200
TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED
AN INNOCENCE PROJECT REPORT ON THE FIRST 200 DNA EXONERATIONS IN THE U.S.
BENJAMIN N. CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW, YESHIVA UNIVERSITY
INTRODUCTION
The people you will meet in this booklet did not simply endure injustice that nobody else can begin to imagine; they prevailed. Each and every one of them was proven innocent — simply, elegantly and definitively — through DNA testing. We are privileged to know most of the 200 people whose stories follow. Without warning or cause, all of them were swept off the streets one day, forcibly separated from their families and friends, and wrongfully imprisoned for years or, often, decades. Some narrowly escaped execution. Even in their first days of freedom, the euphoria that many exonerated people feel is tempered by a profoundly personal understanding of the larger problem and an unwavering resolve to help fix a broken system. They don’t want anyone else to be robbed of life and liberty as they were. When we founded the Innocence Project in 1992, we wanted to walk as many innocent people out of prison as possible — and to turn the horror each one experienced into a “learning moment” that could help repair the systemic failings in our criminal justice system. The demand for our services has grown tremendously, as has the network of organizations working tirelessly to free the innocent and reform the system. Today, there are more than 35 organizations in the Innocence Network, and many of them helped exonerate the individuals in this booklet. Together, we are in a race against time — a race to test evidence before it is destroyed, and to prove the truth before one of our innocent clients spends one more birthday behind bars. And we are in a race against time to reform the criminal justice system before more innocent people are wrongfully convicted. The most common question we are asked is, “How many innocent people are in prison?” Nobody truly knows the answer — but the question itself is haunting, since it reflects the common knowledge that there are undoubtedly more. Because just a small fraction of cases involve evidence that could be tested for DNA — and even when such evidence exists, it is often lost or destroyed — we know that these first 200 DNA exonerations are the tip of the iceberg. Each wrongful conviction that has been overturned through DNA evidence could have been prevented if eyewitness procedures had been better, if interrogations had been recorded, if crime labs had been subjected to greater oversight, if the system had been more skeptical of jailhouse informants, or if other reforms had been in place. Since the first person in the U.S. was exonerated through DNA, states, counties and individual law enforcement agencies have enacted these reforms. Our mandate — society’s duty to these 200 people and the ones who will follow them — is to free more innocent people while fixing the system to prevent wrongful convictions. We owe these people, and ourselves, no less.
Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld
www.innocenceproject.org | 1 200GARY DOTSON • 1989 DAVID VASQUEZ • 1989 EDWARD GREEN • 1990 CHARLES DABBS • 1991 BRUCE NELSON • 1991 YEARS YEARS YEAR YEARS YEARS 10 ILLINOIS 4 VIRGINIA 1 DISTRICT OF 7 NEW YORK 9 PENNSYLVANIA COLUMBIA Based on eyewitness David Vasquez, who Edward Green was Charles Dabbs is the In 1982, Bruce Nelson 2misidentification,0 Gary has substantial0 apprehended in 1987 distant cousin of a was implicated in a Dotson was convicted cognitive limitations, at a location where woman who was raped rape and murder based of rape and aggravated pled guilty to murder. both a rape and an in 1982. She identified on the confession of TOO MANY WRONGkidnappingFULLY in May COHisNVI “dreamCTED statement,” attempted rape had Dabbs as one of her Terrence Moore, who 1979. The victim along with his lack of occurred. The victims of assailants, saying that was also charged eventually recanted TanO alibi,O convinced MAN a Yboth WR crimesONG identified FULLYthe man who rapedCO herNVIwithCTED the crime. When her testimony, saying jury of his guilt, and Green, and he was wore clothing similar police questioned she had fabricated the he was convicted in convicted. Prior to his to his. DNA testing Nelson (with Moore TOrape.O Still,MAN Dotson Y WR1985. ONGHe served FULLYfour sentencing, CO his NVIlawyers CTEDexonerated Dabbs also present in the served four more years years before DNA secured DNA testing seven years after his room), Nelson asked behind bars before he testing exonerated him. of the evidence and conviction. Moore what he had was fully exonerated Green was excluded previously told police — through DNA testing. as the perpetrator. and that question was used as a confession in Nelson’s trial. In 1990, the prosecution agreed to subject several pieces of evidence to DNA testing, which proved 200Nelson’s innocence. THE FIRST * 200 Of the first 200 people exonerated through DNA: Each individual exonerated through DNA is unique. Their convictions They served an average of were different, and their experiences after exoneration vary. Collectively, 1 they illustrate the criminal justice’s failings and the need for reform.
*Percentage is based on a subset of the 200 exoneration cases, where information was available to make a determination. 2 | Innocence Project TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED GLEN WOODALL • 1992 STEVEN LINSCOTT • 1992 JOE JONES • 1992 LEONARD CALLACE •1992 KERRY KOTLER • 1992 .5 YEARS YEARS .5 YEARS .5 YEARS .5 YEARS 4 WEST VIRGINIA 3 ILLINOIS6 KANSAS 5 NEW YORK10 NEW YORK
Glen Woodall was In 1982, Steven Outside a nightclub that Leonard Callace was In 1978 and again in sentenced to two life Linscott was convicted Joe Jones frequented, charged with sexually 1981, a man in a ski sentences plus 203 to of murdering his a woman was kidnapped assaulting a young mask raped and robbed 335 years for two neighbor. Linscott told and raped in 1985. woman in the parking a woman at knifepoint 20rapes. Since neither 0police that he had Based on eyewitness lot of a shopping in her home. She 20victim clearly0 saw the dreamt about the crime, misidentification and center. Based on identified Kerry Kotler perpetrator, their and his description of the fact that Jones misidentification by as her assailant, though identifications of him the dream mirrored the owned a pair of jeans the victim, his her initial description were shaky at best — crime in several ways. that resembled those resemblance to a of the man did not they identified him In 1992, after three worn by the perpetrator, composite sketch of resemble Kotler. He after being hypnotized, years in prison and he was convicted. the perpetrator and a had spent over a and their identification seven years on bond, DNA testing ultimately serology test that decade in prison when was based in part DNA testing excluded proved Jones’s suggested he could be DNA testing led to his on smell. Fred Zain, Linscott as the innocence, and he the perpetrator, the exoneration. He was a fraudulent lab perpetrator. was exonerated jury convicted Callace later convicted of technician, provided in 1992. in one hour. In 1991, different charges on the TOO MANY WRevidence thatONG helped FULLY CONVICTEDCallace’s request for basis of DNA evidence. convict Woodall. Early DNA testing was TOO MANDNAY tests WR suggested ONGFULLY COgrantedNVI and showed CTED Woodall’s innocence that he did not commit and his conviction the rape. was vacated; further testing yielded the same results and he was exonerated.
12 years in prison — and a combined total of 2,475 years in prison. 200 www.innocenceproject.org | 3
TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED WALTER SNYDER • 1993 KIRK BLOODSWORTH DWAYNE SCRUGGS • 1993 MARK DIAZ BRAVO • 1994 DALE BRISON • 1994 21993 00 .5 YEARS YEARS .5 YEARS YEARS .5 YEARS 6 VIRGINIA 8 MARYLAND 7 INDIANA 3 CALIFORNIA 3 PENNSYLVANIA
Walter Snyder’s Kirk Bloodsworth was Dwayne Scruggs was Mark Diaz Bravo was Dale Brison was 2across-the-street0arrested0 for the rape convicted in 1986 a nurse at a Los Angeles arrested for rape and neighbor identified him and murder of a of rape and robbery hospital where a kidnapping in 1990 as the man who raped nine-year-old girl after and sentenced to 40 patient was raped in after the victim and robbed her in an anonymousT OcallerO MANyears inY prison WR basedONG1990.FULLY She implicated COidentifiedNVICTED him near her 1985. His mother was claimed to have seen on the victim’s Bravo, and although he apartment building. the only person who him with the victim. misidentification of had a strong alibi, he Brison’s request for could corroborate his Bloodsworth became him. The perpetrator was arrested. Serological DNA testing was alibi. Snyder served the first person who had tried to hide his testing revealed that denied at the time of TOsixO and MAN a half yearsY WRservedONG time on deathFULLYface during CO the NVIattack, CTEDthe perpetrator had a the trial. But several of a 45-year sentence row before being but the victim blood type shared by years later, the before he was proven exonerated by identified him in part only 3% of the Pennsylvania Supreme innocent through post-conviction DNA based on the shoes population —and Court ruled that the DNA testing. testing. Today, he is a he was wearing. In Bravo could not be evidence must be tested Program Officer for 1993, DNA testing excluded. Bravo’s if it was available. The Justice Project’s vindicated Scruggs. attorney said the The results proved that Campaign for Criminal prosecution refused Brison could not have Justice Reform and to allow DNA testing been the perpetrator. TOO MANY WRONGThe Justice ProjectFULLY CObeforNVIe the trial. BravoCTED Education Fund. was convicted and spent three years in prison before DNA testing proved his innocence.
11% were 17 years old or younger when they were wrongfully convicted; 27% were 21 years old or younger.
4 | Innocence Project GILBERT ALEJANDRO FREDERICK DAYE • 1994 BRIAN PISZCZEK • 1994 EDWARD HONAKER • 1994 RONNIE BULLOCK • 1994 1994 .5 YEARS YEARS YEARS .5 YEARS .5YEARS 3 TEXAS 10 CALIFORNIA 3 OHIO 9 VIRGINIA 10 ILLINOIS
Gilbert Alejandro was Frederick Daye had A man gained entry A rape victim, and In 1983, a man convicted of aggravated been wrongly into a woman’s her boyfriend who impersonating a police sexual assault in incarcerated for six apartment by claiming witnessed the attack, officer raped two 1990, based2 mostly years when0 another to be a friend,0 then identified Edward young girls. Ronnie on the fraudulent defendant in his case raped and burglarized Honaker as the Bullock was identified testimony of forensics made a statement her. Brian Piszczek perpetrator. Centurion by a police officer technician Fred Zain. that Daye was not had visited the victim’s Ministries later based on a composite Subsequent DNA involved in the rape, home before with a discovered that the sketch and was later testing indicated that kidnapping and mutual friend. Only victims had been misidentified in a Zain had made his vehicular theft for his girlfriend could hypnotized, and that lineup by both victims. findings before he had which he was convicted. corroborate his alibi, their initial description Over ten years later, even completed the An additional four and he was convicted. was not consistent DNA testing proved test, and, in fact, years passed before In 1994, Piszczek with Honaker. DNA his innocence. the results excluded DNA testing proved was exonerated based testing ultimately Alejandro asT a OODaye’s MAN innocence. Y onWR DNA test rONGesults. provedFULLY his innocence. CONVICTED contributor of the biological sample.
wrongfully convicted; 27% were 21 years old or younger. 200 www.innocenceproject.org | 5
TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED TERRY CHALMERS • 1995 DAVID SHEPHARD • 1995 RONALD COTTON • 1995 WILLIAM O’DELL HARRIS ROLANDO CRUZ • 1995 200 1995 .5 YEARS .5YEARS .5YEARS YEARS .5YEARS 7 N E W Y O R K9 NEW JERSEY10 N. CAROLINA 7 WEST VIRGINIA 10 ILLINOIS
Terry Chalmers’s David Shephard was Based on a photo William O’Dell Harris In 1983, Rolando photo was the only convicted of raping identification made by was convicted of Cruz, then a teenager, one repeated in photo and robbing a woman the victim, Ronald raping a nurse based was charged with arrays shown to a rape in a parking lot. Cotton was convicted on the testimony of a raping and killing a TOO MANY WRONGFULLY COvictim.NVI WithCTED no other Two men assaulted of rape and burglary lab technician and little girl. According to evidence, Chalmers the victim but only and sentenced to life false testimony of a detectives, Cruz had was convicted in Shephard, who was plus 54 years. DNA police officer. When reported “visions” of 1987. Chalmers filed identified by the victim testing cleared Cotton, state lab technician the murder, which an appeal but his (in part based on his and he and the rape Fred Zain’s misconduct closely resembled the conviction was upheld. voice), was charged survivor from the case, in other cases was actual details of the With the help of the with the crime. He Jennifer Thompson, revealed, Harris and crime. He and a Innocence Project, served nine and a half speak publicly together others who were co-defendant, he petitioned for DNA years in prison before to educate people convicted as a result Alejandro Hernandez, testing and was DNA testing exonerated about eyewitness of Zain’s testimony were sentenced to exonerated. him. He is now a misidentification and were granted special death. Shortly after family services worker wrongful convictions. appeals processes. In their trial, a convicted in Essex County and 1994, two rounds of murderer confessed to is a Founder of the DNA testing proved the crime, but he was Northeast Council of Harris’s innocence. never tried. Cruz and the Wrongly Convicted. The police officer who Hernandez served provided false testimony nearly 11 years on about the victim’s death row before DNA identification was later testing proved their convicted of perjury. innocence.
