Location |
Defendant(s) |
Date of Alleged Crime |
Dade County,
FL |
Thomas James |
Jan 17, 1990 (Coconut Grove) |
Thomas Raynard
James was
convicted of shooting to death Francis McKinnion during a home invasion.
Evidence points to a Thomas James as the killer, but a different
Thomas James. Police apparently knew that Thomas Raynard James was not the
real killer, so they waited 6 months to charge him, at which time he could
not establish where he was or who he was with on the evening of the murder.
(Justice: Denied)
[9/05] |
Orange County, FL |
Malenne Joseph |
Dec 2007 (Conway) |
A home contractor hired a black woman with an accent to
paint a home in Conway, an unincorporated suburb of Orlando, FL. When the
contractor failed to pay her, she reacted by going through the house
and splashing it with paint, causing thousands of dollars in damage.
The contractor later told Orlando police Detective Jose Varela that he knew
the woman as �Marlene,� and he gave him her cell phone number.
Varela dialed it and got a woman who answered to �Marlene� and who confessed
to the crime but would not come down to the police station.
Varela found out
from the woman who owned the damaged house that she had seen a black man driving a
truck slowly in the neighborhood. This behavior raised her
suspicions enough to write down the tag number. Varela traced the tag number to a
man with a last name of Joseph. He then went fishing through the
motor vehicle records for a black woman named �Marlene,� who might be a
relative of the truck owner. He came up with a Malenne Joseph. He got a photocopy of her driver's
license picture and showed it to the owner of the house and her sister.
Both identified Malenne as the painter who worked at the house.
Malenne, a Haitian woman,
had an accent like that ascribed to the painter. She was brought to trial in June 2010.
Although she said she was not a painter and had never met any of the people
who accused her, she was identified in court as the perpetrator. Over defense
objections, Detective Varela testified that she confessed to the crime over
the phone. Malenne was convicted of felony criminal mischief and sent to jail.
When new lawyers took over
her case they found out the cell phone
number Varela had dialed belonged to a woman named �Merline� whose last name
was not Joseph. Like their client, the woman was Haitian and shared
some facial similarities with her. The lawyers also found work records
which showed Malenne was working elsewhere on two of the days she
supposedly was painting. When they informed the contractor that their
client was 5'2" tall, he said he knew she could not be the painter as he was
5'6" and remembered the painter as being slightly taller than himself, about
5'7". He signed an affidavit reversing his trial identification. Malenne was released from jail after being incarcerated for 77
days. A motion was filed to overturn her conviction. Prosecutors decided not to charge the
other �Marlene� with the
crime as the statute of limitations for it had run out. (Orlando
Sentinel) (TIJ
Blog) [12/10]
|
Wayne County,
MI |
Dominique Brim |
Apr 15, 2002 (Lincoln Park) |
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] |
St. Louis
County, MO |
Johnny Briscoe |
Oct 21, 1982 |
Johnny
Briscoe was
convicted of rape and burglary after the assailant
told the victim his name was John Briscoe. The assailant, who
apparently was an acquaintance of Briscoe named Larry Smith, also called the
victim several times following the attack, while police were still present,
identifying himself as John Briscoe. The calls were traced to a payphone
near Briscoe's apartment. The victim identified Briscoe as her
assailant in a photo lineup
and in a live lineup. A search of the physical evidence by Centurion
Ministries turned up a cigarette butt smoked by the assailant, which was found to contain Smith's DNA. Briscoe was released in 2006.
Smith is serving a life sentence for a separate sexual assault at the same
apartment complex involved in Briscoe's case. (IP)
(KSDK
5) (CM)
[12/06] |
Union County,
NJ |
David Shepard |
Dec 24, 1983 |
David
Shepard was
convicted of rape and robbery in 1984. The victim was abducted by two
men from a shopping mall and later raped. One of the assailants called
the other �Dave.� The assailants subsequently parked the victim's car
near a building at Newark Airport in which Shepard worked. The victim
identified Shepard as one of her assailants. DNA tests exonerated him in 1994.
