Last week National Registry of Exonerations (NRE) published the report for 2015, which prompted us to find out which are 11 states with the highest number of exonerations. In last five years, the number of exonerations has doubled, reaching the peak in 2015 when 149 people were exonerated, among whom five were sentenced to death. Innocent convicts who were freed last year served on average about 14 and a half years in prison. False confession, guilty pleas, and official misconduct were leading reasons why these people were sent to prison for crimes that they did not commit.
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Defendants who were charged with homicide faced the most severe and longest sentence – as many as five were convicted to a death penalty. The mere possibility that innocent person is sent to death is one of the factors that has led many states to abolish lethal penalty. However, it seems that these 10 states with the death penalty and that use it the most do not worry much about that. Our previous ranking shows that Texas has executed the largest number of convicts so far. Lone-Star State also ranks first in a total number of exonerations on this list, which raises the question whether it is possible that some of the convicts who were put to death in Texas were innocent.
Ranking of 11 states with the highest number of exonerations is based on records obtained from National Registry of Exonerations. Besides states that imprisoned the largest number of innocent persons, we also present you defendants who served the longest time in prison in each state.
11. Massachusetts
Number of exonerated convicts: 42
Exonerated convict who served the longest time in prison: James Haley (36 years)
James Haley, 24-year old African-American, was arrested in 1971 on charges that he stabbed and fatally shot David Myers, who was a boyfriend of his sister-in-law. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Two key witnesses in the trial were Haley’s estranged wife, Brenda Haley, and her sister Gloria Curtis. Both women said that they saw Haley near the apartment before the murder. Moreover, Gloria Curtis claimed that she saw the defendant struggling with the victim and that she heard a gunshot.
No physical evidence pointed to Haley as a murder, but the testimony of two women was a decisive moment that led to the conviction. However, in 2006, Haley discovered that in the first statement they gave to the police, Brenda and Gloria said that they did not see him over a month. Prosecutor intentionally withheld this information from Haley’s lawyer. In 2008, Haley was released from the prison after Superior Court vacated the conviction. A year later he filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Boston police detectives and city of Boston, hoping for compensation for wrongful imprisonment. The suit was dismissed.
“I don’t care if it was 50 years ago, if somebody did something wrong and someone like me ended up going to prison for over half their life for something they didn’t do, there should be some compensation,’’ Haley commented the court’s decision.
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10. Wisconsin
Number of exonerated convicts: 43
Exonerated convict who served the longest time in prison: Ralph Armstrong (28 years)
Ralph Armstrong served 28 years in prison after prosecutor used all means to build up the case against him. Although evidence pointed that Armstrong did not commit the crime for which he spent almost three decades behind bars, he was guilty of other serious offenses.
In 1980, the body of Charise Kamps, 19-year old student, was discovered. The autopsy revealed that the girl was brutally sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled. Victim’s boyfriend Ralph Armstrong was first on the list of suspects since he had a criminal record that included convictions for sodomy and four rapes. Police also interrogated Ralph’s brother, Stephan, but found no evidence that could connect him with the crime. Ralph Armstrong was charged with murder and rape after a witness, who was subjected to hypnosis, said that he saw him entering and leaving victim’s apartment at the time of the murder. In 1981, he was sentenced to life plus 16 years in prison. Thanks to new DNA evidence which showed that hair discovered on victim’s body did not belong to Armstrong, the convict managed to obtain a new trial which led to the charges being dropped. One of the main reasons why charges against Armstrong were dismissed was a discovery that the prosecutor John Norsetter intentionally concealed and destroyed evidence that could prove Armstrong’s innocence. Among other things, he failed to inform defense lawyer about the existence of two witnesses who claimed that Ralph’s brother confessed the crime to them. In 2009, the charges against Armstrong in Kamps’s case were dismissed. However, he did not walk out from prison as a free man. Armstrong was transferred to a jail in New Mexico where he served time for a parole violation connected with previous convictions for rape. In 2013, he was released again on parole.
