After spending more than 11 harsh years in prison for a crime they did not commit, Joseph J. Dick, Jr., Derek E. Tice, and Danial J. Williams, became free men in early August thanks in large part to the legal work of two members of MAIP’s Board of Directors. On August 6, 2009, Governor Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia granted conditional pardons to the Navy veterans known as the “Norfolk Four” but fell short of granting them absolute pardons based on innocence. Gov. Kaine denied the clemency request of Eric C. Wilson, the fourth member of the group, who was…

Anthony Gray had spent seven years in prison for a rape and murder he did not commit before finally being released in February 1999.  In 1991, 38-year-old Linda Mae Pellicano was found stabbed and raped in her Chesapeake Beach, MD home.  Anthony Gray was arrested, and authorities told him that two other men who had been arrested had implicated him, in order to make him confess.  Gray, who has a below-average IQ, did confess, and eventually pleaded guilty to first degree murder and first degree rape, believing that it would allow him to avoid the death penalty.  He was sentenced…

On November 7, 2002, Bernard Webster became the first person to be exonerated under a new Maryland DNA law, after spending twenty years in prison for a break-in and rape he did not commit. In July 1982, a 47-year-old schoolteacher came home to her Towson apartment in the middle of the afternoon.  She heard a rustling in her closet, and when she walked into her bedroom, a black man jumped out and attacked her.  The victim told the jury that the man put what he said was a gun to her back, covered her head with a bathrobe, forced her…

In 1987, Guy "Gordy" Marsh was released from prison after serving 14 years in prison for a murder he did not commit and was set up for by a detective. On June 28th, 1971, Charles Erdman was murdered inside a Glen Burnie, Maryland 7-Eleven on Crain Highway after attempting to stop a robbery that was in progress by two masked men. The main witness against Marsh at trial was Linda Packech, a heroin addict with a lengthy criminal record. She claimed to have seen Marsh come out of the 7-Eleven and raise his mask. Her testimony was the primary evidence…

Thanks in large part to the work of the Innocence Project of Texas, a Dallas man was pardoned by Texas Gov. Rick Perry Wednesday, nearly thirty years after he was wrongfully accused of of raping and killing his girlfriend. James Lee Woodard was originally released from prison in April 2008 after a DNA-retesting program run by the new Dallas District Attorney cleared him of the 1980 murder of  Beverly Ann Jones. He had spent 27 years behind bars for a crime he consistently denied doing. DNA testing was unavailable at the time of the crime. On Wednesday, the Governor officially…

In the five weeks since he was granted a conditional pardon and released from prison, Derek Tice began to start his life over. After twelve years in prison, the Navy veteran landed a construction job and got his first cell phone and e-mail address. On Monday, the member of the group known as the Norfolk Four received a phone call that will change his life forever. U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams vacated Tice's conviction for the 1997 rape and murder of Michelle Moore-Bosko, on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. In doing so, Judge Williams granted the habeas…

After More Than 11 Years, Justice Still Eludes the Norfolk Four After spending more than 11 harsh years in prison for a crime they did not commit, Joseph J. Dick, Jr., Derek E. Tice, and Danial J. Williams, became free men Thursday.  Governor Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia granted conditional pardons to the Navy veterans but fell short of granting absolute pardons based on innocence. A fourth innocent sailor, Eric C. Wilson, was released in 2005 after serving 8 ½ years in prison. His clemency request was denied today by Governor Kaine.

A team of Jones Day attorneys recruited by the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project helped a seventeen-year old boy from Ghana who had been forced into involuntary servitude have his sentence vacated July 30th after being held for months for a crime he could not legally be charged for. The boy, whose name is sealed, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor when he began a relationship with the fifteen-year old daughter of the man with whom he was living.

After twenty-three years behind bars for a murder he did not commit, Robert Lee Stinson was exonerated Monday when prosecutors in Milwaukee County, WI decided not to retry him for the 1984 murder of a 62-year-old woman. Stinson was first released from prison in January, when Judge Patricia McMahon vacated his sentence. However, McMahon gave prosecutors six months to retry him for the murder of Ione Cychosz. However, thanks to the work done by the attorneys at the Wisconsin Innocence Project, prosecutors decided not to pursue a new trial. 

The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project is happy to announce that Aaron Michael Howard was released from prison on Tuesday evening after new evidence, uncovered by Howard’s attorneys nearly 20 years after his conviction, proved that he had not committed a murder for which he was serving a sentence of 21 years to life.  At a hearing last week, the newly discovered evidence had prompted led the lead prosecutor to withdraw from the case, stating that he could no longer defend the jury’s verdict against Howard.  The parties subsequently reached an agreement by which Howard would accept a manslaughter conviction in exchange for immediate release…