62% are African American; 10% are Latino; 28% are Caucasian.
6 | Innocence Project GERALD DAVIS • 1995 DEWEY DAVIS • 1995 ALEJANDRO HERNANDEZ VINCENT MOTO • 1996 RICHARD JOHNSON •1996 1995 YEARS YEARS .5YEARS .5 YEARS YEARS 8 WEST VIRGINIA7 WEST VIRGINIA10 ILLINOIS8 PENNSYLVANIA4 ILLINOIS
A family friend of the Dewey Davis was Together with his Vincent Moto of In 1990, a graduate Davis’s accused Gerald convicted of abduction, co-defendant, Rolando Philadelphia was student at the of sexually assaulting sexual assault and Cruz, Alejandro pushing his baby son University of Chicago her while she was sexual abuse in 1987 Hernandez was in a stroller when the was raped and robbed. at their home doing based on the claim sentenced to death for victim of a rape and Serological testing of laundry. Because that his son, Gerald, rape and murder and robbery that had the biological evidence Fred Zain, a fraudulent had raped a woman in was later exonerated occurred five months suggested that lab technician, was his home and he had through DNA evidence. earlier identified him Richard Johnson was involved in the done nothing to stop it. The detectives on the street as one of not the perpetrator, serological testing of Gerald Davis was working on the case her two assailants. yet Johnson’s attorney the case, Davis was allowed to file for DNA claimed that both He was arrested and did not present this allowed to file for testing because a Cruz and Hernandez convicted based on evidence at trial. DNA DNA testing. DNA tests fraudulent forensic made incriminating this misidentification. testing was not done proved that he was scientist was involved statements. During DNA testing finally led at the time, but four not the source of male in the serological appeals, one of the to Moto’s exoneration. years later, test results biological material in testing of the case. detectives recanted Today, he is a musician established Johnson’s the rape kit, and his The results ultimately his testimony. and father of four. innocence. conviction was vacated. exonerated both men. The prosecution retried him for the crime, but a jury acquitted him, and he was finally exonerated.
10% are Latino; 28% are Caucasian.
www.innocenceproject.org | 7 THOMAS WEBB • 1996 KEVIN GREEN • 1996 VERNEAL JIMERSON•1996 KENNETH ADAMS • 1996 WILLIE RAINGE • 1996 YEARS YEARS0 YEARS0 2 YEARS YEARS .5 .5 .5 .5 13 OKLAHOMA 15 CALIFORNIA10 ILLINOIS17 ILLINOIS 17 ILLINOIS
The victim of a 1982 Kevin Green was Verneal Jimerson was Kenneth Adams was Willie Rainge was rape was unable to found guilty of the convicted in 1985 for convicted of rape and convicted as one of the identify her assailant attempted murder of a 1978 Chicago rape murder as one of the “Ford Heights Four.” He from an initial photo his wife and the death and murder that came to “Ford Heights Four.” and his co-defendants lineup.CTED ThomasNVI WebbCO of their unbornFULLY child.ONG be WR known Y as the “FordMAN O AdamsO T was implicated lived in the Ford Heights was one of only two His wife, who suffered Heights Four” case. based on the false area and were men who were included severe brain damage Paula Gray, who claimed confession of Paula implicated by the false in both the first and and amnesia as a to be an eyewitness, Gray. He was convicted, confession of Paula second photo lineups, result of the attack, implicated Jimerson sentenced to 75 years, Gray. Rainge was and the one that most testified against him. and three other men. and exonerated by sentenced to life in closely resembled her Over a decade later, Jimerson had served DNA testing in 1996. prison, but was released description. Webb was the biological evidence years on death row when 18 years later when convicted and served in the case was run a group of journalism DNA testing vindicated over 13 years of a through a DNA database students at Northwestern all four defendants. 60-year sentence and matched to a University, led by before DNA testing led serial killer known as Professor David Protess, to his exoneration. the “Bedroom Basher” uncovered evidence who confessed to the that led to three other attack and five suspects. DNA testing other murders. ultimately exonerated Jimerson and his three co-defendants.
60% of them had spent at least one third of their lives in prison or on parole by the time they were exonerated.
8 | Innocence Project DENNIS WILLIAMS STEVEN TONEY • 1996 TROY WEBB • 1996 FREDERIC SAECKER VICTOR ORTIZ • 1996 1996 1996 .5YEARS YEARS .5 YEARS YEARS .5YEARS 17 ILLINOIS 13 MISSOURI 7 VIRGINIA 6 WISCONSIN 11 NEW YORK
Like his co-defendants, Steven Toney was A woman said she was Frederic Saecker In early 1983, a Willie Rainge, sentenced to two life 99% sure that Troy became implicated in teenager was abducted Kenneth Adams and sentences for a 1982 Webb raped her. a kidnapping and rape at gunpoint and raped Verneal Jimerson, rape after the victim Serology tests were when he was found after her assailant Dennis Williams was identified him in a inconclusive, and he near the victim’s home took her into a wooded convicted2 of a rape photo and0 in a live was convicted0 based wearing a bloodstained area. She identified and murder he did not lineup. On appeal, on her eyewitness T-shirt. Saecker did Victor Ortiz, and he commit in connection the defense alleged misidentification. not at all resemble the was convicted. In with the Chicago “Ford multiple constitutional When he finally gained victim’s description of 1994, the Innocence Heights Four” case. violations in his trial. access to evidence the attacker, but he Project took his case He was sentenced to Toney was exonerated for DNA testing, the was convicted. In 1993, and secured DNA death and spent 17 13 years after his results verified his DNA testing proved testing of the evidence. and a half years in conviction based on claims of innocence. him innocent. Three Ortiz was exonerated prison before he was DNA testing. years later, he was two years later. finally exonerated.TOO MANY WRONGfinallyFULLY released. CONVICTED
in prison or on parole by the time they were exonerated.
www.innocenceproject.org | 9 WALTER D. SMITH • 1996 ANTHONY HICKS • 1997 MARVIN MITCHELL •1997 CHESTER BAUER • 1997 KEVIN BYRD • 1997 YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS 10 OHIO5 WISCONSIN7 MASSACHUSETTS8 MONTANA12 TEXAS
While Walter Smith Stopped for a traffic Shortly after a young Chester Bauer was Months after a pregnant was awaiting trial on violation, Anthony girl was raped, she convicted of raping a woman was raped at unrelated charges, Hicks became a was driven around by woman at knifepoint. knifepoint, she identified three women identified suspect in a robbery the police to see if she The victim and her Kevin Byrd, whom she him as their rapist. and sexual assault could identify the husband misidentified encountered at the 2Smith pleaded0 guilty to case when someone0 assailant. She saw a Bauer, and a lab grocery store, as her the unrelated charges, in the jail thought he resemblance in analyst testified that attacker. Byrd is African but denied the resembled the Marvin Mitchell, several hairs from the American, and the accusations of rape. composite sketch. except that he had crime scene matched victim initially said a He was convicted of One of five hair roots facial hair and the Bauer. He was white man had raped two rapes and found at the scene assailant had been convicted, but evidence her. Byrd was convicted sentenced to 78 to was eventually clean-shaven. Police later surfaced showing and sentenced to life 190 years in prison. subjected to DNA then picked up that the analyst in prison. The evidence DNA testing proved testing, and Hicks Mitchell and took a miscounted the number in his case, which was his innocence, was exonerated. photo of him, which of hairs at the crime slated to be destroyed, and today he is a they showed to the scene — and that was recovered by TOO motivationalMAN speakerY WRONGvictim.FULLY At that point, COnone of themNVI matchedCTEDchance, subjected to and professional she identified him as Bauer. DNA testing DNA testing and bodybuilder. her attacker, and he ultimately proved his exonerated him. was later convicted. innocence in 1997. Byrd is now living in Many years later, Houston, Texas. DNA testing proved 200his innocence. 14 of them served time on death row.
10 | Innocence Project TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED 2DONALD0 REYNOLDS • 19970BILLY WARDELL • 1997 BEN SALAZAR • 1997 TIMOTHY DURHAM •1997 ROBERT MILLER • 1998 .5 YEARS .5 YEARS YEARS .5YEARS .5YEARS 9 ILLINOIS9 ILLINOIS5 TEXAS3 OKLAHOMA9 OKLAHOMA
Donald Reynolds was Along with his Ben Salazar smoked Timothy Durham was Following a 1986 rape 20convicted0 of sexual co-defendant, Donald the same brand of sentenced to 3,200 and murder, police assault, armed robbery Reynolds, Billy Wardell cigarettes and had a years for the violent canvassed the and related charges was wrongfully similar tattoo as the rape of an 11-year-old neighborhood collecting TOO MANin 1988.Y Serious WR ONGconvictedFULLY of sexual COmanNVI whoCTED raped a girl. The prosecution blood samples from allegations surfaced assault and armed pregnant woman in relied on the victim’s African American men. that exculpatory robbery. Serological 1991. He was convicted vague description of Robert Miller’s blood evidence was not testing of the evidence the following year. the attacker and type was found to turned over to his did not match Wardell; Biological evidence in inconclusive hair and match evidence from TOO MANY WRattorneysONG before hisFULLYin spite ofCO this andNVI CTEDthe case could not be semen evidence. In his the crime scene. trial, and that a lab the testimony of three located for years, but defense, Durham had Detectives took technician who alibi witnesses, he once found, three 11 witnesses who advantage of Miller’s performed serological was convicted. Both rounds of DNA testing corroborated his alibi. fragile mental health testing exaggerated Wardell and Reynolds proved that Salazar DNA test results during a 12-hour the results. For years, were exonerated in could not have been excluded him in 1996 interrogation where Reynolds sought DNA 1997 after DNA testing the perpetrator. and implicated a he claimed he had testing, and the results proved their innocence. convicted rapist. special powers and ultimately vindicated him could see through the and his co-defendant, killer’s eyes; police Billy Wardell, after called his statements a TOO MANY WRONGFULLY COservingNVI almost a CTED confession and he was decade in prison. convicted. DNA tests ultimately exculpated Miller and implicated another man.
