Richard Allen Masterson

Richard Masterton was wrongly convicted of the 2001 murder of Darin Honeycutt.

Richard met Honeycutt at a Houston, Texas, bar. The two men went back to Honeycutt’s apartment. Richard is accused of strangling Honeycutt in order to rob him. Richard testified they were having sex, and he did not intend Honeycutt’s death.

The medical examiner was a fraud, and the cause of death was a heart attack and not strangulation. Richard also gave a coerced false confession, and also became severely depressed and suicidal while in jail, which contributed to his wrongful conviction.

Because Richard’s lawyers failed him, the court system will not provide relief to him. His last chance to avoid execution on January 20, 2016 is executive clemency.

Clemency Petition January 5, 2016

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Richard’s appeals were all denied, he was executed on January 20, 2016.

 

 

Shan Carter

Shan Carter robbed a drug dealer, and following an outbreak of violence related to this robbery was convicted of three 1997 murders and sentenced to death. However the truth may be that:

• Shan is completely innocent of the kidnapping and murder of drug dealer Donald Brunson.
• Shan was acting in self-defense when he shot at drug dealer Tyrone Baker and possibly killed him.
• Shan may have been responsible for the accidental and inadvertent death of Demetrius Green, an 8 year-old boy who was sitting in a car when struck by a ricocheting bullet.

Source

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Adam Braseel Wins New Trial

Adam Braseel‘s conviction has been vacated and he has been granted a new trial.

Source

Steven Avery

Sometime during the day on October 31, 2005, photographer Teresa Halbach was scheduled to meet with Steven Avery, one of the owners of Avery Auto Salvage, to photograph a maroon Plymouth Voyager minivan for Auto Trader Magazine.

On November 11, 2005, Steven Avery was charged with the murder of Halbach. Avery protested that he had been framed.

Brendan Dassey was an alibi for Steven, he was not charged until March ( five months later ), it’s clear the alibi was true but his confession was false ( in fact the final prosecution case was totally different to the coerced confession ). Every thing Brendan volunteered in his confession was false (contradicted by the forensic evidence ).

The framing was rather extensive, involving the planting of blood, a bullet with DNA, a car key and burnt bone fragments. Planting DNA and blood shows sophistication and planning. Also, the key (for the victim’s car) was scrubbed before Steven’s DNA was placed on it. No DNA from the victim was found on the key – which is inexplicable.

A blood stain found near the ignition in the RAV 4 appears to have been planted – a drop has been placed (say with a cotton swab) and then drawn out. [ Episode 3, 7 minutes in ]

Nothing adds up : for example the bullet with the victims DNA was eventually found months later in a garage, but there was no trace of blood in there – impossible if the victim was shot there, as the prosecution eventually claimed.

The defence implied police planted the key, however this makes little sense, surely the person who murdered Holbach had possession of her car key, not the police [ unless it was a spare key? ].

In December 2015, Netflix released a long film about the case “Making A Murderer”. In the film Edward Wayne Edwards is apparently seen in a court building in 2006 in Wisconsin (man in blue top in background ).  Correction: on Jan 31, 2016, it was discovered that the man is someone else.

Edwards is overweight man in blue top standing behind the figures in the foregound.

Edwards murdered Halbach and framed Avery.

Published on 12 Jan 2016
Did Edward Wayne Edwards Kill Taresa Halbach and set up Steve Avery?
Edwards, a misguided boy, vowed to be the best criminal ever. He killed scores and scores of people of all ages over a sixty-six-year period, and was never caught (for murder). Included are some of the most famous murder cases in the past century.

News

A Cold Case Expert Thinks ‘Making A Murderer’ May Be Tied To One Of The Most Prolific Serial Killers Ever Yahoo.com, Jan 21, 2016

Montana author ties serial killer to ‘Making a Murderer’ greatfallstribune.com, Jan 26, 2016

The man in the blue shirt in Making a Murderer has been indentified and it is not Ed Edwards Jan 31, 2016

Note: the “y” in Avery has been written as an upper-case “X”. Edwards used a cross as his signature many times, for example the JonBenet Ramsey ransom note, which ends “S.B.T.C” standing for “Signed By The Cross”.

