10 People Who Were Wrongfully Convicted And Then Set Free Years Later After Being Exonerated
One of our legal system's biggest failures is the wrongful conviction of innocent people across the United States. According to the Chicago Tribune, the rate of wrongful convictions is between 2-10%. Those numbers don't seem like much until you take into account the estimated prison population being around 2.3 million. That means there are possibly 46,000 to 230,000 innocent people serving time for a crime they did not commit.
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There are many factors that go into a wrongful conviction from terrible police investigations to prosecutorial misconduct to bad judges and poor defense attorney practices, which can lead innocent people to serve sentences they shouldn't have ever had to. Though I understand no system is perfect, the fact it still takes so long to overturn a conviction when new evidence points to the mistakes that were made is astounding. It also is wild to think that states like Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming don't have compensation laws for wrongful convictions.
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It's an embarrassment for our legal system to want to hold people accountable for their crimes but won't hold themselves accountable for their negligence and at times downright despicable legal process when it comes to victims. Thankfully, there are organizations like the Innocence Project that make it their mission to help those that have been wronged in our legal system. We also have a boom in true crime podcasts that have also helped investigate cases where they felt people were wrongfully convicted. Here are 10 cases where the convictions were overturned due to the legal system getting it wrong.
1.Sheldon Thomas
Sheldon Thomas served nearly 19 years before his murder conviction was overturned. Thomas was charged with the murder of teenager Anderson Bercy after detectives misled an eyewitness to identify the wrong Sheldon Thomas by using the wrong picture of Mr. Thomas. According to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzales, Sheldon's case "was compromised from the very start by grave errors and lack of probable cause to arrest Mr. Thomas. He was further deprived of his due process rights when the prosecution proceeded even after the erroneous identification came to light, making his conviction fundamentally unfair." Thanks to the work of the Brooklyn DA's Conviction Reversal Unit they were able to free Mr. Thomas and have helped vacate 34 convictions since 2014.
2.Central Park Five
The "Central Park Five" now known as the "Exonerated Five" is known for one of the most egregious wrongful convictions in New York. Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise (Kharey Wise at the time of arrest) along with Steven Lopez were all convicted for being involved in the violent sexual assault of Patricia Meili. Four of the five teens confessed to police after hours of interrogation but later recanted saying that they had been coerced by law enforcement. After years of time served, they were all released including Mr. Lopez who pled guilty to a lesser charge. All the defendant's charges were later exonerated after serial rapist Matias Reyes, who was already serving time, confessed and was a positive match for DNA found on evidence at the scene of the crime, although Lopez's conviction wasn't exonerated until 2022. The Exonerated Five had a long-fought battle to clear their names and even reach a settlement to be compensated for the years they were wrongfully serving time, in the end, the five were awarded $41 million although no amount of money will give them back the years they lost behind bars.
3.Henry McCollum and Leon Brown
Half-brothers Henry McCollum and Leon Brown were teenagers when they were wrongfully convicted of rape and murder. The two intellectually disabled men served over 30 years in prison before being released in 2014 after DNA evidence found at the crime scene matched a man who lived nearby and had committed similar crimes that year. Both men recalled how investigators coerced their confession, and as a result, this led to both men serving "the best years of their lives" in prison. Back in May of 2021, a jury in their federal civil rights case awarded them $75 million as compensation for the horrible injustice they suffered. The jury found that both men's constitutional rights were violated in the coercion of their confessions which led to the large settlement.
4.Kimberly Long
After her first trial ended in a mistrial, Kimberly Long was later convicted of murder in 2005 and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, though she wasn't imprisoned until 2009 after she had lost her appeal. She served seven years in prison before being released, though she was still in a legal battle with the Riverside County District Attorney's office. After years of back and forth with the DA's office, the California Innocence Project and Kim's lawyers were able to not only show the massive amount of evidence to prove Kim's innocence but also show that she did not have effective legal assistance at the time of her conviction which led to the DA not re-prosecuting Ms. Long citing, "they can no longer prove her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."
5.Lamar Johnson
Lamar Johnson served close to 30 years in prison before a judge vacated his murder conviction and ruled him innocent. Mr. Johnson was serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole after being convicted for the murder of Markus Boyd in 1995. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner asked the court to overturn Johnson's murder conviction after the sole eyewitness who testified in the trial recanted, and two sworn affidavits were signed by Phillip Campbell and James Howard confessing they were involved in Boyd's murder. Johnson had an alibi on the night of the murder, and there was no DNA evidence linking him to the crime, though prosecutors were able to successfully convict him with the testimony of one eyewitness who had not only received "witness compensation" but also had been "pressured to pick someone" by police, according to Missouri Circuit Court Judge David Mason's order.
