Location |
Defendant(s) |
Date of Alleged Crime |
Maricopa
County, AZ |
Buddhist Temple Innocents |
Aug 10, 1991 |
During
interrogations that lasted up to twenty-one hours, Maricopa County Sheriffs
in Phoenix coerced confessions from Leo Bruce, Mark Nunez, and Dante Parker
to the mass murder of nine persons at a Buddhist temple. Ballistics tests
later revealed the identity of the true perpetrators. These perpetrators
were found with loot from the temple and they confessed to the crime.
[9/05] |
Pima County,
AZ |
Louis Taylor |
Dec 21, 1970 (Tucson) |
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] |
Riverside
County, CA |
Robert Diaz |
Apr 1981 (Perris) |
Robert Rubane
Diaz was sentenced to death for the murders of 12 hospital patients. In
early 1981, Community Hospital of the Valleys in Perris, California
experienced an abnormally large number of deaths among its most elderly
patients. To gather evidence, the coroner exhumed or intercepted all the
patients who had recently died and he collected tissue samples from them.
The coroner found that 11 patients had a supposedly lethal level of the
heart drug lidocaine in their system. Investigators focused on Diaz, a male
nurse, who worked at the hospital during many of the deaths. They also
investigated his previous employment and came up with a 12th patient from
another hospital whose exhumed body showed a supposedly lethal level of
lidocaine.
Read More by
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|
San Francisco
County, CA |
Billings & Mooney |
July 22, 1916 |
Warren K.
Billings and Thomas J. Mooney, both radical labor leaders, were convicted of
setting off a suitcase bomb at a Preparedness Day Parade that killed 10
people and wounded 40 others. The two were convicted because of police
perjury, concealment of exonerating evidence, and prosecutorial misconduct.
Governor Culbert Olson pardoned both men in 1939. [3/06] |
Hinsdale
County, CO |
Alferd Packer |
1874 |
Alferd
Packer was
convicted of murdering five prospectors he had guided into the mountains
during the winter of 1873-74 and who had become stranded there with him.
Packer contended that one day when he returned to camp after looking for
food, one of the prospectors, Shannon Bell, had killed the others and was
roasting a piece of meat he had cut out of leg of one of them. Bell then
attacked Packer with a hatchet and Packer shot Bell in self-defense. Packer
said he tried to find a way out of the mountains every day, but could not,
so he lived off the flesh of the dead men. Packer escaped execution on a
technicality. Under pressure from a campaign led by a Denver Post
columnist, Packer was granted a conditional parole in 1901 after 18 years in
prison. Modern forensics and the journal of a Civil War veteran who had
seen the bodies appear to confirm Packer's story. [6/05] |
Broward/Dade
Counties, FL |
Jerry Frank Townsend |
1973-79 |
Jerry Frank
Townsend, who
is mentally retarded, was arrested in 1979 for the rape of a pregnant Miami
woman. During the investigation, he confessed to six murders. He was
convicted in 1980 for the 1973 murders of Naomi Gamble and Barbara Brown in
Broward County. In 1982, he pleaded guilty to two murders in Miami
including the 1979 murder of 13-year-old Sonja Marion. He also pleaded no
contest to two 1979 murders in Broward County. Including the original rape,
Townsend received seven life terms.
In 1998, Sonja
Marion's mother had a Fort Lauderdale police detective review the Townsend
cases, and DNA testing cleared him of some crimes. In 2000, DNA evidence
implicated Eddie Lee Mosley as did evidence from Frank Lee Smith's case.
DNA evidence cast doubt on all of Townsend's confessions, and in 2001, he
was cleared of all charges and released after being imprisoned for 22
years. (IP)
[6/05] |
DeSoto County,
FL |
James Richardson |
Oct 25, 1967 (Arcadia) |
James Joseph Richardson, a farm
worker, was convicted of murdering his oldest child after all seven of his children
were poisoned
with the pesticide parathion. The children, six daughters and a son,
ranged in age from 2 to 8. Richardson was believed to have murdered
all seven, but for strategic reasons was only tried for the murder of one.
If he had been acquitted, he could have been tried successively for murders
of each of the others, giving the prosecution seven chances of a conviction.
Richardson was sentenced to death.