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9. Louisiana
Number of exonerated convicts: 45
Exonerated convict who served the longest time in prison: Reginald Adams (31 years)
Reginald Adams spent 31 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. The wrongful conviction was a direct result of the fact that detectives and prosecutor concealed information that supported Adams’s innocence.
In 1979, Cathy Ulfers was shot to death by a burglar. Except rumors on the streets, police had no evidence which connected Adams with the crime but nevertheless pressured him to confess the murder. According to Adams’s account, detectives “gave him drugs and alcohol, fed him details of the crime and promised that he would be released if he confessed and implicated” other two men. Moreover, detectives Venezia and Ruiz lied in the courtroom saying that they hadn’t found the murder weapon or any of stolen things. A month after the crime happened and a year before they coerced Adams to confess, police found the murder weapon. The gun was traced to two people who had no connection with Adams and who were caught with a bracelet which belonged to Cathy Ulfers and which was stolen on the day of the murder. All of this was known to prosecutors who intentionally concealed the information that would most probably set Adams free.
Adams left the jail in 2014, after lawyers at the Innocence Project New Orleans discovered and presented evidence of official misconduct during his trial.
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8. Pennsylvania
Number of exonerated convicts: 54
Exonerated convict who served the longest time in prison: Lewis Fogle (33 years)
Lewis Fogle spent 33 years in the prison on the charges that he raped and murdered a 15-year old girl. The crime happened in 1976, but the police investigation stalled for next five years. Then, in 1981, an amateur hypnotist hypnotized Earl Elderkin, a man with serious mental conditions who was one of the suspects in the case. Prior to the session, Elderkin gave four different statements to the police about the crime – each time pointing to a different person as the offender. During hypnosis, Elderkin described how Fogle, together with his brother, raped and killed the victim. Moreover, victim’s relatives and a friend changed their statements about events which surrounded the crime in the way that backed up Elderkin’s story. Finally, the testimonies of three informants who claimed that Fogle had confessed to the rape and the murder to them was decisive factor which led to defendant’s conviction.
During the trial judge excluded Elderkine’s testimony from the evidence while one of the victim’s relatives admitted that she changed the statement because the state police “pressured me and I wanted to go home…they told me that’s the way it was supposed to be.” This was not enough to raise reasonable doubt among jury members. In 1982, Fogle was convicted of second-degree murder and rape and sentenced to life in prison without parole. On numerous occasions, the convict tried to clear his name through DNA testing of crime scene evidence. Finally, in 2010, he was granted the testing but had to wait until 2015 for evidence analysis which showed that DNA profile in sperm cells wasn’t his. After hearing the decision that set him free, Fogle said: “I want the people to know that I did not commit the crime, and a lot of people out there know I did not commit the crime”.
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7. Ohio
Number of exonerated convicts: 54
Exonerated convict who served the longest time in prison: Ricky Jackson, Ronnie Bridgeman, and Wiley Bridgeman (39 years)
In 1975, Ricky Jackson, Ronnie Bridgeman, and Wiley Bridgeman were sentenced to death for murder and robbery. Since there was no physical evidence which connected three men with the crime, the prosecutor built up the case relying entirely on a testimony of 13-year old boy, Eddie Vernon, who placed defendants at the crime scene. Although boy’s story was inconsistent, the jury decided that three men were guilty beyond the reasonable doubt. The initial death sentence was later commuted to life in prison.
In 2011, Kyle Swenson, a reporter at Cleveland Scene magazine, wrote an article exposing flaws during the trial, including inconsistency in Vernon’s testimony and the fact that there was no evidence connecting three men with the crime. The article prompted lawyers from Ohio Innocence Project to re-investigate the case and file motions for new trials. Among other things lawyers discovered that “Vernon attempted to recant his identification of the three defendants” but police threatened him that they would arrest his parents for perjury if he backed up. On Jackson’s trial, Vernon said: “I don’t have any knowledge about what happened at the scene of the crime. Everything was a lie. They were all lies.”
