The Death Penalty Information Center recent­ly became aware of two old­er cap­i­tal cas­es in which the defen­dants had been sen­tenced to death but were lat­er acquit­ted at re-tri­al. We have added Christopher McCrimmon of Arizona and Larry Fisher of Mississippi to our inno­cence list, bring­ing the total num­ber of peo­ple released from death row on the basis of inno­cence to 121 since 1973. McCrimmon is the eighth per­son to be exon­er­at­ed from Arizona’s death row, and Fisher is the sec­ond death row exoneree from Mississippi. A brief descrip­tion of the cas­es fol­lows:

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.2d 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.3d 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).

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.2d 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.2d 992, 994 (1988) (uphold­ing his con­vic­tion in a dif­fer­ent case)). Fisher remained incar­cer­at­ed because of a sep­a­rate rape con­vic­tion.

DPIC’s inno­cence list includes those for­mer death row inmates who have been acquit­ted of all charges relat­ed to the crime that placed them on death row, who have had all charges relat­ed to the crime that placed them on death row dis­missed, or who have been grant­ed a com­plete par­don based on evi­dence of inno­cence. See Innocence.

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