Tag Archives: official misconduct

(FL) The Marshall Project: Exonerated, Then Deported…
Special prosecutor to look at cold case perjury claim: A special prosecutor has been appointed to look into whether police and prosecutors in a small Illinois town engaged in misconduct to win a false conviction in one of the nation’s coldest murder cases.
New York Post: Friend of man who claims wrongful conviction: He wasn’t there that night — I was…
CBS 6: After wrongful imprisonment of 33 years, Keith Allen Harward will get $1.6 million…
Wisconsin State Journal: Ralph Armstrong to get more than $750,000 after spending 25 years in prison for murder, rape conviction that was overturned…
Tech Crunch: FBI axes FOIA requests by email, so dust off your fax machine…
The Topeka Capital-Journal: Police and prosecutors back Kansas bill requiring recorded interrogations…
FOX 21: Robert Ferguson’s Murder Conviction Overturned…
‘To Prove His Innocence’ book by Reno attorney Mary Elizabeth Morgan about the wrongful conviction of Nolan Klein available…
NPR: Oklahoma Lawmakers File Bills To Repeal Criminal Justice Reforms…

Multi-Million Dollar Wrongful Conviction Awards Should Be Taxpayers’ Call to Action

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Nancy Petro | 4 comments

Last Friday a federal jury awarded $13.2 million in compensation to David Ayers, who served 13 years of a life-without-parole prison sentence for a murder that DNA eventually proved he didn’t commit. This should certainly get the attention of Cleveland and Ohio taxpayers if the horror of an innocent person languishing in prison while the true murderer escapes justice is not troubling enough. It should also motivate voters to signal zero tolerance for official misconduct (a recurring contributor to wrongful convictions) and to require implementation of known best practices in criminal justice procedure.

As reported earlier on this blog and (here), and (here), former Cuyahoga County Housing Authority police officer, David Ayers was convicted on December 11, 2000, of Continue reading →