Additional Innocence Information

Probable Innocence - Released From Prison
Possible Innocence - Sentence Commuted

A. Probable Innocence - Released From Prison

 Other defendants, though not exonerated completely, were released from death row with substantial evidence of their innocence. Generally, the defendant's conviction was overturned and then he or she reluctantly entered a guilty plea to a lesser charge because of the threat of possibly receiving another death sentence. In most of these cases, no responsible person would find them guilty. Nevertheless, unlike those enumerated above, they are technically guilty of some degree of murder. This list is not necessarily inclusive of all such cases.

Larry Dean Smith Oklahoma Conviction: 1978, Released: 1984
Smith was convicted of the murder of a man who burned to death in a camper pick-up truck. Although he at first admitted his involvement in the related robbery, he maintained he had nothing to do with the murder. The U.S. Supreme Court vacated his death sentence, and the Oklahoma Attorney General recommended that the murder conviction be set aside. On remand, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals refused to uphold Smith's conviction for the robbery.

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.
See "Journey of Hope...From Violence to Healing: Sonia Jacobs"
Read "Women on Death Row" by Claudia Dreifus, Ms. Magazine, Spring 2003

John Henry Knapp Arizona, Conviction: 1974 Released 1992

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. See K. Smethurst, "Knapp Update: "Innocent Man," The American Lawyer, April 1987, at 8; P. Manson & B. Whiting, "Knapp to Go Free in Fire Deaths, Sources Say Will Avert 4th Trial in Plea," Ariz. Republic, Nov. 17, 1992, at A1.

Mitchell Blazak Arizona Conviction: 1974, Released: 1994
Blazak was originally convicted of a murder in which a ski-masked gunman killed a bartender and a customer at a bar in Tucson in 1973. The conviction was based largely on the testimony of a small time con man, Kenneth Pease, who was arrested for a number of felonies in New Mexico and Arizona. Pease testified after being granted immunity. A federal court in 1991 termed Pease's testimony to be "a mass of contradictions." The court also ruled that the trial judge had failed to ensure that Blazak was competent to stand trial. Rather than pursue a new trial, the prosecutor offered a no contest plea in September, 1994, which allowed Blazak to be released before the end of the year. There was some evidence that a deputy sheriff named Michael Tucker planted hair evidence in the case. Three days after Blazak walked out of prison, Tucker was arrested for car theft.

Anthony Scire Louisiana Conviction: 1985, Released: 1994
Scire was sentenced to death for hiring Clarence Smith to murder a police informant. The chief witnesses at the trial were members of a motorcycle gang given immunity for this and other crimes in exchange for their testimony. The convictions of both Scire and Smith (see #56 in Innocence Report) were overturned. At retrial, Smith was acquitted. Scire pleaded guilty to manslaughter, while maintaining his innocence. He was immediately released in exchange for time served.

Victor Jimenez Nevada Conviction: 1987, Released: 1999
Jimenez's first trial in 1987 ended in a hung jury. A second trial convicted him and sentenced him to death for the stabbing death of two men in a North Las Vegas bar. The Nevada Supreme Court unanimously granted him a new trial in 1996 because of police misconduct including false testimony bordering on perjury. Rather than face the risk of a new trial, Jimenez reluctantly entered a special plea, without admitting his guilt, on June 9, 1998 to second degree murder. He will be required to serve an additional 18 months in prison and has agreed not to sue those responsible for putting him on death row.
Read "Death Row Tenant for 10 Years Preparing to Taste Freedom Again" by Caren Benjamin, Las Vegas Review Journal, June 10, 1998

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.
Read "Two Newspapers, Two Sides to the Same Story" by David Barstow, The American Editor, September 27, 1996
See "Anatomy of a Death Penalty Case" by Tena Jamison Lee, American Bar Association: Human Rights, Summer 1996

