Phillip Thurman was granted a full pardon by then-Virginia Governor Mark Warner in 2005 after DNA evidence proved that Thurman had spent 19 years in prison for a rape, abduction and assault he did not commit.

In the early morning of December 30, 1984, a 37-year-old woman was abducted, beaten, raped and strangled by an unknown African-American man while she was waiting at a bus stop in Alexandria, VA.

Shortly after the victim told police her assailant was tall, think and wearing a green jacket, Thurman was found near the crime scene matching the description the victim gave.  The victim and another witness later identified Thurman as the assailant.  Mistaken witness identification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions.

Mary Jane Burton, an analyst at a Virginia state crime lab, analyzed biological evidence found on the victim’s underwear.  Under the limited forensic technology available at the time, all Burton was able to confirm was that the assailant had Type B blood type.  Though Thurman does have Type B blood, it is a type shared by 20 percent of African-American men.

Thurman was convicted and sentenced to 31 years in prison.  He served 20 years before being released on parole, at age 50, on November 17, 2004.  Throughout his prison stay, he maintained his innocence and wrote to lawyers, judges, lawmakers and organizations asking for help.  When he was released, he was forced to register in Virginia as a sex offender.

After Burton died in 1999, it was discovered that she kept samples of many of the cases she analyzed.  In 2001, 2003 and 2004, tests using her samples proved that Marvin Anderson , Julius Earl Ruffin and Arthur Whitfield were all innocent of the crimes they were convicted of.

Thanks in part to the urging of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, then Gov. Warner decided to test a random sample of the evidence left behind by Burton.  On December 14, 2005, Gov. Warner announced that of the 31 samples tested, two indicated that the wrong man was convicted of the crime: Phillip Thurman and Willie Davidson.

The testing used the same sample Burton analyzed from the victim’s underwear.  On December 14, 2005, Gov. Warner announced that not only did the testing exclude Mr. Thurman, but it also produced a cold hit from a known rapist in Virginia’s DNA database.  

On December 22, 2005, Gov. Warner issued a pardon for both Thurman and Davidson.  Thurman was eventually given an undisclosed amount in compensation for his wrongful conviction.

The results of these experimental tests proved that a number of wrongfully convicted people could prove their innocence through the DNA samples that Mary Jane Burton kept.  As a result, Gov. Warner fully authorized the Old Case Testing Project, which MAIP is helping to coordinate to guarantee that every case sample Burton maintained could be tested.

Willie Davidson spent 12 years in prison for a rape he did not commit before a DNA test proved his innocence.  Not only did his case help clear his name, but it paved the way for other wrongfully convicted people in Virginia to prove their innocence and win their freedom.

On November 27, 1980, Thanksgiving Day, a 66-year-old Norfolk woman woke up in the middle of the night to find a masked man wearing gloves, a cap and a coat sexually assaulting her. 

While being interviewed by police, the victim did not give any indication of knowing her attacker.  However, after police informants led police to Willie Davidson, the victim picked him out of a photo lineup, saying he had been at her house the day before her attack.  Days later, Davidson was brought to the jail wearing a stocking over his head, where the victim stated that he looked like her attacker.  Mistaken witness identification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions.

At trial, a lab analyst testified that semen was found on tissues that the perpetrator used to clean himself after the rape.  Serology testing revealed Type O blood on the tissue, the same blood type as the victim.  Because Davidson is a nonsecretor, semen and other bodily fluids cannot determine his blood type.  The analyst testified that the perpetrator could have only had Type O blood or have been a nonsecretor.  This testimony contradicted with known serological truths.  In fact, because the victim’s blood could have masked the semen of any perpetrator, no blood type could have been excluded by the tests.  This testimony was highly misleading to the jury.

Furthermore, the analyst testified that one pubic hair found on the crime scene was “consistent” with Mr. Davidson’s public hair.  Hair examination is not considered a science and is completely based on the physical observations of the analyst.

The victim also testified at trial that she had known Mr. Davidson and his family all his life.  Davidson’s family had moved away for many years and she had not seen him again until his family visited the victim’s house the day before the attack.

Despite the weak evidence against him, Davidson was convicted of rape, sodomy and robbery and convicted to 20 years in prison.  He was released on parole in 1993 after serving 12 years.  As part of his parole, Davidson was forced to register as a sex offender and spend over a decade outside of prison as a convicted rapist.

After Virginia Department of Forensic Science analyst Mary Jane Burton died in 1999, it was discovered that she kept samples of many of the cases she analyzed.  In 2001, 2003 and 2004, tests using her samples proved that Marvin Anderson , Julius Earl Ruffin and Arthur Whitfield were all innocent of the crimes they were convicted of.