Case review by John Cameron February 9, 2016

Update April 23, 2016. A police report of a witness who heard a “woosh” and smelt a “very vile smell”. This could be Edwards incinerating the body of Teresa Halbach.

Another Anonymous Note

A second mysterious letter sent to the Manitwoc County Sheriff in the Steven Avery case. References the Winnebago Mental Health Institute (located in Wisconsin), which has this logo. How would this appeal to Edwards? “EE” but also “14” in here, his birth date (c.f. the Halloween card sent to Paul Avery), 33, and somehow a 6 to give 6/14/33, Ed’s birth date.

 

Timeline

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John Giuca

John Giuca was convicted on a charge of second-degree felony murder in the death of 19-year-old Mark Fisher in 2003. Giuca was arrested a year after the murder, he was found guilty along with Antonio Russo; both were given a sentence of 25 years to life.

In the early morning hours of October 12, 2003, Mark Fisher accompanied a college acquaintance, Angel DiPietro, to a house party at Mr. Giuca’s home in the Ditmas Park section of Brooklyn.

Fisher had started off the evening barhopping in Manhattan with a different group of friends, but after unexpectedly running into Ms. DiPietro and taking a liking to one of her friends, Meredith Denihan, he found himself happily separated from his original group. Fisher, Ms. DiPietro and Ms. Denihan then met up with another friend of Ms. DiPietro’s, Albert Cleary, the son of a prominent member of the Brooklyn GOP, who was out with his buddy, John Giuca. When the group had trouble getting into another bar, Mr. Giuca invited them to party at his house, as his parents were out of town.

According to what investigators were able to piece together, the group arrived at Mr. Giuca’s place around 5 a.m. and began smoking and drinking. At some point, other people joined the party, including Mr. Russo, who was a nearby neighbor. At 5:23 a.m. Fisher, accompanied by Mr. Russo, withdrew $20 from a nearby ATM and both returned to Mr. Giuca’s home within minutes. At some point, Fisher and Ms. Denihan fell asleep and Ms. DiPietro and Mr. Cleary, who lived about three blocks from Mr. Giuca on Argyle Road, left Mr. Giuca’s house.

At about 6:40 a.m. Fisher was shot five times about 50 feet across the street from Mr. Cleary’s driveway on Argyle Road. Cops arrived on the scene within minutes and found his body lying atop a blanket they later confirmed came from Mr. Giuca’s home. Fisher’s wallet was missing but an ATM receipt in his pocket revealed his identity. Only two of five shell casings were recovered from the scene.

Several witnesses saw or heard a vehicle speed down Argyle Road following the shooting. Antonio Russo went to a neighbor’s house at approximately 7AM, asking him to cut off his braids, a style he’d worn for years. Russo also fled to California. Three witnesses told police that they saw Russo with a gun in his waistband both before and after the murder,one was even threatened by Russo with a gun.

At trial prosecutors alleged that the murder was the result of a robbery attempt by Russo, and that John Giuca supplied him the murder weapon (which was never found).

The conviction was based on the testimony of four main witnesses, three of which have since recanted, two of them accusing the trial prosecutor of coercion and intimidation. The fourth witness has been completely discredited.

Nevertheless, appeals have been denied.

Late in 2014, Giuca’s lawyers sent Brooklyn DA Kenneth Thompson a petition seeking to overturn their client’s conviction, saying they have irrefutable evidence that shows that Giuca didn’t receive a fair trial.

“I am confident John will be exonerated because the case has been exposed as a house of cards propped up by prosecutorial misconduct,” one of his lawyers, Mark Bederow, told The New York Post.

