INNOCENCE

NETWORK
EXONERATIONS

2009
 CONTENTS
I. LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT...................................................................3
BOARD OF DIRECTORS II. THE CASES (IN ORDER OF EXONERATION DATE).............................. 4
Erika Applebaum
Innocence Project of Minnesota 1. STEVEN BARNES.................................................................................................4

Shawn Armbrust 2. ALAN BEAMAN..................................................................................................4

Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project,
Board Secretary 3. JOSEPH FEARS, JR.............................................................................................4

Justin Brooks 4. MIGUEL ROMAN................................................................................................5

California and Hawai’i Innocence Project
5. TIMOTHY COLE..................................................................................................5
Tucker Carrington
Mississippi Innocence Project 6. REGGIE COLE....................................................................................................6

Maddy deLone 7. THADDEUS JIMENEZ...........................................................................................6

Innocence Project,
Board Treasurer 8. PAUL HOUSE......................................................................................................6
Steve Drizin 9. CHAUNTE OTT....................................................................................................7
Center on Wrongful Convictions
10. JOSEPH ALLEN.................................................................................................7
Keith Findley
Wisconsin Innocence Project, 11. NANCY SMITH..................................................................................................7
Board President
12. RONALD KITCHEN...........................................................................................8
Mark Godsey
Ohio Innocence Project 13. ROBERT LEE STINSON.......................................................................................8
Larry Golden 14. DESHAWN REED..............................................................................................8
Downstate Illinois Innocence Project
15. MARVIN REED..................................................................................................8
Emily Maw
Innocence Project New Orleans 16. WILLIAM RICHARDS.........................................................................................9
Jackie McMurtrie 17. KENNETH IRELAND...........................................................................................9
Innocence Project Northwest Clinic
18. RALPH ARMSTRONG.....................................................................................10
Daniel Medwed
University of Utah - S.J. Quinney 19. JOSEPH ABBITT...............................................................................................10
College of Law
20. RAFAEL MADRIGAL, JR.................................................................................10
Theresa Newman
North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence
21. JAMES LEE WOODARD.................................................................................11
John Pray
Wisconsin Innocence Project
22. EDWIN CHANDLER........................................................................................11

Cookie Ridolfi
23. CHRISTOPHER SCOTT....................................................................................12
Northern California Innocence Project,
Board Secretary 24. CLAUDE SIMMONS........................................................................................12

Barry Scheck 25. FOREST SHOMBERG......................................................................................12

Innocence Project
26. MICHAEL MARSHALL.....................................................................................12
Robert Schehr
Northern Arizona Justice Project 27. JAMES BAIN...................................................................................................13

Rob Warden III. NETWORK MEMBERS.........................................................................14

