innocence network exonerations 2009

8/14/2019 Innocence Network Exonerations 2009

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INNOCENCE

N E T W O R K

E X O N E R A T I O N S

2 0 0 9



BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Erika ApplebaumInnocence Project of Minnesota

Shawn Armbrust Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project,Board Secretary

ustin BrooksCalifornia and Hawai’i Innocence Project

Tucker CarringtonMississippi Innocence Project

Maddy deLoneInnocence Project,Board Treasurer

Steve DrizinCenter on Wrongful Convictions

Keith Findley Wisconsin Innocence Project,Board President

Mark Godsey Ohio Innocence Project

Larry GoldenDownstate Illinois Innocence Project

Emily Maw Innocence Project New Orleans

ackie McMurtrieInnocence Project Northwest Clinic

Daniel MedwedUniversity of Utah - S.J. Quinney College of Law

Theresa NewmanNorth Carolina Center on Actual Innocence

ohn Pray Wisconsin Innocence Project

Cookie Ridol

Northern California Innocence Project,Board Secretary

Barry ScheckInnocence Project

Robert SchehrNorthern Arizona Justice Project

Rob WardenCenter on Wrongful Convictions

Lynne WeatheredGrifth University Innocence Project

CONTENTS

I. LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT ..................................................................3

II. THE CASES (IN ORDER OF EXONERATION DATE) ............................. 4

1. STEVEN BARNES ................................................................................................4

2. ALAN BEAMAN .................................................................................................4

3. JOSEPH FEARS, JR. ...........................................................................................4

4. MIGUEL ROMAN ...............................................................................................5

5. TIMOTHY COLE .................................................................................................5

6. REGGIE COLE ...................................................................................................6

7. THADDEUS JIMENEZ ..........................................................................................68. PAUL HOUSE .....................................................................................................6

9. CHAUNTE OTT ...................................................................................................7

10. JOSEPH ALLEN ................................................................................................7

11. NANCY SMITH .................................................................................................7

12. RONALD KITCHEN ..........................................................................................8

13. ROBERT LEE STINSON ......................................................................................8

14. DESHAWN REED .............................................................................................8

15. MARVIN REED .................................................................................................8

16. WILLIAM RICHARDS ........................................................................................9

17. KENNETH IRELAND ..........................................................................................9

18. RALPH ARMSTRONG ....................................................................................10

19. JOSEPH ABBITT ..............................................................................................10

20. RAFAEL MADRIGAL, JR. ...............................................................................10

21. JAMES LEE WOODARD ................................................................................11

22. EDWIN CHANDLER .......................................................................................11

23. CHRISTOPHER SCOTT ...................................................................................12

24. CLAUDE SIMMONS .......................................................................................12

25. FOREST SHOMBERG .....................................................................................12

26. MICHAEL MARSHALL ....................................................................................12

27. JAMES BAIN ..................................................................................................13

III. NETWORK MEMBERS ........................................................................14

COVER: Joseph Fears, Jr., was exonerated on March 10, 2009, with the help of the Ohio InnocenceProject. Read more about his case on page 4 (Shari Lewis/Columbus Dispatch).


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Each individual in this report endured aninjustice that is impossible to imagine. Every oneof these people was convicted of a serious crimehe or she did not commit, then served years ordecades in prison. All of them insisted they wereinnocent – but it didn’t matter. Finally, years ordecades into lengthy prison sentences, the truthcame out and they were freed.

Every one of these cases had ripple effects wellbeyond the innocent person who was in prison.Entire families are forever changed when aloved one is wrongfully convicted. Victims of crime, jurors, and others in the legal systemare unwitting participants in awed trials andconvictions – and suffer when justice is not done.

Each case in this report represents countlesshours, even years, of zealous advocacy by

Innocence Network attorneys, paralegals,investigators and students. Each case alsorepresents thousands of others who are still waiting for help, or still mired in appeals tryingto prove their innocence.

In 2009, the Innocence Network grew toinclude 54 member organizations, 45 of whichare in the United States. Each organizationoperates independently, but we coordinate toshare information and expertise. In just a few

short years since it was formed, the InnocenceNetwork has grown into a vibrant and vitalresource for the wrongfully convicted and theirfamilies.

Innocence Network members includethriving clinics that have operated formany years at some of the nation’s most respected universities, full-edged nonprot organizations with a solid staff and base of funding, and small clinics at law schools that are still setting up a process to review cases.From Mississippi to Michigan, from Florida

to Idaho, Innocence Network organizationsserve virtually every part of the country. Youcan learn more about the Innocence Networkor nd an organization near you at www.innocencenetwork.org.

In addition to helping overturn wrongfulconvictions, Innocence Network organizationsincreasingly work to reform the criminal justicesystem. Our organizations know rst-hand thetoll of wrongful convictions in our communities,and we can be powerful local advocates forpolicies and practices that can make our systemof justice stronger and more reliable.

