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After days of police interrogation at the Saraland Police Department, Pardue, 17, confessed to brutally murdering Ronald Rider, 20, and Harvey Hodges, 68, attendants at two gas stations 16 miles apart in Mobile and Baldwin counties.  He also confessed to the murder of a skeleton, which happened to be found in a Mobile County ditch during the interrogation.  The skeleton was later identified as Theodore White, 43, and his cause of death is officially listed as unknown.  Using similar tactics the police coerced Pardue's associates John Brown, 21, and Theresa Lanier, 15, to sign confessions, although Brown could not read and the three confessions contradicted each other as well as the forensic and physical facts of the cases.
        Pardue's Baldwin County trial lasted 1 1/2 hours.  At it, Pardue was convicted of the Rider murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.  He then pleaded guilty to the other two murders because both his attorney and the DA informed him he would receive the death penalty for these crimes if he did not.  Pardue did not know that Alabama had no death penalty in 1973.  For his cooperation, Pardue received three consecutive life sentences, the maximum allowable under Alabama law.

Three officials associated with Pardue's prosecution such as Baldwin County DA Jimmy Hendrix were later imprisoned for drug smuggling or jury tampering, bribery, and extortion.  Pardue escaped from prison three times in 1977, 1978, and 1987, but was caught each time within a matter of days.  For his last escape he received two additional life sentences, which also made him a habitual offender under Alabama law.

In 1992, a federal judge issued a writ of habeas corpus on the Rider murder conviction, allowing Pardue to appeal it in state courts.  In 1994, the Alabama Supreme Court overturned the conviction on the grounds that police did not read him his rights until they were 30 hours into a 78-hour interrogation.  Months after this 1994 decision another federal judge issued a writ of habeas corpus on the Hodges and White murder convictions because officers failed to tell the then teenage Pardue that he could apply for youthful offender status.  These two convictions were effectively overturned.

In 1995, a Mobile County jury convicted Pardue of the Hodges’ murder after hearing the 22-year-old tapes of his confession at the Saraland Police Department.  Pardue was then sentenced to 100 years in prison.  A year later an appeals court overturned the conviction after concluding that investigators coerced his confession and denied him access to a lawyer.

In 1997, prosecutors in both Mobile and Baldwin Counties abandoned their murder cases against him.  Pardue remained imprisoned solely for escaping from his wrongful imprisonment.  In 2000, the Alabama Supreme Court threw out convictions stemming from Pardue’s escapes.  A year later Pardue pleaded guilty to escape related charges in exchange for a time served sentence plus parole.  He was released after serving 28 years in prison.  Pardue's story was featured on "Dateline" and he and wife Becky have written a book entitled Freeing the Innocent.  (Justice Denied)  [7/07]

Patrick Swiney was convicted of murdering his wife, Betty Snow Swiney, and her ex-husband, Ronald Pate. One night, when Swiney was approaching his house, he blacked out, stating that he felt as though he'd been hit on the head with a baseball bat. He awoke in his house with a serious bruise on his head and with the rifle he kept in his truck lying near him. He found his wife and her ex-husband lying on the floor, shot dead with bullets assumed to have been fired from the rifle.

While the circumstantial evidence points to Swiney’s guilt, forensics establish that he is innocent. No blood or blood spatter was found on Swiney's skin or clothing, even though the DA claimed that Swiney shot Pate at point blank range, execution style. Gunpowder tests show there was no gunpowder residue on Swiney.  He could not have fired a gun or have been near one when it discharged. Forensic tests were suppressed at trial and did not come to light until 1997. Autopsy reports later showed bullet wounds in each victim were twice the size of what would be produced by Swiney's .22 caliber AR-7 rifle.

Swiney was a police officer from 1965 to 1977 at Huntsville, Vestavia, and Gulf Shores Police Departments. He turned in his badge in 1977 after seeing how corrupt officials were at Gulf Shores in Baldwin County. At Gulf Shores he received many threats on his life and was the victim of two assassination attempts. The first attempt was minor, although the second nearly succeeded. Swiney had gathered evidence that sent the Baldwin County DA, Jimmy Hendrix, and the Sheriff’s Office Chief Investigator, Bobbie Stewart, to federal prison.

Other anomalies exist with the case. Following the killings, the Shelby County DA, J. Michael Campbell, took the highly unusual step of calling the coroner’s office and telling them not to perform a vaginal swab on Betty Snow or take fingernail cultures. Such tests would seem to help the DA’s case in alleging that Snow and Pate were having a sexual relationship and that Swiney had killed the two in a jealous rage. Betty Snow and the DA were old sweethearts, and according to at least one witness, the DA had been having an affair with her. Swiney was not prosecuted for a crime of passion, which carries a much lighter sentence, but for first-degree murder, for which he received a life without parole sentence. Supporters of Patrick Swiney have established the P.a.t.r.i.c.k. Crusade (People Aligned To Replace Injustice and Cruelty with Knowledge), an organization that publicizes the plight of many convicted but innocent persons.  (Swiney Case) (Patrick Crusade)  [1/07]

Louis C. Taylor was convicted of 28 counts of first-degree murder.  He was accused of setting fire to the Pioneer International Hotel on the northeast corner of Stone Ave. and Pennington St. in downtown Tucson.  Twenty-nine people died as a result of the fire, including one woman who died months later from injuries sustained in the fire.  Taylor, 16, whose juvenile-court record included theft, was accused of setting the fire (or fires) as a diversion so he could steal from guests’ rooms.  No one saw him set the fire. But a hotel employee saw him in a stairwell looking up at the flames and mentioned him to police. Other witnesses said he was one of that night's heroes, helping to evacuate the hotel.

The chief arson investigator found no obvious evidence of arson—no residue of flammable liquid or burned matchsticks.  Instead he asserted from burn patterns that two fires were started at least 60 feet apart on the fourth floor hallway.  Modern experts now dispute the arson finding, and even one of the original investigators, Marshall Smyth, said that he and another fire investigator were like members of "a black magic society" that in those days relied on untested assumptions about what indicated arson.  "I came to this opinion some time ago that neither one of us had any business identifying that fire as arson."

Taylor, after decades of imprisonment, recalled that over the years others -- including his former trial judge -- advised him to seek a reduced sentence.  But one condition was that he admit guilt and show remorse.  Taylor said, "I told them I'd rather die in prison."  In 2003, the case was featured on a “60 Minutes” episode.  (Hotel Online)  [1/07]

Mathers associated with Teddy Washington and Fred Robinson.  The three lived in Banning, a small town in Southern California.  Robinson was in a volatile relationship with his common-law wife, Susan Hill.  With Robinson’s permission, Hill went to visit her father and stepmother, Ralph and Sterleen Hill.  The couple lived in Yuma, Arizona.  Susan then refused to return, and got a protection order to prevent Robinson from visiting her there.  She then left without telling Robinson and visited her grandmother in California.  Ralph and Sterleen then were shot during a home invasion.  Sterleen died.

The invasion appeared to be a robbery as the intruders stated they were narcotics agents and said, “We want the dope and money.”  The house was also ransacked.  There was some circumstantial evidence linking Robinson and Washington to the crime.  However, there was little evidence linking Mathers.  Nevertheless, the three were arrested and tried together.  At trial, Mathers’ attorney moved for a judgment of acquittal on the grounds of insufficient evidence.  The motion was denied.  All three defendants were convicted and sentenced to death.

In 1990, the Arizona Supreme Court reviewed Mather’s case, and “viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution” found a “complete absence of probative facts.”  It noted that the evidence presented at trial had “nothing to do with Mathers.”  The court vacated Mather’s conviction and entered a judgment of acquittal.  (TWM)  [3/07]

In 1983, a mentally unbalanced woman named Judy Johnson enrolled her two-year-old son, Matthew, in the McMartin Preschool.  She became obsessed with Matthew's rectal problems and began thinking they were a result of sexual abuse.  Soon Judy was making accusations against Ray Buckey, 28, the only male who worked at the school and who was the grandson of Virginia McMartin, 79, the school's founder.  Matthew denied abuse at first, but soon Judy was making more accusations against Ray based on what Matthew allegedly said.

The police obtained a list of all children who ever attended the school and began questioning parents.  They asked them to question their children.  The police later encouraged parents to bring their children to abuse counselors who encouraged children using anatomically correct dolls to change from their alleged natural state of denial to giving details of abuse.