(IP) (ABA) (CM) (DNA) (CBJ)
[6/08] |
Johnston
County, NC |
Terence Garner |
Aug 25, 1997 |
Terence
Garner, a
juvenile, was convicted of robbery and attempted murder (shooting a woman,
Alice Wise, in the face). Garner was arrested after an accomplice to the
crime informed police that the shooter was named Terrance. Garner did not
look like the real perpetrator, but was identified anyway by Wise and her
boss. Two accomplices with plea deals testified that Garner was the
shooter. Later a third accomplice testified that they did not even know
Garner. Garner was cleared in 2002. (NCAFJ)
(Frontline)
(American Justice) [5/05] |
Cuyahoga
County, OH |
Anthony Michael Green |
May 29, 1988 |
Anthony Michael
Green was
convicted of raping a terminally ill nurse who was receiving treatments for
liver cancer. The crime occurred at the
Cleveland Clinic Center Hotel. The perpetrator had told the victim his
name was Tony. Green had worked at the hotel for a short time, but was
fired in March 1988 for getting into a fight with another employee.
Green's clinic ID badge was among a group of badges shown the victim.
The victim identified him at trial. The trial also featured faulty and
falsified forensics. DNA tests exonerated Green in 2001.
Following Green's
release, the Plain Dealer newspaper wrote an article series about Green's
ordeal. The real perpetrator, Rodney Rhines, who had become a
Christian and was living at the City Mission, happened to read the series.
He had not known that anyone had been convicted for his crime. After
reading the series, Rhines, feeling remorse, confessed to mission personnel that he had done
the crime and wanted to turn himself in. The Rev. Brent Reynolds
told him, �You won't be coming back out once you walk into that police
station.� �Yes, I know,� said Rhines. Rhines had once worked for
the Cleveland Clinic in the hotel kitchen. Even though the victim
identified Green, Green does not resemble Rhines. Rhines's skin and
eyes are darker and his face wider. Green was awarded $2.6 million in 2004 for 13 years of wrongful
imprisonment. (Plain
Dealer) (IP)
[5/08] |
Allegheny
County, PA |
Toth & Sabol |
Jan 1, 1891 (Braddock) |
Andrew Toth
and Michael Sabol were sentenced to death for the beating death of Michael
Quinn. The murder occurred during a labor riot at Andrew Carnegie's Edgar
Thomson Steel Works. A witness, who initially named Steve Toth as one of
the murderers, identified Andrew Toth at trial. Andrew Toth and Steve Toth
were unrelated and bore little resemblance. Steve Toth fled to Hungary, but
confessed to the murder in Dec. 1910 shortly before his death. Pennsylvania
Governor Tener granted Andrew Toth a full pardon in March 1911. The
confession also exonerated Michael Sabol, but he had died in prison a few
years before. (CWC) (CTI) [1/06] |
Dallas County,
TX |
Joyce Ann Brown |
May 6, 1980 |
Joyce Ann
Brown was
sentenced to life in prison for the robbery and murder of Rubin Danziger, a Dallas fur-store
owner. The crime occurred in Danziger's store, Fine Furs By Rubin, in
Preston Center on Northwest Highway. After the getaway car used by the
two female robbers was discovered, police found a car rental agreement in it
signed by a Joyce Ann Brown. However, the car had been rented to a
different Joyce Ann Brown. Police and prosecutors discovered the
error before trial, but proceeded with the prosecution anyway. The
victim's wife, Ala, had identified Rene Michelle Taylor, as the robber who
shot her husband, and Brown as her accomplice. Taylor later revealed
that another woman, Lorraine Germany, was her accomplice. Germany
reportedly has a startling resemblance to Brown. Investigation also
showed that a jailhouse witness, Martha Jean Bruce,
had lied to convict Brown. Brown was featured on a 60 Minutes
episode and was freed
in Nov. 1989. (CM) (CWC) (Google)
[5/08] |
Dallas County,
TX |
James Curtis Giles |
Aug 1, 1982 |
James Curtis
Giles was
convicted of participating in a gang rape with two other men. Police knew
before Giles' trial that the real perpetrator was a teenager with an almost
identical name, James Earl Giles. He lived across the street from the rape
victim. Police withheld two sworn statements identifying him. James Earl
Giles died of cancer in 2000. James Curtis Giles was released in 1993 and
is on parole until 2013. He must register as a sex offender. In early
2007, prosecutors are joining with defense attorneys to get the wrong James
Giles cleared. (Dallas Morning News) [3/07] |
Harris
County, TX |
Pedro Torres |
Apr 17, 1983 |
Pedro Torres was
arrested for drinking beer in a Dallas convenience store. A computer
check showed that he was wanted for the murder of a Houston man. He
then was tried for that murder and convicted, reportedly because of eyewitness testimony.