200www.innocenceproject.org | 11
TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED 2PERRY0 MITCHELL • 19980DALE MAHAN • 1998 RONNIE MAHAN • 1998 ANTHONY GRAY • 1999 JOHN WILLIS • 1999 .5YEARS .5YEARS .5YEARS YEARS YEARS 14 S. CAROLINA 11 ALABAMA11 ALABAMA7 MARYLAND7 ILLINOIS
In the woods near Dale Mahan and his Along with his brother Police officers coaxed John Willis was Perry Mitchell’s brother Ronnie were2Dale, Ronnie0 Mahan Anthony0 Gray to convicted of two rapes home, a young woman convicted for a 1983 was wrongfully confess to a 1991 rape and robberies among a was raped in 1982. rape and kidnapping. incarcerated for 11 and murder. Gray, who string of similar crimes TOO MANMitchellY was WR arrestedONGThe prosecutionFULLY COandNVI a halfCTED years has limited cognitive in Chicago in 1990. In 200 a week later on the contended that Dale based on a rape and abilities, pled guilty 1994, Dennis McGruder grounds that he Mahan raped the kidnapping victim’s and was convicted; was arrested for somewhat fit the victim while Ronnie misidentification. he was sentenced to committing similar description and lived watched. Although the Both brothers were two concurrent life rapes and robberies in nearby. After viewing assailants had forcedTOexoneratedO MAN throughY WRsentences.ONG Years FULLYlater, the area. CO Willis assertedNVICTED three photo lineups, the victim to take DNA testing in 1998. DNA testing revealed a that McGruder had the victim misidentified drugs and they wore match with a new confessed to all of the Mitchell as her masks during the suspect who confessed crimes while the two attacker. Based on attack, the victim to the crime, and Gray were in jail. Several exculpatory DNA test identified the brothers was exonerated. more years would pass results, Mitchell in a photo lineup. before DNA testing TOO MANY WRONGFULLY COwas exoneratedNVI after CTEDYears later, DNA testing freed Willis and more than 14 years was conducted on implicated McGruder. in prison. the rape kit and showed that both TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CObrothersNVI were innocentCTED.
They were convicted in 31 states and the District of Columbia. 2012 | Innocence Project 0
TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED RON WILLIAMSON •1999 DENNIS FRITZ • 1999 RONALD JONES • 1999 CALVIN JOHNSON • 1999 DAVID A. GRAY • 1999 YEARS YEARS YEARS .5YEARS YEARS 11 OKLAHOMA11 OKLAHOMA10 ILLINOIS15 GEORGIA20 ILLINOIS
Ron Williamson came Along with his Ronald Jones falsely Based in part on David A. Gray was within five days of co-defendant, Ron confessed to having misidentification by sentenced to 60 years execution for the Williamson, Dennis sex with a rape and the victims, Calvin in prison in connection murder of a young Fritz was convicted of murder victim and Johnson was charged with a brutal rape. woman from Ada, murder in 1988. He struggling with her with two rapes and His first trial ended in Oklahoma. DNA testing became a suspect after she attacked him. convicted of one in a hung jury. At the finally vindicated him solely because of his An eyewitness identified 1983. Since his DNA second trial, the and pointed to another friendship with Jones as an aggressive exoneration in 1999, prosecution presented man who had been one Williamson. For lack panhandler who had Johnson co-authored, the testimony of a of the state’s witnesses of evidence against grabbed the victim Exit to Freedom. He jailhouse snitch who at trial. The story of Fritz, the prosecution earlier that day. Jones serves on the Board claimed that Gray had Ron Williamson’s nearly had to drop was convicted and of Directors of the confessed to him. wrongful conviction is the charges, until a sentenced to death until Innocence Project and Gray maintained his told by John Grisham jailhouse snitch DNA testing performed also of the Georgia innocence for 20 years. in The Innocent Man. claimed that Fritz had in 1997 proved Innocence Project. DNA testing finally Williamson died confessed. More than his innocence. affirmed this claim. in 2004. a decade later, DNA proved his innocence. In 2006, Fritz published Journey Towards Justice, the story of his wrongful conviction 200 and exoneration. and the District of Columbia.
www.innocenceproject.org | 13 TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED HABIB WAHIR ABDAL JAMESRICHARDSON•1999 CLYDE CHARLES • 1999 MCKINLEY CROMEDY LARRY HOLDREN • 2000 1999 1999 YEARS YEARS YEARS .5 YEARS YEARS 16 NEW YORK 9 WEST VIRGINIA17 LOUISIANA4 NEW JERSEY15 WEST VIRGINIA
Habib Wahir Abdal, James Richardson’s An hour before a brutal Almost eight months A rape victim identified then known as Vincent case was one of several rape was committed, after she was raped, a Larry Holdren as the Jenkins, was convicted post-conviction DNA Clyde Charles had woman saw McKinley assailant in a photo of rape despite a lack exonerations involving been caught hitchhiking Cromedy on the street lineup one month after of evidence against Fred Zain, formerly of by a police officer. and identified him as the crime. The defense 2him. Even0 after police the West Virginia0When this same officer her attacker. None of requested DNA testing, informed the victim Police crime laboratory, encountered the the forensic evidence but the relevant that Abdal was the who was investigated victim, he determined —fingerprints, hair biological evidence suspect, she did not for misconduct. that Charles fit her samples and blood had not been preserved. initially identify him. Richardson had been description of the samples—matched In 1997, the victim’s Years after a first convicted of raping perpetrator. Charles Cromedy, but he was semen-stained round of DNA testing and murdering a was brought to the convicted. After the sweatshirt was subjected proved inconclusive, a neighbor and then hospital where he was state’s high court to DNA testing, which second round revealed setting her home on identified by the victim. granted him a new showed that Holdren that he did not match fire. In fact, he had DNA testing eventually trial, DNA testing was was innocent. the profile of the helped rescue a girl exonerated him and conducted, and the TOO perpetratorMAN and heY was WRfrom the fire.ONG implicatedFULLY his brother COresults provedNVI his CTED finally exonerated. in the crime. innocence. Abdal died in 2005.
88% were convicted of sexual assault, and 28% were convicted of murder (19% were convicted of both sexual assault and murder).
14 | Innocence Project HERMAN ATKINS • 2000 NEIL MILLER • 2000 A.B. BUTLER • 2000 ARMAND VILLASANA WILLIAM GREGORY •2000 2000 .5YEARS .5YEARS YEARS MONTHS YEARS 11 CALIFORNIA 9 MASSACHUSETTS 16 TEXAS 7 MISSOURI 7 KENTUCKY
A woman was raped A woman whom Neil A.B. Butler was The white victim of a William Gregory lived and robbed at gunpoint Miller had never seen sentenced to 99 years rape and kidnapping in in the same apartment in a shoe store. before identified him in prison for a rape 1998 described her complex as a rape Herman Atkins was from a photo book as and kidnapping in assailant as Latino. victim and an convicted of the the man who broke Texas. Butler’s alibi The photo lineup she attempted-rape victim. crime in 1988 based into her home and was outweighed by the was shown included Both of the victims on eyewitness raped her. His victim’s identification five white men and identified him. Thanks misidentification; more conviction rested of him. When the one Latino—Armand to a selection of hairs than a decade later, largely on her evidence was finally Villasana. Although found on a stocking DNA proved his eyewitness testimony. submitted to DNA he was never cap left behind by the innocence. In February Miller was released testing, it revealed that sentenced, Villasana assailant, Gregory 2006, Atkins was from prison ten years Butler could not have was incarcerated for became the first person married on the later after DNA testing been the perpetrator of months before DNA to be exonerated by anniversary of his vindicated him. the crime. evidence proved his DNA mitochondrial exoneration. He is The real perpetrator innocence and led testing alone. pursuing a law degree was never found. to the dismissal of that he plans to use his case. to help wrongfully convicted people expunge their records.
(19% were convicted of both sexual assault and murder).
www.innocenceproject.org | 15 JERRY WATKINS • 2000 ERIC SARSFIELD • 2000 LARRY YOUNGBLOOD ROY CRINER • 2000 EARL WASHINGTON 2000 2000 .5YEARS .5 YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS 13 INDIANA9 MASSACHUSETTS9 ARIZONA10 TEXAS17 VIRGINIA
A jailhouse snitch Eric Sarsfield was No biological testing Although the results With a general IQ in 200claimed that Jerry convicted of rape was conducted in excluded him, the range of 69, Watkins confessed to based largely on a Larry Youngblood’s post-conviction DNA Earl Washington the rape and murder of less-than-certain case because police testing was not compensated for his Watkins’s sister-in-law. identification by the had improperly stored deemed sufficient by cognitive limitations by Three witnesses victim who saw the evidence and it the prosecution to politely deferring to testified that the snitch Sarsfield three months had degraded. He was exonerate Roy Criner authority figures. When admitted he was lying. after the crime. Years released on appeal of aggravated sexual police questioned him Also, DNA testing later, DNA testing was but returned to prison assault. Criner then about a rape and TOO MANY WRONGFULLYsuggested CO that NVIWatkins CTEDconducted on several in 1993 when the sought DNA testing on murder, he confessed was not the perpetrator. pieces of biological state Supreme Court a cigarette butt found to the crime as well as Nevertheless, Watkins evidence. On his 37th reinstated his sexual next to the victim’s five others. Four of served over 13 years birthday, Sarsfield assault, child body. A genetic profile these confessions in prison before DNA learned that DNA had molestation and emerged that matched were dismissed, but testing conclusively proven his innocence. kidnapping convictions. both spermatozoa and Washington was proved his innocence. In 2000, DNA the cigarette butt, sentenced to death for technology advances and Criner was finally the fifth. Many years allowed degraded pardoned. later, DNA testing evidence in the case affirmed Washington’s to be tested and the innocence. results exonerated Youngblood.
Many were denied parole because, in part, they refused to “accept responsibility” for crimes they did not commit.
