Location |
Defendant(s) |
Date of Alleged Crime |
Mexico |
Rivera & Calder�n |
Jan 24, 2002 (Ensenada) |
Francisco Rivera Agredano and his
brother-in-law, Alfonso Calder�n Le�n were convicted of drug trafficking after 37 pounds of marijuana
was found in the door of a Nissan Pathfinder SUV that Rivera was driving.
Calder�n was a passenger. The two were stopped at a checkpoint near
Ensenada, which is more than 70 miles from the U.S. Border. Rivera, a
Tijuana printer, had bought the
car four months before for $2,600 at a U.S. government auction in San
Ysidro, CA. It had previously been seized when 59 pounds of
marijuana was found inside its gasoline tank.
Rivera had
crossed the U.S.-Mexican border five times without incident after he bought
the car. Under Mexican law the two men were presumed guilty. They were convicted after a Mexican judge rejected their claim that U.S.
customs did not thoroughly search the car. The two were sentenced to five
years in prison. The U.S., not only ignored their pleas for help, but
fought to keep exonerating evidence from their attorneys. After a year
in prison, the convictions of the two were vacated after Rivera's lawyer was
able to convince a Mexicali appeals court that the moldy marijuana found
inside the Pathfinder was too old to be of resale value.
Rivera was later
awarded $551,000 in a suit against the U.S. government, and may get an
additional sum for costs incurred by his U.S. lawyers. Calder�n could
not sue because because of a U.S. Supreme Court precedent barring lawsuits
against the federal government for incidents arising outside the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Emily Hewitt ruled that she did not know how customs
missed the contraband, but she rejected the claim advanced by Rivera's
lawyers that the Customs Service does not thoroughly search vehicles because
doing so could cause damage them and decrease their resale value. In legal
documents, U.S. attorneys said the government did nothing wrong and that the
onus is on the buyers to make sure the cars are drug free. According
to Teresa Trucchi, attorney for Rivera and Calder�n, �I don't think 'as is'
to the normal consumer means, 'If I buy it and it's stuffed full of drugs
that I'm unaware of and I get arrested, that's my problem.'� (SD
Union-Tribune) (CBS)
[10/08] |
Nicaragua |
Eric Volz |
Nov 21, 2006 |
Eric Volz, an American citizen, was convicted of the rape and murder of his
Nicaraguan ex-girlfriend, Doris Jim�nez. Jim�nez had been found tied
and strangled in the clothing store she owned in San Juan del Sur. Evidence
established that Jim�nez had been murdered between 11:45 a.m. and 1 p.m. on
Nov. 21, 2006.
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|
Jamaica |
Dixon & Sangster |
Sept 18, 1996 |
�Randall Dixon and Mark Sangster were wrongly convicted on July 9, 1998 of
murdering a policeman during the robbery of a a Western Union branch in
Spanish Town, Jamaica of $18 million in September 1996. Their convictions
were based on their identification in a line-up by two policemen who
witnessed the robbery. Sangster was sentenced to life for non-capital
murder, and Dixon was sentenced to death by hanging for capital murder.
After their convictions the men learned that the prosecution had failed to
disclose to them that they did not appear on the film of the robbers
recorded by a security camera in the Western Union branch. Eyewitnesses saw
four robbers, and neither man was among the four robbers captured by the
security camera. The men appealed their convictions to the Privy Council in
London, which is the highest court of appeal for Jamaica, and on October 7,
2002, their convictions were set aside and their sentences were quashed. On
October 8, 2003, Jamaica's Court of Appeal ordered judgments of acquittal
for both men and they were released after seven years of wrongful
imprisonment. In 2005 the men sued the government of Jamaica for false
imprisonment, malicious prosecution, breach of their constitutional rights
and for exemplary and aggravated damages. In October 2007 Mark Sangster was
awarded $13,450,500, and Randal Dixon was awarded $13,192,500. [$71
Jamaican = $1 U.S. in 2007]� �
FJDB (Jamaica
Observer) |
Spain |
Valero & S�nchez |
Aug 21, 1910 |
On Aug. 21, 1910, in the small town of Osa de la Vega, in the province of
Cuenca, Jos� Mar�a Grimaldos, known as �Shorty,� was seen for the last
time. He was on a road to the nearby village of Tresjuncos. His family
feared foul play and reported his disappearance to the Civil Guard
(police). During the investigation the family and others expressed their
suspicions that two shepherds, Gregorio Valero and Le�n S�nchez had killed
him for his money. This investigation was closed in Sept. 1911 without any
indictments.
