Recent Cases of Innocence and Possible Innocence

Updated October 23, 2000

69. Charles Smith      Indiana      Conviction 1983      Released 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. 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)

*70. Benjamin Harris   Washington      Conviction 1985      Released 1997

     The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit vacated Harris's conviction on September 12, 1995, because his original trial lawyer was incompetent. Harris maintains his innocence and says he was framed for the 1984 murder of Jimmie Turner. 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. 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.

71. Robert Hayes      Florida      Conviction 1991      Released 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. 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.

72. Randall Padgett      Alabama      Conviction 1992      Released 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. 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.

73. Robert Lee Miller, Jr.       Oklahoma      Conviction 1988      Released 1998

     Miller was convicted of the rape and murder of two elderly women in 1988. However, recent DNA evidence pointed to another defendant who was already incarcerated on similar charges. Oklahoma County Special Judge Larry Jones dismissed the charges against Miller in February, 1997, saying that there was not enough evidence to justify his continued imprisonment. Miller's original conviction was overturned in 1995, and he was granted a new trial. The prosecution decided to drop all charges and Miller was released.

*74. Curtis Kyles      Louisiana      Conviction 1984      Released 1998

     Kyles's conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on April 19, 1995, because the prosecution had withheld material evidence from the defense, thereby undermining the verdict. 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. The state had withheld considerable information about a paid informant who may have been the actual murderer. Three retrials of Kyles resulted in hung juries. The state then dropped charges and he was released.

75. Shareef Cousin      Louisiana      Conviction 1996      Charges dropped 1999

     All charges were dropped in the death penalty prosecution of Shareef Cousin in Louisiana. Cousin had been convicted and sentenced to death for a murder in New Orleans when Couisin was 16 years old. The Louisiana Supreme Court overturned his conviction because of improperly withheld evidence and the District Attorney decided on January 8, 1999 not to pursue the case further. 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. He remains incarcerated on unrelated charges.

76. Anthony Porter      Illinois      Conviction 1983      Released 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.

77. Steven Smith      Illinois      Conviction 1986      Released 1999

     Smith's conviction was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court in 1999 because it was based on unreliable evidence. As a result, he is not subject to re-trial. Smith had been convicted of a murder outside of a Chicago tavern in 1985. The man killed was the assistant warden of the Pontiac Correctional Center. The Court said, "When the state cannot meet its burden of proof, the defendant must go free." Smith is the 11th death row inmate to be freed in Illinois since the death penalty was reinstated and the 9th since 1994.

*78. Ronald Keith Williamson      Oklahoma      Conviction 1988      Released 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. 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.

79. Ronald Jones      Illinois       Conviction 1989      Charges Dropped 1999

     Jones was a homeless man when he was convicted of the rape and murder of a Chicago woman. After a lengthy interrogation in which Jones says he was beaten by police, he signed a confession. Prosecutors at his conviction described him as a "cold brutal rapist" who "should never see the light of day." (NY Times 5/19/99). 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.

80. Clarence Richard Dexter      Missouri       Conviction 1991      Released 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 1998 because of prosecutorial misconduct. 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.

Earlier cases of innocence recently discovered:

81. Clifford Henry Bowen      Convicted 1981      Released 1986      Charges dropped 1987

     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.

82. Richard Neal Jones      Convicted 1983      Released 1987      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.

Recent innocent cases continued:

83. Warren Douglas Manning  South Carolina  Convicted 1989  Released 1999

  Manning was acquitted on all charges stemming from a 1988 slaying of a South Carolina police officer. The case went through five trials, including two mistrials and an acquittal. 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.

