Andrew Johnson Thanks to the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center, Andrew Johnson has become the first person in Wyoming to get a new trial because DNA excluded him as the man who raped a woman in 1989.  The victim's misidentification of Mr. Johnson is a classic alcohol-addled identification; she had been drinking with him and other friends earlier in the evening.  It turns out that the man who broke in several hours later and had sex with her was her fiance.  Prosecutors say they will retry Mr. Johnson.  Our bet is they will quiety fold their tents and dismiss the charges.

Louis Taylor For over 40 years, Louis Taylor has languished in prison for a hotel fire in Tucson, Arizona that was almost certainly an accident.  He went into prison at 16, and comes out at 59 -- but only by pleading no contest to murder.

David Boyce Back in 1990, police and prosecutors cooked up quite a murder charge against David Boyce of Newport News.  A little police perjury here, a jailhouse snitch ready to sell his mother for a deal there, a pinch of withheld exculpatory evidence, and voila! you've convicted an innocent man with no real evidence.  It helps, of course, that state judges, at all levels, acknowledged this mountain of evidence of egregious misconduct, but let the conviction stand.  At long, long last, it landed in the court of Judge James R. Spencer, who has ordered Mr. Boyce to be freed.

Wisconsin State Journal Special Report:  Burning Questions by Dee J. Hall After Joey Awe’s Marquette County bar burned down in 2006, authorities immediately suspected the gregarious, disabled Gulf War veteran of arson. Part 1: After blaze destroys bar, insurance company leads search for cause. Part 2: Insurance company led fire probe. Part 3: Trial, conviction -- justice, or frame up? Part 4: Old assumptions hard to put out. UPDATE:  March 22, 2013 - Judge throws out arson conviction in J.J.'s Pub fire

David Ranta In the wintry darkness in 1990 on a back street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a jewelry thief fleeing a botched robbery panicked and shot Hasidic Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger in the head.  The “Slain Rabbi” was front-page tabloid news.   Swaggering, cigar-chewing Detective Louis Scarcella soon arrested an unemployed printer named David Ranta.  Mr. Ranta was convicted in May 1991 and sentenced to 37.5 years in maximum-security prison.  He is almost certainly not guilty.  Now Brooklyn DA Charles J. Hynes, after a lengthy investigation that uncovered some of the most egregious police misconduct on record, is asking the courts to set Mr. Ranta free. UPDATE: March 22, 2013 -- One day after being exonerated and released, Mr. Ranta suffered a heart attack.  He has undergone cardiac stent catheterization, and is expected to recover.

Nicole Harris Nicole Harris of Chicago, Illinois was 23 and a recent college graduate who had just moved back to Chicago with her family when she was convicted of murder in the 2005 death of her 4-year-old son Jaquari Dancy. But Harris has long maintained that the confession that helped convict her was false and that Jaquari died accidentally.  Jaquari was found in the family's Northwest Side home with an elastic bedsheet cord wrapped around his neck. Her son Diante, then 5, told authorities at the time that he was alone with Jaquari when he saw him wrap the cord around his neck while playing, but the trial judge barred Diante from testifying.  But in the ruling overturning her guilty verdict, 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges wrote that Diante's testimony "would have changed the entire tenor" of Harris' case and supported her claims that Jaquari's death was accidental and her confession false.

Ronald Ross For the better part of  six years, Ronald Ross of Oakland, California was confined to a cell at Solano State Prison for a crime he never committed.  The victim of three false identifications that were sparked by a sloppy Oakland Police Department investigation, Ross was convicted on Nov. 8, 2006, of attempted murder and assault with a firearm in the shooting of a West Oakland man.  He was sentenced to prison for 25 years to life, knowing he was innocent, yet unable to prove he was the victim of a hasty investigation and an ineffective defense.  Now Ross will be freed after law students working for Santa Clara University Law School's Northern California Innocence Project and attorneys from the San Francisco law firm Keker & Van Nest uncovered multiple errors in Ross' case and enough evidence to prove his innocence.

Randolph Arledge A 58-year-old Texan, Randolph Arledge, walked free on February 11, 2013, after serving 29 years for a crime he didn't commit -- the repeated stabbing of a woman whose body was found on a dirt road in rural North Texas.  Like many wrongfully convicted inmates, Arledge was sent to prison with the help of "snitch" testimony. Two co-conspirators in an armed robbery testified at his trial that he had admitted to stabbing someone in Corsicana and that he had blood on his clothes and knife, according to the filing by Arledge's attorneys.

Douglas Prade Former Akron, Ohio police captain Douglas Prade had served nearly 15 years of a life sentence after being convicted of the 1997 shooting death of his ex-wife, Dr. Margo S. Prade. But Summit County Common Pleas Judge Judy Hunter ruled on January 29, 2013 that DNA test results exclude him as a suspect and he is “actually innocent of aggravated murder.” Hunter ordered that Prade be set free immediately.

William Lopez The Brooklyn district attorney’s office agreed on January 23, 2013 to release William Lopez, who served 23 years in prison for murder, a week after a federal judge tossed out the man’s conviction, calling it “rotten from Day 1.”  After his release, Mr. Lopez crossed the bar to the courtroom’s gallery, wearing a prison jumpsuit, his only clothes, and hugged and kissed his wife. Down the line he went, embracing the brother who looks like him, then the lawyer who argued his case, and then the friend and advocate who was released after serving time for a murder he did not commit and who gave him hope.

