­tenced to death large­ly on the basis of his con­fes­sion. Orange lat­er stat­ed that his con­fes­sion was obtained by police tor­ture and that he was inno­cent. However, the Illinois Supreme Court stat­ed that there was ​“no evi­dence of phys­i­cal trau­ma, and no wit­ness­es were avail­able to sup­port the defendant’s alle­ga­tions of abuse, despite the tes­ti­mo­ny of a pathol­o­gist who assert­ed that the Orange’s descrip­tion of his con­fes­sion was ​“con­sis­tent with some­one who had been tor­tured.” (State v. Orange, 659 N.E.2^d 935, 947 (Ill. 1995)).

At Orange’s tri­al, his half-broth­er, Leonard Kidd, tes­ti­fied that, although Orange was at the vic­tims’ apart­ment ear­li­er in the evening, he left before the mur­ders and took no part in the crime. Kidd even tes­ti­fied that he was sole­ly respon­si­ble for the mur­ders. Shirely Evans, a friend of Orange, tes­ti­fied that Orange was with her the night of the mur­ders (State v. Orange, 521 N.E.2^d 69, 72 (Ill. 1988). Nevertheless, Orange was sen­tenced to death, a fact that might be large­ly attrib­uted to inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel. At tri­al, Orange was rep­re­sent­ed by attor­ney Earl Washington, who was paid only $400 to rep­re­sent Orange and who had three Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) charges pend­ing at the time of Orange’s tri­al (State v. Orange, 659 N.E.2^d 935, 947 (Ill. 1995)). The Chicago Tribune sin­gled out Washington for his inep­ti­tude, not­ing that the state filed new dis­ci­pli­nary charges against him. Those charges alleged that Washington’s rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Orange and oth­ers ​“amount­ed to pro­fes­sion­al mis­con­duct.” (Chicago Tribune, November 15, 1999).

Leroy Orange spent 19 years on death row before he was par­doned by Governor Ryan in 2003.

---

Stanley Howard

Illinois — Conviction: 1987 , Pardoned: 2003

Stanley Howard was con­vict­ed in 1987 of the mur­der of Oliver Ridgell. (Chicago Tribune, January 10, 2003). Ridgell was shot while sit­ting in his car with Tecora Mullen. Mullen, who was unharmed, iden­ti­fied Howard as the shoot­er. Howard was arrest­ed on an unre­lat­ed war­rant and he seemed to fit the descrip­tion of the shoot­er pro­vid­ed by Tecora Mullen.

At tri­al, one of the main pieces of evi­dence against Howard was his state­ment to the police. Howard, how­ev­er, always main­tained that his con­fes­sion was obtained by police tor­ture. In his state­ment, Howard said he was hav­ing din­ner with his girl­friend, then went to the house of a friend, Byron Hopkins, to ​“pick up a gun” so he could ​“try to get me some mon­ey.” (State v. Howard, 588 N.E.2^d 1044 (Ill. 1991)). In his state­ment, Howard also admit­ted that he ran to his girlfriend’s house after shoot­ing Ridgell, which was a short dis­tance from the crime scene. The defense team sought to dis­cred­it Howard’s con­fes­sion at tri­al, point­ing out all the con­tra­dic­tions in his state­ment. Howard’s girl­friend, Terry Jones, tes­ti­fied that she was liv­ing in a dis­tant part of the city at the time of the crime, and Byron Hopkins pre­sent­ed a stip­u­la­tion at tri­al that he did not own a 9‑milimeter gun of the type that was used in the crime. The oth­er evi­dence used against Howard was the tes­ti­mo­ny of Mullen, who had iden­ti­fied Howard in a line­up con­duct­ed in November 1984. However, Mullen admit­ted that it was dark and rain­ing out­side at the time of the shoot­ing. In addi­tion, Mullen’s hus­band was orig­i­nal­ly a sus­pect in the mur­der (Id.), an alter­na­tive the­o­ry of the crime that the defense coun­sel was not allowed to present to the jury accord­ing to the Illinois Supreme Court (Id.).

Howard was par­doned by Governor Ryan, and sub­se­quent­ly removed from death row but remains incar­cer­at­ed for an unre­lat­ed offense. (Chicago Tribune, January 10, 2003).

---

Rudolph Holton

Florida — Conviction: 1986 , Charges Dismissed: 2003

Florida death row inmate Rudolph Holton was released on January 24, 2003, after pros­e­cu­tors dropped all charges against him. (Miami Herald, January 25, 2003). Holton’s con­vic­tion for a 1986 rape and mur­der was over­turned in 2001 when a Florida Circuit Court held that the state with­held excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence from the defense that point­ed to anoth­er per­pe­tra­tor. The court also found that new DNA tests con­tra­dict­ed the tri­al tes­ti­mo­ny of a state’s wit­ness. At tri­al, a pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness tes­ti­fied that hairs found in the victim’s mouth linked Holton to the crime. However, recent DNA tests con­clu­sive­ly exclude Holton as the con­trib­u­tor of the hair, and found that the hairs most like­ly belonged to the vic­tim. (Florida v. Holton, No. 86 – 08931 (Fla. Cir. Ct. Sept. 2001) (order grant­i­ng, in part, motion to vacate judg­ment)). In December 2002, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the low­er court’s deci­sion to reverse Holton’s con­vic­tion and sen­tence. (Florida v. Holton, No. SC01-2671, 2002 Fla. LEXIS 2687 slip op. at 1 (Fla. December 18, 2002)). Prosecutors announced in January 2003 that the state was drop­ping all charges against Holton, who had spent 16 years on death row.

---

Lemuel Prion

Arizona — Conviction: 1999 , Charges Dismissed: 2003

On March 14, 2003, the Pima County (Arizona) Attorney’s Office dis­missed all charges against death row inmate Lemuel Prion, who had been con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing Diana Vicari in 1999. In August 2002, the Arizona Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly over­turned his con­vic­tion, stat­ing that the tri­al court com­mit­ted reversible error by exclud­ing evi­dence of anoth­er sus­pect. According to the Supreme Court, ​“There was no phys­i­cal evi­dence iden­ti­fy­ing Prion as her killer,” and the tri­al court abused its dis­cre­tion in not allow­ing the defense to sub­mit evi­dence that a third par­ty, John Mazure, was the actu­al killer. Mazure, who was also a sus­pect in the mur­der, was known to have a vio­lent tem­per, saw Vicari the night of her dis­ap­pear­ance, con­cealed infor­ma­tion from the police when they ques­tioned him, and ​“appeared at work the next morn­ing after Vicari’s dis­ap­pear­ance so disheveled and dis­ori­ent­ed that he was fired.” The Arizona Supreme Court held that the third-par­ty evi­dence ​“sup­ports the notion that Mazure had the oppor­tu­ni­ty and motive to com­mit this crime… .” (Arizona v. Prion, No. CR-99 – 0378-AP (2002)). Prion’s con­vic­tion was based large­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of Troy Olson, who iden­ti­fied Prion as the man who was with Vicari on the night of her mur­der. However, when police first showed Olson pho­tographs of Prion, Olson could not iden­ti­fy Prion. According to the Court, “[Olson] stat­ed that the per­son in the pho­to­graph did not look famil­iar.” Seventeen months lat­er, after see­ing a news­pa­per pic­ture of Prion label­ing him as the prime sus­pect in the Vicari mur­der, Olson believed he could iden­ti­fy Prion. The Arizona Supreme Court also held that the tri­al court com­mit­ted prej­u­di­cial error in fail­ing to sev­er the Vicari mur­der tri­al from Prion’s tri­al for anoth­er crime, stat­ing that ​“any con­nec­tion between the two crimes is atten­u­at­ed at best.” Prosecutors admit­ted that Prion would most like­ly have been acquit­ted if pros­e­cut­ed under the stan­dards set by the August 2002 rul­ing. Prion remained incar­cer­at­ed in Utah for an unre­lat­ed crime. (Tucson Citizen, March 15, 2003).

---

Wesley Quick

Alabama — Conviction: 1997 , Acquitted: 2003

An Alabama jury acquit­ted death row inmate Wesley Quick of the 1995 dou­ble mur­der for which he was sen­tenced to death in 1997. The ver­dict marked the end of the third tri­al for Quick who was charged with shoot­ing of John Hughes and Nathan King, on October 26, 1995. Quick’s first tri­al end­ed in a mis­tri­al in May 1997 due to alle­ga­tions of juror mis­con­duct. During his sec­ond tri­al, Quick was con­vict­ed of the mur­ders and sen­tenced to death row. On appeal, Quick raised the issue that his defense coun­sel was improp­er­ly denied access to a free tran­script of the pre­vi­ous tri­al due to his indi­gent sta­tus. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals over­turned that ver­dict in 2001, stat­ing that the judge in Quick’s sec­ond tri­al was indeed wrong to deny Quick a free copy of the tran­script from the pre­vi­ous mis­tri­al in light of his indi­gent sta­tus (Quick v. State, 825 So. 2^d 246 (2001)).

Quick was accused of shoot­ing the two men in the pres­ence of a female acquain­tance, and then pick­ing up his friend, Jason Beninati. According to Beninati, Quick drove to the scene of the crime and showed him the bod­ies of his vic­tims. Beninati tes­ti­fied against Quick at the 1997 tri­al. However, at the most recent tri­al, Quick tes­ti­fied that it was actu­al­ly Beninati who was respon­si­ble for the mur­ders, and the one who had dis­posed of the mur­der weapon. Thomas Mesereau, a mem­ber of Quick’s defense team, said Quick should have nev­er been on Death Row and that jus­tice was served with his acquit­tal because ​“the truth final­ly came out.” (Birmingham News, April 22, 2003).

---

John Thompson

Louisiana — Conviction: 1985 , Acquitted: 2003

John Thompson was sen­tenced to death in 1985 fol­low­ing his con­vic­tion for a New Orleans mur­der. Thompson, who has main­tained his inno­cence since his arrest, was released from prison on May 9, 2003, less than 24 hours after a jury acquit­ted him at his retri­al. (Times-Picayune, May 9, 2003). In 1999, just five weeks before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion, Thompson’s attor­ney dis­cov­ered cru­cial blood analy­sis evi­dence that under­mined infor­ma­tion used to influ­ence the jury’s deci­sion to send Thompson to death row. The blood evi­dence, which had been improp­er­ly with­held by the State, cleared Thompson of a rob­bery con­vic­tion. It was that con­vic­tion that kept Thompson from tes­ti­fy­ing on his own behalf at the mur­der tri­al. In 2001, tri­al judge Patrick Quinlan vacat­ed Thompson’s cap­i­tal sen­tence, stat­ing that the erro­neous rob­bery con­vic­tion had like­ly influ­enced the jury’s deci­sion to send Thompson to death row. Thompson remained in jail under a sen­tence of life with­out parole. (State v. Thompson, 825 So. 2^d 552, 557 (La. 2002)). In a lat­er appeal to the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeal of Louisiana, the court ruled that Thompson was ​“denied his right to tes­ti­fy in his own behalf based upon the improp­er actions of the State in the oth­er case.” (Id.) The court held that it was ​“the State’s inten­tion­al hid­ing of excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence in the armed rob­bery case that led to [Thompson’s] improp­er con­vic­tion in that case and his sub­se­quent deci­sion not to tes­ti­fy in the instant case because of the improp­er con­vic­tion.” (Id.) The court reversed Thompson’s con­vic­tion and sen­tence, order­ing a new trial.The retri­al fea­tured nev­er-before heard tes­ti­mo­ny by Thompson, pro­fess­ing his inno­cence. In addi­tion, jurors heard tes­ti­mo­ny from an eye-wit­ness who insist­ed that it was not John Thompson whom she saw kill the vic­tim. They also heard tes­ti­mo­ny that anoth­er man, Kevin Freeman, was the actu­al killer. Freeman was orig­i­nal­ly charged with the mur­der, but arranged a plea agree­ment with pros­e­cu­tors and impli­cat­ed Thompson. Although Freeman died pri­or to Thompson’s recent tri­al, jurors were allowed to hear his ear­li­er state­ments about the case, which were fol­lowed by ques­tions that the defense would have asked on cross-exam­i­na­tion. The tri­al con­clud­ed after jurors took less than an hour to acquit Thompson. (Times-Picayune, May 9, 2003).

Read DPIC’s Press Release.

---

Timothy Howard

Ohio — Conviction: 1976 , Charges Dismissed: 2003

Timothy Howard was released from prison on April 23, 2003 when Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Michael H. Watson over­turned his con­vic­tion cit­ing evi­dence not dis­closed or avail­able dur­ing the 1977 tri­al. The new evi­dence was gath­ered through Freedom of Information requests filed by Howard. Howard was able to uncov­er new fin­ger­print evi­dence and con­flict­ing wit­ness state­ments made to the FBI that were not made avail­able to defense attor­neys dur­ing the his tri­al in 1977. Howard Spent 26 years behind bars, a por­tion of which time he spent on Ohio’s death row before the death penal­ty was ruled uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in the state.

Howard’s attor­ney James D. Owen said that the long legal fight end­ed abrupt­ly and with lit­tle fan­fare when Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien, ​“in the inter­est of jus­tice,” agreed to dis­miss all charges against Howard and his code­fen­dant, Gary Lamar James (The Columbus Dispatch, July 18, 2003). Howard was award­ed $2.5 mil­lion in July of 2006 as com­pen­sa­tion for his wrong­ful con­vic­tion, the largest sum ever paid to a wrong­ly con­vict­ed defen­dant in Ohio.

(Associated Press, March, 19, 2007).

---

Gary Lamar James

Ohio — Conviction: 1976 , Charges Dismissed: 2003

Timothy Howard and Gary James were arrest­ed in December, 1976 for a Columbus, Ohio bank rob­bery in which one of the bank guards was mur­dered. Both men main­tained their inno­cence through­out the tri­al. In 1978, Ohio’s death penal­ty was held to be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and all death row inmates were re-sen­tenced. Howard and James were giv­en life sen­tences. With fund­ing from Centurion Ministries of New Jersey, Howard and James were sub­se­quent­ly able to uncov­er new evi­dence not made avail­able to their defense attor­neys at the time of their tri­al, includ­ing con­flict­ing wit­ness state­ments and fin­ger­prints. James agreed to and passed a state-admin­is­tered poly­graph test, prompt­ing Franklin County pros­e­cu­tor Ron O’Brien to dis­miss all charges ​“in the inter­est of jus­tice.” Howard was freed ear­li­er on April 23 when Franklin County Common Pleas judge Michael Watson over­turned his con­vic­tion, cit­ing evi­dence not dis­closed or avail­able at tri­al. The state dropped its appeal of the judge’s rul­ing, there­by clear­ing him of the same charges. While O’Brien said that releas­ing the two men was an admis­sion of a 26-year-old unsolved mur­der and rob­bery, “[w]e don’t want any­body in prison serv­ing time for some­thing they didn’t do.”

Columbus Dispatch, July 16, 18, and 21, 2003

---

Joseph Amrine

Missouri — Conviction: 1986 , Charges Dismissed: 2003

Joseph Amrine, 46, was released from jail in June 2003 after the Missouri Supreme Court, in a 4 – 3 vote, over­turned his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. Amrine was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of a fel­low prison inmate, Gary Barber, and spent sev­en­teen years of his life on death Missouri’s death row.
 

Amrine has main­tained his inno­cence since the alleged inci­dent, and inves­ti­ga­tors were nev­er able to find any phys­i­cal evi­dence link­ing Amrine to the crime. Amrine was con­vict­ed main­ly because of the tes­ti­mo­ny of fel­low inmates, three of whom lat­er recant­ed their tes­ti­mo­ny, admit­ting that they lied in exchange for pro­tec­tion. Six oth­er pris­on­ers tes­ti­fied that Amrine had been play­ing cards else­where in the prison when Barber was fatal­ly stabbed. The Missouri Supreme Court orig­i­nal­ly ordered Amrine released in April of 2003, cit­ing the alarm­ing fact that there was not cred­i­ble evi­dence to uphold the con­vic­tion or the death sen­tence (Amrine v. Roper, Mo. Sup. Ct. No. SC84656, April 29, 2003). Amrine’s released was post­poned, how­ev­er, when Prosecutor Bill Tracket filed amend­ed mur­der charges against Amrine in order to con­duct DNA tests on blood stains found on the pants Amrine wore the day of Barber’s death. DNA tests were incon­clu­sive and on July 28, 2003, pros­e­cu­tor Bill Tackett announced that he would not seek a new tri­al of Amrine and that he would be released. (Associated Press, July 28, 2003).

Arthur Benson, one of Amrine’s lawyers, said that he is in the intial stages of plan­ning a civ­il case seek­ing com­pen­sa­tion for the years Amrine spent behind bars for the prison killing. Sean O’Brien, anoth­er of Amrine’s attor­neys, expressed his relief and dis­ap­point­ment, ​“It’s been a long time com­ing and we worked hard­er than we should have had to exon­er­ate some­body” (The Associated Press, July 28, 2003).

Click Here for DPIC’s Coverage of State of Missouri v. Joseph Amrine

Read DPIC’s Press Release.