Reports of abuse snowballed and soon the entire staff of the preschool was indicted and arrested, including Ray Buckey, his mother Peggy, his sister Peggy Ann, his grandmother Virginia, and 3 female teachers.  They were charged with 208 counts of child abuse and except for Virginia McMartin, all were denied bail.  The original accuser soon disintegrated.  Her husband left her, she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and she died of alcoholism.

At a preliminary hearing lasting 19 months, the prosecution claimed to have solid evidence of abuse—hundreds of photographs of the anuses and vaginas of the children, but no one could quite see what the expert medical interpreter did.  Even the three medical doctors for the prosecution could not agree on what they saw.  Many children told wild tales that could not possibly be true.  The prosecutors even began to break ranks.  Prosecutor Glenn Stevens resigned, claiming that they were putting seven innocent people through an ordeal and he wanted no further part in it.  Another member of the original team, Christine Johnson, also asked to be removed.  At the conclusion of the preliminary hearing, charges were dropped against all defendants for lack of evidence except for Ray and his mother, Peggy Buckey.

To get a change of venue, the defense attorneys commissioned an opinion survey.  An astounding 97.5 percent of the people in the area believed the defendants were guilty, one of the highest figures of prejudice ever recorded in a poll.  Nevertheless, the change of venue motion was denied.

Jury selection for the trial began in April 1987, almost 4 years after the initial accusation.  In testifying about abuse, using photographs, a so-called medical expert pointed out suspect "white tissue," which turned out to be reflections of light on the photographs.  A child abuse investigator could name no credentials or training she had but was only a grant writer.  The trial lasted 28 months even though the judge began striking defense witnesses at the end because only one alternate juror remained, raising the possibility of a mistrial.

In Jan 1990, the jury hung on 13 counts (all against Ray) but acquitted both Ray and Peggy of the remaining charges.  Five months later, another trial began against Ray, but the jury in it became deadlocked as well and charges were dismissed.  After 7 years the McMartin case was the longest and most expensive legal proceeding in American history.  It had cost the community almost $16 million, and resulted in no convictions.  (CrimeLibrary)  [6/05]

Catalan was charged with the murder of 16-year-old Martha Puebla.  Puebla had testified against Catalan’s brother in another case.  Catalan insisted that he was watching the Los Angeles Dodgers with his six-year-old daughter at the stadium minutes before Puebla was killed about 20 miles north of the stadium.  He said he had ticket stubs from the game and testimony from his family.  However, police said that they had a witness who placed Catalan at the scene of the crime.

Catalan’s attorney, Todd Melnik, subpoenaed the Dodgers and Fox Networks, who owned the team, to scan videotape of the televised baseball game and footage from its “Dodger Vision” cameras.  Some of the videotapes showed where Catalan was sitting but Melnik could not make him out.  Melnik later learned that HBO had been at the stadium the night of the killing to tape an episode of the TV show “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”  The attorney found what he was looking for in footage that had not made the final cut.  “I got to one of the scenes, and there is my client sitting in a corner of the frame eating a hot dog with his daughter,” Melnik said.  “I nearly jumped out of my chair and said, ‘There he is!’”

The tapes had time codes that allowed Melnik to find out exactly when Catalan was at the ballpark.  Melnik also obtained cell phone records that placed his client near the stadium later that night, about 20 minutes before the murder.  The attorney said it would have been impossible for Catalan to get out of the parking lot, change vehicles and clothing, and play with his daughter as well as kill Puebla during that span.

Catalan, who could have been sentenced to death had he been convicted of murder, was released after 5 1/2 months of imprisonment because a judge ruled there was no evidence with which to try him.  (CBS)  [7/07]

Thomas Berdue and Joseph Wildred were convicted of robbery.  The victim, Charles Jansen, was the proprietor of a wholesale dry goods establishment on Montgomery Street.  Jansen was struck on the head with a bar of iron and robbed by two men of several thousand dollars in coin and gold dust.  Police recognized from Jansen’s description that one of the robbers was James Stuart, the leader of a feared band of escaped Australian convicts.  Stuart was also wanted for the murder of a sheriff in Yuba County.

The following day, Australian immigrants, Berdue and Wildred were arrested.  A mob wanted to lynch them, but to avoid that fate, the authorities reluctantly agreed to a “Lynch Court,” composed of individuals voted on by the mob.  Jansen positively identified Berdue as the robber who struck him.  Many other witnesses testified that Berdue was Stuart, some of whom spent months in the same mining camp as Stuart.  Because the defense attorney believed Berdue and pleaded for time to check out Berdue’s identification, the jury could not agree on a verdict.

Berdue and Wildred were turned over to a regular court, which sentenced them to 14 years of imprisonment.  Berdue was sent to Marysville, Yuba County for the murder of their sheriff.  Under the name “James Stuart,” he was convicted and sentenced to be hanged in three weeks.  A week later, the real James Stuart was arrested and brought to San Francisco.  Stuart confessed to the crimes and everyone realized the mistake that was made.  While visiting San Francisco, the California Governor interviewed Stuart, and afterwards sent a pardon to Berdue.  The pardon reached him two days before his scheduled hanging.

Berdue returned to San Francisco in time to witness the hanging for which he was sentenced.  Stuart was hanged on the California Street wharf on the scheduled day.  After viewing Berdue and Stuart together, a reporter noted, “I never before or since saw such a resemblance.  Stuart was, perhaps, a trifle the stouter; but, having seen either one, I think I should have unhesitatingly, at any time thereafter, been willing to swear to the other as that one.  It scarcely seems possible that the men could have so perfectly resembled each other.”

According to a different, seemingly more reliable account (CTI), a few witnesses who knew Stuart well had little trouble recognizing that Berdue was not Stuart at his Marysville trial.  These included a Yuba County judge and another individual before whom Stuart was often brought to face charges.  Stuart’s movements were reportedly much quicker than Berdue’s.  The witnesses also stated that Stuart was more than an inch taller.  However, even by this account, these trial witnesses were outnumbered by others who swore that Berdue was Stuart and stated they could not be mistaken.

Along with Berdue, Wildred was also pardoned.  Since neither of them was willing to run the risk of another such adventure, both returned to Australia.  (The Galaxy, Feb 1868) (CTI)

John and Coke Brite, brothers, were convicted of the murders of deputy sheriffs Martin Lange and Joseph Clarke, as well as the murder of Captain Fred Seaborn, a U.S. Navy officer. The Brites, who were gold prospectors, returned to a cabin on their rented land, where their parents stayed, and then headed out again. At nightfall they set up camp on the land of a neighbor, B. F. Decker, and went to bed. Two intruders then entered their camp, another neighbor, Charley Baker, and his friend, Fred Seaborn. At trial, Baker alleged they were looking for a strayed horse that Baker owned. It was later learned that Baker had been using the cabin on the Brites’ property for rent-free storage and had motive to drive the Brites from their land. Baker and Seaborn picked a fight with the Brites, which proved to be a mistake as the Brites made quick work of them. Baker then went to a judge and talked him into issuing warrants charging the Brites with assault.

Baker got the deputy sheriffs to depart from normal procedure and serve the warrants by sneaking into the Brites’ camp the same night at 1 a.m. Later, the brothers said they fought for their lives, thinking Baker had brought a gang to attack them. Neighbors reported hearing a “roar of gunfire.” The deputies and Seaborn ended up dead, but Baker escaped unharmed.

Following the killings there was great local sentiment against the Brites. A posse was sent to find them with orders to “shoot on sight and shoot to kill.” Even if the brothers escaped the posse, it seemed most likely they would be lynched. After interviewing Baker and other witnesses, the district attorney, James Davis, did not like what he was hearing. He concluded that even if everything Baker had told him was the truth, the brothers had acted in self-defense. Davis then arranged for the brothers to turn themselves in and spirited them out of the county.

Davis refused to prosecute the brothers. However, a grand jury indicted them and appointed a special prosecutor. The Brites were convicted of first-degree murder and initially sentenced to death. Baker gave many inconsistent and contradictory statements about the night of the killings. However, all his stories indicated that the deputies successfully snuck up on the Brites and were on top of them, clubbing them with blackjacks. It was not clear how the Brites could have resisted. The brothers did not remember anything about the killings other than the initial clubbing and finding dead bodies around them later. The brothers' report seems especially credible in the case of John Brite whose behavior immediately following the killings indicated he was clubbed somewhat senseless.