84. Alfred Rivera  North Carolina  Convicted 1997  Released 1999

  Rivera walked out of the Forsyth County Jail into the arms of his 3-year-old son after being acquitted at his re-trial on capital charges. Rivera had been sent to North Carolina's death row in 1997, but his conviction was overturned by the N.C. Supreme Court because jurors had not been allowed to hear testimony that Rivera may have been framed by others who pleaded guilty in the murder of two drug dealers. Rivera is the 84th person freed from death row since 1973 after evidence of their innocence emerged. This is the 8th such mistake discovered in 1999. (Winston-Salem Journal, 11/23/99)

85. Steve Manning      Illinois      Convicted 1993      Reversed 1998      Charges dropped 2000

  Steve Manning became the 13th 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. (Chicago Tribune, 1/19/00)

86. Eric Clemmons     Missouri     Convicted 1987      Acquitted 2000

  Clemmons was sentenced to death for a 1985 murder which occurred in a Missouri prison. After losing all his appeals in state court and his initial appeal in federal court, Clemmons had called his mother to make his funeral plans. But new attorneys convinced a federal appeals court to reverse themselves and grant a new trial, partly because of issues and evidence that Clemmons had filed himself. When all the new evidence was presented at re-trial, the jury acquitted him in 3 hours on February 18, 2000. Clemmons remains incarcerated on other charges, which he is also challenging. (Kansas City Star, 2/27/00)

87. Joseph Nahume Green    Florida     Convicted 1993      Acquitted 2000

  Joseph Nahume Green was acquitted on March 16, 2000 of the murder of Judith Miscally. Circuit Judge Robert P. Cates entered a not guilty verdict for Green, citing the lack of any witnesses or evidence tying Green to the murder. Green, who has always maintained his innocence, was convicted largely upon the testimony of the stateŐs only eye witness, Lonnie Thompson. In 1996, GreenŐs conviction was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court, which held that ThompsonŐs testimony was often inconsistent and contradictory, and that he not been fit to testify during Green's trial. (St. Petersburg Times, 3/17/00)

88. Earl Washington      Virginia      Conviction 1984      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.  He remains incarcerated for an unrelated offense.

89. William Nieves   Pennsylvaina    Convicted 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. "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," said Nieves' new attorney, former prosecutor John McMahon, Jr.  At the re-trial, McMahon pointed out inconsistencies in the key witness's identification of the killer  (Associated Press, 10/21/00) 

Released from Death Row, Probable or Possible Innocence

A. Probable Innocence

     Other defendants, though not exonerated completely, were released from death row with substantial evidence of their innocence. Generally, the defendant's conviction was overturned and then he or she reluctantly entered a guilty plea to a lesser charge because of the threat of possibly receiving another death sentence. In most of these cases, no responsible person would find them guilty. Nevertheless, unlike those enumerated above, they are guilty of some degree of murder. This list is not necessarily inclusive of all such cases.

Larry Dean Smith      Oklahoma       Conviction 1978      Released 1984

     Smith was convicted of the murder of a man who burned to death in a camper pick-up truck. Although he at first admitted his involvement in the related robbery, he maintained he had nothing to do with the murder. The U.S. Supreme Court vacated his death sentence, and the Oklahoma Attorney General recommended that the murder conviction be set aside. On remand, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals refused to uphold Smith's conviction for the robbery.

*Sonia Jacobs      Florida      Conviction 1976      Released 1992

     Jacobs and her companion, Jesse Tafero, were sentenced to death for the murder of two policemen at a highway rest stop in 1976. A third co-defendant received a life sentence after pleading guilty and testifying against Jacobs and Tafero. The jury recommended a life sentence for Jacobs, but the judge overruled the jury and imposed death. A childhood friend and filmmaker, Micki Dickoff, then became interested in her case. Jacobs's conviction was overturned on a federal writ of habeas corpus in 1992. Following the discovery that the chief prosecution witness had given contradictory statements, the prosecutor accepted a plea in which Jacobs did not admit guilt, and she was immediately released. Jesse Tafero, whose conviction was based on much of the same highly questionable evidence, had been executed in 1990 before the evidence of innocence had been uncovered.