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Update Feb 7, 2018 : New Trial Granted

Daniel Wolfe and Gregory Derbyshire

Donald Reynolds was murdered in the early morning hours of September 4, 1980 during a robbery outside of the bar that he owned in Jackson, Michigan.

No one was arrested immediately after the crime, however 14 years later, Gary Raab claimed to police he was with Daniel Wolfe and Gregory Derbyshire when they committed the crime.

Wolfe and Derbyshire were convicted of the crime in separate trials, based mainly on Raab’s testimony, for which he was given immunity from prosecution.

At trial Raab admitted telling Detective Clifton Edwards during his first interview that he could not recall anything concerning the incident. Raab said that he only recovered his memory of the events after having spoken with Detective Edwards in December of 1994, through “flashes” that he had in his sleep. Raab also told Detective Edwards that he had a grudge against Wolfe.

Raab’s account was contrary to the testimony of other witnesses, and also contrary to the forensic evidence.

In addition the defence offered evidence suggesting that the crime may have been committed by others:

Eugene Hobbins, who lived behind the Silver Rail Bar past the railroad tracks, testified that at around 3 a.m. on a day in early September, he saw his neighbor, John Wheeler, run quickly and dive into the basement window of Wheeler’s house. Hobbins testified that Wheeler attempted to sell him two .22 caliber rifles at around the same time, telling Hobbins, that they were not his guns, but they belonged to somebody he knew. John Wheeler testified at trial and admitted committing several burglaries, including one against the Silver Rail Bar in 1981 or 1982, but denied that he ran home on September 4, 1980. Wheeler could not recall selling two .22 caliber rifles to Hobbins.

An appeal ruling in 2006 (petitioner Wolfe) stated that “the record would have supported an acquittal” however the appeal was denied. The same ruling noted many inconsistencies:

Raab testified that the petitioner, Derbyshire, and the victim were standing close together when the gun discharged; Raab testified to hearing one gunshot. Similarly, Michael Hession testified that the petitioner confessed to him that the gun went off during a struggle. On the contrary, the autopsy results showed that the victim was shot twice in the back and side of the head behind his ear with a .22 rifle, and no powder burns were observed on the victim, suggesting that he was not shot at close range. Police witnesses testified that two additional shots had been fired into the victim’s vehicle. Another inconsistency resulted from the testimony of Wade Miller that Tom Walling was present in the vehicle when he and the petitioner and Derbyshire cased the bar in July and August of 1980 just before the murder; it was established through prison records that Walling was in prison from 1979 to 1982.

Summary

What seems likely : Wolfe and Derbyshire discussed robbing the Silver Rail Bar, but in fact someone else actually committed the robbery and murder, and Raab and Kilgore testified against Wolfe and Derbyshire due to suspicions, a grudge and threats from the cops.

Discussion | Proposal Post

 

 

 

 

 

 

Melvin and George DeJesus

Melvin and George DeJesus were wrongly convicted for the 1995 rape and murder of Margaret Midkiff.

Brandon Gohagen  fled to a different State and his DNA was a match to semen found at the crime scene.

However, when arrested, he claimed that the DeJesus bothers had ordered him to rape Midkiff. There was nothing to corroborate the claim, nevertheless the DeJesus brothers, who lived next door to Midkiff were convicted.

This video explains the case in more detail:

In particular, Gohagen claimed he met the DeJesus brothers in a tent, however the tent was not purchased until days after the murder.

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Lamarr Monson

Lamarr Monson was convicted of brutally killing a 12-year-old girl in 1996.

He was tricked into a confessing that he stabbed the girl, but in fact it wasn’t true. A year later, the homicide inspector who oversaw Monson’s interrogation was removed for illegally obtaining confessions.

Now the finger-prints of someone who confessed to his girl friend have been matched to the likely murder weapon, a toilet seat.

The Michigan Innocence Clinic has filed a motion, arguing this new evidence is grounds for Lamarr Monson to get a new trial.