The case later came to the attention of a program called “The Court of Last Resort” in which wrongfully convicted prisoners’ cases were studied and reported on in Argosy Magazine. In its investigation Argosy found evidence that Baker never mentioned and took some steps to deny. The brothers had a good-sized dog with them named Smoky. Both the Brites and a neighbor, B. F. Decker, stated that the dog was in the Brites’ camp. Decker distinctly remembered the dog barking shortly before the shooting. It was a peculiar growling bark that a dog makes when it is engaged in some sort of struggle.

During the assault, the dog grabbed hold of the back of Deputy Clarke’s coat while he was blackjacking Coke Brite. The dog brought Clarke to his knees and pulled the end of the coat over his head. At this point, Clarke’s rump was higher than his head. In an attempt to stop the dog, a member of the Baker party apparently fired a shot at the dog and missed. The bullet entered the base of Clarke’s spine and exited out his right shoulder.

At the Brites’ trial it was alleged that all bullets fired in the melee were fired from the Brites’ rifle. However, recovered shell casings indicate that only two bullets were fired from the rifle. In addition, the base of the rifle was used as a club, indicating the Brites had run out of ammunition. The bullet that hit Seaborn and the bullet that hit the leg of Officer Lange could have come from the Brites’ rifle. At trial the Brites were convicted of first-degree murder for firing two shots though Officer Lange’s forehead as he lay on the ground. Evidence, however, indicates that these shots could not have been fired from the Brites’ rifle, nor could the shots have been fired while Lange was on the ground. Evidence also indicates that another shot, from a rifle, had been fired from outside the Brites’ camp towards the location of the Brites.

After Argosy magazine printed its investigation of the Brites’ case, it became clear to authorities that the brothers could not be guilty of first-degree murder. In Sept. 1951 the Brites were released on parole.  (CLR) (Sacramento Bee) (People v. Brite)  [6/08]

James Joseph Richardson, a farm worker, was convicted of murdering seven of his children by poisoning them with the pesticide parathion.  He was sentenced to death.  The prosecution claimed that Richardson had purchased life insurance policies on his children the evening before their deaths.  Police officers testified that they found a sack of parathion in Richardson's shed.  Additionally two jailhouse informants testified that they heard Richardson incriminate himself.

Following the conviction, a defense investigation revealed that Richardson never bought life insurance for his children.  Three police searches of his home and shed turned up no evidence of parathion.  However, a neighbor, Betsy Reese “found” parathion in Richardson’s shed following the police searches.  On the day of the children’s deaths, Betsy Reese babysat Richardson’s younger non-school age children, and had fed his older children when they stopped home from school to eat lunch.

Richardson and his wife had prepared breakfast for the children that morning and both left for work before the children got up.  They picked fruit miles away and did not have their own transportation.  Parathion was found on the breakfast plates and in the grits pot used to serve breakfast.  However, none of the children showed signs of poisoning until immediately after they returned to school following lunch.

The babysitter, Betsy Reese, had been convicted of murdering her first husband, apparently due to jealousy.  She was suspected of poisoning her second husband.   After a visit by Richardson’s sister-in-law, Reese’s third husband accompanied the sister-in-law on her return home to Jacksonville.  When he did not return, Reese, who lived next door, was apparently upset and stopped visiting the Richardsons.  Reese resumed her visits just days before the children’s deaths.

Years later while Reese was living in a nursing home, she confessed to killing the children, but the prosecution discounted her confession as due to her senility.  The state’s case file wound up in independent hands after being stolen by a man who was dating the prosecutor's secretary.  The file revealed extensive exculpatory evidence that was withheld from the defense.  In response, the Dade County State Attorney, Janet Reno, was named special prosecutor to examine the case.  Based on her conclusions that a grave injustice had been done, charges were dropped against Richardson and he was released in 1989.  The case is the subject of a book, Arcadia by Mark Lane.  (PC) (FLCC)  [12/06]

After Thomas Revels, an off-duty deputy sheriff, was murdered during a robbery of Luke’s Grocery store, Tallahassee police charged five black men from Quincy, Florida with the crime.  One of these men, David Keaton, was an 18-year-old star football player with plans to enter the ministry.  Although he had an alibi, Keaton was held in custody for more than a week.  During that time he maintained he had been threatened, lied to, and beaten until he confessed.  He believed that despite his confession, no jury would convict him when they heard his alibi.  He was wrong.  At trial his coerced confession was buttressed by the false testimony of five eyewitnesses.  Keaton was convicted and sentenced to death.  In his confession Keaton implicated Johnnie Frederick, who was “clean as a whistle,” in the belief that a judge and jury would see that his confession was false.  Frederick was convicted as well and sentenced to life in prison.

David Charles Smith and two other Quincy defendants still awaited trial.  In the meantime, a witness arose, Benjamin Franklin Pye, who knew the actual men who committed the crime.  The men were from Jacksonville, not Quincy, though Pye knew only their street names.  But he knew the motel where they had stayed, the dates, and the rental car they drove.  He was with them when they cased Luke's to rob it later.  Pye gave this information to his attorney, who in turn relayed it to Smith’s attorney, Will Varn.  Varn was a former U.S. attorney, and he was able to get funds from the judge to hire an investigator who came up with names to fit Pye’s story.  The names also fit the crime scene fingerprints that had not matched any of the Quincy Five.  The three Jacksonville men were tried and convicted.

Despite the new evidence, the state continued to insist the Quincy Five were guilty as well.  When Smith came to trial, five white eyewitnesses swore he was guilty.  But Varn had the conflicting fingerprints and convictions, Pye's testimony, and a good alibi for Smith.  An all-white jury acquitted him.  The Florida Supreme Court took note and ordered new trials for Keaton and Frederick.  The prosecution soon dropped charges against Keaton and Frederick, as well as against the remaining two Quincy defendants.  Keaton and Frederick were released in 1973.  (SP Times) (TWM) (FLCC)  [3/07]

Dowaliby was convicted of murdering his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Jaclyn.  Police initially assumed that the window, through which an intruder had allegedly entered to abduct Jaclyn, had been broken from the inside of their home.  There was more broken glass on the outside than on the inside but forensic analysis established that it had been broken from the outside.  During the investigation, Dowaliby and his wife, Cynthia, had followed police advice not to talk to the press, but such refusal had made them appear guilty.

At trial, for which both Dowaliby and his wife were charged with first-degree murder, the prosecution presented a witness, with a history of mental illness, who stated that he saw someone with a nose structure resembling Dowaliby on the night the victim had disappeared and near where her body was found five days later.  This witness, Everett Mann, made this identification from an unlighted parking lot 75 yards away on a moonless night.  The prosecution also presented 17 gruesome autopsy photos that are disallowed in many jurisdictions because they serve to prejudice a jury.  The trial judge gave Dowaliby's wife a directed verdict of acquittal, but the jury convicted Dowaliby.

Afterwards, in an interview, the jury forewoman said that fist marks on the door of a bedroom were critical to the jury’s decision to convict Dowaliby.  These marks appeared in one of the evidence photos, but were never mentioned by either side.  The jury concluded from these marks that Dowaliby had a terrible temper.  In fact, they had no bearing on the case, as they had been present years earlier, before the Dowalibys had moved into their home.  The jury forewoman also said, that if given the chance, the jury would have convicted Dowalibly's wife as well.

An appeals court reversed Dowaliby's conviction in 1991, on the grounds of insufficient evidence.  The case came to a legal end in 1992 when the Illinois Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the prosecution.  The case is the subject of a book, Gone in the Night: The Dowaliby Family's Encounter With Murder and the Law by Protess and Warden (1993) (NL)  [12/06]

Condy Dabney was convicted of murdering Mary Vickery, 14, and sentenced to life imprisonment.  Vickery had disappeared on Aug. 23, 1925.  A month later a girl's body was found nearby in an abandoned mine shaft.  After Mary's father had posted a $500 reward for information, a woman named Marie Jackson came forward and claimed to have witnessed Dabney murder Vickery.