Center on Wrongful Convictions

Lynne Weathered COVER: Joseph Fears, Jr., was exonerated on March 10, 2009, with the help of the Ohio Innocence
Griffith University Innocence Project Project. Read more about his case on page 4 (Shari Lewis/Columbus Dispatch).
 27 LIVES
AND SO MANY MORE
Each individual in this report endured an
injustice that is impossible to imagine. Every one
of these people was convicted of a serious crime
he or she did not commit, then served years or
decades in prison. All of them insisted they were
innocent – but it didn’t matter. Finally, years or
decades into lengthy prison sentences, the truth
came out and they were freed.
Every one of these cases had ripple effects well
beyond the innocent person who was in prison.
Entire families are forever changed when a
loved one is wrongfully convicted. Victims of
crime, jurors, and others in the legal system
are unwitting participants in flawed trials and
convictions – and suffer when justice is not
done.
Each case in this report represents countless
hours, even years, of zealous advocacy by
Innocence Network attorneys, paralegals,
investigators and students. Each case also
represents thousands of others who are still
waiting for help, or still mired in appeals trying
to prove their innocence.
In 2009, the Innocence Network grew to
include 54 member organizations, 45 of which
are in the United States. Each organization
operates independently, but we coordinate to
share information and expertise. In just a few
short years since it was formed, the Innocence
Network has grown into a vibrant and vital
resource for the wrongfully convicted and their
families.
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
Innocence Network members include
thriving clinics that have operated for
many years at some of the nation’s most
respected universities, full-fledged nonprofit
organizations with a solid staff and base of
funding, and small clinics at law schools that
are still setting up a process to review cases.
From Mississippi to Michigan, from Florida
to Idaho, Innocence Network organizations
serve virtually every part of the country. You
can learn more about the Innocence Network
or find an organization near you at www.
innocencenetwork.org.
In addition to helping overturn wrongful
convictions, Innocence Network organizations
increasingly work to reform the criminal justice
system. Our organizations know first-hand the
toll of wrongful convictions in our communities,
and we can be powerful local advocates for
policies and practices that can make our system
of justice stronger and more reliable.
Take a few minutes to read about the
exonerations secured by Innocence Network
members in 2009. And as you learn about these
cases, remember that they represent thousands
of others – people who are still trying to find
help, or whose cases are still being pursued.
— KEITH FINDLEY
WISCONSIN INNOCENCE PROJECT CO-DIRECTOR,
CLINICAL PROFESSOR UNIVERSITY
OF WISCONSIN LAW SCHOOL,
INNOCENCE NETWORK BOARD PRESIDENT
3
 THE CASES
1 2
Steven Barnes
Innocence Project
In 1989, Steven Barnes was convicted
in upstate New York of a murder he didn’t
commit based on questionable eyewitness
identifications and three types of unvalidated
forensic science. Nearly two decades later, DNA
testing obtained by the Innocence Project
proved his innocence.
A 16-year-old girl from upstate New York was
found raped and strangled to death in 1985.
Eyewitnesses told authorities that they saw
Barnes’ truck near the busy street where the
victim was last seen walking. Despite evidence
that Barnes was at a local bowling alley when
the crime occurred, he was questioned for over
12 hours and eventually released.
Two years later, Barnes was arrested and
charged with rape, sodomy and murder.
Although there was no evidence to implicate
Barnes, a forensic analyst at his trial testified
that two hairs collected from his truck were
microscopically similar to the victim’s. The
same analyst testified that soil samples taken
from the truck had “similar characteristics” as
dirt samples taken from the crime scene a year
after the murder, and linked patterns of fabric
taken from the victim’s jeans to those found on
the truck. Barnes was convicted and sentenced
to 25 years to life in prison. The Innocence
Project, which is affiliated with Benjamin N.
Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University,
secured DNA testing on Barnes’ behalf in 1996
but the tests proved inconclusive.
By 2007, more advanced DNA testing became
available and the new tests proved Barnes’
innocence. He was freed late 2008. Barnes’
exoneration became official on January 9, 2009.
4 INNOCENCE NETWORK EXONERATIONS 2009
Alan Beaman
Center on Wrongful Convictions
Alan Beaman, who spent 13 years
in prison for a 1993 murder in Illinois,
was exonerated on January 29, 2009. The
prosecution dropped the charges against him
in the face of evidence that he could not have
committed the crime because it occurred in
Bloomington when he was 130 miles away in
Rockford. Beaman was convicted of murdering
an Illinois woman (whom he once dated) on
purely circumstantial evidence, with no physical
evidence, eyewitnesses or confession introduced
at trial. Beaman reached out to the Center
on Wrongful Convictions, which is affiliated
with the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern
University School of Law, for help.
Center attorneys found evidence that the
prosecution had failed to inform Beaman’s
original defense attorneys about evidence
pointing to another suspect in the case, and
also deliberately misinformed and confused
critical timeline facts in its presentation to jury
members.
Upon hearing the center’s revelations and
after deciding the evidence against Beaman
was insufficient, the Illinois Supreme Court
reversed the conviction on the grounds