Eric Glisson and Cathy Watkins Early in 2012, Eric Glisson, locked up more than 15 years for murder, wrote federal prosecutors in Manhattan telling them what he'd said all along and what authorities hear from inmates all the time: that he was wrongly convicted.  He also named members of a violent drug gang he suggested were the true killers. It was a shot in the dark. But it turns out he may be right.  Authorities and defense attorneys say the letter has become a catalyst for a possible reprieve for Glisson and four other people serving time for the 1995 slaying of a cab driver in the Bronx – a homicide all say they didn't commit. On October 18, 2012, authorities "temporarily" vacated their convictions and released them with ankle bracelets.  If the DA's office finds evidence "absolving" them within 90 days, the convictions will be permanently vacated.  When that happens, we will move their story to Recent Cases. UPDATE:  December 13, 2012:  It's official.  Eric and Cathy have finally been released.  Their wrongful convictions are what happen when the state relies on a crackhead who gets paid for his testimony.

Jonathan Montgomery Jonathan C. Montgomery went to prison solely on the word of a teenager who claimed the former Hampton, Virginia resident sexually assaulted her when she was 10 years old.  Alarms sounded from the courthouse to the governor's office this month when it was learned she lied. Of the questions raised by the tragic case, one of the most serious is how Montgomery was found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Bill Macumber The Arizona State Clemency Board, the Arizona Justice Project, and family members fought for his release, alleging his wife, who worked for the Maricopa sheriff's department, had the means and the motive to pin the homicides on him. She has denied any wrongdoing. Macumber was allowed to plead no contest in the 1962 killings to which someone else, who later died, had confessed.

Drayton Witt In 2002, Drayton Witt of Maricopa County, Arizona, was found guilty of shaking his infant son to death. In the intervening 12 years, doctors have learned that ongoing medical problems like Steven’s can account for the retinal and subdural bleeding they used to assume was caused by shaking, or by shaking and blows to the head.  More importantly, the Medical Examiner who testified against him changed his mind.  The Arizona Court of Appeals has tossed Drayton's conviction, and barred the state from retrying him.

Lawrence Williams Lawrence Williams' exoneration was one in a string of troubled cases handled by the office of Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, and the first felony case dealt with by a special unit that Mr. Hynes set up a year ago to root out miscarriages of justice.  Ironically, when Mr. Williams and his wife left the courthouse following his exoneration, they went to a nearby park to eat sandwiches and watch children play -- and were promptly issued a summons for being there without a child.

Michael Clancy Michael Clancy, 38, of the Bronx, New York, spent more than 10 years in prison for a murder he says he did not commit.  He is among the lucky few wrongfully convicted individuals able to win their freedom, even though there was no physical evidence such as DNA to prove his innocence. His attorney, Ronald Kuby, said it was the open-mindedness of Bronx Supreme Court Justice Denis Boyle (See Profile) and Bronx Assistant District Attorney Gary Weil that brought Clancy's nightmare to an end.

John Grega leaves court, almost free

John Grega In 1995, John Grega was convicted of raping and killing his wife, Christine, while the Long Island, NY couple and their 2-year-old son were vacationing in Vermont the previous year.  Mr. Grega was the first person in Vermont history sentenced to life in prison without parole.  His conviction was recently vacated, and a new trial has been ordered, because DNA belonging to another, unidentified man -- NOT Mr. Grega -- has been identified.  The prosecutor still believes Vermont doesn't convict innocent people.  Read what DNA expert Michael Spence, Ph.D., who reviewed the evidence, says the DNA proves.  Then you decide:  Did Vermont convict an innocent man?

Andre Davis Andre Davis of Champaign County, Illinois was convicted of raping and killing a 3-year-old girl.  He had been behind bars 31 years, 10 months and 29 days, the longest any Illinois inmate has served before being exonerated by DNA testing.  Ironically, it was the victim's aunt who set his exoneration in motion.  Unfortunately, the prosecutor insists he is guilty -- even though the semen recovered from the child's body belonged to the state's witness.

Damon Thibodeaux A false confession, with the details fed to him by police, was all it took to send Damon Thibodeaux to Louisiana's death row.  It's just that easy to convict -- and kill -- an innocent person.  Fifteen years later, thanks to the unusual cooperation between the prosecution and defense investigators, the absence of DNA spared Damon a lethal injection and released him to the arms of his family.

John Edward Smith John Edward Smith of Los Angeles, CA is poised to be released from prison after serving 19 years for a murder he did not commit. Smith’s exoneration was pursued by Innocence Matters, a Torrance, Calif., public interest law firm. Attorney Deirdre O’Connor, who heads the group, said the sole witness whose testimony convicted Smith recently admitted he had lied at the trial. The witness was the shooting victim who survived. He said police told him to identify Smith as the shooter.

David Lee Wiggins David Lee Wiggins of Ft. Worth, TX was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1989 the rape of a 14-year-old Fort Worth girl.  Although neither of the two fingerprints found at the scene matched his, the girl, whose face was covered during most of the attack, picked Wiggins out of a photo lineup and then a live lineup, saying he looked familiar.  But DNA testing earlier this month excluded Wiggins as the person who committed the crime. Tarrant County prosecutors said DNA evidence demonstrated his innocence.

Sedrick Courtney Sedrick Courtney spent 16 years in prison knowing he did not commit the home invasion armed robbery and beating that put that put him there.  Faith kept him going.  Now he is fully, officially exonerated and free, after evidence that the Tulsa, Oklahoma police said had been destroyed was found, and DNA tests cleared him.

