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McMillian, a black man, was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Ronda Morrison, a white clerk at a dry cleaners store.  The crime happened in Monroeville, which, renamed as Maycomb, was the setting for Harper Lee's novel To Kill A Mockingbird, a story about a falsely accused black man.  The three witnesses who had testified against McMillian admitted that they had lied.  In addition, it became clear that the prosecution had hidden exculpatory evidence, including the existence of a witness who had seen the victim alive after the time at which the prosecution contended her murder had occurred.  The case was profiled on "60 Minutes" on Nov. 22, 1992.  Afterwards the State agreed to investigate its earlier handling of the case and then admitted that a grave mistake had been made.  McMillian was freed on Mar. 3, 1993.  A book was written about the case entitled Circumstantial Evidence by Pete Earley (1995).  (NL)  [5/05]

With little evidence, Dorotik was convicted of murdering her husband Bob.  Though physically incapable of lifting her husband, the prosecution contended she carried her husband's body long distances and lifted it into and out of a large pickup truck.

The prosecution withheld evidence from the defense that two eyewitnesses had seen Bob twelve hours after he was allegedly murdered.  These witnesses placed him near or with two Hispanic looking men at a location that was close to where his body was found.  (JD30 p3)  [9/06]

William Marvin Lindley was sentenced to death for the murder of Jackie Marie Hamilton, a 13-year-old girl. On the day of the crime, the victim had been swimming in the Yuba River with other girls around her own age. Lindley, a redhead, operated a boathouse on the banks of the river. After finishing her swimming, the victim went to her house, changed her clothes, spoke to her father, and went out again. She was found 20 minutes to a half-hour later in a dying condition. She was able to sob out to her father that her assailant was “that old red-headed liar in the boathouse, the old-red-headed liar.” She later died without clarifying her statement.

A sheepherder, a young boy, had been watching the girls swimming from the opposite side of the river, a distance of some two hundred yards. He described a man watching the girls from the willows, and later saw him struggling with one of the girls and then go down with her beyond the willows. Following the murder, he identified the man as “Red” Lindley. He correctly described Lindley’s clothes as tan. However, the sheepherder was completely color-blind and apt to describe every color as tan.

Following Lindley’s conviction, evidence emerged that another redheaded man had been in the vicinity on the day of the murder. This man was a hop-picker, and had not been working the day of the murder. He was seen later with marks on his face, which could have been caused by the girl’s fingernails. The hop-picker reportedly confessed to the murder during a drunken brawl that night. He mysteriously disappeared from the area the next morning without even calling for his paycheck.

A lawyer named Erle Stanley Gardner was referred the case due to publicity Gardner received for his spectacular and unorthodox methods. With Lindley’s execution just days away, Gardner reviewed Lindley’s trial transcripts and made a case timeline. Since the actual clock time of events was little known, the timeline referenced the sequence of events based on distances traveled and witnesses’ contacts with each other. Although Lindley did not appear to have an alibi for the time of the murder, Gardner’s analysis showed that at the time witnesses saw the murderer standing in the willows, Lindley was miles away riding in an automobile with the victim's father. Thus Gardner showed that Lindley could not have been the murderer.

Gov. Earl Warren commuted Lindley’s sentence to life imprisonment. Lindley was eventually exonerated and released after 20 years in prison. The Lindley case led Gardner to begin a program called “The Court of Last Resort” in which individual cases were studied and those deemed to be wrongly convicted were published in Argosy Magazine. The program, which lasted about a decade, led to the release of numerous wrongly convicted persons. Gardner was also a mystery writer and the author of Perry Mason books.  (CLR) (FJDB)  [5/08]

Samuel Jason Derrick was sentenced to death for the murder of Rama Sharma.  Sharma, 55, owned the Moon Lake General Store and was found dead behind the store.  Following the murder, police received a tip that a car was seen driving suspiciously around the crime scene vicinity in the early morning hours of June 25, 1987, prior to the finding of the victim's body.  The description of the car, including a partial license plate number, seemed to match that of a car driven by David Lowry.  Lowry deflected the investigation away from himself by implicating Derrick, who was then his friend.  At trial, five Pasco County detectives swore under oath that Derrick confessed to the crime.  There was no written, audio, or video record of this "confession" or any interrogation notes written by any of the five detectives.  The Pasco County Sheriff's Office had a reputation for corruption.  Just two years earlier, St. Petersburg Times reporter Lucy Morgan won a Pulitzer Prize for her series of articles documenting this corruption.