Take a few minutes to read about theexonerations secured by Innocence Networkmembers in 2009. And as you learn about thesecases, remember that they represent thousandsof others – people who are still trying to ndhelp, or whose cases are still being pursued.

— KEITH FINDLEYWISCONSIN INNOCENCE PROJECT CO-DIRECTOR,

CLINICAL PROFESSOR UNIVERSITY

OF WISCONSIN LAW SCHOOL,

INNOCENCE NETWORK BOARD PRESIDENT

27 LIVESAND SO MANY MORE


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THE CASES

1 Steven Barnes

Innocence Project

In 1989, Steven Barnes was convictedin upstate New York of a murder he didn’t commit based on questionable eyewitnessidentications and three types of unvalidatedforensic science. Nearly two decades later, DNA testing obtained by the Innocence Project

proved his innocence. A 16-year-old girl from upstate New York wasfound raped and strangled to death in 1985.Eyewitnesses told authorities that they saw Barnes’ truck near the busy street where the victim was last seen walking. Despite evidencethat Barnes was at a local bowling alley whenthe crime occurred, he was questioned for over12 hours and eventually released.

Two years later, Barnes was arrested andcharged with rape, sodomy and murder.

Although there was no evidence to implicateBarnes, a forensic analyst at his trial testiedthat two hairs collected from his truck weremicroscopically similar to the victim’s. Thesame analyst testied that soil samples takenfrom the truck had “similar characteristics” asdirt samples taken from the crime scene a yearafter the murder, and linked patterns of fabrictaken from the victim’s jeans to those found onthe truck. Barnes was convicted and sentencedto 25 years to life in prison. The Innocence

Project, which is afliated with Benjamin N.Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University,secured DNA testing on Barnes’ behalf in 1996but the tests proved inconclusive.

By 2007, more advanced DNA testing becameavailable and the new tests proved Barnes’innocence. He was freed late 2008. Barnes’exoneration became ofcial on January 9, 2009.

2 Alan Beaman

Center on Wrongful Convictions

Alan Beaman, who spent 13 yearsin prison for a 1993 murder in Illinois, was exonerated on January 29, 2009. Theprosecution dropped the charges against himin the face of evidence that he could not havecommitted the crime because it occurred in

Bloomington when he was 130 miles away inRockford. Beaman was convicted of murderingan Illinois woman (whom he once dated) onpurely circumstantial evidence, with no physicalevidence, eyewitnesses or confession introducedat trial. Beaman reached out to the Centeron Wrongful Convictions, which is afliated with the Bluhm Legal Clinic at NorthwesternUniversity School of Law, for help.

Center attorneys found evidence that theprosecution had failed to inform Beaman’s

original defense attorneys about evidencepointing to another suspect in the case, andalso deliberately misinformed and confusedcritical timeline facts in its presentation to jury members.

Upon hearing the center’s revelations andafter deciding the evidence against Beaman was insufcient, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the conviction on the groundsthat the prosecutor misbehaved and thus violated Beaman’s constitutional rights. The

prosecution dropped the charges against himeight months later.

3 Joseph Fears

Ohio Innocence Project

Joseph Fears, Jr.’s, rape convictionled to more than 25 years of wrongfulimprisonment in Ohio prisons until a joint effort between the Ohio Innocence Project


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and the Columbus Dispatch helped exoneratehim. Fears was charged with rape in two attacksthat allegedly happened nine days apart in Columbus in 1983. Fears acknowledgedmeeting the rst victim in a bar but deniedleaving with her. In the second case, headmitted being in the woman’s apartment but said that he did not rape her.

Initially, the biological evidence in Fears’ casecould not be located. But when DNA testingexonerated another Ohio inmate, the FranklinCounty District Attorney’s Ofce conducted amore thorough review of all stored evidence.DNA testing eventually proved Fears’innocence in the rst case and implicated adeceased former Michigan prisoner as theassailant. His conviction in this particular case was vacated and dismissed.

No male DNA was detected on the victim’sclothing from the second case, but Fears hadalready served out his sentence in the secondcase. He was released and ofcially exoneratedin the rst case on March 10, 2009, andremains on parole for the second case.

4

Miguel Roman

Connecticut Innocence Project

Miguel Roman was charged with the1988 murder of a pregnant woman. After morethan 18 years in prison, Roman was exonerated when DNA testing proved another mancommitted the crime.

Before the trial, DNA testing was conducted onthe semen recovered from the victim’s body.Even then, Roman was excluded as a possiblecontributor. Prosecutors nonetheless speculatedthat the victim could have had sex with someoneelse, but that Roman still killed her.