that the prosecutor misbehaved and thus
violated Beaman’s constitutional rights. The
prosecution dropped the charges against him
eight months later.
3
Joseph Fears
Ohio Innocence Project
Joseph Fears, Jr.’s, rape conviction
led to more than 25 years of wrongful
imprisonment in Ohio prisons until a joint
effort between the Ohio Innocence Project
 and the Columbus Dispatch helped exonerate
him. Fears was charged with rape in two attacks
that allegedly happened nine days apart
in Columbus in 1983. Fears acknowledged
meeting the first victim in a bar but denied
leaving with her. In the second case, he
admitted being in the woman’s apartment but
said that he did not rape her.
Initially, the biological evidence in Fears’ case
could not be located. But when DNA testing
exonerated another Ohio inmate, the Franklin
County District Attorney’s Office conducted a
more thorough review of all stored evidence.
DNA testing eventually proved Fears’
innocence in the first case and implicated a
deceased former Michigan prisoner as the
assailant. His conviction in this particular case
was vacated and dismissed.
No male DNA was detected on the victim’s
clothing from the second case, but Fears had
already served out his sentence in the second
case. He was released and officially exonerated
in the first case on March 10, 2009, and
remains on parole for the second case.
4
Miguel Roman
Connecticut Innocence Project
Miguel Roman was charged with the
1988 murder of a pregnant woman. After more
than 18 years in prison, Roman was exonerated
when DNA testing proved another man
committed the crime.
Before the trial, DNA testing was conducted on
the semen recovered from the victim’s body.
Even then, Roman was excluded as a possible
contributor. Prosecutors nonetheless speculated
that the victim could have had sex with someone
else, but that Roman still killed her.
Prosecutors proceeded with the case, using
circumstantial evidence and testimony from a
jailhouse informant.
In 2008, the Connecticut Innocence Project
obtained new DNA testing that revealed the
same male profile on every piece of evidence:
samples from the rape kit, the cloth used to
bind the victim and the murder weapon. Roman
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was promptly excluded as the perpetrator, with
the DNA results now implicating registered sex
offender Pedro Miranda.
Miranda was subsequently charged with
the killing and also with the murders of
two other women in the 1980s. Roman was
finally released in late 2008 and was officially
exonerated April 2, 2009.
5
Timothy Cole
Innocence Project of Texas, Innocence
Project
Timothy Cole died in prison of heart
complications caused by asthma in 1999
while imprisoned for the 1985 rape of a
Texas woman. It wasn’t until 23 years after his
conviction that, with help from the Innocence
Project of Texas, DNA evidence proved his
innocence.
Michele Mallin, a young university student,
was parking her car when an African-American
man forced himself into her car and raped
her. She was shown an unusual photo lineup in
which Cole’s photo stood out and was the only
Polaroid photo amidst a series of mug shots.
Mallin identified Cole as her attacker, and he
was soon arrested and convicted of aggravated
sexual assault.
Cole’s initial appeals were denied and he died
without ever learning that another man, Jerry
Wayne Johnson, had confessed to the crime.
Eventually, however, Johnson’s confessions
reached the Innocence Project of Texas and
Cole’s family. Nearly a decade after Cole’s
death, DNA testing conducted on semen from
the crime scene excluded Cole and implicated
Johnson as the perpetrator. Mallin joined
Cole’s family and attorneys in seeking Cole’s
posthumous exoneration.
Cole was cleared by DNA tests in 2008, and
was fully exonerated at an unprecedented
posthumous hearing on April 7, 2009. The
Innocence Project joined the Innocence
Project of Texas as co-counsel.
5
 6
Reggie Cole
California Innocence Project
Having spent 14 years in prison for a
crime he consistently said he didn’t commit,
Reggie Cole was exonerated on April 15,
2009, after it was revealed that eyewitnesses
misidentified him as the perpetrator and that
prosecutors withheld evidence of his innocence.
Cole was convicted for a 1994 Los Angeles-area
shooting death after two eyewitnesses identified
him in court. John Jones testified that he saw
Cole shoot the victim and run from the scene
of the crime. It was not until 2007 when Cole
was being tried for killing a fellow inmate (who
Cole stabbed in self-defense during a prison
fight) that Cole’s legal counsel revisited the
witness testimony from his original trial.
Attorney Christopher Plourd and the
California Innocence Project found that Jones
hadn’t actually seen the crime, but rather his
daughters had. Thirteen years after her father
misidentified Cole, one of the daughters
testified that she had seen the perpetrator again
after the shooting, but Cole would have been in
police custody at that time. The second witness,
who had actually led investigating officers to
Cole, also came forward and admitted that his
original testimony was mistaken.
In early 2009, attorneys petitioned for Cole’s
release. Three months later, the District
Attorney’s Office conceded that Cole received
ineffective assistance of counsel and the court
vacated the murder conviction. Although he
remains in prison (a result of his altercation
while in prison) the prosecutors dropped all
charges and exonerated Cole of the murder.
7
Thaddeus Jimenez
Center on Wrongful Convictions
Thaddeus Jimenez was arrested when
he was 13 years old for a 1993 gang-related
murder he did not commit. Jimenez’s first trial
was thrown out when it was revealed that there
were mistakes made during jury selection,
but he was convicted at his second trial after