LaMonte Armstrong A Greensboro, NC man convicted of first-degree murder in 1995 was released from prison after a judge agreed with defense attorneys and a North Carolina assistant district attorney that he should be freed pending a new trial.  LaMonte Armstrong’s hearing, originally scheduled for September, was fast-tracked after police uncovered new evidence during a retest of physical evidence from the crime scene.

Frank O'Connell Frank O'Connell, who was convicted of murder in the Jan. 5, 1984 shooting death of 27-year-old Jay French of South Pasadena, California, has been freed and the charges against him dismissed.  The Court cited recent witness recantations and improprieties in O'Connell's original murder trial.

David Gavitt After spending 26 years in prison, David Gavitt is a free man.  Gavitt, now 53, was convicted in 1986 in the arson deaths of his wife and two daughters. He was serving three life sentences at Carson City Correctional Facility when lawyers and law students from the Michigan Innocence Clinic took on his case three years ago and filed a Motion for Relief from Judgment in 2011.  After extensive examination of trial records and the evidence, Ionia County Prosecutor Ron Schafer signed a stipulation and order, acknowledging that Gavitt was entitled to a new trial, that the prosecutor's office is not going to retry him, and that he should be released from prison.   Schafer said. “At best, we have a fire that is undetermined (in origin and cause).” Chief Circuit Court Judge Suzanne Hoseth-Kreeger ordered that Gavitt's charges be dismissed, and he was released from prison.

James Kluppelberg After a quarter-century in prison for setting a fire that killed a Chicago woman and her five children, James Kluppelberg has been freed, as Cook County prosecutors unexpectedly dropped the case against him.  The friend who implicated Kluppelberg has admitted he had lied because he was facing his own criminal charges.  Defense attorneys also claimed prosecutors had failed to turn over information about a woman who had set a fire a block from the Lupercio home on the same night. That woman confessed to the other fire and told police she was too drunk to remember if she had set the Lupercio fire as well.

Brian Banks In 2003, Brian was a star football player at Long Beach (CA) Polytechnic High School, a top college football prospect with good chances of going into the NFL.  Then Wanetta Gibson accused him of rape.  He went to prison instead of college, and Wanetta's mother collected $1.5 million from the school district.  After Brian was released from prison, Wanetta "friended" him on Facebook, and admitted she made up the charge.  He has now been exonerated.

Elroy Phillips A federal inmate who has served 11 years on drug charges he says he didn't commit has convinced prosecutors to let him out of prison.  Elroy Phillips refused to accept his fate after being sentenced to 30 years on charges of selling drugs to an undercover cop. He conducted records searches, hired a private investigator, and dug up information on the dirty cop who testified against him. Federal prosecutors were finally convinced to dismiss charges against him.

Robert "Rider" Dewey After spending almost 18 years in prison for a rape and murder he did not commit, Robert Dewey walks free. And the real murderer seems to have been identified. The DNA testing that helped exonerate Dewey also led prosecutors to Douglas Thames, whose profile matches that of the semen sample from the crime. Mr. Thames is currently in prison for the 1989 rape and murder of Susan Doll, in Fort Collins, Colo. Prosecutors intend to charge Thames for the Taylor crime.

Jonathan Moore Jonathan Moore was convicted in 2002 of the murder of Shawn Miller, 20, of Montgomery, Illinois and the attempted murder of Leroy Starks, then 17. He was scheduled to get out of prison 2057.  But in April, 2011, police detectives John Munn and Darryl Moore (no relation) got a tip that the wrong man had been convicted, and new witnesses came forward.  The investigators pursued the leads and their work led to Jonathan's exoneration.

Michael Hash When Mike Hash was 15 years old, 74-year-old Thelma B. Scroggins was murdered in her Lignum, VA home.  In 2001, despite any physical evidence connecting him to the crime, Mike was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.  How did the State do it?  By withholding evidence of Mike's innocence and presenting witnesses the prosecutor knew were lying.  U.S. District Judge James C. Turk has reversed Mike's conviction and given the State 6 months to re-try or free him. UPDATE: On August 20, 2012, the charges against Mike Hash were dismissed.  The Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney, who acted as special prosecutor since Mike's conviction was tossed, went out of his way to stress that this does not mean Mike is innocent.  This appears to be an attempt to thwart or delay Mike receiving any compensation for his long imprisonment.

Richard Ray Miles In Dallas, TX in 1994, Richard Ray Miles was convicted of murder and attempted murder.  The only evidence against him was the testimony of the sole eyewitness, who was coerced into identifying him by both the investigating officer and the prosecutor.  Centurion Ministries uncovered the truth, which has set him free.

Bennett Barbour In 1978, a student at William & Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia, was raped.  She identified Bennett Barbour as her assailant.  Barbour had a solid alibi; he did not match the suspect's description; he was eliminated on the basis of simple blood type tests; he has brittle bone disease; and he did not have a gun.  He was convicted solely on the basis of the victim's identification.  In 2010, he was cleared by DNA, but Virginia authorities waited another 18 months to notify him.  He's dying, and hopes his name will be officially cleared before he passes away. Related: Virginia officials limit access to DNA test results.  Testing of DNA in hundreds of old rape and murder cases has excluded 76 convicts so far, but officials are only releasing results to prosecutors' offices -- many of whom take no further action. UDATE:  May 25, 2012 - Bennett Barbour's Writ of Actual Innocence has been granted by the Virginia Supreme Court.