Read
More by Clicking Here
|
Cook County,
IL |
Madison Hobley |
Jan 6, 1987 (Chicago) |
A fire broke
out in Madison Hobley's apartment building early in the morning, which killed his
wife, infant son, and five other people. Hobley escaped wearing only
underwear. Later in the day, detectives picked him up and tortured him in
an attempt to extract a confession that he started the fire. When torture
did not work, four detectives asserted that Hobley made a confession. No
record of this confession existed. One detective claimed to have made notes
but threw them away after something spilled on them.
The
prosecution claimed that Hobley had bought $1 worth of gasoline, which he
used to start the fire. They produced a gasoline can allegedly found at the
fire scene, but a defense expert pointed out that it showed no exposure to
the high heat of the fire, as its plastic cap was undamaged. After trial,
the defense learned that a second gasoline can was found at the fire scene
but police destroyed it after the defense issued a subpoena for it.
In addition,
post-conviction affidavits of jurors stated that non-jurors intimidated some
of them while they were sequestered at a hotel, and that they were
prejudiced by the acts of the jury foreperson, a police officer, who
believed Hobley was guilty. The affidavits also stated that jurors brought
newspapers with articles about the case into the jury room and that they
repeatedly violated the trial court's sequestration. In 2003, Gov. George
Ryan granted Hobley a pardon based on innocence. (CWC)
[9/05] |
Cook County, IL |
Kitchen & Reeves |
July 27, 1988 |
Ronald Kitchen and Marvin Reeves
were convicted of the murders of five people: Rose Marie Rodriguez, 30, her
son Daniel, 3, Deborah Sepulveda, 26, her son Peter, Jr., 3, and her
daughter Rebecca, 2. Rodriguez was strangled and the other victims had
been suffocated. Their home, a bungalow at 6028 S. Campbell Ave. in
Chicago, was set on fire. There were no eyewitnesses to the murders.
“The
prosecution's case was based on Ronald Kitchen's confession to the five
murders after 39 hours of interrogation, and the testimony of jailhouse
informant Willie Williams, who claimed that Kitchen confessed to him in two
telephone calls. [He said Kitchen told him he killed the victims over
a $1,225 drug debt.] The informant also claimed that Marvin Reeves
made incriminating statements to him. Kitchen testified that he only
confessed to stop being beaten by Chicago Police Department detectives who
were questioning him. The detectives were under the command of Cmdr.
Jon Burge, and Kitchen said he was hit in the head with a telephone, punched
in the face, struck in the groin and kicked. Kitchen was sentenced to
death, but it was commuted to life in prison by IL Gov. George Ryan in 2003.
Reeves was given five life sentences without parole.”
“Attorneys for
Kitchen and Reeves eventually discovered that phone records showed Williams
didn't talk to Kitchen on the two dates he claimed, and that prosecutors
never revealed to defense attorneys they had Williams released from prison
early in return for his cooperation. Evidence also surfaced that Cmdr.
Burge had been involved in the torture of numerous defendants who falsely
confessed. Based on the new evidence Kitchen and Reeves filed motions
for a new trial. On the morning of July 7, 2009 Cook County
Circuit Judge Stanley Sacks overturned their convictions, and later that day
the Illinois Attorney General dismissed their indictments on the grounds of
insufficient evidence. On the afternoon of the 7th Kitchen and Reeves
were released from custody after being wrongly imprisoned for 21 years.” –
FJDB (Chicago
Sun Times) |
Jackson
County, MO |
Kansas City Five |
Nov 29, 1988 |
Darlene
Edwards, 43, Frank Sheppard, 46, Earl “Skip” Sheppard, 37, Bryan Sheppard,
26, and Richard Brown, 26, all Native Americans, were convicted of setting a
fire that caused an explosion and killed six firefighters. The fire
occurred at a site associated with the construction of a ten-mile road. Two
trailers on the site contained 50,000 pounds of construction explosives.
The explosion had 5 times the impact of the Oklahoma City bomb, evaporated a
fire department pumper, and was heard 45 miles away. As late as 1995, ATF
agents said on the TV show Unsolved Mysteries that the fire was set by
organized labor to teach the general contractor a lesson for using non-union
labor. But the demand for closure and $50,000 reward money led police and
prison snitches to finger five indigent Native Americans who had nothing to
do with organized labor. (Crime Magazine:
Part 1
Part 2) (kcfirefighterscase.com)
[9/05] |
Kings County,
NY |
Eric Jackson |
Aug 2, 1978 |
Eric (Erick) Jackson, also known as Eric
Knight, was convicted of setting a fire to a Waldbaum's Supermarket in
Sheepshead Bay. Six firefighters died in the blaze. The investigation was
plagued by public disputes between fire marshals and police arson
investigators. After an informant fingered him, Jackson was indicted in May
1979 on arson and murder charges. Police said he confessed to setting the
fire for $500. Jackson was sentenced to 25 years to life.