The prosecution case contained numerous inconsistencies:  (1) Lowry testified that he saw Derrick with a double-edged knife on the evening of June 24.  This was shortly before the murder according to the prosecution theory.  However, the medical examiner determined that the victim's stab wounds were made with a single-edged knife.  (2) Detectives testified that Derrick confessed to stabbing the victim 13 times.  However, the medical examiner determined that the victim was stabbed 33 times.  (3) Detectives testified that Derrick admitted committing the crime at 10:30 p.m. on June 24, 1987.  However, the medical examiner testified that the time of death was 6:00 a.m. the following morning.  (4) Detectives testified that Derrick said he threw the murder knife in the woods, and his bloody shirt and shoes in a pond.  However, they never located this evidence or any other physical evidence linking Derrick to the crime.

Prosecutor Michael Halkitis repeatedly discredited the testimony of his own witness, that of Medical Examiner Edward Corcoran. In his closing arguments, he informed the jury that Mr. Corcoran was mistaken about the time of death.  Other evidence supports Derrick's claim of innocence.  A witness, Shannon Loyce, testified that she saw Sharma alive between 2:15 and 2:30 a.m. on June 25, 1987.  A trial juror, Nancy Rocco, sent a letter to the St. Petersburg Press, and subsequently signed an affidavit stating that she "now knows the state did not prove its case."  In 2002, another man had made statements implicating himself in Sharma's murder.  (www.savejasonderrick.org) (SP Times)  [4/08]

Burton was convicted in a rural Georgia court of raping three teen-age girls and sodomizing two of them.  In Jan. 2002, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the reversal of his conviction by a federal district court on the grounds of incompetent defense counsel and unfair prosecution.  The girls originally described their attacker as having a deeply pockmarked face, stocky build, brown eyes, and brownish hair.  Burton is 6 feet tall and slim, with blue eyes, blond hair, and clear skin.  Near the time of the assault, he did have a severe case of poison ivy, which infected his face, and this fact may have led to a “pockmarked” description.  The victims identified Burton in a photo lineup and said their attacker drove a white Toyota, a car that Burton owned.

Medical exams were not performed on two of the girls because they had taken showers immediately after returning home following the alleged attack.  The third victim was examined and the medical report stated she showed "no evidence of recent sexual entry."  This report was suppressed at trial.  One of the victims’ high school teachers stated to a private investigator that the three victims were notorious liars.  She refused to testify for fear of being socially ostracized.

A defense investigator re-enacted the crime and reported that it was impossible to drive the distance to the alleged rape scene in the time period during which the victims allege they were driven and also systematically raped and sodomized. Two days before the attack, Burton had eight genital warts surgically removed.  The surgeon testified that after undergoing this procedure "sex would have been the last thing on his [Burton’s] mind."  Burton was freed in May 2002 and his new trial is scheduled for Feb. 2003.  (Case Facts) (CM)

Felker was convicted of the rape and murder of 19-year-old Evelyn Joy Ludlam, 19.  The conviction was obtained through hair analysis, which is notoriously unreliable, and by claimed similarities between the murder and another crime for which Felker was convicted years before.  Felker was put under police surveillance within hours of Ludlam’s disappearance on Nov. 24, 1981.  Ludlam body was found fourteen days later on Dec. 8.  It was found floating in Scuffle Creek in Twiggs County.  An autopsy indicated that she had been strangled and put her death within the previous five days.  However, when police realized this would have ruled Felker out as a suspect because he had been under surveillance, the findings of the autopsy were changed.

An unqualified lab technician conducted the autopsy.  During appeals, Felker’s lawyers showed notes and photos of Ludlam's body to pathologists who unanimously agreed that she could not have been dead for longer than three days. In spite of the medical opinion, appeal courts upheld Felker's conviction.  Felker was executed on Nov. 15, 1996.

The state hid boxes of evidence from Felker's attorneys until just before his execution.  Some held exonerating evidence, including another person's confession.  Others held materials that could have been DNA tested.  (Felker v. The State)

Williams was convicted of the armed robbery of a 7-Eleven convenience store.  Two 18 to 20-year-old black males robbed the store of $15 at about 10:54 p.m.  One held a gun while the other took money from the cash register.  The cashier called police and her call was logged in at 10:56 p.m.  Two teenagers had seen the robbers flee in a brown car.  At 11:06 p.m., police stopped Williams and his friend Ernest Brown about 1 1/2 miles from the crime scene.  They were driving a brown car of similar description as that of the robbers.  The cashier identified the 28-year-old Williams as being the unarmed robber.  She cleared Brown of involvement.  Neither man had any money or gun on them, but police found two six-packs of Pepsi in the car.