Read ​“A Broken System: Joseph Amrine,” by The Justice Project

Read ​“Facing Execution on Tainted Testimony,” by Amnesty International

---

Nicholas Yarris

Pennsylvania — Conviction: 1982 , Charges Dismissed: 2003

In 1981, Nicholas Yarris was in jail on a minor charge when he learned of the mur­der of 32-year-old Linda Mae Craig in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Yarris believed that he would be freed if he could tell inves­ti­ga­tors he knew the killer’s iden­ti­ty. Yarris gave inves­ti­ga­tors a wrong name, believ­ing he could blame the mur­der on a dead asso­ciate. Police leaked to oth­er inmates that Yarris was a snitch, and Yarris endured days of reg­u­lar beat­ings and tor­ture. In an effort to save him­self, Yarris asked what would hap­pen if he had par­tic­i­pat­ed in the crime, but was not the mur­der­er. The beat­ings stopped, and Yarris was charged with cap­i­tal mur­der. A fel­low inmate made a deal with the DA and began exchang­ing false infor­ma­tion about Yarris in exchange for con­ju­gal vis­its and reduced sen­tenc­ing with the DA. This inmate became one of the few wit­ness­es to tes­ti­fy against Yarris at tri­al. The only phys­i­cal evi­dence pros­e­cu­tors offered was semen that had been test­ed only for blood type. During the tri­al in June of 1982, the pros­e­cu­tion refused to hand over some 20 pages of doc­u­ments which would lat­er be revealed to include oth­er phys­i­cal evi­dence and con­flict­ing wit­ness accounts. Yarris was found guilty, and sent to death row. On appeal, a fed­er­al judge approved a motion by pros­e­cu­tors to have evi­dence from the case test­ed in a lab in Alabama that was lat­er revealed to have had no expe­ri­ence in DNA test­ing. This lab found no con­clu­sive results to exclude Yarris or include any­one else. A May 1994 motion for a new tri­al was denied. The DNA evi­dence was final­ly inde­pen­dent­ly test­ed in 2000 by arrange­ment with the Pennsylvania Federal Defender Office that now rep­re­sents Yarris, and the results of 3 tests exclud­ed Yarris based on evi­dence from the crime scene. A Philadelphia Common Pleas judge vacat­ed his con­vic­tion and ordered a new tri­al (Pennsylvania v. Yarris, No 690-OF1982, Court of Common Pleas, Delaware County, September 3, 2003 [order vacat­ing con­vic­tion]). According to Delaware County Assistant DA Joseph Brielmann, the DA’s office reviewed all avail­able evi­dence, and ​“they have not uncov­ered enough infor­ma­tion to pro­ceed against Mr. Yarris. … In fair­ness to Mr. Yarris, we request­ed that the pros­e­cu­tion be dis­missed.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 10, 2003; Pennsylvania v. Yarris, No 690-OF1982, Court of Common Pleas, Delaware County, December 9, 2003 [order of Nolle Prosequi]). District Attorney Michael Green said that he might be will­ing to offer an apol­o­gy ​“in a pri­vate way.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 10, 2003). Yarris remained in cus­tody until coun­sel worked out arrange­ments with the state of Florida on January 15, 2004 for resen­tenc­ing for crimes he had com­mit­ted dur­ing a 1985 escape in that state. (Philadelphia Inquirer and Los Angeles Times, December 10, 2003). His Florida sen­tence was reduced to 17 years and he was grant­ed release for time served. He was freed from prison in Pennsylvania the next day.

Visit the off­i­cal home­page of Nick Yarris

Year of Release: 2002 ⌃

---

Juan Roberto Melendez

Florida — Conviction: 1984 , Charges Dismissed: 2002

In 1984, a jury con­vict­ed Juan Melendez, then 33, of killing Delbart Baker and leav­ing him on the floor of his beau­ty school in Auburndale, FL. A con­vict­ed felon tes­ti­fied that Melendez admit­ted to the crime, and anoth­er wit­ness with a grudge against Melendez put him at the scene. No phys­i­cal evi­dence was found con­nect­ing Melendez, a migrant fruit pick­er with a 9^th-grade edu­ca­tion, to the crime. Nevertheless, a jury sen­tenced Melendez to die, and in 1986, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. In a lit­tle noticed opin­ion, how­ev­er, Justice Rosemary Barkett, the dis­sent­ing voice on the Florida Supreme Court raised doubts about the evi­dence, ​“there are cas­es […] when a review of the evi­dence leaves one with the fear that an exe­cu­tion would per­haps be ter­mi­nat­ing the life of an inno­cent per­son” (St. Petersburg Times, January 4, 2002). Melendez lost anoth­er round of appeals in the mid 1990s

Melendez spent near­ly 18 years on Florida’s death row before Linda McDermott, a young death penal­ty attor­ney with the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, took an inter­est in his case. In December 2001, Florida Circuit Court Judge Barbara Fleischer over­turned Melendez’s cap­i­tal mur­der con­vic­tion after deter­min­ing that pros­e­cu­tors in his orig­i­nal tri­al with­held crit­i­cal evi­dence, there­by under­min­ing con­fi­dence in the orig­i­nal ver­dict (St. Petersburg Times, January 4, 2002). The judge not­ed that no phys­i­cal evi­dence linked Melendez to the crime. The state had used the tes­ti­mo­ny of two wit­ness­es whose cred­i­bil­i­ty was lat­er chal­lenged with new evi­dence. (Associated Press, 12/​5/​01) Following the rever­sal of the con­vic­tion, pros­e­cu­tors announced the state’s deci­sion to aban­don charges against Melendez (Associated Press, 1/​3/​02).

See ​“Juan Melendez,” by Journey of Hope

---

Ray Krone

Arizona — Conviction: 1992 , Charges Dismissed: 2002

On April 8, 2002, Ray Krone was released from prison in Arizona after DNA test­ing showed that he did not com­mit the mur­der for which he was con­vict­ed 10 years ear­li­er. Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley and Phoenix Police Chief Harold Hurtt announced at a news con­fer­ence on April 8, 2002 that new DNA tests vin­di­cat­ed Krone and that they would seek his release pend­ing a hear­ing next month to vacate the mur­der con­vic­tion. Romley stat­ed, “[Krone] deserves an apol­o­gy from us, that’s for sure. A mis­take was made here… . What do you say to him? An injus­tice was done and we will try to do bet­ter. And we’re sor­ry.” Krone was first con­vict­ed in 1992, based large­ly on cir­cum­stan­tial evi­dence and tes­ti­mo­ny that bite marks on the vic­tim matched Krone’s teeth. He was sen­tenced to death. Three years lat­er he received a new tri­al (State v. Krone, 897 P.2^d 621 (Ariz. 1995) (en banc)), but was again found guilty and sen­tenced to life in prison in 1996. Krone’s post-con­vic­tion defense attor­ney, Alan Simpson, obtained a court order for DNA tests. The results not only excul­pat­ed Krone, but they point­ed to anoth­er man, Kenneth Phillips, as the assailant. Prosecutor William Culbertson told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Alfred Fenzel that the chances are 1.3 quadrillion to one that DNA found in sali­va on the victim’s tank top came from Phillips. (The Arizona Republic, 4/​9/​02).

Read DPIC’s Press Release.

Read ​“Free at Last,” by People Magazine

See ​“Ray Krone,” by Journey of Hope

---

Thomas H. Kimbell, Jr.

Pennsylvania — Conviction: 1998 , Acquitted: 2002

Thomas H. Kimbell was sen­tenced to death in 1998 fol­low­ing his con­vic­tion for the mur­der of Bonnie Dryfuse, her two daugh­ters, and her niece. All four were stabbed mul­ti­ple times and had their throats slashed in the Dryfuse family’s rur­al trail­er home. Kimbell, a one-time crack addict, was con­vict­ed or the mur­ders despite the fact that the police found no eye­wit­ness­es or phys­i­cal evi­dence link­ing him to the crime.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court over­turned his con­vic­tion in 2000 cit­ing the unfair exclu­sion of evi­dence that would have shed light on Kimbell’s inno­cence (State v. Kimbell, 759 A.2^d 1273 (Pa. 2000)). The exclud­ed evi­dence would have placed the hus­band of one of the vic­tims at home, the scene of the crime, short­ly before the mur­ders. Kimbell main­tained his inno­cence through­out his incar­cer­a­tion, despite tes­ti­mo­ny from wit­ness­es that he had been near the scene of the crime short­ly before the mur­ders and despite the tes­ti­mo­ny of sev­er­al indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing three jail­house infor­mants, that he had admit­ted com­mit­ting the mur­ders. At the retri­al, jurors heard both pos­si­ble ver­sions of the crime. In addi­tion, one of the jail­house infor­mants had passed away and anoth­er recant­ed his ear­li­er tes­ti­mo­ny, say­ing he had been pres­sured into giv­ing it. After delib­er­at­ing for more than a day, the jury found Kimbell, 40, not guilty on all charges (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 5/​4/​02). His attor­ney was Thomas W. Leslie.

---

Larry Osborne

Kentucky — Conviction: 1999 , Charges Dismissed: 2002

Larry Osborne, at one time the youngest man on Kentucky’s death row, was freed after a jury acquit­ted him in a sec­ond tri­al of mur­der­ing an 82-year old man and his 76-year old wife in 1997. The mur­ders occurred when an intrud­er smashed a win­dow and broke into the vic­tims’ home in south­east­ern Kentucky, blud­geon­ing the cou­ple and set­ting fire to the house. Joe Reid, 15, a friend who tes­ti­fied he had seen Osborne break into the couple’s home and lat­er come out with a pock­et­ful of cash, drowned sev­er­al months before Osborne’s tri­al. Reid tes­ti­fied before a grand jury, which sub­se­quent­ly indict­ed Osborne on charges of mur­der, rob­bery, bur­glary and arson. Osborne’s attor­neys object­ed to hav­ing Reid’s tes­ti­mo­ny used at tri­al, assert­ing that his tes­ti­mo­ny was tan­ta­mount to hearsay because the dead teen could not be cross-exam­ined. The tri­al judge dis­agreed and Osborne was sen­tenced to death fol­low­ing his conviction.

The Kentucky Supreme Court dis­agreed with the tri­al judge, and in a unan­i­mous opin­ion, reversed Osborne’s con­vic­tion cit­ing the use of inad­mis­si­ble hearsay tes­ti­mo­ny (Commonwealth v. Osborne, 43 S.W.2^d 234 (Ky. 2001)). The sec­ond jury to hear his case acquit­ted Osborne of all charges, and he was freed imme­di­ate­ly. Osborne was only 17 at the time of the crime, and end­ed up on death row despite the lack of phys­i­cal evi­dence (Louisville Courier-Journal, 8/​2/​02). He is the first Kentucky death row inmate to be found inno­cent since the state rein­sti­tut­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 1976 (Las Vegas Sun, 8/​02/​02).

Read DPIC’s Press Release.

Read ​“Youngest Man on Death Row…,” by The Associated Press

---

Andre Minnitt

Arizona — Conviction: 1993 , Charges Dismissed: 2002

In 1993, Andre Minnitt was sen­tenced to death for a triple mur­der in Tucson at El Grande Market. Minnitt was tried with co-defen­dant Christopher McCrimmon. After the ver­dict had been read, the judge con­duct­ed a poll of the jurors to ensure they all agreed with the ver­dict. One juror was unsure but, fol­low­ing the judge’s urg­ing, assent­ed to the ver­dict. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the juror was coerced, and it vacat­ed Minnitt’s and McCrimmon’s con­vic­tions and death sentences.

Minnitt’s first retri­al in 1997 result­ed in a mis­tri­al, but a sub­se­quent 1999 retri­al result­ed in anoth­er con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. In 2002, the Arizona Supreme Court once again vacat­ed the con­vic­tion. The court held that Minnitt’s 1999 retri­al should have been barred by dou­ble jeop­ardy because dur­ing his ​“1993 and 1997 tri­als the pros­e­cu­tor engaged in extreme mis­con­duct that he knew was gross­ly improp­er and high­ly prej­u­di­cial, both as to the defen­dant and to the integri­ty of the sys­tem.” The court found that pros­e­cu­tor Kenneth Peasley, who was sub­se­quent­ly dis­barred, had pur­pose­ful­ly elicit­ed false wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny. The court ordered the charges against Minnitt to be dismissed.

Minnitt is one of 12 addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions dis­cov­ered by DPIC in 2021 and 2022 dur­ing its research of all mod­ern-era death sen­tences. See a list of all of the addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions here.

Year of Release: 2001 ⌃

---

Peter Limone

Massachusetts — Conviction: 1968 , Charges Dismissed: 2001

Thirty ‑three years after being con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for a 1965 mur­der, Peter Limone’s con­vic­tion has been over­turned (Commonwealth v. Limone, 2001 Mass. Super. LEXIS 7 (2001)) and the case against him offi­cial­ly dropped. The move came as a result of a Justice Department task force’s dis­cov­ery of com­pelling new evi­dence that Limone and his co-defen­dants Joseph Salvati, Henry Tamelo, and Louis Greco were actu­al­ly inno­cent of the mur­der of Edward Deegan. In 1968, all four were con­vict­ed and Limone was sen­tenced to die in Massachusetts’ elec­tric chair, but was spared in 1974 when Massachusetts abol­ished the death penal­ty and his sen­tence was com­mut­ed to life in prison. Salvati, who was released from prison in 1997 when the gov­er­nor com­mut­ed his sen­tence, received word from pros­e­cu­tors that they were drop­ping the case against him as well. Tamelo and Greco both died in prison. At tri­al, the main wit­ness against the four men was Joseph Barboza, a hit man coop­er­at­ing with pros­e­cu­tors, who lat­er admit­ted that he had fab­ri­cat­ed much of his tes­ti­mo­ny. The recent­ly revealed FBI doc­u­ments show that infor­mants had told the FBI before the mur­der that Deegan would soon be killed and by whom, and a mem­o­ran­dum after the crime list­ed the men involved. Neither list includ­ed Limone, Salvati, Tamelo or Greco. (New York Times, 2/​2/​01 and Boston Herald, 1/​21/​01)

Read ​“Free at Last” by People Magazine

---

Gary Drinkard

Alabama — Conviction: 1995 , Charges Dismissed: 2001

Drinkard was sen­tenced to death in 1995, but his con­vic­tion was over­turned by the Alabama Supreme Court in 2000 (Ex parte Gary Drinkard, 777 So. 2^d 295 (2000)). A team of lawyers and inves­ti­ga­tors from Alabama and the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta spent hun­dreds of hours prepar­ing for the case and were able to prove that Drinkard was at home at the time the crime was com­mit­ted. (Decatur Daily, 5/​27/​01 and Washington Post, 5/​28/​01).

---

Joaquin Martinez

Florida — Conviction: 1997 , Acquitted: 2001

Former death row inmate Joaquin Martinez was acquit­ted of all charges at his retri­al for a 1995 mur­der in Florida. Martinez’s ear­li­er con­vic­tion was over­turned by the Florida Supreme Court because of improp­er state­ments by a police detec­tive at tri­al. (Martinez v. Florida, 761 So. 2^d 1074 (2000)). The pros­e­cu­tion did not seek the death penal­ty in Martinez’s sec­ond tri­al after key pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness­es changed their sto­ries and recant­ed their tes­ti­mo­ny. An audio tape of alleged incrim­i­nat­ing state­ments by Martinez, which was used at the first tri­al, was ruled inad­mis­si­ble at retri­al because it was inaudi­ble. The new jury, how­ev­er, heard evi­dence that the tran­script of the inaudi­ble tape had been pre­pared by the victim’s father, who was the man­ag­er of the sheriff’s office evi­dence room at the time of the mur­der and who had offered a $10,000 reward in the case. (The Tampa Bay Tribune, 6/​7/​01). Both the Pope and the King of Spain had tried to inter­vene on behalf of Martinez, who is a Spanish nation­al. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar wel­comed the ver­dict, say­ing: ​“I’m very hap­py that this Spaniard was declared not guilty. I’ve always been against the death penal­ty and I always will be.” (Tampa Bay Tribune (AP) 6/​6/​01).

---

Jeremy Sheets

Nebraska — Conviction: 1997 , Charges Dismissed: 2001

Jeremy Sheets was released after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a Nebraska Supreme Court deci­sion over­turn­ing his con­vic­tion. Prosecutors then dropped the charges against him. (Associated Press, 6/​14/​01). In September, 2000, the Nebraska high court unan­i­mous­ly ruled that a tape record­ing made by an alleged accom­plice who com­mit­ted sui­cide pri­or to the tri­al was the kind of state­ment deemed ​“high­ly sus­pect,” ​“inher­ent­ly unre­li­able,” and hence inad­mis­si­ble with­out the oppor­tu­ni­ty for Sheets to cross-exam­ine. (Nebraska v Sheets, 618 N.W.2^d 117 (2000)). The state­ments (lat­er recant­ed) were made by Adam Barnett, who was arrest­ed for the 1992 rape and mur­der of the same vic­tim as in Sheets’ case. Barnett con­fessed to the crime and impli­cat­ed Sheets. In exchange for the taped state­ment, Barnett received a plea bar­gain in which he avoid­ed a charge of first degree mur­der, did not have an addi­tion­al weapons charge filed, and received a com­mit­ment for his safe­ty while incar­cer­at­ed. Barnett’s state­ment was the key evi­dence used against Sheets at tri­al. (State v. Sheets, 618 N.W.2^d 117 (Neb. 2000) and Associated Press, 6/​12/​01).

---

Charles Irvin Fain

Idaho — Conviction: 1983 , Charges Dismissed: 2001

Charles Irvin Fain, a Vietnam vet­er­an who spent over 18 years on Idaho’s death row, was freed with all charges dis­missed in 2001. Although Fain always main­tained his inno­cence, he was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the February 1982 kid­nap­ping, sex­u­al assault and drown­ing of 9‑year-old Daralyn Johnson. Fain, who was unem­ployed and liv­ing with his par­ents in Redmond, Oregon at the time of the crime, had lived in Idaho until June 1981. He returned to Idaho in March of 1982 to look for work. Fain moved in with a neigh­bor of the Johnson fam­i­ly, and in September of 1982, police asked that he pro­vide hair sam­ples. Fain agreed, and those sam­ples were the key evi­dence against him in his tri­al. Testifying on behalf of Fain were wit­ness­es who placed Fain in Oregon in February of 1982. However, the jury found Fain guilty, pri­mar­i­ly on the foren­sic tes­ti­mo­ny of an FBI spe­cial­ist about the hairs, and the tes­ti­mo­ny of two jail­house infor­mants who claimed that Fain made ​“incrim­i­nat­ing state­ments” about the case. With the help of new attor­neys, Fain was able to get the phys­i­cal evi­dence test­ed under a new DNA test­ing process known as Mitochondrial DNA Testing. Results of those tests not only exclud­ed Fain, but point­ed to two oth­er sus­pects. The US District Court judge who orig­i­nal­ly would not con­sid­er Fain’s inno­cence claims vacat­ed the con­vic­tion on July 6, 2001 and ordered pros­e­cu­tors to either retry or release Fain. Canyon County District Attorney David Young announced that the state would not retry Fain, who was released from the max­i­mum-secu­ri­ty facil­i­ty in Boise, Idaho on August 23, 2001. (Los Angeles Times, August 19 and 24, 2001) Young stat­ed that ​“jus­tice requires the action we have tak­en today,” indi­cat­ing that the inves­ti­ga­tion for the killer would be re-opened. (New York Times, August 24, 2001)

Year of Release: 2000 ⌃

---

Steve Manning

Illinois — Conviction: 1993 , Charges Dismissed: 2000

Steve Manning became the 13^th inmate exon­er­at­ed in Illinois, when pros­e­cu­tors announced that they are drop­ping charges and no longer plan to retry Manning for the 1990 slay­ing of truck­ing com­pa­ny own­er Jimmy Pellegrino. Manning was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death on the word of infor­mant Tommy Dye, who tes­ti­fied that Manning twice con­fessed to him when they shared a jail cell. However, secret tape record­ings of the two men’s con­ver­sa­tions, made at the request of the FBI, revealed no such con­fes­sion, and Manning vehe­ment­ly denied con­fess­ing. In exchange for his tes­ti­mo­ny, Dye received an 8‑year reduc­tion on his prison sen­tence on theft and firearms charges. Manning remains in prison on unre­lat­ed charges. (Illinois v. Manning (695 N.E.2^d 423 (1998) and Chicago Tribune, 1/​19/​00).