In 2014, all three men were exonerated. Jackson received $1 million in compensation while Bridgeman and Ajamu were jointly compensated by $1.6 million.
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6. Florida
Number of exonerated convicts: 57
Exonerated convict who served the longest time in prison: James Bain (35 years)
Florida, which occupies the 6th place on the list 11 states with the highest number of exonerations, has exonerated 57 convicts so far.
In 1974, James Bain, 19-year old African American, was sentenced to life in prison on the charge that he kidnapped and raped a nine-year-old boy. From the beginning, Bain insisted that he had nothing to do with the crime, but the victim’s testimony left a strong impression on the jury. The boy gave the description of the attacker that vaguely resembled Bain. Among other things, the victim said that the men who raped him had bushy sideburns and a mustache, and his uncle, who was a principal at Bain’s high school, told the police that the description sounded like Bain. In a photo line-up boy had to choose between five photos, two of which were of men with the mustache. The boy pointed at Bain.
Bain believes that decisive moment that led the jury to convict him was when the victim stood up in the courtroom and pointed at him as the perpetrator. “He was crying and everything in the process”, Bain said. He spent next 35 years behind bars in six different prisons, studying, playing chess, working as a prison welder, and trying to get DNA testing. The court denied his requests five times. Finally, with the help of Innocence Project Florida, Bain managed to obtain DNA analysis which showed that his DNA did not match biological material left by an attacker on the crime scene. He left prison in 2009, as 53-year old men, saying to press that he was not angry. State of Florida compensated him by $1.75 million.
5. Michigan
Number of exonerated convicts: 60
Exonerated convict who served the longest time in prison: Edward George Carte (35 years)
Edward George Carte spent 35 years in prison for sexual assault and robbery he did not commit before fingerprints analysis put another sex offender at the crime scene. The case against Carte seemed solid since the victim identified Carte as the attacker on two occasions – first in a photo line-up, and then during in-person line-up.
Evidence which proved Carte’s innocence were equally strong. However, his appointed defense lawyer failed to use them during the trial. According to NRE, the lawyer was a recent graduate who made numerous mistakes due to lack of experience. First, she did not request an analysis of fingerprints, and then she “failed to note that serology tests showed the semen was not Carte’s blood type”. In 2010, after fingerprints analysis proved that another sex offender was present at the crime scene, the conviction was vacated and Carte was released.
4. Illinois
Number of exonerated convicts: 158
Exonerated convict who served the longest time in prison: Johnnie Savory (38 years)
Johnnie Savory was 14 years old when he was arrested and charged with murdering his 19-year old sister and his 14-year old best friend, who were found stabbed to death on January 18, 1977. The whole trial was based on his confession which was coerced during 20-hours long interrogation process that included two polygraph examinations. Since Savory was trialed as an adult, he was sentenced to prison terms of 50 to 100 years for each murder. In following years, defendant’s life revolved around futile attempts to prove his innocence. He managed to obtain the second trial, but this time prosecutor relied on testimonies of three witnesses whose stories were full of holes. Savory was once again convicted, this time to 40 to 80 years. The fact that one of the mentioned witnesses recanted his testimony was not enough to get Savory a new trial. After Illinois General Assembly had passed a statute which allowed the use of new technology on psychical evidence, Savory tried two times to have his clothes DNA tested, and he was refused on both occasions.
With the help of lawyers from The Center on Wrongful Convictions, Savory was released on parole in 2006. In 2015, he was exonerated after receiving a pardon from Governor Pat Quinn. Since then, Savory legal team has been trying to finally prove his innocence in the court with the help of new DNA evidence.
