Thomas Raynard James has now spent more than half of his life in prison. Over 31 years were stolen from him by a wrongful conviction based on a series of mistakes that led to a mistaken identification. Never once did he give up trying to prove his innocence, and now...
Wrongful Convictions
Wrongfully convicted man sues Milwaukee for rights violations
Two months after Lavare Gould, 19, was killed in 2008, Milwaukee police had no suspect or leads. Then, a man who was arrested in an unrelated case claimed to have information about Gould’s case. The information was conflicting, but it implicated Ladarious Marshall,...
Fatally flawed arson evidence means Tennessee man goes free
In February 1992, 24-year-old Lorie Lance died in a fire in Old Hickory, Tennessee. Her boyfriend, Claude Garrett, awoke to find his and Lorie’s living room on fire. He woke Lorie up and ran for the door, but Lorie suddenly turned and ran toward the back of the house....
Held pretrial for 4 years, 2 men were exonerated and are now suing
It was a shocking and terrible crime. In 2016, two gunmen acted in concert to drive partygoers to a Pittsburgh-area house’s back porch and then shoot them. Five people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were killed. A sixth person was paralyzed and died...
Reasonable doubt: The role of stereotypes in a Texas woman’s case
If her conviction isn’t reconsidered, Melissa Lucio is expected to be executed on April 27. If that happens, she will be the first Latina to be executed by the state of Texas. She was convicted of murdering her daughter Mariah, but some experts believe no crime was...
Why do states resist posthumous DNA tests to exonerate people?
Ledell Lee always insisted on his innocence. He was convicted of a shocking murder – the 1993 strangulation and bludgeoning of a 26-year-old woman, but he always denied that he had been the perpetrator. His sister has been fighting for years to prove his innocence, as...
Alabama DA reviews death penalty case, finds obvious problems
District attorneys around the U.S. are reviewing past convictions for evidence that they were wrongful. Unfortunately, there are many situations that can lead to wrongful convictions. Recently, the DA for Jefferson County, Alabama, reviewed Toforest Johnson’s...
After murder convictions overturned, 2 men face quarantine
There was never any physical evidence linking Kevin Harrington or George Clark to the 2002 killing of Michael Martin, but both were convicted of the murder. Now, after long journeys through a hostile criminal justice system, both men have been freed.They've entered a...
Bad forensic evidence convicted him. Now he’s out on parole.
Joe Bryan has not been exonerated, but there is good reason to believe he was wrongfully convicted of the 1985 murder of his wife, Mickey. Bryan was convicted twice despite having been at a conference 120 miles away at the time of the murder. He has served 33 years in...
Mistaken eyewitness IDs occurred in nearly 70% of exonerations
According to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, evidence from eyewitnesses is "a unique threat to the fairness of trial." She cited research that found eyewitness misidentifications to be the "single greatest cause" of wrongful convictions in the United...