Paris Carriger Arizona Conviction: 1978, Released: 1999
Carriger was scheduled to die on December 6, 1995 for a murder he steadfastly maintains he did not commit. Another man, Robert Dunbar, twice confessed that he lied at Carriger's trial, and that it was he who committed the murder. As a result of his original trial testimony against Carriger, Dunbar was given immunity for other charges. Dunbar has since died. A three judge panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld Carriger's death sentence, noting that while his case raised doubts, he must prove by clear and convincing evidence that "he is unquestionably innocent." Review of the case by the entire 9th Circuit was granted in February, 1997. Carriger was granted a new trial by the 9th Circuit in December, 1997 because of the new evidence. In January, 1999, he accepted a plea to a lesser offense and was immediately released from prison.
Read "The Wrong Man" by Beth Hawkins and Kristin Solheim, Tuscon Weekly, December 1993

Andrew Mitchell Texas Conviction: 1981, Released: 1993, Returned to prison and then re-released: 1999
Mitchell was awarded $40,000 from Smith County, Texas for withholding evidence at his trial which led to his death sentence in 1981. He spent 13 years on death row before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals threw out his conviction. Mitchell pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and was given a 31 year sentence. (Dallas Morning News, 1/ 19/99) He was then released to a halfway house in early 1999 after being given credit for time served.
See "Former Death-Row Inmate Awaits Trial" Lubbock Avalanche - Journal, September 14, 1997

Lee Perry Farmer California Conviction: 1992, Released: 1999
Farmer was acquitted at a re-trial in California of capital murder. He had spent 9 years on death row. He was, however, convicted of burglary and being an accessory to murder. He was credited with time already served and will be released. A federal court had overturned his first conviction because of incompetent counsel. Another man confessed to the murder (Sacramento Bee, 1/18/99).
Read "Life After Death Row" by Mike Kataoka, The Press-Enterprise, January 22, 1999

Kerry Max Cook Texas Conviction: 1978, Released: Nov. 1997, Concluded: 1999
Cook was originally convicted of killing Linda Jo Edwards in 1978. In 1988, he came within 11 days of execution, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Texas Court to review its decision. Cook's conviction was overturned in 1991. He was re-tried in 1992, but the trial ended in a hung jury. In 1993, a state district judge ruled that prosecutors had engaged in systematic misconduct, surpressing key evidence. In 1994, Cook was tried again, and this time found guilty and again sentenced to death. On Nov. 6, 1996, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed his conviction, saying that "prosecutorial and police misconduct has tainted this entire matter from the outset." The court ruled that key testimony from the 1994 trial could not be used in any further prosecution. Prior to the start of his fourth trial in February, 1999, Cook pleaded no contest to a reduced murder charge and was released. He continued to maintain his complete innocence, but accepted the deal to avoid the possibility of another wrongful conviction. Recent DNA tests from the victim matched that of an ex-boyfriend, and not that of Cook. This tended to contradict testimony from the ex-boyfriend.
Read "Former Death Row Inmate Kerry Max Cook Freed After 20 Years" by Mark Babineck, Associated Press, November 12, 1997
See "Kerry Max Cook" Frontline, June 17, 2004.

Lloyd Schlup Missouri: Conviction 1985, Not Released
Schlup was convicted in 1985 of a murder while in prison. However, a prison videotape shows him to be in the cafeteria around the time of the murder at a different location. One prison guard has testified that the tape, along with his observation of Schlup just before he went to the cafeteria, prove he could not have been present at the murder. Twenty other witnesses also swear that he was not at the scene of the crime. The U.S. Supreme Court gave Schlup the opportunity for a hearing concerning his new evidence, despite the fact that he had exhausted his ordinary appeals. Following the hearing in federal District Court in December 1995, the court held that no reasonable juror would have found Schlup guilty. On May 2, 1996, Schlup was granted a writ of habeas corpus on the ground that his original trial attorney failed to adequately represent him. The State of Missouri unsuccessfully attempted to apply the new federal habeas corpus law which was signed on April 24, 1996 to Schlup's case. Under the new law, Schlup probably would have been executed. On the second day of his re-trial, Mar. 23, 1999, Schlup agreed to plead guilty to second degree murder to avoid the danger of another death sentence. Schlup's appellate lawyer, Sean O'Brien, said he remained convinced of Schlup's innocence.
Read "Probably Innocent, Almost Executed" by Stuart Taylor Jr., Court TV: Legal Times, January 1, 1996
See "Invitation to an Execution" by James Willwerth, Time Magazine, November 22, 1993