16 | Innocence Project ANTHONY ROBINSON CARLOS LAVERNIA • 2000 JAMES O’DONNELL • 2000 WILLIE NESMITH • 2000 FRANK LEE SMITH • 2000 22000 00 YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS 10 TEXAS15 TEXAS2 NEW YORK18 PENNSYLVANIA14 FLORIDA Anthony Robinson Cuban immigrant Based on the description Willie Nesmith’s After 14 years on was apprehended in a Carlos Lavernia was of a rapist published initial trial for the rape death row, Frank Lee University of Houston arrested in 1984 for in the local newspaper, of a Dickinson College Smith died of cancer parking lot by campus rape and then linked James O’Donnell was student resulted in a in January 2000, before police who believedTOO MANto sevenY other WR assaultsONGidentifiedFULLY by a Staten COhungNVI jury.CTED He had he was exonerated of that he matched the in the Austin area and Island resident. The been identified by two rape and murder. After description given by a charged as a serial victim identified him in witnesses who placed his death, a blood rape victim. Ten years rapist. A victim in the a live lineup, although him near the scene sample from Smith later, out on parole, case testified that her friend, also at the of the crime. He was obtained by the state he began saving money Lavernia was the only scene of the crime, convicted in his second prosecutor’s office was to pay for a DNA test, one in the lineup who did not. Two rounds of trial and served 18 subjected to DNA which led to his “anywhere near DNA testing showed years before DNA testing testing. The results eventual exoneration. resembles” the police that O’Donnell could exonerated him. cleared Smith and Robinson is a recent sketch. Lavernia not have been the implicated another man. graduate of Thurgood served 15 years of a perpetrator. Marshall School of 99-year sentence Law and is pursuing a before DNA testing degree in Chinese Law. proved his innocence.
they refused to “accept responsibility” for crimes they did not commit.
www.innocenceproject.org | 17 DAVID SHAWN POPE LESLY JEAN • 2001 KENNETH WATERS • 2001 DANNY BROWN • 2001 JEFFREY PIERCE • 2001 2001 YEARS YEARS .5YEARS .5YEARS .5YEARS 15 T E X A S9 NORTH CAROLINA17 MASSACHUSETTS18 O H I O14 O K L A H O M A
David Shawn Pope In 1982, Lesly Jean, Two of Kenneth Danny Brown had Jeffrey Pierce’s was convicted of a Haitian immigrant, Waters’s ex-girlfriends been dating a woman innocence was aggravated sexual was convicted of testified against him in for several months uncovered during an assault based, in part, first-degree sexual a murder and robbery before she was investigation of Joyce on voice print analysis offense and first-degree trial, saying that he had murdered. The victim’s Gilchrist, formerly a of messages left on rape. Nine years later, drunkenly confessed to six-year-old son, who forensic scientist at the victim’s answering it was revealed that the crime. One of them had been in the the Oklahoma City machine, a method no police and prosecutors would later recant her apartment the night of Police Laboratory, for longer used in courts. had failed to disclose testimony. Waters’s the murder, testified falsifying testimony An anonymous call pertinent evidence sister put herself that Brown had been and conducting shoddy first alerted prosecutors in his case, and through law school in there that night and forensic analysis. to Pope’s wrongful his conviction was order to take over his had argued with his Pierce’s 1986 conviction. DNA testing overturned. DNA case and prove his mother. When DNA conviction for rape subsequently matched testing exonerated innocence. Once she testing was eventually and robbery was the profile of a Jean in 2001. Shortly located the biological performed, the results overturned after DNA convicted felon, and after his release, he evidence in the case, excluded Brown and testing excluded Pope was pardoned was involved in an she contacted the incriminated an him. After his release, by the governor. accident that left him Innocence Project who incarcerated felon. Pierce moved to paralyzed. helped her secure DNA Michigan to live with testing that proved his his teenage twin sons innocence. Waters who were infants when passed away six months he was convicted. after his release.
77% were convicted based at least in part on eyewitness misidentification …
18 | Innocence Project ULYSSES RODRIGUEZ JERRY FRANK TOWNSEND EDUARDO VELASQUEZ CHARLES IRVIN FAIN CALVIN WASHINGTON CHARLES • 2001 2001 2001 2001 2001 YEARS .5YEARS .5YEARS .5YEARS YEARS 17 MASSACHUSETTS21 FLORIDA12 MASSACHUSETTS17 IDAHO13 TEXAS Ulysses Rodriguez During an investigation A rape victim Charles Irvin Fain Calvin Washington Charles was convicted for the rape of a identified Eduardo had recently moved to was convicted of of rape, robbery and pregnant woman in Velasquez, then the Nampa area when capital murder in 1987. related charges in Miami, Jerry Frank known as Angel a young girl was raped Witnesses testified that 1984, stemming from Townsend, whose Hernandez, at night, and murdered. Police Washington admitted a 1980 crime. Charles cognitive abilities are from 10 to 12 feet began questioning him to burglarizing the long maintained that limited, confessed to away. He had been and asked him to victim, and so-called he was targeted by a this and several other picked up by police provide hair samples. “bite marks” on the police officer with a crimes. When DNA test who believed that he The FBI determined victim were linked to vendetta who hid results cleared him of fit the description of that the suspect’s hairs Washington. After evidence in pursuit of two of the six murders the perpetrator. DNA were similar to Fain’s. serving 13 years of a his wrongful he had confessed testing was performed Based on that evidence, life sentence, DNA test conviction. In 2001, to, also implicating in 2001 and he was he was convicted and results vindicated he was proven another man, exonerated based on sentenced to death. Washington and innocent through prosecutors asked that the results. Today, he Mitochondrial DNA implicated another man, DNA testing. his other convictions lives in Puerto Rico testing eventually who had committed be dismissed. with his wife. revealed that the hairs suicide after admitting were not Fain’s, and that he raped an elderly he was exonerated. woman who lived next door to the victim in Washington’s case.
on eyewitness misidentification …
www.innocenceproject.org | 19 ANTHONYMICHAEL GREEN JOHN DIXON • 2001 MARCELLIUS BRADFORD CALVIN OLLINS • 2001 LARRY OLLINS • 2001 2001 2001 YEARS YEARS .5YEARS .5YEARS .5YEARS 13 OHIO 10 NEW JERSEY 6 ILLINOIS 13 ILLINOIS 13 ILLINOIS
Anthony Michael For fear of a harsher Marcellius Bradford Calvin Ollins was Together with his Green was found guilty sentence, John Dixon was coerced into sentenced to life in cousin Calvin, Larry of raping a cancer pled guilty in 1991 to confessing to prison without the Ollins was implicated patient in the care of a rape, robbery and involvement in a 1986 possibility of parole for in a Chicago crime. the Cleveland Clinic kidnapping that he did Chicago rape and the rape and murder Marcellius Bradford 2Hospital 0where he not commit. 0DNA testing murder. He received of a medical student. testified that the two had TusedO toO work. MAN Green Ywas WR not commonlyONGFULLYa plea bargain CO for NVIAt 14CTED years old, raped and murdered a was convicted based, used in New Jersey at implicating Larry Calvin Ollins implicated woman while he and in part, on the faulty that time, and Dixon’s Ollins. After years in himself, Marcellius co-defendant, Omar forensic work of lab request for testing was prison, DNA testing Bradford and Larry Saunders, stood watch. technician Joseph denied. An Innocence of spermatozoa and Ollins in the crime. The four teenagers Serowik. After DNA Project student located hairs found on the He spent roughly half were not old enough exonerated Green, the the evidence in 1996, victim’s body excluded his life in prison to be eligible for the city conducted the but it wasn’t tested until all four men who were before DNA testing death penalty, and “Michael Anthony Green 2001, when it proved convicted of the exonerated him. all but Bradford were Forensic Laboratory Dixon’s innocence. crime. Bradford was sentenced to life in TOO Audit”MAN of the city’sY WRONGexoneratedFULLY and initially CONVICTEDprison. DNA testing crime lab, which has released but remains eventually proved uncovered similar incarcerated on their innocence. problems in other cases unrelated charges. Serowik handled.
and 48% of those misidentifications were cross-racial (most commonly a Caucasian person incorrectly identifying an African American person). 200 20 | Innocence Project
TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED OMAR SAUNDERS • 2001 RICHARD ALEXANDER LARRY MAYES • 2001 LEONARD MCSHERRY MARK WEBB • 2001 2001 2001 .5YEARS .5 YEARS .5YEARS YEARS YEARS 13 ILLINOIS 5 INDIANA 18 INDIANA 13 CALIFORNIA 10 TEXAS
Omar Saunders, Richard Alexander Based solely on the A six-year-old girl Serology test results 20along with0 Larry and was arrested in victim’s tentative positively identified could not exclude Calvin Ollins and connection with four identification of him, Leonard McSherry as Mark Webb as the Marcellius Bradford, sexual assaults in the Larry Mayes was her rapist. The girl also perpetrator of a was convicted in South Bend area. After convicted of rape. identified McSherry’s kidnapping and rape, connection2 with a he was in0 prison, a Mayes had a0 gold grandparents’ house as and the victim Chicago rape and fifth assault occurred. tooth, like the the scene of the crime. erroneously identified murder. In addition to The fifth victim also assailant. After two McSherry maintained him as the perpetrator, Bradford’s false identified Alexander inconclusive lineups, his innocence and leading to his TOO MANY WRconfession,ONG anotherFULLYas the perpetratorCONVICTEDthe victim identified DNA testing in 2001 conviction. In 2001, witness testified when his photo was him from a photo array. corroborated his claim. DNA testing proved that Saunders had accidentally placed in She later revealed that his innocence and he implicated himself in the photo lineup — police had hypnotized was freed. the crime. In even though he was her before showing December 2001, in prison when the her the photos. Mayes all four men were crime occurred. DNA was the 100th person proven innocentTOO eventuallyMAN provedY WRexonerated ONGthrough FULLY CONVICTED through DNA testing. Alexander’s innocence post-conviction and implicated two DNA testing. TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTEDother men in the crimes.
Caucasian person incorrectly identifying an African American person). 200www.innocenceproject.org | 21
TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED RICHARD DANZIGER CHRIS OCHOA • 2002 BRUCE GODSCHALK ARVIN MCGEE • 2002 VICTOR LARUE THOMAS 2002 2002 2002 YEARS .5YEARS .5YEARS .5YEARS YEARS 11 TEXAS 11 TEXAS 14 PENNSYLVANIA 12 OKLAHOMA 15 TEXAS
Richard Danziger’s In a desperate attempt Two women in the Arvin McGee was In June 2001, Victor roommate, Chris Ochoa, to avoid the death same apartment convicted of committing Larue Thomas was implicated Danziger in penalty, Chris Ochoa complex were raped a 1987 rape in Tulsa. freed from prison after his confession to the confessed2 to a rape 0in 1986. One of 0McGee’s first trial DNA testing proved rape and murder of an and murder and also them identified Bruce ended in a mistrial, that he did not commit Austin Pizza Hut implicated his Godschalk as the and the second ended a 1986 robbery, employee. They both roommate, Richard perpetrator. His in a hung jury. kidnapping and rape of received life sentences. Danziger. DNA testing conviction was fraught After the third trial, a convenience store Years later, another excluded Ochoa while with misconduct, he was convicted and clerk. His conviction prisoner confessed to he was serving a life including a coerced sentenced to 365 was based largely the crime. The case sentence. Since his confession, and after years in prison. His on the victim’s was reopened, and exoneration,TO OOchoa MANhe wasY convicted, WRONGsentenceFULLY was later COmisidentification.NVICTED DNA tests excluded earned a law degree prosecutors and police reduced to 298 years. Ochoa and Danziger at the University of mishandled evidence Finally, DNA proved and incriminated the Wisconsin and has and claimed it was his innocence and other man. Tragically, worked with the destroyed. After almost identified the true Danziger sustained Wisconsin Innocence 15 years in prison, perpetrator. brain damage from Project. and seven years attacks he suffered fighting for DNA while in prison. testing, Godschalk was exonerated.
65% were convicted based at least in part on fraudulent, unreliable or limited forensic science.
