Location |
Defendant(s) |
Date of Alleged Crime |
Atlantic
County, NJ |
Clarence Moore |
Jan 14, 1986 (Somers Point) |
Clarence
Moore, a black
man, was convicted of raping a white woman. The woman identified Moore
after her memory of the incident was refreshed using hypnosis. Hypnotically
refreshed testimony is barred in many states, but was not in New Jersey.
Moore was freed after serving 15 years of a life sentence for rape. An
appeals court found that he was convicted largely because the victim gave
racially prejudiced testimony. In summation at trial, the prosecutor stated
that because Moore's wife and the victim were white, Moore had a
predilection for white women. The federal appeals court labeled those
remarks “outrageous” and “offensive.” (CM) [7/05] |
Atlantic
County, NJ |
Jim Andros |
Apr 1, 2001 (Pleasantville) |
Jim
Andros, an
Atlantic City police officer, was charged with suffocating his wife. Twenty
months later charges were dropped after prosecutors concluded she died of a
rare heart condition. (NY
Times) [9/05] |
Burlington County, NJ |
Michael Dirago |
Apr 16, 1985 |
Michael Dirago was convicted of
the murder of his girlfriend in Burlington County. However, the body
was not found there and there is
little reason to believe that the murder occurred in Burlington
County. (See Pennsylvania - Bucks County - Michael Dirago) [3/08] |
Burlington
County, NJ |
Larry Peterson |
Aug 24, 1987 |
Larry
Peterson was
convicted of raping and murdering Jacqueline Harrison, 25, near a Pemberton
Township soybean field. At trial four witnesses testified that he confessed
to the murder. An expert testified at his trial that hairs found at the
crime scene resembled Peterson's. Peterson, however, had an alibi. In
addition, one witness testified that he confessed on his way to work, but
work records indicated that he did not work on the day in question. In
2005, DNA tests cleared Peterson and implicated an unknown assailant.
Peterson's conviction was vacated in May 2006. (Trenton
Star-Ledger)
(IP)
[9/05] |
Essex County,
NJ |
Bill MacFarland |
Oct 17, 1911 (Newark) |
William Allison MacFarland, also
known as “Bill,” took cyanide home from the plant where he worked. He used
it to make a solution of the poison for his wife, who had used it to clean
her jewelry and silverware. Bill explained he had taken an almost empty
bromide bottle and poured the contents into another bromide bottle, which
was almost full. He then funneled the poison solution into the now empty
bromide bottle. To avoid any possible confusion, he affixed a poison label
on the bromide bottle containing the cyanide. Bill then placed both bottles
on a bathroom shelf.
Read
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|
Essex County,
NJ |
Raffaelo Morello |
Convicted 1918 |
Raffaelo E. Morello, a
recent immigrant to the U.S., was
convicted of murdering his wife in 1918, after he admitted
through an interpreter that "she brought it on." In prison he learned
English and realized the interpreter mistranslated his Italian. Morello was
exonerated of the crime in 1926. (Google) [4/08] |
Essex County,
NJ |
Jorge De Los Santos |
Jan 10, 1975 |
Jorge "Chiefie" De Los Santos
was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Robert Thomas, a Newark used-car salesman.
Former U.S. District Court Judge Frederick B. Lacey said testimony from a
jailhouse witness “reeked of perjury,” and the prosecutor knew it.
Centurion Ministries uncovered new evidence that freed De Los Santos in July
1983. De Los Santos was the first individual aided by Centurion Ministries,
an organization that has helped to free over 30 individuals. (CM) [5/05] |
Essex County,
NJ |
Rene Santana |
Arrested 1976 |
Rene
Santana served
10 years in prison for the murder of an apartment building superintendent.
Centurion Ministries' investigation showed the state's star witness had a
secret deal with prosecutors in which charges were dropped against him in
exchange for false testimony. Santana was freed in Feb. 1986. Before his
release, the witness visited him in prison and apologized. (CM) [5/05] |
Essex County,
NJ |
Berryman & Bunch |
1983 |
Earl Berryman
and Michael Bunch were convicted of a 1983 rape. Bunch later died of
illness in prison. U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise expressed
"very serious doubt" that Berryman was involved in the crime. A
Centurion Ministries investigation showed that the lead police investigator
in the case also had grave doubts about the victim's identification of
Berryman.