Joe D'Ambrosio All along, Joe D'Ambrosio has said he is innocent.   But since he had no money, no visitors and scant education, insisting on his innocence seemed pointless, almost absurd.   Now, a Catholic priest who heard his story by accident and a veteran public defender who has heard every story in the book think D'Ambrosio is telling the truth, and a federal judge has issued the most sweeping discovery order handed down in a capital case by a judge in Ohio.  UPDATE: 10/1/08 - In June, 2008, a federal appeals court agreed with the 2006 ruling of U.S. District Judge Kate O'Malley that D'Ambrosio is entitled to a new trial because prosecutors withheld several pieces of evidence that could have exonerated him.  Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason announced he will retry Joe in March, 2009. UPDATE:  1/23/12 - U.S. Supreme Court has refused to consider the state's appeal against Joe D'Ambrosio. The ruling wipes D'Ambrosio's legal slate clean.  He is finally free.  D'Ambrosio wants the prosecutors to be charged with attempted murder.  He says the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office tried to kill him by withholding 10 pieces of evidence at his trial, evidence that could have led to a not-guilty verdict. Instead, D'Ambrosio sat on Ohio's death row for more than 20 years.

Juan Smith Juan Smith, of New Orleans, LA, was convicted of killing five people in 1995, when a group of men burst into a house in search of money and drugs. They ordered the occupants to lie down and opened fire.  Mr. Smith was the only person tried for the killings. He was convicted based solely on the eyewitness testimony of a survivor, Larry Boatner. Prosecutors presented no DNA, fingerprints, weapons or other physical evidence.  Mr. Boatner’s testimony proved sufficient, but it later emerged that an hour after the shootings, and again five days later, he was unable to identify any of the gunmen.  The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed Juan's conviction -- with the predictable "Judas goat" dissent from Justice Clarence Thomas.

Ricky Dale Wyatt Ricky Dale Wyatt, wearing a sharp suit and yellow tie, walked out of the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas, Tx on January 4, 2012 after 31 years in prison -- the longest stint served in Texas before having a conviction vacated, according to his lawyer.  "Mr. Wyatt, it's been a long time, 31 years, but today is a good day for you," Judge John Creuzot said.

Jermaine Marlow Wright At a hearing on January 3, 2012 that left prosecutors speechless, Delaware Superior Court Judge John A. Parkins overturned the conviction and death sentence against Jermaine Marlow Wright for the 1991 slaying of liquor store clerk Phillip Seifert.  Judge Parkins said he knew that the decision was likely to cause the family of Mr. Seifer further anguish and frustration. "Nonetheless, the court stands as a guardian of the constitutional rights of every citizen, including those of the defendant," Parkins said, "and that is what this court has done today."

Kerry Porter Kerry Porter's conviction for the murder of Tyrone Camp in Louisville, KY in 1994 rested on the tainted identification of an eyewitness, the highly suspect claims of a jailhouse snitch, and the tunnelvision of police investigators.  Now police and prosecutors are investigating whether they got the wrong man and whether Porter has been locked away for a crime he didn’t commit. UPDATE:  12/19/11 - After serving 14 years behind bars for a murder he insisted he didn’t commit, a stunned Kerry Porter learned that he was exonerated and hours later was released from prison.  That came after Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Stengel agreed to clear Porter.“We have finally come to the conclusion that Kerry Porter did not commit the offense,” Stengel said at a news conference.

Juan Rivera DNA tests on evidence from the 1992 rape and murder of 11-year-old Holly Staker in Waukegan, Illinois have excluded Juan Rivera, the man who authorities say confessed and is serving a life prison sentence for the crime.  Rivera wept when he heard the news. UPDATE:  May 8, 2009 -  Juan was convicted of Holly Staker's rape and murder yet again, even though DNA excluded him.  Prosecutors cited Juan's confession, which Juan says was coerced, as proof of his guilt.  Rob Warden of the Center on Wrongful Convictions said:  "We are committed absolutely to Juan Rivera. We believe in his innocence and we are going to do everything we can to bring justice in this case." UPDATE:  November 25, 2011 - A decision by the Illinois Court of Appeals is expected any day in Juan Rivera's appeal of his 2009 conviction for the rape and murder of Holly Staker.  Andrew Martin of the New York Times presents a comprehensive overview of the crimes (including those committed against Juan Rivera by police and prosecutors) and the insular legal community dubbed "The DNA Deniers." UPDATE:  December 10, 2011 - The Illinois Court of Appeals has not only reversed Juan Rivera's conviction, it has barred prosecutors from trying him again.  A stinging rebuke to prosecutors, justice after a quarter century for Juan Rivera.

Michael Saunders, Harold Richardson, Terrill Swift and Vincent Thames Another group of Chicago teenagers, forced to confess to the murder of a prostitute in 1994, has been cleared by DNA and -- grudgingly -- released.  Cook County DA Anita Alvarez, the prosecutor who focuses state resources on maintaining convictions and destroying those who dare present evidence of innocence -- vows to re-try them.

Robert Taylor, Jonathan Barr, James Harden Robert Lee Veal and Shainne Sharp Even before the five Chicago teenagers went to prison, DNA evidence failed to link them to the 1991 rape and murder of a 14-year-old Dixmoor girl. For the three who received the longest sentences, that scientific evidence fueled a lengthy effort to prove their innocence and obtain their freedom.  That day came on November 3, 2011, some seven months after new DNA tests connected a convicted rapist to the crime and suggested the teens — in spite of their confessions and, in two cases, guilty pleas — were innocent.