Thanks in part to the urging of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, then Gov. Warner decided to test a random sample of the evidence left behind by Burton.  On December 14, 2005, Gov. Warner announced that of the 31 samples tested, two indicated that the wrong man was convicted of the crime: Phillip Thurman and Willie Davidson.

On December 22, 2005, Gov. Warner issued a pardon for both Thurman and Davidson.  Davidson was eventually given an undisclosed amount in compensation for his wrongful conviction.

The results of these experimental tests proved that a number of wrongfully convicted people could prove their innocence through the DNA samples that Mary Jane Burton kept.  As a result, Gov. Warner began the Old Case Testing Project, which MAIP is helping to coordinate to guarantee that every case sample Burton maintained could be tested.

Nearly three decades after he was convicted of brutal rape and murder that he did not commit, Donald Gates was freed December 15, 2009 by a District of Columbia Superior Court Judge after DNA evidence proved that another man committed the crime.

Mr. Gates has always maintained his innocence.  Now, thanks to the hard work of Parisa Deghani-Tafti and others from the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, he finally has regained his freedom. 
     
Gates was convicted for the June 1981 murder of Catherine Schilling in Rock Creek Park. Prosecutors claimed that the 21-year-old Schilling was on her way home from work when Gates attempted to rob her. When she resisted, they said, he raped her and then shot her in the head.

FBI Special Agent Michael Malone told jurors that two pubic hairs found on Schilling’s body were microscopically identical to a sample taken from Gates.  A woman also testified that Gates tried to rob her in the same park less than three weeks earlier. A convicted felon also testified that Gates confessed the crime to him shortly after it occurred.

Gates has always maintained his innocence on these charges and claims to have never met the informant Gerald Mack Smith, who was paid over $1000 to provide his testimony.  Four other cases that Smith had been paid to testify in eventually were dismissed. Incentivized snitch testimony is one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions.

It later surfaced that Malone had given false testimony in a series of murder cases across the country. Malone was singled out in a report by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, and his record was the subject of a Wall Street Journal investigation. Malone later admitted to lying on the stand in a death penalty case in Florida, the defense wrote.  Lab fraud is another leading contributor of wrongful convictions.

In 2008, PDS filed a motion to have further DNA testing done on Schillings's remains. Those and subsequent tests showed that Gates didn't commit the crime and also DNA of a man who tests say cannot have been Gates.

During a review of Malone’s work, the Justice Department asked the District’s U.S. Attorney’s Office to look at the Gates’ case. In 2003, a forensic scientist found that Malone’s lab report was not supported by his notes. Defense lawyers claim those findings were passed on to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, but never were revealed to Gates’ counsel.
       
"This is outrageous," Judge Ugast said in regards to Malone’s faulty analysis. He ordered a review of all convictions in the District in which Malone testified. "We are trying to right a wrong," he said.

Gates, now 58, was released from prison with $75 and a bus ticket to Ohio.  Since his exoneration, Gates has moved to Knox County, TN to be with family.  He has not yet been compensated for his wrongful conviction.

Click here to watch MAIP Executive Director Shawn Armbrust discuss the case with DC's Fox 5 News.

Among its extensive coverage of the case, the Washington Post wrote this editorial of the Gates case, and also caught up with him a few weeks after his exoneration to see how he was settling to his new life.       

Thanks to the work of attorneys at the Florida Innocence Project, James Bain was exonerated Thursday after serving 35 years behind bars for a rape that he did not commit.

Not only did Bain become the 248th person exonerated thanks to DNA testing, but he also spent more time in prison than any of the other DNA exonerees.  It took Bain eight years to have his DNA tested by the state.  As soon as the results were fully analyzed, Polk County prosecutors and the judge agreed that the conviction should be vacated.
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Nearly three decades after he was convicted of brutal rape and murder that he did not commit, Donald Gates was freed Tuesday by a D.C. Superior Court Judge after DNA evidence proved that another man committed the crime.

Mr. Gates has always maintained his innocence.  Now, thanks to the hard work of Parisa Deghani-Tafti and others from the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, he finally has regained his freedom.  

Judge Fred Ugast’s ruling frees Gates, but it does not exonerate him.  Prosecutors requested additional testing to verify the results, and a separate hearing next week to make a final determination.
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Chris Conover spent 18 years in prison for a murder he did not commit before DNA evidence led to his release. 