eyewitnesses identified him as the shooter.
His attorneys had attempted to show the jury
6 INNOCENCE NETWORK EXONERATIONS 2009
a videotaped confession to the crime made
by another young man, but the judge found
it inadmissible. No forensic evidence was ever
introduced.
As Jimenez began serving out his 45-year
sentence, the Center on Wrongful Convictions
and the law firm of Katten Muchin took his
case. Since the original trial, both witnesses who
testified against him recanted their testimony,
now saying that Jimenez was not the shooter.
Prosecutors were compelled to reopen the case
and ultimately agreed to vacate the conviction.
Jimenez was released from prison in May
2009, after more than 16 years of wrongful
imprisonment. Prosecutors have since indicted
the same young man who had previously
confessed on videotape. Jimenez was officially
exonerated in Chicago on May 1, 2009.
8
Paul House
Innocence Project
Paul House served 20 years on death
row before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
he was entitled to a new hearing.
Authorities claimed House lured a woman
from her Tennessee home, then assaulted
and murdered her, dumping her body
in a gutter; he was convicted in 1986. In
consultation with the Innocence Project on
forensic issues, House’s appellate attorneys
used DNA testing to show that someone else
committed the crime. After a series of appeals,
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that
House was entitled to a new hearing in federal
court because post-conviction DNA testing
invalidated the prosecution’s theory, marking
the first time since DNA testing became widely
available that the Supreme Court has looked at
standards for reopening death penalty cases.
Testing completed in early 2009 confirmed that
House’s jeans had two bloodstains from the
victim but failed to find any DNA from House.
In fact, one of the bloodstains also contained
DNA from an unknown male. Other forensic
samples taken from the crime scene, including
blood from under the victim’s fingernails and
a hair found in her hand, also excluded House
while identifying an unknown male.
 House, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and
is confined to a wheelchair, was released under
house arrest until prosecutors in Tennessee
dropped all pending charges. He was officially
exonerated on May 12, 2009.
9 11
Chaunte Ott
Wisconsin Innocence Project
Chaunte Ott served more than 12
years in prison for the murder of 16-year-old
Jessica Payne before DNA testing obtained by
the Wisconsin Innocence Project proved his
innocence and led to his release.
Two men implicated Ott in the murder, and
both testified against him; one pled to a
lesser crime and the other was not charged
in exchange for their testimony. The only
physical evidence at trial were two box cutters
and a knife that police discovered among Ott’s
possessions. A medical examiner concluded
that the knife could be consistent with the
murder weapon. Ott was wrongfully convicted
and sentenced to life in prison with the
possibility of parole.
In 2002, the Wisconsin Innocence Project was
able to test samples from the victim’s rape kit,
which excluded Ott and the two men who
testified against him; they did not exonerate
Ott because he had not been convicted of
sexual assault.
Five years later, prosecutors informed Ott
that the DNA found at the crime scene
actually matched DNA found on the bodies
of two other women murdered in the same
neighborhood after Ott’s arrest. Despite this,
prosecutors refused to retry him. In 2008,
the Wisconsin Court of Appeals overturned
the conviction and ordered a new trial. In
response, the Milwaukee County District
Attorney’s Office announced that it would
not seek a new trial. Ott was freed and later
exonerated on June 5, 2009.
DNA recovered from the victim, and from the
two other murders that exonerated Ott, has
since been matched to numerous other murders
in Milwaukee. DNA from all these murders
points to a man named Walter Ellis, who
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authorities now believe is a serial killer who has
been murdering women for the last 20 years.
10
Joseph Allen
Ohio Innocence Project
Nancy Smith
Ohio Innocence Project
Joseph Allen and Nancy Smith
both served more than 14 years in prison
for multiple counts of sexual assault against
four-and-five-year-old children. The Ohio
Innocence Project, which is affiliated with the
University of Cincinnati College of Law, helped
exonerate them.
Smith was a single mother working as a bus
driver and was first suspected when the mother
of a child from her bus route accused her of
inappropriately touching her daughter. Soon,
more parents brought complaints forward
against Smith and an unknown male who
allegedly joined her in sexually abusing the
children.
Allen, who had a previous sexual offense, was
put in a police lineup when he happened to
be at the station one day reporting that his
bike had been stolen. Video from the lineup
showed that children were not able to pick
out Allen and depicted parents leading or
scaring their children into identifying him as
Smith’s accomplice. Without physical evidence,
though, the original investigator decided to
drop the case.
Under political pressure, a new investigator
was assigned and charges were brought
against Allen and Smith. Despite the fact that
they didn’t appear to know each other, they
were tried together on the grounds that they
lived within a few blocks of each other. Both
were convicted based on the testimony of the
children.
Armed with the line-up video, the Ohio
Innocence Project was able to accumulate and
eventually present evidence establishing Allen
and Smith’s innocence. Odometer readings
showed that Smith did not stray from her bus
route and attendance records showed each
7

