Entries tagged with “Wrongful capital prosecutions”
Policy Issues
Costs
,Innocence
,Jun 24, 2022
Idaho Falls Will Pay $11.7 Million to Exoneree Coerced Into False Confession by Threat of the Death Penalty
The city of Idaho Falls, Idaho has agreed to a settlement of $11.7 million with an exoneree who spent 20 years in prison for a rape and murder he did not…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Nov 12, 2019
“Unrequited Innocence” with Rob Warden and John Seasly
Rob Warden and John Seasly speak with Anne Holsinger about their law review article and profile series, “Unrequited Innocence,” which examine death-penalty cases in which prisoners have not been exonerated, despite strong evidence of innocence. Warden, the Executive Director Emeritus of the Center on Wrongful Convictions and a co-founder of both the National Registry of Exonerations and Injustice Watch, and Seasly, a reporter at Injustice Watch, profiled 24 cases involving 25 defendants with…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Official Misconduct
,Oct 23, 2019
Louisiana Man Freed 42 Years After Wrongful Conviction in Death-Penalty Trial
A Louisiana prisoner wrongfully prosecuted for capital murder has agreed to a plea deal that secures his freedom after spending 42 years in prison for a crime he says he did not commit. With the assistance of the Innocence Project New Orleans, Elvis Brooks (pictured) succeeded in overturning his 1997 conviction and agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges in exchange for his release on October 15,…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Oct 01, 2019
After Nearly Six Years in Jail Because of Unaffordable Bail, Kentucky Man Acquitted of Capital Murder
A Kentucky man who languished in jail for nearly six years because of bail he could not afford has been acquitted of capital murder and related charges. Eugene “Red” Mitchell (pictured) faced the death penalty on charges that he had raped, sodomized, and murdered Sheila Devine, a Louisville grandmother. On September 18, 2019, a Jefferson County jury found Mitchell not guilty of all charges against him. He had spent five years, eight months…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Aug 29, 2019
Samuel Bonner freed 37 years after wrongful capital prosecution in Los Angeles
Thirty-seven years after his wrongful capital prosecution and conviction for a murder he did not commit, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has set Samuel Bonner free. Citing “gross prosecutorial misconduct” that he said “shocks the conscience,” Judge Daniel J. Lowenthal(pictured) on July 11, 2019 ordered Bonner released from California state…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Official Misconduct
,Apr 23, 2019
Wrongful Use or Threat of Capital Prosecutions Implicated in Five Exonerations in 2018
At least five people were exonerated in 2018 after having been wrongfully convicted in cases that involved the misuse or threatened use of the death penalty, a DPIC analysis of data accompanying a new report by the National Registry of Exonerations has shown. The National Registry’s annual report on wrongful convictions, Exonerations in 2018, recorded a record 151 new exonerations across the United States in 2018, including 68 exonerations resulting from wrongful homicide…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Mar 25, 2019
Florida Man Who Took Plea to Avoid Death Penalty Posthumously Exonerated of 1983 Rape-Murder
Broward County, Florida prosecutors moved to posthumously exonerate Ronald Stewart (pictured) of a rape and murder he did not commit. Stewart pled no contest to the 1983 rape and murder of Regina Harrison after he was threatened with the death penalty. The actual killer, whose guilt has since been confirmed by DNA testing, went on to murder at least two more women after…
Policy Issues
Costs
,Innocence
,Oct 15, 2018
Nebraska County Raises Property Taxes, Seeks State Bailout to Pay Wrongful Conviction Compensation
A Nebraska county has raised property taxes on its residents and asked the state legislature for a bailout to help pay a $28.1 million civil judgment it owes to six men and women wrongly convicted of rape and murder after having been threatened with the death penalty. The so-called “Beatrice Six” (pictured) successfully sued Gage County for official misconduct that led to their wrongful convictions in the…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Official Misconduct
,Jan 30, 2018
Colorado Supreme Court Overturns Prison-Murder Conviction, Says Prosecutors Withheld Evidence in Death-Penalty Case
The Colorado Supreme Court has upheld a trial court ruling overturning the first-degree murder conviction of David Bueno (pictured) after Arapahoe County prosecutors who sought the death penalty against him in a prison killing hid evidence that pointed to another suspect. The January 22 ruling comes in the wake of a trial court ruling that prosecutors in the state’s 18th Judicial District, which includes Arapahoe County, also suppressed…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Official Misconduct
,May 16, 2017
Two Philadelphia Detectives, Three Wrongful Capital Prosecutions
On May 13, 2017, James “Jimmy” Dennis (pictured, center, with some of his defense team) was released from prison after more than 25 years on Pennsylvania’s death row. His release marked the culmination of three unrelated wrongful capital prosecutions in Philadelphia in the early-1990s, with the common thread a pattern of misconduct by the same two Philadelphia homicide…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Official Misconduct
,Aug 24, 2016
Pennsylvania Death Row Inmate Granted New Trial on Innocence-Related Claims; Capitally-Charged Inmate Exonerated
Two Philadelphia, Pennsylvania capital cases involving men who have long asserted their innocence reached major milestones on August 23, with one winning an appeal granting him a new trial and a jury acquitting a second in his retrial. Both cases involved allegations of serious police and prosecutorial misconduct. James Dennis (pictured), who has been on the Commonwealth’s death row for nearly 25 years, was granted a new trial by the U.S. Court of Appeals for…
Policy Issues
Costs
,Innocence
,New Voices
,Jul 11, 2016
Nebraska Exonerees Awarded $28 Million, Prosecutor Says Case Made Him Oppose Death Penalty
A federal court jury has awarded six Nebraska exonerees (pictured, at their exoneration) $28 million in damages for official misconduct that led to their wrongful convictions in the 1985 rape and murder of Helen…
Policy Issues
Arbitrariness
,Innocence
,Jan 28, 2009
Five Innocent People Exonerated in Nebraska; Defendants Were Threatened with Death Penalty
Five people in Nebraska were recently pardoned for a 1985 murder after new DNA evidence excluded their participation in the crime. The group was also known as the “Beatrice Six.” The sixth man, the only one who had insisted on a jury trial, was exonerated in October 2008 when prosecutors declined to seek a new…