In the late hours of October 20, 1984, three men broke into the Baltimore home of noted drug dealer Charles "Squeaky" Jordan.  Jordan, his wife and stepdaughter were all shot execution style.  The wife, Linda Jordan, survived the attack and described her assailants as two black men and a white man. She later identified African-American and fellow drug dealer Gregory Jones, as the trigger man in the murders.  Still lacking a white suspect, police zeroed in on Conover because of his history of drug-related arrests.  When shown his picture in a photo array, Linda Jordan stated that he "resembled" the white man she had seen.  She later selected him out of a lineup.

At trial, Conover presented numerous witnesses who testified that they had seen him at a birthday party at the time of the killings. In response, the prosecution presented the testimony of an FBI agent, who stated that microscopic examination of hairs found on victim Lisa Lynn Brown's body came from Conover. 

Chris Conover was convicted on May 23, 1985 and sentenced to life imprisonment. In prison, Conover tutored other inmates and was elected to the "Inmate Advisory Council." 

After ten years in prison, the New York City-based Innocence Project accepted his case. In 2001, DNA testing conclusively proved that the hairs found at the crime scene belonged to two white men, neither of whom was Conover.  Nevertheless, prosecutors continued to insist that Conover was guilty and threatened to retry him.  In 2003, Conover came to an agreement with prosecutors, whereby he was released from prison in return for an Alford plea.  By the terms of this plea, Conover maintained his innocence, but acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. Thus, despite the physical evidence indicating his innocence, Conover has not been formally exonerated.  While the deal was not ideal for Conover, he chose accepted it in order to spare for their pain for his elderly mother and alleviate the recurrent panic attacks he suffered in prison.

Upon his release in 2003, Conover lived with his mother in her Towson apartment and acquired a job as a title researcher from a childhood friend.  His girlfriend has remained faithful to him since his 1984 arrest and they have reunited since his release. In an interview after his release, he told the Baltimore Sun that he simply wants to be a "regular old person."

Unfortunately, prosecutors maintain that they did not make a mistake in charging Chris Conover with murder.  They attribute the DNA results to a lucky break and steadfastly maintain their belief in his guilt.  As such, the hairs used to exclude Conover through DNA testing, have not been run through the state's database of DNA profiles.  Furthermore, DNA found in one of the victim’s underpants has not been tested, despite the Innocence Project’s stated willingness to pay all fees associated with the testing.  As of 2009, no one else has been charged with the Jordan and Brown murders.

Seven years after Henry Myron Roberts died in prison while serving time for a murder he did not commit, prosecutors acknowledged that they convicted the wrong man.

According to Roberts, an armed man broke into his home in the middle of the night on May 11, 1991, and attempted to steal his television. The two men got into an argument and Roberts was shot in the chest. His nephew Henry Robert Harrison, who was staying with him at the time, was mistakenly shot at by the assailant and killed.

After suffering serious wounds, Roberts passed out. Upon regaining consciousness, Roberts found his nephew dead. While hospitalized for his wounds and recovering from surgery, Roberts gave several inconsistent descriptions of his attacker.  Furthermore, prosecutors identified the murder weapon as a .22 caliber handgun registered to Roberts and found buried in a nearby creek handgun. Roberts claimed that it had been stolen in a previous robbery. Prosecutors contended that Roberts was the killer and had purposely shot himself to cover up the crime.

The 63 year old Roberts steadfastly maintained his innocence, but initially sought to avoid jail time by agreeing to a plea bargain that would have resulted in a suspended sentence for manslaughter. However, Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Johnson rejected the plea deal as unduly lenient. Roberts went to trial and was convicted of second degree murder in January 1992. Throughout his prison sentence, Roberts proclaimed his innocence.

Shortly after Roberts had been sentenced, an anonymous female caller told police that 18 year old Robert James Tomczewski had committed the crime. This tip was filed away and Henry Roberts languished in prison. In 2000, a new witness came forward and implicated Tomczewski. Richard D. Stone told police that he witnessed Tomczewski break into Roberts’ home on the night in question and heard the subsequent gun shots. Stone was seventeen at the time of the murder and came forward nine years later after being racked with guilt. Tomczewski was interviewed while incarcerated on an unrelated assault charge. He initially denied any knowledge of the murder. However, his cellmate told police that Tomczewski had previously confessed that “a long time ago, he had killed a guy in an old man’s house.” Tomczewski pleaded guilty to the murder in 2002 and was given a ten year sentence.

When prosecutors sought Henry Roberts’ release from prison, they learned that he had died of heart failure on December 22, 1995, after collapsing outside of his cell at the Maryland House of Corrections. He was 65. Roberts maintained his innocence until the very end, but did not live to see his vindication.

Thanks to the work of a legal team led by MAIP Board Member Barry Pollack, a New York man who spent seventeen years behind bars for a murder he did not commit was exonerated last week.

