2. Samuel A. Poole  North Carolina  Conviction 1973      Released 1974
    After being convicted of first degree burglary and given a mandatory death sentence, Poole had his conviction overturned by the N.C. Supreme Court because the case lacked substantial evidence that Poole was the person who broke into the home.

5. James Creamer  Georgia      Conviction 1973      Released 1975
    Creamer was sentenced to death for a murder allegedly committed with six other individuals. After an investigation by the Atlanta Constitution, a federal judge declared that the prosecution had withheld and destroyed evidence, a witness admitted she had lied in court, and another man confessed to the crimes. The convictions against all seven men were overturned, and charges were later dropped.

12. Jonathan Treadway      Arizona    Conviction 1975    Released 1978
    Convicted of sodomy and first degree murder of a six-year-old and sentenced to death. He was acquitted of all charges at retrial by the jury after 5 pathologists testified that the victim probably died of natural causes and that there was no evidence of sodomy.  Members of the jury reported noted that prosecutors had failed to prove that Treadway was even inside the victims' home.

15. Larry Hicks     Indiana    Conviction 1978    Acquitted 1980
    Hicks was convicted on two counts of murder and was sentenced to death.  Two weeks prior to his scheduled execution, with the help of a volunteer attorney, Hicks received a stay.  The Playboy Foundation became interested in this claim of innocence and supplied funds for a reinvestigation after he passed lie detector tests.  At retrial, Hicks was acquitted and released after evidence established Hicks's alibi and showed that eyewitness testimony against him at his original trial was perjured.

17. Michael Linder     South Carolina    Conviction 1979    Acquitted 1981
    Linder was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a highway patrol officer.  The prosecution maintained that Linder shot the officer without provocation but Linder insisted that he shot the officer in self-defense after the officer fired six shots at him.  At re-trial, previously undisclosed ballistics evidence form a state crime lab confirmed Linder's self-defense theory and Linder was acquitted.

18. Johnny Ross     Louisiana    Conviction 1975    Released 1981
    Ross, a black 16-year old, was convicted and sentenced to death for the rape of a white woman.  Ross confessed after being beaten by the police, and his trial lasted only a few hours.  Investigations by the Southern Poverty Law Center sought a new trial for Ross and presented evidence that the Ross' blood type was not the same as the type in the semen found in the victim.  When presented with this evidence the New Orleans District Attorney's office released Ross.

20. Lawyer Johnson     Massachusetts    Conviction 1971   Charges dropped 1982
    Johnson, a black man was twice sentence to death by an all white jury for the murder of a white victim.  In 1982, the charges were dropped when a previously silent eyewitness came forward and identified the state's chief witness as the actual killer.  In 1983 a bill was filed to obtain compensation for Johnson's wrongful conviction.

22. Neil Ferber     Pennsylvania    Conviction 1982    Released 1986
    Ferber was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. Upon urging by the district attorney, the trial judge ordered a new trial.  The charges against Ferber were dropped prior to the retrial when evidence surfaced that the conviction was based on the perjured testimony of a jail-house informant, exculpatory evidence was not disclosed to the defense, and an eyewitness to the crime was positive that Ferber was not the man she saw.  Several other prosecutors and a homicide detective were convinced of Ferber's innocence.

24. Joseph Green Brown     Florida    Conviction 1974    Charges dropped 1987
    Charges were dropped after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the prosecution had knowingly allowed false testimony to be introduced at trial. Brown was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death on the testimony of Ronald Floyd, a co-conspirator who claimed he heard Brown confess to the murder.  Floyd later retracted and admitted his testimony was lie.  Brown came within 13 hours of execution when a new trial was ordered. Brown was released a year later when the state decided not to retry the case.

25. Perry Cobb        Illinois    Conviction 1979    Acquitted 1987
26. Darby Williams   Illinois    Conviction 1979    Acquitted 1987
    After two mistrials because of hung juries, Cobb and Williams were convicted and sentenced to death for the first degree robbery and murder of two white men in 1977.  After several retrials where an assistant state attorney  testified that the government's key witness, Phyllis Santini, had told him it was her boyfriend actually committed the murders, Cobb and Williams were acquitted and released.

27. Henry Drake*     Georgia    Conviction 1977    Released 1987
    Despite the fact that  no physical evidence linked Drake to the crime, and his alibi was confirmed by witnesses, Drake was convicted and sentenced to death primarily on the testimony of his co-defendant who had already been sentenced to death.  Although this testimony was later recanted, Drake was resentenced to a life sentence at his second retrial. Six months later, the parole board freed him, convinced he was exonerated by his alleged accomplice's recantation and by testimony from the medical examiner showing that bloodstains at the murder scene did not support the prosecutions theory that their were two assailants.

28. John Henry Knapp*     Arizona    Conviction 1974    Released 1987
    Knapp was originally sentenced to death for an arson murder of his two children. He was released in 1987 after new evidence about the cause of the fire prompted a judge to order a new trial. In 1991, his third trial resulted in a hung jury. Knapp was again released in 1992 after an agreement with the prosecutors in which he pleaded no contest to second degree murder. He has steadfastly maintained his innocence.

29. Vernon McManus     Texas    Conviction 1977    Released 1987
    After a new trial was ordered, the prosecution dropped the charges when a key prosecution witness refused to testify.

