PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "A jury in August 1975 found Jackson, Bridgeman and Ajamu, then known as Ronnie Bridgeman, guilty of murdering Franks. They were also convicted of trying to kill store owner Anna Robinson. Cuyahoga County prosecutors relied on the eyewitness testimony of young Eddie Vernon to prove their case. A judge sentenced the men to death, though the sentences were reduced to life in 1978 when the state enacted a short-lived moratorium on the death penalty. Nearly 40 years later, Vernon recanted his testimony and judges overturned the men’s criminal convictions. Vernon, who was 12 years old when Franks was killed, said in 2014 that city detectives pressured him to lie on the witness stand, which included threats to jail his parents, and that police manipulated him. Bridgeman, 65, and Jackson, 63, were released in 2014 with the help of the Ohio Innocence Project, which obtained Vernon’s recantation. Ajamu, 62, was paroled in 2003. The story of the murder and the work done to secure their freedom was chronicled in a book written by Kyle Swenson, now a reporter for The Washington Post who covered the case for the alternative weekly Cleveland Scene."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "After their names were cleared, the men sought compensation. The state paid millions of dollars for the time they spent behind bars through cases filed in the Ohio Court of Claims. The men also filed suit in federal court in 2015 against the city and former detectives for what they said was a culture of racist and unethical cops who would often do anything to close a case. Several of the officers named in the suit have since died. Senior U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko dismissed the trio’s lawsuits in 2017, but a federal appeals court revived most of the claims in a ruling in March 2019. It said a jury should decide, among other issues, whether former Cleveland police detective Frank Stoiker withheld and fabricated evidence during a homicide investigation that led to the men’s convictions. They also said there was enough evidence to continue their case on the policies and training police had in the 1970s and for how officers handed over evidence favorable to defendants, known as “Brady material.”
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STORY: "Cleveland to pay $18 million to trio who spent decades in prison for wrongful 1975 murder convictions," by Reporter Eric Heisig, published by Cleveland.com on May11, 2020. (Eric Heisig covers federal courts for Cleveland.com. His work also appears in 'The Plain Dealer'.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The city of Cleveland agreed to pay a combined $18 million to three men who spent decades in prison for a 1975 killing they did not commit and said they were the victims of a police department that would do anything to close a case, even at the expense of innocent black men.
Rickey Jackson, Wiley Bridgeman and his brother Kwame Ajamu reached the settlement during an 12-hour mediation held Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster. The payments, which will be split up through April 2023, will end the lawsuits each man filed for the time they spent behind bars.
The men, now in their 60s, were convicted of murder in 1975 for the shooting of money order collector Harold Franks at what was then the Fairmont Cut Rate Store at Fairhill and Petrarca roads on the city’s East Side. The trio maintained their innocence and were cleared in 2014. Jackson had served 39 years in prison and was believed at the time to have served the longest amount of time behind bars of anyone wrongfully convicted of a crime.
Ajamu, with tears frequently streaming down his face, said during a video news conference Friday, that they were accepting the settlement because "we now know that you have no other reason and no other recourse but to tell the world that you wronged three little black boys 45 years ago.”
While thanking his lawyers Terry Gilbert and Jacqueline Greene of Friedman & Gilbert, Ajamu expressed gratitude but did not downplay the long fight he, his brother and friend undertook to clear their names.
“Money cannot buy freedom and money certainly does not make innocence,” said Ajamu, who in addition to Gilbert and Greene was also represented by attorney David Mills.
The settlement is the largest reached in the state of Ohio in a police misconduct case, Jackson’s attorneys at the Chicago law firm Loevy & Loevy said in a news release. Under an agreement the trio has to divvy up the settlement, Jackson will get 40 percent - or $7.2 million - and Bridgeman and Ajamu will split the rest, Jackson’s lawyer Elizabeth Wang said in an interview.
Wang said that Jackson, who is now married and has a child on the way, is looking forward to the future.
“What is 39 years of your life worth?” Wang said. “Nobody can put a number on that. No amount of money that can compensate them for what they went through.”
A spokeswoman for the city did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A jury in August 1975 found Jackson, Bridgeman and Ajamu, then known as Ronnie Bridgeman, guilty of murdering Franks. They were also convicted of trying to kill store owner Anna Robinson. Cuyahoga County prosecutors relied on the eyewitness testimony of young Eddie Vernon to prove their case.
A judge sentenced the men to death, though the sentences were reduced to life in 1978 when the state enacted a short-lived moratorium on the death penalty.
Nearly 40 years later, Vernon recanted his testimony and judges overturned the men’s criminal convictions. Vernon, who was 12 years old when Franks was killed, said in 2014 that city detectives pressured him to lie on the witness stand, which included threats to jail his parents, and that police manipulated him.
Bridgeman, 65, and Jackson, 63, were released in 2014 with the help of the Ohio Innocence Project, which obtained Vernon’s recantation. Ajamu, 62, was paroled in 2003. The story of the murder and the work done to secure their freedom was chronicled in a book written by Kyle Swenson, now a reporter for The Washington Post who covered the case for the alternative weekly Cleveland Scene.
After their names were cleared, the men sought compensation. The state paid millions of dollars for the time they spent behind bars through cases filed in the Ohio Court of Claims.
The men also filed suit in federal court in 2015 against the city and former detectives for what they said was a culture of racist and unethical cops who would often do anything to close a case. Several of the officers named in the suit have since died.
Senior U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko dismissed the trio’s lawsuits in 2017, but a federal appeals court revived most of the claims in a ruling in March 2019. It said a jury should decide, among other issues, whether former Cleveland police detective Frank Stoiker withheld and fabricated evidence during a homicide investigation that led to the men’s convictions.