The firefighters’
widows hired an attorney, Robert Sullivan, to bring a lawsuit for civil
damages. In the course of preparing that lawsuit, Sullivan concluded that
Jackson was innocent. Sullivan turned his efforts toward obtaining Jackson’s
release. He was later recognized by the New York State Bar Association
for his efforts in the case.
In 1988, a
judge overturned Jackson's conviction because prosecutors had withheld
evidence from his defense. This information included a fire marshal’s
report that there had been “four separate and distinct fires” in the
supermarket, of which only one caused the deaths of the firefighters. In
addition, a New York City Police detective who had been involved in the
investigation concluded that the fire was caused by an electrical short
circuit, and said that he had repeatedly told this to the District
Attorney’s office.
In 1994, Jackson was retried. The defense maintained that Jackson's
confession was coerced and that the fire was an accident resulting from
faulty electrical wiring. Jackson was acquitted and released after
serving nearly ten years in prison. (IP
Arson) (Inevitable Error) (People
v. Jackson) [7/07] |
Westchester County, NY |
Luis Marin |
Dec 4, 1980 |
“Luis Marin was convicted in Westchester County of twenty-six counts of
murder arising from a [fire at a Stouffer’s Inn in Harrison, NY.]
Marin successfully moved the trial court for a post-verdict order dismissing
the indictments based on insufficiency of the trial evidence. The
prosecution appealed. The
Appellate Division and
Court of Appeals upheld the trial court order of dismissal. It was
held that having an empty gasoline container and siphon in his car were
insufficient facts to support the inference that Marin had set the fire.
In sum, the evidence presented at trial was simply insufficient to sustain
the charges. ‘[T]he loss of life at the Stouffer’s Inn fire was a
tragedy of staggering proportion ... However, the tragedy would be
compounded by the conviction and imprisonment of a person whose criminal
responsibility for that tragedy has not been proven.’” –
Inevitable Error |
Philadelphia County, PA |
Robert Wilkinson |
Oct 5, 1975 |
Robert Wilkinson, a mildly retarded man,
was convicted in 1976 of the arson murders of five people. At 3:25 a.m. on
Oct 5, 1975 someone used a Molotov cocktail to firebomb the home of Radamas
Santiago. The Santiagos, who lived at 4419 North 4th Street, were then
asleep in their home. Radamas and one of his sons, Carlos, survived.
Radamas's wife, three of his children, and Luis Caracini, a guest in the
house, perished in the fire. At the time of the firebombing, 14-year-old
Nelson Garcia, a friend of the Santiagos, was sleeping on their front
porch. His hair aflame, Garcia fled from the house, looking for a fire
alarm. Garcia saw Robert Wilkinson in an automobile stopped near the
Santiago home. Because Wilkinson was the first person he saw, Garcia
assumed that Wilkinson had thrown the firebomb. He accused Wilkinson, who
police then arrested. Garcia later elaborated that he had seen Wilkinson
throw a bottle with a burning cloth onto the Santiago porch.
Read More
by Clicking Here
|
Philadelphia County, PA |
Lex Street Innocents |
Dec 28, 2000 |
On Dec. 28, 2000, four men clad
in black ski masks entered a row house at 816 N. Lex St. and forced its ten
inhabitants to lay face down on the floor of the home. The men then
released a spray of gunfire that killed seven, ages 15 to 54, and injured
three. The killings, the deadliest mass murder in Philadelphia history,
became known as the Lex Street Massacre. Police arrested Jermel Lewis, 25,
Hezekiah Thomas, 25, Sacon Youk, 22, and Quiante Perrin, 21, in connection
to the killings. Following his arrest Lewis confessed to the crime due to
“a combination of misinformation [and] coercion.” Lewis may also have been
on drugs that day, making him more vulnerable.