30. Anthony Ray Peek    Florida    Conviction 1978    Acquitted 1987
    Peek was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, despite witnesses who supported his alibi.   His conviction was overturned when expert testimony concerning hair identification evidence was shown to be false. He was acquitted at his third retrial.

31. Juan Ramos     Florida    Conviction 1983    Acquitted 1987
    Despite a jury recommendation of life in prison, Juan Ramos was sentenced to death for rape and murder.  No physical evidence linked Ramos to the victim or the scene of the crime.  The Florida Supreme Court granted Ramos a new trial because of the prosecution's improper use of evidence. At retrial, Ramos was acquitted.

32. Robert Wallace     Georgia    Conviction 1980    Acquitted 1987
    Wallace was convicted and sentenced to death for the slaying of a police officer, despite his claim that the shooting was accidental and that he was acting in self-defense because he was beaten by the officers. The 11th Circuit ordered a retrial because Wallace had not been competent to stand trial. He was acquitted at the retrial because it was found that the shooting was accidental.

33. Richard Neal Jones      Oklahoma    Convicted 1983      Released 1987      Acquitted 1988
    Jones was sentenced to death in Oklahoma in 1983. Jones maintains that he was passed out while his three co-defendants murdered Charles Keene. On appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma remanded the case for retrial. The Court held the jury was prejudiced by the improper admission of hearsay testimony and inflammatory photographs. The Court also agreed with Jones' assertion that the case should be remanded on the basis of prosecutorial misconduct. Moreover, the court held, the case was not one in which Jones' guilt was "overwhelming" and that Jones' involvement was disputed by the evidence.

34. Jerry Bigelow     California    Conviction 1980    Acquitted 1988
    Bigelow was convicted of murder and sentenced to death after acting as his own attorney.  His conviction was overturned by the California Supreme Court and at the retrial, Bigelow argued that his co-conspirator, Michael Ramadanovic acted also while Bigelow, intoxicated, slept in the back seat of the car.  Bigelow presented witnesses that testified Ramadanovic had boasted about the killings and took sole responsibility.  Bigelow was acquitted.

35. Willie Brown     Florida    Conviction 1983    Released 1988
36. Larry Troy          Florida    Conviction 1983    Released 1988
    Brown and Troy were sentenced to death after being accused of fatally stabbing a fellow prisoner.  The main witness against them was Frank Wise, who's original statements exonerated the men.  Pending retrial, the charges against the men were dropped when Wise admitted that he had  perjured himself.
 

37. William Jent*      Florida    Conviction 1980    Released 1988
38. Earnest Miller*   Florida    Conviction 1980    Released 1988
    These half-brothers were convicted and sentenced to death largely based on testimony of three alleged eyewitnesses.  However, a re-examination of the autopsy report demonstrated that the crime never took place the way the eyewitness's described it.  When the actual time of the murder was established, it was discovered that the men had airtight alibis.  In 1987 a federal district court ordered a new trial because of suppression of exculpatory evidence, and Jent and Miller were released immediately after agreeing to plead guilty to second degree murder. They repudiated their plea upon leaving the courtroom and were later awarded compensation by the Pasco County Sheriff's Department.

40. Jesse Keith Brown*     South Carolina    Conviction 1983    Acquitted 1989
    After having acted as his own attorney, Brown was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.  The conviction was reversed twice by the state Supreme Court. At the third trial he was acquitted of the capital charge when evidence pointed to his half-brother, a prosecution witness, as the actual killer.  Brown was, however, convicted of related robbery charges.

41. Robert Cox     Florida    Conviction 1988    Released 1989
    Cox was convicted and sentenced to death, despite evidence that Cox did not know the victim and no one testified that they had been seen together.  In 1989, Cox was released by a unanimous decision of the Florida Supreme Court  that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction.
 

42. Timothy Hennis     North Carolina    Conviction 1986    Acquitted 1989
    Hennis, a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army was convicted of three counts of murder and sentenced to death. The testimony of the primary witnesses against him were later described by the State Supreme Court as "tenuous" and "extremely tentative."  Hennis was granted a retrial because of the inappropriate use of inflammatory evidence by the prosecution.  At the retrial, Hennis was acquitted when the defense discredited the witnesses and demonstrated that a neighbor who resembled Hennis could have been the murderer.

43. James Richardson      Florida    Conviction 1968    Released 1989
    Richardson was convicted and sentenced to death for the poisoning of one of his children.  The prosecution argued that Richardson committed the crime to obtain insurance money, despite the fact that no such policy existed.  The primary witnesses against Richardson were two jail-house snitches whom Richardson was said to have confessed to.  Post-conviction investigation found that the neighbor who was caring for Richardson's children had a prior homicide conviction, and the defense provided affidavits from people to whom he had confessed.  Richardson's conviction was overturned after further investigation by then-Dade County State Attorney General Janet Reno, which resulted in a new hearing.

45. Patrick Croy    California    Conviction 1979    Acquitted 1990
    Croy was convicted of and sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer.  The State Supreme Court overturned the conviction because the trial jury had been improperly instructed.  On retrial, Croy's self-defense argument was supported by the fact that he had been shot by a police first and that over 100 shots were fired during the altercation.  Croy was acquitted.