The victim
initially identified Berryman and Bunch from a mug book labeled “B,” which
contained photographs of all individuals with names beginning with that
letter. The victim had earlier reviewed the “A” book and was told by police
that, unless she could identify the suspects quickly, she would have to look
through mug books for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet, each
containing more than 150 pictures. The record also shows that she gave
vastly different physical descriptions of her assailants on three separate
occasions, all of which varied substantially from Berryman's and Bunch’s
actual physical features. (NACDL)
(CM) [7/05] |
Essex County,
NJ |
Kelly Michaels |
Convicted 1988 (Maplewood) |
Kelly Michaels was a
Wee Care day
care worker accused of sexual abuse. (CrimeMagazine) (Famous
Trials)
[7/05] |
Essex County,
NJ |
John Dixon |
Dec 23, 1990 |
After being
identified by a victim of kidnapping, rape, and robbery, John Dixon pleaded
guilty to the crime out of fear of a harsher sentence if convicted by a
jury. He later asked a judge to withdraw his plea and perform DNA testing.
Dixon's appeals were unsuccessful at first, but eventually DNA testing was
done and Dixon was exonerated after serving 10 years of 45-year sentence. (IP)
(TruthInJustice)
[5/05] |
Hudson County,
NJ |
James Landano |
Aug 13, 1976 |
Vincent James Landano was
convicted of the murder of Police Officer John Snow. On Aug. 13, 1976,
two gunmen robbed the Hi-Way Check Cashing Service in Kearny. One went
inside, while the other waited in a getaway car. As the robbery was in
progress, John Snow, a Newark police officer, arrived in his patrol car with
an attaché case containing $46,000 to be delivered to the business.
Before Snow could get out of his car, the outside gunman walked up to the
patrol car and shot Snow at point-blank range. The gunman then took
the attaché case and got into his car, while the the other gunman left the
check-cashing service with a cash drawer containing about $6,000. This
gunman put the drawer on the roof of the car and jumped into the back seat.
The car sped away leaving $6,000 fluttering in the air behind it.
A man arrested
for the crime, Allen Rollo, admitted being the inside gunman, and identified
Landano as his partner, the one who shot Snow. Centurion
Ministries discovered a hidden police report in which the only eyewitness to
the murder identified another man as the shooter. When the case was
retried, the jury deliberated for less than an hour and acquitted Landano in
1989. Jurors later celebrated with him at a victory party. (NY
Times) (CM) [4/08] |
Hunterdon
County, NJ |
John Edward Schuyler |
Jan 19, 1907 (Califon) |
John Edward
Schuyler was
convicted of the murder of Manning Riley and sentenced to death. The
conviction was based entirely on circumstantial evidence. Schuyler was
pardoned in 1914 after another man, Frank Bird, confessed to the crime.
(MOJIPCC) (Phila Inquirer) (Democrat-Advisor)
[7/07] |
Mercer County,
NJ |
Trenton Six |
Jan 27, 1948 (Trenton) |
Ralph Cooper, 24, Collis English,
23, McKinlay Forrest, 35, John McKenzie, 24, James Thorpe, 34, and Horace
Wilson, 37, all blacks, were convicted by an all white jury of the murder of
William Horner, an elderly white shopkeeper. All were sentenced to death.
Horner died after being hit on the head with a soda bottle. Horner's wife,
could not agree on how many men were actually involved with the attack, only
that it was two to four light-skinned blacks in their teens.
Five of the
six arrested signed inconsistent confessions, which were obtained by police
coercion. All six had solid alibis and repudiated the confessions. The
police refused to say whose fingerprints they found on the bottle. Some of
the defendants were represented by NAACP attorneys, one of who was Thurgood
Marshall, who later became a U.S. Supreme Court justice. During appeals of
the convictions, trumped-up evidence was revealed and the Trenton medical
examiner was found guilty of perjury. During a third trial in 1951, after
an intervening mistrial, all defendants except English and Cooper were
acquitted. The convictions of the latter two were overturned in 1952, and
they were never retried. The Communist Daily Worker called the Trenton Six
proceedings, “a northern Scottsboro case.” |
Middlesex
County, NJ |
Shephard & Lester |
Convicted 1935 & 1936 |
Clifford
Shephard and C. Elizabeth Lester were both convicted twice of forgery after
being identified as passers of bad checks. Shepard was arrested a third
time for forgery, but the grand jury refused to indict, because he had been
behind bars at the time of the crime. Shepard was pardoned in 1950 and
Lester was pardoned in 1951 after the actual culprits confessed. Shephard
was later awarded $15,000 for 27 months of wrongful imprisonment. (Time) |
Middlesex
County, NJ |
Nathaniel Harvey |
June 16, 1985 (Plainsboro) |
Nathaniel
Harvey was
convicted of murdering Irene Schnaps, 37, and is awaiting execution. Harvey
suffered from a flawed investigation, contaminated evidence, false
testimony, and attorney error. An alternate suspect, who knew the victim
and had been romantically rejected by her, had decisively failed a
polygraph. The brutality of murder suggests the perpetrator, unlike Harvey,
knew the victim. In addition, Harvey was a burglar and would not likely
have left valuables behind at the murder scene. (NY
Times) [7/05] |
Middlesex
County, NJ |
McKinley Cromedy |
Aug 28, 1992 |
McKinley
Cromedy was
convicted of raping and robbing a 20-year-old Rutgers University student.