It’s been nearly 20 years since he went to prison.

“I knew he was innocent. But everywhere I went, I could get no help. No help. Nobody believed,” says Delores Monson, Lamarr’s mother.

Source

Proposal Post

News

Jan 30, 2017: Lamarr Monson, convicted of killing Detroit girl in 1996, granted new trial 

Feb 2, 2017 Released on Bond.

Aug 25, 2017 Case Dismissed

Fairbanks Four Freed

The Fairbanks Four are free as of 5:15 p.m. Thursday evening under terms of a negotiated settlement.

The four men, who’ve long fought their conviction for the 1997 killing of Fairbanks teenager John Hartman, had their murder convictions erased under a deal that’s similar but not identical to one proposed last week.

Marvin Roberts was released on parole earlier this year, but the other three men — George Frese, Kevin Pease and Eugene Vent — had been in jail since their arrests in October 1997.

After a final hearing at the Rabinowitz Courthouse on Thursday they went to Fairbanks Correctional Center one final time before they were released. The men went immediately to a celebration at the David Salmon Tribal Hall.

Terms of the deal

The settlement came after a six-hour closed-door negotiation Thursday on the fifth floor of the Rabinowitz Courthouse with retired Superior Court Judge Niesje Steinkruger, who presided over Frese’s 1999 trial in Anchorage.

Friends, family members and supporters of the men began assembling outside the locked courtroom by mid-morning Thursday, taking turns to peek through a crack in the door to look into the court. The doors to the courtroom opened to the public at about 4 p.m.

Superior Court Judge Paul Lyle, who presided over a five-week evidentiary hearing in the case this fall, explained the terms of the deal in a 20-minute public hearing. The settlement cuts short what would have been an eight-month wait for Lyle make rulings based on the evidentiary hearing.

Under the deal, Lyle granted the men a new trial, based on an understanding from both sides that there was enough new evidence in the case that he might have ordered a new trial if he were to eventually rule in the evidentiary hearing.

The state then agreed to dismiss charges and Lyle ordered the men’s “immediate and unconditional release.”

 

Full story at newsminer.com

Scott Davis

A federal judge could soon order a new trial for convicted murderer, Scott Davis, 50, who alleges widespread police and prosecutorial misconduct in his 2006 trial.

“I was outraged. This is a kangaroo court,” said Davis’ father, Dr. Dave Davis, referring to his son’s trial before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Tom Campbell.

“I couldn’t believe that Judge Campbell, that he’d let them put this evidence up there, evidence that we had never seen, that we had never been able to examine or use in our defense,” said the elder Davis.

Davis was initially arrested in 1996 and charged with murdering his estranged wife’s boyfriend David Coffin and setting his home in Buckhead on fire. Police dropped the charges for lack of evidence but rearrested Davis nine years later after the cold case was reexamined.

“We found a tremendous amount of problems with the case,” said Marcia Shein, a criminal defense attorney who took over Davis’ case after his conviction in 2006.

Shein showed investigative reporter Jeff Chirico a board she created listing what she called the “7 deadly sins” of police who investigated Coffin’s murder.

According to Shein and a petition she filed in federal court, police violated more than 300 standard operating procedures in handling evidence and inexplicably lost or destroyed 72 pieces of evidence before the trial, including the purported murder weapon and fingerprints. Shein also alleged the tape with Davis’ police interview in 1996 had been stopped at least twice during recording, which should make it inadmissible in court.

Shein also showed Chirico photos which apparently depict the Atlanta Police Department evidence room in disarray at the time of Davis’ trial.

“This is a trash pile of evidence with no labels and no information as to whose case it belongs to,” said Shein. “I don’t know how many cases have suffered because of that.”