Dale Duke A Dallas man who spent 14 years in prison for doggedly refusing to admit he sexually assaulted his stepdaughter was set free on November 4, 2011 in a case that had been unraveling since the victim recanted and former prosecutors were accused of withholding evidence.  State District Judge Susan Hawk told Dale Lincoln Duke, 60, it was a "privilege" to release him, triggering applause and a standing ovation in a courtroom that included his parents.

Henry James Henry James said it felt like a miracle when the New Orleans Innocence Project lawyer called to tell him a judge had vacated his 1982 rape conviction and ordered him released from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, where he was serving a life sentence with no parole.  He had been cleared by DNA, and finding the evidence after 30 years was another miracle.  The worst part?  James was excluded back in 1982 by rudimentary bodily fluid testing, but his trial lawyer failed to tell jurors about it.

Michael Morton Michael Morton of Georgetown, TX was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife, Christine, in August 1986. His attorneys are teaming up with the family of another murdered woman, Mildred McKinney, whose case remains unsolved, to file a federal lawsuit seeking DNA testing.  The DA, of course, is opposing their efforts. UPDATE:  September 29, 2011 -- After successfully fighting Michael Morton's efforts to obtain DNA testing, police are investigating a third unsolved murder in Williamson County.  Has Morton been serving time for a serial killer? UPDATE:  October 4, 2011 -- Michael Morton walked out of a Texas courthouse a free man after serving nearly 25 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.  "I thank God this wasn't a capital case," he said. "That I only had life because it gave these saints here at the Innocence Projects time to do this." UPDATE:  October 20, 2011 -- The former prosecutors who tried Michael Morton for murder in 1987 — District Judge Ken Anderson and Round Rock lawyer Mike Davis — didn't mind hiding exculpatory evidence or keeping a serial killer on the street to kill again.   Getting a conviction was their only goal.  Now that  Morton has been cleared, after a quarter century in prison, Anderson and Davis don't want to answer questions under oath about what they did to him.  Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies.

Obie Anthony Seventeen years after he was set up by Los Angeles police and prosecutors and convicted of a murder he didn't commit, Obie Anthony is free.  Attorneys from the Northern California Innocence Project brought a state habeas petition, which was granted on the basis of the cumulative harm done by egregious prosecutorial misconduct.  And while Mr. Anthony sat in prison, the real killer got away with murder.

Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission has decided unanimously that a three-judge panel should review the cases of Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson.  Both pled guilty to 2nd degree murder in the death of Walter Bowman of Fairview, NC, even though both maintained their innocence before and after their pleas.  DNA results have excluded both men.  Worse, convenience store surveillance tape that would have supported their alibis was taped over with footage from a soap opera while in the sheriff's department custody. UPDATE:  September 22, 2011 - Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson walked free when a panel of judges ruled they didn't kill a man during a home invasion despite their guilty pleas a decade earlier.  They pled to avoid the death penalty.

West Memphis Three Walk to Freedom

Johnny Pinchback DNA testing has freed another wrongly convicted man in Dallas County, Texas.  State District Judge Don Adams ordered that Johnny Pinchback be released after the district attorney’s office and the Innocence Project of Texas said DNA testing proves he is innocent.  Pinchback, 55, pleaded not guilty in 1984 but was convicted by a jury in the sexual assault of two teenage girls and sentenced 99 years in prison.

Debra Brown In 1995, Debra Brown of Logan, UT, was convicted of murdering her good friend and boss, Lael Brown.  It was a circumstantial case, mostly smoke and mirrors, and investigators and prosecutors concealed the fact there were other, better suspects.  With the involvement of the Rocky Mountain Innocence Project, Debra at last has real hope of proving her innocence. UPDATE:  May 2, 2011 - Judge Michael DiReda ruled: "The court now determines by clear and convincing evidence that (Debra Brown) did not engage in the conduct for which she was convicted and is, therefore, factually innocent of the aggravated murder of Lael Brown,."  She is a free woman.

Derrick Williams The Innocence Project of Florida says new DNA evidence on a key piece of evidence -- a gray shirt -- proves Derrick Williams was wrongfully convicted of a rape in Palmetto in 1993.  The case against him was based on eyewitness identification by the victim, which is wrong in 50% of such cases.  But prosecutors are hanging on, still trying to block exoneration efforts. UPDATE:  April 4, 2011 - Derrick Williams has been released from prison.  State Attorney Earl Moreland says he will not retry him, although he still believes Derrick is guilty.  ("I may not always be right, but I am never wrong.")

Glenn Tinney In 1992, Glenn Tinney of Mansfield, Ohio confessed to the county prosecutor that he had killed local store owner Ted White in 1988.  But reinvestigating in 2009, Mansfield police concluded Tinney is innocent.  They asked the Ohio Innocence Project to assist, and on March 25, 2011, Tinney was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea.

Francisco "Franky" Carillo After 20 years in prison, Franky Carillo of Los Angeles, CA has been exonerated and released from prison.  The  six witnesses who testified that he was the killer of Donald Sarpy, including the victim's son, have recanted.  All six have now admitted that they did not really see anything, and were influenced to make their identifications of Carrillo. In addition, two other men have confessed to the shooting, defense investigators said, and admitted that Carrillo was not involved.