child was present at their preschool program
on the supposed days of the attacks. Records
also showed that Smith had clocked in at
her second job right after she dropped the
children off at school on each of the days of
the supposed attacks and therefore could not
have had time to commit the crimes.
Both Allen and Smith were a granted a new
trial. On June 24, 2009, they were acquitted
because of a lack of evidence.
12
Ronald Kitchen
Center on Wrongful Convictions
Along with his co-defendant,
Marvin Reeves, Ronald Kitchen was convicted
for the deaths of two women and three
children. Kitchen had falsely confessed to the
crime, a confession he claimed was a result
of intense physical harassment and injury
during an interrogation. The case was handled
by Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge and his
department, who have since been implicated
in a pattern of misconduct. Kitchen was
sentenced to death and Reeves to life in prison.
The prosecution’s case was bolstered with
testimony from a jailhouse informant who told
prosecutors that both Kitchen and Reeves had
confessed to the murders. In exchange for his
testimony, prosecutors offered the informant
early release from jail, yet they failed to reveal
this to Kitchen’s attorneys. The informant has
since admitted that he lied when he testified
against Kitchen and Reeves.
Both Kitchen and Reeves spent 21 years
in prison but were freed after prosecutors
reopened the investigation and decided that
the evidence was insufficient to retry. The
Illinois Attorney General joined the Center
on Wrongful Convictions and the law firm
of Baker & McKenzie in requesting that the
charges be dismissed, and a judge subsequently
overturned their cases. Attorneys with the law
firm of Mayer Brown represented Reeves.
Kitchen and Reeves were officially exonerated
on July 27, 2009.
8 INNOCENCE NETWORK EXONERATIONS 2009
13
Robert Lee Stinson
Wisconsin Innocence Project
When a 62-year-old woman was
found dead in an alley near her home, Robert
Lee Stinson was wrongfully arrested and
convicted for a murder he knew nothing about.
Forensic analysts found eight distinct bite
marks on the victim. At trial, two forensic
dentists testified that Stinson’s teeth were a
match to the bite marks, adding that there was
“no margin of error.” Stinson was convicted
and sentenced to life in prison in 1985.
On Stinson’s behalf, the Wisconsin Innocence
Project contacted the Milwaukee County
District Attorney’s Office for access to the
physical evidence in 2004. Attorneys had
four dental experts independently examine
the evidence. After comparing results with
technology unavailable during the original
trial, all four agreed that Stinson could not
have left the bite marks.
In addition to the new bite mark analysis,
newfound DNA evidence helped prove
Stinson’s innocence when the analysts found
saliva on the victim’s sweater and were able
to conclusively exclude Stinson as the source.
After 23 years behind bars for a murder he did
not commit, Robert Lee Stinson was released
in January 2009 and was fully exonerated on
July 27, 2009.
14
Deshawn Reed
Michigan Innocence Clinic
15
Marvin Reed
Michigan Innocence Clinic
After being incarcerated for
more than 8 years for a 2000 shooting that left
the victim paralyzed, Deshawn Reed and his
uncle, Marvin Reed, were exonerated with the
help of the University of Michigan Innocence
Clinic.
The defense presented two eyewitnesses to the
crime, both of whom contradicted the victim’s
testimony that the Reeds shot at him from a
white car. The eyewitnesses instead testified
 that the real shooter was standing in an alley,
and one of them identified the shooter as a
man named Tyrone Allen. In addition, six
alibi witnesses testified that the Reeds were
elsewhere at the time of the shooting. In spite
of this, the prosecution secured a conviction
based solely on the victim’s eyewitness
testimony.
The defense learned, post-conviction, that
Tyrone Allen had been killed while committing
a carjacking and that police found him with a
firearm similar to the one used in the Reeds’
case. Michigan State Police later tested and
confirmed the gun to be the same one used in
the Reeds’ case. Additionally, Allen’s girlfriend
had reported him to the police, saying that he
had confessed to the crime. When attorneys
were granted an evidentiary hearing, the
victim himself admitted that he never actually
saw where the shot came from, and that he
had implicated the Reeds after his family and
friends visited him in the hospital and suggested
that the Reeds were likely responsible. In
addition, clinic students found and presented
several other witnesses, including an off-duty
police officer, who had spoken with the victim
immediately after the shooting and before the
victim’s family and friends visited him in the
hospital. All of these new witnesses confirmed
that the victim initially said that he did not see
where the shot came from.
As result, a judge decided that the newly
discovered evidence seriously undermined
the case against the Reeds. Both Deshawn and
Marvin were released and exonerated on July
31, 2009, when prosecutors dismissed all of the
charges against them.
16
William Richards
California Innocence Project
After two trials ending in hung
juries and one in mistrial, William Richards
was convicted in 1997 of murdering his wife,
Pamela Richards. Richards spent eight years
in prison for murder based on an alleged bite
mark and a cluster of fibers found under one
of the victim’s fingernails.
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At trial, prosecutors argued that Richards was
the only possible suspect since there was no
one else near the crime scene. The California
Innocence Project obtained DNA testing
on the weapon, as well as mitochondrial
DNA testing of hair found under one of the
victim’s fingernails. The results revealed
DNA profiles that did not match Pamela or
William Richards, proving that there was an
unidentified attacker. In addition to DNA
testing, attorneys argued that a cluster of fibers
found under the victim’s fingernail may have
been planted. Prosecutors originally argued
that the fibers matched those of the shirt
Richards was wearing the night of the murder,
but photos taken just after the victim’s autopsy
showed no fibers in the fingernail.
Bite marks, which the state’s witness argued
could have only come from two percent of
the population—including Richards—were
also reevaluated. Authorities on bite mark
evidence refuted that testimony, stating that
the conclusion was based on incomplete
information and distorted photos. By
correcting the distortion in the photos, experts
were able to testify that Richards could not
have left the bite mark. In face of the new
evidence, a judge reversed Richards’ murder
conviction on August 10, 2009.
17
Kenneth Ireland
Connecticut Innocence Project
Kenneth Ireland was wrongfully
convicted in 1988 of the rape and murder of a
30-year-old mother of four and sent to prison
at the age of 20. After serving nearly 21 years,
Ireland was exonerated when DNA testing
proved his innocence.
Ireland’s conviction was based on blood
typing and informant testimony. Two witnesses
first implicated Ireland, telling investigating
officers that Ireland confessed to the crime.
Preliminary DNA testing was inconclusive, but
forensic analysts testified at trial that Ireland’s
blood type, along with 20% of the general
population, matched the sample.
9