22 | Innocence Project RAY KRONE • 2002 HECTOR GONZALEZ ALEJANDRO DOMINGUEZ CLARK MCMILLAN • 2002 LARRY JOHNSON • 2002 2002 2002 YEARS .5YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS 10 ARIZONA 5 NEW YORK 4 ILLINOIS 22 TENNESSEE 18 MISSOURI
Ray Krone was said to Hector Gonazalez was Alejandro Dominguez, Clark McMillan had After Larry Johnson be helping a Phoenix convicted of murder in then a 16-year-old an obvious limp at the was convicted of a bartender close the a gang-related crime Mexican national, time that a rape victim 1984 rape, he and the bar on the night of her in New York City. was convicted and identified him as the Innocence Project murder. Based on this Serological testing on sentenced to nine years assailant. The victim’s faced considerable information and bloodstains on in prison for rape. His description of her resistance gaining “bite-mark” analysis Gonazalez’s pants conviction was based assailant did not access to evidence (for which police revealed that half the primarily on the include a limp until from his case for DNA asked Krone to bite population of New York victim’s cross-racial she testified at trial. testing. Even after the into a Styrofoam cup City could be the eyewitness McMillan served 22 Innocence Project filed and then compared the source of the blood, identification. After years of a 119-year a civil rights lawsuit, cup to bite marks on yet based on this he was released, sentence when the prosecution the victim), Krone was evidence and a witness Dominguez sought DNA DNA testing cleared refused to release the convicted of the crime who saw him at the testing at his own his name. evidence. In 2001, the and sentenced to scene of the crime, he expense and was finally state Supreme Court death and 21 years. was convicted. DNA exonerated 12 years ordered the Circuit Ten years later, DNA testing revealed that after his conviction. Attorney’s Office to testing exonerated the bloodstains came respond to the Innocence Krone, who is now a not from the victims, Project’s motion. Pennsylvania resident but from two other men The DNA test results and Communications whose wounds proved that Johnson Director of Witness Gonzalez had been could not have been to Innocence. tending the night of the perpetrator and he the crime. was finally exonerated.
on fraudulent, unreliable or limited forensic science.
www.innocenceproject.org | 23 MARVIN ANDERSON EDDIE JOE LLOYD • 2002 JIMMY RAY BROMGARD ALBERT JOHNSON • 2002 DOUGLAS ECHOLS • 2002 2002 2002 YEARS YEARS .5YEARS YEARS YEARS 15 VIRGINIA 17 MICHIGAN 14 MONTANA 10 CALIFORNIA 5 GEORGIA
An all-white jury Police officers At the age of 18, Albert Johnson Douglas Echols, a convicted Marvin investigating the brutal Jimmy Ray Bromgard became the prime former Army officer, Anderson of rape and murder of a 16-year-old was convicted of suspect in a sexual was convicted of related charges when girl interrogated Eddie rape and sentenced to assault case when kidnapping a woman he was 18 years old. Joe Lloyd while he was 40 years in prison. police stopped him for outside a Savannah He became a suspect a patient in a mental His conviction was speeding. He matched nightclub and in the investigation hospital. They led him secured with the the description of the restraining her while because he lived with to believe that by hesitant eyewitness assailant as a black his co-defendant, a white woman and the confessing and getting identification of the man driving a small Samuel Scott, raped victim said her attacker arrested, he would help eight-year-old rape white car. Two rape her. Echols was claimed he “had a them expose the real victim and the victims identified him. paroled five years white girl.” He was perpetrator. The judge fraudulent testimony of Johnson studied law later. Scott contacted exonerated through said that Lloyd would a forensic analyst while incarcerated and the Innocence Project, DNA testing 15 years have received the death (who simply invented sought DNA testing. which helped locate later. Today, he owns a penalty if it were legal in statistics claiming that One of the rape kits the evidence and trucking company and Michigan. For over six a hair at the crime had been destroyed, secured DNA testing. lives in Hanover with years, Innocence Project scene was likely from but the second was Both Echols and Scott his three children. legal clinic students Bromgard). DNA located and subjected were vindicated. worked to secure the testing eventually to testing; Johnson was evidence in Lloyd’s proved his innocence. exonerated based on case. Lloyd died two the results. years after DNA testing proved his innocence.
19% were convicted based at least in part on faulty microscopic hair analysis. Three cases involved an erroneous DNA inclusion.
24 | Innocence Project SAMUEL SCOTT • 2002 BERNARD WEBSTER DAVID BRIAN SUTHERLIN PAULA GRAY • 2002 ANTRON MCCRAY • 2002 2002 2002 YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS 15 GEORGIA 20 MARYLAND0 MINNESOTA 9 ILLINOIS 6 NEW YORK
Samuel Scott was Bernard Webster In 1985, David Brian Paula Gray was Antron McCray and convicted of rape, became the first Sutherlin was convicted convicted of murder, four other adolescents kidnapping, and robbery person to be exonerated of rape, as well as two rape, and perjury and were convicted of a and served 15 years of under Maryland’s unrelated murders. He sentenced to 50 years brutal rape in the now a life sentence. He post-conviction DNA was sentenced to life in in prison in the “Ford infamous Central Park was released on parole statute. Webster was prison for the murders; Heights Four” case. jogger case of 1989. in September 2001 convicted of rape a month later, he was Then 17 years old, her Years after their but arrested two days after the victim and sentenced for the own statements were convictions, DNA test later when he failed to multiple eyewitnesses unrelated rape. In used to secure her results matched a register as a sex misidentified him as 2002, Sutherlin was conviction and that of convicted murderer offender. In October the perpetrator. He exonerated of the four innocent men — and rapist who 2002, his indictment was 40 years old when rape charge after a Kenneth Adams, Verneal admitted that he alone was dismissed based DNA finally exonerated prosecution-initiated Jimerson, Willie was responsible for on DNA test results. him and he walked out review led to DNA Rainge and Dennis the attack. None of the of prison; he was 18 testing of the evidence Williams. DNA testing DNA evidence matched when he was arrested. in his case, which ultimately proved that those wrongfully showed that another man none of the five were convicted, and all five was the perpetrator. involved in the crime. men were exonerated. Sutherlin, who never Gray is the only woman served time for the to be exonerated TOO MANY WRONGrape conviction whileFULLYthrough post-conviction CONVICTED serving his life sentence DNA testing. for the unrelated murders, remains in prison.
Three cases involved an erroneous DNA inclusion.
www.innocenceproject.org | 25 KEVIN RICHARDSON YUSEF SALAAM • 2002 RAYMOND SANTANA KHAREY WISE • 2002 DANA HOLLAND • 2003 2002 2002 .5 YEARS .5YEARS YEARS .5YEARS YEARS 5 NEW YORK 5 NEW YORK 5 NEW YORK 11 NEW YORK 8 ILLINOIS
Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam was Raymond Santana Kharey Wise was Dana Holland was who was 14 years old convicted of rape and falsely confessed to one of five teenagers imprisoned for a decade at the time, was one of assault in connection involvement in the convicted in for two wrongful five teenagers convicted with the 1989 Central Central Park jogger connection with the convictions: a rape, in the attack of a Park jogger case. He case of 1989. He and Central Park jogger an armed robbery and 20Central Park0 jogger in was the only one of five other teenagers, case. He and three an attempted murder. TOO MANY WRONGFULLY1989. Because CO the NVIfive CTEDteenagers convicted between the ages of of his co-defendants On the morning of the victim had no memory who did not give a 14 and 16 years old, gave videotaped rape, officers traced of the assault, police videotaped confession. were convicted of this confessions that the suspect’s footprints focused on a group In 2002, all five men crime. In 2002, another differed significantly to Holland’s apartment of youths who were were deemed innocent man who had been on key details of the building. The Center already in police after DNA testing was convicted of similar crime. In retrospect it on Wrongful Convictions custody for other conducted on several crimes confessed that is clear that the young took his case and crimes perpetrated in pieces of evidence, he alone committed men did not know secured DNA testing, the park that night. including a rape kit the Central Park jogger where, how, or when which exonerated In 2002, all five men and hairs found on attack, and all five the attack took place. Holland in 2003. TOO MANY WRwere provenONG innocent theFULLY victim. COmen wereNVI exoneratedCTEDIn 2002, all five men He was retried for the through DNA testing. after DNA testing were deemed innocent armed robbery and confirmed his admission. after DNA testing. attempted murder (for which there was no DNA evidence) and acquitted.
25% were convicted based at least in part on false confessions or admissions...
26 | Innocence Project GENE BIBBINS • 2003 WILEY FOUNTAIN • 2003 JULIUS RUFFIN • 2003 DENNIS MAHER • 2003 EDDIE JAMES LOWERY 2003 .5YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS .5YEARS 15 LOUISIANA 16 TEXAS 20 VIRGINIA 19 MASSACHUSETTS 9 KANSAS
In 1987, Gene Bibbins Wiley Fountain was A young nurse Dennis Maher, then a Investigators in the was convicted of raping convicted of aggravated identified Julius 23-year-old Army ser- 1981 rape of an elderly a young woman in the sexual assault of a Ruffin, a maintenance geant, was stopped woman questioned apartment complex pregnant woman in the worker at a medical and questioned by Eddie James Lowery where he lived. He Dallas area who had school where she was police on the night on the day of the became a suspect when been abducted while a student, as the man that a rape occurred in attack. They denied he was seen carrying walking to a bus stop. who raped her several his town of Lowell. him a lawyer, fed him a radio that had been Fountain was stopped weeks earlier. After Although no biological details of the case and stolen from the victim’s by police because his two trials resulted evidence linked him, extracted a confession. apartment. He had clothing resembled in hung juries, Ruffin he was convicted of Lowery’s first trial found the radio on the the victim’s description was convicted and two rapes. The New ended in a hung jury, premises. The victim of what her attacker sentenced to life. England Innocence but he was convicted identified him as the wore. Based on DNA Over two decades Project helped secure in the second. After perpetrator after police test results, he later, DNA testing DNA testing in his his parole in 1991, drove him to the crime was pardoned in exonerated Ruffin case and he was Lowery financed DNA scene and illuminated March 2003. and linked to a proven innocent. He is testing in his case and his face with a convicted rapist. now a mechanic for a was proven innocent. flashlight. He was waste management exonerated 15 years company, has recently later, when DNA testing married and has two TOO MANY WRONGproved that he couldFULLY CONVICTEDyoung children. not have committed 20the crime.0
on false confessions or admissions...
www.innocenceproject.org | 27 TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED MICHAEL MERCER • 2003 PAUL KORDONOWY • 2003 KENNETH WYNIEMKO MICHAEL EVANS • 2003 PAUL TERRY • 2003 200 2003 .5YEARS YEARS .5YEARS YEARS YEARS 10 NEW YORK 13 MONTANA 8 MICHIGAN 26 ILLINOIS 26 ILLINOIS
Michael Mercer was Paul Kordonowy was A Michigan rape victim Michael Evans Based on a false tip of misidentified in the exonerated for a 1990 told police that she had served 26 years of a a neighborhood woman, rape of a 17-year-old rape conviction after little opportunity to view 400-year sentence for detectives began girl when the victim DNA testing proved his her assailant. But they the murder, rape and asking local African TOO MANY WRONGFULLY COsawNVI MercerCTED in her innocence. At his trial, asked her to help prepare kidnapping of a young American teenagers 200building two months the former head of the a composite sketch, girl before DNA testing about the rape and after the attack. In Montana Forensic which she said was exonerated him. A murder of a nine-year- 2000, DNA testing was Science Laboratory, about 60% accurate. neighborhood woman, old girl. Paul Terry finally conducted and Arnold Melnikoff, Police targeted Kenneth responding to a reward was identified in a found a match — not testified falsely that Wyniemko because he offer of $5,000 for line-up by the woman, to Mercer, but to a hairs found at the resembled the sketch. helping identify the who claimed to have convicted rapist who crime scene matched He was convicted and killer, implicated been a witness to the could not be charged Kordonowy. Kordonowy sentenced to 40-60 Evans. He and his struggle. Although her because the statute of remains in prison for years in prison. Nine co-defendant, Paul work timecard showed limitations had expired. another rape charge to years later, DNA proved Terry, were teenagers she could not have which he pled guilty. his innocence. Today, when they were witnessed the crime, TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTEDWyniemko — joined by convicted. prosecutors continued his Cooley Innocence their case against Project attorneys and Terry and Michael the prosecuting attorney Evans. The two served in his case — educates a combined total of 52 the public about years in prison before wrongful convictions. DNA testing proved them innocent.