Prosecutors proceeded with the case, usingcircumstantial evidence and testimony from a jailhouse informant.

In 2008, the Connecticut Innocence Project obtained new DNA testing that revealed thesame male prole on every piece of evidence:samples from the rape kit, the cloth used tobind the victim and the murder weapon. Roman

was promptly excluded as the perpetrator, withthe DNA results now implicating registered sexoffender Pedro Miranda.

Miranda was subsequently charged withthe killing and also with the murders of

two other women in the 1980s. Roman wasnally released in late 2008 and was ofcially exonerated April 2, 2009.

5 Timothy Cole

Innocence Project of Texas, Innocence Project

Timothy Cole died in prison of heart complications caused by asthma in 1999 while imprisoned for the 1985 rape of aTexas woman. It wasn’t until 23 years after his

conviction that, with help from the InnocenceProject of Texas, DNA evidence proved hisinnocence.

Michele Mallin, a young university student, was parking her car when an African-Americanman forced himself into her car and rapedher. She was shown an unusual photo lineup in which Cole’s photo stood out and was the only Polaroid photo amidst a series of mug shots.Mallin identied Cole as her attacker, and he was soon arrested and convicted of aggravated

sexual assault.Cole’s initial appeals were denied and he died without ever learning that another man, Jerry Wayne Johnson, had confessed to the crime.Eventually, however, Johnson’s confessionsreached the Innocence Project of Texas andCole’s family. Nearly a decade after Cole’sdeath, DNA testing conducted on semen fromthe crime scene excluded Cole and implicated Johnson as the perpetrator. Mallin joinedCole’s family and attorneys in seeking Cole’s

posthumous exoneration.Cole was cleared by DNA tests in 2008, and was fully exonerated at an unprecedentedposthumous hearing on April 7, 2009. TheInnocence Project joined the InnocenceProject of Texas as co-counsel.



6 Reggie Cole

California Innocence Project

Having spent 14 years in prison for acrime he consistently said he didn’t commit,Reggie Cole was exonerated on April 15,

2009, after it was revealed that eyewitnessesmisidentied him as the perpetrator and that prosecutors withheld evidence of his innocence.

Cole was convicted for a 1994 Los Angeles-areashooting death after two eyewitnesses identiedhim in court. John Jones testied that he saw Cole shoot the victim and run from the sceneof the crime. It was not until 2007 when Cole was being tried for killing a fellow inmate (whoCole stabbed in self-defense during a prisonght) that Cole’s legal counsel revisited the

witness testimony from his original trial. Attorney Christopher Plourd and theCalifornia Innocence Project found that Joneshadn’t actually seen the crime, but rather hisdaughters had. Thirteen years after her fathermisidentied Cole, one of the daughterstestied that she had seen the perpetrator againafter the shooting, but Cole would have been inpolice custody at that time. The second witness, who had actually led investigating ofcers toCole, also came forward and admitted that his

original testimony was mistaken.

In early 2009, attorneys petitioned for Cole’srelease. Three months later, the District Attorney’s Ofce conceded that Cole receivedineffective assistance of counsel and the court vacated the murder conviction. Although heremains in prison (a result of his altercation while in prison) the prosecutors dropped allcharges and exonerated Cole of the murder.

7 Thaddeus Jimenez

Center on Wrongful Convictions Thaddeus Jimenez was arrested when

he was 13 years old for a 1993 gang-relatedmurder he did not commit. Jimenez’s rst trial was thrown out when it was revealed that there were mistakes made during jury selection,but he was convicted at his second trial aftereyewitnesses identied him as the shooter.His attorneys had attempted to show the jury

a videotaped confession to the crime madeby another young man, but the judge foundit inadmissible. No forensic evidence was everintroduced.

As Jimenez began serving out his 45-year

sentence, the Center on Wrongful Convictionsand the law rm of Katten Muchin took hiscase. Since the original trial, both witnesses whotestied against him recanted their testimony,now saying that Jimenez was not the shooter.Prosecutors were compelled to reopen the caseand ultimately agreed to vacate the conviction. Jimenez was released from prison in May 2009, after more than 16 years of wrongfulimprisonment. Prosecutors have since indictedthe same young man who had previously confessed on videotape. Jimenez was ofcially exonerated in Chicago on May 1, 2009.

8 Paul House

Innocence Project

Paul House served 20 years on deathrow before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he was entitled to a new hearing.

Authorities claimed House lured a womanfrom her Tennessee home, then assaultedand murdered her, dumping her body

in a gutter; he was convicted in 1986. Inconsultation with the Innocence Project onforensic issues, House’s appellate attorneysused DNA testing to show that someone elsecommitted the crime. After a series of appeals,the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that House was entitled to a new hearing in federalcourt because post-conviction DNA testinginvalidated the prosecution’s theory, markingthe rst time since DNA testing became widely available that the Supreme Court has looked at standards for reopening death penalty cases.