The prosecution's case against Dabney was weak.  The found body was too decayed to be dead only a month and witnesses disputed Jackson's whereabouts on the day of the alleged murder.  Still Dabney was convicted.  Twelve months after Dabney's conviction, a police officer in Williamsburg, KY, 85 miles away, happened to notice the name Mary Vickery on a hotel register.  Because the name seemed familiar, he spoke with her and realized that she was the person Dabney was convicted of murdering.  Mary said she ran away because she was not getting along with her stepmother.  Dabney was released and Jackson was convicted of perjury.  The found body was never identified.  (NL) (CTI)  [10/05]

After a storm at sea, a shrimp boat named “The Bandit,” containing Alvin Latham and the ship’s captain, Raymond Leiker, failed to return to its home port of Venice, LA.  Latham was picked up at sea 14 hours later holding onto a piece of wood.  He said the storm came up suddenly and that while trying to pull fish into the boat, Leiker’s foot got caught in a fishing net. Latham tried to help Leiker free his foot, but eventually Leiker told him to save himself.  Moments after Latham swam away from the boat, the boat submerged into the sea.

Leiker’s body was found five days after the storm.  The coroner ruled his death a homicide, because an autopsy of the body indicated several defensive stab wounds and a blow to the head.  In addition, Leiker was allegedly attached to the boat and should have sank with it, but was found floating on the surface.

After a grueling eight-hour videotaped interrogation, police got Latham to confess that he clubbed Leiker with a pipe on the back of his head in order to obtain the only life jacket on the boat.  Then after Latham put on the life jacket, Leiker came back at him and Latham used a knife to defend himself.  The case prompted a discussion of "lifeboat ethics" in the press involving the morality of having to kill others in order to survive.

A review of the taped interrogation shows that the confession was involuntary.  Latham repeatedly guessed at details until police accepted his answers.  Secondly, the owner of the boat, who leased it to Leiker, said there were three life jackets on board.  Thirdly, Latham was not wearing a life jacket when he was picked up.

A defense review of the autopsy findings showed that the alleged stab wounds were not very deep.  The defense felt that Leiker’s floating body had been run over by a boat several days after the storm, and that the boat’s propeller had caused the shallow stab wounds and the blow to the head.  The boat owner who found Leiker readily agreed that his body had been run over.  In addition, the owner noted that Leiker was found wearing only one boot, corroborating Latham’s original story.

At Latham’s trial for third degree murder, the prosecution presented Latham’s confession.  However, after the jury watched the entire eight-hour tape of Latham’s interrogation, they acquitted him.  (Forensic Files)

Austin was convicted of shooting to death Roy Kellam, a security guard, at a Crown Food Market.  A store clerk, Jackie Robinson, who identified Austin at trial, had changed his initial description of the shooter after police charged him in another case.  Robinson's family later said Jackie was not a civic-minded college student as prosecutors told jurors, but a drug dealer.  Following Robinson's death by heroin overdose in 1997, his brother came forward and said that Jackie had confessed to him that he sent an innocent man to prison.  Another eyewitness, the store's assistant manager, was not called at trial, but had given a physical description that did not fit Austin.  Austin also clocked out of his factory job at 4:53 p.m., 27 minutes before the murder, and given the distance from his job to the store, could not have committed the murder.

In July 2001, after spending 27 years in prison, Austin's lawyer presented overwhelming evidence of his innocence, police misconduct, and ineffective counsel by his original defense lawyer.  A key piece of evidence was the eyewitness testimony of Erik Komitzski, the assistant store manager.  Komitzski, who is 5 feet 9 inches tall, said he knew, absolutely, that the shooter was not taller than himself because he stood eyeball to eyeball with him.  Austin is 6 feet 5 inches tall.  Austin was freed in Dec. 2001 and was awarded $1.4 million in 2004 for his years of wrongful imprisonment.  (AP News) (CNS) (CM)  [9/06]

A security guard at the Sears store in Lincoln Park stopped a woman leaving the store on April 15, 2002 with $1,300 in unpaid merchandise.  In an attempt to get away, the woman severely bit the guard.  After being arrested, the woman was taken to a police station where she told police her address, her phone number, that she was 15-years-old, and that her name was Dominique Brim.  She was allowed to leave without being booked.

Two weeks later, 15-year-old Dominique Brim was charged with retail fraud and felony assault.  She claimed she had not been at the store on April 15 and that she had not been arrested.  In court, several Sears employees, including the security guard, identified her as the person who was apprehended and who bit the guard.  The judge did not believe Brim’s mistaken identity defense and convicted her on both counts.

However, Brim’s vehement claim that she was the wrong person did impress Sears officials enough to review their store videotape of the April 15 incident.  They discovered that Brim was not the person who was involved in the incident.  After the prosecutor and Brim’s lawyer were contacted, the judge vacated her conviction before she was sentenced.  The woman on the tape was later identified as Chalaunda Latham.  She was not 15-years-old, she was 25.  Latham was able to pass herself off as Brim because she was a friend of Brim’s sister.  Prosecutors decided not to charge Latham because the Sears employees had already given sworn testimony that Brim was responsible for the theft and security guard assault.  (JD29 p4)  [3/07]

Ryan Ferguson and Chuck Erickson were convicted of the brutal murder of Columbia Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt.  A janitor, Jerry Trump, caught a glimpse of two young white men running away from Heitholt’s car around the time of the murder.  The janitor said he could not provide a detailed description of them.  Two years after the crime, after reading anniversary newspaper coverage, Erickson began telling friends he dreamed he had killed Heitholt.

When police questioned him, Erickson confessed but gave videotaped details inconsistent with the crime.  He also named his friend Ryan Ferguson as his accomplice.  Erickson said that following the murder, he and Ferguson went back to the bar they had been at earlier.  However, the bar had closed more than a half-hour before the murder.  Erickson confessed, that he, then 17, beat the 6'3", 315 lb. Heitholt with a tire iron just once.  An autopsy showed Heitholt was beaten multiple times.  Erickson said that afterwards, Ferguson, also 17, strangled the victim.  He did not know how, and seemed surprised when told that Heitholt had been strangled with his own belt.

There was no physical evidence linking either defendant to the crime.  Nevertheless, Erickson pleaded to the crime, and was the state's star witness at trial against Ferguson.  The janitor, who had little memory at the time of the crime, identified Ferguson at trial.  Ferguson is not absolutely sure that Erickson was not at the crime, but is adamant about his innocence.  The jury could not get over the fact that Erickson was willing to implicate himself in the crime, if he did not do it.  Ferguson will be eligible for parole in September 2042.  (48 Hours) (CrimeMagazine) (www.freeryanferguson.com) [9/06]

William Allison MacFarland, also known as “Bill,” took cyanide home from the plant where he worked.  He used it to make a solution of the poison for his wife, who had used it to clean her jewelry and silverware. Bill explained he had taken an almost empty bromide bottle and poured the contents into another bromide bottle, which was almost full. He then funneled the poison solution into the now empty bromide bottle. To avoid any possible confusion, he affixed a poison label on the bromide bottle containing the cyanide. Bill then placed both bottles on a bathroom shelf.

Ten days later he took an overnight trip to New York with his 6-year-old son.  When he returned, his wife was dead from cyanide poisoning.  The couple’s two-year-old daughter was with her, playing with toys on the floor.  It was Bill's contention that despite his precautions, his wife must have had a headache and, from force of habit, grabbed the familiar bromide bottle without looking at the label. In this way, she took the deadly poison. Bill dismissed suicide as a theory.  It was clear that Bill had no hand in his wife’s death as he was in New York.

In the course of their investigation, police discovered that Bill was having an affair with a former secretary, Flo Bromley, who lived in Philadelphia.  Armed with a motive, police came up with a new theory of how the murder could have taken place.  If, after showing the poison bottle to his wife, Bill had switched the poison label, his wife would have consumed the contents of the now deadly unmarked bottle. When he discovered the body the next morning, Bill could have removed the poison label and returned it to the correct bottle.

Bill was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife.  It was revealed that Flo had threatened to expose Bill to his employers if he did not divorce his wife and marry her by October.  It was further disclosed that Bill's home life was not as harmonious as he had led investigators to believe. His wife knew of his affair with Flo and did not like it one bit.  However, it was impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bill had intentionally switched labels in order to poison his wife.

Bill's lawyers expanded on this flaw in the prosecution's case.  They explained, Bill’s wife had been duly warned of the danger by her husband, and if she died as a result of ingesting poison, in no way has murder been committed.  Despite this argument, the jury, after deliberating all night, found Bill guilty of murder in the first degree. He was sentenced to die in the electric chair.