UPDATE: Despite being exon­er­at­ed in Illinois, Manning was being held in Missouri on a kid­nap­ping con­vic­tion. On February 26, 2004, Manning was also cleared of those charges and walked out of prison a free man. New inves­ti­ga­tions revealed that the infor­mant who tes­ti­fied against Manning had received spe­cial treat­ment while in prison. A fed­er­al appeals court had ordered a new tri­al on the kid­nap­ping charges in November of 2002, but pros­e­cu­tors decid­ed instead to drop all charges. Manning was the 13^th per­son exon­er­at­ed in Illinois and this led Governor George Ryan to declare a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions as exon­er­a­tions exceed­ed excu­tions. (Chicago Tribune, February 27, 2004)

Read ​“The Snitch System,” by Northwestern University School of Law Center on Wrongful Conviction

---

Eric Clemmons

Missouri — Conviction: 1987 , Acquitted: 2000

In 1983, Eric Clemmons start­ed a 50-year prison sen­tence for killing a man in St. Louis dur­ing a fight. In 1987, he was accused of stab­bing Henry Johnson, a fel­low inmate, to death. At tri­al, one guard tes­ti­fied that he had seen Clemmons stab Henry Johnson. Three oth­er inmates tes­ti­fied that Fred Bagby was the man who had stabbed Johnson. However, the pros­e­cu­tor claimed that the inmates blamed Bagby because he was con­ve­nient­ly killed before the tri­al began. A jury con­vict­ed Clemmons of the mur­der and a Judge sen­tenced him to die.

After los­ing all his appeals in state court and his ini­tial appeal in fed­er­al court, Clemmons received papers from anoth­er inmate, includ­ing a memo writ­ten from Captain A.M. Cross, who had tes­ti­fied against Johnson at tri­al. The memo stat­ed that an inmate had told Gross imme­di­ate­ly after the attack that Bagby killed Johnson. Armed with new evi­dence, and a new attor­ney, Clemmons filed a fed­er­al appeal with the same fed­er­al court that had pre­vi­ous­ly reject­ed his appeal. The three-judge pan­el reversed their opin­ion and ordered a new tri­al. (Clemmons v. Delo, 124 F.3^d 944 (8^th Cir. 1997)).

At tri­al, Clemmons pre­sent­ed a let­ter from Johnson to a prison offi­cial in which Johnson described an alter­ca­tion with Fred Bagby. Furthermore, an expert tes­ti­fied that the blood found on Clemmons’ sweat­shirt and hat was not splat­ter from a stab wound, but was instead con­sis­tent with a bloody man run­ning into him. When all the new evi­dence was pre­sent­ed at re-tri­al, a cir­cuit court jury acquit­ted Clemmons in 3 hours on February 18, 2000. Clemmons remains incar­cer­at­ed on oth­er charges, which he is also chal­leng­ing. (Kansas City Star, February 27, 2000).

---

Joseph Nahume Green

Florida — Conviction: 1993 , Charges Dismissed: 2000

Joseph Nahume Green was con­vict­ed of the 1992 killing of the soci­ety page edi­tor of the week­ly Bradford County Telegraph, Judith Miscally, and was sub­se­quent­ly sen­tenced to death. Prosecutors dis­missed charges on March 16, 2000 of the mur­der. (St. Petersburg Times March 17, 2000). 

Green, who has always main­tained his inno­cence, was con­vict­ed large­ly upon the tes­ti­mo­ny of the state’s only eye­wit­ness, Lonnie Thompson. In appeals process, the Florida Supreme Court ques­tioned Thompson’s fit­ness in order­ing a new tri­al Green, cit­ing that Thompson’s tes­ti­mo­ny was ​“often incon­sis­tent and con­tra­dic­to­ry.” (Nahume Green v. Florida, 688 So. 2^d 301 (1996)). Considering the impor­tance of Thompson’s tes­ti­mo­ny to the prosecution’s case, the Florida Supreme Court over­turned the con­vic­tion and ordered a new tri­al in Alachua County.

During the re-tri­al, Green’s attor­neys chal­lenged Thompson’s com­pe­ten­cy. The court found that Thompson was mild­ly retard­ed and had suf­fered head trau­mas that caused mem­o­ry prob­lems. Based on these facts, the tri­al judge found Thompson incom­pe­tent to tes­ti­fy, and the 1^st District Court of Appeal affirmed the deci­sion. This dis­missal of tes­ti­mo­ny, cou­pled with the fact that the pros­e­cu­tion could not present any phys­i­cal evi­dence link­ing Green to the crime, led Circuit Judge Robert P. Cates, who had orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced Green to die, to dis­miss all charges, say­ing that there was no evi­dence tying Green to the mur­der (St. Petersburg Times, November 28, 2001).

Read ​“Ex-Death Row Inmate…,” by Sydney P. Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

---

Earl Washington

Virginia — Conviction: 1984 , Pardoned: 2000

Commuted to life: 1994, Absolute Pardon: 2000

Earl Washington suf­fers from men­tal retar­da­tion. After he was arrest­ed on anoth­er charge in 1983, police con­vinced him to make a state­ment con­cern­ing the rape and mur­der of a woman in Culpeper in 1982. He lat­er recant­ed that state­ment. Subsequent DNA tests con­firmed that Washington did not rape the vic­tim, who had lived long enough to state that there was only one per­pe­tra­tor of the crime. The DNA results com­bined with the victim’s state­ment all but exon­er­at­ed Washington. Shortly before leav­ing office in 1994, Governor Wilder com­mut­ed Washington’s sen­tence to life with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. In 2000, addi­tion­al DNA tests were ordered and the results again exclud­ed Washington as the rapist. In October 2000, Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore grant­ed Earl Washington an absolute par­don. (Statement of Governor Jim Gilmore Regarding the Pardon of Earl Washington, 10/​2/​00; New York Times, 10/​3/​00; and Washington Post, 9/​24/​00, 10/​4/​00, and 2/​15/​01).

Read ​“Life After Death Row,” by Sara Rimer inThe New York Times Magazine

Read ​“A Broken System: Earl Washington, Jr.,” by The Justice Project

---

William Nieves

Pennsylvania — Conviction: 1994 , Acquitted: 2000

On October 20, 2000, William Nieves was freed from death row when a Philadelphia jury acquit­ted him of the 1992 mur­der of Eric McAiley. Nieves was con­vict­ed of the mur­der in 1994, but main­tained his inno­cence. In 1997, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that Nieves was inad­e­quate­ly rep­re­sent­ed at his first tri­al and grant­ed him a new tri­al (Commonwealth v. Nieves, 746 A.2^d 1102 (2000)). Nieves’ lawyer on his retri­al, for­mer Philadelphia homi­cide pros­e­cu­tor Jack McMahon, said ​“The prosecution’s main eye­wit­ness… told the police two black males did it. Four hours lat­er, she said the same thing. Within the same 24-hour peri­od, she got inter­viewed by homi­cide and said a Hispanic male did it.” McMahon said ​“William Nieves’ first tri­al was not pre­sent­ed in the way it should have been pre­sent­ed, and that’s wrong when some­one is being sen­tenced to death.” At the re-tri­al, McMahon point­ed out the incon­sis­ten­cies in the key witness’s iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of the killer and Nieves was acquit­ted (Associated Press, 10/​21/​00).

Read Jenn Carbin, ​“A Matter of Life and Death,” (Parts I and II), Philadelphia CIty Paper (Nov. 1 – 8, 2001).

Update: Nieves died on Oct. 8, 2005 from liv­er prob­lems that he claimed were not prop­er­ly treat­ed while he was in prison. (Associated Press, Oct. 13, 2005).

---

Frank Lee Smith

Florida — Conviction: 1986 , Charges Dismissed: 2000

Frank Lee Smith, who had been con­vict­ed of a 1985 rape and mur­der of an 8‑year-old girl, and who died of can­cer in January 2000 while still on death row, was cleared of these charges by DNA test­ing, accord­ing to an aide to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. After the tri­al, the chief eye­wit­ness recant­ed her tes­ti­mo­ny. Nevertheless, Smith was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in 1990, but received a stay. Prosecutor Carolyn McCann was told by the FBI lab which con­duct­ed the DNA tests that: ​“He has been exclud­ed. He didn’t do it.” Another man, who is cur­rent­ly in a psy­chi­atric facil­i­ty, is now the main sus­pect. (Washington Post, 12/​15/​00 (AP) and St. Petersburg Times (Florida) 12/​15/​00).

Read ​“Requiem for Frank Lee Smith,” by Frontline

---

Michael Graham

Louisiana — Conviction: 1987 , Charges Dismissed: 2000

After spend­ing 13 years on death row, Michael Graham was released from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola on December 28, 2000 after the Louisiana Attorney General dis­missed charges against him and his co-defen­dant Albert Burrell. Burrell was released on January 3, 2001. Graham and Burrell were sen­tenced to death in 1987 for the mur­der of an elder­ly cou­ple. Earlier this year, a judge threw out their con­vic­tions because of a lack of phys­i­cal evi­dence and sus­pect wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny used at tri­al. Prosecutor Dan Grady acknowl­edged that the case was weak and ​“should nev­er have been brought to [the] grand jury.” During the tri­al, pros­e­cu­tors with­held key infor­ma­tion from the defense, failed to pro­duce any phys­i­cal evi­dence, and relied only on wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny, which has since been dis­cred­it­ed. Dismissing the charges, the Attorney General’s office cit­ed a ​“total lack of cred­i­ble evi­dence” and stat­ed ​“pros­e­cu­tors would deem it a breach of ethics to pro­ceed to tri­al.” Recent DNA tests proved that blood found at the vic­tims’ home did not belong to Burrell or Graham. The tri­al attor­neys appoint­ed to defend Burrell were lat­er dis­barred for oth­er rea­sons. (Associated Press 12/​28/​00 and The Advocate Online, 3/​19/​01).

Read ​“A Broken System: Michael Graham,” by The Justice Project

---

Albert Burrell

Louisiana — Conviction: 1987 , Charges Dismissed: 2000

After spend­ing 13 years on death row, Michael Graham was released from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola on December 28, 2000 after the Louisiana Attorney General dis­missed charges against him and his co-defen­dant Albert Burrell. Burrell was released on January 3, 2001. Graham and Burrell were sen­tenced to death in 1987 for the mur­der of an elder­ly cou­ple. Earlier this year, a judge threw out their con­vic­tions because of a lack of phys­i­cal evi­dence and sus­pect wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny used at tri­al. Prosecutor Dan Grady acknowl­edged that the case was weak and ​“should nev­er have been brought to [the] grand jury.” During the tri­al, pros­e­cu­tors with­held key infor­ma­tion from the defense, failed to pro­duce any phys­i­cal evi­dence, and relied only on wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny, which has since been dis­cred­it­ed. Dismissing the charges, the Attorney General’s office cit­ed a ​“total lack of cred­i­ble evi­dence” and stat­ed ​“pros­e­cu­tors would deem it a breach of ethics to pro­ceed to tri­al.” Recent DNA tests proved that blood found at the vic­tims’ home did not belong to Burrell or Graham. The tri­al attor­neys appoint­ed to defend Burrell were lat­er dis­barred for oth­er rea­sons. (Associated Press 12/​28/​00 and The Advocate Online, 3/​19/​01).

Read ​“A Broken System: Michael Graham,” by The Justice Project

---

Oscar Lee Morris

California — Conviction: 1983 , Charges Dismissed: 2000

Morris was con­vict­ed in 1983 and sen­tenced to death. His death sen­tence was vacat­ed by the California Supreme Court in 1988. Although the court did not over­turn his con­vic­tion, it lat­er ordered an evi­den­tiary hear­ing when the state’s chief wit­ness against Morris issued a deathbed recan­ta­tion. After the evi­den­tiary hear­ing, the Los Angeles County Superior Court grant­ed Morris a new tri­al. Prosecutors decid­ed not to retry the case and Morris was freed in 2000. (L.A. Daily Journal, October 29, 2002). At his ini­tial tri­al, Morris was rep­re­sent­ed by Ronald Slick, who was crit­i­cized in 2001 for giv­ing pros­e­cu­tors con­fi­den­tial doc­u­ments to help them keep a for­mer client on death row. (Id.). Morris’s chief accuser was Joe West. West impli­cat­ed Morris after being arrest­ed while on parole. ​“Joe West tes­ti­fied on direct exam­i­na­tion by the pros­e­cu­tor that his motive for coop­er­at­ing with the pros­e­cu­tion was a quar­rel with defen­dant which result­ed in his attempt on defendant’s life…” (People v. Morris, 756 P.2^d 843, 857 (CA 1988)). According to the California Supreme Court, ​“no motive or expla­na­tion for the mur­der was dis­closed at tri­al oth­er than the state­ment attrib­uted to defen­dant by Joe West” that Morris want­ed to kill some­one. (Id. at 854). The pros­e­cu­tor in the case, Arthur Jean, Jr., now a L.A. Country Superior Court Judge, with­held from the defense that West was giv­en spe­cial treat­ment in light of his tes­ti­mo­ny. The California Supreme Court not­ed that Jean had writ­ten two pre­tri­al let­ters on West’s behalf, ask­ing a fel­low pros­e­cu­tor and the parole board to grant West lenien­cy for oth­er crimes to reward his tes­ti­mo­ny against Morris. The California Supreme Court held that the prosecutor’s fail­ure to dis­close these actions vio­lat­ed Morris’s due process rights. The court added, ​“The nondis­clo­sure was com­pound­ed, more­over, by the dis­trict attorney’s affir­ma­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion to the jury that West had not received any ben­e­fits in return for his testimony.Ó (Id. at 863). Jean told jurors in the case that “[There] is no evi­dence, not a shred, and you would have it if it exist­ed, if Mr. West got any ben­e­fit from this, that is, in the han­dling of his crim­i­nal case.” (Id.). West lat­er con­fessed that he fab­ri­cat­ed the entire case against Morris. ​“The tes­ti­mo­ny I gave against Oscar Morris…in 1978 was a lie,” said West in a 1997 sworn dec­la­ra­tion a few weeks before his death. (L.A. Daily Journal, October 29, 2002). (Note: Morris was orig­i­nal­ly charged with rob­bery and mur­der. The rob­bery charge was reversed by the California Supreme Court in its 1988 rul­ing when the court over­turned his sentence.)

Year of Release: 1999 ⌃

---

Shareef Cousin

Louisiana — Conviction: 1996 , Charges Dismissed: 1999

Shareef Cousin was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of Alred Michael Gerardi in a holdup out­side a French Quarter restau­rant. Cousin was 16 at the time of the crime and 17 when he was sen­tenced to death, mak­ing him the youngest per­son ever sent to death row in Louisiana.

The Louisiana Supreme Court over­turned his con­vic­tion because of improp­er­ly with­held evi­dence (Louisiana v. Cousin, 710 So. 2^d 1065 (1998)). District Attorney Harry Cornick Sr. decid­ed on January 8, 1999 not to pur­sue the case fur­ther. Cornick Sr. said pros­e­cu­tors did not have enough evi­dence to pur­sue the case. (Associated Press, January 8, 1999). Cousin had main­tained that he was at a city recre­ation depart­ment bas­ket­ball game at the time of the crime and his coach tes­ti­fied that he dropped him off at home just 20 min­utes after the slay­ing. (New York Times, January 10, 1999)

---

Anthony Porter

Illinois — Conviction: 1983 , Charges Dismissed: 1999

Porter was released in February, 1999 on the motion of the State’s Attorney after anoth­er man con­fessed on video­tape to the dou­ble 1982 mur­der that sent Porter to death row. Charges were filed against the oth­er man, who claimed he killed in self-defense. The case was bro­ken by inves­ti­ga­tor Paul Ciolino work­ing with Prof. David Protess and jour­nal­ism stu­dents from Northwestern University. Their inves­ti­ga­tion also found that anoth­er wit­ness had been pres­sured by police to tes­ti­fy against Porter. Porter came with­in 2 days of exe­cu­tion in 1998 and was only spared because the Court want­ed to look into his men­tal com­pe­ten­cy. Porter has an IQ of 51. His con­vic­tion was offi­cial­ly reversed on March 11, 1999. (New York Times, 2/​6/​99 and 3/​12/​99).

UPDATE: The man who con­fessed to the mur­ders, Alstory Simon, even­tu­al­ly pled guilty and was serv­ing a 37-year sen­tence. However, in 2014 Illinois moved to dis­miss charges against him, and he was ordered to be released. (Chicago Sun-Times, Oct. 30, 2014).