And 35% of those who falsely confessed were 18 years old or younger and/or developmentally disabled.
28 | Innocence Project LONNIE ERBY • 2003 STEVEN AVERY • 2003 CALVIN WILLIS • 2003 CALVIN LEE SCOTT NICHOLAS YARRIS • 2003 2003 YEARS .5YEARS .5YEARS YEARS .5YEARS 17 MISSOURI 17 WISCONSIN 21 LOUISIANA 20 OKLAHOMA 21 PENNSYLVANIA
Lonnie Erby was Sixteen witnesses Calvin Willis was Microscopic hair Sentenced to death in convicted of several corroborated Steven convicted of raping a analysis — a science 1982 for a rape, murder, St. Louis kidnappings Avery’s alibi that he seven-year-old girl that is limited at best and kidnapping, and rapes and had spent the day while two other young — was used to convict Nicholas Yarris first sentenced to 115 shopping with his family girls were also in the Calvin Lee Scott of a sought DNA testing in years in prison. when a brutal sexual Shreveport home. 1982 rape. Two his case in 1989. Although no biological assault occurred. The children provided decades later, DNA DNA tests on evidence evidence linked him Nevertheless, based conflicting descriptions testing excluded Scott from his case were to the crimes and he on the eyewitness of the attacker, and and matched to a conducted throughout had strong alibis for misidentification of a their memories of the convicted rapist who the 1990s and were each of them, he was single witness and hair attack changed over could not be charged inconclusive. In 2003, convicted based on analysis, Avery was time. Willis, who was due to the statute of a private lab conducted misidentification by convicted. DNA testing well known in the limitations. one last round of DNA several of the victims. secured by the neighborhood and tests on several items The Innocence Project Wisconsin Innocence denied having anything of evidence — and the took Erby’s case in Project proved that to do with the crime, results proved that 1995 and spent seven Avery was innocent — was finally exonerated Yarris was innocent. years fighting for DNA and matched a man based on DNA testing He is now living in testing on evidence in who was in prison for on several pieces of England with his wife the case. Finally, in sexual assaults evidence. The real and young daughter. 2003, DNA test results committed after the one perpetrator was never proved his innocence. for which Avery was found. wrongfully convicted.
and/or developmentally disabled.
www.innocenceproject.org | 29 STEPHAN COWANS DARRYL HUNT • 2004 ANTHONY POWELL • 2004 JOSIAH SUTTON • 2004 LAFONSO ROLLINS 2004 2004 20.5YEARS0.5YEARS YEARS .5YEARS YEARS 5 MASSACHUSETTS 18 N. CAROLINA12 MASSACHUSETTS 4 TEXAS 10 ILLINOIS
The victim and multiple Darryl Hunt was A man who raped a At Josiah Sutton’s Lafonso Rollins was witnesses misidentified convicted of a 1984 teenager in 1991 rape trial in 1999, a 17-year-old special Stephan Cowans as rape and murder despite demanded that she a Houston Police education student in the man who shot a a lack of evidence meet him at the local Department crime lab the ninth grade when Boston police officer, against him. The main skating rink the night employee testified he was arrested for 2TOO MANand he was0Y convicted WRONGprosecutionFULLY0 witness COafterNVI the attackCTED with that DNA from the robbery and rape on the on several charges and was a former Ku Klux $100. Anthony crime was an exact basis of a composite sentenced to 30-45 Klansman. In 1994, DNA Powell happened to match to Sutton. sketch. Rollins, whose years in prison. Several testing excluded him, be at the rink that Knowing this couldn’t cognitive abilities are items of evidence were yet state and federal night and the young be true, Sutton fought, limited, confessed to later subjected to DNA courts turned down his woman misidentified unsuccessfully, to the robberies and four testing, and they all request for a new trial. him as her attacker. have independent DNA rapes. Years later, DNA showed that Cowans But when a final round He was convicted of testing conducted testing proved that he was innocent. of DNA testing identified rape and kidnapping during his trial. In was innocent and that Subsequently, officials the real perpetrator, Hunt and sentenced to 2003, an independent an unknown male had reexamined a fingerprint was finally exonerated. 12-20 years in prison. audit of the crime lab committed the crimes. TOO frMANom the crime sceneY WRHe now runsONG the WhenFULLY DNA testing COuncoveredNVI extensive CTEDDuring the years that an expert had Darryl Hunt Project for was finally conducted, problems. DNA tests Rollins was wrongfully testified came from Freedom and Justice, the judge quickly proved that Sutton was imprisoned, his Cowans — and the new which assists innocent acknowledged that the innocent, and he was mother, father, sister analysis revealed that prisoners and helps results proved Powell’s exonerated. Since his and grandparents fingerprint was not people successfully innocence, and he release, he has had died. Cowans’s. He was fully reenter society after was freed. advocated for legislative exonerated in 2004. incarceration. reform in Texas.
Nine pled guilty to crimes they did not commit. 200 30 | Innocence Project
TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED RYAN MATTHEWS • 2004 WILTON DEDGE • 2004 ARTHUR LEE WHITFIELD BARRY LAUGHMAN • 2004 CLARENCE HARRISON 2004 2004 YEARS YEARS .5YEARS YEARS .5YEARS 5 LOUISIANA 22 FLORIDA 22 VIRGINIA 16 PENNSYLVANIA 17 GEORGIA
Ryan Matthews was The prosecution at Arthur Lee Whitfield When police lied to Poor preservation of 2arrested for 0murder Wilton0 Dedge’s was convicted of two Barry Laughman and evidence almost soon after his 17th rape trial relied on rapes and sentenced told him that his prevented Clarence birthday. His friend, eyewitness to 63 years in prison. fingerprints were found Harrison from proving Travis Hayes, falsely misidentification, More than two at a murder scene, he his innocence in a confessed to the crime snitch testimony, hair decades later, when he confessed to the crime. 1986 rape case. After and implicated TcomparisonOO MANand dog Ysought WR DNA ONGtesting FULLYLaughman’s IQCO had NVIhe wasCTED convicted, he Matthews, who was sniffing to secure his that could prove his been measured at 70, pursued DNA testing but convicted and conviction in 1982. innocence, he was told and he was said to be was told the remaining TOsentencedO MAN to death.Y WRThe convictionONG wasFULLYthe evidence CO wasNVI lost CTEDfunctioning at the evidence had been The Louisiana Crisis reversed in 1983, forever and could not level of a 10-year-old destroyed in the early Assistance Center but then reinstated in be tested. But samples child. Despite serious 1990s. By 2003, helped Matthews win 1984. Three years of evidence were found discrepancies between the Georgia Innocence post-conviction DNA after post-conviction in the old notebooks of his confession and the Project had helped testing that excluded DNA testing excluded a former lab analyst actual crime (including locate one last him. After almost him in 2001, he was who, against lab the date), he was preserved slide, and five years on death finally released. protocol, saved convicted of rape, it proved Harrison’s row, he was released. Dedge lives in Florida, evidence samples in murder and other innocence. Just 18 where he is a hundreds of cases — charges in 1988 and days after his release landscaper and an which have already led sentenced to life in from prison, Harrison advocate for criminal to several exonerations. prison. Years later, DNA married his longtime justice reform. DNA testing on the testing of the evidence girlfriend. evidence exonerated proved his innocence. Whitfield in 2004.
they did not commit.
www.innocenceproject.org | 31 DAVID ALLEN JONES BRUCE DALLAS GOODMAN DONALD WAYNE GOOD DENNIS BROWN • 2005 DONTE BOOKER • 2005 2004 22004 020040 YEARS YEARS .5YEARS YEARS YEARS 9 CALIFORNIA 19 UTAH 13 TEXAS 19 LOUISIANA 15 OHIO
Los Angeles police Convicted of the rape Donald Wayne Good At age 17, Dennis After he was paroled, investigating several and murder of his was convicted of Brown was accused of Donte Booker sought murders interrogated live-in girlfriend based rape, based only on rape and confessed to post-conviction DNA David Allen Jones, who largely on inconclusive the victim’s eyewitness the crime when a testing in the 1986 rape has the mental ability forensics, BrTuceO DallasO MANidentification.Y WR He ONGdetectiveFULLY threatened COcaseNVI for CTEDwhich he had 20of an eight-year0-old, Goodman maintained continued to fight to him. The victim said been convicted. He for over two days. After his innocence. He prove his innocence her attacker’s face refused opportunities detectives “reminded” ultimately sought the for years after he was almost completely for an earlier parole Jones that he had help of the Rocky was paroled. DNA covered, yet she because he would already admitted to Mountain Innocence testing finally led to identified Brown. The not admit to a crime the crimes, he falsely Center, and DNA his exoneration in Innocence Project he didn’t commit. confessed and was testing exonerated him. December 2004. New Orleans requested In 2005, DNA testing convicted. Nine years DNA testing in Brown’s excluded him, and later, DNA testing proved case, which proved his conviction was Jones’s innocence — his innocence. He had overturned. and matched a convicted spent over half of his TOO MANY WRserial murderer.ONG FULLY CONVICTEDlife in prison. TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED
15% were convicted based at least in part on testimony from snitches or informants. 200 32 | Innocence Project
TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED PETER ROSE • 2005 MICHAEL ANTHONY BRANDON MOON • 2005 ANTHONY WOODS • 2005 THOMAS DOSWELL • 2005 WILLIAMS • 2005 YEARS .5YEARS YEARS YEARS .5YEARS 8 CALIFORNIA 23 LOUISIANA 17 TEXAS 18 MISSOURI 18 PENNSYLVANIA
A young rape victim Just 16 years old at Brandon Moon was When Anthony Woods When a rape victim initially reported that2the time of his0 convicted0 of three was paroled after 18 was shown a photo she was raped by a conviction, Michael counts of aggravated years in prison for array of possible stranger, until her Anthony Williams sexual assault for a raping a teenager, he suspects, only one — aunt, an estranged served nearly 24 years string of crimes in the immediately called Thomas Doswell’s — acquaintance of of a life sentence for El Paso area where he his original public was marked with the Peter Rose, suggested aggravated rape. was a college student. defender and obtained letter ‘R’, which officers that he had committed The victim, who was Moon was arrested an order for DNA said meant that Doswell the crime. Under his tutor, misidentified and convicted in testing in his case. In had been charged with interrogation, policeTOWOilliams, MAN and he wasY WR1988, ONGbased largelyFULLYprison, heCO had twiceNVICTEDrape. Although Doswell repeatedly pressured convicted. More than on eyewitness failed to complete the challenged the the girl to name him, two decades later, misidentification and sex offender program identification at his despite her misgivings. DNA testing proved faulty forensic because he refused to trial, he was convicted. He was convicted and that he could not have analysis. DNA testing accept responsibility Nearly two decades sentenced to 27 years. committed the crime. proved his innocence for the crime. DNA later, in March 2005, With the help of the Upon his release, the 17 years later. Moon results cleared his DNA testing proved Northern California Louisiana Department has since moved to name three years after his innocence. He is Innocence Project, of Corrections issued Missouri. He is an his release. now part of a band that Rose’s innocence was him a check for $10. advocate for criminal opened for B.B. King established through justice reform. during his 2006 tour. DNA testing.