46. John C. Skelton     Texas    Conviction 1982    Released 1990
    Despite several witnesses who testified that he was 800 miles from the scene of the murder, Skelton was convicted and sentenced to death for killing a man by exploding dynamite in his pickup truck.  The evidence against him was purely circumstantial and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found that it was insufficient to support a guilty verdict.  The court the reversed the conviction and entered a directed verdict of acquittal.

47. Dale Johnston  Ohio  Conviction 1984     Released 1990
    Johnston was sentenced to death for the murder of his stepdaughter and her fiancee. His conviction was overturned in 1988 by the Ohio Supreme Court because the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense, and because one witness had been hypnotized. The state later dropped charges against Johnston.

48. Jimmy Lee Mathers      Arizona        Convicted 1987        Acquitted 1990
    Jimmy Lee Mathers was convicted of first degree murder  in 1987 and sentenced to death along with two co-defendants. At trial, Mathers moved for a judgment of acquittal at the close of the prosecution's case, maintaining that the state had not presented evidence sufficient to support a conviction.  The motion was denied, and all three men were found guilty and sentenced to death.  Mathers' case was reviewed by the Arizona Supreme Court in 1990, and viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, the Court found that there was a complete absence of probative facts to support Mathers' conviction.  The court stated that most of the evidence presented at trial had "nothing to do with Mathers" and noted that even the trial judge expressed doubt as to whether Mathers was involved in the crime.  The Court set aside Mathers' conviction and sentence and entered a judgment of acquittal.  (State v. Mathers, 796 P.2d 866 (Ariz. 1990))  One of Mathers' co-defendants, Theodore Washington, has raised a similar claim about the insufficiency of the evidence against him, but remains on death row.

50. Bradley P. Scott     Florida      Conviction 1988      Released 1991
    Scott was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.  His arrest came ten years after the crime, when the evidence corroborating his alibi had been lost.  Scott was convicted on the testimony of witnesses whose identifications had been plagued with inconsistencies. On appeal, he was released by the Florida Supreme Court, which found that the evidence used to convict Scott was not sufficient to support a finding of guilt.

51. Charles Smith      Indiana      Conviction 1983      Released 1991
    Smith was sentenced to death for a street robbery and murder of a woman. The man who claimed to be the getaway driver had his charges dropped in exchange for testifying against Smith. The Indiana Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1989 because of ineffective assistance of counsel. He was acquitted at his re-trial and released in 1991 after presenting evidence that witnesses against him had lied under oath. (information not available at time of DPIC's innocence report)

52. Jay C. Smith  Pennsylvania      Conviction 1986      Released 1992
    Smith, a former high school principal, was convicted of the 1979 murder of 3 people, though his death sentence was later reduced to life. He was freed on Sept. 18, 1992 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the prosecution had withheld crucial evidence, calling the state's action "egregious" misconduct.

53. Kirk Bloodsworth     Maryland    Conviction 1984    Released 1993
    Bloodswoth was convicted and sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a young girl.  Despite alibi witnesses, he was convicted primarily on the basis of faulty eyewitness identification.  When it was discovered that the state failed to disclose exculpatory evidence, Bloodsworth received a new trial, and was given a life sentence. He was released after subsequent DNA testing confirmed his innocence.

54. Federico M. Macias     Texas    Conviction 1984    Released 1993
    Macias was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a man during a burglary.  Macias was implicated by a co-worker, who in exchange for his testimony was not prosecuted for the murders, and from jailhouse informants.  Post-conviction investigation by pro bono attorneys discovered substantial evidence of inadequate counsel.  A federal district court ordered a new hearing finding that "[t]he errors that occurred in this case are inherent in a system which pays attorneys such a meager amount." Macias's conviction was overturned and a grand jury refused to reindict because of lack of evidence. (Marinez-Macias v. Collins, 810 F Supp. 782, 790 (W.D. Tex. 1991))

55. Walter (Johnny D) McMillian    Alabama    Conviction 1988    Released 1993
    McMillian, a black man, was convicted for the murder of a white female after a trial that lasted only a day and a half.  At trial, three witnesses testified against McMillian and the jury ignored a dozen alibi witnesses that testified McMillian was at a picnic. Although the jury recommended a life sentence, the judge imposed a sentence of death.  Post-conviction investigation by the television show 60 Minutes revealed prosecutorial suppression of exculpatory information and perjury by the state's three witnesses. Macmillan's conviction was overturned by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and prosecutors agreed case had been mishandled.

56. Gregory R. Wilhoit    Oklahoma    Conviction 1987    Acquitted 1993
    Convicted of killing his estranged wife while she slept. His conviction was overturned and he was released in 1991 when 11 forensic experts testified that a bite mark found on his dead wife did not belong to him. The appeals court also found ineffective assistance of counsel. He was acquitted at a retrial in April, 1993.

57. James Robison  Arizona  Conviction 1977  Released 1993
    Robison was convicted of murder and conspiracy in 1977 in the death of a reporter, Don Bolles. His conviction was overturned in 1980, but he was recharged with the offense in 1990. He was acquitted at retrial in December, 1993.