*Mitchell Blazak      Arizona      Conviction 1974      Released 1994

     Blazak was originally convicted of a murder in which a ski-masked gunman killed a bartender and a customer at a bar in Tucson in 1973. The conviction was based largely on the testimony of a small time con man, Kenneth Pease, who was arrested for a number of felonies in New Mexico and Arizona. Pease testified after being granted immunity. A federal court in 1991 termed Pease's testimony to be "a mass of contradictions." The court also ruled that the trial judge had failed to ensure that Blazak was competent to stand trial. Rather than pursue a new trial, the prosecutor offered a no contest plea in September, 1994, which allowed Blazak to be released before the end of the year. There was some evidence that a deputy sheriff named Michael Tucker planted hair evidence in the case. Three days after Blazak walked out of prison, Tucker was arrested for car theft.

Anthony Scire      Louisiana      Conviction 1985      Released 1994

     Scire was sentenced to death for hiring Clarence Smith to murder a police informant. The chief witnesses at the trial were members of a motorcycle gang given immunity for this and other crimes in exchange for their testimony. The convictions of both Scire and Smith (see #56 in Innocence Report) were overturned. At retrial, Smith was acquitted. Scire pleaded guilty to manslaughter, while maintaining his innocence. He was immediately released in exchange for time served.

Victor Jimenez      Nevada       Conviction 1987      Scheduled release: Dec. 1, 1999

     Jimenez's first trial in 1987 ended in a hung jury. A second trial convicted him and sentenced him to death for the stabbing death of two men in a North Las Vegas bar. The Nevada Supreme Court unanimously granted him a new trial in 1996 because of police misconduct including false testimony bordering on perjury. Rather than face the risk of a new trial, Jimenez reluctantly entered a special plea, without admitting his guilt, on June 9, 1998 to 2d degree murder. He will be required to serve an additional 18 months in prison and has agreed not to sue those responsible for putting him on death row.

Joseph Spaziano      Florida      Conviction 1976      Not Released

     Spaziano was tried for the murder of a young woman which had occurred two years earlier. No physical evidence linked him to the crime. He was convicted primarily on the testimony of a drug-addicted teenager who, after hypnosis and "refreshed-memory" interrogation, thought he recalled Spaziano describing the murder. This witness has recently said that his testimony was totally unreliable and not true. Hypnotically induced testimony is no longer admissible in Florida. Death warrants have been repeatedly signed for Spaziano, even though the jury in his case had recommended a life sentence. In January, 1996, Florida Circuit Court Judge O.H. Eaton granted Spaziano a new trial, and this decision was upheld by the Florida Supreme Court on April 17, 1997. In November, 1998, Spaziano pleaded no contest to second degree murder and was sentenced to time served. He remains incarcerated on another charge.

*Paris Carriger      Arizona      Conviction 1978      Released 1999

     Carriger was scheduled to die on December 6, 1995 for a murder he steadfastly maintains he did not commit. Another man, Robert Dunbar, twice confessed that he lied at Carriger's trial, and that it was he who committed the murder. As a result of his original trial testimony against Carriger, Dunbar was given immunity for other charges. Dunbar has since died. A three judge panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld Carriger's death sentence, noting that while his case raised doubts, he must prove by clear and convincing evidence that "he is unquestionably innocent." Review of the case by the entire 9th Circuit was granted in February, 1997. Carriger was granted a new trial by the 9th Circuit in December, 1997 because of the new evidence. In January, 1999, he accepted a plea to a lesser offense and was immediately released from prison.

Andrew Mitchell      Texas      Conviction 1981     Released 1993; returned to prison and then re-released 1999

     Mitchell was awarded $40,000 from Smith County, Texas for withholding evidence at his trial which led to his death sentence in 1981. He spent 13 years on death row before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals threw out his conviction. Mitchell pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and was given a 31 year sentence. (Dallas Morning News, 1/ 19/99) He was then released to a halfway house in early 1999 after being given credit for time served.

