List of possible innocent persons executed in the United States. I discovered these cases through research for my paper Killing Innocents.
In a few hours, we may add Troy Davis (GA) to this list.
Brian K. Baldwin (AL)
Cornelius Singleton (AL)
Freddie Lee Wright (AL)
Thomas M. Thompson (CA)
Lena Baker (GA)
Wayne Felker (GA)
Larry Eugene Moon (GA)
James Adams (FL)
Willie Jasper Darden, Jr. (FL)
Leo Jones (FL)
Amos King (FL)
Frank Lee Smith, died on death row (FL)
Jesse Talfero (FL)
Girvies Davis (IL)
Bridget Bishop (MA)
George Burrows (MA)
Martha Carrier (MA)
Giles Corey (MA)
Lyndia Dustin, died in prison (MA)
Mary Eastey (MA)
Ann Foster, died in prison (MA)
Sarah Good (MA)
Elizabeth How (MA)
George Jacobs, Sr. (MA)
Susannah Martin (MA)
Rebecca Nurse (MA)
Sarah Osborne, died in prison (MA)
Alice Parker (MA)
Mary Parker (MA)
John Procter (MA)
Ann Pudeater (MA)
Wilmott Reed (MA)
Ferdinando Nicola Sacco (MA)
Margaret Scott (MA)
Roger Toothaker, died in prison (MA)
Bartolomeo Vanzetti (MA)
Samuel Wardwell (MA)
Sarah Wilds (MA)
John Willard (MA)
Larry Griffin (MO)
Roy Michael Roberts (MO)
R. Mead Shumway (NE)
Killing Innocents 17
Malcolm Rent Johnson (OK)
Thomas Griffin (SC)
Meeks Griffin (SC)
Odell Barnes, Jr. (TX)
James Beathard (TX)
Charles Anthony Boyd (TX)
Ruben Cantu (TX)
David Castillo (TX)
Clyde Coleman (TX)
Carlos DeLuna (TX)
Robert Nelson Drew (TX)
James Otto Earhart (TX)
Troy Dale Farris (TX)
Gary Graham a/k/a Shaka Sankofa (TX)
Lionel Torres Herrara (TX)
Jerry Lee Hogue (TX)
Jesse Jacobs (TX)
Carl Johnson (TX)
Richard Wayne Jones (TX)
Davis Losada (TX)
Robert Madden (TX)
Justin Lee May (TX)
Frank Basil McFarland (TX)
Kenneth Ray Ransom (TX)
Charles Rector (TX)
David Spence (TX)
David Stoker (TX)
Martin Vega (TX)
Cameron Todd Willingham (TX)
Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (US)
Julius Rosenberg (US)
Joseph O’Dell (VA)
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
Miami Law Students Gather Signatures to Save a Life
Miami Law students dressed in blue on Thursday to express their support for Troy Davis, a man who was convicted in 1991 for shooting an off-duty officer in 1989. Both the Miami Innocence Project and the Capital Defense Project at Miami Law helped Amnesty International and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to gather signatures in opposition of Davis' death sentence.
Today is the last day to petition the clemency board to commute Davis' sentence to life. As of Thursday, The Florida Times-Union reported that more than 600,000 petitions have been signed.
"In the wake of presidential candidate Rick Perry's execution of an innocent man, and subsequent attempts to cover it up, we fear that Georgia may be about to make the same mistake," said Gretchen Cothron, co-student director at Miami's Wrongful Conviction Project. The Georgia clemency board meets on Monday to decide on Davis' execution, which is set for Sept. 21 at 7 p.m.
Wrongful Conviction Project members argue that several witnesses who originally testified against Davis have all recanted their statements, except for Sylvester Coles. "Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in more than 75 percent of convictions overturned through DNA testing," stated a report by the national Innocence Project organization.
"This guy's life has been destroyed and now they want to take it away completely," said Nicole Devinette, who is also co-student director at Miami's Wrongful Conviction Project. She points out that Davis has already been incarcerated for more than 20 years. "It just sounds bogus."
The Troy Davis Project is one of many cases the Miami Innocence Project and The Capital Defense Project have taken on this fall. Last week, The Capital Defense Project worked to save the life of Manuel Valle, a 61-years old who was convicted of killing a Coral Gables police officer during a traffic stop 33 years ago.
On Oct. 28, the law school will host a Wrongful Convictions panel to discuss the causal factors of erroneous convictions, police corruption in Miami, false eyewitness testimony and confessions.
For more information and to sign the petition, go to Amnesty International.
Original article written by Rochelle Oliver.
Monday, September 12, 2011
James Bain marries two years after exoneration
Reported by BayNews9 Tampa Bay
By Kristy Wolski, Reporter
Polk County native James Bain made headlines when he was freed from prison nearly two years ago.
Bain spent 35 years behind bars -- for a crime he didn't commit.
DNA evidence finally cleared the wrongly convited man. Saturday evening, Bain started another chapter of his life and got married.
As a free man, Bain said he makes the most of everyday.
"This is a totally different day. It seems to be almost more hectic then the day I got out," Bain said. "Much more hectic."
Bain said he met his wife, Mallelin, at his sister's job and it was love at first sight.
Bain has come a long way from his arrest and wrongful conviction for the rape of a young Polk County boy.
He is the 246th person in the nation to be exonerated by DNA evidence. Of those 246, he served the longest prison term.
Original article is here.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Troy Davis execution set for Sept. 21st
Troy Davis to be executed Sept. 21
Posted: Sep 06, 2011 7:49 PM Updated: Sep 07, 2011 10:18 AM
Posted by Cal Callaway
ATLANTA (AP) -
Georgia corrections officials have set a Sept. 21 execution date for a high-profile death row inmate who claims he's innocent of murdering a Savannah police officer.