Testing completed in early 2009 conrmed that House’s jeans had two bloodstains from the victim but failed to nd any DNA from House.In fact, one of the bloodstains also containedDNA from an unknown male. Other forensicsamples taken from the crime scene, includingblood from under the victim’s ngernails anda hair found in her hand, also excluded House while identifying an unknown male.



House, who suffers from multiple sclerosis andis conned to a wheelchair, was released underhouse arrest until prosecutors in Tennesseedropped all pending charges. He was ofcially exonerated on May 12, 2009.

9 Chaunte Ott

Wisconsin Innocence Project

Chaunte Ott served more than 12 years in prison for the murder of 16-year-old Jessica Payne before DNA testing obtained by the Wisconsin Innocence Project proved hisinnocence and led to his release.

Two men implicated Ott in the murder, andboth testied against him; one pled to alesser crime and the other was not charged

in exchange for their testimony. The only physical evidence at trial were two box cuttersand a knife that police discovered among Ott’spossessions. A medical examiner concludedthat the knife could be consistent with themurder weapon. Ott was wrongfully convictedand sentenced to life in prison with thepossibility of parole.

In 2002, the Wisconsin Innocence Project wasable to test samples from the victim’s rape kit, which excluded Ott and the two men who

testied against him; they did not exonerateOtt because he had not been convicted of sexual assault.

Five years later, prosecutors informed Ott that the DNA found at the crime sceneactually matched DNA found on the bodiesof two other women murdered in the sameneighborhood after Ott’s arrest. Despite this,prosecutors refused to retry him. In 2008,the Wisconsin Court of Appeals overturnedthe conviction and ordered a new trial. In

response, the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Ofce announced that it wouldnot seek a new trial. Ott was freed and laterexonerated on June 5, 2009.

DNA recovered from the victim, and from thetwo other murders that exonerated Ott, hassince been matched to numerous other murdersin Milwaukee. DNA from all these murderspoints to a man named Walter Ellis, who

authorities now believe is a serial killer who hasbeen murdering women for the last 20 years.

10

Joseph Allen


11 Nancy Smith


Joseph Allen and Nancy Smithboth served more than 14 years in prisonfor multiple counts of sexual assault against four-and-ve-year-old children. The OhioInnocence Project, which is afliated with theUniversity of Cincinnati College of Law, helpedexonerate them.

Smith was a single mother working as a bus

driver and was rst suspected when the motherof a child from her bus route accused her of inappropriately touching her daughter. Soon,more parents brought complaints forwardagainst Smith and an unknown male whoallegedly joined her in sexually abusing thechildren.

Allen, who had a previous sexual offense, wasput in a police lineup when he happened tobe at the station one day reporting that hisbike had been stolen. Video from the lineup

showed that children were not able to pickout Allen and depicted parents leading orscaring their children into identifying him asSmith’s accomplice. Without physical evidence,though, the original investigator decided todrop the case.

Under political pressure, a new investigator was assigned and charges were brought against Allen and Smith. Despite the fact that they didn’t appear to know each other, they were tried together on the grounds that they

lived within a few blocks of each other. Both were convicted based on the testimony of thechildren.

Armed with the line-up video, the OhioInnocence Project was able to accumulate andeventually present evidence establishing Allenand Smith’s innocence. Odometer readingsshowed that Smith did not stray from her busroute and attendance records showed each

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child was present at their preschool programon the supposed days of the attacks. Recordsalso showed that Smith had clocked in at her second job right after she dropped thechildren off at school on each of the days of the supposed attacks and therefore could not have had time to commit the crimes.

Both Allen and Smith were a granted a new trial. On June 24, 2009, they were acquittedbecause of a lack of evidence.

12 Ronald Kitchen

Center on Wrongful Convictions

Along with his co-defendant,Marvin Reeves, Ronald Kitchen was convictedfor the deaths of two women and three

children. Kitchen had falsely confessed to thecrime, a confession he claimed was a result of intense physical harassment and injury during an interrogation. The case was handledby Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge and hisdepartment, who have since been implicatedin a pattern of misconduct. Kitchen wassentenced to death and Reeves to life in prison.

The prosecution’s case was bolstered withtestimony from a jailhouse informant who toldprosecutors that both Kitchen and Reeves had

confessed to the murders. In exchange for histestimony, prosecutors offered the informant early release from jail, yet they failed to revealthis to Kitchen’s attorneys. The informant hassince admitted that he lied when he testiedagainst Kitchen and Reeves.