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3. California
Number of exonerated convicts: 158
Exonerated convict who served the longest time in prison: Michael Hanline (35 years)
In 1980, Michael Hanline was convicted of burglary and first-degree murder of J.T. McGarry. He spent next 35 years behind bars serving a life sentence in prison without parole. The wrongful conviction was the result of false accusation and serious flaws during the trial. Two weeks upon discovering McGarry’s body, police received the call from confidential informant who claimed that McGarry’s ex-girlfriend, Mary Bischoff, told him that “Hanline and a friend named Bo Messer abducted McGarry from his home in a stolen silver van, taped his hands with surgical tape and then shot him.” Although Mary Bischoff’s testimony differed from what informant had said, her story strongly implied that Hanline killed McGarry. Among other things, she said that “on the night of November 10, 1978—the last night that McGarry was seen alive—Hanline and Messer went out early in the evening. Hanline was carrying a .38-caliber pistol”, adding that “when he came back, he was dirty and sweaty and had vomit on his clothes.” The fact that informant’s and Bischoff’s stories differed to the extent that called for suspicion was intentionally withheld from Hanline’s lawyer.
In 2014, Michael Hanline, longest-serving wrongfully convicted man in California, was finally freed of charges after DNA testing showed that there were no traces of his DNA on crime evidence while DNA profile of an unidentified person was discovered.
After the charges had been dropped, Hanline said: “I didn’t think what happened to me could happen in America, but it did.”
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2. New York
Number of exonerated convicts: 208
Exonerated convict who served the longest time in prison: Freddie Peacock, Amaury Villalobos and William Vasquez (34 years)
Three innocent men spent almost 34 years until they were exonerated in the state of New York. In 1976, Freddie Peacock was sent to prison for the rape. He spent next three decades in jail, claiming his innocence but it was not before 2010 he was finally freed thanks to DNA testing.
In the other case three Hispanic men Raymond Mora, Amaury Villalobos, and William Vasquez were convicted to a sentence of 25 years to life for murder and arson in which mother and her five children died. Raymond Mora died from heart attack in prison in 1989, and other two defendants were released on parole in 2012. The wrongful conviction was a result of false testimony and wrong interpretation of forensic evidence. State fire marshal testified that the fire was set intentionally. But in 2010, John Lentini, an arson expert, reexamined the evidence and concluded that the first interpretation was wrong. “The errors caused by this particular misinterpretation have been legion,” Lentini said. “Such errors have resulted in numerous wrongful prosecutions and numerous improper denials of insurance proceeds.” At the same time, it was discovered that Hannah Quick, a key witness who testified that she saw three men at the scene of the crime, lied.
After hearing exoneration, William Vasquez, who lost his sight in prison because of untreated glaucoma, said: “It’s just like I lost myself in prison, I lost 33 and a half years of my life. I went in at 30, I come out at 65, so…”
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1. Texas
Number of exonerated convicts: 241
Exonerated convict who served the longest time in prison: Robert Carroll Coney (42 years)
In Texas, which ranks as first on our list 11 states with the highest number of exonerations, 241 convicts were exonerated.
Robert Carroll Coney spent 42 years behind bars after police coerced him to admit the crime he did not commit. Upon release from the Angelina County jail, Coney said he was not bitter: ”Anger is not going to solve anything,”, adding: ”I believe in the system.”
However, it seems that this African American, who was 33 at the time of the crime, was failed by the system more than a few times. First he was arrested for arm robbery, a crime he did not commit. Then police beaten him, threatened to shoot him and broke his fingers between cell bars, a practice that was common at the time as a mean of extracting confession. Coney pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.
Coney spent next 37 years in futile attempts to escape from prison for good. Every time he managed to break free, he was recaptured and put back behind bars. He was also charged and sentenced for other crimes, including counterfeiting checks and an assault, crimes he did commit. NRE documents that in 1973, Coney “filed a writ seeking dismissal of the 1966 Texas robbery charges”. Although the writ was granted, no one notified Coney about the decision and it was never carried out. In 2003, he filed a new writ and this time, robbery conviction was vacated. At the time of release Coney was 76 years old.
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