Shein said she’s particularly concerned about the fingerprints that disappeared before trial. Police found the prints on Coffin’s stolen Porsche which had been burned and found not far from his home. Police admitted the prints weren’t Davis’ but never entered them into the national fingerprint database called AFIS (Automatic Fingerprint Identification System). An Atlanta police officer testified he lost the fingerprint card after taking it home, a violation of department procedures. Shein contended police may have been able to find Coffin’s “real” murderer had they entered the prints in AFIS.

Shein contends police misconduct in the handling of the gun allegedly used to kill Coffin. Former GBI examiner Bernadette Davy, who tested the weapon and testified to her findings in court, was later found to have falsified reports and resigned. Davis’ attorneys haven’t been able to retest the gun because it too went missing.

“How does the state get to allow that testimony without defense being able to see the firearm or have their experts evaluate it? Is that a fair trial? That’s the question that’s always bothered me,” said Shein.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard insisted Davis’ constitutional rights weren’t violated and any evidence that was lost wasn’t done so in bad faith or intentionally.

However, Shein argued in the federal court petition that much of the misconduct was in bad faith. Specifically, Shein pointed to a fire department clerk’s admission under oath that she lied on an affidavit about receiving the missing murder weapon and that her superior instructed her to do so.

When Chirico asked Howard whether that’s bad faith, Howard responded, “I almost have to laugh when I hear that. The courts have already dealt with that issue.”

Shein contended the previous court rulings did not fully consider the misconduct and she’s hopeful U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg will closely consider the request for a new trial.

“It makes the constitution meaningless if you let these types of situations continue,” said Shein.

While Davis’ parents are hopeful the judge will rule in their son’s favor, they’re also offering a $600,000 reward for information that could vindicate their son before much more time passes.

“We may never see him again free before we die,” reflected Joan Davis.

Judge Campbell did not return a call for comment.

It’s unclear when Totenberg may rule on the petition.

Source : News report June/September 2015

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Jimmie Duncan

Jimmie Duncan was convicted for the 1993 murder of Haley Oliveaux of West Monroe, Louisiana based primarily on the testimony of Hayne and Michael West, a bite mark examiner and at the time coroner of Forrest County, Mississippi. Duncan had admitted to leaving Oliveaux in a bathtub unattended, and was initially charged with negligent homicide. Hayne examined Oliveaux and claimed to have found bite marks on her face that had not been seen by any of the other medical professionals who had previously examined her body, such as EMTs and hospital personnel. After this, a mold was taken of Duncan’s teeth for use in bite mark analysis by Michael West. In performing this analysis, West repeatedly pressed the mold into the cheek of Oliveaux’ corpse, creating bite marks which had not previously existed. This was recorded on videotape which surfaced in 2008. Michael Bowers, deputy medical examiner for Ventura County, California commented with regard to the bite marks that “Dr. West created them. It was intentional. He’s creating artificial abrasions in that video, and he’s tampering with the evidence. It’s criminal, regardless of what excuse he may come up with about his methods.”

Source : Wikipedia

The other major piece of evidence against Duncan was testimony from a jailhouse informant who claimed that Duncan confessed to his crime while behind bars. Michael Cruse testified that he shared a jail cell with Duncan for one day in late December 1993. (Cruse also claimed another inmate in the same cell confessed a felony to him, according to the letter he wrote to prosecutors.) Duncan’s current attorneys have since obtained an affidavit from Michael Lucas, another inmate in the cell that day, who says that not only did Duncan not confess, he repeatedly asserted his innocence, despite Cruse’s constant attempts to elicit a confession.

Since then, two other inmates have reported being asked by Ouachita Parish law enforcement officials to lie about hearing Duncan confess. One of them, Charles Parker, who had worked as an informant for the FBI, wrote a letter of complaint to the district attorney’s office about the incident. In a later interview with Duncan’s post-conviction attorneys, he described how an investigator named Jay Via approached him and fed him information about Duncan’s case. “He gave me details of the crime, saying that the child was less than two years [old] and that she had been anally raped,” Parker said “He told me that when I came forward I was to say that Jimmie had confessed to biting the child while he was raping her.”