Both Kitchen and Reeves spent 21 yearsin prison but were freed after prosecutorsreopened the investigation and decided that the evidence was insufcient to retry. TheIllinois Attorney General joined the Center

on Wrongful Convictions and the law rmof Baker & McKenzie in requesting that thecharges be dismissed, and a judge subsequently overturned their cases. Attorneys with the law rm of Mayer Brown represented Reeves.

Kitchen and Reeves were ofcially exoneratedon July 27, 2009.

13 Robert Lee Stinson


When a 62-year-old woman wasfound dead in an alley near her home, Robert Lee Stinson was wrongfully arrested and

convicted for a murder he knew nothing about.Forensic analysts found eight distinct bitemarks on the victim. At trial, two forensicdentists testied that Stinson’s teeth were amatch to the bite marks, adding that there was“no margin of error.” Stinson was convictedand sentenced to life in prison in 1985.

On Stinson’s behalf, the Wisconsin InnocenceProject contacted the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Ofce for access to thephysical evidence in 2004. Attorneys hadfour dental experts independently examinethe evidence. After comparing results withtechnology unavailable during the originaltrial, all four agreed that Stinson could not have left the bite marks.

In addition to the new bite mark analysis,newfound DNA evidence helped proveStinson’s innocence when the analysts foundsaliva on the victim’s sweater and were ableto conclusively exclude Stinson as the source. After 23 years behind bars for a murder he didnot commit, Robert Lee Stinson was releasedin January 2009 and was fully exonerated on July 27, 2009.

14 Deshawn Reed

Michigan Innocence Clinic

15 Marvin Reed


After being incarcerated formore than 8 years for a 2000 shooting that left the victim paralyzed, Deshawn Reed and hisuncle, Marvin Reed, were exonerated with thehelp of the University of Michigan InnocenceClinic.

The defense presented two eyewitnesses to thecrime, both of whom contradicted the victim’stestimony that the Reeds shot at him from a white car. The eyewitnesses instead testied



that the real shooter was standing in an alley,and one of them identied the shooter as aman named Tyrone Allen. In addition, sixalibi witnesses testied that the Reeds wereelsewhere at the time of the shooting. In spiteof this, the prosecution secured a convictionbased solely on the victim’s eyewitnesstestimony.

The defense learned, post-conviction, that Tyrone Allen had been killed while committinga carjacking and that police found him with arearm similar to the one used in the Reeds’case. Michigan State Police later tested andconrmed the gun to be the same one used inthe Reeds’ case. Additionally, Allen’s girlfriendhad reported him to the police, saying that hehad confessed to the crime. When attorneys were granted an evidentiary hearing, the victim himself admitted that he never actually saw where the shot came from, and that hehad implicated the Reeds after his family andfriends visited him in the hospital and suggestedthat the Reeds were likely responsible. Inaddition, clinic students found and presentedseveral other witnesses, including an off-duty police ofcer, who had spoken with the victimimmediately after the shooting and before the victim’s family and friends visited him in the

hospital. All of these new witnesses conrmedthat the victim initially said that he did not see where the shot came from.

As result, a judge decided that the newly discovered evidence seriously underminedthe case against the Reeds. Both Deshawn andMarvin were released and exonerated on July 31, 2009, when prosecutors dismissed all of thecharges against them.

16 William Richards

California Innocence Project After two trials ending in hung

juries and one in mistrial, William Richards was convicted in 1997 of murdering his wife,Pamela Richards. Richards spent eight yearsin prison for murder based on an alleged bitemark and a cluster of bers found under oneof the victim’s ngernails.

At trial, prosecutors argued that Richards wasthe only possible suspect since there was noone else near the crime scene. The CaliforniaInnocence Project obtained DNA testingon the weapon, as well as mitochondrialDNA testing of hair found under one of the victim’s ngernails. The results revealedDNA proles that did not match Pamela or William Richards, proving that there was anunidentied attacker. In addition to DNA testing, attorneys argued that a cluster of bersfound under the victim’s ngernail may havebeen planted. Prosecutors originally arguedthat the bers matched those of the shirt Richards was wearing the night of the murder,but photos taken just after the victim’s autopsy showed no bers in the ngernail.

Bite marks, which the state’s witness arguedcould have only come from two percent of the population—including Richards—werealso reevaluated. Authorities on bite markevidence refuted that testimony, stating that the conclusion was based on incompleteinformation and distorted photos. By correcting the distortion in the photos, experts were able to testify that Richards could not have left the bite mark. In face of the new evidence, a judge reversed Richards’ murder

conviction on August 10, 2009.

17 Kenneth Ireland


Kenneth Ireland was wrongfully convicted in 1988 of the rape and murder of a30-year-old mother of four and sent to prisonat the age of 20. After serving nearly 21 years,Ireland was exonerated when DNA testingproved his innocence.