The Department of Corrections said Wednesday that Troy Anthony Davis will be executed at 7 p.m. on Sept. 21 for the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail.
A Chatham County judge signed the death warrant for Davis on Tuesday, marking the fourth time since 2007 that the state has a scheduled an execution for Davis. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution in March by rejecting an appeal by Davis.
Davis has exhausted his appeals, but his attorney Jason Ewart has said they plan to ask the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles for clemency. The five-member panel has the power to commute or postpone executions, but rarely does so.
Davis has long said he could prove he was wrongly convicted of the killing of MacPhail. The officer was working off-duty at a Savannah bus station when he was shot twice while rushing to help a homeless man who had been attacked. Eyewitnesses identified Davis as the shooter at his trial, but no physical evidence tied him to the slaying. Davis was convicted of the murder in 1991 and sentenced.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2009 agreed he should have the rare chance to argue he was innocent before a federal judge. It was the first time in at least 50 years that the court had granted an American death row inmate such an innocence hearing.
During two days of testimony in June 2010, U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. heard from two witnesses who said they falsely incriminated Davis and two others who said another man had confessed to being MacPhail's killer in the years since Davis' trial.
But Moore concluded in August that several of the witnesses had already backed off their incriminating statements during the 1991 trial -- so it wasn't new evidence -- and that others simply couldn't be believed. He ruled that while the evidence casts some additional
doubt on the conviction, "it is largely smoke and mirrors" and not nearly strong enough to prove Davis' innocence.
Davis appealed, but the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to hear the challenge in November. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected it in March.
Martina Correia, Davis' sister, said she plans to help organize rallies and events to urge Georgia's pardons board to block the execution.
"It's devastating, but we've been in this place before -- three times before," she said. "And now there are more and more people coming on board. We haven't forgotten Troy and we're working hard to step up. I'm sorry that we have to go through this, but we're going to fight like we always do."
The victim's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said the judge's order is one more step toward bringing her family closure.
"I'd like to get it over with," she said. "For 22 years we've been going back and forth and forth and back," she said. "I don't believe it until it's done, but I sure would like to have some
peace."
Davis' case has become a focal point for the international anti-death penalty movement. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Amnesty International and
dignitaries such as former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI have all urged Georgia officials to spare Davis.
Laura Moye of Amnesty International USA, which has helped stage dozens of rallies in support of Davis, said her group will ask supporters to send letters and petitions to the state's pardons
board.
"We certainly hope the board will recognize the problems that still haven't been resolved in this case," she said. "We expect they are taking this case very seriously, and we want them to err
on the side of caution, the side of life."
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Story originally posted here
Posted: Sep 06, 2011 7:49 PM Updated: Sep 07, 2011 10:18 AM
Posted by Cal Callaway
ATLANTA (AP) -
Georgia corrections officials have set a Sept. 21 execution date for a high-profile death row inmate who claims he's innocent of murdering a Savannah police officer.
The Department of Corrections said Wednesday that Troy Anthony Davis will be executed at 7 p.m. on Sept. 21 for the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail.
A Chatham County judge signed the death warrant for Davis on Tuesday, marking the fourth time since 2007 that the state has a scheduled an execution for Davis. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution in March by rejecting an appeal by Davis.
Davis has exhausted his appeals, but his attorney Jason Ewart has said they plan to ask the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles for clemency. The five-member panel has the power to commute or postpone executions, but rarely does so.
Davis has long said he could prove he was wrongly convicted of the killing of MacPhail. The officer was working off-duty at a Savannah bus station when he was shot twice while rushing to help a homeless man who had been attacked. Eyewitnesses identified Davis as the shooter at his trial, but no physical evidence tied him to the slaying. Davis was convicted of the murder in 1991 and sentenced.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2009 agreed he should have the rare chance to argue he was innocent before a federal judge. It was the first time in at least 50 years that the court had granted an American death row inmate such an innocence hearing.
During two days of testimony in June 2010, U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. heard from two witnesses who said they falsely incriminated Davis and two others who said another man had confessed to being MacPhail's killer in the years since Davis' trial.
But Moore concluded in August that several of the witnesses had already backed off their incriminating statements during the 1991 trial -- so it wasn't new evidence -- and that others simply couldn't be believed. He ruled that while the evidence casts some additional
doubt on the conviction, "it is largely smoke and mirrors" and not nearly strong enough to prove Davis' innocence.
Davis appealed, but the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to hear the challenge in November. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected it in March.
Martina Correia, Davis' sister, said she plans to help organize rallies and events to urge Georgia's pardons board to block the execution.
"It's devastating, but we've been in this place before -- three times before," she said. "And now there are more and more people coming on board. We haven't forgotten Troy and we're working hard to step up. I'm sorry that we have to go through this, but we're going to fight like we always do."
The victim's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said the judge's order is one more step toward bringing her family closure.
"I'd like to get it over with," she said. "For 22 years we've been going back and forth and forth and back," she said. "I don't believe it until it's done, but I sure would like to have some
peace."
Davis' case has become a focal point for the international anti-death penalty movement. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Amnesty International and
dignitaries such as former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI have all urged Georgia officials to spare Davis.
Laura Moye of Amnesty International USA, which has helped stage dozens of rallies in support of Davis, said her group will ask supporters to send letters and petitions to the state's pardons
board.
"We certainly hope the board will recognize the problems that still haven't been resolved in this case," she said. "We expect they are taking this case very seriously, and we want them to err
on the side of caution, the side of life."
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Story originally posted here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)