Source

When I first wrote about Duncan’s case, I thought Steven Hayne and Michael West were the most disturbing aspects of his conviction. And to be sure, between them the two have tainted thousands of cases and sent who knows how many innocent people to prison. But you could say the same thing about Jay Via. Duncan’s case is merely where the two intersect.

Jimmie Duncan is still on death row in Louisiana.

The prosecutor in Duncan’s case was never disciplined for failing to turn over the exculpatory evidence in that case, either.

Source

Discussion | Proposal Post

 

Supreme Court Corruption

Radley Balko writes:

“The fact that Beach confessed to killing Nees at the same time he falsely confessed to killing three other women should have been a sign that perhaps his confession was due more to coercion from his interrogators. (This is not uncommon.) That didn’t seem to faze then-District Attorney Mark Racicot, who proceeded to trial and won his conviction. Racicot would, of course, go on to become an immensely popular Montana governor as well as chairman of the Republican National Committee, and was initially President George W. Bush’s choice to be U.S. attorney general before withdrawing from consideration.”

“A Montana district court judge threw out Beach’s conviction, ordered a new trial and released Beach on bond while awaiting that trial. Incredibly, 18 months later the Montana Supreme Court reversed that ruling, reinstated Beach’s conviction and ordered him taken into custody. Beach voluntarily turned himself in, and was taken back to prison. (Incidentally, journalist John Adams pointed out at the time that two of the four judges who reinstated the conviction were appointed to the bench by . . . Mark Racicot. One of them worked for Racicot when he was the state attorney general, and Racicot endorsed her when she ran for a position on the state’s supreme court.)”

Systematic corruption of State Supreme courts is I think not limited to Montana. Reform is needed.

Richard Raugust released

Richard Raugust has been released from prison.

On Dec. 4, a judge released Raugust on his own recognizance pending a new trial, and he took another giant step in his years-long journey to clear his name.

“I knew this day would come. I just didn’t know when,” said his sister, Mary Webster, having traveled from her home in Oxnard, California, to greet her brother. “I’m so excited for him to start anew. I know he’s ready.”

“I just didn’t think it would take 18 years,” Raugust added.

Raugust, whose 1998 conviction for the murder of Joseph Tash was overturned on Nov. 16 by a district court judge, was released from prison following a bail hearing Dec. 4, and will live in an apartment in Missoula awaiting his day in court and the state’s appeal to the Montana Supreme Court.

News Report

Floyd Bledsoe freed

Floyd Bledsoe‘s conviction has been overturned, and he has been released.

News report

Forensics: White House Science and Technology opinion on Bitemark Identification

FORENSICS and LAW in FOCUS @ CSIDDS | News and Trends

Here is the keynote speaker ( Jo Handlesman Ph.D) at a 2015 NIJ conference on forensic science speaking about the unenviable position bitemarkers have attained by showing no reliability in their opinions and being individually inconsistent in their courtroom testimony. Her expectations are that forensic indentification of individuals and specimens be derived from “hard scientific methods.”

View original post

Forensic bias

“In one of Dror’s most famous studies, he took sets of fingerprints which had been examined by forensic scientists five years before and found to be matching. He gave the same prints to the same unsuspecting experts and this time told them they needed to examine them because the FBI had mistakenly identified them as matching.

Four out of the five experts changed their previous conclusions and said they did not match. The only thing that changed between the two examinations was the information about the FBI findings and with it the clear suggestion the prints did not match.”

Read more at irishtimes.com

Police Planted Drugs on Young Black Men For Years, DA Valeska Complicit

Note: doubts have been raised about this report.