During the trial, prosecutors had given the jury love letters between Bill and Flo to read during the trial.  Bill was granted a new trial because his defense was not given the opportunity to explain and interpret these letters.  The retrial jury felt there was reasonable doubt and acquitted Bill.  (Toronto Sun)

Prompted by horrendous conditions, the 1281 inmates at the New York state prison in Attica took over the prison on Sept. 9, 1971 and took the guards there hostage.  One guard died died during the takeover due to his own attempt to be heroic.  The hostages were treated well and were guarded by the inmate leadership from potential assault from lone inmates.  The guard hostages were dressed in ordinary inmate clothing so that potential outside snipers would not be able to tell whom they were shooting at.  The uprising began as an unfocused riot, but grew into a focused and reasonable demand for better prison conditions.

The authorities were appalled that the uprising had attracted the attention of the national news media.  In response, the authorities cut off lines of communication from the area to give them time to create cover stories for whatever might happen.  Then they overdosed the prison with tear gas, completely incapacitating everyone inside, and rendering some unconscious.  Then to teach the inmates a lesson, 500 state policemen attacked the incapacitated occupants, firing 2200 bullets in 9 minutes.

In the attack, the authorities murdered 39 individuals including 10 prison guards who they presumably mistook to be inmates.  They also wounded at least 86 individuals.  Four others were murdered following the attack.  Mike Smith, an Attica guard who was shot in the stomach, said, "I don't know any other employer who could murder their employees and get away with it, except the government."

At the time of the attack, the news media dutifully reported official lies.  The prison guard hostages who died were reported as having had their throats slit by inmates.  However, autopsies soon revealed that no throats were slit.  Instead, the guards' bodies were riddled with bullets.  None of the inmates possessed or gained access to firearms.

The inmates who survived the massacre were beaten, burned with cigarettes, threatened with castration and death, forced to play Russian roulette, and forced to walk a glass strewn gauntlet while barefoot (actually naked) and being beaten as they walked.

None of the authorities who participated in the massacre of 43 American citizens were ever criminally charged.  New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller who ordered the attack went on to become an unelected U.S. Vice President.  A quarter century later, Attica inmates were awarded $12 million for the wrongs they suffered.  [7/05]

Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot were convicted of murdering Denice Haraway.  Haraway, 24, worked part-time at McAnally’s convenience store.  She was last seen leaving the store with a man who had his arm around her waist.  The two appeared to be a pair of lovers.  The store was found deserted with the cash register drawer opened and emptied.  Haraway’s purse and driver’s license were found inside, and her car nearby.

Months later, after Haraway still remained missing, police questioned Tommy Ward, who resembled the man accompanying Haraway from the store.  After days of interrogation, Ward confessed to the crime.  He also implicated his friend, Karl Fontenot, and Odell Titsworth, a man he never met.  During the videotaped confession, Ward frequently forgot Titsworth’s name and called him “Titsdale.”  Ward said the three gang-raped Haraway, murdered her with Titsworth’s knife, and dumped her body near Sandy Creek.  Fontenot was soon arrested and confessed after only two hours of interrogation.  His confession was similar to Ward’s but contradicted it many details, like the order in which the three raped Haraway, or the location and number of stab wounds on her.  Fontenot said the three brought Haraway into an abandoned house where Titsworth poured gasoline over her body and burned down the house.  Ward had mentioned a burned down house in an earlier unrecorded confession, and police knew it existed.

Titsworth was arrested, but he had broken his arm two days before the murder in a fight with police.  Medical and police records made him an unlikely suspect, and he was never charged with murder.  While police were sifting through the remains of the burned down house, the owner appeared.  After police told him of Fontenot’s confession, the owner said Fontenot’s story was impossible, as he himself had burned down the house 10 months before the murder.

At trial, the prosecutor presented the confessions and was forced into the position of telling the jury the defendants were lying about details while asking the jury to believe them anyway.  Two jailhouse informants supplemented the confessions.  One said Ward confessed, while the other said he overheard Fontenot talking to himself, saying, “I knew we’d get caught.  I knew we’d get caught.”  The jurors returned with guilty verdicts and death penalties.

Haraway’s body was found four months later in Hughes County, far from anyplace that was searched.  She had not been stabbed or burned, but died from a single gunshot to the head.  The case attracted the attention of a New York journalist, Robert Mayer, who published a book about the case entitled The Dreams of Ada.  (Source:  The Innocent Man by John Grisham)  (www.wardandfontenot.com)  [1/07]

Dr. Jay C. Smith was sentenced to death in 1985 for the 1979 murders of Susan Reinert and her two children.  Smith was the principal of Upper Merion High School (in Montgomery County) for 12 years and Reinert was a teacher there.  Reinert's fiancé, William Bradfield, was also a teacher at the same school as well as president of the Teacher's Union.  Bradfield was convicted in 1983 of conspiracy to murder Reinert and her children as he was named beneficiary of Reinert's life insurance.

Reinert was last seen alive driving away from her Ardmore home with her two children at 9:20 p.m. on Friday, June 22, 1979.  Her dead body was found in her car in a Harrisburg parking lot the following Monday morning.  Her two missing children are presumed dead.  An autopsy revealed she was badly beaten 24 to 36 hours before her death and that she died early Sunday morning from an injection of morphine.  It also revealed that she had sand between her toes implying she could have visited a beach area like Cape May, NJ.  In addition, she had written directions on her to an area just north of Cape May.  Cape May is approximately 100 miles southeast of Reinert's home, while Harrisburg is approximately 100 miles west.

Bradfield had an alibi from 11:15 p.m. Friday on, when he got together with three friends, reputable high school teachers, and left with them, spending the weekend in Cape May, NJ.  The prosecution did not believe that he could have traveled to Harrisburg during this period and it was alleged that Bradfield had employed Smith as Reinert's killer.

Smith was convicted of murdering Reinert and her two children in 1985.  At Smith's trial, the prosecutor did not call Bradfield as a witness, but instead called a series of witnesses who recounted their recollections of what Bradfield said.  The judge allowed this hearsay testimony after the prosecutor assured him that the state attorney general found that such testimony was allowed under the law.  A jailhouse informant, who had been imprisoned for perjury, claimed that Smith had confessed to the crime.  This informant was wired with a hidden recording device, but on every recording in which the informant brought up the subject with Smith, Smith stated that he had nothing to do with the Reinert murders.

The PA Supreme Court overturned Smith's conviction in 1992 because the judge permitted hearsay testimony, the police withheld evidence that sand was found between Reinert's toes, and five state troopers perjured themselves on this point.  The troopers did not want Smith's jury to hear about the sand as it allowed the defense to argue that Reinert had been in Cape May and that Bradfield had personally killed her.  The Court found the prosecution's conduct so egregious that it broke new legal ground and barred a retrial.

The chief case investigator, Trooper John J. Holtz, was later found to have accepted $50,000 from author Joseph Wambaugh for information on the Reinert investigation.  The money was provided on the condition that suspect Jay Smith be arrested.

Smith's exoneration should have undermined Bradfield's conspiracy conviction on the basis of insufficient evidence.  At Bradfield's trial, there was no direct evidence that he conspired with Smith, but without Smith, there is not even circumstantial evidence that he conspired with anyone.

Despite his excellent alibi, evidence suggests that Bradfield orchestrated Reinert's murder and tried to frame Smith for it.  Bradfield had warned associates that the evil Dr. Smith planned to kill Reinert for some time before the murder.  Smith was previously convicted of robbing a Sears store by posing as an armored car driver to collect the day's receipts.  Smith was due to be sentenced and imprisoned the same day and in the same city that Reinert's body was found, so it seemed that Bradfield used his last opportunity to kill Reinert and throw suspicion on Smith.  It seems doubtful that Smith, who had no motive for killing Reinert, would drive her car with her dead body to Harrisburg, then return home and drive his own car to his sentencing.

Bradfield died in prison in 1998.  The case is the subject of three books, Echoes in the Darkness by Joseph Wambaugh (1987), Engaged to Murder by a Philadelphia Inquirer editor (1988), and Principal Suspect by Smith's trial and appeal attorney (1996).  The case was also the subject of a TV mini-series.  [1/06]

Workman robbed a Wendy’s restaurant with a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol.  On leaving, police officers gave chase and Workman tripped on a curb.  He yelled, “I give up!” and tried to pull his gun from his pants to give to officers.  As he tried to surrender his weapon, he was hit on the head with a flashlight.  At that moment his pistol went off, aimed straight up at the sky.  Suddenly he was surrounded by gunfire, and he tried to run again, but tripped and his gun went off, firing another shot into the air.  Workman escaped the immediate melee, but a civilian found him hiding under a truck.  He was covered with blood from his head wound, and had a shotgun wound to his buttocks.