Alvin Jardine III After serving 20 years of a 35-year sentence for kidnapping, rape and robbery, Alvin Jardine, III of Maui became the first Hawaiian freed through the efforts of the Hawai'i Innocence Project.  Maintaining his innocence through three trials -- the first two with hung juries -- Mr. Jardine denied himself early parole because he refused to participate in a sex offender program that required him to admit guilt.  DNA proved what he said all along: he is innocent.

Thomas Haynesworth For 25 years, Thomas Haynesworth of Richmond, VA said he was not the man who raped a church day-care worker at knifepoint.  "Nobody ever listened to me," he complained.  They're listening now.  Thanks to the late Mary Jane Burton, a crime lab worker who kept small samples of DNA evidence in the files she worked on, Thomas has been excluded as the assailant, and the real rapist has been identified. The foregoing news account was published on March 19, 2009.  As of February 2, 2011, Thomas Haynesworth was still in prison.  DNA proved him innocent of most of the rapes he was convicted of committing, and even one of which he was acquitted.  But there were two rapes with no physical evidence, nothing to test.  Finally, freedom is in sight. UPDATE: March 18, 2011 - The Parole Board has voted to release Thomas Haynesworth on parole.  His actual innocence petition is still pending before the Virginia Court of Appeals. UPDATE:  December 6, 2011 - The Virginia Court of Appeals has issued a Writ of Actual Innocence, officially exonerating Thomas Haynesworth.

Jerry Hobbs In Zion, IL, on Mother's Day in 2005, 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and her friend, 9-year-old Krystal Tobias, disappeared while bike riding.  After searching all night, Jerry found them, stabbed to death.  There followed a marathon, 48-hour police interrogation, after which it was announced that Jerry had confessed.  It was a classic, coerced, false confession, but the media went with it.  Nancy Grace called him "a monster."  When the physical evidence -- DNA -- proved him innocent, the state took another 2 1/2 years to set him free and look for serial killer Jorge Torrez.

Caramad Conley To the cheers of family and friends, Caramad Conley took his first steps as a free man outside San Francisco County Jail on January 12, 2011, after serving 18 years for a double-murder conviction that a judge ruled had been arrived at through perjured testimony.  San Francisco Superior Court Judge Marla Miller ruled that San Francisco police and prosecutors had failed to reveal to Conley's defense team before his 1994 trial that the city had paid thousands of dollars and provided the use of a house to the star prosecution witness, police informant Clifford Polk.

Terry Vollbrecht Angela Hackl was found in the woods outside Sauk City, WI in 1987. She had been shot and hanged by the neck from a tree branch with a chain, and a pile of brush was arranged beneath her body in a makeshift pyre.  A jury convicted Terry Vollbrecht, now 49, of killing Hackl in 1989.  But on January 10, 2011, Dodge County Circuit Judge Steven Bauer agreed the evidence could create doubt in jurors’ minds about Vollbrecht’s guilt and ordered a new trial.

Cornelius Dupree, Jr. A Texas man declared innocent on January 4, 2011 after 30 years in prison had at least two chances to make parole and be set free — if only he would admit he was a sex offender. But Cornelius Dupree Jr. refused to do so, doggedly maintaining his innocence in a 1979 rape and robbery, in the process serving more time for a crime he didn't commit than any other Texas inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.

Link:
Dallas Morning News - DNA Exonerations

Virginia LeFever Virginia LeFever, 59, of Newark, Ohio, who spent more than 20 years in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit was released after her conviction was overturned because a key prosecution witness admitted lying. She was sentenced to life in prison in 1990 on an aggravated murder charge, accused of killing her husband with poison.  Ms. LeFever has long maintained that William LeFever's 1988 death was a suicide by drug overdose, brought on by the couple's impending divorce.  The witness, James L. Ferguson, 64, a longtime Franklin County toxicologist, was sentenced to 30 days in jail for falsification earlier this summer. He had served as an expert witness during hundreds of trials while serving with the Franklin County coroner's office. UPDATE: April 21, 2011 - Virginia LeFever will not be retried.

Bobby Ray Dixon Bobby Ray Dixon, 53, of Hattiesburg, MS died of lung cancer on November 10, 2010.  He, Larry Ruffin and Phillip Bivens had been convicted of the 1979 rape and murder of Eva Gail Patterson.  DNA tests conducted earlier in 2010 cleared all three men, and implicated a convicted rapist, Andrew Harris.  Larry Ruffin died in 2002.

Dale Helmig Justice was on trial last week in a small town in northwest Missouri.  For three days, a circuit judge was shown what happens when police officers give inaccurate testimony, prosecutors distort facts and a defense lawyer doesn't do his job.  The case concerned Dale Helmig, who is serving a life sentence without parole for the murder of his mother, Norma Helmig. Her body, weighted with a cinder block, was found in the flooded Osage River between Jefferson City and Linn on Aug. 1, 1993.  The lead prosecutor then was Kenny Hulshof of Columbia, who later became a U.S. representative and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2008. When Gov. Jay Nixon was state attorney general, Hulshof was Nixon's special prosecutor.  Hulshof would go around the state helping local prosecuting attorneys with difficult murder cases. He often got convictions. Since then, some have turned out to be tainted and were overturned.  Helmig's may be next. UPDATE:  Nov 4, 2010 -- Dale Helmig wept as his attorney read him a judge's order reversing his conviction for the murder of his mother in 1993.