Lee Perry Farmer      California      Conviction 1992       Release 1999

     Farmer was acquitted at a re-trial in California of capital murder. He had spent 9 years on death row. He was, however, convicted of burglary and being an accessory to murder. He was credited with time already served and will be released. A federal court had overturned his first conviction because of incompetent counsel. Another man confessed to the murder. (Sacramento Bee, 1/18/99)

Kerry Max Cook      Texas      Conviction 1978      Released Nov. 1997      Concluded 1999

     Cook was originally convicted of killing Linda Jo Edwards in 1978. In 1988, he came within 11 days of execution, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Texas Court to review its decision. Cook's conviction was overturned in 1991. He was re-tried in 1992, but the trial ended in a hung jury. In 1993, a state district judge ruled that prosecutors had engaged in systematic misconduct, surpressing key evidence. In 1994, Cook was tried again, and this time found guilty and again sentenced to death. On Nov. 6, 1996, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed his conviction, saying that "prosecutorial and police misconduct has tainted this entire matter from the outset." The court ruled that key testimony from the 1994 trial could not be used in any further prosecution. Prior to the start of his fourth trial in February, 1999, Cook pleaded no contest to a reduced murder charge and was released. He continued to maintain his complete innocence, but accepted the deal to avoid the possibility of another wrongful conviction. Recent DNA tests from the victim matched that of an ex-boyfriend, and not that of Cook. This tended to contradict testimony from the ex-boyfriend.

*Lloyd Schlup      Missouri      Conviction 1985      Not Released

     Schlup was convicted in 1985 of a murder while in prison. However, a prison videotape shows him to be in the cafeteria around the time of the murder at a different location. One prison guard has testified that the tape, along with his observation of Schlup just before he went to the cafeteria, prove he could not have been present at the murder. Twenty other witnesses also swear that he was not at the scene of the crime. The U.S. Supreme Court gave Schlup the opportunity for a hearing concerning his new evidence, despite the fact that he had exhausted his ordinary appeals. Following the hearing in federal District Court in December 1995, the court held that no reasonable juror would have found Schlup guilty. On May 2, 1996, Schlup was granted a writ of habeas corpus on the ground that his original trial attorney failed to adequately represent him. The State of Missouri unsuccessfully attempted to apply the new federal habeas corpus law which was signed on April 24, 1996 to Schlup's case. Under the new law, Schlup probably would have been executed. On the second day of his re-trial, Mar. 23, 1999, Schlup agreed to plead guilty to second degree murder to avoid the danger of another death sentence. Schlup's appellate lawyer, Sean O'Brien, said he remained convinced of Schlup's innocence.

B. Possible Innocence

     The following former death row inmates had their death sentences commuted to life in prison because of doubts about their guilt.

Ronald S. Monroe      Louisiana      Conviction      Commuted to Life 1989

     Monroe had been convicted of murdering his next-door neighbor, based mainly on the testimony of the woman's children. Later, the victim's husband was convicted of killing his new wife in a manner similar to the way in which the first woman was killed. While inprison, the husband all but admitted killing his first wife. Governor Buddy Roemer commuted Monroe's death sentence to life because of doubts about his guilt.
 

Joseph Giarratano       Virginia       Convicted 1979       Commuted to life 1991
    In 1979, Joseph Giarratano awoke from a drug-induced sleep and found that his roommate Barbara Kline and her daughter had been murdered.  With no memory of the previous night, Giarratano assumed he had killed the two.  He turned himself into the police and confessed.  New evidence, however, suggests that Giarratano is innocent.  His confessions contradict themselves, and physical evidence suggests Giarratano was not the murderer.  Footprints and pubic hairs found at the scene did not match Giarratano's and experts assert Kline was stabbed by a right-handed assailant; Giarratano is left-handed.  Three days before his scheduled execution in 1991, Governor Douglas Wilder commuted Giarratano's death sentence to life imprisonment and left open the possibility of a new trial.  Virginia's attorney general, however, has stated she will not re-try the case.