In 1913 a new
judge by the name of Isasa arrived. Influenced by the local boss and
right-wing politician, the judge reopened the case. The two suspects were
arrested by the Civil Guard and, under torture, they confessed they killed
Grimaldos, cut his body up, and fed it to pigs. The �fiscal� (DA) asked
for the death penalty. The case took its time in the court system, but on
May 25, 1918 a popular jury convicted the defendants of murder. They both
were sentenced to 18 years in prison. Both were released on account of a
general pardon on Feb. 20, 1924 after serving eleven years of imprisonment.
Two years later, the priest of Tresjuncos received a letter from the
pastor of Mira, a town about 100 miles distant, requesting the birth
certificate of Grimaldos so that the same could marry. The priest had
been one of the strongest supporters of the guilt of Valero and S�nchez and
decided not to respond. Time passes and Grimaldos, impatient at the
lack of a response, traveled to Tresjuncos and marched straight into the
village. Grimaldos' presence in the village caused a sensation.
Some thought they were seeing a ghost and the local judge had him arrested.
However, it became apparent that Grimaldos was who he appeared to be.
With much legal
difficulty, the case against Valero and Sanchez was reopened and, after much
delay, their convictions were overturned. In 1979, a movie
entitled El crimen de Cuenca (The Crime of Cuenca) was made based on the
case. The movie was initially banned in Spain because the torture scenes
in it are depicted in great detail and crudity. However, in 1981, the movie
was allowed to be shown in Spain and became a box office success. (ECDC) (PE)
(EC)
(Wiki) (PM)
[11/07]
|
France |
Jean Calas |
Oct 1761 |
�Jean Calas was wrongly convicted on March 9, 1762 of murdering his son
[Marc-Antoine] by hanging him. 63-year-old Calas was executed later
the same day he was convicted by being strangled and burned. Calas had been
horrifically tortured in an effort to extract a confession, but he did not
confess. Voltaire took up the cause of finding evidence to prove Calas was
innocent. On June 4, 1764, France's Great Council annulled Calas' judgment
of guilt. On March 9, 1765, Calas was acquitted after a retrial, and his
son's death was officially ruled a suicide. After the decision was
announced, Voltaire wrote, "This is an event that seems to allow one to hope
for universal tolerance." At the time Voltaire was 71-years-old. After
making an application to the King, Madame Calas was awarded 12,000 livres,
his two daughters were each awarded 6,000 livres, 3,000 livres was awarded
to each of his sons and the Calas� housekeeper, and 6,000 livers was awarded
to the family to cover legal expenses. One thousand livres was equal to 10.8
ounces of gold, so these were very significant sums in 1765 given the
generally low standard of living in France.� �
FJDB |
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
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|
Netherlands |
Cees Borsboom |
June 2000 (Schiedam) |
Cees Borsboom was convicted of
raping and murdering Nienke Kleiss, a 10-year-old girl. He was also
convicted of the attempted murder of Kleiss's 11-year-old male friend named
Maikel. After being severely beaten, Maikel survived by pretending to
be dead. Borsboom came across the victims and reported the crime to
police on his cellphone. After being arrested for these crimes,
Borsboom confessed his responsibility for them to police officers, to a
prosecutor, and to the investigative judge. After a while, Borsboom
withdrew his confession, claiming it was coerced by the police.
Borsboom's
confession was given in vague terms, without providing specific information
and without his defense lawyer being present. Peter R. de Vries, a
Dutch TV journalist, thought the case was fishy and did some investigation.
He found that Borsboom did not fit the description given by Maikel, nor did
Maikel recognize Borsboom. De Vries also found that Borsboom did not
have time to commit the crime, especially since there was a second witness
on the scene right when he called 112 (the Dutch equivalent to 911).