Ireland reached out to the Connecticut
Innocence Project for help, and the attorneys
were able to convince a judge to grant a new
trial based on more recent DNA testing. This
time, the tests conclusively proved Ireland’s
innocence. Ireland was soon released from
prison and was formally exonerated on August
19, 2009.
18
Ralph Armstrong
Innocence Project
Ralph Armstrong was wrongfully
convicted for the rape and murder of a fellow
University of Wisconsin-Madison student in
1981. The Innocence Project worked with local
attorneys Jerome Buting and Keith Belzer to
overturn his conviction in spite of misconduct
by the prosecution. Armstrong was exonerated
on August 19, 2009.
In 2005, the Wisconsin Supreme Court
overturned Armstrong’s conviction and
granted him a new trial after DNA testing
excluded him as the source of hair and semen
from the crime scene. Armstrong remained in
custody awaiting retrial for years. Meanwhile,
prosecutors violated a court order by ordering
additional DNA testing on the biological
evidence without notifying the defense. This
round of testing used up all the remaining
evidence, rendering it useless for further
testing.
Furthermore, while the case was on appeal in
1995, the prosecution received a call alleging
that Armstrong’s brother, who was visiting him
at the time of the murder, confessed to the
crime. Prosecutors never informed the defense
about the call, and Armstrong’s brother has
since died.
Based on the prosecutorial misconduct, a
Wisconsin judge dismissed charges against
Armstrong, who has been transferred to New
Mexico where he was on parole for unrelated
charges when he was arrested for the murder
that he didn’t commit.
10 INNOCENCE NETWORK EXONERATIONS 2009
19
Joseph Abbitt
North Carolina Center
on Actual Innocence
Two teenaged sisters were raped at knifepoint
and identified their attacker from a photo
lineup as Joseph Abbitt. He spent 14 years
imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit until
DNA evidence cleared his name.
Prior to the lineup, the two sisters told police
officers that they believed the man who raped
them was Abbitt, who had visited their Winston-
Salem home before. While under investigation,
Abbitt offered compelling alibi evidence that
he was at work when the crime occurred. Initial
DNA testing of the rape kit was inconclusive;
however, testing of semen located on a piece
of clothing excluded Abbitt. Law enforcement
and the victims were uncertain whether the
piece of clothing was involved in the rapes.
Nonetheless, Abbitt was convicted of the rapes
in 1995 and sentenced to two consecutive life
sentences plus 110 years. In 2005, he applied
to the North Carolina Center on Actual
Innocence to assist with his claim. Although
much of the evidence collected in the case
had been destroyed, the Winston-Salem Police
Department eventually located the rape kit.
Updated DNA technology conclusively
excluded Joseph Abbitt as the perpetrator of
the rapes. Abbitt was exonerated on September
2, 2009. Efforts are underway to identify the
true perpetrator of the crimes.
20
Rafael Madrigal, Jr.
California Innocence Project
Rafael Madrigal, Jr., spent seven
years in prison for a gang-related shooting but
was released when the California Innocence
Project and co-counsel Eric Multhaup showed
Madrigal could not have committed the crime.
Madrigal was convicted of attempted murder
for a July 2000 shooting. He consistently
told investigators that he could not have
been at the crime scene at the time of the
shooting because he worked at a packing plant
approximately 35 miles away.

