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Old 27-11-2019, 08:08 AM #1
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Wink Three innocent men released after 36 years in prison for crime they did not commit...

Three men who spent 36 years behind bars for a murder they did not commit have been released, after they managed to unearth new evidence from prison.

Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew Stewart were teenagers when they were arrested in November 1983 over the murder of 14-year-old DeWitt Duckett in Baltimore, Maryland.

The pupil was shot in the neck and killed for his Georgetown University basketball jacket while walking to a lesson at Harlem Park Junior High School.

Mr Chestnut and Mr Watkins, who were 16 at the time, and Mr Stewart, who was 17, were playing truant from another school to visit former friends and teachers at Harlem Park on the day of the killing, according to CNN.

A security guard testified that he kicked the trio out and watched them walk up the street before locking the school doors at about 12.45pm – half an hour before the shooting, the news channel reports.

The three friends were convicted of the killing based on witness testimonies and a Georgetown University jacket found in Mr Chestnut’s bedroom.

The jacket, however, reportedly had no traces of blood or gunshot residue, and Mr Chestnut’s mother had produced a receipt showing she had bought it recently.

They trio always maintained their innocence and were denied early release from prison because they refused to confess to the shooting.

The case was eventually reopened earlier this year after Mr Chestnut, who never gave up fighting for a review, filed a public records request and uncovered evidence withheld from the defence team and jury during their trial, CNN reports.

Mr Chestnut sent a letter including the new evidence to Baltimore City State attorney Marilyn Mosby’s Conviction Integrity Unit.

Prosecutors now say police reports show multiple witnesses told police that a different suspect, who was 18 at the time of the crime, was the shooter.

One student reported seeing him flee the scene and dump a gun as police arrived at the school, but authorities at the time focused their investigation on the trio.

The new suspect, who was shot dead in 2002, was also allegedly seen wearing Mr Duckett’s jacket and confessing to the murder after the shooting, another witness said.

An assistant prosecutor working on the case told the court in 1984 that the state did not have any reports that would have raised doubts about the three defendants’ guilt, even though police records had statements involving the 18-year-old and also showed trial witnesses had failed to identify the teenagers in photo line-ups.

A judge sealed those documents, but they were among the information Mr Chestnut obtained last year.

Mr Chestnut, Mr Watkins and Mr Stewart were released from custody hours after a judge cleared their convictions and prosecutors dropped the charges on Monday.

Circuit Court Judge Charles Peters told the men: “On behalf of the criminal justice system, and I’m sure this means very little to you gentlemen, I’m going to apologise”, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Ms Mosby said the result was a “tragedy”, not a “victory”.

Shawn Armbrust, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, which represents Mr Watkins, said: “Everyone involved in this case – school officials, police, prosecutors, jurors, the media, and the community – rushed to judgment and allowed their tunnel vision to obscure obvious problems with the evidence.

“This case should be a lesson to everyone that the search for quick answers can lead to tragic results.”


https://uk.news.yahoo.com/three-inno...114157881.html
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Old 27-11-2019, 08:47 AM #2
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thank goodness technology has advanced as much as it has. I'm sure there are many innocents that ended up behind bars from that era and earlier.
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Old 27-11-2019, 08:50 AM #3
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yes but we must not judge the law based on the tech of today, they did the best they could with the tools they had back in the day.
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Old 27-11-2019, 08:54 AM #4
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That’s what happens when lazy officials just want to further their career, they’ll force a case to fit anyone they want by any means so they can get a conviction under their belt, awful, those men should take the state for everything they’ve got, it’ll be no conciliation but it would be something, bless them
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Old 27-11-2019, 08:57 AM #5
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That’s what happens when lazy officials just want to further their career, they’ll force a case to fit anyone they want by any means so they can get a conviction under their belt, awful, those men should take the state for everything they’ve got, it’ll be no conciliation but it would be something, bless them
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Old 27-11-2019, 09:08 AM #6
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I thought Ammi was remaking the A-team with that thread title.
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Old 27-11-2019, 09:11 AM #7
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yes but we must not judge the law based on the tech of today, they did the best they could with the tools they had back in the day.
If the best they could is locking people up for decades eith no evidence while letting the person who witnesses identified get away with it then it must make you wonder how they got the job in the first place
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Old 27-11-2019, 09:15 AM #8
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If the best they could is locking people up for decades eith no evidence while letting the person who witnesses identified get away with it then it must make you wonder how they got the job in the first place
its easy to judge based on scant info decades later
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Old 27-11-2019, 09:17 AM #9
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its easy to judge based on scant info decades later
Well the facts are humourous people identified someone else and the witnesses didnt recognised any of the people found guilty In the identity parade.