In 2004, another
man, Wik Haalmeijer, who got caught for two other child molestation crimes,
confessed to the crimes for which Borsboom was convicted. Further
investigation revealed that the DA and the National Forensic Institute had
known all along that Borsboom did not commit the crime. They had performed
DNA tests which excluded Borsboom as the perpetrator, but had withheld the test
results from Borsboom' defense. This DNA evidence was
matched to Haalmeijer following his confession. Borsboom was exonerated and released in
2005. He was also awarded $706,000 for his wrongful conviction and
imprisonment. (JD34:23) (VDG) (Utrecht Law
Review)
[10/08] |
Slovenia |
Franz Bratuscha |
Apr 16, 1900 (Majsperk) |
Franz Bratuscha was convicted of
the murder of his 12-year-old daughter, Johanna. On April 16, 1900,
she disappeared from her home
in Majsperk, Slovenia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Bratuscha reported her disappearance to the police.
About 9 weeks later he read in a newspaper that the body of a dead girl
was found in Spielfeld, Austria, a town 26 miles to the north.
Bratuscha went to Spielfeld and when police showed him the dead girl's
clothes, he identified them as belonging to his daughter. He told police he had bought the fabric
out of which the clothes were made and offered to bring the leftover portion of
the fabric. Police were satisfied that the dead girl was his daughter and
they gave him the clothes.
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|
Poland |
Gawenda & Gallus |
1882 (Radgoszcz) |
Johann Gawenda was convicted of the murder of his 16-year-old stepdaughter,
Katharina
Sroka, also known as Katie. Katie's mother died in 1867, leaving
her two-year-old daughter an estate
consisting of three acres of fields and a cottage. Katie's father, Ignatz
Sroka, managed the estate following the death of his wife. He subsequently
married Marie Gallus. This marriage did not last long, as Ignatz was
convicted of murder and died in prison in 1875. His widow Marie then
married Johann Gawenda, who took over the administration of the estate for
the still underage Katie and at the same time pledged to provide for her
maintenance and upbringing. Gawenda neglected these obligations in a most
unscrupulous manner, as he monopolized the land and treated its owner so
badly that she had to work as a maid and also to depend on charity.
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|
Libya |
Libyan HIV Six |
1998 |
�A Palestinian doctor and five Bulgarian nurses, who were doing aid work in
Libya [were] accused of deliberately infecting 438 children with AIDS
HIV-tainted blood at the El-Fatih Children's Hospital in Benghazi, Libya's
second city. They were arrested in February 1999, and protested their
innocence. Thirteen other Bulgarian medical workers arrested at the same
time were eventually released. The six co-defendants confessed to infecting
the children, but they all retracted [their confessions], claiming they had been physically
tortured into making them. They were charged with murder with a lethal
substance among other lesser charges. Their trial began on February 7, 2000
in the People's Court, and two years later, in February 2002, the court
declared it did not have jurisdiction to try them on the murder charge, and
their case was transferred to the criminal court system. Their second trial
began on July 8, 2003. They were convicted of the murder charges and on May
6, 2004 were sentenced to death by firing squad.�
�In the face of
widespread international condemnation of the fairness of the trial, in
December 2005 their appeal was successful and a retrial was ordered.
Their third trial began in May 2006. The six co-defendants were again
convicted of the same charges in December 2006, and again sentenced to
death. Their convictions and sentences were upheld by Libya's Supreme
Court on July 11, 2007. Six days later Libya's High Judicial Council
commuted the sentences to life in prison, reportedly after European Union
countries agreed to compensate Libya approximately $1 million for each of
the 438 children. Libya agreed to transfer the six to Bulgaria to serve
their sentences, including the Palestinian doctor who was granted Bulgarian
citizenship a month earlier on June 19, 2007. After arriving in the
capital of Sophia on July 24, 2007, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov granted the six full pardons on the
basis of their innocence of the crimes. Six weeks later, on August 10, 2007, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya's leader Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi,
admitted that the confessions by the six were extracted through torture with
electric shocks and threats against the safety of their families.� �
FJDB |
Nigeria |
Nigerian Robbery Trio |
Sept 12, 1981 |
�Danladi Abdullahi, Sumaila Sokoto and Umoru Usufu were wrongly convicted in
1981 of conspiring to rob, and robbing with an offensive weapon, a woman of
N200.00 on September 12, 1981. The three men were sentenced to 21 years
imprisonment for the conspiracy and to death by hanging for the robbery. After they had completed the prison sentences, the three were awaiting the
death sentence when on April 23, 2003, a Lagos lawyer, Mr. Sylvia Ogwemoh
brought an appeal on behalf of Usufu to the Court of Appeal challenging the
verdict on six grounds of appeal together with three issues for
determination. The Ct of Appeals ruled that contradictions in the victim's
extra-judicial statement to the police and her oral evidence at the
defendant's trial had rendered her oral evidence unreliable. The Court also
ruled as a matter of law (based on Nigerian precedents) that the five
witness statements that the prosecution had concealed from the defense were
exculpatory. In conclusion, in December 2006 the Court quashed Usuf's
conviction and sentence and ordered that a judgment of acquittal be
entered. Since his two co-defendants were convicted on the same evidence,
the same order was entered for them.� �
FJDB |
Uganda |
Edmary & Masembe |
1981 |
Mpagi
Edward Edmary and his cousin Fred Masembe were sentenced to death for
the alleged 1981 murder of George William Wandyaka, a neighbor in Masaka, Uganda.