Ireland’s conviction was based on blood

typing and informant testimony. Two witnessesrst implicated Ireland, telling investigatingofcers that Ireland confessed to the crime.Preliminary DNA testing was inconclusive, but forensic analysts testied at trial that Ireland’sblood type, along with 20% of the generalpopulation, matched the sample.

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Ireland reached out to the Connecticut Innocence Project for help, and the attorneys were able to convince a judge to grant a new trial based on more recent DNA testing. Thistime, the tests conclusively proved Ireland’sinnocence. Ireland was soon released fromprison and was formally exonerated on August 19, 2009.

18 Ralph Armstrong

Innocence Project

Ralph Armstrong was wrongfully convicted for the rape and murder of a fellow University of Wisconsin-Madison student in1981. The Innocence Project worked with localattorneys Jerome Buting and Keith Belzer tooverturn his conviction in spite of misconduct

by the prosecution. Armstrong was exoneratedon August 19, 2009.

In 2005, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned Armstrong’s conviction andgranted him a new trial after DNA testingexcluded him as the source of hair and semenfrom the crime scene. Armstrong remained incustody awaiting retrial for years. Meanwhile,prosecutors violated a court order by orderingadditional DNA testing on the biologicalevidence without notifying the defense. This

round of testing used up all the remainingevidence, rendering it useless for furthertesting.

Furthermore, while the case was on appeal in1995, the prosecution received a call allegingthat Armstrong’s brother, who was visiting himat the time of the murder, confessed to thecrime. Prosecutors never informed the defenseabout the call, and Armstrong’s brother hassince died.

Based on the prosecutorial misconduct, a Wisconsin judge dismissed charges against Armstrong, who has been transferred to New Mexico where he was on parole for unrelatedcharges when he was arrested for the murderthat he didn’t commit.

19 Joseph Abbitt

North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence

Two teenaged sisters were raped at knifepoint and identied their attacker from a photo

lineup as Joseph Abbitt. He spent 14 yearsimprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit untilDNA evidence cleared his name.

Prior to the lineup, the two sisters told policeofcers that they believed the man who rapedthem was Abbitt, who had visited their Winston-Salem home before. While under investigation, Abbitt offered compelling alibi evidence that he was at work when the crime occurred. InitialDNA testing of the rape kit was inconclusive;however, testing of semen located on a piece

of clothing excluded Abbitt. Law enforcement and the victims were uncertain whether thepiece of clothing was involved in the rapes.

Nonetheless, Abbitt was convicted of the rapesin 1995 and sentenced to two consecutive lifesentences plus 110 years. In 2005, he appliedto the North Carolina Center on ActualInnocence to assist with his claim. Althoughmuch of the evidence collected in the casehad been destroyed, the Winston-Salem PoliceDepartment eventually located the rape kit.

Updated DNA technology conclusively excluded Joseph Abbitt as the perpetrator of the rapes. Abbitt was exonerated on September2, 2009. Efforts are underway to identify thetrue perpetrator of the crimes.

20 Rafael Madrigal, Jr.

California Innocence Project

Rafael Madrigal, Jr., spent seven years in prison for a gang-related shooting but was released when the California InnocenceProject and co-counsel Eric Multhaup showedMadrigal could not have committed the crime.

Madrigal was convicted of attempted murderfor a July 2000 shooting. He consistently told investigators that he could not havebeen at the crime scene at the time of theshooting because he worked at a packing plant approximately 35 miles away.



At an evidentiary hearing held in 2008 toevaluate charges of ineffective representation,the California Innocence Project establishedMadrigal’s alibi with testimony from hissupervisor, who told the court that productionat the plant would have been stalled hadMadrigal not been at work since he was theonly one trained to use a particular machine.

The California Innocence Project alsointroduced an audio tape of a phone callbetween Madrigal’s co-defendant andgirlfriend that had never been entered asevidence in which the co-defendant admitsthat Madrigal was not present at the time of the shooting. Madrigal’s conviction was soonoverturned and prosecutors dropped allcharges. Madrigal was released from prison onSeptember 3, 2009.

21 James Lee Woodard

Innocence Project of Texas

James Lee Woodard was wrongfully convicted for murdering hisgirlfriend. During the trial, prosecutors withheld key evidence from the defense. Forexample, the jury never learned that the victim was seen with three other men on the night of her death. (Two of these men were later

convicted of sexual assault crimes.) Woodard was sentenced to life in prison in 1981 in what the Dallas County District Attorney’sOfce Conviction Integrity Unit now calls a“fundamentally unfair” trial.

Both the Innocence Project of Texas and theDallas County District Attorney’s Ofce workedtogether on Woodard’s case, interviewing witnesses and conducting DNA testing on arape kit, the results of which conrmed that Woodard was innocent when a forensic analyst

determined that whoever committed the rapealso committed the murder.