Donald Paradis Idaho Conviction: 1981, Released: 2001
After spending 14 years on death row, Donald Paradis was released from prison when his 1981 murder conviction was overturned. Judge Gary Haman, who originally sentenced Paradis to death, came out of retirement to accept Paradis' plea to moving the body after the murder. Paradis, who always maintained that he was not involved in the slaying of Kimberly Anne Palmer, was sentenced to 5 years and released for time already served. The deal came after a federal court of appeals ruling that Paradis was denied a fair trial because prosecutors withheld potentially exculpatory evidence. Paradis was scheduled for execution three times before his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1996 by then-Governor Phil Blatt who had doubts about Paradis' guilt. Paradis' trial lawyer, William Brown, never studied criminal law, never tried a felony case, and never tried a case before a jury. While representing Paradis, Brown also worked as a police officer. His defense lasted only three hours. In addition, Dr. Brady, the pathologist who performed the autopsy of Ms. Palmer, testified that Palmer had been killed in Idaho, not in Washington where Paradis had already been acquitted of the murder. Dr. Brady was fired as a medical examiner soon after the Paradis trial when it was discovered that he had sold human tissue for profit and saved human blood, collected during autopsies, for use in his garden (Associated Press, 4/11/01 and New York Times, 4/12/01).
Read "Death Row Survivor" by Bob Herbert, The New York Times, April 12, 2001

Charles Munsey North Carolina Conviction: 1996, Died in prison: 1999
In May, 1999, Superior Court Judge Thomas Ross threw out Munsey's murder conviction and ordered a new trial for the1993 beating death of Shirley Weaver. The judge cited evidence that the state's key witness had lied, that prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence, and that another man's confession to the crime was probably true. The state decided not to appeal Judge Ross's ruling and plans to indict the man who confessed to the murder. Munsey may have been re-tried, perhaps for a lesser charge involving the sale of the gun used in the murder. Munsey died in prison before an official decision was made on dropping the charges agianst him or retrying his case.
Read "DA Turned Blind Eye to Evidence Snitch Lied" by Joseph Neff, The News & Observer, January 12, 2006

Dennis Counterman Pennsylvania Conviction: 1990, Released: 2006
Dennis Counterman was freed from a Pennsylvania courtroom on October 18, 2006 after serving many years on the state's death row. Counterman had been convicted and sentenced to death in 1990 for allegedly setting a fire in his own house that resulted in the death of his three children. That conviction was overturned in 2001 because prosecutors had withheld evidence from the defense indicating that the oldest child had a history of fire-setting. At Counterman's orignial trial, the prosecution witnesses said that a burn pattern was discovered that indicated an accelerant was used, even though no accelerant was found. At later hearings, however, an expert hired by the prosecution said that the prosecution's theory of how the fire started "is not properly supported by today's standards."Rather than face the uncertainty of another trial, Counterman agreed to enter an Alford plea, that is one in which the defendant does not admit guilt but agrees that the prosecution might have been able to convince a jury of his guilt. The plea was to a charge of third-degree murder and carried a maximum term of 18 years in prison. Since Counterman had already served the maximum time, he was released immediately by Lehigh County Judge Lawrence Brenner. After his release, Counterman said, "I am more frustrated than angry. I spent all this time for something I didn't even do."(The Morning Call (PA), Oct. 19, 2006).
Read "Death Row to Freedom" by Debbie Garlicki, The Morning Call, October 19, 2006
See "Sentence Thrown Out Over Withheld Evidence" by Raymond Bonner, The New York Times, August 30, 2001
See also Maurice Possley's article in the Oct. 18, 2006 edition of the Chicago Tribune about faulty arson investigations in other cases.