on testimony from snitches or informants.
www.innocenceproject.org | 33 LUIS DIAZ • 2005 LEO WATERS • 2005 GEORGE RODRIGUEZ ROBERT CLARK • 2005 CLARENCE ELKINS • 2005 2005 YEARS YEARS YEARS .5YEARS 5 YEARS 25 FLORIDA 21NORTH CAROLINA 17 TEXAS 23 GEORGIA 6. OHIO Luis Diaz was A woman who had George Rodriguez The perpetrator of a Clarence Elkins was convicted in 1980 as been raped in 1981 was at work when a brutal 1981 rape and convicted of the rape the “Bird Road Rapist.” while selling a 14-year-old girl was robbery stole the and murder of his One of the victims waterbed out of her raped by two Latino victim’s car. He loaned mother-in-law and the identified Diaz when home identified men, one of whom had it to his friend, Robert rape of his six-year-old 200she saw him at the gas Leo Waters as the called the other Clark, who the victim niece in 1999. While station where she assailant. She was “George.” The victim then saw driving it. he was in prison, Elkins’s worked. Diaz, a married hypnotized in an identified Rodriguez in Clark gave the man’s wife worked with a father of three, was attempt to bolster a photo array and he name to detectives, private investigator to roughly 70 pounds her memory. In 2003, was arrested. Based in but the man was never find the real perpetrator. lighter and 7 inches DNA testing showed part on inaccurate charged. Decades later, They learned that a shorter than her initial that he could not forensic analysis, he DNA testing revealed convicted rapist, who description. With the have been the rapist, was convicted and Clark’s innocence and had lived near the help of Diaz’s son and and two years later sentenced to 60 years implicated the man crime scene, had been the Florida Innocence he was pardoned. in prison. Years later, who loaned him the transferred to Elkins’s Initiative, he was results of mitochondrial car, who was already cell block. Elkins TOO MANY WRONGfinallyFULLY released on the CONVICTEDDNA testing did not serving time on other retrieved one of the basis of exculpatory match Rodriguez, but convictions. Clark man’s cigarette butts DNA test results. did match another man. lives in Atlanta and from the prison yard in works in construction. order to obtain his genetic profile. DNA testing cleared Elkins and matched the man Elkins and his wife suspected.
45% were compensated (either through state compensation laws or civil lawsuits) for their wrongful convictions, usually years after their release;
34 | Innocence Project JOHN KOGUT • 2005 PHILLIP LEON THURMAN WILLIE DAVIDSON • 2005 ENTRE NAX KARAGE KEITH E. TURNER • 2005 2005 2005 YEARS YEARS YEARS .5 YEARS YEARS 17 NEW YORK 19 VIRGINIA 12 VIRGINIA6 TEXAS 4 TEXAS Through hair Phillip Leon Thurman Willie Davidson Entre Nax Karage Post-conviction DNA comparison, snitch was convicted of a served 12 years for was convicted of testing proved that testimony and 1984 rape, abduction the 1980 rape of an murdering his Keith E. Turner was John Kogut’s false and assault based on elderly female girlfriend in 1997. not the perpetrator of a confession — produced eyewitness identification acquaintance of his Post-conviction DNA 1982 rape of a Dallas after 18 hours of and serology on crime who testified that he testing proved that he woman. Turner had TOO MANYinterrogation WRONG — Kogut FULLYscene evidence. CO AfterNVIhadCTED been like a was innocent. The been misidentified was convicted of the he was released on grandson to her. profile obtained from both visually and by rape and murder of a parole in 2004, he was Davidson and his family spermatozoa found on his voice. He and the 16-year-old girl. John required to register as said that he was at the victim matched victim worked for Restivo and Dennis a sex offender, but he home sleeping when another man who was different branches of Halstead were also continued fighting to the crime occurred. previously convicted the same company convicted on the prove his innocence. A Years after he was of a similar crime. and came into contact pretense that the three key piece of biological released from prison, when Turner was men acted together. evidence had been he was proven innocent transferred. Several rounds of DNA saved by a lab analyst, through DNA testing of testing over 10 years whose work proved evidence that a lab excluded all three instrumental in the analyst had saved in men. After a retrial, exonerations of several her notebooks. Kogut was finally other Virginia prisoners. exonerated. Thurman’s evidence was subjected to DNA testing, and he was exonerated.
20for their wrongful0 convictions, usually years after their release;
www.innocenceproject.org | 35
TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED DENNIS HALSTEAD • 2005 JOHN RESTIVO • 2005 ALAN CROTZER • 2006 EUGENE HENTON • 2006 ARTHUR MUMPHREY 2006 YEARS YEARS .5YEARS .5 YEARS .5YEARS 16 NEW YORK 16 NEW YORK 24 FLORIDA 1 TEXAS 17 TEXAS 20Investigators in the 0Together with defendants Three men broke into In exchange for a Based on the testimony murder of a 16-year-old John Kogut and Dennis a Tampa home in 1982 guilty plea, Eugene of a co-defendant, girl focused, in part, Halstead, John Restivo and kidnapped and Henton received a Arthur Mumphrey was on Dennis Halstead was convicted of the raped an adult woman sentence of four years convicted of sexual who was believed to rape and murder of a and a 12-year-old girl, in prison for a 1984 assault and sentenced be associated with 16-year-old girl on leaving them tied to a sexual assault that he to 35 years in prison. another young woman Long Island. DNA testing tree after the attack. did not commit. When In exchange for who had disappeared. proved the innocence One of the victims he was paroled a year testifying against 20Together with John of all thr0ee men in identified Alan Crotzer, and a half later, he Mumphrey, his TOO MANKogutY and JohnWR RestivoONG, 2003, FULLYand they were COwho maintainedNVI thatCTEDcontinued his pursuit co-defendant received Halstead was convicted fully exonerated in he had no knowledge of DNA testing, which a reduced sentence of rape and murder in 2005. The real of the crime. In 2003, led to his exoneration. of 15 years. 1987. After several perpetrator was never he secured DNA testing He is now serving Eventually, DNA rounds of exculpatory found. Today, Restivo and was exonerated time for two unrelated tests confirmed the DNA testing, all three lives in Florida with in 2006. convictions. co-defendant’s men were released in his girlfriend. guilt and Mumphrey’s 2003 and exonerated innocence. in 2005. TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED
the amounts of compensation ranged from $25,000 to $12.2 million. 200 36 | Innocence Project
TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED DREW WHITLEY • 2006 DOUGLAS WARNEY • 2006 ORLANDO BOQUETE WILLIE JACKSON • 2006 LARRY PETERSON • 2006 200 2006 .5YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS .5YEARS 16 PENNSYLVANIA 9 NEW YORK 13 FLORIDA 17 LOUISIANA 16 NEW JERSEY
If not for 39 tiny hairs Despite a lack of Orlando Boquete, a Based on the victim’s Three witnesses stuck to a nylon mask, physical evidence, Cuban immigrant, was misidentification, Willie claimed that Larry Drew Whitley would Douglas Warney was identified by a rape Jackson was convicted Peterson confessed to still be in prison. The convicted of murder victim from the back of and sentenced to 40 a rape and murder, actual perpetratorTO,O MANin 1997.Y W arWRney ONGa policeFULLY car parked COyearsNVI for CTEDrape. Post- and he was convicted who shot and killed a confessed to the crime, 20 feet away, in the conviction DNA testing despite his repeated McDonald’s night but his confession middle of the night. exonerated Jackson assertions of innocence. manager in 1988, had revealed that he did He was convicted, and and implicated his In 2003, DNA tests worn a nylon mask not know several key two years into his brother in the rape. established his that he shed at the facts. DNA testing sentence he escaped At the time of his innocence but scene. Over a decade exonerated him and and lived as a fugitive release, his brother prosecutors refused after Whitley initially matched a convicted for a decade. He was was serving a life to drop charges until filed for DNA testing murderer already eventually recaptured sentence for a rape two of the witnesses on the hairs and was serving a life sentence and served another committed nine changed their previous told they could not be in New York. Warney, 10 years. For a total of years after Jackson’s stories. Finally, in located, he learned who became gravely 23 years he lived as conviction. 2006, he was that the 39 hairs ill while he was in a fugitive or a prisoner exonerated. He is still existed and that prison, is cared for by before DNA testing currently looking for he was excluded as his sister in Rochester. established his employment and the source. innocence. Today, he fighting to have his lives in the Florida record expunged. Keys near many of his relatives.
from $25,000 to $12.2 million.
www.innocenceproject.org | 37 ALAN NEWTON • 2006 JAMES TILLMAN • 2006 JOHNNY BRISCOE • 2006 SCOTT FAPPIANO • 2006 ALLEN COCO • 2006 YEARS .5YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS 21 NEW YORK 16 CONNECTICUT 23 MISSOURI 21 NEW YORK 9 LOUISIANA
Alan Newton of New James Tillman’s In 1982, a Missouri Scott Fappiano After a victim was York attended his conviction in 1989 man told the woman became implicated in raped and burglarized mother’s funeral in was based almost he raped that his name a rape case when the in 1995, there were shackles. She died entirely on a cross- was Johnny Briscoe. victim, a police officer’s several inconsistencies shortly after his rape racial eyewitness The victim would later wife, identified him. between her initial conviction in 1985. He misidentification. Soon identify Briscoe in a At his second trial in description of the began requesting DNA after his conviction, photo lineup and a live 1985, he was convicted. assailant and her testing in 1994, but Tillman requested DNA lineup. Briscoe was By chance, a piece of identification of Allen the rape kit could not testing, but it was not the only man in the evidence in his case Coco. During the be located until 2005. as sophisticated at that live lineup wearing an was discovered in attack, she had stabbed Once it was located, time and the results orange jumpsuit. In 2005 — not at the NYPD the man in the buttocks, DNA testing proved his were inconclusive. 2006, DNA testing storage facilities, but but Coco had no stab innocence. Newton is In 2005, another round excluded Briscoe and at LifeCodes, a private wound. Still, he currently pursuing a of testing showed matched a man who DNA laboratory. Testing was convicted and degree in business conclusively that was known to Briscoe confirmed Fappiano’s sentenced to life in administration at Tillman was innocent, and may have used his innocence and he was prison without Medgar Evers College and he was exonerated name in the crime. released. Today, he probation or parole. with support from the the following year. lives in Brooklyn with The Innocence Project Thurgood Marshall his family, in the New Orleans helped Scholarship Fund. same house he lived him secure DNA in as a teenager. testing in 2005 and he was exonerated the following year.