Despite the lack of any forensic evidence, Fernando Bermudez was convicted of the 1991 shooting of then sixteen-year-old Raymond Blount outside a New York City nightclub.  Blount was shot on the street shortly after punching another teenager, Efraim Lopez, in the Marc Ballroom near Manhattan’s Union Square.  Lopez testified at trial as a cooperating witness, implicating Bermudez as the shooter.

In the years after Bermudez was convicted, all five eyewitnesses against him, Lopez and four eyewitnesses who had testified at trial identifying Bermudez as the shooter, recanted their testimony.  Three of those witnesses reiterated that their trial testimony was inaccurate in a hearing this September.  Other eyewitnesses at that hearing also testified that Bermudez was not the person who shot Mr. Blount.  At the hearing, significant evidence was also presented implicating another individual, a drug dealer who was a friend of Lopez, as the murderer.
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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 released in 2005 after serving 8 ½ years in prison.Just over a month later, Tice received even more complete relief when a federal judge granted his petition for habeas corpus, setting the stage for his conviction to be officially vacated."

While we are glad that Joe, Derek and Danial will finally be coming home to their families," said Tice’s attorney Desmond Hogan, "we are gravely disappointed that Governor Kaine has disregarded the overwhelming evidence of innocence, which proves only one man was responsible for this tragic crime."

Teams of lawyers at three national law firms have been representing Williams, Tice and Dick, who were serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole, on a pro bono basis for the past five years. The law firm teams were led by two MAIP Board Members, Donald Salzman of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and Hogan of Hogan & Hartson, representing Williams and Tice, respectively and by George Kendall, who at the time was working at Holland & Knight on behalf of Dick.

On September 14, US District Judge Richard Williams vacated Tice’s conviction on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. In his ruling, Judge Williams agreed with Tice’s attorneys that if Tice’s trial attorney had moved to suppress his confession, which the court found was obtained despite Tice’s invocation of his right to silence, “there is a reasonable probability that Tice would not have been convicted," and “the prosecution’s case against Tice [is] awash in doubt, Williams wrote. Under the term of the conditional pardon, the convictions still stand for Williams and Dick.

The four Navy men were wrongfully convicted based on false confessions extracted after they were subjected to high-pressure interrogation tactics, including threats of the death penalty and questionable use of lie detector tests.  The details in the men’s confessions did not match the crime scene, the other confessions, or the confession of the real killer.

All of the DNA and forensic evidence in the Norfolk Four case pointed to one man, Omar Ballard, and only his confession matched the physical evidence. Ballard is now serving a life sentence for the crime and has sworn under oath that he committed the crime by himself.

With Tice, Dick and Williams on their way home, their families took immediate steps to help them reintegrate into their communities. The men have been meeting with social workers and job counselors to help them make the adjustment, but they have a tough road ahead of them because convictions remain on their record for a crime they did not commit.

"Though we are overjoyed to finally have our sons back, we are saddened that Governor Kaine failed to recognize their actual innocence," said Larry Tice. "Our sons lost more than a decade of their lives. We must make sure that a tragedy like this one never strikes another family.”

Because false confessions are such a common cause of wrongful convictions, MAIP advocates for reforms that can reduce the risk of such confessions.  These reforms include legislation mandating the electronic recording of interrogations in their entirety and training for police officers on proper interrogation tactics.

“This case – and the frequency of false confessions in criminal cases – shows that common sense reforms like the videotaping of interrogations are needed to protect the innocent and our communities,” said MAIP Executive Director Shawn Armbrust. “We must work to ensure that no other innocent people suffer as the Norfolk Four did.”

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 to two concurrent life sentences, while the other two men were not found guilty.

Five years later, in 1997, police arrested a man named Anthony Fleming for breaking and entering.  Hoping for a plea deal in that case, Fleming talked to police about details of the Pellicano murder that were never publicized, which aroused suspicion that he had been involved. DNA testing of the semen from the crime scene confirmed a match with Fleming, who then pled guilty to the 1991 rape and murder.  He was sentenced to life in prison.

After Fleming was arrested, Calvert County State's Attorney Robert Riddle, who had long expressed doubts about Gray’s innocence, spent fifteen months making sure that Gray could not have been an accomplice. Anthony Gray remained in prison during this time until February 8, 1999, when he walked out of the Calvert County, Md. courthouse a free man.

Like most exonerees, Gray has sought out compensation from the government, but according to a Maryland statute, the Board of Public Works cannot award any money unless the wrongfully convicted person first receives a pardon from the governor.  Gray has not yet been pardoned, so he has yet to receive compensation for his eight years spent in prison.