58. Muneer Deeb  Texas  Conviction 1985  Released 1993
    Deeb was originally sentenced to death for allegedly contracting with three hitmen to kill his ex-girlfriend. The hitmen were also convicted and one was sentenced to death. Deeb consistently claimed no involvement in the crime. Deeb's conviction was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1991 because improper evidence had been admitted at his first trial. With an experienced defense attorney, Deeb was retried and acquitted in 1993.

59. Andrew Golden  Florida  Conviction 1991  Released 1994
    Golden, a high school teacher in Florida, was convicted of murdering his wife. His conviction was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court in 1993. The court held that the state had failed to prove that the victim's death was anything but an accident. Golden was released into the waiting arms of his sons on January 6, 1994.

*Clarence Smith  Louisiana  Conviction 1985  Released 1994
    Smith's conviction was overturned by the state Supreme Court because the jury was improperly instructed. He was acquitted at a retrial in March, 1994 and released. The principal witnesses at both trials were two convicts with a long list of crimes who were given immunity and plea bargains in exchange for their testimony. (*Subsequent to this report, Clarence Smith was convicted in a federal trial of charges which included the murder for which he was acquitted in Louisiana. For this reason, this case was dropped from the report.)

60. Joseph Burrows  Illinois  Conviction 1989  Released 1994
    No physical evidence linked Burrows to the murder of William Dulin. The prosecution's two chief witnesses recanted their testimony against Mr. Burrows, and one of them confessed to the murder for which Burrows had been sent to death row. One of the witnesses said he had been coerced by prosecutors and police. Burrows was released in September, 1994, and the Illinois appellate courts have upheld the overturning of his conviction.

61. Adolph Munson  Oklahoma  Conviction 1985  Acquitted 1995
    Munson's conviction was unanimously overturned by Oklahoma's highest criminal appeals court in December, 1994 because the state withheld material evidence tending to exonerate Munson. Some of the forensic evidence at trial was provided by Dr. Ralph Erdmann, who was subsequently convicted of seven felony counts involving misrepresentation of facts in other cases and stripped of his license. Munson was acquitted at a re-trial in April, 1995.

62. Robert Charles Cruz  Arizona  Conviction 1981  Released 1995
    Cruz was charged with planning the killing of two people in Phoenix in 1980. He went through five trials, including two convictions and two mistrials, before his acquittal on June 1, 1995. The chief prosecution witness, a convicted burglar and former drug dealer, was given immunity for his testimony. Another co-defendant, Joyce Lukezic, had been acquitted at re-trial in 1985.

63. Rolando Cruz  Illinois  Conviction 1985  Released 1995
    Cruz was sentenced to death for the murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico. Another man, Brian Dugan, who had already pled guilty to two rapes and murders, including that of an 8-year-old girl, authorized his lawyer to tell the prosecutors that he killed Nicarico. Cruz was convicted at a second trial in 1990, at which Dugan did not testify. In July, 1994, the state Supreme Court overturned Cruz's second conviction. An assistant state attorney general resigned because she thought the evidence showed Cruz was innocent and thought it wrong to pursue the prosecution. Other law enforcement officials also protested the continued efforts to prosecute Cruz. Cruz was finally acquitted at his retrial in November, 1995. The judge did not even wait for the defense to put on its case before entering a directed verdict of not guilty. Three prosecutors and four law enforcement officers involved with the prosecution of Cruz and his co-defendant (see below) have been indicted for obstruction of justice in this case.

64. Alejandro Hernandez  Illinois  Conviction 1985  Released 1995
    Hernandez was sentenced to death along with Rolando Cruz for the murder of Jeanine Nicarico in 1983. Hernandez was re-tried in 1990, but the trial ended in a hung jury. A third trial in 1991 resulted in a conviction and an 80 year prison sentence. The conviction was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court in January, 1995. Only his own indirect statements, not any direct physical evidence, linked Hernandez, who is borderline retarded, to the killing. He was released on bond, and charges were subsequently dropped on Dec. 8, 1995. The man who has confessed to the murder of Jeanine Nicarico, and whose DNA has been linked to the crime, has not been charged in the case. The U.S. Dept. of Justice is considering an investigation into civil rights violations in this case.

65. Sabrina Butler  Mississippi  Conviction 1990  Released 1995
    Butler was sentenced to death for the murder of her nine-month-old child. When she found her baby not breathing, she performed CPR and took him to the hospital. She was interrogated by the police and then prosecuted. Her conviction was overturned by the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1992. Upon re-trial, she was acquitted on Dec. 17, 1995 after a very brief jury deliberation. It is now believed that the baby may have died either of cystic kidney disease or from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

66. Verneal Jimerson  Illinois  Conviction 1985  Released 1996
    Jimerson was sentenced to death in 1985 for a murder which occurred in 1978. The chief witness against him was Paula Gray, who has an IQ of 57. In her original story to the police, she did not mention Jimerson. Then she added his name to her account, along with three other names, including Dennis Williams (see #64). She later recanted her entire testimony, saying the police had forced her to lie. The original charges against Jimerson were dismissed, but they were resurrected seven years later when the police offered to drop some charges against Gray if she would implicate Jimerson. Gray's 50 year sentence was converted to 2 years probation. In 1995, the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously reversed Jimerson's conviction, because Gray had been allowed to testify falsely about her bargain. Jimerson was released on bond in early 1996, and charges against him were subsequently dropped.