Shortly before being stopped by the police, Williams spent the last of his money buying gas at a nearby Exxon station.  Unbeknownst to Williams, Brown had stolen the Pepsi’s from the gas station.  A cashier at the Exxon station had seen Brown take the Pepsi’s while Williams was paying for his gas.  She had called police shortly after the crime and estimated that the two men drove away at 10:45 p.m.

It took 9 to 11 minutes to drive from the Exxon station to the 7-Eleven (7 minutes if one caught all the traffic lights).  Thus, by the Exxon cashier’s estimate, Williams had time to rob the 7-Eleven at 10:54 p.m.  Police, however, refused to refine the estimate by revealing the exact time the cashier reported the Pepsi theft.  They had no trouble noting the exact time when the 7-Eleven cashier reported that store’s armed robbery.

According to the police, Williams dropped Brown off after 10:45 p.m., picked up an armed gunman, robbed the 7-Eleven, dropped off the gunman, picked up Brown, and remained within 1 1/2 miles of the crime scene when he was stopped by police at 11:06 p.m.  This theory is a complicated and unlikely 20-minute series of events.

According to Brown, the 7-Eleven cashier was uncertain about her identification of Williams, but she denied she was uncertain at trial.  The Exxon cashier was never called to testify.  Although Brown readily admitted the Pepsi theft, neither he nor Williams was charged with that crime.  Williams was sentenced to 50 years in prison for being an unarmed participant in a $15 robbery.

In Oct. 2006, the Louisiana Parole Board paroled Williams after he served 21 years in prison.  Although factual innocence is not grounds for parole, privately the Board members expressed their belief that Williams was innocent.  (CM)  [1/08]

Dechaine was convicted of the abduction, sexual torture, and murder of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry.  The book Human Sacrifice by James P. Moore, a former ATF agent-in-charge for Maine and New Hampshire, contends that the evidence shows that Dechaine could not have committed the crime.

Dechaine's pickup truck was found parked 450 feet from Cherry's body.  Rope from the truck apparently had been used to bind the girl.  Dechaine's bandana had gagged her.  In addition, two documents bearing Dechaine's name had been discovered in the driveway of the house where Cherry was babysitting before she was killed.

Dechaine has summarized his case as follows:  "An unidentified man/men took four items from an unattended truck and used those items to kill Sarah Cherry and shift responsibility to the owner of the truck, Dennis Dechaine."

At trial, the medical examiner, Ronald Roy, estimated that Cherry had died 30 to 36 hours before he examined the victim's body at 2 p.m. on July 8, 1988.  The longest estimate, based on the presence of rigor mortis, would have put the time of death at 2 a.m., July 7.  However, according to police evidence, Dechaine emerged from the woods before 8:45 p.m. on July 6, when a motorist stopped to pick him up, after which time he has a solid alibi.

Moore said, when he first began looking at the case in 1992, "I was going to prove that all the criticisms [of law enforcement] were unfounded.  It just didn't work out that way."  Some have disputed the timing of Cherry's death, citing ambiguity in the medical examiner's testimony.  However, according to Moore, "Every pathologist interviewed, and every forensic pathology textbook agrees that, in this situation and circumstances, rigor mortis would last a maximum of 36 hours."

Evidence which could have identified Cherry's real killer was destroyed by the state.  This evidence included a hair found on the victim's arm, a hair found on the rope binding victim's wrists, and mystery fingerprints on the door of the house from which Cherry was abducted.  The state attempted to hide DNA test results of blood found under the victim's fingernails.  These results showed the blood belonged to an unknown person.  Dechaine is serving a life without parole sentence.  (Boston Globe) (InjusticeBusters) (www.trialanderrordennis.org)  [7/05]

In Feb. 1996, 18-year-old Sarah Jane Adams filed a police report, accusing James F. Love of orally raping her six, seven, eight years earlier.  After being charged with five rapes, Love filed a notice of alibi, stating that he was out of the United States during a large portion of the time period mentioned in his indictment.  His lawyers requested more specific dates and times of the alleged rapes, but the prosecutor repeatedly denied that any dates were available.