Herbert Bassette      Virginia      Conviction 1979      Commuted to life 1992

     Bassette was convicted of murdering a gas station attendant in 1979. Doubt later arose about the testimony presented at trial, and a police statement indicated that one of the witnesses had implicated another person in the killing. Governor Douglas Wilder commuted Bassette's sentence to life without parole after expressing doubts about the conviction.
 

Donald Paradis      Idaho       Conviction 1981      Commuted to life 1996

     Considerable doubt arose about whether Paradis had any involvement in the murder of a young woman, whether he was at the place the murder occurred, or even whether the murder occurred in the State of Idaho. The lawyer appointed to represent Paradis had only been practicing for 7 months and had never tried a criminal case before a jury or had a client facing a felony charge. Some of the trial witnesses have now recanted their testimony. In May, 1996, the governor commuted Paradis's sentence to life without parole.

Joseph Payne       Virginia      Conviction 1986      Commuted to life 1996

     Although the defense knew of 17 witnesses willing to testify on Payne's behalf, they only used one, and Payne was convicted of murder by arson of another inmate at the Powhatan Correctional Center in Virginia. While the jury was deliberating, the prosecution offered Payne a plea whereby he would receive a sentence to run concurrently with the sentence he already was serving, but the offer was refused because his lawyers thought an acquittal was likely. Instead, he was sentenced to death and was scheduled to be executed on Nov. 7, 1996. The chief witness against Payne, Robert Smith, received a 15 year reduction in sentence. At one point, Smith admitted that he had lied at Payne's trial. Three hours before his execution, and after Payne agreed not to appeal, Payne's sentence was reduced to life without parole by Governor George Allen.

Henry Lee Lucas      Texas       Conviction 1984      Commuted to Life 1998

     Lucas originally confessed to the murder of an unnamed hitchhiker in Texas in 1979. He also confessed to hundreds of other murders including the murder of Jimmy Hoffa and his fourth grade teacher, who is still alive. Most of his confessions have proved false. Two investigations by successive Attorneys General in Texas have concluded that he almost certainly did not commit the murder for which he faced an execution date of June 30, 1998. Gov. George Bush commuted his sentence to life upon recommendation of the Board of Pardons and Paroles in June, 1998.
 

Overturned Convictions

     Other capital convictions have recently been overturned and may soon be added to the list of wrongful death penalty convictions:

Donald Gunsby      Florida      Conviction 1988      Not Released

     Gunsby was convicted in a two-day trial of a murder at a convenience store in 1988. He suffers from retardation and was represented by a court appointed lawyer less than a year out of law school. The prosecutors withheld important evidence during the trial. The Florida Supreme Court granted him a new trial in January, 1996 because of the combined effect of prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel and newly discovered evidence.

Sterling Spann      South Carolina      Conviction 1982      Released 1999

     Spann had been convicted of a sexual assault and murder of an elderly woman in 1981. Another man, Johnny Hullett, who was already imprisoned for a similar assault, confessed to the crime for which Spann was on death row. The South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously overturned Spann's conviction in February, 1999. The prosecutors have indicated they will re-try Spann. He was released on bond in April, 1999.

Charles Munsey      North Carolina       Conviction 1996      Not Released

     In May, 1999, Superior Court Judge Thomas Ross threw out Munsey's murder conviction and ordered a new trial for the1993 beating death of Shirley Weaver. The judge cited evidence that the state's key witness had lied, that prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence, and that another man's confession to the crime was probably true. The state decided not to appeal Judge Ross's ruling and plans to indict the man who confessed to the murder. Munsey may be re-tried, perhaps for a lesser charge involving the sale of the gun used in the murder.