67. Dennis Williams  Illinois  Conviction 1979  Released 1996
    Williams was convicted, along with three others (including Verneal Jimerson, above), for the murder of a young couple in 1978. After spending 18 years in prison, Williams was released on June 14, 1996 because new evidence pointed to the fact that all four men were wrongly convicted. Much of the investigative work which led to the defendants' release was done by three journalism students. Recent DNA tests indicate that none of the four men were involved in the crime, and another man has confessed to the murder. Charges against Williams, and two others who received lesser sentences in the same case, were dropped on July 2, 1996. Cook County State's Attorney Jack O'Malley apologized to the four wrongly convicted defendants, including Verneal Jimerson, who had also been on death row.

68. Roberto Miranda  Nevada  Conviction 1982  Released 1996
    Miranda was released in September 1996 after the prosecution declined to retry him following the reversal of his conviction. Miranda had maintained his innocence through his 14 years on death row. He originally came to the U.S. from Cuba during the Mariel boatlift. Prosecutors originally offered him a plea bargain whereby he would serve as little as 10 years in prison, but he refused because he was innocent. One day after being released from death row with only the clothes on his back and a few belongings, he was incarcerated by the Immigration Service. He was subsequently released pending a deportation hearing. At trial, Miranda had been represented by an attorney with one year's experience who had inherited the case when his colleague died. In overturning his conviction, the judge wrote: "The lack of pretrial preparation by trial counsel . . . cannot be justified."

69. Gary Gauger  Illinois  Conviction 1993  Released 1996
    Gauger was convicted of killing his parents in April, 1993. In March, 1996, the U.S. District Court overturned his conviction, ruling that authorities never had probable cause to even arrest Gauger or to subject him to 21 hours of intensive questioning. He was released in October, 1996 by the same judge that had sentenced him to die by lethal injection. His sentence had earlier been reduced to life in prison. The prosecution did not challenge his release.

70. Troy Lee Jones  California  Conviction 1982  Released 1996
    The California Supreme Court ruled in June, 1996 that Jones should have a new trial because he was not adequately defended at his original trial for the murder of Carolyn Grayson in 1981. The Court found that the defense attorney failed to conduct an adequate pretrial investigation, speak with possible witnesses, obtain a relevant police report, or seek pretrial investigative funds. Moreover, the attorney elicited damaging testimony against his own client during cross examination of a witness. The prosecution announced that it was dropping all charges against Jones in November, 1996, after he had been on death row for 14 years.

71. Carl Lawson  Illinois  Conviction 1990  Released 1996
    Lawson was convicted of killing Terrence Jones in a family dispute. He was tried three times. The first trial resulted in a conviction and death sentence, but that conviction was overturned in part because Lawson's public defender had been an assistant prosecutor when Lawson was arrested. The second trial resulted in a hung jury, reportedly 11-1 for acquittal. Nevertheless, the prosecutors tried Lawson again and again sought the death penalty. This time Lawson was acquitted and freed on December 12, 1996.

72. Ricardo Aldape Guerra  Texas  Conviction 1982  Released 1997
    Guerra was sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer in Houston. Federal District Judge Kenneth Hoyt ruled on Nov. 15, 1994 that Guerra should either be retried in 30 days or released, stating that the actions of the police and prosecutors in this case were "outrageous," "intentional" and "done in bad faith." He further said that their misconduct "was designed and calculated to obtain . . . another 'notch in their guns.'" Judge Hoyt's ruling was unanimously upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals. A new trial was granted to Guerra, but Houston District Attorney Johnny Holmes dropped charges on April 16, 1997 instead. Guerra returned to his native Mexico.

73. Benjamin Harris   Washington      Conviction 1985      Released 1997
    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit vacated Harris's conviction on September 12, 1995, because his original trial lawyer was incompetent. Harris maintains his innocence and says he was framed for the 1984 murder of Jimmie Turner. Harris's attorney interviewed only 3 of the 32 witnesses listed in police reports and spent less than 2 hours consulting with Harris before trial. Harris's co-defendant was acquitted. The prosecution decided not to retry Harris but tried to have him confined as insane. (They had previously argued that he was competent to stand trial.) On July 16, 1997, a jury decided that Harris should not be imprisoned at Western State Hospital.

74. Robert Hayes      Florida      Conviction 1991      Released 1997
    Hayes was convicted of the rape and murder of a co-worker based partly on faulty DNA evidence. The Florida Supreme Court threw out Hayes's conviction and the DNA evidence in 1995. The victim had been found clutching hairs probably from her assailant. The hairs were from a white man, whereas Hayes is black. Hayes was acquitted at a retrial in July, 1997.

75. Randall Padgett      Alabama      Conviction 1992      Released 1997
    Padgett was convicted of murdering his estranged wife in 1990 and was sentenced to death. The conviction was overturned by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in 1995. In October, 1997, Padgett was acquitted of all charges at a retrial. There was some evidence presented that another woman had committed the crime. Padgett's brothers, children and other relatives burst into tears when the foreman read the not guilty verdict.