The problem is they decide who is guilty based on opinion not facts
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Old 27-11-2019, 09:19 AM #10
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Yes Lucky
they are still alive and now free
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Old 27-11-2019, 09:20 AM #11
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Yes Lucky
they are still alive and now free
I wouldnt call it lucky, they have lost their whole lives to a crime they didnt commit, life on the outside will be nothing like how they left it and they will struggle to adapt
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Old 27-11-2019, 09:21 AM #12
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Yes Lucky
they are still alive and now free
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Old 27-11-2019, 09:54 AM #13
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Those young boys and their families lost being together for all those years, all the things we take for granted.
Nothing can ever compensate for the loss of all those years, going to jail as youngsters and being released in their fifties.
Shame on all those responsible.
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Old 27-11-2019, 11:10 AM #14
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Tragic circumstance and will take them a lot, lot longer to become accustomed to life outside of prison. To serve a sentence from 1984 to 2019 for a crime you did not commit is just unfathomable.
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Old 27-11-2019, 11:15 AM #15
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That's awful, it's great they got out but 36 years gone
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Old 27-11-2019, 11:24 AM #16
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It's funny how this whole complicated case can be so boiled down all these years later. People generally want the right people punished, not the wrong people. Anyhoo, a tragic event.
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Old 27-11-2019, 02:14 PM #17
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It's funny how this whole complicated case can be so boiled down all these years later. People generally want the right people punished, not the wrong people. Anyhoo, a tragic event.
Whilst that is true, I fear that a lot of people (for various reasons) also generally want SOMEONE when it can't be the right person. Whether that's the general public who want to feel like a murder has been solved and they are therefore safe, or criminal investigators who are under pressure to produce results.
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Old 27-11-2019, 02:44 PM #18
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Yes Lucky
they are still alive and now free
I wouldn't exactly call them lucky.
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Old 27-11-2019, 03:08 PM #19
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Three men who spent 36 years behind bars for a murder they did not commit have been released, after they managed to unearth new evidence from prison.



Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew Stewart were teenagers when they were arrested in November 1983 over the murder of 14-year-old DeWitt Duckett in Baltimore, Maryland.



The pupil was shot in the neck and killed for his Georgetown University basketball jacket while walking to a lesson at Harlem Park Junior High School.



Mr Chestnut and Mr Watkins, who were 16 at the time, and Mr Stewart, who was 17, were playing truant from another school to visit former friends and teachers at Harlem Park on the day of the killing, according to CNN.



A security guard testified that he kicked the trio out and watched them walk up the street before locking the school doors at about 12.45pm – half an hour before the shooting, the news channel reports.



The three friends were convicted of the killing based on witness testimonies and a Georgetown University jacket found in Mr Chestnut’s bedroom.



The jacket, however, reportedly had no traces of blood or gunshot residue, and Mr Chestnut’s mother had produced a receipt showing she had bought it recently.



They trio always maintained their innocence and were denied early release from prison because they refused to confess to the shooting.



The case was eventually reopened earlier this year after Mr Chestnut, who never gave up fighting for a review, filed a public records request and uncovered evidence withheld from the defence team and jury during their trial, CNN reports.



Mr Chestnut sent a letter including the new evidence to Baltimore City State attorney Marilyn Mosby’s Conviction Integrity Unit.



Prosecutors now say police reports show multiple witnesses told police that a different suspect, who was 18 at the time of the crime, was the shooter.



One student reported seeing him flee the scene and dump a gun as police arrived at the school, but authorities at the time focused their investigation on the trio.



The new suspect, who was shot dead in 2002, was also allegedly seen wearing Mr Duckett’s jacket and confessing to the murder after the shooting, another witness said.



An assistant prosecutor working on the case told the court in 1984 that the state did not have any reports that would have raised doubts about the three defendants’ guilt, even though police records had statements involving the 18-year-old and also showed trial witnesses had failed to identify the teenagers in photo line-ups.



A judge sealed those documents, but they were among the information Mr Chestnut obtained last year.



Mr Chestnut, Mr Watkins and Mr Stewart were released from custody hours after a judge cleared their convictions and prosecutors dropped the charges on Monday.



Circuit Court Judge Charles Peters told the men: “On behalf of the criminal justice system, and I’m sure this means very little to you gentlemen, I’m going to apologise”, the Baltimore Sun reported.



Ms Mosby said the result was a “tragedy”, not a “victory”.



Shawn Armbrust, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, which represents Mr Watkins, said: “Everyone involved in this case – school officials, police, prosecutors, jurors, the media, and the community – rushed to judgment and allowed their tunnel vision to obscure obvious problems with the evidence.



“This case should be a lesson to everyone that the search for quick answers can lead to tragic results.”





https://uk.news.yahoo.com/three-inno...114157881.html


They should get those ‘involved’ who are still alive and put THEM all through the justice system ..


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Old 27-11-2019, 03:10 PM #20
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That's awful, it's great they got out but 36 years gone


.... how the world has changed in 36 years ..


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Old 27-11-2019, 03:14 PM #21
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.... how the world has changed in 36 years ..


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Yeah big time, they were still kids when they went in pretty much
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Old 27-11-2019, 03:14 PM #22
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Disgusting that it took 36 years when the evidence was there all along, the police did not do their jobs.

Last edited by thesheriff443; 27-11-2019 at 03:15 PM.
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Old 27-11-2019, 04:02 PM #23
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Disgusting that it took 36 years when the evidence was there all along, the police did not do their jobs.


Sounds like a lot of people didn’t do their jobs ... well after the police were involved


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Old 27-11-2019, 05:13 PM #24
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This happens far too much its frightening
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Old 27-11-2019, 05:46 PM #25
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...I just could never ever imagine what it must feel like to know that you’re innocent, but to be convicted and sent to prison...and then to feel that somehow...it’ll all be realised as wrongful and the right murderers will be found..?...and then year after year after year...so much of their lives gone.....it’s inconceivable and heart breaking...
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