---

Steven Smith

Illinois — Conviction: 1985 , Acquitted: 1999

Steven Smith was con­vict­ed of the mur­der of Virdeen Willis Jr., an off-duty assis­tant war­den at the Illinois pen­i­ten­tiary in Pontiac, in 1985. In 1990, the state Supreme Court reversed Smith’s first con­vic­tion and cast doubt on the prosecution’s the­o­ry. Smith was retired again in 1996, main­ly due to the tes­ti­mo­ny of Debrah Caraway, who claimed to have wit­nessed the mur­der. Caraway proved to be an unre­li­able wit­ness and she pro­vid­ed the pros­e­cu­tion with con­tra­dict­ing accounts of the crime.

The Illinois Supreme Court over­turned Smith’s con­vic­tion in 1999 because of this unre­li­able evi­dence. As a result, Smith was imme­di­ate­ly released and is not sub­ject to re-tri­al. Justice James Heiple, writ­ing for the court said, ​“When the state can­not meet its bur­den of proof, the defen­dant must go free.” (Illinois v. Smith, 708 N.E.2^d 365 (1999)). On August 1, 2002, Illinois Governor George Ryan issued a par­don to Smith based on inno­cence. Smith is the 11^th death row inmate to be freed in Illinois since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed and the 9^th since 1994. (Chicago Sun-Times, February 20, 1999 and August 2, 2002).

Read ​“The Snitch System,” by Northwestern University School of Law Center on Wrongful Conviction

---

Ronald Keith Williamson

Oklahoma — Conviction: 1988 , Charges Dismissed: 1999

Ronald Williamson and Dennis Fritz were charged with the mur­der and rape of Deborah Sue Carter, which occurred in Ada, Oklahoma in 1982. They were arrest­ed four years after the crime. Both were con­vict­ed and Williamson received the death penal­ty. In 1997, a fed­er­al appeals court over­turned Williamson’s con­vic­tion on the basis of inef­fec­tive­ness of coun­sel (Williamson v. Ward, 110 F.3^d 1508 (10^th Cir. 1997) aff’g 904 F. Supp. 1529 (E. D. OK 1995)). The Court not­ed that the lawyer had failed to inves­ti­gate and present to the jury the fact that anoth­er man had con­fessed to the crime. The lawyer had been paid a total of $3,200 for the defense. Recently, DNA tests from the crime scene did not match either Williamson or Fritz, but did impli­cate Glen Gore, a for­mer sus­pect in the case. All charges against the two defen­dants were dis­missed on April 15, 1999 and they were released. Williamson suf­fers from bipo­lar depres­sion and has been hos­pi­tal­ized for treat­ment. (Daily Oklahoman, 3/​18/​99 and New York Times 4/​16/​99).

Read ​“Life After Death Row,” by Sara Rimer in The New York Times Magazine

Read ​“The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town,” by John Grisham (Doubleday, 2006)

See Frontline: Burden of Innocence, by PBS

Watch an inter­view with Ronald Williamson. 

---

Ronald Jones

Illinois — Conviction: 1989 , Charges Dismissed: 1999

Ronald Jones, 49, was freed after more than eight years on Illinois’ death row after pros­e­cu­tors dropped all charges against him. Jones was charged with the 1985 rape and mur­der of Debra Smith on Chicago’s South Side (Chicago Tribune, May 18, 1999). Jones, who was con­vict­ed par­tial­ly on the basis of his con­fes­sion, tes­ti­fied at tri­al that the police had beat­en the con­fes­sion out of him. Jones was a home­less man with an IQ around 80 when he was con­vict­ed of the rape and mur­der. Prosecutors at his con­vic­tion described him as a ​“cold bru­tal rapist” who ​“should nev­er see the light of day.” (NY Times, May 19, 1999).

Recent DNA test­ing revealed that Jones was not the rapist and there was no evi­dence of any accom­plice to the mur­der. The Cook County state’s attor­ney filed a motion ask­ing the Illinois Supreme Court to vacate Jones’s con­vic­tion in 1997. In May 1999, the state dropped all charges against Jones. He is being tem­porar­i­ly detained pend­ing anoth­er mat­ter in a dif­fer­ent state (Associated Press, May 18, 1999).

---

Clarence Richard Dexter

Missouri — Conviction: 1991 , Charges Dismissed: 1999

Dexter was accused in 1990 of mur­der­ing his wife of 22 years. Police over­looked sig­nif­i­cant evi­dence that the mur­der occurred in the course of a botched rob­bery and quick­ly decid­ed that Dexter must have com­mit­ted the crime. Dexter’s tri­al lawyer was in poor health and under fed­er­al inves­ti­ga­tion for tax fraud and failed to chal­lenge blood evi­dence pre­sent­ed at tri­al. The con­vic­tion was over­turned in 1997 because of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. (Missouri v. Dexter, 954 S.W.2^d 332 (1997)) The defense then had the blood evi­dence care­ful­ly exam­ined and showed that the con­clu­sions pre­sent­ed at tri­al were com­plete­ly wrong. The state’s blood expert admit­ted that his pre­vi­ous find­ings over­stat­ed the case against Dexter. On the eve of Dexter’s retri­al in June, 1999, the pros­e­cu­tion dis­missed the charges and Dexter was freed. (Missouri State Public Defender System Memo, 6/​7/​99 and Kansas City Star, 6/​9/​99)

---

Warren Douglas Manning

South Carolina — Conviction: 1989 , Acquitted: 1999

Manning was con­vict­ed in 1989 for the slay­ing of a South Carolina police offi­cer in 1988. The con­vic­tion was over­turned in 1991 (State v. Manning, 409 S.E.2^d 372 (SC 1991)). Manning was retried in 1993, but the case end­ed in a mis­tri­al. Manning’s third tri­al in 1995 result­ed in anoth­er con­vic­tion, but it was over­turned on December 29, 1997, when the South Carolina Supreme Court held that the tri­al court abused its dis­cre­tion by grant­i­ng the State’s motion to change venue for the selec­tion of the jury. The Court ordered a new tri­al. (State v. Manning, 495 S.E.2^d 191 (SC 1997)). The sub­se­quent tri­al was declared a mis­tri­al, and pros­e­cu­tors pur­sued the case a fifth time. In 1999, at his last tri­al, Manning was rep­re­sent­ed by expert death penal­ty attor­ney, David Bruck. Manning main­tained that although he had been arrest­ed by the offi­cer for dri­ving under license sus­pen­sion, Manning escaped when the offi­cer stopped anoth­er car. The state’s case was entire­ly cir­cum­stan­tial, and the jury acquit­ted Manning after less than 3 hours of delib­er­a­tion. (Morning News (South Carolina), 10/​1/​00).

---

Alfred Rivera

North Carolina — Conviction: 1997 , Charges Dismissed: 1999

Alfred Rivera, 28, was sen­tenced to death in the shoot­ing deaths of Michael A. Nicholson and James E. Smith. Nicholson and Smith were shot in the head at close range inside Nicholson’s apart­ment in 1996. After two years on death row, the North Carolina Supreme Court ordered a new tri­al for Rivera rul­ing that the tri­al judge should have allowed jurors to hear tes­ti­mo­ny that Rivera may have been framed. (North Carolina v. Rivera, 514 S.E.2^d 720 (1999)).

Rivera’s defense was bol­stered when a wit­ness came for­ward to tes­ti­fy that he had heard Antonio T. Bryant claim that he planned to blame the shoot­ings on Rivera. Bryant was one of three men with Rivera at Nicholson’s apart­ment, accord­ing to some tes­ti­mo­ny. Conflicting eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny as to whether Rivera was actu­al­ly at the scene of the crime, or whether he was vis­it­ing his girl­friend, was suf­fi­cient to cast doubts in the minds of the jurors, who acquit­ted Rivera of two counts of first-degree mur­der. (Winston-Salem Journal, November 23, 1999).

Following the ver­dict, three jurors iden­ti­fied that they vot­ed for acquit­tal because the pros­e­cu­tion was unable to prove that Rivera was at the scene of the shoot­ings. Leaving the cour­t­house, Rivera hugged his three-year-old son, stat­ing that he was ​“elat­ed” and ​“felt vin­di­cat­ed.” (Winston-Salem Journal, November 23, 1999).

Year of Release: 1998 ⌃

---

Robert Lee Miller, Jr.

Oklahoma — Conviction: 1988 , Charges Dismissed: 1998

Robert Lee Miller was con­vict­ed of the rape and mur­der of two elder­ly women in 1988 and sub­se­quent­ly sen­tenced to death. In 1995, Oklahoma County pros­e­cu­tors agreed to a new tri­al for Miller after DNA test­ing proved it was not Miller’s semen found on bed­clothes at both crime scenes. During the orig­i­nal tri­als, pros­e­cu­tors argued that this semen was Miller’s because it matched his blood type. Despite the DNA results, pros­e­cu­tors still claimed Miller was involved in the crimes.

In February 1997, Oklahoma County Special Judge Larry Jones dis­missed the charges against Miller, say­ing that there was not enough evi­dence to jus­ti­fy his con­tin­ued impris­on­ment. One month lat­er, Oklahoma County District Judge Karl Gray rein­stat­ed the charges in response to an appeal by the District Attorney’s office; how­ev­er, the pros­e­cu­tion ulti­mate­ly decid­ed to drop all charges and Miller was released.

Read ​“When the Evidence Lies,” by Belinda Luscombe in Time Magazine

---

Curtis Kyles

Louisiana — Conviction: 1984 , Charges Dismissed: 1998

Kyles was first tried in November 1984, but the end­ed with a hung jury and a mis­tri­al. In his sec­ond tri­al, in December 1984, Kyles was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. On April 19, 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Kyles’ con­vic­tion cit­ing pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct in sup­press­ing excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence: The state had with­held con­sid­er­able infor­ma­tion about a paid infor­mant who may have been the actu­al mur­der­er. (Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419 (1995)). Kyles’s suc­cess­ful appeal was in the form of a fed­er­al habeas cor­pus peti­tion, since he had lost all of his appeals in state court. Kyles’s third tri­al end­ed in October 1996 when the jury dead­locked. In two addi­tion­al tri­als, one in September 1997 and anoth­er in February 1998, each end­ed with a jury dead­lock. After the fifth mis­tri­al, pros­e­cu­tors decid­ed to drop charges and Kyles was released. (The Times-Picayune, 2/​18/​98).

Year of Release: 1997 ⌃

---

Ricardo Aldape Guerra

Texas — Conviction: 1982 , Charges Dismissed: 1997

Guerra was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of a police offi­cer in Houston. Federal District Judge Kenneth Hoyt ruled on Nov. 15, 1994 that Guerra should either be retried in 30 days or released, stat­ing that the actions of the police and pros­e­cu­tors in this case were ​“out­ra­geous,” ​“inten­tion­al” and ​“done in bad faith.” He fur­ther said that their mis­con­duct ​“was designed and cal­cu­lat­ed to obtain … anoth­er ​‘notch in their guns.’” (Guerra v. Collins, 916 F. Supp. 620 (S.D. Texas, 1995)). Judge Hoyt’s rul­ing was unan­i­mous­ly upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals. (Guerra v. Johnson, 90 F.3^d 1075 (5^th Cir. Tex. 1996)). Although Guerra was grant­ed a new tri­al, Houston District Attorney Johnny Holmes dropped charges on April 16, 1997 instead. Guerra returned to his native Mexico. (New York Times, 4/​17/​97).

Read ​“Mexican Long Held…,” in The New York Times

---

Benjamin Harris

Washington — Conviction: 1985 , Charges Dismissed: 1997

On March 2, 1994, U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan over­turned Harris’ con­vic­tion and vacat­ed his sen­tence of death for the 1984 mur­der of Jimmy Turner on the basis that his orig­i­nal tri­al lawyer had been incom­pe­tent. Harris’s attor­ney inter­viewed only 3 of the 32 wit­ness­es list­ed in police reports and spent less than 2 hours con­sult­ing with Harris before tri­al. Harris’s co-defen­dant was acquit­ted. Bryan ordered Harris released from cus­tody if not brought to a speedy retri­al. (Harris by & Through Ramseyer v. Blodgett, 853 F. Supp. 1239 (W.D. Wash. 1994)). The deci­sion was upheld by the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals on September 12, 1995. (Harris by & Through Ramseyer v. Wood, 64 F.3^d 1432 (9^th Cir. Wash. 1995)). The pros­e­cu­tion decid­ed not to retry Harris but tried to have him con­fined as insane. (They had pre­vi­ous­ly argued that he was com­pe­tent to stand tri­al.) On July 16, 1997, a jury decid­ed that Harris should not be impris­oned at Western State Hospital. Harris main­tains his inno­cence and says he was framed. (The Seattle Times, 8/​19/​97).

Read ​“Exonerated but Never Set Free,” by Maureen O’Hagan in The Seattle Times

---

Robert Hayes

Florida — Conviction: 1991 , Acquitted: 1997

Hayes was con­vict­ed of the rape and mur­der of a co-work­er based part­ly on faulty DNA evi­dence. The Florida Supreme Court threw out Hayes’s con­vic­tion and the DNA evi­dence in 1995 (Hayes v. Florida, 660 So. 2^d 257 (1995)). The vic­tim had been found clutch­ing hairs prob­a­bly from her assailant. The hairs were from a white man, where­as Hayes is black. Hayes was acquit­ted at a retri­al in July, 1997. (Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, 7/​17/​97).

Read ​“The Other 13 Survivors…,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

---

Christopher McCrimmon

Arizona — Conviction: 1993 , Acquitted: 1997

Christopher McCrimmon was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for a triple mur­der that occurred in Tucson’s El Grande Market in 1992. Two oth­er co-defen­dants, Andre Minnitt and Martin Soto-Fong, were also sen­tenced to death for the same crime. At McCrimmon’s tri­al, one juror hes­i­tat­ed about his vote for con­vic­tion. The tri­al judge met with the jury, which then short­ly returned a unan­i­mous guilty ver­dict. The Arizona Supreme Court over­turned McCrimmon’s con­vic­tion in 1996 because of the judge’s undue pres­sure on the jury. (Arizona v. McCrimmon/​Minnitt, 927 P.2^d 1298 (1996)). Subsequently, it was dis­cov­ered that the lead pros­e­cu­tor against all 3 co-defen­dants, Kenneth Peasley, pre­sent­ed false evi­dence in the orig­i­nal case. With this knowl­edge, McCrimmon was quick­ly acquit­ted at his re-tri­al in 1997. (See Arizona v. Minnitt, 55 P.3^d 774, 779 (2002) (vacat­ing co-defen­dant Minnitt’s con­vic­tion and sen­tence and bar­ring re-tri­al because of delib­er­ate pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct)). In com­ment­ing on the prosecutor’s deceit, the Arizona Supreme Court wrote: ​“The record is replete with evi­dence of Peasley’s full aware­ness that [evi­dence he pre­sent­ed] was utter­ly false. Peasley’s mis­deeds were not iso­lat­ed events but became a con­sis­tent pat­tern of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct that began in 1993 and con­tin­ued through re-tri­al in 1997.” (See J. Toobin, ​“Killer Instincts,” The New Yorker, Jan. 17, 2005). In 2004, the Court unan­i­mous­ly vot­ed to dis­bar Peasley, stat­ing that his behav­ior ​“could not have been more harm­ful to the jus­tice sys­tem.” (Ibid.). Peasley had twice been select­ed as the state pros­e­cu­tor of the year.

Both McCrimmon and Minnitt remained incar­cer­at­ed on oth­er unre­lat­ed charges. Soto-Fong, whose con­vic­tion has not been over­turned, was removed from death row because he was a juve­nile at the time of the crime. (See also, J. Barrios, ​“Case Discarded: Tucson Convict Off Death Row,” Arizona Daily Star, Oct. 12, 2002).

---

Randall Padgett

Alabama — Conviction: 1992 , Acquitted: 1997

Padgett was con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing his estranged wife in 1990 and was sen­tenced to death. The con­vic­tion was over­turned by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in 1995 (Padgett v. Alabama, 668 So. 2^d 78 (1995)). In October, 1997, Padgett was acquit­ted of all charges at a retri­al. There was some evi­dence pre­sent­ed that anoth­er woman had com­mit­ted the crime. Padgett’s broth­ers, chil­dren and oth­er rel­a­tives burst into tears when the fore­man read the not guilty ver­dict. (The Gadsden Times, 10/​3/​97).

Year of Release: 1996 ⌃

---

Joseph Burrows

Illinois — Conviction: 1989 , Charges Dismissed: 1996

Joseph Burrows was sen­tenced to death in 1989 for the 1988 mur­der of an 88-year-old man, William Dulin. Burrows spent five years on death row before a judge in Kankakee, Illinois, ordered a new tri­al for Burrows after key wit­ness­es recant­ed their tes­ti­mo­ny. Considering that no phys­i­cal evi­dence linked Burrows to the crime, the tes­ti­mo­ny of the eye­wit­ness­es was cru­cial. He was con­vict­ed large­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of Gayle Potter and Ralph Frye, who received lighter sen­tences in exchange for tes­ti­fy­ing. Ms. Potter con­fessed in July of 1994 that she alone had com­mit­ted the mur­der. Mr. Frye recant­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny as well, claim­ing that pros­e­cu­tors and police offi­cers had coerced him into pro­vid­ing tes­ti­mo­ny (New York Times, September 11, 1994).

Judge John F. Michela released Burrows in September of 1994, while Burrows was await­ing his new tri­al. The Prosecutor in the case, Charles Zalar, acknowl­edged that the only evi­dence against Mr. Burrows was the eye­wit­ness accounts, ​“we don’t have much with­out them.” (New York Times, September 25, 1994). The Illinois Supreme Court upheld the over­turn­ing of his con­vic­tion on April 11, 1996. (People v. Burrows, 665 N.E.2^d 1319 (Ill. 1996)).

Read ​“Back to Family from Life on Death Row,” by Dirk Johnson in The New York Times

Read ​“The Snitch System,” by Northwestern University School of Law Center on Wrongful Conviction

---

Verneal Jimerson

Illinois — Conviction: 1985 , Charges Dismissed: 1996

Jimerson was sen­tenced to death in 1985 for a mur­der which occurred in 1978. The chief wit­ness against him was Paula Gray, who has an IQ of 57. In her orig­i­nal sto­ry to the police, she did not men­tion Jimerson. Then she added his name to her account, along with three oth­er names, includ­ing Dennis Williams (see #67). She lat­er recant­ed her entire tes­ti­mo­ny, say­ing the police had forced her to lie. The orig­i­nal charges against Jimerson were dis­missed, but they were res­ur­rect­ed sev­en years lat­er when the police offered to drop some charges against Gray if she would impli­cate Jimerson. Gray’s 50 year sen­tence was con­vert­ed to 2 years pro­ba­tion. In 1995, the Illinois Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly reversed Jimerson’s con­vic­tion, because Gray had been allowed to tes­ti­fy false­ly about her bar­gain. (People v. Jimerson, 652 N.E.2^d 278 (Ill. 1995)). Jimerson was released on bond in ear­ly 1996, and charges against him were sub­se­quent­ly dropped. (New York Times, 7/​3/​96)

Read ​“DNA Tests and a Confession Set Three on the Path to Freedom in 1978 Murders,” by Don Terry in The New York Times

Read ​“The Snitch System,” by Northwestern University School of Law Center on Wrongful Conviction

---

Dennis Williams

Illinois — Conviction: 1979 , Charges Dismissed: 1996

Williams was con­vict­ed, along with three oth­ers (includ­ing Verneal Jimerson, above), for the mur­der of a young cou­ple in 1978. After spend­ing 18 years in prison, Williams was released on June 14, 1996 because new evi­dence point­ed to the fact that all four men were wrong­ly con­vict­ed. Much of the inves­tiga­tive work which led to the defen­dants’ release was done by three jour­nal­ism stu­dents. Recent DNA tests indi­cate that none of the four men were involved in the crime, and anoth­er man has con­fessed to the mur­der. Charges against Williams, and two oth­ers who received less­er sen­tences in the same case, were dropped on July 2, 1996. Cook County State’s Attorney Jack O’Malley apol­o­gized to the four wrong­ly con­vict­ed defen­dants, includ­ing Verneal Jimerson, who had also been on death row. (David Protess and Rob Warden, A Promise of Justice (Hyperion 1998) and New York Times, 7/​3/​96).

Read ​“DNA Tests and a Confession Set Three on the Path to Freedom in 1978 Murders,” by Don Terry in The New York Times

---

Roberto Miranda

Nevada — Conviction: 1982 , Charges Dismissed: 1996

Miranda was released in September 1996 after the pros­e­cu­tion declined to retry him fol­low­ing the rever­sal of his con­vic­tion. Miranda had main­tained his inno­cence through his 14 years on death row. He orig­i­nal­ly came to the U.S. from Cuba dur­ing the Mariel boatlift. Prosecutors orig­i­nal­ly offered him a plea bar­gain where­by he would serve as lit­tle as 10 years in prison, but he refused because he was inno­cent. One day after being released from death row with only the clothes on his back and a few belong­ings, he was incar­cer­at­ed by the Immigration Service. He was sub­se­quent­ly released pend­ing a depor­ta­tion hear­ing. At tri­al, Miranda had been rep­re­sent­ed by an attor­ney with one year’s expe­ri­ence who had inher­it­ed the case when his col­league died. In over­turn­ing his con­vic­tion, Clark County Senior District Judge Norman Robison wrote: ​“The lack of pre­tri­al prepa­ra­tion by tri­al coun­sel … can­not be jus­ti­fied.” (Las Vegas Review-Journal, 9/​6/​01 and Dallas Morning News 4/​23/​97)

Read ​“Free at Last,” by People Magazine

Read ​“Former Inmate’s Lawsuit…,” by Jace Radke in The Las Vegas Sun

---

Gary Gauger

Illinois — Conviction: 1993 , Charges Dismissed: 1996

Gauger was con­vict­ed of killing his par­ents in April, 1993. In September 1994, the tri­al court judge reduced Gauger’s sen­tence to life impris­on­ment. In March, 1996, the U.S. District Court over­turned his con­vic­tion, rul­ing that author­i­ties nev­er had prob­a­ble cause to even arrest Gauger or to sub­ject him to 21 hours of inten­sive ques­tion­ing. He was released in October, 1996 by the same judge that had sen­tenced him to die by lethal injec­tion. The pros­e­cu­tion did not chal­lenge his release. (US News and World Report, 11/​9/​98).

Read ​“Free at Last,” by People Magazine

Read ​“The Snitch System,” by Northwestern University School of Law Center on Wrongful Conviction

Read ​“A Broken System: Gary Gauger,” by The Justice Project

See ​“Gary Gauger,” by Journey of Hope

---

Troy Lee Jones

California — Conviction: 1982 , Charges Dismissed: 1996

The California Supreme Court ruled in June, 1996 that Jones should have a new tri­al because he was not ade­quate­ly defend­ed at his orig­i­nal tri­al for the mur­der of Carolyn Grayson in 1981 (In re Troy Lee Jones on Habeas Corpus, 917 P.2^d 1175 (1996)). The Court found that the defense attor­ney failed to con­duct an ade­quate pre­tri­al inves­ti­ga­tion, speak with pos­si­ble wit­ness­es, obtain a rel­e­vant police report, or seek pre­tri­al inves­tiga­tive funds. Moreover, the attor­ney elicit­ed dam­ag­ing tes­ti­mo­ny against his own client dur­ing cross exam­i­na­tion of a wit­ness. The pros­e­cu­tion announced that it was drop­ping all charges against Jones in November, 1996, after he had been on death row for 14 years. (Associated Press, 11/​19/​96).

Read ​“California Death Sentence…,” by Dan Goodin in The Recorder

---

Carl Lawson

Illinois — Conviction: 1990 , Acquitted: 1996

Lawson was con­vict­ed of killing Terrence Jones in a fam­i­ly dis­pute. He was tried three times. The first tri­al result­ed in a con­vic­tion and death sen­tence, but that con­vic­tion was over­turned in part because Lawson’s pub­lic defend­er had been an assis­tant State’s Attorney when Lawson was arrest­ed. (Illinois v. Lawson, 644 N.E.2^d 1172 (1994). The sec­ond tri­al result­ed in a hung jury, report­ed­ly 11 – 1 for acquit­tal. Nevertheless, the pros­e­cu­tors tried Lawson again and again sought the death penal­ty. This last tri­al pro­duced an acquit­tal and Lawson was freed on December 12, 1996. On August 1, 2002, Illinois Governor George Ryan issued a par­don to Lawson based on inno­cence. (St. Louis Dispatch, 4/​12/​98 and Chicago Tribune, 8/​1/​02).

---

David Wayne Grannis

Arizona — Conviction: 1991 , Charges Dismissed: 1996

On November 6, 1996, Pima County, Arizona, Superior Court Judge Bernardo Valesco dis­missed the mur­der charges against David Wayne Grannis, and he was freed. (Arizona Daily Star, Nov. 7, 1996). Grannis was sen­tenced to death in 1991 for first degree mur­der, but his con­vic­tion was over­turned and remand­ed for a new tri­al in July 1995 by the Supreme Court of Arizona. (State v. Grannis, 900 P.2^d 1 (Az. 1995)). At tri­al, Grannis tes­ti­fied that he and his co-defen­dant, Daniel Webster were hitch­hik­ing and were picked up by the vic­tim, Richard Sutcliffe. Sutcliffe offered the men a place to stay. Although the state argued that Grannis and Webster killed Sutcliffe in the course of rob­bing him or bur­glar­iz­ing his home, Grannis tes­ti­fied that he did not know Sutcliffe was dead until he was arrest­ed. Grannis tes­ti­fied that he was sex­u­al­ly propo­si­tioned by Sutcliffe, who became aggres­sive. Grannis stat­ed that his screams awak­ened Webster, who killed Sutcliffe after Grannis ran out of the house. At tri­al, Webster’s friend, Eva Marie Lopez, stat­ed that she ​“over­heard Webster brag­ging to [her cousin] Baker about com­mit­ting a mur­der. In addi­tion, she tes­ti­fied that she heard Webster tell Baker that he (Webster) killed some­one and that he liked the feel­ing it gave him.” (Id. at 4). At tri­al, the state offered into evi­dence pho­tos depict­ing homo­sex­u­al activ­i­ty that were found in Grannis’ room at the time of his arrest. In over­turn­ing the con­vic­tion, the Arizona Supreme Court held that the pho­tos were ​“mar­gin­al­ly rel­e­vant” and that the tri­al court abused its dis­cre­tion in admit­ting them. The Court stat­ed that the pro­ba­tive val­ue of the pho­tos was sub­stan­tial­ly out­weighed by the dan­ger of unfair prej­u­dice. ​“The jurors’ ver­dict may well have been improp­er­ly influ­enced by their revul­sion and not entire­ly based on a belief that the state proved the ele­ments of the crime.” (Id. at 6). Although Webster was again con­vict­ed for Sutcliffe’s mur­der, the charges against Grannis were dis­missed at retri­al because of insufficient evidence.

Year of Release: 1995 ⌃

---

Adolph Munson

Oklahoma — Conviction: 1985 , Acquitted: 1995

Adolph ​‘Abe’ Munson, was con­vict­ed in 1985 for the mur­der of Alma Hall, who was abduct­ed dur­ing her all-night shift at a local con­ve­nience store. Munson became a sus­pect once police real­ized that, at the time of the crime, he was on a work release pro­gram run by an Oklahoma prison where he was serv­ing time for a barroom murder.

Oklahoma’s high­est crim­i­nal appeals court unan­i­mous­ly upheld a low­er court rul­ing grant­i­ng Munson a new tri­al. The rul­ing by the Criminal Court of Appeals cit­ed a ​“sig­nif­i­cant amount” of excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence that was kept from Munson at the orig­i­nal tri­al. (Oklahoma v. Munson, 886 P.2^d 999 (Okla. Crim. App. 1994)). The excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence, accord­ing to Judge Charles S. Chapel, who wrote the court’s opin­ion, ​“revealed pho­tographs of the crime scene at odds with the State’s the­o­ry of the case, reports on the oth­er sus­pects and impeach­ment evi­dence.” (Oklahoma v. Munson, 886 P.2^d 999 (Okla. Crim. App. 1994)). Furthermore, Dr. Ralph Erdmann, the pale­on­tol­o­gist who pre­sent­ed the foren­sic evi­dence at tri­al, was con­vict­ed of sev­en felony counts includ­ing the mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of facts in oth­er cas­es and stripped of his license.

Munson was acquit­ted at a re-tri­al in April 1995.

---

Robert Charles Cruz

Arizona — Conviction: 1981 , Acquitted: 1995

Robert Charles Cruz, a for­mer Tempe busi­ness­man, won instant free­dom after more than 14 years behind bars as jurors returned ver­dicts acquit­ting him of mur­der and oth­er charges. This was the fifth tri­al for the for­mer death-row inmate accused in the 1980 con­tract killing of a Phoenix print-shop own­er and his moth­er-in-law. His pre­vi­ous five tri­als includ­ed two con­vic­tions and two mis­tri­als, before his acquit­tal on June 1, 1995.

Prosecutors claimed that Cruz hired and paid three men to kill Patrick Redmond and Helen Phelps, co-own­ers of Graphic Dimensions, in a plot to take over the busi­ness. Jurors said the over­rid­ing rea­son for acquit­ting Cruz was the lack of cred­i­bil­i­ty of some wit­ness­es (The Arizona Republic, June 2, 1995). The chief pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness, Arnie Merrill, was a con­vict­ed bur­glar and for­mer drug deal­er who was giv­en immu­ni­ty for his tes­ti­mo­ny. The absence of motive and the lack of a phys­i­cal evi­dence con­nect­ing Cruz to the mur­ders weighed heav­i­ly on jurors as they vot­ed to acquit.

“This is jus­tice,” said Kevin McNally, one of Cruz’s lawyers. ​“This is the right decision.”

---

Rolando Cruz

Illinois — Conviction: 1985 , Acquitted: 1995

Cruz was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico. Another man, Brian Dugan, who had already pled guilty to two rapes and mur­ders, includ­ing that of an 8‑year-old girl, autho­rized his lawyer to tell the pros­e­cu­tors that he killed Nicarico. Cruz was con­vict­ed at a sec­ond tri­al in 1990, at which Dugan did not tes­ti­fy. In July, 1994, the state Supreme Court over­turned Cruz’s sec­ond con­vic­tion. (People v. Cruz, 643 N.E.2^d 636 (1994). An assis­tant state attor­ney gen­er­al resigned because she thought the evi­dence showed Cruz was inno­cent and thought it wrong to pur­sue the pros­e­cu­tion. Other law enforce­ment offi­cials also protest­ed the con­tin­ued efforts to pros­e­cute Cruz. Cruz was final­ly acquit­ted at his retri­al in November, 1995. The judge did not even wait for the defense to put on its case before enter­ing a direct­ed ver­dict of not guilty. (People v. Cruz, 88 CF 2230). Three pros­e­cu­tors and four law enforce­ment offi­cers involved with the pros­e­cu­tion of Cruz and his co-defen­dant (see below) have been indict­ed for obstruc­tion of jus­tice in this case. (The American Lawyer, 3/​98 and National Law Journal 11/​20/​95).

Read ​“Life After Death Row,” by Sara Rimer in The New York Times Magazine

Read ​“The Snitch System,” by Northwestern University School of Law Center on Wrongful Conviction

Read ​“A Broken System: Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez” by The Justice Project

---

Alejandro Hernandez

Illinois — Conviction: 1985 , Charges Dismissed: 1995

Hernandez was sen­tenced to death along with Rolando Cruz for the mur­der of Jeanine Nicarico in 1983. Hernandez was re-tried in 1990, but the tri­al end­ed in a hung jury. A third tri­al in 1991 result­ed in a con­vic­tion and an 80 year prison sen­tence. The con­vic­tion was over­turned by the Illinois Supreme Court in January, 1995. Only his own indi­rect state­ments, not any direct phys­i­cal evi­dence, linked Hernandez, who is bor­der­line retard­ed, to the killing. He was released on bond, and charges were sub­se­quent­ly dropped on Dec. 8, 1995. The man who has con­fessed to the mur­der of Jeanine Nicarico, and whose DNA has been linked to the crime, has not been charged in the case. The U.S. Dept. of Justice is con­sid­er­ing an inves­ti­ga­tion into civ­il rights vio­la­tions in this case. (People v. Hernandez, 521 N.E.2^d 25 (Ill. 1988), Associated Press, 12/​8/​95, and The National Law Journal, 1/​1/​96).

Read ​“A Broken System: Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez” by The Justice Project

---

Sabrina Butler

Mississippi — Conviction: 1990 , Acquitted: 1995

Sabrina Butler was 17 years old when her 9‑month old son, who had a heart mur­mur, stopped breath­ing. After attempts to resus­ci­tate her son, Butler rushed to the hos­pi­tal, where the young child was pro­nounced dead. The fol­low­ing day Butler was arrest­ed for child abuse due to the bruis­es left by her resus­ci­ta­tion attempts. She was inter­ro­gat­ed by the police and then pros­e­cut­ed. Then, in 1990, she was con­vict­ed of cap­i­tal mur­der and sen­tenced to death.

Her con­vic­tion was over­turned by the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1992. (Butler v. State, 608 So.2^d 314 (Miss. 1992)). The court said that the pros­e­cu­tion had failed to prove that the inci­dent was any­thing more than an acci­dent. At re-tri­al, she was acquit­ted on Dec. 17, 1995 after a very brief jury delib­er­a­tion. It is now believed that the baby may have died either of cys­tic kid­ney dis­ease or from sud­den infant death syn­drome (SIDS).

Year of Release: 1994 ⌃

---

Andrew Golden

Florida — Conviction: 1991 , Charges Dismissed: 1994

Andrew Golden spent 26 months on Florida’s death row, con­vict­ed in 1991 for the mur­der of his wife in 1989. According to Golden, his wife, Ardelle, died after acci­den­tal­ly dri­ving down an unmarked, unlit boat ramp into the water. Prosecutors argued that Golden, heav­i­ly in debt, had killed Ardelle to col­lect on the life insur­ance. Police inves­ti­ga­tors and the med­ical exam­in­er tes­ti­fied at the tri­al that the evi­dence did not sug­gest foul play (Life Magazine, October 1994). Nonetheless, the jury opt­ed for the prosecutor’s ver­sion of the sto­ry and sen­tenced Golden to die in the electric chair.

Golden, a high school teacher in Florida before the death of his wife, had his con­vic­tion was over­turned by the Florida Supreme Court in 1993. The Court held that the state had failed to prove that the victim’s death was any­thing but an acci­dent. Golden was released into the wait­ing arms of his sons on January 6, 1994. (Golden v. State, 629 So.2^d 109 (Fla. 1993)).

Read ​“The Other 13 Survivors…,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

UPDATE: Andrew Golden died in Texas from a heart attack in May 2015.

Year of Release: 1993 ⌃

---

Kirk Bloodsworth

Maryland — Conviction: 1984 , Charges Dismissed: 1993

Bloodsworth was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the rape and mur­der of a young girl. Despite ali­bi wit­ness­es, he was con­vict­ed pri­mar­i­ly on the basis of faulty eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion. When it was dis­cov­ered that the state failed to dis­close excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence, Bloodsworth received a new tri­al, at which he was con­vict­ed and giv­en a life sen­tence. He was released after sub­se­quent DNA test­ing con­firmed his inno­cence. (The Washington Post, 6/​29/​93).

Read ​“Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA,” by Tim Junkin

Read ​“Life After Death Row,” by Sara Rimer in The New York Times Magazine

---

Federico M. Macias

Texas — Conviction: 1984 , Charges Dismissed: 1993

Macias was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of a man dur­ing a bur­glary. Macias was impli­cat­ed by a co-work­er, who in exchange for his tes­ti­mo­ny was not pros­e­cut­ed for the mur­ders, and from jail-house infor­mants. Post-con­vic­tion inves­ti­ga­tion by pro bono attor­neys dis­cov­ered sub­stan­tial evi­dence of inad­e­quate coun­sel. A fed­er­al dis­trict court ordered a new hear­ing find­ing that “[t]he errors that occurred in this case are inher­ent in a sys­tem which pays attor­neys such a mea­ger amount.” Macias’s con­vic­tion was over­turned and a grand jury refused to rein­dict because of lack of evi­dence. (Marinez-Macias v. Collins, 810 F Supp. 782 (W.D. Tex. 1991), National Law Journal, 5/​20/​96, and University of Massachusetts Alumni Magazine, Spring 1994).

Read ​“The Difference a Million Makes,” by Adam Cohen in Time Magazine

---

Walter (Johnny D) McMillian

Alabama — Conviction: 1988 , Charges Dismissed: 1993

McMillian, a black man, was con­vict­ed for the mur­der of a white female after a tri­al that last­ed only a day and a half. At tri­al, three wit­ness­es tes­ti­fied against McMillian and the jury ignored mul­ti­ple ali­bi wit­ness­es that tes­ti­fied McMillian was at a pic­nic. Although the jury rec­om­mend­ed a life sen­tence, the judge imposed a sen­tence of death. Post-con­vic­tion inves­ti­ga­tion by the tele­vi­sion show 60 Minutes revealed pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al sup­pres­sion of excul­pa­to­ry infor­ma­tion and per­jury by the state’s three wit­ness­es. McMillian’s con­vic­tion was over­turned by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and pros­e­cu­tors agreed case had been mis­han­dled. (McMillian v. State, 616 So.2^d 933 (Ala. Crim. App. 1993), New York Times, 3/​3/​93, and ABA Journal 6/​93).

Read ​“Life After Death Row” by Sara Rimer in The New York Times Magazine

---

Gregory R. Wilhoit

Oklahoma — Conviction: 1987 , Acquitted: 1993

Convicted of killing his estranged wife while she slept. His con­vic­tion was over­turned and he was released in 1991 when 11 foren­sic experts tes­ti­fied that a bite mark found on his dead wife did not belong to him. The appeals court also found inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel. He was acquit­ted at a retri­al in April, 1993. (Wilhoit v. State, 816 P.2^d 545 (Okla. Crim. App. 1991) and The Daily Oklahoman, 4/​1/​93).

UPDATE: Greg Wilhoit died in February 2014.

Read ​“My Nightmare: An Interview with Greg Wilhoit” by Ira Saletan

---

James Robison

Arizona — Conviction: 1977 , Acquitted: 1993

Robison was con­vict­ed of mur­der and con­spir­a­cy in 1977 in the death of a reporter, Don Bolles. His con­vic­tion was over­turned in 1980, but he was recharged with the offense in 1990. He was acquit­ted at retri­al in December, 1993. (State v. Robison, 608 P.2^d 44 (Ariz. 1980) and The Dallas Morning News, 12/​18/​93).

---

Muneer Deeb

Texas — Conviction: 1985 , Acquitted: 1993

Deeb was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death for alleged­ly con­tract­ing with three hit­men to kill his ex-girl­friend. The hit­men were also con­vict­ed and one was sen­tenced to death. Deeb con­sis­tent­ly claimed no involve­ment in the crime. Deeb’s con­vic­tion was over­turned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1991 because improp­er evi­dence had been admit­ted at his first tri­al. With an expe­ri­enced defense attor­ney, Deeb was retried and acquit­ted in 1993. (Deeb v. State, 815 S.W.2^d 692 (Tex. Crim. App. 1991) and The Dallas Morning News, 11/​4/​93).

---

Larry Hudson

Louisiana — Conviction: 1967 , Acquitted: 1993

Larry Hudson was tried and sen­tenced to death for a rob­bery-homi­cide in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1967. An eye­wit­ness, Frank Wilson, tes­ti­fied that he had picked Hudson out of a line-up pri­or to tri­al, but a police offi­cer who had been present tes­ti­fied that Wilson had failed to iden­ti­fy Hudson. Hudson’s sen­tence was even­tu­al­ly com­mut­ed to life in prison, but his con­vic­tion was upheld. In 1988, with the help of a jail­house lawyer, he was able to obtain copies of police reports that had nev­er been dis­closed to his defense. These records showed that not only had Wilson failed to iden­ti­fy Hudson, but also, he had iden­ti­fied anoth­er man in a pho­to line-up. The day before the tri­al, the pros­e­cu­tor showed Wilson a pho­to of Hudson and his code­fen­dant, and Wilson then affirmed that Hudson was the shoot­er. Based on the unre­li­a­bil­i­ty of Wilson’s tes­ti­mo­ny and the pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct involved in con­ceal­ing the pho­to line-up, a fed­er­al dis­trict court vacat­ed Hudson’s con­vic­tion in 1993 and the pros­e­cu­tor chose not to retry the case.

Year of Release: 1992 ⌃

---

Jay C. Smith

Pennsylvania — Conviction: 1986 , Acquitted: 1992

Smith, a for­mer high school prin­ci­pal, was con­vict­ed of the 1979 mur­der of 3 peo­ple, though his death sen­tence was lat­er reduced to life. He was freed on Sept. 18, 1992 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly ruled that the pros­e­cu­tion had with­held cru­cial evi­dence, call­ing the state’s action ​“egre­gious” mis­con­duct. (Commonwealth v. Smith, 615 A.2^d 321 (Pa. 1992) and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 9/​17/​93).

Read ​“Court Frees Jay Smith,” by Pete Shellem and Laird Leask in The Patriot News

Read ​“Author Paid Trooper Probing Reinert Case,” by Pete Shellem and Laird Leask in The Patriot News

Read ​“Evidence Surfaces in Reinert Case,” by Pete Shellem and Laird Leask in The Patriot News

Year of Release: 1991 ⌃

---

Gary Nelson

Georgia — Conviction: 1980 , Charges Dismissed: 1991

Nelson was released after a review of the prosecutor’s files revealed that mate­r­i­al infor­ma­tion had been improp­er­ly with­held from the defense. The coun­ty dis­trict attor­ney acknowl­edged: ​“There is no mate­r­i­al ele­ment of the state’s case in the orig­i­nal tri­al which has not sub­se­quent­ly been deter­mined to be impeached or con­tra­dict­ed.” (Nelson v. Zant, 405 S.E.2^d 250 (Ga. 1991) and The Atlanta Journal, 11/​7/​91).

---

Bradley P. Scott

Florida — Conviction: 1988 , Acquitted: 1991

Scott was con­vict­ed of mur­der and sen­tenced to death. His arrest came ten years after the crime, when the evi­dence cor­rob­o­rat­ing his ali­bi had been lost. Scott was con­vict­ed on the tes­ti­mo­ny of wit­ness­es whose iden­ti­fi­ca­tions had been plagued with incon­sis­ten­cies. On appeal, he was released by the Florida Supreme Court, which found that the evi­dence used to con­vict Scott was not suf­fi­cient to sup­port a find­ing of guilt. (Scott v. State, 581 So.2^d 887 (Fla. 1991)).

Read Court TV’s Interview with Bradley Scott

Read ​“We Don’t Look Back,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

---

Charles Smith

Indiana — Conviction: 1983 , Acquitted: 1991

Smith was sen­tenced to death for a street rob­bery and mur­der of a woman. The man who claimed to be the get­away dri­ver had his charges dropped in exchange for tes­ti­fy­ing against Smith. The Indiana Supreme Court over­turned his con­vic­tion in 1989 because of inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel. (Smith v. State, 547 N.E.2^d 817 (Ind. 1989). He was acquit­ted at his re-tri­al and released in 1991 after pre­sent­ing evi­dence that wit­ness­es against him had lied under oath. (infor­ma­tion not avail­able at time of DPIC’s inno­cence report) (The Journal-Gazette (Indiana), 5/​10/​91 and Capitol Report, May/​June 1991).

Year of Release: 1990 ⌃

---

Clarence Brandley

Texas — Conviction: 1981 , Charges Dismissed: 1990

Brandley was award­ed a new tri­al when evi­dence showed pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al sup­pres­sion of excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence and per­jury by pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness­es. An inves­ti­ga­tion by the Department of Justice and the FBI uncov­ered more mis­con­duct, and in 1989 a new tri­al was grant­ed. Prior to the new tri­al, all of the charges against Brandley were dropped. Brandley is the sub­ject of the book White Lies by Nick Davies. (Ex Parte Brandley, 781 S.W.2^d 886 (Tex. Crim App. 1989),The Dallas Times Herald, 10/​2/​90, and Washington Post, 2/​1/​95).

---

John C. Skelton

Texas — Conviction: 1983 , Acquitted: 1990

Despite sev­er­al wit­ness­es who tes­ti­fied that he was 800 miles from the scene of the mur­der, Skelton was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for killing a man by explod­ing dyna­mite in his pick­up truck. The evi­dence against him was pure­ly cir­cum­stan­tial and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found that it was insuf­fi­cient to sup­port a guilty ver­dict. The Court reversed the con­vic­tion and entered a direct­ed ver­dict of acquit­tal. (Skelton v. State, 795 S.W.2^d 162 (Tex. Crim. App. 1989) and The Dallas Morning News, 10/​25/​90).

---

Dale Johnston

Ohio — Conviction: 1984 , Charges Dismissed: 1990

Johnston was sen­tenced to death in 1984 by a 3‑judge pan­el for the mur­der of his step­daugh­ter and her fiancee. His con­vic­tion was over­turned in 1988 by the Ohio Supreme Court because the pros­e­cu­tion with­held excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence from the defense, and because one wit­ness, who had been hyp­no­tized, was deemed unre­li­able. The state lat­er dropped charges against Johnston in 1990 and he was freed. (State v. Johnson, 529 N.E.2^d 898 (Ohio 1988)). Chester McKnight lat­er plead­ed guilty to the crime in 2008 and received 2 life terms. A sec­ond man, Kenny Linscott, who had been seen near the scene of the crime the day the bod­ies of the vic­tims were dis­cov­ered, plead­ed guilty to abuse of a corpse con­nect­ed to the crime. As of 2011, Johnston was seek­ing remu­ner­a­tion from the state. (Additional research from Maurice Possley.)

---

Jimmy Lee Mathers

Arizona — Conviction: 1987 , Acquitted: 1990

Jimmy Lee Mathers was con­vict­ed of first degree mur­der in 1987 and sen­tenced to death along with two co-defen­dants. At tri­al, Mathers moved for a judg­ment of acquit­tal at the close of the prosecution’s case, main­tain­ing that the state had not pre­sent­ed evi­dence suf­fi­cient to sup­port a con­vic­tion. The motion was denied, and all three men were found guilty and sen­tenced to death. Mathers’ case was reviewed by the Arizona Supreme Court in 1990, and view­ing the evi­dence in the light most favor­able to the pros­e­cu­tion, the Court found that there was a com­plete absence of pro­ba­tive facts to sup­port Mathers’ con­vic­tion. The Court stat­ed that most of the evi­dence pre­sent­ed at tri­al had ​“noth­ing to do with Mathers” and not­ed that even the tri­al judge expressed doubt as to whether Mathers was involved in the crime. The Court set aside Mathers’ con­vic­tion and sen­tence and entered a judg­ment of acquit­tal. (State v. Mathers, 796 P.2^d 866 (Ariz. 1990)) One of Mathers’ co-defen­dants, Theodore Washington, has raised a sim­i­lar claim about the insuf­fi­cien­cy of the evi­dence against him, but remains on death row.

Year of Release: 1989 ⌃

---

Randall Dale Adams

Texas — Conviction: 1977 , Charges Dismissed: 1989

Adams was con­vict­ed of killing a Dallas Police offi­cer and sen­tenced to death. After the mur­der David Harris was arrest­ed for the mur­der when it was learned that he was brag­ging about it. Harris, how­ev­er, claimed that Adams was the killer. Adams tri­al lawyer was a real estate attor­ney and the key gov­ern­ment wit­ness­es against Adams were Harris and oth­er wit­ness­es who were nev­er sub­ject to cross exam­i­na­tion because they dis­ap­peared the next day. On appeal, Adams was ordered to be released pend­ing a new tri­al by the Texas Court of Appeals. The pros­e­cu­tors did not seek a new tri­al due to sub­stan­tial evi­dence of Adam’s inno­cence. Adams case is the sub­ject of the movie, The Thin Blue Line. (Ex Parte Adams, 768 S.W.2^d 281 (Tex. Crim App. 1989), Time, 4/​3/​89, and ABA Journal, 7/​89).
 

See ​“Randall Dale Adams,” by Journey of Hope

---

Robert Cox

Florida — Conviction: 1988 , Charges Dismissed: 1989

Cox was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death, despite evi­dence that Cox did not know the vic­tim and no one tes­ti­fied that they had been seen togeth­er. In 1989, Cox was released by a unan­i­mous deci­sion of the Florida Supreme Court that the evi­dence was insuf­fi­cient to sup­port his con­vic­tion. (Cox v. State, 555 So.2^d 352 (Fla. 1989)).

Read ​“The Other 13 Survivors…,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

---

James Richardson

Florida — Conviction: 1968 , Charges Dismissed: 1989

Richardson was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the poi­son­ing of one of his chil­dren. The pros­e­cu­tion argued that Richardson com­mit­ted the crime to obtain insur­ance mon­ey, despite the fact that no such pol­i­cy exist­ed. The pri­ma­ry wit­ness­es against Richardson were two jail-house snitch­es whom Richardson was said to have con­fessed to. Post-con­vic­tion inves­ti­ga­tion found that the neigh­bor who was car­ing for Richardson’s chil­dren had a pri­or homi­cide con­vic­tion, and the defense pro­vid­ed affi­davits from peo­ple to whom he had con­fessed. Richardson’s con­vic­tion was thrown into fur­ther doubt when the gov­er­nor appoint­ed then-Dade County District Attorney Janet Reno to con­duct a spe­cial inves­ti­ga­tion. She con­clud­ed Richardson’s con­vic­tion should be vacat­ed. At a sub­se­quent court hear­ing, the court over­turned his con­vic­tion, and no fur­ther charges were raised in the case. See Richardson v. State, 546 So.2^d 1037 (1989).

Read ​“Life After Death Row,” by Sara Rimer in The New York Times Magazine

Read ​“The Other 13 Survivors…,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

---

Bonnie Erwin

Texas — Conviction: 1985 , Charges Dismissed: 1989

Bonnie Erwin was sen­tenced to death in Smith County, Texas in 1985. During Erwin’s tri­al, the court failed to com­pel the tes­ti­mo­ny of a wit­ness who was sub­poe­naed for tri­al but did not appear in court. The wit­ness would have cast doubt upon Erwin’s involve­ment and instead impli­cat­ed a co-defen­dant who had blamed Erwin for the crime. In 1987, this con­vic­tion was vacat­ed because of the tri­al court’s refusal to issue a writ of attach­ment to secure the witness’s tes­ti­mo­ny. State pros­e­cu­tors declined to retry Erwin and dis­missed all charges. Erwin remains in fed­er­al prison for drug trafficking crimes.

Erwin is one of 12 addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions dis­cov­ered by DPIC in 2021 and 2022 dur­ing its research of all mod­ern-era death sen­tences. See a list of all of the addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions here.

---

David Roeder

Texas — Conviction: 1978 , Charges Dismissed: 1989

David Roeder was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for his role in the rob­bery and mur­der of three Houston pro­fes­sion­als. He was resen­tenced to life in prison before a Texas appeals court vacat­ed his con­vic­tion entire­ly in 1988, find­ing that police ille­gal­ly searched his apart­ment and ille­gal­ly arrest­ed him. Prosecutors dis­missed all charges against Roeder in 1989. Roeder’s co-defen­dant Claude Wilkerson, who also had charges dis­missed based on offi­cial mis­con­duct, appears on DPIC’s Innocence List. A third co-defen­dant, Mark Cass, who also had his sen­tence vacat­ed due to offi­cial mis­con­duct, does not meet DPIC’s exon­er­a­tion cri­te­ria but was released and never retried.

Year of Release: 1988 ⌃

---

Richard Neal Jones

Oklahoma — Conviction: 1983 , Acquitted: 1988

Jones was sen­tenced to death in Oklahoma in 1983. Jones main­tains that he was passed out while his three co-defen­dants mur­dered Charles Keene. On appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma remand­ed the case for retri­al. The Court held the jury was prej­u­diced by the improp­er admis­sion of hearsay tes­ti­mo­ny and inflam­ma­to­ry pho­tographs. The Court also agreed with Jones’ asser­tion that the case should be remand­ed on the basis of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. Moreover, the Court held, the case was not one in which Jones’ guilt was ​“over­whelm­ing” and that Jones’ involve­ment was dis­put­ed by the evi­dence. (Jones v. State, 738 P.2^d 525 (Okla. crim. app. 1987) and Oklahoma Publishing Co., 1/​18/​88).

---

Willie Brown

Florida — Conviction: 1983 , Charges Dismissed: 1988

Brown and Troy were sen­tenced to death after being accused of fatal­ly stab­bing a fel­low pris­on­er. The main wit­ness against them was Frank Wise, whose orig­i­nal state­ments exon­er­at­ed the men. Pending retri­al, the charges against the men were dropped when Wise admit­ted that he had per­jured him­self. (Brown v. State, 515 So.2^d 211 (Fla. 1987).

Read ​“The Other 13 Survivors…,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

---

Larry Troy

Florida — Conviction: 1983 , Charges Dismissed: 1988

Brown and Troy were sen­tenced to death after being accused of fatal­ly stab­bing a fel­low pris­on­er. The main wit­ness against them was Frank Wise, whose orig­i­nal state­ments exon­er­at­ed the men. Pending retri­al, the charges against the men were dropped when Wise admit­ted that he had per­jured him­self. (Brown v. State, 515 So.2^d 211 (Fla. 1987).

Read ​“The Other 13 Survivors…,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

---

Charles Tolliver

Ohio — Conviction: 1986 , Acquitted: 1988

In 1986, Charles Tolliver was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death by an all-white jury for killing two men. After con­duct­ing a post-tri­al hear­ing on Tolliver’s motion for a new tri­al, the tri­al court ruled that Cuyahoga County pros­e­cu­tors had uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly exer­cised their peremp­to­ry chal­lenges to remove jurors on the basis of race. Tolliver was acquit­ted of the aggra­vat­ed mur­der charges on retrial.

Tolliver is one of 12 addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions dis­cov­ered by DPIC in 2021 and 2022 dur­ing its research of all mod­ern-era death sen­tences. See a list of all of the addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions here.

Year of Release: 1987 ⌃

---

Joseph Green Brown

Florida — Conviction: 1974 , Charges Dismissed: 1987

Charges were dropped after the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the pros­e­cu­tion had know­ing­ly allowed false tes­ti­mo­ny to be intro­duced at tri­al. Brown was con­vict­ed of first-degree mur­der and sen­tenced to death on the tes­ti­mo­ny of Ronald Floyd, a co-con­spir­a­tor who claimed he heard Brown con­fess to the mur­der. Floyd lat­er retract­ed and admit­ted his tes­ti­mo­ny was lie. Brown came with­in 13 hours of exe­cu­tion when a new tri­al was ordered. Brown was released a year lat­er when the state decid­ed not to retry the case. (Brown v. Wainwright, 785 F.2^d 1457 (11^th Cir. 1986); Los Angeles Times, 5/​10/​87; and Charlotte Observer, 3/​8/​87).

Read ​“Yes, I’m Angry…,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

Read ​“Fourteen Years…,” by George Anderson in America Magazine

---

Perry Cobb

Illinois — Conviction: 1979 , Acquitted: 1987

After two mis­tri­als because of hung juries, Cobb and Williams were con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the first degree rob­bery and mur­der of two white men in 1977. In 1983, the State Supreme Court reversed the con­vic­tions, and after sev­er­al retri­als where an assis­tant state attor­ney tes­ti­fied that the government’s key wit­ness, Phyllis Santini, had told him that her boyfriend actu­al­ly com­mit­ted the mur­ders, Cobb and Williams were acquit­ted and released. (People v. Cobb, 455 N.E.2^d 31 (Ill. 1983) and Chicago Tribune, 1/​21/​87).

Read ​“The Snitch System,” by Northwestern University School of Law Center on Wrongful Conviction

Read ​“A Broken System: Darby Tillis and Perry Cobb” by The Justice Project

---

Darby (Jesse) Tillis

Illinois — Conviction: 1979 , Acquitted: 1987

After two mis­tri­als because of hung juries, Cobb and Williams were con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the first degree rob­bery and mur­der of two white men in 1977. In 1983, the State Supreme Court reversed the con­vic­tions, and after sev­er­al retri­als where an assis­tant state attor­ney tes­ti­fied that the government’s key wit­ness, Phyllis Santini, had told him that her boyfriend actu­al­ly com­mit­ted the mur­ders, Cobb and Williams were acquit­ted and released. (People v. Cobb, 455 N.E.2^d 31 (Ill. 1983) and Chicago Tribune, 1/​21/​87).

Read ​“The Snitch System,” by Northwestern University School of Law Center on Wrongful Conviction

Read ​“A Broken System: Darby Tillis and Perry Cobb” by The Justice Project

UPDATE: Tillis died on Nov. 9, 2014.

---

Vernon McManus

Texas — Conviction: 1977 , Charges Dismissed: 1987

After a new tri­al was ordered, the pros­e­cu­tion dropped the charges when a key pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness refused to testify.

---

Anthony Ray Peek

Florida — Conviction: 1978 , Acquitted: 1987

Peek was con­vict­ed of mur­der and sen­tenced to death, despite wit­ness­es who sup­port­ed his ali­bi. His con­vic­tion was over­turned when expert tes­ti­mo­ny con­cern­ing hair iden­ti­fi­ca­tion evi­dence was shown to be false. He was acquit­ted at his third retri­al. (Peek v. State, 488 So.2^d 52 (Fla. 1986)).

Read ​“The Other 13 Survivors…,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

---

Juan Ramos

Florida — Conviction: 1983 , Acquitted: 1987

Despite a jury rec­om­men­da­tion of life in prison, Juan Ramos was sen­tenced to death for rape and mur­der. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked Ramos to the vic­tim or the scene of the crime. The Florida Supreme Court grant­ed Ramos a new tri­al because of the prosecution’s improp­er use of evi­dence. At retri­al, Ramos was acquit­ted. (Ramos v. State, 496 So.2^d 121 (Fla. 1986) and St. Petersburg Times, 7/​9/​99).

Read ​“Freed From Death Row,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

---

Robert Wallace

Georgia — Conviction: 1980 , Acquitted: 1987

Wallace was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the slay­ing of a police offi­cer, despite his claim that the shoot­ing was acci­den­tal and that he was act­ing in self-defense because he was beat­en by the offi­cers. The 11^th Circuit ordered a retri­al because Wallace had not been com­pe­tent to stand tri­al. He was acquit­ted at the retri­al because it was found that the shoot­ing was acci­den­tal. (Wallace v. Kemp, 757 F.2^d 1102 (1985) and Associated Press, 6/​18/​87).

---

Claude Wilkerson

Texas — Conviction: 1979 , Charges Dismissed: 1987

Claude Wilkerson was con­vict­ed in 1979 for a rob­bery and mur­der that occurred at a Houston jew­el­ry store. Wilkerson’s con­vic­tion was vacat­ed in 1983 by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals when it ruled that the tri­al court erred in admit­ting state­ments tak­en from Wilkerson ille­gal­ly by the police with­out an attor­ney present. Prosecutors dis­missed all charges against Wilkerson in 1987.

Wilkerson is one of 12 addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions dis­cov­ered by DPIC in 2021 and 2022 dur­ing its research of all mod­ern-era death sen­tences. See a list of all of the addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions here.

Year of Release: 1986 ⌃

---

Anthony Brown

Florida — Conviction: 1983 , Acquitted: 1986

Brown was con­vict­ed of first degree mur­der and sen­tenced to death despite a jury rec­om­men­da­tion of life impris­on­ment. At tri­al, the only evi­dence against Brown was a co-defen­dant who was sen­tenced to life for his part in the crime. At retri­al, the co-defen­dant admit­ted that his tes­ti­mo­ny at the first tri­al had been per­jured, and Brown was acquit­ted. (Brown v. State, 471 So.2^d 6 (Fla. 1985)).

Read ​“The Other 13 Survivors…,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

---

Neil Ferber

Pennsylvania — Conviction: 1982 , Charges Dismissed: 1986

Ferber was con­vict­ed of first degree mur­der and sen­tenced to death. Upon urg­ing by the dis­trict attor­ney, the tri­al judge ordered a new tri­al. The charges against Ferber were dropped pri­or to the retri­al when evi­dence sur­faced that the con­vic­tion was based on the per­jured tes­ti­mo­ny of a jail-house infor­mant, excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence was not dis­closed to the defense, and an eye­wit­ness to the crime was pos­i­tive that Ferber was not the man she saw. Several oth­er pros­e­cu­tors and a homi­cide detec­tive were con­vinced of Ferber’s inno­cence. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8/​18/​96).

---

Clifford Henry Bowen

Oklahoma — Conviction: 1981 , Charges Dismissed: 1986

Bowen was incar­cer­at­ed in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary under three death sen­tences for over five years when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit final­ly over­turned his con­vic­tion in 1986. The Court held that pros­e­cu­tors in the case failed to dis­close infor­ma­tion about anoth­er sus­pect, Lee Crowe, and that had the defense known of the Crowe mate­ri­als, the result of the tri­al would prob­a­bly have been dif­fer­ent. Crowe resem­bled Bowen, had greater motive, no ali­bi, and habit­u­al­ly car­ried the same gun and unusu­al ammu­ni­tion as the mur­der weapon. Bowen, on the oth­er hand, main­tained his inno­cence, pro­vid­ed twelve ali­bi wit­ness­es to con­firm that he was 300 miles from the crime scene just one hour pri­or to the crime, and could not be linked by any phys­i­cal evi­dence to the crime. (Bowen v. Maynard, 799 F.2^d 593 (10^th Cir. 1986) and Oklahoma Publishing Co., 7/​31/​87).

Read ​“Cowboy Bob…” by Ken Armstrong in The Chicago Tribune

Year of Release: 1985 ⌃

---

Larry Fisher

Mississippi — Conviction: 1984 , Acquitted: 1985

Larry Fisher was charged with the rape and mur­der of an 18-year-old high school stu­dent in Meridian Mississippi in 1983. A series of sim­i­lar crimes had occurred in the same area and the pre-tri­al media cov­er­age of the case was exten­sive. Fisher asked for a change of venue but was denied. He was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1984. The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed his con­vic­tion and sen­tence because the sat­u­ra­tion media cov­er­age required a change of venue: ​“In a very real sense Fisher’s guilt was announced by the news media of Meridian, Mississippi, loud­ly and long before a Lauderdale County jury was ever impan­eled to hear the case. By this he was denied his right to a fair tri­al before the tri­al began.” (Fisher v. Mississippi, 481 So.2^d 203, 206 (1985)). Fisher was re-tried two months lat­er in a dif­fer­ent coun­ty and was acquit­ted of all charges. (See Fisher v. Mississippi, 532 So.2^d 992, 994 (1988) (uphold­ing his con­vic­tion in a dif­fer­ent case)). Fisher remained incar­cer­at­ed because of a sep­a­rate rape conviction.

---

Justin Cruz

Texas — Conviction: 1984 , Appellate Acquittal: 1985

Justin Cruz was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1984. His con­vic­tion was based heav­i­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of an alleged accom­plice with­out phys­i­cal evi­dence link­ing him to the crime. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that the evi­dence was insuf­fi­cient to con­vict because it was based on uncor­rob­o­rat­ed accom­plice tes­ti­mo­ny and ordered Cruz to be acquitted.

Cruz is one of 12 addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions dis­cov­ered by DPIC in 2021 and 2022 dur­ing its research of all mod­ern-era death sen­tences. See a list of all of the addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions here.

Year of Release: 1982 ⌃

---

Anibal Jarramillo

Florida — Conviction: 1981 , Charges Dismissed: 1982

Jarramillo was sen­tenced to death for two counts of first degree mur­der, despite the jury’s unan­i­mous rec­om­men­da­tion of life impris­on­ment. On appeal, his con­vic­tion was reversed when the Florida Supreme Court ruled the evi­dence used against him was not legal­ly suf­fi­cient to sup­port the con­vic­tion. (Jarramillo v. State, 417 So.2^d 257 (Fla. 1982)). Evidence sug­gests that the mur­der­er may have been the vic­tims’ roommate.

Read ​“The Other 13 Survivors…,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

---

Lawyer Johnson

Massachusetts — Conviction: 1971 , Charges Dismissed: 1982

Johnson, a black man, was sen­tenced to death by an all-white jury for the mur­der of a white vic­tim. In 1974, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts grant­ed Johnson a new tri­al because the tri­al judge had improp­er­ly lim­it­ed the defense’s oppor­tu­ni­ty to cross-exam­ine Kenneth Myers, the state’s chief wit­ness, about oth­er per­sons who were present at the mur­der scene. The court not­ed that Myers had ​“chang[ed] his sto­ry in mate­r­i­al respects at least three times” and that a new­ly dis­cov­ered wit­ness, who knew both Myers and Johnson, had seen three indi­vid­u­als — one of whom was Myers and none of whom was Johnson — flee­ing the mur­der scene. Johnson was retried and, despite the tes­ti­mo­ny of this sec­ond wit­ness, was con­vict­ed of sec­ond-degree mur­der. After the con­vic­tion, a pre­vi­ous­ly silent eye­wit­ness who had been 10 years old at the time of the mur­der, came for­ward and iden­ti­fied Myers as the actu­al killer. Based on this new evi­dence, the tri­al court, affirmed by the Massachusetts supreme court, over­turned the sec­ond con­vic­tion. (Commonwealth v. Johnson, 429 N.E.2^d 726 (1982)). The pros­e­cu­tion then dropped all charges against Johnson. In 1983, a bill was filed to obtain com­pen­sa­tion for Johnson’s wrongful conviction.

Year of Release: 1981 ⌃

---

Charles Ray Giddens

Oklahoma — Conviction: 1978 , Charges Dismissed: 1981

Giddens, an 18-year-old black man, was con­vict­ed for the mur­der of a gro­cery store cashier pri­mar­i­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of Johnnie Gray, who claimed he accom­pa­nied Giddens to the mur­der scene. Although Gray was nev­er indict­ed, Giddens was sen­tenced to death after an all white jury delib­er­at­ed for only 15 min­utes. Giddens con­vic­tion and death sen­tence reversed by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, which found Gray’s tes­ti­mo­ny was unre­li­able and the evi­dence against Giddens insuf­fi­cient. (Giddens v. State, No. F‑78 – 164 (Ct. of Crim. App., 11/​17/​81)) The charges against Giddens were dropped.

---

Michael Linder

South Carolina — Conviction: 1979 , Acquitted: 1981

Linder was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of a high­way patrol offi­cer. The pros­e­cu­tion main­tained that Linder shot the offi­cer with­out provo­ca­tion but Linder insist­ed that he shot the offi­cer in self-defense after the offi­cer fired six shots at him. At re-tri­al, pre­vi­ous­ly undis­closed bal­lis­tics evi­dence from a state crime lab con­firmed Linder’s self-defense the­o­ry and Linder was acquit­ted. (State v. Linder, 278 S.E.2^d 335 (S.C. 1981)).

---

Johnny Ross

Louisiana — Conviction: 1975 , Charges Dismissed: 1981

Ross, a black 16-year old, was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the rape of a white woman. Ross con­fessed after being beat­en by the police, and his tri­al last­ed only a few hours. Investigations by the Southern Poverty Law Center sought a new tri­al for Ross and pre­sent­ed evi­dence that the Ross’ blood type was not the same as the type in the semen found in the vic­tim. When pre­sent­ed with this evi­dence the New Orleans District Attorney’s office released Ross. (State v. Ross, 343 So.2^d 722 (La. 1977)).

---

Ernest (Shujaa) Graham

California — Conviction: 1976 , Acquitted: 1981

In November 1973, while incar­cer­at­ed in a state prison facil­i­ty, Ernest Graham and co-defen­dant Eugene Allen were charged with killing a state cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer. Their first tri­al result­ed in a mis­tri­al when the jury could not agree on a ver­dict. They were sen­tenced to death in 1976 after their sec­ond tri­al. The Supreme Court of California reversed their con­vic­tions because the pros­e­cu­tion dis­crim­i­na­to­ri­ly exer­cised its peremp­to­ry chal­lenges to exclude Black prospec­tive jurors. The court found Graham and Allen, both of whom are Black, ​“belonged to the group whose mem­bers the dis­trict attor­ney had exclud­ed where­as the alleged vic­tim was a mem­ber of the group to which [all] of the remain­ing jurors belong.” People v. Allen, 590 P.2^d 30, 34 (Cal. 1979) (inter­nal cita­tions omit­ted). Their third tri­al end­ed in anoth­er hung jury, and both were acquit­ted by the jury in their fourth trial.

Allen is one of 12 addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions dis­cov­ered by DPIC in 2021 and 2022 dur­ing its research of all mod­ern-era death sen­tences. See a list of all of the addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions here.

---

Eugene Allen

California — Conviction: 1976 , Acquitted: 1981

In November 1973, while incar­cer­at­ed in a state prison facil­i­ty, Ernest Graham and co-defen­dant Eugene Allen were charged with killing a state cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer. Their first tri­al result­ed in a mis­tri­al when the jury could not agree on a ver­dict. They were sen­tenced to death in 1976 after their sec­ond tri­al. The Supreme Court of California reversed their con­vic­tions because the pros­e­cu­tion dis­crim­i­na­to­ri­ly exer­cised its peremp­to­ry chal­lenges to exclude Black prospec­tive jurors. The court found Graham and Allen, both of whom are Black, ​“belonged to the group whose mem­bers the dis­trict attor­ney had exclud­ed where­as the alleged vic­tim was a mem­ber of the group to which [all] of the remain­ing jurors belong.” People v. Allen, 590 P.2^d 30, 34 (Cal. 1979) (inter­nal cita­tions omit­ted). Their third tri­al end­ed in anoth­er hung jury, and both were acquit­ted by the jury in their fourth trial.

Allen is one of 12 addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions dis­cov­ered by DPIC in 2021 and 2022 dur­ing its research of all mod­ern-era death sen­tences. See a list of all of the addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions here.

---

Joe Cota Morales

Arizona — Conviction: 1976 , Acquitted: 1981

Joe Cota Morales was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1976 for the mur­der of Tony Calistro in Glendale, Arizona. His co-defen­dant, Ruben Melendez, was also con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. A third co-defen­dant, who was 15 years old at the time of the crime, was tried in juve­nile court. The Arizona Supreme Court over­turned the con­vic­tions of Morales and Melendez in 1978 because the judge did not allow the defense to cross-exam­ine the juve­nile co-defen­dant about his agree­ment to plead guilty and tes­ti­fy against the oth­er two in exchange for being tried as a juve­nile, rather than being cap­i­tal­ly tried as an adult. After their con­vic­tions were over­turned, Melendez pled guilty in exchange for a life sentence.

Morales was retried in 1979. He was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to life in prison. In 1981, the Arizona Supreme Court reversed that con­vic­tion because pros­e­cu­tors refused to turn over doc­u­ments show­ing incon­sis­ten­cies in the tes­ti­mo­ny of Morales’ juve­nile co-defen­dant that raised ques­tions as to Morales’ guilt. Morales was tried for the third time in 1981, and was acquitted.

---

Charles Lee Bufford

Alabama — Conviction: 1978 , Acquitted: 1981

Charles Lee Bufford was con­vict­ed for the April 1977 mur­der of a promi­nent local politi­cian. Bufford’s con­vic­tion was over­turned on appeal as a result of the tri­al court’s con­sid­er­a­tion of improp­er aggra­vat­ing fac­tors. On retri­al, the defense raised ques­tions about the accu­ra­cy of Bufford’s state­ment to police and the inves­ti­ga­tion of the case. Bufford was acquit­ted of all charges.