The crime occurred in the victim's New Brunswick apartment. The victim
viewed a photographic array that included Cromedy a few days after the rape
but did not pick him out. Seven months later, while walking in New
Brunswick, she saw Cromedy carrying a boom box and called police to report
him as the rapist. None of the forensic
evidence found on the victim matched Cromedy. DNA tests exonerated him
after he served 5 years of a 60-year sentence. (IP)
[5/05] |
Monmouth
County, NJ |
George Parker |
Mar 26, 1980 (Howell Twp) |
George
Parker was
convicted of aggravated manslaughter for the shooting death of Donna Lynn
Smith, 25. Smith's body was found in Allaire State Park in Howell
Township. Smith had gone to the park with Parker, Pamela Pope, Carol
Hancock, and James Covington. Hancock was Pope's sister, while
Covington was Parker's brother. According to an appellate court, Pope,
then age 29, believed that Smith had broken her nephew's arm and she wanted
Parker to beat Smith. However, Pope took Parker's gun and shot Smith
twice, killing her.
Parker at first
confessed to the crime, but he recanted it at trial saying he confessed
because he loved Pope’s two children and thought Pope was pregnant with his
child. Pope and Hancock denied being at park at the time of the
shooting. Covington did not witness the shooting because he was asleep
in the car at the time. Parker was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Pope was later
convicted of Smith's murder as well as committing perjury at Parker's trial.
Hancock was also convicted of perjury. Parker's conviction was
overturned in 1986 and he was freed on bail. It is doubtful that he
will be retried as the state essentially conceded that his confession was
false. (NY Times) (MOJIPCC)
[7/09] |
Monmouth
County, NJ |
Damaso Vega |
July 30, 1980 (Long Branch) |
Damaso
Vega was
convicted of murdering Maria Rodriguez, the 16-year-old daughter of his best friend.
Rodriguez was strangled with a belt and her body was found in
her Long Branch apartment by her live-in boyfriend. Two of the
witnesses against Vega were his friends. One was best man at Vega's
wedding. In 1989, both of these witnesses recanted their testimony and
said they had lied under pressure from a detective. Vega
was freed in Nov. 1989 after a Superior Court judge ruled that the
primary witnesses against him had lied at his trial. All three had
recanted at an earlier post-conviction evidentiary hearing. The judge also
apologized to Vega for his false imprisonment. (CM)
(NY
Times) [7/05] |
Passaic
County, NJ |
Rubin Carter |
June 17, 1966 (Paterson) |
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a contender for
middleweight boxing title of the world, was convicted of a triple homicide.
His acquaintance, John Artis, was also convicted. In 1974, while in jail,
Carter published a book entitled The Sixteenth Round, From No. 1
Contender to #45472. The book was discovered by Bob Dylan, who made
Carter a folk hero with the release of the song "Hurricane" and led to a
public outcry that was largely responsible for his retrial in 1976. Carter
was also supported by Coretta Scott King, Muhammad Ali, Joan Baez, and Bobby
Seale as well as by some journalists and lawyers.