However, Torres's arrest warrant was actually issued for a different Pedro
Torres. Torres's work records and and the other Pedro
Torres's roommate helped to overturn his conviction. Torres was
released in 1986 after 8 months of imprisonment. (Google) [4/08] |
Harris County, TX |
George Rodriguez |
Feb 24, 1987 |
George
Rodriguez was
convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl largely because his name
was George. The victim had told police that one of the perpetrators called
the other George, but she did not think it was his real name because they
had discussed using fake names. Rodriguez's co-defendant identified a man
named Yanez as his partner, but Yanez was not charged presumably because
Rodriguez was in custody while Yanez was not. A prosecutor told Rodriguez's
jury that blood type matching eliminated Yanez as a suspect. Later tests
showed a blood type consistent with Yanez. DNA tests exonerated Rodriguez
in 2005. Because of the statute of limitations, Yanez cannot be charged
with the 1987 crime. (IP)
(TruthInJustice)
(Chronicle) [12/05] |
Harris County,
TX |
Gilbert Amezquita |
Feb
6, 1998 (Houston) |
Gilbert Amezquita was convicted
of aggravated assault after Kathy Bingham was severely beaten at the Houston
plumbing company where he worked and which her family owned. Shortly after
coming out of a 10-day coma, the still-hospitalized Bingham whispered to
police that it was �Gilbert� who had assaulted her. Amezquita was a U.S.
Army reservist with no prior criminal record. His appellate attorney,
Roland Moore, found that prosecutors had failed to consider that a second
Gilbert - Alonzo Gilbert Guerrero - also worked at the plumbing company.
Moore discovered that Bingham and Guerrero had argued a few days before the
attack and that Guerrero had Bingham's cell phone after the beating.
Guerrero, who is now serving a seven-year prison sentence for burglary, did
not have a good explanation for how he came to possess Bingham's phone.
In 2007, the
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended a pardon based on innocence
for Amezquita. News of the Board's action did not please Bingham, who
maintains that Amezquita attacked her. Governor Perry subsequently pardoned
him. (Chronicle)
[6/07] |
Mercer County, WV |
Payne Boyd |
May 30, 1918 (Modoc) |
In 1918, a black coal miner named
Cleveland Boyd was convicted on vagrancy complaints. He was sentenced to 30
days in jail and fined $25. The judge who convicted him, Squire H. E. Cook,
and a deputy sheriff, A. M. Godfrey, then prepared to take him to the jail
at Matoaka. Boyd, however, pleaded to stop at his home about 100 yards away
where he could exchange his new shoes for older, more comfortable ones. On
stopping at his home, Boyd retrieved a revolver and shot the judge twice,
mortally wounding him. The deputy sheriff fled for his life. Boyd fled
into the hills and escaped capture.
Read More by
Clicking Here
|
Milwaukee County, WI |
David Sanders |
Convicted 2008 (Milwaukee) |
David Sanders, a Franciscan Brother and schoolteacher, was convicted
in 2008 of
molesting an altar boy more than 20 years earlier. The victim who knew
his molester as �Brother David,� picked Sanders out of a photo array and
remembered him as the man who taught him First Communion rites at St.
Vincent's parish. The victim also said he visited his molester in
Delaware. Sanders 1980s address was in the address book of the victim's family. At trial Sanders' defense argued that Sanders had never
administered the victim's First Communion nor, as far as anyone could prove,
had ever been to Delaware. Sanders had worked at a number of Milwaukee area
parishes as a music teacher, but never at St. Vincent's.
Following
Sanders'
conviction, the victim's grandmother found a letter written by a different �Brother David,� named David Nickerson, which implicated that man in the assault. When
confronted, Nickerson admitted he molested the victim. Sanders was
subsequently exonerated after 5 months of
imprisonment. Authorities were debating whether to charge Nickerson,
in part, because the victim is far from an ideal witness. In 2008 the
victim was 30 years old and was himself in prison for molesting a child. (WIP)
(MJS)
[11/08] |
France |
Omar Raddad |
June 23, 1991 |
Omar Raddad was convicted of the murder of Ghislaine Marchal. Marchal,
65, was a wealthy widow who lived alone in the affluent village of Mougins,
near Cannes on the French Riviera. One morning when Marchal was
relaxing by her pool, her neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Koster, called over the
fence and invited her to lunch at 1 p.m. Marchal readily accepted.
She later telephoned a friend at 11:48 a.m. At
1:30 p.m., when Marchal had not shown up at the Kosters for lunch, Mrs. Koster telephoned
Marchal, but there was no answer.
Read More by
Clicking Here
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