At the scene of the shootout, a police officer, Lt. Ronald Oliver, lay dying from a bullet that passed completely through his body.  Oliver would soon be dead.  Workman was convicted of Oliver’s murder and sentenced to death.  In 1990, exculpatory ballistic evidence was discovered that showed that Oliver was not shot by a bullet from Workman’s gun.  Instead, Oliver must have been killed by “friendly fire.”  An eyewitness at trial, Harold Davis, recanted testimony that he had seen the shooting.  The police report on the crime scene never noted Davis’ presence and five other people near the scene do not remember seeing Davis.

A civilian eyewitness, Steve Craig, who never testified at trial, said he saw Officer Parker fire a shotgun at Workman.  Craig also stated that police told him, "There was no need to talk about this ... unless it was with someone from the department."  In the trial transcript, Officers Stoddard and Parker repeatedly testified that only two people fired guns, Workman and Oliver.  Ballistics and Craig’s statements imply Officers Stoddard and Parker committed perjury.  The new evidence caused Workman’s scheduled execution date to be postponed several times.  Workman was executed by lethal injection on May 9, 2007.  (JusticeDenied)  [1/07]

Ruben Cantu was convicted of murdering Pedro Gomez, a Mexican laborer.  Gomez was robbed and shot to death while he was sleeping in a house under construction on Briggs Street in South San Antonio.  The house was right across the street from where Cantu, then 17, lived with his father.  Cantu was executed by lethal injection on Aug. 24, 1993.  Following Cantu’s execution, witnesses have come forward to exonerate him.

Juan Moreno, who was wounded during the attempted robbery and a key eyewitness in the case against Cantu, now says that it was not Cantu who shot him and that he only identified Cantu as the shooter because he felt pressured and was afraid of the authorities.  Moreno said that he twice told police that Cantu was not his assailant, but that the authorities continued to pressure him to identify Cantu as the shooter after Cantu was involved in an unrelated wounding of a police officer.  "The police were sure it was [Cantu] because he had hurt a police officer.  They told me they were certain it was him, and that's why I testified.”

David Garza, Cantu's co-defendant during his 1985 trial, signed a sworn affidavit saying that he allowed Cantu to be accused and executed even though he was not with him on the night of the killing.  Garza stated, "Part of me died when he died.  You've got a 17-year-old who went to his grave for something he did not do.  Texas murdered an innocent person."

Sam D. Millsap, Jr., the Bexar County District Attorney who charged Cantu with capital murder, said he never should have sought the death penalty in a case based on testimony from an eyewitness who identified a suspect only after police showed him Cantu's photo three separate times.  Miriam Ward, forewoman of the jury that convicted Cantu, noted, "With a little extra work, a little extra effort, maybe we'd have gotten the right information. The bottom line is, an innocent person was put to death for it. We all have our finger in that."  (Houston Chronicle)  [1/07]

Anthony Graves was sentenced to death after an admitted mass murderer fingered him as an accomplice in order to protect his wife from prosecution.  In 1992, Robert Earl Carter, a 27-year-old prison guard, was under pressure from his ex-girlfriend, Lisa Davis, to increase child support for their son Jason.  He was already supporting his wife, Theresa, and their son, Ryan.  Anger over increasing child support payments does not fully explain Carter’s subsequent actions, but it is the only motive that has been suggested.  Carter, reportedly, was a kind, gentle, and pleasant man, so presumably something within him snapped.

In the early morning hours of Aug. 18, Carter armed himself with a .22 caliber pistol, a knife, and a hammer and drove to Lisa’s house in Sommerville, Texas.  Carter beat Lisa’s 45-year-old mother, Bobby Joyce Davis, unconscious with the hammer, then fatally stabbed her with the knife.  He then stabbed his four-year-old son, Jason, and shot Lisa’s sister, 16-year-old Nicole.  Lisa, fortunately, was not at home.  Carter then stabbed to death Lisa’s other daughter, 9-year-old D’Nitra.  He finished by stabbing two of Lisa’s nieces, Brittany, 6, and Lea’Erin, 5.  In an effort to cover his tracks he went back to his car, got some gasoline and used it to set the house on fire.  In total, Carter killed six people.

Carter was careless in setting fire to the house and severely burned himself.  Four days later he attended the victims’ funeral.  At the services police noticed his burns and bandages and took him in for questioning.  He was soon charged with the murders.  Police wanted him to name accomplices.  There was evidence on the victims of bludgeoning as well as knife and gunshot wounds, so police may have thought that the use of multiple weapons implied there was more than one killer.  They may also have felt cheated in only being able to prosecute one perpetrator for six murders.

Police pressured Carter to name an accomplice and promised not to implicate his wife in the crime, if he would name someone.  In response, Carter eventually named his wife’s cousin, Anthony Graves, a man he barely knew.  Graves had briefly met Carter, but did not know any of the victims.  At Graves’ grand jury hearing, Carter told the jury that he had committed the murders alone and that Graves was not involved.  Yolanda Mathis, Graves’ 22-year-old girlfriend testified that she had been with Graves at his mother’s house the entire night of the murders along with Graves’ brother, Arthur, 22, and his sister, Dietrich, 24.  The prosecution lacked any physical evidence against Graves.  Despite the absence of any case, DA Charles Sebesta persuaded the grand jury to indict Graves for capital murder.

Following the grand jury hearing, the DA arrested Carter’s wife, apparently to secure Carter’s cooperation.  She was released two months later.  Over two years later, on the eve of Graves’ trial, the DA visited the already convicted Carter in his cell and threatened to prosecute his wife if Carter did not testify against Graves.  At trial Carter did as he was told.  He, however, recanted his testimony following the trial, always maintained that state, and reiterated Graves innocence in his last statement prior to his 2000 execution.

At Graves’ trial, immediately before his alibi witness, Yolanda Mathis, was to take the stand, the DA had the judge excuse the jury and then stated in open court that Mathis was a suspect and that if she chose to testify to what she knew about this case, the state intended to indict her for capital murder as a co-conspirator.  Graves’ attorney immediately left the courtroom to tell Mathis.  Mathis fled the courthouse in fear and never testified.  Graves’ inexperienced lawyer did nothing to counter this brazen intimidation of a defense witness.  In closing, the DA mocked the defense by stating, “Where is this alibi witness that Mr. Graves claims to have been with? Why wasn't she here to testify?"  Graves did have his brother give alibi testimony, but testimony from a blood relative is not considered as reliable as that from an unrelated person.  Graves was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death.

In Mar. 2006, the federal Fifth Circuit Court overturned Graves’ conviction due to the withholding of evidence by prosecutors.  As of early 2007, the state is appealing the ruling and a new trial has not been scheduled.  (Cell Door Magazine) (CBS News)  (JD34 p3)  [3/07]

Herrera was sentenced to death for murdering two police officers, David Rucker and Enrique Carrisalez.  The murders occurred at separate locations along a highway between Brownsville and Los Fresnos.  Enrique Hernandez, Carrisalez’ patrol car partner, identified Herrera.  Hernandez also said Herrera was only person in the car that they stopped.  Carrisalez, who did not die until 9 days after he was shot, identified Herrera from a single photo.  A license plate check showed that the stopped car belonged to Herrera’s live in girlfriend.

In 1984, after Herrera’s brother Raul was murdered, Raul’s attorney came forward and signed an affidavit stating that Raul told him he had killed Rucker and Carrisalez.  A former cellmate of Raul also came forward and signed a similar affidavit.  Raul’s son, Raul Jr., who was nine at the time of the killings, signed a third affidavit.  It averred that he had witnessed the killings.  Jose Ybarra, Jr., a schoolmate of the Herrera brothers, signed a fourth affidavit.  Ybarra alleged that Raul Sr. told him in 1983 that he had shot the two police officers.  Herrera alleged that law enforcement officials were aware of Ybarra’s statement and had withheld it in violation of Brady v. Maryland.  Armed with these affidavits, Herrera petitioned for a new trial, but was denied relief in state courts.  One court did dismiss Herrera’s Brady claim due to lack of evidence.  Herrera’s appeal eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was argued in Oct. 1992.