76. Robert Lee Miller, Jr.       Oklahoma      Conviction 1988      Released 1998
    Miller was convicted of the rape and murder of two elderly women in 1988. However, recent DNA evidence pointed to another defendant who was already incarcerated on similar charges. Oklahoma County Special Judge Larry Jones dismissed the charges against Miller in February, 1997, saying that there was not enough evidence to justify his continued imprisonment. Miller's original conviction was overturned in 1995, and he was granted a new trial. The prosecution decided to drop all charges and Miller was released.

*77. Curtis Kyles      Louisiana      Conviction 1984      Released 1998
    Kyles's conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on April 19, 1995, because the prosecution had withheld material evidence from the defense, thereby undermining the verdict. Kyles's successful appeal was in the form of a federal habeas corpus petition, since he had lost all of his appeals in state court. The state had withheld considerable information about a paid informant who may have been the actual murderer. Three retrials of Kyles resulted in hung juries. The state then dropped charges and he was released.

78. Shareef Cousin      Louisiana      Conviction 1996      Charges dropped 1999
    All charges were dropped in the death penalty prosecution of Shareef Cousin in Louisiana. Cousin had been convicted and sentenced to death for a murder in New Orleans when Couisin was 16 years old. The Louisiana Supreme Court overturned his conviction because of improperly withheld evidence and the District Attorney decided on January 8, 1999 not to pursue the case further. Cousin had maintained that he was at a city recreation department basketball game at the time of the crime and his coach testified that he dropped him off at home just 20 minutes after the slaying. He remains incarcerated on unrelated charges.

79. Anthony Porter      Illinois      Conviction 1983      Released 1999
    Porter was released in February, 1999 on the motion of the State's Attorney after another man confessed on videotape to the double 1982 murder that sent Porter to death row. Charges were filed against the other man, who claimed he killed in self-defense. The case was broken by investigator Paul Ciolino working with Prof. David Protess and journalism students from Northwestern University. Their investigation also found that another witness had been pressured by police to testify against Porter. Porter came within 2 days of execution in 1998 and was only spared because the court wanted to look into his mental competency. Porter has an IQ of 51. His conviction was officially reversed on March 11, 1999.

80. Steven Smith      Illinois      Conviction 1986      Released 1999
    Smith's conviction was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court in 1999 because it was based on unreliable evidence. As a result, he is not subject to re-trial. Smith had been convicted of a murder outside of a Chicago tavern in 1985. The man killed was the assistant warden of the Pontiac Correctional Center. The Court said, "When the state cannot meet its burden of proof, the defendant must go free." Smith is the 11th death row inmate to be freed in Illinois since the death penalty was reinstated and the 9th since 1994.

*81. Ronald Keith Williamson      Oklahoma      Conviction 1988      Released 1999
    Ronald Williamson and Dennis Fritz were charged with the murder and rape of Deborah Sue Carter, which occurred in Ada, Oklahoma in 1982. They were arrested four years after the crime. Both were convicted and Williamson received the death penalty. In 1997, a federal appeals court overturned Williamson's conviction on the basis of ineffectiveness of counsel. The court noted that the lawyer had failed to investigate and present to the jury the fact that another man had confessed to the crime. The lawyer had been paid a total of $3,200 for the defense. Recently, DNA tests from the crime scene did not match either Williamson or Fritz, but did implicate Glen Gore, a former suspect in the case. All charges against the two defendants were dismissed on April 15, 1999 and they were released. Williamson suffers from bipolar depression and has been hospitalized for treatment.

82. Ronald Jones      Illinois       Conviction 1989      Charges Dropped 1999
    Jones was a homeless man when he was convicted of the rape and murder of a Chicago woman. After a lengthy interrogation in which Jones says he was beaten by police, he signed a confession. Prosecutors at his conviction described him as a "cold brutal rapist" who "should never see the light of day." (NY Times 5/19/99). Recent DNA testing revealed that Jones was not the rapist and there was no evidence of any accomplice to the murder. The Cook County state's attorney filed a motion asking the Illinois Supreme Court to vacate Jones's conviction in 1997. In May, 1999, the state dropped all charges against Jones. He is being temporarily detained pending another matter in a different state.

83. Clarence Richard Dexter      Missouri       Conviction 1991      Released 1999
    Dexter was accused in 1990 of murdering his wife of 22 years. Police overlooked significant evidence that the murder occurred in the course of a botched robbery and quickly decided that Dexter must have committed the crime. Dexter's trial lawyer was in poor health and under federal investigation for tax fraud and failed to challenge blood evidence presented at trial. The conviction was overturned in 1998 because of prosecutorial misconduct. The defense then had the blood evidence carefully examined and showed that the conclusions presented at trial were completely wrong. The state's blood expert admitted that his previous findings overstated the case against Dexter. On the eve of Dexter's retrial in June, 1999, the prosecution dismissed the charges and Dexter was freed.

84. Warren Douglas Manning  South Carolina  Convicted 1989  Released 1999
    Manning was acquitted on all charges stemming from a 1988 slaying of a South Carolina police officer. The case went through five trials, including two mistrials and an acquittal. At his last trial, Manning was represented by expert death penalty attorney, David Bruck. Manning maintained that although he had been arrested by the officer for driving under license suspension, Manning escaped when the officer stopped another car. The state's case was entirely circumstantial, and the jury acquitted Manning after less than 3 hours of deliberation.

