GIST" "For first time in 36 years, Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew
Stewart will celebrate Thanksgiving with their families at their homes
in Baltimore. Thanks should be given that these three men, now in their
50s,
finally received justice and were freed from prison
after being locked up as teenagers for a murder they had no part in.
But the story of what happened nearly four decades ago to three young
black men also evokes emotions other than gratitude. There is sadness
and horror and rage and, we hope, resolve that what happened to these
men never happens to other innocent people “Today isn’t a victory. Today
it’s a tragedy that these men had 36 years of their lives stolen,”
said Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby
on Monday after a judge accepted her office’s request to exonerate the
men. They had been convicted of the Nov. 18, 1983, murder of 14-year-old
DeWitt Duckett, who was shot and killed in Harlem Park Junior High
School by someone who wanted his jacket. Their conviction was based on
the testimony of four teenage witnesses who have recanted, saying police
and prosecutors pressured them to change their initial, truthful
stories — that another person shot Duckett — and instead identify the
three 16-year-olds. That
and other misconduct by authorities who ignored and concealed evidence
pointing to the real killer (who is now deceased) were uncovered by the
state’s attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit. Mr. Chestnut, who like the
other defendants never wavered in proclaiming his innocence, found
information about discrepancies through a public information request to
the Maryland attorney general. The
Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project,
which has helped exonerate six other wrongly convicted Baltimore men in
the past three years, joined the effort. On Monday, Baltimore Circuit
Court Judge Charles J. Peters declared the men innocent. “On
behalf of the criminal-justice system, and I’m sure this means very
little to you, I’m going to apologize,” the judge told the men.
Surrounded by family and friends, Mr. Stewart spoke about how he
sat on his jail cell bunk and cried
when he got the news; Mr. Watkins talked about how the three “went
through hell.” Mr. Chestnut said he is looking forward to living the
rest of his life taking care of his family and praising God. The
men are owed far more than an apology, but no amount of money will ever
be able to compensate them for all they have lost. Ms. Mosby promised
to help them make new lives and said she would pursue reforms in the
system — such as better protections in how juveniles are interrogated.
Shawn Armbrust of the Innocence Project
thinks the case should cause others to do some soul searching.
“Everyone involved in this case — school officials, police, prosecutors,
jurors, the media and the community — rushed to judgment and allowed
their tunnel vision to obscure problems with the evidence,” she said.
“This case should be a lesson to everyone that the search for quick
answers can lead to tragic results.""