Mpagi thought he saw Wandyaka standing at the back of the court during his
trial. A few years later, further sightings were made of Wandyaka in
Jinja, Uganda. Masembe died in 1985. In 1989, authorities in
Masaka confirmed that Wandyaka was alive, and informed the attorney general,
though Mpagi remained on death row for a further 11 years. It
transpired that Wandyaka's parents had a grudge against Mpagi's parents, and
had staged the murder to hurt them. A doctor had received a bribe to
testify that he had carried out a post-mortem on the alleged victim's body.
Mpagi was pardoned in 2000. Wandyaka died of natural causes in 2002
before Mpagi had the chance to meet him. (Guardian)
(AI) (Video)
[9/09] |
Israel |
John Demjanjuk |
1942 - 1943 |
�John Demjanjuk was wrongly convicted in 1988 of being Ivan the Terrible, a
sadistic guard at the Treblinka death camp during WWII. Demjanjuk's
conviction was based on the testimony of multiple Treblinka survivors. He
was sentenced to death. While Demjanjuk was appealing, his lawyers were
provided evidence in Soviet archives that he was never at
Treblinka, and that Ivan the Terrible was a man named Ivan Marchenko, older
and darker-haired than Demjanjuk, and scarred on one cheek. Based on the new
evidence that Demjanjuk was wrongly identified, in 1993 the Israeli Supreme
Court reversed Demjanjuk's conviction, vacated his death sentence, and
ordered his release. Demjanjuk had been extradited from the U.S. in 1986 and
was released after being wrongly imprisoned for 7 years.� �
FJDB |
Israel |
Arnoldo Lazarovsky |
1990 |
�Arnoldo Lazarovsky was wrongly convicted of molesting an 11-year-old boy
while he worked at a swimming pool. The boy made the complaint 7 years
later, when he was 18. Lazarovsky completed his four-year sentence in 2001,
but the Israeli Supreme Court vacated his conviction in December 2005 and
ordered a new trial, on the basis that the boy's testimony was untrustworthy
because it was probable the boy lied in a ploy to avoid serving in a combat
military unit.� �
FJDB |
Pakistan |
Malik Taj Mohammad |
2003 |
Malik Taj Mohammad was convicted
of the kidnapping and murder of Malkani Bibi. Prosecutors claimed that he
killed her over an acrimonious property dispute. Mohammad claimed that he
could not have murdered Bibi, as she was still alive. However, he did not
present any proof and the trial court relied on testimony of Bibi's
relatives who said they had buried Bibi. In 2006, Mohammad's supporters
discovered that Bibi was alive and imprisoned in the eastern Pakistan city
of Gujarat. She had been imprisoned there on a theft conviction in 2004.
Mohammed
petitioned Pakistan's Supreme Court for a new trial based on the new
evidence. The Court then summoned Bibi to appear before it. Satisfied that
Mohammed had been wrongly convicted, the Court ordered his immediate
release. It also ordered a lower court to investigate how Mohammed had been
prosecuted and convicted of a crime that never happened. (JD33:28) [2/07] |
China |
Teng Xingshan |
Apr
1987 |
Teng Xingshan was convicted of the murder of Shi Xiaorong. A chopped
up body identified as Shi's was found in Mayang County, Hunan Province in April 1987. Police settled on Teng as the guilty
party because he was a butcher and the dismemberment was �very
professionally� done. Teng soon confessed to the murder, allegedly after police beat
it out of him. However, he protested his innocence all the way to the
execution ground. Authorities alleged that Teng had sex with Shi and
killed her because he suspected she stole his money. Teng was executed by gunshot in
Jan. 1989.