Woodard was released after serving more than27 years in prison. He was freed in April 2008and exonerated on September 30, 2009.

22 Edwin Chandler

Kentucky Innocence Project

Edwin Chandler was wrongfully convicted of the robbery and shooting deathof a Louisville convenience store employee

in 1995. However, new evidence uncoveredby the Kentucky Innocence Project led to hisexoneration of all charges.

At the time of the shooting, Chandler was on work release for a misdemeanor, and he didnot report back to jail as required. A youngneighbor of Chandler’s told police that shehad seen him the night of the robbery wearinga stocking mask similar to the one police saidthe shooter was wearing.

After a long interrogation, in which policethreatened to have his sister arrested forharboring a fugitive and take her kids away,Chandler confessed to the shooting. At trial,the prosecution depended heavily on theneighbor’s testimony. However, anotherprosecution witness testied that he actually saw the shooter enter the store and that it wasnot Chandler. The surveillance video of thestore from that night had been accidentally erased by police. Chandler was sentenced to atotal of 30 years for robbery and manslaughter.

Kentucky Innocence Project attorneysidentied a string of evidence of their client’sinnocence. Digital testing showed that ngerprints left on a beer bottle did not matchChandler and instead implicated a knownfelon. In addition, photos recovered fromthe surveillance tape did not appear to haveChandler in them.

Chandler was fully exonerated on October13, 2009. He had served nine years in prison

and another seven on parole. The alternativesuspect has been indicted.

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23 Christopher Scott

University of Texas Actual Innocence Clinic

24 Claude Simmons Jr.

University of Texas

Actual Innocence Clinic

Claude Simmons, Jr., and Christopher Scott were wrongfully imprisoned on death row for 12 years. Evidence now proves that they were wrongfully convicted, and the allegedperpetrators have been apprehended.

Simmons and Scott were charged with theshooting death of Alfonso Aguilar during ahome-invasion robbery. There was no forensicevidence introduced in their original trial;

instead, their convictions were based primarily on the eyewitness testimony of the victim’s wife.The wife had identied Scott as a shooter whenshe saw him handcuffed in a police station.

As a result of the work of the University of Texasat Arlington’s Innocence Network and theUniversity of Texas Actual Innocence Clinic,attorneys found a Texas man who confessedto having committed the crime with anaccomplice. Soon after, the alleged accomplice was arrested and charged with capital murder.

With cooperation from the Dallas District Attorney’s Ofce, Scott and Simmons werereleased and exonerated on October 23, 2009.

25 Forest Shomberg


Forest Shomberg was exoneratedafter the Wisconsin Innocence Project securedDNA testing and strong evidence of eyewitnessmisidentication.

Shomberg was sentenced to 12 years in prisonfor a 2002 sexual assault. The assailant ed thecrime scene when a security guard heard the victim cry for help. She provided police with adescription of her assailant, as did the security guard, which ofcers then used to create acomposite sketch.

The investigation turned to Shomberg whentwo people contacted police after they saw the

sketch and identied Shomberg. However,three alibi witnesses placed Shomberg 30blocks away from where the attack occurred.

Shomberg went to trial without a jury and the judge in the case disregarded the alibi, nding

him guilty. Halfway into his sentence, the Wisconsin Innocence Project was able to test evidence collected from the victim and foundfour samples of DNA on an article of clothingthrough “touch” DNA testing, which can detect DNA left behind by a person’s touch. Noneof the samples matched Shomberg, althoughthey revealed the presence of unknown maleDNA. Attorneys also introduced research onthe unreliability of composite sketches andtestimony from eyewitness experts, arguing that both witnesses picked Shomberg because he was the only suspect who most closely matchedtheir descriptions in a lineup where all themen had disparate physical attributes.

On November 13, 2009, the same judge whofound Shomberg guilty concluded that new evidence was compelling enough to overturnthe wrongful conviction and exonerate him.

26

Michael Marshall

Georgia Innocence Project

Police ofcers investigating thegunpoint robbery of a truck thought that Michael Marshall resembled the compositesketch of the perpetrator. Marshall washomeless at the time and was discoveredsleeping in an apartment hallway 10 days afterthe crime. A witness was then brought to theapartment where he misidentied Marshall asthe thief, and Marshall was arrested. He pledguilty in exchange for a four-year sentenceand served nearly two years before the GeorgiaInnocence Project helped him prove hisinnocence through DNA testing.

Three items of evidence belonging to theperpetrator were tested: a gray T-shirt, cellphone and a cell phone case. A single DNA prole emerged that did not belong to Marshall.Instead, the identity of the real perpetrator wasrevealed through a DNA database hit.



Marshall was wrongfully convicted in early 2008and exonerated on December 14, 2009, when a judge accepted Marshall’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea and prosecutors dropped theindictment against him.