85. Alfred Rivera  North Carolina  Convicted 1997  Released 1999
    Rivera walked out of the Forsyth County Jail into the arms of his 3-year-old son after being acquitted at his re-trial on capital charges. Rivera had been sent to North Carolina's death row in 1997, but his conviction was overturned by the N.C. Supreme Court because jurors had not been allowed to hear testimony that Rivera may have been framed by others who pleaded guilty in the murder of two drug dealers. Rivera is the 84th person freed from death row since 1973 after evidence of their innocence emerged. This is the 8th such mistake discovered in 1999. (Winston-Salem Journal, 11/23/99)

86. Steve Manning      Illinois      Convicted 1993      Reversed 1998      Charges dropped 2000
    Steve Manning became the 13th inmate exonerated in Illinois, when prosecutors announced that they are dropping charges and no longer plan to retry Manning for the 1990 slaying of trucking company owner Jimmy Pellegrino. Manning was convicted and sentenced to death on the word of informant Tommy Dye, who testified that Manning twice confessed to him when they shared a jail cell. However, secret tape recordings of the two men's conversations, made at the request of the FBI, revealed no such confession, and Manning vehemently denied confessing. In exchange for his testimony, Dye received an 8-year reduction on his prison sentence on theft and firearms charges. Manning remains in prison on unrelated charges. (Chicago Tribune, 1/19/00)

87. Eric Clemmons     Missouri     Convicted 1987      Acquitted 2000
    Clemmons was sentenced to death for a 1985 murder which occurred in a Missouri prison. After losing all his appeals in state court and his initial appeal in federal court, Clemmons had called his mother to make his funeral plans. But new attorneys convinced a federal appeals court to reverse themselves and grant a new trial, partly because of issues and evidence that Clemmons had filed himself. When all the new evidence was presented at re-trial, the jury acquitted him in 3 hours on February 18, 2000. Clemmons remains incarcerated on other charges, which he is also challenging. (Kansas City Star, 2/27/00)

88. Joseph Nahume Green    Florida     Convicted 1993      Acquitted 2000
    Joseph Nahume Green was acquitted on March 16, 2000 of the murder of Judith Miscally. Circuit Judge Robert P. Cates entered a not guilty verdict for Green, citing the lack of any witnesses or evidence tying Green to the murder. Green, who has always maintained his innocence, was convicted largely upon the testimony of the state's only eye witness, Lonnie Thompson. In 1996, Green's conviction was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court, which held that Thompson's testimony was often inconsistent and contradictory, and that he not been fit to testify during Green's trial. (St. Petersburg Times, 3/17/00)

89. Earl Washington      Virginia      Conviction 1984      Commuted to life 1994    Absolute Pardon 2000
    Earl Washington suffers from mental retardation. After he was arrested on another charge in 1983, police convinced him to make a statement concerning the rape and murder of a woman in Culpeper in 1982. He later recanted that statement. Subsequent DNA tests confirmed that Washington did not rape the victim, who had lived long enough to state that there was only one perpetrator of the crime. The DNA results combined with the victim's statement all but exonerated Washington. Shortly before leaving office in 1994, Governor Wilder commuted Washington's sentence to life with the possibility of parole. In 2000, additional DNA tests were ordered and the results again excluded Washington as the rapist.  In October 2000, Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore granted Earl Washington an absolute pardon.

90. William Nieves   Pennsylvania    Convicted 1994      Acquitted 2000
    On October 20, 2000, William Nieves was freed from death row when a Philadelphia jury acquitted him of the 1992 murder of Eric McAiley.  Nieves was convicted of the murder in 1994, but maintained his innocence.  In 1997, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that Nieves was inadequately represented at his first trial and granted him a new trial. "William Nieves' first trial was not presented in the way it should have been presented, and that's wrong when someone is being sentenced to death," said Nieves' new attorney, former prosecutor John McMahon, Jr.  At the re-trial, McMahon pointed out inconsistencies in the key witness's identification of the killer  (Associated Press, 10/21/00)

91. Frank Lee Smith   Florida    Convicted 1985      Cleared 2000
    Frank Lee Smith, who had been convicted of a 1985 rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl, and who died of cancer in January 2000 while still on death row, was cleared of these charges by DNA testing, according to an aide to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.  After the trial, the chief eyewitness recanted her testimony.  Nevertheless, Smith was scheduled for execution in 1990, but received a stay.  Prosecutor Carolyn McCann was told by the FBI lab which conducted the DNA tests that: "He has been excluded.  He didn't do it." Another man, who is currently in a psychiatric facility, is now the main suspect.   (Washington Post, 12/15/00 (AP))

92. Michael Graham    Louisiana    Convicted 1987    Charges Dismissed 2000
93. Albert Burrell       Louisiana    Convicted 1987    Charges Dismissed 2000
    After spending 13 years on death row, Michael Graham was released from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola on December 28, 2000 after the Louisiana Attorney General dismissed charges against him and his co-defendant Albert Burrell.  Burrell was released on January 3, 2001. Graham and Burrell were sentenced to death in 1987 for the murder of an elderly couple. Earlier this year, a judge threw out their convictions because of a lack of physical evidence and suspect witness testimony used at trial.  Prosecutor Dan Grady acknowledged that the case was weak and  "should never have been brought to [the] grand jury." During the trial, prosecutors withheld key information from the defense, failed to produce any physical evidence, and relied only on witness testimony, which has since been discredited.  Dismissing the charges, the Attorney General's office cited a "total lack of credible evidence" and stated "prosecutors would deem it a breach of ethics to proceed to trial." Recent DNA tests proved that blood found at the victims' home did not belong to Burrell or Graham. The trial attorneys appointed to defend Burrell were later disbarred for other reasons. (Associated Press 12/28/00)

