On June 25, 2014, a Louisiana judge overturned the conviction of Nathan Brown after results from DNA testing of crime scene evidence proved Brown is innocent. The DNA evidence matched an alternative suspect, a man currently incarcerated in Mississippi who lived only a few blocks away from the crime scene. […]
Category: Wrongful Conviction
Wrongful Conviction Award Affirmed
A New York appellate court has unanimously affirmed a $5.5 million wrongful conviction award to Daniel Gristwood, an individual who falsely confessed to the attempted murder after police officers subjected him to a lengthy interrogation in a highly coercive manner. Police had investigated him in a small windowless room for […]
Tennessee Man Exonerated After 11 Years In Prison
The Marshall County District Attorney General’s Office recently dismissed all remaining charges against a Tennessee man, Randy Mills, thus exonerating him of a 1999 rape. The dismissal was in response to a November 2013 decision by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals which ordered a new trial for Mills based […]
North Carolina Man Will Receive New Trial After 19 Years In Prison
Due to misconduct on the part of a North Carolina prosecutor and a Durham police detective, a North Carolina judge ordered last week that an inmate who has been imprisoned for 19 years and who has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence will receive a new trial. Darryl Anthony Howard was arrested […]
Wrongful Incarceration Suit Yields $36 Million Verdict
Two men who were convicted and wrongfully incarcerated for the 1984 rape and murder of a teenage girl have prevailed in a civil rights lawsuit in federal court in the Eastern District of New York. The two men, John Restivo and Dennis Halstead, were freed in 2003 when DNA from […]
$6.4 Million Settlement Reached in Wrongful Incarceration Case
The City of New York has agreed to pay $6.4 million to a man who spent 23 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. David Ranta was convicted of the 1990 killing in Brooklyn of a Hasidic rabbi who had stepped into his car at dawn just […]
New Jersey Man Exonerated after Spending 19 Years in Jail
In December 2013, the Somerset County prosecutor filed a motion dismissing the indictment against Gerard Richardson, an individual who had spent 19 years in jail for a murder he did not commit. The dismissal of the indictment followed a ruling by a New Jersey Superior Court judge overturning Richardson’s conviction […]
New Jersey Increases Compensation for Wrongful Incarceration
The Governor of New Jersey recently signed into law a bill that will increase the amount of compensation that wrongfully convicted individuals can receive from the state for each year they were wrongfully incarcerated. Under the new law, exonerated individuals in New Jersey will be eligible to receive $50,000 for […]
Ohio Exoneree Files Wrongful Incarceration Lawsuit
A former Akron Police Department captain who was declared innocent after spending 15 years in jail for the 1997 slaying of his ex-wife has filed suit against his former colleagues. Former Akron Police Department captain Douglas Prade filed suit in an Ohio federal court against more than two dozen defendants, […]
National Registry of Exonerations Issues 2013 Report
The National Registry of Exonerations just announced that 2013 was a record-breaking year for exonerations in the United States. At least 87 people were exonerated and granted their freedom in connection with crimes they did not commit, the highest number since researchers began keeping track of exonerations more than 20 […]