Anthony Graves Students at the Texas Innocence Network have uncovered new evidence, never presented at trial, that death row inmate Anthony Graves was not involved in  the 1992 slaying of six people.   The students believe Graves would be acquitted if he were retried.  But this is Texas, the state has what it wants -- a conviction -- and despite grave prosecutorial misconduct, U. S. Magistrate Judge John Froeschner thinks Anthony should keep his appointment with the executioner. UPDATE:  Anthony Graves' conviction and death sentence were vacated by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.  The appeals court in its decision accused Burleson County prosecutors of misconduct, including failure to disclose statements that could have helped Graves' defense. His retrial has not yet been scheduled, but when it occurs, Joan E. Scroggins a Burleson County assistant district attorney, will not be on the case.  The state court trial judge has ordered her recused.  Prosecutor Off Case. UPDATE:  On October 29, 2010, capital murder charges against Anthony Graves were dropped.  He spent 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Diane Jennings of the Dallas Morning News reported on November 1, 2010:  "A provocative idea is being batted around in the wake of the release of Anthony Graves from Death Row after a special prosecutor declared he was an innocent man, found guilty due to prosecutorial misconduct. The statute of limitations on prosecutorial misconduct has expired but according to the Bryan Eagle, some defense attorneys are suggesting the prosecutor be charged with attempted murder."

Matthew Norwood Matthew Norwood of HInds County, Mississippi spent more than a dozen years behind bars for a carjacking he did not commit.  On October 7, 2010, the 30-year-old man clutched the order issued by Hinds County Circuit Judge Winston Kidd tossing out Norwood's 1995 conviction.  "This is what I was looking for," said Norwood, who has been free since 2007 but not clear. "It's a blessing from God. In that prison, anything can happen."

Stephen Brodie Police in Richardson, Texas put a lot of effort into coercing a rape confession from deaf teenager Stephen Brodie back in 1990.  Maybe that's why they continue to insist they had the right guy, even though the physical evidence tied the crime -- and 15 other rapes in the area -- to Robert Waterfield.  Brodie spent 10 years in prison for the crime.  He brought a petition to establish his innocence, based on Waterfield's fingerprint on the window of the victim's bedroom.  Stephen Brodie was exonerated and freed on September 29, 2010.

Richard Winfrey Sr. Mr. Winfrey, who was convicted of murder after three bloodhounds allegedly matched his scent to the victim, should be set free because the evidence against him was not legally sufficient, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has ruled.  The court acquitted Richard Winfrey Sr., reversing his 2007 conviction in the murder of high school janitor Murray Burr in the small town of Coldspring, about 60 miles north of Houston.  Under the ruling, prosecutors will not be allowed to retry the case.

Bobby Ray Dixon,  Phillip Bivens and Larry Ruffin A judge in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on September 16, 2010 freed Bobby Ray Dixon and Phillip Bivens, who spent three decades in prison before DNA evidence showed they didn't rape a woman and cut her throat in a grisly 1979 attack.  Larry Ruffin, who died in prison in 2002, has also been cleared.

Malenne Joseph Although a jury convicted Malenne Joseph of Orlando, Florida of criminal mischief (property damage) in June of 2010, the case against her has unraveled.  It turns out that Malenne had absolutely no connection to the crime or the victim, ever.  Authorities are now investigating the circumstances that led to her arrest in the first place.

Cody Vandenberg After almost 15 years in prison for another man's crime, Cody has finally been released -- at least, until the Brown County DA (Green Bay) can figure out some way to sandbag him again.  His conviction was overturned by the state court of appeals "in the interest of justice."  County investigators used every improper inducement to get the victim of a robbery and stabbing -- who had a .22% BAC at the time -- to pick Cody out of a photo line up.  If he is retried, it will be interesting to see what they can possibly use as evidence a second time around. UPDATE:  On January 12, 2011, the state supreme court declined the state's petition to review the reversal of Cody's conviction.  Brown County DA John Zakowski, predictably, says he'll soldier on and retry Cody -- damn the cost and the indecency of his actions.

Koua Fong Lee Koua Fong Lee, serving eight years for vehicular homicide because of a fatal crash involving his Toyota Camry, is hoping for exoneration amid concerns over unintended acceleration in some of Toyota's vehicles.  He has always maintained his innocence in the 2006 crash, which killed Javis Adams, 33, his 10-year-old son, Javis Adams Jr., and 6-year-old Devyn Bolton.  Mr. Lee is not the first innocent person convicted of murder due to a defective auto.  Sheila Bryan was convicted of killing her mother (and later cleared) because the defective ignition switch in her  Ford caused a fatal fire.  UPDATE:  On August 6, 2010, Koua Fong Lee's conviction was vacated and he was released from prison.  The prosecuting attorney has decided not to retry him.

Jodi Barrus On July 30, 2010, it took a jury 20 minutes to decide Belmond Klemme, Iowa teacher Jodi Lynn Barrus' fate.  She was found not guilty of engaging in a pattern, practice or scheme of sexual exploitation of an 18-year-old male student.  The teen had a history of making up stories.

Michael Anthony Green A Houston man who's spent the last 27 years imprisoned for a rape he didn't commit got one step closer to freedom on July 30, 210.  During a court hearing, a judge granted Michael Anthony Green a personal bond that will let him walk out of jail.  Green's pending release was made possible after the Harris County District Attorney's Office reopened his case and new DNA tests it commissioned showed he did not commit a 1983 rape of a woman who had been abducted.