37% of their exoneration cases also led to identification of the true perpetrator of the crime;
38 | Innocence Project JAMES OCHOA • 2006 JEFFREY DESKOVIC MARLON PENDLETON BILLY JAMES SMITH BILLY WAYNE MILLER 2006 2006 2006 2006 MONTHS .5YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS 10 CALIFORNIA 15 NEW YORK 10 ILLINOIS 19 TEXAS 22 TEXAS Ten months after he Based on a false Marlon Pendleton Billy James Smith Billy Wayne Miller was convicted of confession extracted2was convicted0 in attempted0 to secure was officially carjacking and armed from him at the age of 1996 for a 1992 rape. DNA testing to overturn exonerated in December robbery, James 16, Jeffrey Deskovic Pamela Fish, a his rape conviction for 2006 after DNA testing Ochoa’s conviction was convicted of the laboratory analyst who over four years. His proved he did not was vacated and he rape and murder of his has allegedly provided initial attempts were commit a 1984 Dallas was exonerated. 15-year-old classmate false testimony in at denied because the County rape. The victim Though Ochoa had — even though DNA least seven other victim’s boyfriend had accepted a ride already been excluded testing excluded him. cases that resulted in could have been a home from a man in from the DNA evidence He was released yearsTODNAO exonerations,MAN Y WRsourceONG of semen inFULLY the a Chevy COwho rapedNVI CTED at the time of trial, later when more testified at his trial rape kit — even though her several times. prosecutors were sophisticated DNA that the biological the victim had earlier The police identified convinced of his guilt. testing was conducted evidence was said that she did not Miller as the son of a A routine run of the and run through New insufficient for DNA have sex prior to the registered owner of a DNA profile from the York State’s DNA testing. In 2006, DNA crime. After numerous Chevy with a license crime scene evidence database, providing a testing was conducted appeals, DNA testing plate similar to the one through the national match to a convicted and Pendleton was was finally granted, the victim remembered. DNA database matched felon. Since his proven innocent. and Smith was another man. release, Deskovic has proven innocent. enrolled at Mercy College and speaks publicly about criminal justice reform.
of the true perpetrator of the crime;
www.innocenceproject.org | 39 GREGORY WALLIS • 2007 LARRY FULLER • 2007 TRAVIS HAYES • 2007 WILLIE “PETE” WILLIAMS ROY BROWN • 2007 2007 YEARS YEARS YEARS .5YEARS YEARS 17 TEXAS 25 TEXAS 8 LOUISIANA 21 GEORGIA 15 NEW YORK
An initial round of DNA Larry Fuller was the Travis Hayes’s Months after Willie Roy Brown cracked testing showed that 10th Dallas County co-defendant, Ryan “Pete” Williams was his own case from 1 in 452 people had man proven innocent Matthews, was arrested based on the prison by requesting the same portion of the through DNA testing in exonerated from death misidentification of documents under the DNA profile shared by just five years. The row in 2004. Attorneys two Atlanta rape Freedom of Information both Gregory Wallis victim was raped in at the Innocence victims, a series of Act. Five days after and the perpetrator of her home before Project New Orleans similar rapes Brown mailed a letter a 1988 rape. Rather sunrise and in dim fought for two and a occurred. A second to Barry Bench, the than take a deal that lighting. She identified half more years to win man pled guilty and man that he suspected would release him Fuller after seeing his Hayes’s exoneration was convicted. But to be the killer, Bench from prison if he would photo in two photo for a murder that Williams and his committed suicide by agree to be a life-time lineups. Today, Fuller neither man committed. attorneys did not learn stepping in front of an registered sex offender, cares for his elderly DNA testing in 2004 of the crimes until Amtrak train. Bench’s Wallis pushed for more parents and works as cleared Hayes and the appeals process. daughter provided the testing. Subsequent a telemarketer. Matthews and Working with the DNA sample that testing of the rape kit implicated another Georgia Innocence implicated him and and cigarette butts man, and three years Project, Williams excluded Brown. conclusively eliminated later prosecutors secured DNA testing. Brown, who suffers Wallis as the announced that they The second man from liver disease, perpetrator, and he would not retry Hayes. matched the genetic has been in and out was exonerated profile in both rape of the hospital since in 2007. kits and Williams was his release. eliminated.
in 63% cases, the true perpetrator was never identified.
40 | Innocence Project JAMES WALLER • 2007 ANTONIO BEAVER • 2007 ANTHONY CAPOZZI • 2007 ANDREW GOSSETT • 2007 JERRY MILLER • 2007 YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS .5YEARS 10 TEXAS 10 MISSOURI 20 NEW YORK 7 TEXAS 24 ILLINOIS
In addition to ten Antonio Beaver was Biological evidence On the night of a Jerry Miller was years of wrongful convicted of first-degree stored for two decades kidnapping and rape convicted of raping a incarceration, James robbery in a St. Louis in a hospital drawer in Garland, Texas, a woman in a parking Waller spent 13 years carjacking case and was the key to the police officer on duty garage. After the on parole for allegedly sentenced to 18 years 2007 exoneration of noticed Andrew attack, the rapist raping a young boy in prison. Beaver’s Anthony Capozzi, a Gossett in the vicinity attempted to drive the who lived in his conviction was based Buffalo man who spent of the crime scene. victim’s car out of the apartment development. on the victim’s 20 years in prison for Consistent with the garage with her in the 20As a condition of his identification0 of him in two rapes he didn’t victim’s description trunk. Two parking parole, he was not a live lineup in which commit. Capozzi was of the perpetrator, attendants began allowed to have any he was one of only convicted by a jury of Gossett was wearing questioning the contact with children. four lineup members. two rapes and acquitted a plaid shirt. Gossett assailant, and he fled. Even while volunteering She had described the of the third although was brought in the A police officer, who through his church assailant as having a all three victims following day for a thought that Miller group to serve food to gap in his teeth and identified him in court lineup and the victim resembled the composite homeless people, Waller Beaver was the only as the attacker. DNA identified him. He sketch, put him in a had to ask another one with any dental tests in March 2007 served seven years for lineup and Miller was volunteer to serve the irregularities. DNA showed that another the sexual assault erroneously identified. children. He was finally testing conducted on man, currently awaiting before DNA evidence He was convicted and vindicated on March blood left by the trial on three murders, exonerated him. served 24.5 years 9th when, as the result perpetrator on a car actually committed before DNA testing of exculpatory DNA door cleared Beaver the 1985 attacks, proved his innocence. TOO MANtesting,Y the TexasWRofONG the crime after tenFULLYknow as the Delaware CONVICTED Governor officially years behind bars. Park rapes. pardoned him.
the true perpetrator was never identified.
www.innocenceproject.org | 41 THE QUESTION NOBODY CAN ANSWER
We don’t know how many innocent people are in prison.1 The individuals in this booklet are the first 200 proven innocent through DNA testing — and there will surely be many more, as the Innocence Project and other organizations in the Innocence Network continue exonerating people nationwide.
We do know that those who are exonerated by DNA are a subset within a subset — a fraction of cases that have evidence that still exists and can yield DNA results, within the tiny fraction of cases that even have DNA evidence as part of the crime.
Very few cases involve physical evidence that could be subjected to DNA testing (for example, it is estimated that, even among murders, only 10% of cases have such evidence).
The Innocence Project receives more than 3,000 letters per year from prisoners nationwide, and Innocence Network organizations receive many more. At any given time, the Innocence Project is actively evaluating 6,000 to 10,000 cases. Approximately 33% of DNA cases that are ultimately closed by the Innocence Project are closed because the evidence has been lost or destroyed.
By the time they write to the Innocence Project or another organization, innocent prisoners have lost multiple appeals and have spent years incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. Many of them have concluded, understandably, that the truth will never come to light, so they do not seek help.
42 | Innocence Project We may never know how many innocent people are in prison.
Instead, we ask how many more will have to be exonerated through the hard science of DNA before every jurisdiction in the country enacts reforms that can prevent this injustice in the first place.
1Recent research sheds some light on that number, however. Professor Samuel Gross of the University of Michigan has calculated that 2.3% of all prisoners sentenced to death between 1973 and 1989 were exonerated and freed; the total number who were actually innocent is almost certainly higher. Professor Michael Risinger of Seton Hall Law School estimates that between 3.3% and 5% of defendants sentenced to death for murders involving rape between 1982 and 1989 were innocent. And an initial review of 29 rape convictions with untested DNA from the files of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science found two false convictions, or 7%. There are over two million inmates in American jails and prisons. If as few as 1% are innocent, that would mean we are keeping more than 20,000 innocent men and women behind bars – and the true number may be much higher.
www.innocenceproject.org | 43 he Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva T University to assist prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing. To date, 200 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 14 who served time on death row. These people served an average of 12 years in prison before exoneration and release. The Innocence Project’s full-time staff attorneys and Cardozo clinic students provided direct representation or critical assistance in most of these cases. The Innocence Project’s groundbreaking use of DNA technology to free innocent people has provided irrefutable proof that wrongful convictions are not isolated or rare events but instead arise from systemic defects. Now an independent nonprofit organization closely affiliated with Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, the Innocence Project’s mission is nothing less than to free the staggering numbers of innocent people who remain incarcerated and to bring substantive reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment.
Photo Credits
Centurion Ministries Voice of Innocence Jennifer Linzer Bill Farrington 7. Richard Johnson 19. Ulysses Rodriguez Charles 21. Larry Mayes 38. Scott Fappiano 9. Steven Toney 28. Paul Terry Rachel Morrison Springfield News-Leader 15. AB Butler Center on Wrongful Convictions 5. Frederick Daye 15. Armand Villasana 18. Danny Brown 2. Gary Dotson 7. Vincent Moto © Dan Gair/Blind Dog 3. Steven Linscott 17. Anthony Robinson
Photo, Inc. m
The Innocents: Photographs 8. Kenneth Adams 19. Eduardo Velasquez o c
6. David Shephard .
by Taryn Simon 8. Willie Rainge 23. Larry Johnson s 9. Frederic Saecker e 4. Walter Snyder 23. Alejandro Dominguez 24. Eddie Joe Lloyd o d
10. Anthony Hicks n
5. Brian Piszczek 25. Paula Gray 24. Albert Johnson o
15. Herman Atkins m i
6. Ronald Cotton 26. Dana Holland s Mark Graham 22. Chris Ochoa . 11. Timothy Durham 28. Michael Evans w 35. Entre Nax Karage 23. Clark McMillan w w
13. Ron Williamson 39. Marlon Pendleton
24. Marvin Anderson • 13. Dennis Fritz Francisco Kjolseth/ Loren Santow/ 25. Samuel Scott C 14. Habib Wahir Abdal L
Reprinted with permission of L
The Illinois Death Penalty 28. Kenneth Wyniemko ,
14. Clyde Charles The Salt Lake Tribune s Education Project 31. Clarence Harrison e 16. Larry Youngblood o
32. Bruce Dallas Goodman D
6. Rolando Cruz 33. Brandon Moon
16. Roy Criner n 7. Alejandro Hernandez Dona Ann McAdams with 34. Robert Clark o 17. James O’Donnell m i
8. Verneal Jimerson 37. Orlando Boquete S
George Castelle
19. Charles Irvin Fain :
3. Glen Woodall 38. James Tillman n g
19. Calvin Washington Susan Rutberg i 40. Gregory Wallis s
6. William Harris e 20. John Dixon 33. Peter Rose D 7. Gerald Davis 41. James Waller 22. Richard Danziger c i
Kim A. Marks 7. Dewey Davis h 23. Hector Gonzalez p a 22. Arvin McGee 14. James Richardson r
24. Douglas Echols G
14. Larry Holdren c i g e t a r t S
44 | Innocence Project 200
TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED