On August 7, the Special Master assigned to review the case of Reginald Clemons (pic­tured) in Missouri announced that pros­e­cu­tors with­held evi­dence indi­cat­ing detec­tives beat Clemons into con­fess­ing to rape and mur­der that led to his death sen­tence. Clemons recant­ed the con­fes­sion, but a tape of it was played at tri­al and he was con­vict­ed in 1993. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked him to the rape. Judge Michael Manners, who con­duct­ed spe­cial evi­den­tiary hear­ings on Clemons’s pos­si­ble inno­cence, said the state’s with­hold­ing of evi­dence was not ​“harm­less error.” Nevertheless, he ruled that Clemons failed to estab­lish his actu­al inno­cence because the ver­dict would have been the same with­out the con­fes­sion. The report now goes to the Missouri Supreme Court for review.

(J. Currier, ​“Judge: Old Chain of Rocks Bridge killer failed to estab­lish inno­cence,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 7, 2013). See Innocence and Arbitrariness.

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