Allen Wayne Porter Allen Porter, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced to life in prison for a June 18, 1990, rape and robbery in southwest Houston. He was identified as one of three men who kicked their way into a drug dealer's residence in search of money and drugs. They terrorized the apartment's four occupants, repeatedly raping two women.  Allen's nephew, Jimmy Hatton, and Perry Harrison told state District Judge Joan Campbell they committed the crime along with a third man. They said Porter was not at the crime scene.

Alan G. Northrop and Larry W. Davis Seventeen years ago, Alan G. Northrop and Larry W. Davis were led from a Clark County, Washington courtroom in shackles, convicted of brutally attacking and raping a woman in La Center.  On July 14, 2010, they walked out of the courtroom free men, smiling and hugging family members after a judge dismissed their charges, citing new DNA evidence showing they weren't at the scene and pointing to different assailants.

Jonathan Pierpoint On July 6, North Carolina Superior Court Judge Charles P. Ginn ordered the release from Avery-Mitchell Correctional Center of Jonathan Scott Pierpoint, who served 17 years of a life sentence for a crime he did not commit.  Ginn's order overturned Pierpoint's 1992 conviction for first-degree sexual offense and dismissed the charges against him. Faculty and students in Duke Law School's Wrongful Convictions Clinic and its Innocence Project worked for two years to develop their claim that Pierpoint's conviction was the result of false testimony.

Douglas Pacyon It took 26 years for Douglas Pacyon to clear his name after being convicted of a 1984 rape and serving almost seven years in prison for an attack he didn't commit.  And then it took all of three minutes on June 21, 2010 for the criminal-justice system to officially exonerate him.

Jabbar Collins In vacating a murder conviction and barring prosecutors from retrying the case, a federal judge in New York has lashed out at the Brooklyn district attorney's Office for failing to take responsibility for its prosecutors' alleged misconduct. At a contentious, 90-minute habeas corpus hearing on June 8, 2010, Eastern District Judge Dora L. Irizarry noted that petitioner Jabbar Collins, a renowned jailhouse attorney, had uncovered numerous documents while serving his 34-years-to-life sentence suggesting that prosecutors had withheld evidence, coerced witnesses and lied to the court and the jury.

William Avery William Avery, convicted in the 1998 strangulation of a Milwaukee prostitute has been released from custody after tests of DNA evidence linked another man to the killing, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said.  Mary Johnson, the mother of victim Maryetta Griffin, said authorities told her the DNA sample matches the profile of accused serial killer Walter E. Ellis.  Mr. Avery's conviction was based on jailhouse "snitch" testimony.  He had been sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Tyrone Jones Tyrone Jones walked out into the hazy sunshine on the morning of May 25, 2010 and let out a deep breath on the steps of the Baltimore City Circuit Courthouse, his shoulders light for the first time in a dozen years.  He had come to court prepared for trial on charges of conspiring to commit murder, only to be told he wouldn't be prosecuted. The case was dropped.  "It took all but 10 seconds to undo something that's been going on for 12 years," Jones said, still shocked.

Shawn Massey A Charlotte, NC man wrongfully convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery is finally home after spending 12 years behind bars.  Shawn Massey, 37, was the victim of erroneous eyewitness identification, say researchers from Duke Law School, whose Wrongful Convictions Clinic and Innocence Project spent more than four years examining the case.

Reggie Cole A Los Angeles man who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a 1994 murder and attempted robbery in South Los Angeles is a free man today.  There was nothing simple about his exoneration.  First, he was identified as the shooter by the real killer, even though absolutely no other evidence connected him to the crime.  Then he was attacked in prison and killed another inmate in self-defense.  After he was exonerated of the 1994 charge and resolved the prison attack charge, prison officials framed him up on a false charge of possessing a razor blade.  DNA cleared him of that, and he was supposed to be released on April 6, 2010, but the prison refused to let him go, saying "protestors" were gathered at the bus station.  Those were his family, waiting to greet him.  Finally, a judge ordered that Reggie be released, and he was welcomed home by his family on May 16, 2010.

Raymond Towler New lab tests show that DNA recovered from the semen-stained underwear of a 12-year-old rape victim couldn't have come from the man who has served more than 27 years in prison for the crime.  Raymond Towler has maintained his innocence for nearly three decades, insisting he wasn't the man who abducted two young children from a Cleveland park on May 24, 1981.  His lawyers with the Ohio Innocence Project say the results prove Towler's innocence. UPDATE:  On May 5, 2010, a beaming Raymond Towler was fold by Judge Eileen Gallagher:  "Mr. Towler, you are free to go."

Rashjeem Richardson Rochester, NY makes the news twice in one week, when the NY Court of Appeals threw out Mr. Richardson's conviction.  The trial judge should have caught this, but instead put his seal of approval on a coerced Alford plea by Rashjeem Richardson and sent him to prison for a knife attack someone else committed.  Rochester prosecutors said four witnesses identified Mr. Richardson, when only one did so, and she retracted the next day because she had been drunk when she fingered him.  When faced with a choice between a conviction and truth, prosecutors in Rochester choose a conviction.

Frank Sterling A former Rochester, NY truck driver who spent nearly 19 years behind bars for a 1988 slaying he didn't commit walked free April 28, 2010 after DNA testing exonerated him and instead pointed to a man who strangled a 4-year-old girl in 1994.  This is yet another case in which police coerced a false confession from an innocent man.  They got a conviction, but they allowed the killer to kill again.