The Alabama Justice Project has obtained documents that reveal a Dothan Police Department’s Internal Affairs investigation was covered up by the district attorney. A group of up to a dozen police officers on a specialized narcotics team were found to have planted drugs and weapons on young black men for years. They were supervised at the time by Lt. Steve Parrish, current Dothan Police Chief, and Sgt. Andy Hughes, current Asst. Director of Homeland Security for the State of Alabama. All of the officers reportedly were members of a Neoconfederate organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center labels “racial extremists.” The group has advocated for blacks to “return” to Africa, published that the civil rights movement is really a Jewish conspiracy, and that blacks have lower IQ’s . Both Parrish and Hughes held leadership positions in the group and are pictured above holding a confederate battle flag at one of the club’s secret meetings.

The documents shared reveal that the internal affairs investigation was covered up to protect the aforementioned officers’ law enforcement careers and keep them from being criminally prosecuted.

Read more here

The Path to Exoneration

This article is the first systematic empirical study of how the American criminal justice system discovers and responds to factual error based on actual innocence. The study analyzes a data set of 260 cases of wrongful conviction of the innocent and 200 near misses (i.e., dismissals and acquittals involving an innocent defendant) to better understand the sources of and bases for exoneration; who is responsible for, as well as who opposes, exoneration; the statistical correlates of exoneration; and the primary methods and mechanisms involved in the path to exoneration.

This study leads to several findings. First, wrongful convictions are difficult to reverse in the absence of dispositive evidence of innocence. The vast majority of exonerations relied on one or two bases, and even then most required DNA evidence. Second, the adversarial nature of the criminal justice system continues from the trial level to subsequent efforts to exonerate the innocent. Police and prosecutors maintain their roles, infrequently playing a central part in investigating or advocating for exoneration and serving as the largest combined source of opposition to exonerations. Finally, exonerations take a long time, even longer when based on DNA evidence, which appears to be the primary basis for clearing defendants.

After examining these findings, the authors advocate for the following changes in the United States criminal justice system: 1) police and prosecutors must take a more active role in the review and reversal of factually erroneous convictions; 2) additional juridical proceedings are needed for the wrongly convicted to prove their innocence even after conviction; 3) efforts must be made to prevent wrongful convictions at the front end because the resources for freeing the wrongly convicted are so limited and the path to exoneration following conviction is filled with formidable challenges.

Full report here Copy here

Darrell Lomax

Darrell Lomax was in the backseat of a car that was pulled over for an illegal lane change. When two handguns were found in the car, Lomax suddenly found himself subjected to a curbside gunshot residue test, which took two hours. He passed—no evidence was found that he’d recently fired a gun. During the course of the traffic stop, several patrol cars brought to the scene witnesses of two earlier crimes, asking if Lomax was involved. None of the witnesses implicated him in either incident. Along with the driver and other passenger of the vehicle, Lomax was still arrested and charged in connection with two armed robberies, one of which ended in the fatal shooting of Nasser Akbar.

Lomax was held from September 1, 1994, until March 13, 1995. On that morning, all charges against Lomax were dropped, but the case against him proceeded anyway, even though the prosecution did not formally refile the complaint or rearrest Lomax. This was technically a violation of the penal code, but Lomax wasn’t informed that the charges had briefly been dropped until years later. In the meantime, he was found guilty, based largely on the testimony of Angela Toler, the other passenger in the vehicle Lomax had been riding in. Toler recieved a lighter sentence in return for her testimoney.

No physical evidence connects Lomax to the murder of Nasser Akbar. No gunshot residue was found on him at the time and his fingerprints were not on either gun. A surviving witness to the robbery stated that there were two assailants: a woman, and a man with dreadlocks, which Lomax did not have. Another witness cleared Lomax in the initial field identification, but later changed his story to match Toler’s. In return, the authorities dropped $1,600 in unpaid parking tickets and a charge for possession of an unregistered handgun against the witness (the official explanation was that authorities were eager to prevent the witness from going to prison, where his life might have been in danger). Prior to the trial, the witness never gave any descriptions that matched Lomax.

Darrell Lomax has been on death row since 1995.

Source

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