Innocent?
The Death Penalty Information Center has a list of several individuals it claims were found ‘innocent’ after being sentenced to death. There are critics who denounce such claims.
1) Jonathan Treadaway. Arizona. Conviction 1975. Released 1978. DPIC states: “Treadaway was convicted of sodomy and first degree murder of a six-year-old and sentenced to death. The conviction was overturned, and he was acquitted of all charges at retrial by the jury after five pathologists testified that the victim probably died of natural causes and that there was no evidence of sodomy. Members of the jury reported noted [sic] that prosecutors had failed to prove that Treadaway was even inside the victim’s home. State v. Treadaway, 568 P.2d 1061 (1977).”
a) Treadaway was convicted for sodomy and the murder of a six-year-old boy. Treadaway’s palm prints were found outside a locked bedroom window of the victim’s house. The victim’s mother testified that she had washed that window the day before the murder. Pubic hairs found on the victim’s body were similar to Treadaway’s. The Arizona Supreme Court reversed his conviction because it ruled 3-2 that evidence Treadaway had committed sex acts with a thirteen-year-old three years before the murder were entered into his trial erroneously. It also ruled that evidence regarding Treadaway being unable to explain his palm prints at the scene of the crime be excluded due to Miranda warning issues. The court did allow evidence that Treadaway had sexually attacked and tried to strangle a boy three months before the murder at issue in the boy’s bedroom. Treadaway was acquitted at his second trial by a jury.
2) John Henry Knapp. Arizona. Conviction 1974. Released 1987. DPIC states: “Knapp was originally sentenced to death for an arson murder of his two children. He was released in 1987 after new evidence about the cause of the fire prompted a judge to order a new trial. In 1991, his third trial resulted in a hung jury. Knapp was again released in 1992 after an agreement with the prosecutors in which he pleaded no contest to second degree murder. He has steadfastly maintained his innocence.”
a) Knapp had three trials for the house fire murder of his two daughters. Knapp stood outside and drank coffee while he watched the house incinerate his daughters. In the first trial the jury hung 7-5 for conviction. The second trial resulted in conviction and a sentence to death, but was reversed due to new evidence that the fire could have been accidentally set by one of his daughters. The third trial ended in a mistrial with the jury hung 7-5 for conviction. Finally the prosecutor concluded that the evidence was insufficient as the case was 19 years old and there had been losses of key witnesses and evidence. Knapp then plead no contest to second degree murder and was sentenced to time served.
3) Anthony Ray Peek. Florida. Conviction 1978. Released 1987. DPIC states: “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. Peek v. State, 488 So.2d 52 (Fla. 1986)”
a) Peek was acquitted after his two prior convictions for this 1977 murder were reversed for various evidentiary errors, including the admission of an unrelated rape. He was prosecuted for raping and strangling an elderly woman in her home. She lived a mile from the halfway house where Peek resided. Her car was found abandoned even nearer the halfway house. Two of Peek’s fingerprints were lifted from the inside of the victim’s car. Blood and seminal stains on the victim’s sheets were consistent with Peek’s identity as a type O secretor. A hair similar to Peek’s was found in a cut-stocking in the victim’s garage. Peek claimed his fingerprints got on the victim’s car because he tried to burglarized it. Peek presented evidence that the periodic night checks at the halfway house did not indicate any unauthorized absences the night of the murder. Prosecutors attributed the acquittal to the passage of time and loss of evidence.
4) Patrick Croy. California. Conviction 1979. Acquitted 1990. DPIC states: “Croy was convicted of and sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer. The State Supreme Court overturned the conviction because the jury trial had been improperly instructed. On retrial, Croy’s self-defense argument was supported by the fact that he had been shot by a police [sic] first and that over 100 shots were fired during the altercation. Croy was acquitted. People v. Croy, 710 P.2d 392 (Cal. 1985) and The San Francisco Daily Journal, 10/18/90.”
a) Croy was convicted of murdering a police officer in Yreka, California. The California Supreme Court reversed Croy’s murder conviction for instructional error, but affirmed his conviction for conspiracy to commit murder. His defense had been intoxication. Yet, on retrial, Croy claimed self-defense and was acquitted of murder. There was no dispute that Croy killed the police officer. However, he was acquitted on the basis of a controversial and legally questionable cultural defense based on his Native American heritage, i.e., that his background as a Native American led him to reasonably fear that the police officer intended to kill him.
5) Sabrina Butler. Mississippi. Conviction 1990. Released 1995. DPIC states: “Butler was sentenced to death for the murder of her nine-month old child. When she found her baby not breathing, she performed CPR and took him to the hospital. She was interrogated by the police and then prosecuted. Her conviction was overturned by the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1992 (Butler v. State, 608 So.2d 314 (Miss. 1992)). Upon retrial, she was acquitted on December 17, 1995 after a very brief jury deliberation. It is now believed that the baby may have died either of cystic kidney disease or from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).”
a) Butler was convicted of killing her infant son, Walter. She brought Walter to the hospital with severe internal injuries and gave numerous conflicting statements, including at least one version in which she admitted pushing on his protruding rectum and hitting the baby once in the stomach with her fist when he was crying. Other versions included statements by her that she had tried to apply CPR when the baby was not breathing. Butler’s first conviction was reversed because the prosecutor improperly commented on her failure to testify at trial. She was acquitted on retrial. At both trials, the evidence indicated that the baby died from peritonitis, the presence of foreign substances in the abdomen.
6) Carl Lawson. Illinois. Conviction 1990. Released 1996. DPIC states: “Lawson was convicted of killing Terrence Jones in a family dispute. He was tried three times. The first trial resulted in a conviction and death sentence, but that conviction was overturned in part because Lawson’s public defender had been an assistant State’s Attorney when Lawson was arrested. (Illinois v. Lawson, 644 N.E.2d 1172 (1994)). The second trial resulted in a hung jury, reportedly 11-1 for acquittal. Nevertheless, the prosecutors tried Lawson again and again sought the death penalty. This last trial produced an acquittal and Lawson was freed on December 12, 1996. On August 1, 2002, Illinois Governor George Ryan issued a pardon to Lawson based on innocence. (St. Louis Dispatch, 4/12/98 and Chicago Tribune, 8/1/02).”
a) Lawson was convicted of murdering eight year old Terrance Jones. The victim’s body was found in an abandoned church. There was evidence that Lawson’s romantic relationship with the young boy’s mother had ended and that Lawson was upset about the breakup. Investigators discovered two bloody shoeprints of a commonly worn brand of gym shoe near the body. Lawson wore these type of shoes. The shoeprints were made near the time of the crime. Two of the items near the body, a beer bottle and a matchbook, had Lawson’s fingerprints. Lawson’s first conviction was reversed because his attorney had a conflict of interest. He was acquitted at his second trial, apparently, because the shoeprint evidence could not be associated only with him—the shoe was too popular. However, this does not change the fact that Lawson’s fingerprints were on items found near the body.
