Entries tagged with “Jesse Johnson

Policy Issues

Innocence

,

Sep 08, 2023

Former Oregon Death Row Prisoner Freed 2 Years After Reversed Conviction, 194th Death Row Exoneration

On September 5, 2023, Jesse Johnson (pic­tured) 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…

Policy Issues

Innocence

,

Race

,

Representation

,

Oct 06, 2021

Oregon Appellate Court Grants New Trial to Death-Row Prisoner Jesse Johnson, Finding Trial Counsel Failed to Interview Witness Whose Testimony Could Potentially Exonerate Him

An Oregon appel­late court has grant­ed a new tri­al to death-row pris­on­er Jesse Johnson, find­ing his tri­al coun­sel inef­fec­tive for fail­ing to inter­view a neigh­bor of the homi­cide vic­tim whose eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny could poten­tial­ly exon­er­ate him of the…