Executed Despte Doubts About Guilt

     There is no way to tell how many of the over 500 people executed since 1976 may also have been innocent. Courts do not generally entertain claims of innocence when the defendant is dead. Defense attorneys move on to other cases where clients' lives can still be saved. Some of those with strong claims include:

Roger Keith Coleman      Virginia       Conviction 1982      Executed 1992

     Coleman was convicted of raping and murdering his sister-in-law in 1981, but both his trial and appeal were plagued by errors made by his attorneys. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the merits of his petition because his state appeal had been filed one day late. Considerable evidence was developed after the trial to refute the state's evidence, and that evidence might well have produced a different result at a re-trial. Governor Wilder considered a commutation for Coleman, but allowed him to be executed when Coleman failed a lie detector test on the day of his execution.

Joseph O'Dell      Virginia      Conviction 1986      Executed 1997

     New DNA blood evidence has thrown considerable doubt on the murder and rape conviction of O'Dell. In reviewing his case in 1991, three Supreme Court Justices, said they had doubts about O'Dell's guilt and whether he should have been allowed to represent himself. Without the blood evidence, there is little linking O'Dell to the crime. In September, 1996, the 4th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals reinstated his death sentence and upheld his conviction. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review O'Dell's claims of innocence and held that its decision regarding juries being told about the alternative sentence of life-without-parole was not retroactive to his case. O'Dell asked the state to conduct DNA tests on other pieces of evidence to demonstrate his innocence but was refused. He was executed on July 23rd.

David Spence      Texas      Conviction 1983?      Executed 1997

     Spence was charged with murdering three teenagers in 1982. He was allegedly hired by a convenience store owner to kill another girl, and killed these victims by mistake. The convenience store owner, Muneer Deeb, was originally convicted and sentenced to death, but then was acquitted at a re-trial. The police lieutenant who supervised the investigation of Spence, Marvin Horton, later concluded: "I do not think David Spence committed this crime." Ramon Salinas, the homicide detective who actually conducted the investigation, said: "My opinion is that David Spence was innocent. Nothing from the investigation ever led us to any evidence that he was involved." No physical evidence connected Spence to the crime. The case against Spence was pursued by a zealous narcotics cop who relied on testimony of prison inmates who were granted favors in return for testimony.

Leo Jones      Florida      Convicted 1981      Executed 1998

     Jones was convicted of murdering a police officer in Jacksonville, Florida. Jones signed a confession after several hours of police interrogation, but he later claimed the confession was coerced. In the mid-1980s, the policeman who arrested Jones and the detective who took his confession were forced out of uniform for ethical violations. The policeman was later identified by a fellow officer as an "enforcer" who had used torture. Many witnesses came forward pointing to another suspect in the case.

Gary Graham       Texas        Convicted 1981       Executed 2000


    On June 23, 2000, Gary Graham was executed in Texas, despite claims that he was innocent.  Graham was 17 when he was charged with the 1981 robbery and shooting of Bobby Lambert outside a Houston supermarket.  He was convicted primarily on the testimony of one witness, Bernadine Skillern, who said she saw the killer's face for a few seconds through her car windshield, from a distance of 30 -40 feet away.  Two other witnesses, both who worked at the grocery store and said they got a good look at the assailant, said Graham was not the killer but were never interviewed by Graham's court appointed attorney, Ronald Mock, and were not called to testify at trial.  Three of the jurors who voted to convict Graham signed affidavits saying they would have voted differently had all of the evidence been available.
 

Other Innocence News

Woman Temporarily Released Where Prosecutors Sought the Death Penatly
On April 21, 1997, a federal District Court in Pennsylvania threw out the conviction of Lisa Lambert for the murder of a high school student. The Court ordered that she be immediately released and it forbid the prosecution from retrying Lambert. The Court found 25 separate instances of prosecutorial misconduct and expressed its view that the police committed perjury, fabricated and destroyed crucial evidence; that witnesses were intimidated, and that the prosecutor knowingly used perjured testimony in this case in which the death penalty was sought. (Lambert had received a life sentence and was raped while in prison.) The judge said he would refer the prosecutor's behavior to the state Disciplinary Board and the matters of perjury and witness intimidation to the U.S. Attorney's office. (Lambert v. Blackwell, No. 96-6244, Dist. Ct., E.D.Pa. 1997). The U.S. Court of Appeals reversed this decision, saying that state court should have the first chance to reconsider the innocence issue. Lambert was returned to prison awaiting state court review.

Innocent Man Released Where Prosecutors Sought the Death Penalty
In California, Shasta County prosecutors dropped their death penalty case against Thomas Brewster in mid-trial when the defense presented DNA evidence which excluded the defendant. Brewster was on trial for a 1985 murder and sexual assault. A piece of clothing from one of the victims had never been tested for DNA, despite having been sent to the State's lab on two occasions. The prosecution dropped all charges because they became convinced that Brewster was innocent. He had been in jail for 2 years awaiting trial. (S.F. Daily Law Journal, 11/14/97).

Sam Sheppard Case - "New DNA evidence taken from the exhumed body of Dr. Sam Sheppard provides the most compelling evidence that he was wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife" in 1954 in Ohio. (N.Y. Times, 3/5/98). The prosecution had sought the death penalty for Dr. Sheppard, but he was given a life sentence after one of the most sensational trials of the century. His conviction was overturned and he was acquitted at re-trial. The case was a basis for a popular TV series and a recent movie, both entitled "The Fugitive." Recent DNA evidence tends to squelch lingering suspicions that Dr. Sheppard was guilty, and tends to incriminate Richard Eberling, a former window washer at the Sheppard residence, who is now imprisoned for another murder.

In Maryland, Anthony Gray was freed from two life sentences after DNA evidence and a confession by another man led to the dismissal of all charges related to a 1991 rape and murder in Chesapeake Beach. Gray, who is described as below-average intelligence, actually pleaded guilty to the original charges because he feared being sentenced to death. (Washington Post, 2/9/99).

Murder charges against Anthony Porter were officially dropped on March 11 in Illinois. (ABC News, 3/11/99). Porter had been freed on Feb. 5th from death row because another man confessed on Feb. 3 on videotape to the murders which sent Porter to death row in 1982. Alstory Simon said it was he who killed the victims in self-defense. Porter had nothing to do with the crime. Five days earliar, Marilyn Green, the estranged wife of Alstory Simon, also implicated him in the murders and said the Chicago police had pressured her into testifying against Porter. As with four previous wrongful convictions in Illinois, the case was broken by journalism students from Northwestern University under the direction of Professor David Protess. In September, Porter came within 2 days of execution and was only temporarily spared because of challenges regarding his mental competency. (Chicago Tribune, 2/5/99) A suit brought by the defendants in the earlier case, known as the "Ford Heights Four," was settled with Cook County for $36 million for the years of wrongful imprisonment.

Possible Innocence: The lead prosecutor in Derrick Jamison's 1985 murder conviction now says there was significant evidence which might have prevented Jamison's being sent to Ohio's death row. The prosecutor claims that he did not know of the testimony from a series of witnesses pointing to another suspect in the case. If he had known of these statements in the police files, he would have turned them over to the defense. The information was obtained by the defense under the Ohio Public Records Law. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 6/8/99) Further action in the case is expected.

Possible Innocence: Charles Munsey, North Carolina. In May, 1999, Superior Court Judge Thomas Ross threw out Munsey's murder conviction and ordered a new trial for the1993 beating death of Shirley Weaver. The judge cited evidence that the state's key witness had lied, that prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence, and that another man's confession to the crime was probably true. The state decided not to appeal Judge Ross's ruling and plans to indict the man who confessed to the murder. Munsey may be re-tried, perhaps for a lesser charge involving the sale of the gun used in the murder. (Charlotte News & Observer, 5/26/99)