In Jan. 1993, the Supreme Court ruled that Herrera's actual innocence was not a bar to his execution.  He had to show that there were procedural errors in his trial in order to gain relief.  Justice Rehnquist wrote that the "presumption of innocence disappears" once a defendant has been convicted in a fair trial.  Dissenting Justice Blackmun wrote:  "The execution of a person who can show that he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder."  Herrera was executed four months after the ruling on May 12, 1993.  (Herrera v. Collins)  [1/07]

Henry Watkins Skinner, also known as Hank, was convicted of bludgeoning to death his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and stabbing to death her two sons, Randy Busby and Scooter Caler.  Hank was sentenced to death.  The murders occurred at 801 East Campbell Ave. in Pampa.  Hank, then 31, had been drinking earlier in the evening and passed out after taking codeine to which he was severely allergic.  A friend, Howard Mitchell, arrived to take Hank and Twila to a New Year’s Eve Party at 9:30 p.m., but he could not rouse Hank.

At the party Twila, 40, was stalked by her drunk uncle, Robert Donnell, a big man, who made rude sexual advances.  Twila became agitated and asked Mitchell to take her home.  She arrived home between 11:00 and 11:15 p.m.  Shortly afterwards she was bludgeoned to death.  Her younger son Randy was stabbed to death in his bed.  Her older son, Elwin “Scooter” Caler, 22, was also stabbed, but managed to escape to a neighbor’s yard where he collapsed on the porch.  He never regained consciousness.  The neighbor found him and called police at 11:59 p.m.

It is believed that after the attacks, Scooter revived Hank and led him outside, but left him in an alley.  Hank suffered a cut on his right palm that night, possibly from stumbling.  Other than that possibility, Hank suffered no noticeable harm from the attacks, either because Scooter scared off the intruder(s), or the intruder(s) were only interested in attacking Twila and her sons, and Hank, being comatose, posed no threat.  Hank managed to find his way to a different neighbor’s house, the home of Andrea Joyce Reed, where he was arrested three hours later.  Following his arrest he was unable to stand on his own for police photos.  After being photographed, he was then taken to a hospital to give blood samples.  The samples, taken six-and-a-half hours after the murders, showed a blood alcohol level of .21, more than twice the legal limit for intoxication.  Tests also revealed high levels of codeine in him.  Hank could not have drunk alcohol at his neighbor’s house as she was a recovering alcoholic and did not allow it in her house.

Autopsy results of Twila showed that she suffered a skull fracture that required great manual strength of someone wielding a club to inflict.  Hank, besides being in a stuporous state at the time of the murders, was only 5’9” 140 lbs. and had a handicapped right arm.  His right hand was too handicapped for him to have inflicted the strangulation injury found on Twila.  Whoever strangled her was strong enough to inflict bone fracture.  In contrast to Hank, Scooter towered over him at 6’6” 265 lbs. and was in good health.  Yet allegedly Hank was able to manually injure him and two other victims, without receiving any defensive wounds or bruises, aside from the possibility of his palm cut.

At the time of the murders, a witness, Ronnie Campbell, then in the county jail, phoned the house.  Scooter answered and Ronnie heard an unidentified man who was not Hank speaking with Twila.  On speaking to the frightened Scooter, he asked to speak to Twila but was told that she was speaking to "some guy."  Ronnie claimed that he heard Twila "screaming hysterically in the background."  Ronnie’s jailer confirmed that Ronnie reported the conversation to her shortly after it occurred.  Hank’s appointed attorney called neither Ronnie nor the jailer at trial.

The neighbor, Ms. Reed, who aided Hank after the murders, was threatened with being charged as an accessory after the fact and with harboring a fugitive.  She was also threatened with having her children taken away.  In response, her trial testimony made it seem as though Hank forced his way into her home and that he was physically capable of committing the murders.  She later felt remorse and signed an affidavit saying he did not force his way in and that he was unable to stand on his own.  She said that she had to practically carry him wherever he went in her house.

After Twila left the New Year's Eve party, her uncle, Robert Donnell, reportedly left 5 minutes later.  There was some evidence that Twila was raped.  She was found with her pants unzipped and her blouse was pushed up over her abdomen.  Although vaginal samples was preserved in a rape kit, police refused to test it.  Donnell's truck was identified by a neighborhood boy as being present at the time of the murders.  Following the murders Donnell thoroughly cleaned his truck, replaced the carpets, and repainted the exterior.  He was never questioned by the police.  He was later killed in a drunken auto accident.

Hank had been something of an irritant to the district attorney’s office and to the sheriff’s office.  He was an outspoken advocate of prisoner’s rights and had participated in inmate lawsuits.  He had many interviews in the Pampa newspaper on the way the prior sheriff, Jimmy Free, treated inmates in the jail and violated their rights.  He was previously arrested on a bogus burglary charge, but by demanding a rare examining hearing, got the matter dropped before he could be indicted.  Hank is still imprisoned as of 2007.  (www.hankskinner.org) (ODR)  [4/07]

Max Soffar was convicted of murdering Arden Alane Felsher, 17, Tommy Lee Temple, 17, and Stephen Allen Sims, 25, during a robbery of the Fair Lanes Windfern Bowling Center.  He was sentenced to death.  Soffar, 24, a mentally impaired individual, confessed to the murders after hours of police interrogation.  No physical evidence connected him to the crime.  A fourth victim, Gregory Garner, survived a gunshot wound to the head but failed to identify Soffar as a participant in the robbery.

Soffar had been caught in neighboring Galveston County with a stolen motorcycle and was looking for a plea deal by claiming to know something about the famous murders that occurred three weeks before.  He also wanted to get revenge against his friend, Latt Bloomfield, who resembled a police sketch of the murderer.  Both Soffar and Bloomfield had agreed to rob their parents’ houses, but Bloomfield reneged after they burglarized the home of Soffar’s parents.

Soffar first spoke only with Bruce Clawson, a local detective that he knew.  Clawson got Soffar to talk to Houston detectives.  Soffar made three statements to detectives that grew in detail during the three days he was interviewed.  Neither Clawson, nor his brother Mike, who was a policeman in the area, believed the statements.  Clawson said, "I specifically recall believing that Max's responses to these questions (posed by Houston detectives) were vague and unconvincing."  "Max certainly said nothing during the interrogations I witnessed which indicated to me that Max knew things about the bowling-alley murders that only a person involved in the offense would know."  Soffar soon disavowed his statements and later wrote that they were the result of relentless and pushy Houston detectives.

The federal Fifth Circuit Court overturned Soffar’s conviction in 2004.  It cited ineffective representation by Soffar’s trial attorney, Joe Cannon, the famous “sleeping lawyer.”  Cannon did not even call surviving victim Garner as a witness.  The court also cited at least 10 major discrepancies between Soffar’s confession and Garner’s recollection of events.  Garner, for instance, said there was only one robber, but Soffar said Bloomfield accompanied him.  Garner said the robber wore nothing to hide his face, while Soffar said he and Bloomfield covered their heads.

Garner said the robber gained entrance to the bowling alley, which had just closed, by feigning car trouble and asking the manager if he could come in to fill a plastic jug with water.  Soffar said he and Bloomfield simply walked through an unlocked front door.  Crime-scene photos showed a plain jug on the counter, but a cleaning crew washed it before police realized its possible significance.  Soffar said he and Bloomfield had burglarized the bowling alley the night before to gain more knowledge of the place.  The burglary had been reported in television accounts of the crime.  However, police had already arrested some area youths in connection with the burglary before Soffar was arrested.

Prosecutors contend Soffar made an admission that corroborates his presence in the bowling alley.  Soffar said that Bloomfield fired a warning shot into the floor.  That shot, they said, accounted for a bullet hole in the carpet that did not match up with an exit wound from one of the bodies.  However, detailed ballistics indicates the carpet hole came from a fragment of an exit wound bullet that shattered after it hit the cement floor under the carpet.  In addition, for there to have been a warning shot, five shots would had to have been fired.  Garner recalled only four.  Soffar was retried in 2006, reconvicted, and sentenced to death.  (DP News) (Info)  [2/07]

Robert Angleton, also known as Bob, was a bookie who took bets on sporting events.  He was charged with murdering his 46-year-old wife, Doris.  Following the murder, Bob told police that he suspected his brother Roger was the killer.  Despite Roger’s checkered past, Bob had employed him in 1989.  He fired him less than a year later.  After being fired, Roger felt Bob owed him $200,000 and even tried to rob him of it at gunpoint.  Roger then threatened to put Bob out of business, by reporting him to the IRS.  Bob ignored him, but Roger started making phone calls to customers, posing as an IRS agent.