6.Mack Howell
62-year-old Mack Howell was released from prison in March of this year after serving just over seven years thanks to the help of Macomb County's Conviction Integrity Unit and the University of Michigan's Innocence Clinic. Howell was convicted in 2016 of robbing a 7-Eleven two years prior and brought his case to the Innocence Clinic in 2021 after maintaining his innocence and having appeals cases denied multiple times. Howell became the prime suspect during the investigation due to DNA evidence found on an empty beer can outside the 7-Eleven although there was other DNA on the can as well as a straw in the can that had a woman's DNA on it. There was also the matter of the description of the robber that didn't match Howell, as the police originally reported a 6-foot-tall suspect with a medium build that ran away, and Mr. Howell was 5'6" and 200 pounds at the time of the robbery with medical conditions that would've made it impossible for him to be sprinting from any crime scene. This among other acts of misconduct during the investigation gave the county prosecutor all the evidence they needed to overturn his conviction and free Mr. Howell saying, "I don't like the fact that this happens; no one does. But it must happen to teach from the past what was wrong and correct it for everyone."
7.Randolph Arledge
After being sentenced to 99 years in prison in 1984 for the murder of Carolyn Armstrong, Randolph Arledge made it his mission to fight for his freedom. His conviction was based on false witness testimony by his two co-defendants in an armed robbery case who had claimed Arledge admitted to stabbing Carolyn prior to their armed robbery. One witness later recanted, admitting that they had a personal grudge against Randolph and that his testimony would give them some leniency in their sentencing. It was with the help of the Innocence Project that they were able to present DNA evidence linking someone else to the murder and the recanting of one of the witnesses that helped finally release the then 58-year-old in 2013 after serving 14 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
8.Marvin Anderson
A volunteer firefighter before being imprisoned, Marvin Anderson was sentenced to 210 years in 1982 for severe crimes that he had never committed. The then-18-year-old was falsely identified by the victim due to seemingly guiding the victim to quickly identify Anderson as the culprit by showing his photo and then within a short time having him be the only person from the set of photos presented to her in the lineup as well. Maintaining his innocence, he finally was able to get the Innocence Project onboard in 1994 after the courts refused to vacate his conviction when John Otis Lincoln confessed and offered details of the crime coupled with the courts revealing that the rape kits and its evidence were destroyed. Though he was released in 1997 on parole, he wasn't truly free as he was registered as a sex offender and had an ankle monitor and couldn't go back to being a volunteer firefighter which was always his dream. Thankfully, due to the original criminalist not following policy when storing swabs of the rape kit used, Anderson's lawyers were able to get access in 2001 to the DNA evidence after making several requests. He was then pardoned by then Virginia Governor Mark Warner who granted Marvin a full pardon after serving 15 years behind bars and another four years on parole. Marvin Anderson went on to serve on the Board of Directors for the Innocence Project and district chief of the Hanover Courthouse Volunteer Fire Company and became a full-time truck driver.
9.Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam
Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam were convicted for the assassination of human rights activist Malcolm X and had served 20 years (Aziz) and 22 years (Islam) before being released on parole. Maintaining their innocence, they sought to right the wrong that they suffered at a time when systemic racism was more prevalent than ever. In 2021, then-Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance moved to vacate the men's convictions, citing "newly discovered evidence and the failure to disclose exculpatory evidence." This came after Vance had seen the Netflix documentary, Who Killed Malcolm X? which compelled him to look deeper after public interest started inquiring more and more about Aziz and Islam's innocence. A two-year investigation was launched; what was found was that there were “serious, unacceptable violations of law and the public trust,” according to Vance. This led to a lawsuit by both Aziz and Islam's estates since Islam had passed in 2009 and never got to see his exoneration, which led to both parties receiving the $40 million they had asked for due to the gross misconduct both suffered at the hands of the FBI.
10.Thomas Raynard James
A case of mistaken identity saw the then 23-year-old Thomas Raynard James convicted of the murder of Francis McKinnon during a home invasion. Though there was no physical evidence tied to James, Dorothy Walton claimed she was sure that law enforcement had the right guy, saying in court, "I’m positive of it. I will never forget his face," as she was one of the victims who had to lay there and see her stepfather be murdered. Though when she was interviewed recently in 2021, she recanted her statement, saying, "They had the wrong guy." Thomas James had the unfortunate coincidence of having the same name as a man who was known for committing violent armed robberies and had a warrant for his arrest. After serving 32 years of a life sentence, Miami prosecutors and a judge found that Thomas Raynard James was indeed a victim of mistaken identity and exonerated him as of April 2022.