In a climate of
racial tension, Carter was alleged to have killed white people to avenge the
death of a black man who had been killed by a white man that same night in
Paterson, NJ. The triple homicide occurred at Bob's Lafayette Grill at
18th and Lafayette Sts. Against evidence, Carter was reconvicted in 1976, in part
because a first trial witness, who recanted his testimony, recanted his
recantation and testified again. Later Carter's conviction was overturned
because Judge H. Lee Sarokin declared that both of Carter's two previous
convictions had been based on "racism rather than reason, and concealment
rather than disclosure." Carter was freed in 1985, but it took another
three years for charges to be completely dismissed. His co-defendant, John
Artis, was paroled in 1981. Carter later headed a Toronto-based lobbying
group, AIDWYC, the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted. (JD01)
[6/05] |
Union County,
NJ |
James Sweeney |
Oct 14, 1926 |
James Sweeney
was convicted of the murder of John Ens, a postal truck driver. The crime
occurred during a robbery of $151,300 from Ens’ mail truck at Sixth St. and
Elizabeth Ave. in Elizabeth on Oct. 14, 1926. Sweeney was convicted because
of eyewitness error and a false prosecution informant. He was cleared in
1928 after the actual robbers were discovered. (CTI) |
Union County,
NJ |
George Merritt |
July 16, 1967 (Plainfield) |
In the midst
of a five-day race riot, a white Plainfield patrolman, John V. Gleason, Jr., 39, shot
and wounded a black youth who allegedly had attacked him with a hammer. He was
surrounded by an angry mob of blacks and was beaten, stomped, and shot to
death with his own service revolver. Of 12 defendants put on trial, two
were convicted including George Merritt. The case against Merritt
rested solely on the testimony of one witness, Donald Frazier. Frazier
testified that Merritt assaulted Gleason with a meat cleaver, but the wounds
on Gleason were not indicative that such a weapon was used on him, nor was
this weapon found. Merritt’s conviction was reversed in 1972 and
1976, but he was reconvicted after each reversal. Following Merritt's
third conviction, a pretrial police interview with Frazier surfaced that was
completely at odds with his trial testimony. The prosecutor had
withheld this document from Merritt's defense. Because of this
document, Merritt's conviction was again reversed in 1980, but this time charges against
him were dropped. (NY Times)
(MOJIPCC) [7/09] |
Union County,
NJ |
Nathaniel Walker |
Oct 19, 1974 |
Nathaniel
Walker was
convicted of kidnapping, rape and sodomy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 50 years.
The victim was accosted after she parked her car near her home in Elizabeth,
NJ
and was forced to drive to the parking lot of a housing project in Newark
where she was assaulted. Four months later she picked Walker out of a
police lineup. The victim had told police her assailant was in his
mid-20s and did not wear glasses. Walker, however, was 33 and had worn
glasses with thick lenses for many years. In 1986 Centurion Ministries convinced prosecutors to re-examine
a semen sample taken from the victim 12 years earlier. Tests on the
sample revealed the presence of B antigens indicating the assailant or the
victim had blood type B or AB. Since the victim had blood type A, the
antigens had to have come from the assailant. Since Walker also had
blood type A, he could not be the assailant. Following the tests
Walker's conviction was overturned and he was freed from imprisonment.
(NY Times) (CM) [7/09] |
Union County,
NJ |
David Shepard |
Dec 24, 1983 |
David
Shepard was
convicted of rape and robbery in 1984. The victim was abducted by two
men from a shopping mall and later raped. One of the assailants called
the other "Dave." The assailants subsequently parked the victim's car
near a building at Newark Airport in which Shepard worked. The victim
identified Shepard as one of her assailants. DNA tests exonerated him in 1994.
(IP) (ABA) (CM) (CBJ)
[6/08] |
Union County,
NJ |
Byron Halsey |
Nov 14, 1985 (Plainfield) |
Byron
Halsey was
convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering Tyrone and Tina Urquhart.
Halsey had confessed to the crime after 30 hours of interrogation. The
victims were the children of his girlfriend, with whom Halsey lived in a
Plainfield rooming house. Tyrone, 8, had evidence of being sexually
assaulted and had four nails driven into his head with a brick. Tina, 7,
had been raped and strangled. Halsey’s conviction was overturned in 2007
after an advanced DNA test showed that a neighbor, Cliff Hall, may have been responsible
for the crimes. The neighbor, now in prison for three unrelated sex crimes,
had testified against Halsey at his trial. Halsey's lawyers said they are
confident the charges will be dropped. The victims’ mother, Margaret
Urquhart, said she knew Halsey loved her children and always doubted that he
committed the crime. (AP
News) [6/07] |
Unknown County,
NJ |
Louis Benevente |
1919 |
Louis
Benevente was convicted of robbing John Dougherty, a collector for a baking company, of $192.
The conviction was solely due to Dougherty's testimony. Benevente was paroled after serving 5 years.
After the statute of limitation for perjury expired, Dougherty admitted in 1931 that he had falsely accused Benevente to cover up
$90 in company money that he had lost playing dice. Benevente, who had
changed his name to Bennett, was awarded
$5,000 in compensation by the NJ legislature in 1939. (Not Guilty) [7/05] |
|