 B. Possible Innocence - Sentence Commuted

The following former death row inmates had their death sentences commuted to life in prison because of doubts about their guilt:

Ronald S. Monroe Louisiana Conviction: Commuted to Life: 1989
Monroe had been convicted of murdering his next-door neighbor, based mainly on the testimony of the woman's children. Later, the victim's husband was convicted of killing his new wife in a manner similar to the way in which the first woman was killed. While inprison, the husband all but admitted killing his first wife. Governor Buddy Roemer commuted Monroe's death sentence to life because of doubts about his guilt.
Read "Governor of Louisiana To Spare Inmate's Life" by Peter Applebome, The New York Times, August 17, 1989

Joseph Giarratano Virginia Convicted: 1979, Commuted to Life: 1991
In 1979, Joseph Giarratano awoke from a drug-induced sleep and found that his roommate Barbara Kline and her daughter had been murdered. With no memory of the previous night, Giarratano assumed he had killed the two. He turned himself into the police and confessed. New evidence, however, suggests that Giarratano is innocent. His confessions contradict themselves, and physical evidence suggests Giarratano was not the murderer. Footprints and pubic hairs found at the scene did not match Giarratano's and experts assert Kline was stabbed by a right-handed assailant; Giarratano is left-handed. Three days before his scheduled execution in 1991, Governor Douglas Wilder commuted Giarratano's death sentence to life imprisonment and left open the possibility of a new trial. Virginia's attorney general, however, has stated she will not re-try the case.
See "Legal Scholar on Death Row Fights to Halt Own Execution" by David Margolick, The New York Times, March 5, 1990
Read "Last Plea by Condemned Inmate Who Has Rare Blend of Defenders" by Drummond Ayres Jr., The New York Times, February 17, 1991

Herbert Bassette Virginia Conviction: 1979, Commuted to Life: 1992
Bassette was convicted of murdering a gas station attendant in 1979. Doubt later arose about the testimony presented at trial, and a police statement indicated that one of the witnesses had implicated another person in the killing. Governor Douglas Wilder commuted Bassette's sentence to life without parole after expressing doubts about the conviction.

Joseph Payne Virginia Conviction: 1986, Commuted to Life: 1996
Although the defense knew of 17 witnesses willing to testify on Payne's behalf, they only used one, and Payne was convicted of murder by arson of another inmate at the Powhatan Correctional Center in Virginia. While the jury was deliberating, the prosecution offered Payne a plea whereby he would receive a sentence to run concurrently with the sentence he already was serving, but the offer was refused because his lawyers thought an acquittal was likely. Instead, he was sentenced to death and was scheduled to be executed on Nov. 7, 1996. The chief witness against Payne, Robert Smith, received a 15 year reduction in sentence. At one point, Smith admitted that he had lied at Payne's trial. Three hours before his execution, and after Payne agreed not to appeal, Payne's sentence was reduced to life without parole by Governor George Allen.
See "Death Sentence Commuted After Jurors' Pleas" The New York Times, November 8, 1996
Read "Virginia Prisoner Receives Rare Mercy on Death Row" by Mike Allen, The New York Times, November 10, 1996

Henry Lee Lucas Texas Conviction: 1984, Commuted to Life: 1998
Lucas originally confessed to the murder of an unnamed hitchhiker in Texas in 1979. He also confessed to hundreds of other murders including the murder of Jimmy Hoffa and his fourth grade teacher, who is still alive. Most of his confessions have proved false. Two investigations by successive Attorneys General in Texas have concluded that he almost certainly did not commit the murder for which he faced an execution date of June 30, 1998. Gov. George Bush commuted his sentence to life upon recommendation of the Board of Pardons and Paroles in June, 1998.
Read "Serial Confessor" by Carley Petesch, Columbia University: 801, 2006
See "Henry Lee Lucas" by Katherine Ramsland, Court TV: Crime Library