After realizing that Roger could ruin his bookmaking business, Bob started paying him $2500 a month.  While the payoffs worked for a while, in 1997 Roger demanded even more money.  Bob says he received a letter from Roger saying if he didn’t get the money, "I will hurt you in a way that will be with you for the rest of your life."  Bob ignored the letter, but six weeks later Doris was killed.

Roger had fled following the murder, but was arrested two months later in Las Vegas.  He had with him audiotapes of two men planning the murder.  Prosecutors believed the two men were Roger and Bob.  Roger claimed he was hired by Bob to murder Doris.  Prosecutors also learned that Doris had filed for divorce two months earlier.  Doris had an online lover that Bob said he was unaware of.  Prosecutors believe that Doris could have threatened to expose Bob’s bookmaking business in order to obtain a larger divorce settlement.

Shortly before a prosecutor was about to offer Roger a deal to testify against Bob in exchange for getting out of jail, Roger committed suicide in his cell.  Roger left a note stating that he had killed Doris on his own as an act of revenge, and that Bob was not involved.  The prosecutor convinced a judge that Roger’s note was unreliable hearsay, and therefore inadmissible.  The prosecutor hired an audio expert who had once worked for the FBI to analyze Roger’s tapes.  Contrary to the prosecutor’s hopes, the expert reported that he was “very confident” that Bob’s voice was not on the tapes.  After listening to the tapes, the jury thought the voices on it were too muffled to identify Bob’s voice.  They acquitted him.

While Roger was imprisoned, aspiring crime writer Vanessa Leggett visited him and made 50 hours of audiotapes of her interviews with Roger.  On them Roger pointed a finger at Bob and claimed that Roger had agreed to pay him $100,000 a year for ten years in exchange for killing Doris.  Roger claimed he taped his conversations with Bob as insurance in case Bob failed to pay up.  Armed with this new evidence, prosecutors planned to try Bob again, this time in federal court, three and a half years after his acquittal in state court.  Roger’s “dying declaration” suicide note would still be inadmissible, but his taped statements to Leggett would be admissible, even though Bob would be denied his constitutional right to confront Roger regarding their truthfulness.

Four days before his second trial was to begin, Bob, out on bail, boarded a plane and flew to Amsterdam.  He did not want to face the possibility of a conviction.  He carried with him $135,000 and a fake passport.  Dutch officials spotted the fake passport and took Bob into custody.  After the U.S. began extradition proceedings against him, Bob’s Dutch lawyers argued that international treaty protects against double jeopardy and prohibits the Dutch government from sending Bob back to face murder charges a second time.  Not only did a Dutch court agree, but so did the prosecutor.

Dutch courts eventually agreed to extradite Bob, but only after the U.S. filed new charges against Bob of passport and tax fraud and also agreed not prosecute him for murder.  Bob pleaded guilty to the new charges in 2004 and will be released from prison in 2014.  Bob’s two daughters have stood with him and have never believed he killed their mother.  The U.S. government says it has found a way to prosecute Bob again for murder upon his release from prison.  Leggett has written a pro-prosecution book about the case, entitled Murder by the Book.  It is expected to be released in 2007.  (48 Hours)  [2/07]

Lonnie LaBonte and Russell LaFleur were convicted of the murders of Misty Morgan and Sarah Cleary.  LaBonte knew Morgan because she was the girlfriend of his friend, Gerald Barton.  LaFleur was a young man who stayed at LaBonte’s residence for about two weeks around the time of the murders.  During a police interrogation, LaFleur confessed to witnessing LaBonte commit the murders.  He said the confession was coerced because police had put a syringe to his arm and threatened to kill him while making it appear that he killed himself with an overdose of drugs.

Later evidence directly linked another suspect, Gabriel Saxton, to the murders, but police refused to charge him.  He had accompanied the victims on the night of their murders, been with them at the scene of the crime prior to their murders, and admitted robbing them of their personal property following their murders.  He even admitted stealing Cleary’s boots from her corpse.  At trial, Saxton and LaBonte’s girlfriend, Melissa Brannon, testified that the defendants drove up a dirt road in a pickup truck to the victims’ car.  Brannon said she was riding with the defendants in the pickup.  After killing the victims the defendants then backed down the road in reverse.  The defendants allegedly returned later, after Saxton had time to rob the victims, and they set fire to the victims’ car with their bodies inside.

One problem with the witnesses’ testimony is that crime scene photos failed to show any tire tracks left by the defendants’ truck.  Photos showed only two sets of tire tracks, one from the victims’ car and another from an investigating officer’s police car.  If the witnesses’ testimony were true, there should have been four additional sets of tire tracks, one for every time the defendants’ truck went up or down the road.

There are other problems with the case:  (1) Saxton still had wounds from the night of the crime, including a noticeable limp, three months after the crime.  In contrast, LaBonte had no wounds when questioned 11 days after the crime.  (2) Saxton had given police many different stories about the night of the murders.  (3) The murders occurred in Conroe, Texas, but LaBonte’s cellphone records indicate that he was in or near his residence in New Waverly, Texas at the time.  (4) Affidavits have been presented from third parties who say Saxton admitted to them that he had an undisclosed plea deal.  Brannon also admitted she had an undisclosed understanding with the prosecutor.  The understanding was not directly stated in order to allow her to deny it.  LaBonte and LaFleur are currently serving life sentences.  (JD33 p3)  [2/07]

Richard Danziger and Christopher Ochoa were roommates who worked at an Austin Pizza Hut.  While visiting another Austin Pizza Hut they raised suspicions when they asked employees questions about the murder of a manager there.  The manager was twenty-year-old Nancy Depriest who was raped and killed at that location two weeks before.  The two were brought in for police questioning and under coercion Ochoa confessed first to the rape and then only to the murder of DePriest.  In order to avoid the death penalty he agreed to testify against Danziger for the other crime.  Both men were convicted and given life sentences.

Eight years later another prisoner, Achim Marino, serving three life sentences, began writing letters to police, the DA, Gov. Bush, a newspaper, and the ACLU, confessing to the rape and murder of DePriest.  He said he did not know Ochoa or Danziger or why anyone would confess to a crime he had committed.  Marino had apparently undergone a religious conversion while attending AA/NA and felt obliged to confess his responsibility for the DePriest murder.  Although Marino exhibited detailed knowledge of the crime, the letters had little effect.  Austin Police did go to interview Ochoa, but he continued to profess guilt.  Later he explained that he feared claiming innocence would hurt his chance for parole.

Three years afterward Ochoa reconsidered and contacted the Wisconsin Innocence Project.  After DNA tests were done, both he and Danziger were exonerated and released.  The tests also confirmed that Marino was the perpetrator.  While in prison, Danziger was severely beaten by another prisoner and suffered severe brain damage that incapacitated him for life.  Danziger and Ochoa were awarded $9 million and $5.3 million respectively in 2003 for 13 years of wrongful imprisonment.  (IP081) (IP082) (NL-D, NL-O) (Frontline)  [9/05]

When Russel Colvin disappeared in 1812, suspicion of foul play fell on his brothers-in-law, Jesse and Stephen Boorn, who held Colvin in disdain.  Seven years later, the uncle of the suspects had a recurring dream in which Colvin appeared to him and said that he had been slain.  Colvin did not identify his killers but said that his remains had been put in a cellar hole on the Boorn farm.  The cellar hole was excavated but no remains were found.  Shortly afterward, a dog unearthed some large bones from beneath a nearby stump.  Three local physicians examined the bones and declared them human.

Officials took Jesse Boorn into custody.  They would have arrested Stephen Boorn as well, but he had moved to New York.  While in custody, Jesse's cellmate, forger Silas Merill, told authorities that Jesse confessed.  In return for agreeing to testify against Jesse, Merrill was released from jail.  Faced with mounting evidence against him, Jesse admitted to the murder, but placed principal blame on Stephen, who legally was beyond the reach of the local authorities.  However, a