Kirk Bloodsworth
In June of 1993, Kirk Bloodsworth’s case became the first capital conviction in the United States to be overturned as a result of DNA testing.…
Read More »Johnnie Earl Lindsey
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Johnnie Earl Lindsey spent nearly 26 years in a Texas prison for a crime he did not commit due to erroneous eyewitness…
Read More »Michael Graham
Michael Graham spent 14 years on death row in Louisiana for a crime he did not commit. Represented at trial by two inexperienced attorneys, one of whom abandoned the case before the sentencing phase, Graham was convicted of murder in 1987. The case against Graham consisted of three witnesses who later recanted their testimony and a prosecution that withheld evidence of his innocence. In March of 2000, with the help of pro-bono lawyers, Graham won a new trial. He was freed from prison nine months later on December 28th. After 14 years of wrongful imprisonment, the state of Louisiana gave Graham a $10 check and an overcoat that was five sizes too big. By the time of his release, Graham had spent half of his adult life on death row.
Joseph Amrine
Inadequately defended and convicted based on weak circumstantial evidence and snitch testimony, Joseph Amrine was sentenced to death in a 1986 Missouri murder trial. He lost four appeals before the Missouri Supreme Court reversed his conviction in 2003 based on recantations of three inmate snitches and the testimony of a prison guard who saw the murder. Three months after the Court’s decision, a local prosecutor announced that he would not seek a new trial against Amrine based on new DNA tests. After spending 17 years on death row for a crime he did not commit, Joseph Amrine was finally freed on July 28, 2003.
Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez
After spending more than 10 years on Illinois’ death row, Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez were finally cleared of a crime that another man had confessed to committing a decade earlier. On November 3, 1995, on the basis of DNA evidence, recanted testimony, and lack of any other substantial evidence against him, a circuit judge acquitted Cruz. Hernandez’s case was later dismissed on the same grounds. In his ruling, the judge held that the 10-year legal odyssey of both men defied “common sense.”
Gary Gauger
In January of 1994, Gary Gauger of McHenry County, Illinois was wrongfully sentenced to death for the murder of his parents. Despite an exhaustive search, no physical evidence was found linking Gauger to the crime. After an all-night interrogation, Gauger made statements that police and prosecutors claimed constituted a confession. He was sentenced to die based only on unrecorded statements he denied making. In March of 1996, Gauger was freed on appeal because of trial improprieties. The true murderer of his parents was discovered several years after Gauger’s case was reversed and remanded.
Anthony Porter
Porter, whose IQ has been measured between 51 and 75, came within two days of being executed for murder, when the Illinois Supreme Court ordered a stay of execution to examine his mental fitness. This gave Porter enough time for the primary witness against him to come forward and recant his testimony. The real murderer was later discovered and sentenced to 37 years in prison.
Darby Tillis and Perry Cobb
It took three trials to convict Cobb and Tillis of murder. The first two ended in hung juries, but the third resulted in convictions and death sentences. The Illinois Supreme Court reversed the case based on error by the trial judge, Thomas J. Maloney, who was later convicted of taking bribes in criminal cases. Despite new accusations that pointed to someone else, the two men were nevertheless tried two more times before being acquitted.
Earl Washington, Jr.
Earl Washington Jr. came within nine days of being executed for a murder he did not commit. Washington, a Virginia man with mental retardation, spent nearly 18 years in prison, including nine on death row, before DNA testing led to his exoneration on February 12, 2001.
Brandon Moon
Erroneous forensic testimony by a state crime lab analyst and the botched handling of exculpatory post-conviction DNA results kept Brandon Moon in prison for seventeen…
Read More »Donald Reynolds and Billy Wardell
Childhood friends Donald Reynolds and Billy Wardell spent over eleven years in prison for a crime they did not commit, largely due to a lack…
Read More »Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz
On December 8, 1982, twenty-one-year-old Debra Sue Carter was found raped and murdered in her garage apartment in Ada, Oklahoma. Four-and-a-half years later, the police…
Read More »Clarence Brandley’s Story
On the morning of August 23, 1980, Cheryl Dee Ferguson went missing during a volleyball tournament at Conroe High School. When it was discovered that…
Read More »Earl Charles’s Story
In May of 1975, a jury convicted Earl Charles of murdering Max and Fred Rosenstein in a furniture store in Savannah, Georgia on October 3,…
Read More »Michael Evans and Paul Terry’s Story
In 1976, Michael Evans and Paul Terry were arrested for a murder they did not commit based on eyewitness identification. Both men were convicted because…
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