94. Peter Limone         Massachusetts    Convicted 1968     Charges Dismissed 2001
    Thirty -three years after being convicted and sentenced to death for a 1965 murder,  Peter Limone's conviction has been overturned and the case against him officially dropped.  The move came as a result of a Justice Department task force's discovery of compelling new evidence that Limone and his co-defendants Joseph Salvati, Henry Tamelo, and Louis Greco were actually innocent of the murder of Edward Deegan.
     In 1968, all four were convicted and Limone was sentenced to die in Massachusetts' electric chair, but was spared in 1974 when Massachusetts abolished the death penalty and his sentence were commuted to life in prison. Salvati, who was released from prison in 1997 when the governor commuted his sentence, received word from prosecutors that they were dropping the case against him as well.  Tamelo and Greco  both died in prison.
     At trial, the main witness against the four men was Joseph Barboza, a hit man cooperating with prosecutors, who later admitted that he had fabricated much of his testimony.  The recently revealed FBI documents show that informants had told the FBI before the murder that Deegan would soon be killed and by whom, and a memorandum after the crime listed the men involved.  Neither list included Limone, Salvati, Tamelo or Greco.  (New York Times, 2/2/01 and Boston Herald, 1/21/01)

95. Gary Drinkard   Alabama    Convicted 1995      Acquitted 2001
    Drinkard was sentenced to death in 1995, but his conviction was overturned by the Alabama Supreme Court in 2000.  A team of lawyers and investigators from Alabama and the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta spent hundreds of hours preparing for the case and were able to prove that Drinkard was at home at the time the crime was committed.  (Decatur Daily, 5/27/01; Washington Post, 5/28/01).

96. Joaquin Martinez    Florida    Convicted 1997    Acquitted 2001
    Former death row inmate Joaquin Martinez was acquitted of all charges at his retrial for a 1995 murder in Florida.  Martinez's earlier conviction was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court because of improper statements by a police detective at trial.  The prosecution did not seek the death penalty in Martinez's second trial after key prosecution witnesses changed their stories and recanted their testimony.  An audio tape of alleged incriminating statements by Martinez, which was used at the first trial, was ruled inadmissible at retrial because it was inaudible.  The new jury, however, heard evidence that the transcript of the inaudible tape had been prepared by the victim's father, who was the manager of the sheriff's office evidence room at the time of the murder and who had offered a $10,000 reward in the case.
    Both the Pope and the King of Spain had tried to intervene on behalf of Martinez, who is a Spanish national.  Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar welcomed the verdict, saying: "I'm very happy that this Spaniard was declared not guilty.  I've always been against the death penalty and I always will be." (Tampa Bay Tribune (AP) 6/6/01).

97.  Jeremy Sheets    Nebraska    Conviction 1997       Charges dropped 2001
     Jeremy Sheets was released after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a Nebraska Supreme Court decision overturning his conviction.  Prosecutors then dropped the charges against him.
      In September, 2000, the Nebraska high court unanimously ruled that a tape recording made by an alleged accomplice who committed suicide prior to the trial was the kind of statement deemed "highly suspect," "inherently unreliable," and hence inadmissible without the opportunity for Sheets to cross-examine.  The statements (later recanted) were made by Adam Barnett, who was arrested for the 1992 rape and murder of the same victim as in Sheets' case.  Barnett confessed to the crime and implicated Sheets.  In exchange for the taped statement, Barnett received a plea bargain in which he avoided a charge of first degree murder, did not have an additional weapons charge filed, and received a commitment for his safety while incarcerated. Barnett's statement was the key evidence used against Sheets at trial.(State v. Sheets, 618 N.W.2d 117 (Neb. 2000) and Associated Press, 6/12/01)

98.  Charles Irvin Fain     Idaho    Conviction 1983   Charges dropped 2001
     Charles Irvin Fain, a Vietnam veteran who spent over 18 years on Idaho's death row, has been freed with all charges dismissed.  Although Fain always maintained his innocence, he was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1982 kidnapping, sexual assault and drowning of 9-year-old Daralyn Johnson.  At his trial, the case against Fain rested on the opinion of an FBI forensics expert who testified that hairs found on the victim's clothing may have been Fain's. However, in March 2000, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill authorized funds for additional forensic testing of the hairs.  The new tests concluded that the hairs found on the victim did not come from Fain.  His conviction was set aside and prosecutors announced that he would not be retried.  "Justice requires the action we have taken today," said David L. Young, the Canyon County prosecutor, indicating that the investigation for the killer would be re-opened.
       Fain walked out of the maximum security prison in Boise on August 23.  His conviction was also based on the testimony of two jailhouse informers, who claimed Fain had confessed in lurid details.  (NY Times, 8/24/01 and Associated Press, 7/13/01)