At an evidentiary hearing held in 2008 to
evaluate charges of ineffective representation,
the California Innocence Project established
Madrigal’s alibi with testimony from his
supervisor, who told the court that production
at the plant would have been stalled had
Madrigal not been at work since he was the
only one trained to use a particular machine.
The California Innocence Project also
introduced an audio tape of a phone call
between Madrigal’s co-defendant and
girlfriend that had never been entered as
evidence in which the co-defendant admits
that Madrigal was not present at the time of
the shooting. Madrigal’s conviction was soon
overturned and prosecutors dropped all
charges. Madrigal was released from prison on
September 3, 2009.
21
James Lee Woodard
Innocence Project of Texas
James Lee Woodard was
wrongfully convicted for murdering his
girlfriend. During the trial, prosecutors
withheld key evidence from the defense. For
example, the jury never learned that the victim
was seen with three other men on the night
of her death. (Two of these men were later
convicted of sexual assault crimes.) Woodard
was sentenced to life in prison in 1981 in
what the Dallas County District Attorney’s
Office Conviction Integrity Unit now calls a
“fundamentally unfair” trial.
Both the Innocence Project of Texas and the
Dallas County District Attorney’s Office worked
together on Woodard’s case, interviewing
witnesses and conducting DNA testing on a
rape kit, the results of which confirmed that
Woodard was innocent when a forensic analyst
determined that whoever committed the rape
also committed the murder.
Woodard was released after serving more than
27 years in prison. He was freed in April 2008
and exonerated on September 30, 2009.
CASES
22
Edwin Chandler
Kentucky Innocence Project
Edwin Chandler was wrongfully
convicted of the robbery and shooting death
of a Louisville convenience store employee
in 1995. However, new evidence uncovered
by the Kentucky Innocence Project led to his
exoneration of all charges.
At the time of the shooting, Chandler was on
work release for a misdemeanor, and he did
not report back to jail as required. A young
neighbor of Chandler’s told police that she
had seen him the night of the robbery wearing
a stocking mask similar to the one police said
the shooter was wearing.
After a long interrogation, in which police
threatened to have his sister arrested for
harboring a fugitive and take her kids away,
Chandler confessed to the shooting. At trial,
the prosecution depended heavily on the
neighbor’s testimony. However, another
prosecution witness testified that he actually
saw the shooter enter the store and that it was
not Chandler. The surveillance video of the
store from that night had been accidentally
erased by police. Chandler was sentenced to a
total of 30 years for robbery and manslaughter.
Kentucky Innocence Project attorneys
identified a string of evidence of their client’s
innocence. Digital testing showed that
fingerprints left on a beer bottle did not match
Chandler and instead implicated a known
felon. In addition, photos recovered from
the surveillance tape did not appear to have
Chandler in them.
Chandler was fully exonerated on October
13, 2009. He had served nine years in prison
and another seven on parole. The alternative
suspect has been indicted.
11
 23
Christopher Scott
University of Texas
Actual Innocence Clinic
24
Claude Simmons Jr.
University of Texas
Actual Innocence Clinic
Claude Simmons, Jr., and Christopher Scott
were wrongfully imprisoned on death row
for 12 years. Evidence now proves that they
were wrongfully convicted, and the alleged
perpetrators have been apprehended.
Simmons and Scott were charged with the
shooting death of Alfonso Aguilar during a
home-invasion robbery. There was no forensic
evidence introduced in their original trial;
instead, their convictions were based primarily
on the eyewitness testimony of the victim’s wife.
The wife had identified Scott as a shooter when
she saw him handcuffed in a police station.
As a result of the work of the University of Texas
at Arlington’s Innocence Network and the
University of Texas Actual Innocence Clinic,
attorneys found a Texas man who confessed
to having committed the crime with an
accomplice. Soon after, the alleged accomplice
was arrested and charged with capital murder.
With cooperation from the Dallas District
Attorney’s Office, Scott and Simmons were
released and exonerated on October 23, 2009.
25
Forest Shomberg
Wisconsin Innocence Project
Forest Shomberg was exonerated
after the Wisconsin Innocence Project secured
DNA testing and strong evidence of eyewitness
misidentification.
Shomberg was sentenced to 12 years in prison
for a 2002 sexual assault. The assailant fled the
crime scene when a security guard heard the
victim cry for help. She provided police with a
description of her assailant, as did the security
guard, which officers then used to create a
composite sketch.
The investigation turned to Shomberg when
two people contacted police after they saw the
12 INNOCENCE NETWORK EXONERATIONS 2009
sketch and identified Shomberg. However,
three alibi witnesses placed Shomberg 30
blocks away from where the attack occurred.
Shomberg went to trial without a jury and the
judge in the case disregarded the alibi, finding
him guilty. Halfway into his sentence, the
Wisconsin Innocence Project was able to test
evidence collected from the victim and found
four samples of DNA on an article of clothing
through “touch” DNA testing, which can detect
DNA left behind by a person’s touch. None
of the samples matched Shomberg, although
they revealed the presence of unknown male
DNA. Attorneys also introduced research on
the unreliability of composite sketches and
testimony from eyewitness experts, arguing that
both witnesses picked Shomberg because he
was the only suspect who most closely matched
their descriptions in a lineup where all the
men had disparate physical attributes.
On November 13, 2009, the same judge who
found Shomberg guilty concluded that new
evidence was compelling enough to overturn
the wrongful conviction and exonerate him.
26
Michael Marshall
Georgia Innocence Project
Police officers investigating the
gunpoint robbery of a truck thought that
Michael Marshall resembled the composite
sketch of the perpetrator. Marshall was
homeless at the time and was discovered
sleeping in an apartment hallway 10 days after
the crime. A witness was then brought to the
apartment where he misidentified Marshall as
the thief, and Marshall was arrested. He pled
guilty in exchange for a four-year sentence
and served nearly two years before the Georgia
Innocence Project helped him prove his
innocence through DNA testing.
Three items of evidence belonging to the
perpetrator were tested: a gray T-shirt, cell
phone and a cell phone case. A single DNA
profile emerged that did not belong to Marshall.
Instead, the identity of the real perpetrator was
revealed through a DNA database hit.
 Marshall was wrongfully convicted in early 2008
and exonerated on December 14, 2009, when a
judge accepted Marshall’s motion to withdraw
his guilty plea and prosecutors dropped the
indictment against him.