Yvette Long, a
surviving victim, initially told police she could not identify any of the
assailants. However, after sessions with a psychiatrist, she testified that
she recovered her memory of the night and named Youk and Perrin as shooters
and identified Thomas by a nickname. Another man, Shihean Black, repeatedly
confessed to the crime, but police dismissed his confessions. Originally
police believed that the murders were committed as part of a dispute over
drug territory. However, Black's story was that a drug dealer who lived at
the house had ruined the clutch on Black's car, and that the murders were
committed in retaliation. Another individual corroborated Black's story,
and charges were dropped against the four men after they spent 18 months in
prison. The four men later sued the city and won a $1.9 million settlement
for wrongful incarceration. Another four men, including Black, later
pleaded guilty to the homicides. A book was written about the case
entitled The Lex Street Massacre by Antonne M. Jones. [7/05] |
Burleson County, TX |
Anthony Graves |
Aug 18, 1992 (Sommerville) |
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.
Read More by
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|
Williamson
County, TX |
Henry Lee Lucas |
Oct 31, 1979 |
Henry Lee Lucas was sentenced to death in
1984 for the murder of an unidentified woman whose body was found along I-35
near Georgetown, Texas. The case was known as the “Orange Socks” case
because the victim was found nude except for a pair of orange socks. Lucas
had confessed to the crime. In his videotaped confession, Lucas said that
he had consensual sex with the victim, but this statement was edited out
when played at trial, because the prosecution needed to maintain that the
victim was raped in order to make Lucas eligible for the death penalty. The
medical examiner had found no evidence of rape. The victim had an advanced
case of syphilis, but Lucas had no venereal disease. It was later proven
that Lucas was in another state at the time. In 1998, three days before his
scheduled execution, Texas Governor George W. Bush pardoned Lucas.
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|
England |
Pinfold & MacKenney |
Nov 1974 (Dagenham, Essex) |
Terry Pinfold
and Harry MacKenney were convicted of murder based on the testimony of a
sole witness. This witness testified the pair murdered a man, but this man
was later known to be alive three years after his alleged slaying.
Read More by
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|
England (Chelmsford CC) |
Jeremy Bamber |
Aug 7, 1985 |
Jeremy Bamber, 25, was convicted of the shooting murders of his
father, Ralph Nevill Bamber, 61, his mother, June Bamber, 61, his sister, Sheila Caffell,
27, and his twin nephews, Daniel and Nicholas Caffell, both 6. Jeremy was
adopted by his parents as was his unrelated sister. The killings
occurred at White House Farm in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex. At 3:36 a.m.
on August 7, 1985, Jeremy called the police from his cottage in Goldhanger, 3
1/2 miles away, to tell them that Nevill had phoned him and
said that Sheila, a paranoid schizophrenic, had “gone crazy” and
had got a gun. Sheila was known to have considered ending her life and
expressed an intention to kill her sons. After calling police, Jeremy
drove to White House Farm and met up with officers who were already there.
Police staked out the farmhouse for several hours before entering it at 7:34
a.m. where they found five people shot to death. Sheila was found shot
twice under the chin with a rifle in her hand. Police initially
thought Sheila had committed the murders before turning the gun on herself.
Read More by Clicking Here |
New Zealand |
David Bain |
June 20, 1994 (Dunedin) |
David Cullen Bain was convicted of murdering his mother Margaret, 50,
his father Robin, 58, sisters Arawa, 19, and Laniet, 18, and brother
Stephen, 14. All had died from .22 gunshot wounds to their heads.
The murders occurred at 65 Every Street, Anderson's Bay, Dunedin.
Twenty-two-year-old David was arrested four days after making a frantic 111 call from the family
home. Police responding to the emergency found him huddled in the house
babbling incoherently. At trial, David's defense argued that his
father Robin killed the family then himself while David was out doing his
early morning paper run. David has consistently maintained his
innocence.
The evidence
against Robin appears to be greater than that against David, but since none
of it is especially strong, one can assume that the evidence against both is
evenly divided. Depending on the
weight one puts on various pieces of evidence, it is possible to believe
either one of them is the likely perpetrator. However, reasonable doubt
attaches to David because a plausible case can always be made that Robin is the
perpetrator. The motive evidence is stronger against Robin.
Other
evidence shows the perpetrator had fought with Stephen, and Robin had six
recent abrasions on his hands. These abrasions were alleged to be due
to Robin's replacement of spouting at the family home.
After exhausting his appeals in New
Zealand, David appealed to England's Privy Counsel, and in 2007 it
quashed his conviction as a miscarriage of justice, based on new evidence
that the Crown reportedly disputes. David was subsequently released on bail
by the Christchurch High Court. Two 1997 books were published on the
Bain case, the pro-defense David and Goliath by Joe Karam, and the
pro-prosecution The Mask of Sanity by James McNeish. (NZCity)
(NZ
Herald) (FJDB)
[10/08] |
|