At Love’s trial in June 1996, Adams testified that the first rape occurred “the week after Christmas 1988.”  She testified next three rapes occurred “at least once a month each month after the first time.”  Which would have been January, February, and March 1989.  Regarding the fifth rape she testified, “I can’t remember when the last time was.”  Love told his attorneys he was in Mexico during the time period Adams said she was raped.  He obtained his mother’s telephone records, which showed his mother had received collect calls from Mexico in late 1988 and early 1989.  The prosecutor argued that there was no proof the collect calls to Love’s mother had been made by Love.  The jury convicted Love on four of the five rape charges.  Love was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences.  Love will be eligible for parole in 2036 when he is 85-years-old.

Since Love’s conviction, he has assembled abundant evidence proving that he was in Mexico, before, during, and after the period in which the alleged rapes occurred.  In Nov. 2006, Love’s conviction was overturned.  Love has written numerous articles on wrongfully convicted persons.  Many of those articles are posted on the Innocent Inmates of Ohio website.  (JD30 p5)  [9/07]

Laughman, who was 24 with an IQ of 70, confessed to the rape and murder of 85-year-old Edna Laughman, a distant relative.  He was convicted largely on the testimony of State Trooper John J. Holtz who was later discredited for accepting money from a crime writer in another murder case, and Janice Roadcap, a state police chemist accused of doctoring records in a third murder case.  Roadcap suggested that antibiotics Edna was taking at the time of her death changed the blood type of the semen evidence from Barry's type B, to type A.

The prosecution argued that Barry had killed Edna on the night of Aug. 12, but Elwood Bollinger and his girlfriend, Patricia Harrison, reported seeing Edna on the morning of the 13th, while on their way a medical appointment.  Barry's attorney presented evidence that Harrison had an appointment on the 13th.  The prosecution also presented evidence that an allegedly three-finger grip mark on Edna was made by Barry because Barry had an injured pinky finger.  Barry served 16 years of a life sentence before DNA tests exonerated him.  (IP149) (Patriot-News)  [9/05]

John Dolenc was convicted of murdering his wife, Patricia.  The couple had separated for a week, but agreed to meet in Bridgeville on Saturday night, July 5.  Dolenc said Patricia did not show up.  The prosecution argued that she did show up, and Dolenc murdered her that night.  Dolenc spent that night barhopping in Bridgeville with his uncle.  He was able to prove that he had been at some bars, although police did not check them all.  Even if they did, the prosecution later argued that he would have had time to murder his wife between some of the visits.

Patricia was found dead on July 8, three days later, in a parking lot behind her apartment.  She appeared to be the victim of a sexual assault.  A pathologist testified that Patricia probably was dead for less than 72 hours.  Her body was still warm and rigor mortis -- which usually disappears within 12 hours of death -- was still present.  Two of Dolenc's relatives later told a private investigator that they saw Patricia on July 7 in an Oakdale bank.  Receipts show that Patricia and one of her aunts conducted business in the bank that day.  Two other acquaintances also said they saw Patricia on July 7 at a store where she bought two cans of tuna. One of the men who saw her there said he also had beer and pizza with her later that day at a local pub.

Not long after Patricia’s death, a former boyfriend of hers named Ed Zombeck began to involve himself in the case, telling Dolenc that he was conducting his own investigation.  At the time, Dolenc did not know that his wife's father had reported Zombeck to the police for threatening her after she broke off their relationship.  Thanks to Zombeck and Mt. Lebanon police, Dolenc said he learned about the crime scene and other elements of the murder that police later said only the killer would know.  "Ed Zombeck kept turning up during the investigation like a bad penny," one Mt. Lebanon police officer said later.

Six months after the murder, police charged Zombeck with the crime after a federal drug agent told them that Zombeck's wife had screamed "tell them you did it" in the background as the agent and Zombeck were talking on the telephone.  The charges were dismissed later that day.  Zombeck denied involvement.  He said his wife had mental problems and made the statement during a domestic dispute.  Charges were not filed against Dolenc until 1981.  They were then dismissed for insufficient evidence following a coroner's inquest.  Eight months later, charges were re-filed and Dolenc was tried six years after the murder.

At trial, the prosecutor suggested some of the blood found on Patricia, belonged to Dolenc.  However, both shared the same blood type.  The prosecutor paraded a series of witnesses who testified about the couple's marital problems.  He pounded away at minor inconsistencies in statements Dolenc had given police about his movements on the Saturday night when Patricia was allegedly murdered.  While Dolenc claimed he was with his uncle that night, his uncle testified he had suffered a brain injury since the murder and could not remember dates, times or events.  Dolenc’s sister possessed a bracelet owned by his dead wife.  Both Dolenc and his sister said it was a gift Patricia had given her shortly before she died.