Bufford is one of 12 addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions dis­cov­ered by DPIC in 2021 and 2022 dur­ing its research of all mod­ern-era death sen­tences. See a list of all of the addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions here.

Year of Release: 1980 ⌃

---

Jerry Banks

Georgia — Conviction: 1975 , Charges Dismissed: 1980

Sentenced to death for two counts of mur­der. Banks’ con­vic­tion was over­turned on the basis of new­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence which was alleged­ly known to the state. (Banks v. State, 218 S.E.2^d 851 (Ga. 1975)). Banks com­mit­ted sui­cide after his wife divorced him. His estate won a set­tle­ment from the coun­ty for the ben­e­fit of his children.

---

Larry Hicks

Indiana — Conviction: 1978 , Acquitted: 1980

Hicks was con­vict­ed on two counts of mur­der and was sen­tenced to death. Two weeks pri­or to his sched­uled exe­cu­tion, with the help of a vol­un­teer attor­ney, Hicks received a stay. The Playboy Foundation became inter­est­ed in this claim of inno­cence and sup­plied funds for a rein­ves­ti­ga­tion after he passed lie detec­tor tests. At retri­al, Hicks was acquit­ted and released after evi­dence estab­lished Hicks’s ali­bi and showed that eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny against him at his orig­i­nal tri­al was per­jured
 

Read ​“The Ordeal of Larry Hicks,” by Nile Stanton, a defense attor­ney for Larry Hicks

---

Thomas Pearson

Ohio — Conviction: 1976 , Appellate Acquittal: 1980

In September 1976, Avila Chambliss impli­cat­ed him­self, Thomas Pearson, and Samuel Taylor in the mur­der and rob­bery of Joseph Witcraft. Pearson was tried indi­vid­u­al­ly before a jury that con­vict­ed him of aggra­vat­ed mur­der, aggra­vat­ed rob­bery and kid­nap­ping. As a result, the tri­al court sen­tenced him to death. Pearson’s con­vic­tion was vacat­ed on appeal because the only evi­dence con­nect­ing the defen­dants with the crime was the uncor­rob­o­rat­ed tes­ti­mo­ny of an accom­plice. Because Pearson’s con­vic­tion was vacat­ed for insuf­fi­cient evi­dence, the case was inel­i­gi­ble for retrial.

Pearson is one of 12 addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions dis­cov­ered by DPIC in 2021 and 2022 dur­ing its research of all mod­ern-era death sen­tences. See a list of all of the addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions here.

Year of Release: 1979 ⌃

---

Gary Beeman

Ohio — Conviction: 1976 , Acquitted: 1979

Beeman was con­vict­ed of aggra­vat­ed mur­der and sen­tenced to death. He main­tained that he was inno­cent and that Claire Liuzzo, an escaped pris­on­er who tes­ti­fied as the main pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness at Beeman’s first tri­al, was the actu­al killer. In 1978 the District Court of Appeals grant­ed Beeman a new tri­al, find­ing that Beeman’s right to cross-exam­ine Liuzzo had been unfair­ly restrict­ed at his first tri­al. On retri­al five wit­ness­es tes­ti­fied that they heard Liuzzo con­fess to the mur­der and Beeman was acquit­ted. (Ashtabula Star Beacon, Oct. 5, 1979, p.1; Sept. 29, 1979, p.14).

Year of Release: 1978 ⌃

---

Earl Charles

Georgia — Conviction: 1975 , Charges Dismissed: 1978

Charles was con­vict­ed on two counts of mur­der and sen­tenced to death. He was released when evi­dence was found that sub­stan­ti­at­ed his ali­bi. (State v. Charles, No. 23,392 (Ga. Super. Ct., 7/​5/​78)). After an inves­ti­ga­tion, the dis­trict attor­ney announced that he would not retry the case. Charles won a sub­stan­tial set­tle­ment from city offi­cials for mis­con­duct in the original investigation.

Read ​“Capital Punishment’s Deathly Injustice,” by John Boger in The Los Angeles Times

---

Jonathan Treadaway

Arizona — Conviction: 1975 , Acquitted: 1978

Treadaway was con­vict­ed of sodomy and first degree mur­der of a six-year-old and sen­tenced to death. The con­vic­tion was over­turned, and he was acquit­ted of all charges at retri­al by the jury after 5 pathol­o­gists tes­ti­fied that the vic­tim prob­a­bly died of nat­ur­al caus­es and that there was no evi­dence of sodomy. Members of the jury report­ed not­ed that pros­e­cu­tors had failed to prove that Treadaway was even inside the vic­tims’ home. (State v. Treadaway, 568 P.2^d 1061 (1977))

---

Gary Radi

Montana — Conviction: 1975 , Acquitted: 1978

Gary Radi was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1975 for the mur­der of a gro­cery store employ­ee dur­ing the course of a rob­bery. Radi was tried togeth­er with three code­fen­dants. Edwin Bushman received immu­ni­ty from pros­e­cu­tion in exchange for tes­ti­mo­ny impli­cat­ing the four defen­dants, and the defense pre­sent­ed no evi­dence at tri­al. The Montana Supreme Court reversed Radi’s and the oth­er defen­dants’ con­vic­tions, rul­ing that the defen­dants should have been tried sep­a­rate­ly. In 1978, Radi was acquit­ted on retrial.

Radi is one of 12 addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions dis­cov­ered by DPIC in 2021 and 2022 dur­ing its research of all mod­ern-era death sen­tences. See a list of all of the addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions here.

Year of Release: 1977 ⌃

---

Delbert Tibbs

Florida — Conviction: 1974 , Charges Dismissed: 1977

Tibbs was sen­tenced to death for the rape of a six­teen-year-old white girl and the mur­der of her com­pan­ion. Tibbs, a black the­o­log­i­cal stu­dent, was con­vict­ed by an all-white jury on the tes­ti­mo­ny of the female vic­tim whose tes­ti­mo­ny was uncor­rob­o­rat­ed and incon­sis­tent with her first descrip­tion of her assailant. The con­vic­tion was over­turned by the Florida Supreme Court because the ver­dict was not sup­port­ed by the weight of the evi­dence, and the state decid­ed not to retry the case. Tibbs’ for­mer pros­e­cu­tor said that the orig­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion had been taint­ed from the begin­ning and that if there was a retri­al, he would appear as a wit­ness for Tibbs. (Tibbs v. State, 337 So.2^d 788 (Fla. 1976)).

Watch ​“Barred From Life’s” inter­view with Delbert Tibbs

Read ​“The Other 13 Survivors…,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

UPDATE: Delbert Tibbs died on Nov. 23, 2013.

Year of Release: 1976 ⌃

---

Thomas Gladish

New Mexico — Conviction: 1974 , Charges Dismissed: 1976

The four were con­vict­ed of mur­der, kid­nap­ping, sodomy, and rape and were sen­tenced to death. A sub­se­quent inves­ti­ga­tion by the Detroit News uncov­ered lies by the prosecution’s star wit­ness, per­jured iden­ti­fi­ca­tion giv­en under police pres­sure, and the use of poor­ly admin­is­tered lie detec­tor tests. A state dis­trict judge dis­missed the orig­i­nal indict­ments and the men were released after the mur­der weapon was traced to a drifter from South Carolina who admit­ted to the killing. (Detroit News Magazine, 1/​11/​76 and Detroit News, 12/​16/​75).

---

Richard Greer

New Mexico — Conviction: 1974 , Charges Dismissed: 1976

The four were con­vict­ed of mur­der, kid­nap­ping, sodomy, and rape and were sen­tenced to death. A sub­se­quent inves­ti­ga­tion by the Detroit News uncov­ered lies by the prosecution’s star wit­ness, per­jured iden­ti­fi­ca­tion giv­en under police pres­sure, and the use of poor­ly admin­is­tered lie detec­tor tests. A state dis­trict judge dis­missed the orig­i­nal indict­ments and the men were released after the mur­der weapon was traced to a drifter from South Carolina who admit­ted to the killing. (Detroit News Magazine, 1/​11/​76 and Detroit News, 12/​16/​75).

---

Ronald Keine

New Mexico — Conviction: 1974 , Charges Dismissed: 1976

The four were con­vict­ed of mur­der, kid­nap­ping, sodomy, and rape and were sen­tenced to death. A sub­se­quent inves­ti­ga­tion by the Detroit News uncov­ered lies by the prosecution’s star wit­ness, per­jured iden­ti­fi­ca­tion giv­en under police pres­sure, and the use of poor­ly admin­is­tered lie detec­tor tests. A state dis­trict judge dis­missed the orig­i­nal indict­ments and the men were released after the mur­der weapon was traced to a drifter from South Carolina who admit­ted to the killing. (Detroit News Magazine, 1/​11/​76 and Detroit News, 12/​16/​75).

---

Clarence Smith

New Mexico — Conviction: 1974 , Charges Dismissed: 1976

The four were con­vict­ed of mur­der, kid­nap­ping, sodomy, and rape and were sen­tenced to death. A sub­se­quent inves­ti­ga­tion by the Detroit News uncov­ered lies by the prosecution’s star wit­ness, per­jured iden­ti­fi­ca­tion giv­en under police pres­sure, and the use of poor­ly admin­is­tered lie detec­tor tests. A state dis­trict judge dis­missed the orig­i­nal indict­ments and the men were released after the mur­der weapon was traced to a drifter from South Carolina who admit­ted to the killing. (Detroit News Magazine, 1/​11/​76 and Detroit News, 12/​16/​75).

---

John Thomas Alford

North Carolina — Conviction: 1975 , Acquitted: 1976

John Thomas Alford was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1975. Alford was tried with a code­fen­dant who con­fessed to the mur­der. Alford pre­sent­ed evi­dence and wit­ness­es that he was not at the scene of the crime, but he was not allowed to offer his codefendant’s con­fes­sion as evi­dence of his inno­cence. The North Carolina Supreme Court reversed his con­vic­tion and sen­tence and ordered Alford be retried sep­a­rate­ly from his code­fen­dant. At retri­al, he was acquit­ted of all charges.

Alford is one of 12 addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions dis­cov­ered by DPIC in 2021 and 2022 dur­ing its research of all mod­ern-era death sen­tences. See a list of all of the addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions here.

Year of Release: 1975 ⌃

---

Wilbert Lee

Florida — Conviction: 1963 , Pardoned: 1975

Although no phys­i­cal evi­dence linked them to the deaths of two white men, Lee and Pitts’ guilty pleas, the tes­ti­mo­ny of an alleged eye­wit­ness, and incom­pe­tent defense coun­sel led to their con­vic­tions. The men were sen­tenced to death but main­tained their inno­cence. After their con­vic­tions, anoth­er man con­fessed to the crime, the eye­wit­ness recant­ed her accu­sa­tions, and the state Attorney General admit­ted that the state had unlaw­ful­ly sup­pressed evi­dence. The men were grant­ed a new tri­al (Pitts v. State 247 So.2^d 53 (Fla. 1971)) but were again con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. They were released in 1975 when they received a full par­don from Governor Askew, who stat­ed he was ​“suf­fi­cient­ly con­vinced that they were innocent.”

(Florida Times-Union, 4/​23/​98).

Read ​“The Other 13 Survivors…,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

---

Freddie Pitts

Florida — Conviction: 1963 , Pardoned: 1975

Although no phys­i­cal evi­dence linked them to the deaths of two white men, Lee and Pitts’ guilty pleas, the tes­ti­mo­ny of an alleged eye­wit­ness, and incom­pe­tent defense coun­sel led to their con­vic­tions. The men were sen­tenced to death but main­tained their inno­cence. After their con­vic­tions, anoth­er man con­fessed to the crime, the eye­wit­ness recant­ed her accu­sa­tions, and the state Attorney General admit­ted that the state had unlaw­ful­ly sup­pressed evi­dence. The men were grant­ed a new tri­al (Pitts v. State 247 So.2^d 53 (Fla. 1971)) but were again con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. They were released in 1975 when they received a full par­don from Governor Askew, who stat­ed he was ​“suf­fi­cient­ly con­vinced that they were innocent.”

(Florida Times-Union, 4/​23/​98).

Read ​“The Other 13 Survivors…,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times

---

James Creamer

Georgia — Conviction: 1973 , Charges Dismissed: 1975

Creamer was sen­tenced to death for a mur­der alleged­ly com­mit­ted with six oth­er indi­vid­u­als who were sen­tenced to life. (Cobb Superior Court, Cobb County, Georgia, Certified record) After an inves­ti­ga­tion by the Atlanta Constitution, a fed­er­al judge declared that the pros­e­cu­tion had with­held and destroyed evi­dence, a wit­ness admit­ted she had lied in court, and anoth­er man con­fessed to the crimes (Emmett v. Ricketts, 397 F. Supp 1025 (N.D. Ga. 1975)). The con­vic­tions against all sev­en men were over­turned, and charges were lat­er dropped. An appel­late judge in a relat­ed case stat­ed that all sev­en indi­vid­u­als in this case were sen­tenced to life. The Clerk of the Cobb Superior Court has cer­ti­fied that Creamer alone was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death. Creamer was resen­tenced to life in prison in September 1973.

---

Christopher Spicer

North Carolina — Conviction: 1973 , Acquitted: 1975

In 1975, a North Carolina jury acquit­ted Christopher Spicer of the mur­der of Donnie P. Christian. Spicer was con­vict­ed of the crime in September 1973, but the con­vic­tion was over­turned the fol­low­ing year by the North Carolina Supreme Court. (State v. Spicer, 204 SE 2^d 641 (1974)). At Spicer’s tri­al, the State offered the tes­ti­mo­ny of Charles Pennington, a jail­house snitch. Although the defense intro­duced two wit­ness­es who tes­ti­fied that Pennington and Spicer were nev­er cell mates, Pennington tes­ti­fied that Spicer admit­ted to the crime while he and Spicer shared a cell. After shar­ing this ​“con­fes­sion” with police, Pennington’s bond was reduced from $5,000 to $400 and he was released from jail. In over­turn­ing Spicer’s con­vic­tion, the North Carolina Supreme Court held that the tri­al judge com­mit­ted reversible error by not allow­ing defense coun­sel to cross exam­ine Pennington ​“to dis­cov­er whom the wit­ness was indebt­ed for such favors and to ascer­tain to what extent the favors col­ored his tes­ti­mo­ny against Spicer.” Id. at 646. Defense coun­sel was unable to ques­tion Pennington as to who was pay­ing the liv­ing expens­es of Pennington and his wife, nei­ther of whom was work­ing at the time. The court also found that the tri­al court com­mit­ted reversible error when it ​“suc­ceed­ed in pres­sur­ing the defen­dant and his coun­sel into with­draw­ing the request for an appro­pri­ate instruc­tion” with regard to how the jury should scru­ti­nize the tes­ti­mo­ny of anoth­er wit­ness for the State, Bertie Brailford. (Id. at 648). At Spicer’s retri­al, the jury took only 15 min­utes to unan­i­mous­ly acquit him. (Wilmington Morning Star, February 21, 1975).

---

Howard Jackson Stack

Georgia — Conviction: 1973 , Charges Dismissed: 1975

Howard Jackson Stack was sen­tenced to death in 1973 in Fulton County, Georgia. Stack’s code­fen­dant pled guilty to vol­un­tary manslaugh­ter and received a sen­tence of 15 years in exchange for tes­ti­fy­ing against Stack. In 1975, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed Stack’s con­vic­tion and death sen­tence on the grounds that the tri­al court had improp­er­ly allowed the oper­a­tor of a lie detec­tor test to tes­ti­fy in court. Prosecutors declined to retry Stack.

Stack is one of 12 addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions dis­cov­ered by DPIC in 2021 and 2022 dur­ing its research of all mod­ern-era death sen­tences. See a list of all of the addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions here.

Year of Release: 1974 ⌃

---

Samuel A. Poole

North Carolina — Conviction: 1973 , Charges Dismissed: 1974

After being con­vict­ed of first degree bur­glary and giv­en a manda­to­ry death sen­tence, Poole had his con­vic­tion over­turned by the N.C. Supreme Court because the case lacked sub­stan­tial evi­dence that Poole was the per­son who broke into the home.
 

State v. Poole, 203 S.E.2^d 786 (N.C. 1974).

---

Anthony Carey

North Carolina — Conviction: 1973 , Charges Dismissed: 1974

Anthony Carey was tried and sen­tenced to death along with his broth­er, Albert Carey, in 1973 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Neither of the broth­ers were accused of com­mit­ting the mur­der in ques­tion; how­ev­er both were sen­tenced to death as accom­plices. Anthony Carey was alleged­ly a pas­sen­ger in a car parked mul­ti­ple blocks away from where the crime was com­mit­ted and did not han­dle the gun involved in the mur­der. Anthony Carey’s con­vic­tion relied pri­mar­i­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of the shoot­er, James Mitchell, who had entered into a plea deal with pros­e­cu­tors. Mitchell recant­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny after the Careys were con­vict­ed but before the tri­al of two oth­er code­fen­dants. Both broth­ers’ death sen­tences were reversed in 1974 by the North Carolina Supreme Court. Albert Carey was retried and sen­tenced to death again, but the pros­e­cu­tor dropped charges against Anthony Carey because there was insuf­fi­cient evi­dence to retry him with­out Mitchell’s testimony.

Carey is one of 12 addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions dis­cov­ered by DPIC in 2021 and 2022 dur­ing its research of all mod­ern-era death sen­tences. See a list of all of the addi­tion­al exon­er­a­tions here.

Year of Release: 1973 ⌃

---

David Keaton

Florida — Conviction: 1971 , Charges Dismissed: 1973

On the basis of mis­tak­en iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and coerced con­fes­sions, Keaton was sen­tenced to death for mur­der­ing an off-duty deputy sher­iff dur­ing a rob­bery. The State Supreme Court reversed the con­vic­tion and grant­ed Keaton a new tri­al because of new­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence. Charges were dropped and he was released after the actu­al killer was iden­ti­fied and con­vict­ed. (Keaton v. State, 273 So.2^d 385 (1973)).

Read ​“The Stigma is Always There,” by Sydney Freedberg in The St. Petersburg Times.

UPDATE: Mr. Keaton died in 2015 at age 63.