27 James Bain

Innocence Project of Florida

James Bain was exonerated onDecember 17, 2009, after 35 years of wrongfulimprisonment in Florida. Bain has spent more years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit than any other person exoneratedthrough DNA testing in the United States.The Innocence Project of Florida helped Bainprove his innocence of the 1974 rape of a young boy.

The nine-year-old victim was kidnapped from hishome, dragged to a baseball eld and raped by a man he described as having bushy sideburnsand a mustache. A relative of the victim’sthought that the description sounded like JamesBain. Bain’s photo was included in a lineupand the victim misidentied him. Based largely on the strength of this identication, Bain wasconvicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Still a teenager when he was wrongfully

convicted, Bain was 54 years old by the time he was exonerated. He began seeking DNA testingin 2001 but was denied multiple times until theInnocence Project of Florida came to his aid.

C A S E S



Alaska Innocence Project

Arizona Justice Project

Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

Association in Defence of the Wrongly

Convicted

California & Hawaii Innocence Project

California Western School of Law Institutefor Criminal Defense Advocacy

Center on Wrongful ConvictionsBluhm Legal Clinic, Northwestern University School of Law


State of Connecticut Public Defender Services

Cooley Innocence Project

Thomas M. Cooley Law School

Downstate Illinois Innocence Project Institute for Legal and Policy Studies at theUniversity of Illinois at Springeld

Georgia Innocence Project

Grifth University Innocence Project Grifth Law School

Idaho Innocence Project

Boise State University

Indiana University School of Law Clinic,

Wrongful Conviction Component

Indiana University School of Law—Indianapolis

Innocence Institute of Point Park University

Innocence Network UK (INUK) University of Bristol School of Law

Innocence Project Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University

Innocence Project Arkansas

University of Arkansas School of Law

Innocence Project at UVA School of Law

Innocence Project New Orleans

Innocence Project New Zealand

School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington

Innocence Project Northwest Clinic

University of Washington School of Law

Innocence Project of Florida

Innocence Project of Iowa

Innocence Project of Minnesota Hamline University School of Law

Innocence Project of South Dakota

University of South Dakota School of Law

Innocence Project of Texas

Justice Brandeis Innocence Project

Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalismat Brandeis University

Kentucky Innocence Project Department of Public Advocacy

Maryland Ofce of the Public Defender

Innocence Project

Medill Innocence Project

Medill School of Journalism

NETWORK MEMBERS


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/innocence-network-exonerations-2009 15/17N E T W O R K M E M B E R S


University of Michigan

Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project

Midwestern Innocence Project

Mississippi Innocence Project

University of Mississippi School of Law

Montana Innocence Project

Nebraska Innocence Project

New England Innocence Project

Goodwin Procter LLP

North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence

Northern Arizona Justice Project

Northern Arizona University Department of Criminal Justice

Northern California Innocence Project

Santa Clara University Law School

Ofce of the Public Defender

for the State of Maryland

Ofce of the Public Defender,

State of Delaware


University of Cincinnati College of Law

Pace Post-Conviction Project

Barbara C. Salken Criminal Justice Clinic

Pennsylvania Innocence Project Temple University Beasley School of Law

Reinvestigation Project

Ofce of the Appellate Defender

Rocky Mountain Innocence Center

University of Utah—S.J. Quinney College of Law

Texas Center for Actual Innocence University of Texas School of Law

Texas Innocence Network

University of Houston Law School

The University of Leeds Innocence Project The University of Leeds School of Law

University of British Columbia Law

Innocence Project


University of Wisconsin Law School



INNOCENCE NETWORK

The Innocence Network is an afliation of 54 member organizationsdedicated to providing pro bono legal and investigative services toindividuals seeking to prove innocence of crimes for which they have

been convicted and working to redress the causes of wrongful convictions.

For more on the Innocence Network and for information on how to contact member organizations, please visit www.innocencenetwork.org.



WWW.INNOCENCENETWORK.ORG

STEVEN BARNES

ALAN BEAMAN

JOSEPH FEARS, JR.

MIGUEL ROMAN

TIMOTHY COLE

REGGIE COLE

THADDEUS JIMENEZ

PAUL HOUSE

CHAUNTE OTT

JOSEPH ALLEN

NANCY SMITH

RONALD KITCHEN

ROBERT LEE STINSON

DESHAWN REED

MARVIN REED

WILLIAM RICHARDS

KENNETH IRELAND

RALPH ARMSTRONG

JOSEPH ABBITT

RAFAEL MADRIGAL, JR.

JAMES LEE WOODARD

EDWIN CHANDLER

CHRISTOPHER SCOTT

CLAUDE SIMMONS

FOREST SHOMBERG

MICHAEL MARSHALL

JAMES BAIN

innocence network exonerations 2009

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