Dolenc's lawyer did not yet know about the four people who claim to have seen Patricia after the prosecution said she was dead.  But he did get the Allegheny County Coroner to admit that it was unlikely her body had been in the parking lot for three days.  Dolenc sought DNA tests on blood found at the crime scene.  The state opposed the tests and maintained that the finding of a third person’s blood would not prove Dolenc’s innocence.  Dolenc, then 54, died in prison of natural causes on Dec. 13, 2007.  (Point Park Univ)  [10/07]

William "Junior" Pierce was convicted of raping and murdering Margaret "Peg" Cuttino, 13, the daughter of a state senator.  Cuttino was reported missing on Dec. 18 and her body was found on Dec. 30.  Pierce, who had an IQ that "barely broke 70" and who was a known serial confessor, confessed to this murder apparently after being tortured by Sheriff "Red" Carter.  A document supports Pierce's contention that his confession was coerced by physical abuse consisting of burns, bruises, and cuts to his "privates."

In order to convict Pierce the prosecution theorized that Cuttino was murdered on Dec. 18, but when her body was found, the sperm evidence was not much degraded and this evidence implied that she was not killed before Dec. 25.  Public disagreement with the verdict arose starting with an uncalled witness who allegedly saw Cuttino on the afternoon of Dec. 19.  The county coroner joined the opposition.  Because of new evidence that arose following the conviction, it is highly likely that Pierce would be acquitted if he could get a retrial, but getting a retrial because of new evidence is very difficult under South Carolina law.  New technology raised the possibility of DNA testing, but the authorities contend Hurricane Hugo destroyed the biological evidence in 1989.

Pierce is not a glamorous defendant, having been convicted, after confessing, to three murders in Georgia, perhaps because of techniques similar to those used by Sheriff Carter.  Public opposition to the verdict seems surprising since an acquittal would do little to free Pierce, but physical evidence that Cuttino was killed much later than Dec. 18 seems compelling and such a finding would exonerate Pierce.  (CrimeLibrary)  [9/05]

Paul Richard Colella was accused of murdering David Taylor and Michael Lavexphere.  It was alleged that he murdered them because he wrongly believed they had raped his wife.  At trial, the prosecution argued that deaths occurred at 2 a.m., because Colella was known to be 240 miles away at 6 a.m.  However, death certificates that were not turned over at the time of trial, place the time of death for both men at 6 a.m.  There were other case discrepancies.  Colella was sentenced to death, but later escaped death row by agreeing to plead to two non-capital counts of murder and accept a 20-year sentence.  Colella still maintains his innocence.  (Info)  [5/05]

Powell was convicted of participating in a massive swindling scheme that had operated in 14 cities and had taken in millions of dollars.  The organizers of this scheme ran a "Millionaires' Club" for the purpose of operating fake horse races, wrestling matches, foot races, and boxing matches. They then had a "steerer," to induce a "mike," to join with the club's secretary in betting against the club, the "mike" believing that the race or match was to be "thrown" in his favor.  After the stakes were put up, with the club's secretary as stakeholder, the event was instead thrown to the club and the "mike" got a dose of his own medicine.  The scheme was cleverly worked out, inducing persons to surrender their money, yet leaving them in such a compromising position that they were not anxious to report the affair to the authorities.

Powell was indicted because of testimony that he knew and associated with some of those clearly involved in the scheme.  However, there was no evidence that he conspired with anyone.  He and his attorney expected a directed verdict of acquittal.  However, at the last minute in the Mar. 1910 trial, a “mike” was recalled as a witness and identified Powell as a participant in the group who fleeced him in a fake horse race near Denver, CO.  This “mike” could not fix the date when he was fleeced, beyond saying it was between March 20 and April 10, 1908.  The only other witness who had testified about this swindle had already been dismissed and had left town.

The date was important, because Powell had alibis in different locations during this time period and did not have time to collect alibi evidence covering the entire period.  Powell had two witnesses testify that they returned from Cuba with him around the first of April.  Another witness testified that he was in Denver when Powell arrived about the middle of April.  However, the jury disregarded this evidence and convicted Powell.

Following Powell’s conviction, his attorneys established that the horse race occurred on Mar. 28, 1908, and that Powell was clearly in Tampa, Florida on this date, having returned from Cuba two days before.  U.S. President Taft granted Powell a full pardon in July 1910.  (CTI)  [11/07]