PASSAGE OF THE DAY: (City State’s Attorney Marilyn) Mosby said the detective and prosecutor in 1983 coached and coerced the testimony of four students who identified Chestnut, Stewart and Watkins as the killers — and the students later recanted that testimony. Baltimore prosecutors now say police discounted interviews from other students who identified another person as the killer. Chestnut, Stewart and Watkins are the latest prisoners exonerated by a partnership between Mosby’s conviction integrity unit and two nonprofit innocence projects."
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STORY: "Maryland to pay more than $8.7 million to three men recently exonerated in Baltimore student’s death in 1983,' BY Luke Broadwater, published by The Baltimore Sun on March 2, 2020.
GIST: "Maryland’s spending panel on Wednesday is set to award more than $8.7 million to three recently exonerated men who spent more than 100 combined years in prison. The Board of Public Works, which is chaired by Gov. Larry Hogan, is set to award about $2.9 million to Alfred Chestnut, Andrew Stewart Jr. and Ransom Watkins, who were formally cleared last year of the notorious 1983 murder of a Baltimore junior high school student over a Georgetown basketball jacket. Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said Chestnut, Stewart and Watkins are innocent of a 37-year-old murder of DeWitt Duckett, a ninth grader at Harlem Park Junior High School, who was shot in his neck inside the West Baltimore school. Mosby said the detective and prosecutor in 1983 coached and coerced the testimony of four students who identified Chestnut, Stewart and Watkins as the killers — and the students later recanted that testimony. Baltimore prosecutors now say police discounted interviews from other students who identified another person as the killer. Chestnut, Stewart and Watkins are the latest prisoners exonerated by a partnership between Mosby’s conviction integrity unit and two nonprofit innocence projects. The state payouts are the latest in a series of moves from the Board of Public Works, which is composed of Hogan, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, to compensate exonerated prisoners for their years behind bars. In the fall, the board approved about $9 million for five men who were wrongly convicted and imprisoned for decades, The board awarded payments of $78,916 per year served by the men — Jerome Johnson, Lamar Johnson, Walter Lomax, Clarence Shipley and Hubert James Williams — because it represents a five-year average of the state’s median household income."
PUBLISHER'S
NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles
Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous
employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable
effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his
protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric
pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on
recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
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FINAL
WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever
there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal
system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent
future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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