Teng's family had heard reports that Shi was alive in
neighboring Guizhou province as early as 1993, but it took years to verify
the reports and Teng's family lacked the funds and the courage to sue the
government.
The case first received publicity in May 2005, when the family formally filed a
lawsuit with the Hunan Higher People's Court. News reports of another
Chinese murder victim turning up alive in March 2005 may have prompted the
decision. Shi denied ever meeting Teng and said she had been sold into
marriage to a man in eastern Shandong Province a month before the chopped up body was
found. Shi returned to her hometown in Guizhou Province in 1993. Teng was
posthumously
exonerated in Jan. 2006. (UPI) [4/08] |
China |
She Xianglin |
Convicted 1994 |
After having
an argument with him, She Xianglin's wife, Zhang Zaiyu, went missing. Several
weeks later police found the body of an unidentified woman in a local pond.
Police interrogated Xianglin for 10 days, during which he was also
tortured. Xianglin confessed to murdering his wife and was sentenced to
death. His sentence was later reduced to 15 years imprisonment, after
a higher court in the province (Hubei) overturned the verdict due to lack of
evidence. Several of
Xianglin's family members were also jailed for advocating his innocence or
claiming that they saw Zhang alive after the authorities alleged she was
dead. In March 2005, Zhang turned up alive and had merely run
away from her marriage. She had remarried in a remote village in
eastern Shandong province, unaware of the fate of her former husband. Xianglin was released. One of the officers who
allegedly took part in Xianglin's torture hanged himself when authorities
began an investigation into the incident. Xianglin and several family
members were awarded 450,000 Yuan ($55,500) for wrongs committed against
them. (FJDB)
[12/06] |
China |
Zhao Zuohai |
June 1997 |
Zhao Zuohai was convicted of murdering his neighbor Zhao Zhenshang. In
June 1997, the two Zhou's, both about 45, had a hatchet fight in their hometown of Zhaolou
village in Zhecheng County, Shangqiu City Prefecture, Henan
Province, China. Four months later Zhenshang's nephew reported to
police that his uncle was missing.
In May 1999, after a headless body was found in a village well, Zuohai was
arrested for the murder of Zhenshang and detained without trial for three
years.
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|
Japan |
Tatsuhiro & Keiko |
July 22, 1995 (Osaka) |
Shimada Tatsuhiro and his common
law wife, Aoki Keiko, were both sentenced to life imprisonment for the arson
murder of Keiko's daughter. On the day of the alleged crime, Tatsuhiro
filled the gas tank of his van before returning to his home in the
Higashi-Sumiyoshi ward of Osaka. Ten minutes later he smelled smoke and
noticed a small fire in the garage under his van. Tatsuhiro searched for a
fire extinguisher, but the fire quickly grew and spread. Keiko's daughter
died in the fire after being overcome by smoke in a first floor bathroom.
Keiko had 15 million yen life insurance policies on both her children. Life
insurance on children was not uncommon, but 5 million yen and 10 million yen
policies were more typical. The couple had no financial difficulties at the
time of the blaze.
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|
Japan |
Govinda Mainali |
Mar 9, 1997 |
Govinda Mainali, a Nepalese
migrant worker, was convicted of the rape and murder of a Tokyo woman.
The victim, though a prostitute by night, was a respected
economist for the Tokyo Electric Power Co. Although Mainali initially
denied knowing the victim, he later admitted to investigators that he twice
paid her to have sex with him. Mainali said he had not seen the victim
for days prior to her murder. There were no witnesses to dispute his
statement. A condom found at the scene of the crime contained Mainali's semen. After reviewing an expert's analysis of the semen,
the trial judge ruled that the semen found was too old to have been produced
on the day of the murder. The judge then stated there was no evidence of Mainali's guilt and acquitted him.
Following
Mainali's acquittal, he was held in detention for over eight
months while prosecutors sought a court more receptive to their case. In
Dec. 2000, the Tokyo High Court reversed Mainali's acquittal and sentenced
him to life in prison. The presiding judge, Toshio Takaki, was the same
judge who had granted the prosecution's request to keep Mainali imprisoned
pending appeal. After a few brief hearings that introduced no new
evidence, he wrote that the record from the Mainali's first trial left no
doubt of his guilt. (Japan
Times) (Legal
Affairs) [8/09] |
|