27
James Bain
Innocence Project of Florida
James Bain was exonerated on
December 17, 2009, after 35 years of wrongful
imprisonment in Florida. Bain has spent
more years in prison for a crime he didn’t
commit than any other person exonerated
through DNA testing in the United States.
The Innocence Project of Florida helped Bain
prove his innocence of the 1974 rape of a
young boy.
The nine-year-old victim was kidnapped from his
home, dragged to a baseball field and raped by
a man he described as having bushy sideburns
and a mustache. A relative of the victim’s
thought that the description sounded like James
Bain. Bain’s photo was included in a lineup
and the victim misidentified him. Based largely
on the strength of this identification, Bain was
convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Still a teenager when he was wrongfully
convicted, Bain was 54 years old by the time he
was exonerated. He began seeking DNA testing
in 2001 but was denied multiple times until the
Innocence Project of Florida came to his aid.

CASES 13
 NETWORK MEMBERS
Alaska Innocence Project
Arizona Justice Project
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
Association in Defence of the Wrongly
Convicted
California & Hawaii Innocence Project
California Western School of Law Institute
for Criminal Defense Advocacy
Center on Wrongful Convictions
Bluhm Legal Clinic, Northwestern University
School of Law
Connecticut Innocence Project
State of Connecticut Public Defender Services
Cooley Innocence Project
Thomas M. Cooley Law School
Downstate Illinois Innocence Project
Institute for Legal and Policy Studies at the
University of Illinois at Springfield
Georgia Innocence Project
Griffith University Innocence Project
Griffith Law School
Idaho Innocence Project
Boise State University
Indiana University School of Law Clinic,
Wrongful Conviction Component
Indiana University School of Law—
Indianapolis
Innocence Institute of Point Park University
Innocence Network UK (INUK)
University of Bristol School of Law
14 INNOCENCE NETWORK EXONERATIONS 2009
Innocence Project
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law,
Yeshiva University
Innocence Project Arkansas
University of Arkansas School of Law
Innocence Project at UVA School of Law
Innocence Project New Orleans
Innocence Project New Zealand
School of Psychology, Victoria University
of Wellington
Innocence Project Northwest Clinic
University of Washington School of Law
Innocence Project of Florida
Innocence Project of Iowa
Innocence Project of Minnesota
Hamline University School of Law
Innocence Project of South Dakota
University of South Dakota School of Law
Innocence Project of Texas
Justice Brandeis Innocence Project
Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism
at Brandeis University
Kentucky Innocence Project
Department of Public Advocacy
Maryland Office of the Public Defender
Innocence Project
Medill Innocence Project
Medill School of Journalism
 Michigan Innocence Clinic
University of Michigan
Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project
Midwestern Innocence Project
Mississippi Innocence Project
University of Mississippi School of Law
Montana Innocence Project
Nebraska Innocence Project
New England Innocence Project
Goodwin Procter LLP
North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence
Northern Arizona Justice Project
Northern Arizona University
Department of Criminal Justice
Northern California Innocence Project
Santa Clara University Law School
Office of the Public Defender
for the State of Maryland
Office of the Public Defender,
State of Delaware
NETWORK MEMBERS
Ohio Innocence Project
University of Cincinnati College of Law
Pace Post-Conviction Project
Barbara C. Salken Criminal Justice Clinic
Pennsylvania Innocence Project
Temple University Beasley School of Law
Reinvestigation Project
Office of the Appellate Defender
Rocky Mountain Innocence Center
University of Utah—S.J. Quinney College of Law
Texas Center for Actual Innocence
University of Texas School of Law
Texas Innocence Network
University of Houston Law School
The University of Leeds Innocence Project
The University of Leeds School of Law
University of British Columbia Law
Innocence Project
Wisconsin Innocence Project
University of Wisconsin Law School
15
 INNOCENCE NETWORK
T
he Innocence Network is an affiliation of 54 member organizations
dedicated to providing pro bono legal and investigative services to
individuals seeking to prove innocence of crimes for which they have
been convicted and working to redress the causes of wrongful convictions.

For more on the Innocence Network and for information on how to contact
member organizations, please visit www.innocencenetwork.org.

16 INNOCENCE NETWORK EXONERATIONS 2009

 STEVEN BARNES

ALAN BEAMAN

JOSEPH FEARS, JR.

MIGUEL ROMAN

TIMOTHY COLE

REGGIE COLE

THADDEUS JIMENEZ

PAUL HOUSE

CHAUNTE OTT

JOSEPH ALLEN

NANCY SMITH

RONALD KITCHEN

ROBERT LEE STINSON

DESHAWN REED

MARVIN REED

WILLIAM RICHARDS

KENNETH IRELAND

RALPH ARMSTRONG

JOSEPH ABBITT

RAFAEL MADRIGAL, JR.

JAMES LEE WOODARD

EDWIN CHANDLER

CHRISTOPHER SCOTT

CLAUDE SIMMONS

FOREST SHOMBERG

MICHAEL MARSHALL

JAMES BAIN

WWW.INNOCENCENETWORK.ORG