1. David Keaton Florida Conviction 1971
Charges dropped 1973
On the basis of mistaken identification and coerced
confessions, Keaton was sentenced to death for murdering
an off duty deputy sheriff during a robbery. Charges were
dropped and he was released after the actual killer was
identified and convicted.
2. Wilbert Lee Florida Conviction 1963
Released 1975 AND
3. Freddie Pitts Florida Conviction 1963 Released 1975
Although no physical evidence linked them to the deaths of
two white men, Lee and Pitts' guilty pleas, the testimony
of an alleged eyewitness, and incompetent defense counsel
led to their convictions. The men were sentenced to death
but maintained their innocence. After their convictions,
another man confessed to the crime, the eyewitness
recanted her accusations, and the state Attorney General
admitted that the state had unlawfully suppressed
evidence. The men were granted a new trial but were again
convicted and sentenced to death. They were released in
1975 when they received a full pardon from Governor Askew,
who stated he was "sufficiently convinced that they
were innocent."
4. Delbert Tibbs Florida Conviction
1974 Conviction overturned 1977
Tibbs was sentenced to death for the rape of a
sixteen-year-old white girl and the murder of her
companion. Tibbs, a black theological student, was
convicted by an all-white jury on the testimony of the
female victim whose testimony was uncorroborated and
inconsistent with her first description of her assailant.
The conviction was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court
because the verdict was not supported by the weight of the
evidence, and the state decided not to retry the case.
Tibbs' former prosecutor said that the original
investigation had been tainted from the beginning and that
if there was a retrial, he would appear as a witness for
Tibbs.
5. Anibal Jarramillo Florida Conviction
1981 - Released 1982
Jarramillo was sentenced to death for two counts of first
degree murder, despite the jury's unanimous recommendation
of life imprisonment. On appeal, his conviction was
reversed when the Florida Supreme Court ruled the evidence
used against him was not legally sufficient to support the
conviction. Evidence suggests that the murderer may have
been the victims' roommate.
6. Anthony Brown Florida Conviction
1983 - Acquitted 1986
Brown was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced
to death despite a jury recommendation of life
imprisonment. At trial, the only evidence against Brown
was a co-defendant who was sentenced to life for his part
in the crime. At retrial, the co-defendant admitted that
his testimony at the first trial had been perjured, and
Brown was acquitted.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Willie Brown Florida Conviction
1983 - Released 1988
11. 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.
12. William Jent* Florida Conviction
1980 - Released 1988 AND
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. Sonia Jacobs Florida Conviction
1976 - Released 1992
Jacobs and her companion, Jesse Tafero, were sentenced to
death for the murder of two policemen at a highway rest
stop in 1976. A third co-defendant received a life
sentence after pleading guilty and testifying against
Jacobs and Tafero. The jury recommended a life sentence
for Jacobs, but the judge overruled the jury and imposed
death. A childhood friend and filmmaker, Micki Dickoff,
then became interested in her case. Jacobs's conviction
was overturned on a federal writ of habeas corpus in 1992.
Following the discovery that the chief prosecution witness
had given contradictory statements, the prosecutor
accepted a plea in which Jacobs did not admit guilt, and
she was immediately released. Jesse Tafero, whose
conviction was based on much of the same highly
questionable evidence, had been executed in 1990 before
the evidence of innocence had been uncovered.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. Joseph Spaziano Florida Conviction
1976 - Not Released
Spaziano was tried for the murder of a young woman which
had occurred two years earlier. No physical evidence
linked him to the crime. He was convicted primarily on the
testimony of a drug-addicted teenager who, after hypnosis
and "refreshed-memory" interrogation, thought he
recalled Spaziano describing the murder. This witness has
recently said that his testimony was totally unreliable
and not true. Hypnotically induced testimony is no longer
admissible in Florida. Death warrants have been repeatedly
signed for Spaziano, even though the jury in his case had
recommended a life sentence. In January, 1996, Florida
Circuit Court Judge O.H. Eaton granted Spaziano a new
trial, and this decision was upheld by the Florida Supreme
Court on April 17, 1997. In November, 1998, Spaziano
pleaded no contest to second degree murder and was
sentenced to time served. He remains incarcerated on
another charge.
21. 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)
22. 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))
23. 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).
24. Juan Roberto Melendez Florida
Conviction 1984 Released 2002
Juan Roberto Melendez spent nearly 18 years on Florida's
death row before being exonerated of the crime for which
he was sentenced to death. Melendez, who was born in
Brooklyn, New York and raised in Puerto Rico, was
sentenced to die in 1984 for the murder of Delbert Baker.
In December 2001, Florida Circuit Court Judge Barbara
Fleischer overturned Melendez's capital murder conviction
after determining that prosecutors in his original trial
withheld critical evidence, thereby undermining confidence
in the original verdict. The judge noted that no physical
evidence linked Melendez to the crime. The state had used
the testimony of two witnesses whose credibility was later
challenged with new evidence. (Associated Press, 12/5/01)
Following the reversal of the conviction, prosecutors
announced the state's decision to abandon charges against
Melendez. (Associated Press, 1/3/02)
25. Rudolph Holton Florida Conviction 1987 Released 2003
Florida death row inmate Rudolph Holton was released on January 24,
2003,
making him the 103rd person exonerated and freed from death row
nationwide
since 1973. Holton's conviction for murder was overturned in 2001 and
prosecutors announced today that the state was dropping all charges
against
Holton, who had spent 16 years on death row. Crucial evidence had
been
withheld from the defense that pointed to another perpetrator.
26.
John Robert Ballard Conviction 2003 - Aquitted 2006
Death row prisoner John Robert Ballard was acquitted by a
unanimous decision of the Florida Supreme Court, which ordered his
conviction overturned due to a lack of evidence connecting him to the
crime. After serving almost three years on death row for a crime he
did
not commit,
Ballard was freed and has become the 26th person to be exonerated and
released from Florida's death row since 1972.
FADP reminds the public that the State of Florida will give Mr.
Ballard
a paltry $100 in cash when they free him after more than 3 years of
incarceration. In order to assist Mr. Ballard and others like him,
FADP
has established an "Exonerated Prisoner Relief Fund." Details are
available at
http://www.fadp.org/relief_fund.html
or by calling
800-973-6548.
27. HOW MANY MORE?