They also said there was enough evidence to continue their case on the policies and training police had in the 1970s and for how officers handed over evidence favorable to defendants, known as “Brady material.”
The day the appeals court issued its decision, Bridgeman was behind the wheel of a car that struck and killed a construction worker in University Heights, police said. Bridgeman kept driving until he struck a telephone pole and was hospitalized after the crash, according to authorities.
A county grand jury indicted Bridgeman in May 2019 on charges of aggravated vehicular homicide, vehicular assault and stopping after an accident. He has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond.
The men were set to take their lawsuits to trial in July.
Gilbert noted during the news conference that there have been a spate of other cases, both in Ohio and across the country, where men who spent long stretches of their lives behind bars were later cleared, and said prosecutors and judges should take those claims seriously.
“Forty-five years later, we now can say that we have some sense of completion and justice in this case,” Gilbert said."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/2020/05/cleveland-to-pay-18-million-to-trio-who-spent-decades-in-prison-for-wrongful-1975-murder-convictions.html
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Read National Registry of Exonerations entry by Maurice Possley at the link below:
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Read National Registry of Exonerations entry by Maurice Possley at the link below:
"On May 19, 1975, 59-year-old Harold Franks, a money order salesman, left a neighborhood grocery store on Fairhill Road in Cleveland, Ohio and was confronted by two men demanding his briefcase. When Franks resisted, they clubbed him on the head with a pipe and splashed acid in his face. One of the robbers then shot him twice in the chest, and fired a shot through the store’s glass front door. Franks died, and 58-year-old Ann Robinson, co-owner of the store, who was shot once in the neck, survived.
The two robbers fled with the briefcase containing about $425 and got into a green car parked down the street and escaped. Within a week, police obtained a statement from 12-year-old Eddie Vernon, who identified the gunman as 18-year-old Ricky Jackson. Vernon told police that 17-year-old Ronnie Bridgeman, and Bridgeman’s 20-year-old brother, Wiley, who drove the getaway car, were with Jackson. Jackson and the Bridgeman brothers—none of whom had a criminal record—were arrested on May 25, 1975. They were charged with aggravated murder, aggravated attempted murder and aggravated robbery. All three were tried separately in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas in August 1975. No physical or forensic evidence linked any of them to the crime. The prosecution’s case rested almost solely on the testimony of Vernon, who had turned 13 by the time he testified. Vernon’s testimony was inconsistent. He initially told police that he was on the bus coming home from school when he saw the two men attack Franks as he got out of his car and walked to the store. Vernon testified at the trials, however, that he had already gotten off the bus when he saw the attack and that the attack occurred as Franks emerged from the store. Ann Robinson testified that she was shot in the neck by a bullet that pierced the store’s front door. She was unable to identify the robbers. A 16-year-old neighborhood girl testified for the defense that she walked into the store just before the attack and saw two men outside the store. She said that neither of the two men were Jackson nor the Bridgeman brothers. Several of Vernon’s classmates testified that he was on the bus with them when they heard the gunshots and that none of them were able to see the robbers. Jackson and Wiley Bridgeman were convicted in August 1975. Ronnie Bridgeman was convicted in September 1975. All three denied they were involved in the crime. All presented witnesses who said they were elsewhere at the time it occurred—although they lived close enough to the store that they walked there after the shooting and were part of the crowd of about 100 people that had gathered. All three were sentenced to death—just months after their arrest. Those sentences were later commuted to life in prison. In 2002, Wiley Bridgeman was granted parole. Several weeks later, Wiley was living in a shelter in Cleveland when he had an accidental encounter with Vernon, who was working as a security guard at the shelter. Afterward, Vernon’s supervisor asked him about the encounter and Vernon explained that he had been the witness whose testimony convicted Wiley. The supervisor told Vernon to report the contact to Wiley’s parole officer because the contact was prohibited by the terms of Wiley’s parole. Vernon did so and as a result, Wiley’s parole was revoked and he was sent back to prison after being free for only about three months. In January 2003, Ronnie Bridgeman was released from prison on parole. In 2011, Cleveland Scene magazine published a detailed examination of the case and highlighted the numerous inconsistencies in Vernon’s testimony, and the absence of any other evidence linking Jackson and the Bridgeman’s to the crime. The article pointed out that Vernon had been paid $50 by Ann Robinson’s husband to testify at the trial—a fact that Vernon had failed to mention in his testimony. Kyle Swenson, the reporter who wrote the article, attempted to interview Vernon, but he refused to talk about the case. Swenson reached out to Vernon’s pastor, Arthur Singleton. When Singleton mentioned to Vernon that a reporter wanted to talk to him, Vernon brushed off Singleton, telling him to ignore the reporter. Months later, Swenson sent his article to Singleton, who asked Vernon about it. Vernon refused to talk about it. In 2013, Singleton paid a visit to Vernon in a hospital where Vernon was being treated for high blood pressure. Singleton later said in a sworn affidavit that he asked Vernon again about the article. “Edward Vernon told me that he lied to the police when he said he had witnessed the murder in 1975, and he had put three innocent men in prison for murder,” Singleton said in the affidavit. “He told me that he tried to back out of the lie at the time of the line-up, but he was only a child and the police told him it was too late to change his story.” Singleton said that Vernon broke down and wept. “I could see the weight…being lifted from his shoulders,” Singleton said. Prompted by the recantation, Brian Howe and Mark Godsey, attorneys with the Ohio Innocence Project, filed a petition for a new trial on behalf of Jackson. Similar petitions were later filed on behalf of Wiley Bridgeman and Ronnie Bridgeman, who had since changed his name to Kwame Ajamu. The Ohio Innocence Project’s re-investigation of the case uncovered evidence that when Vernon attempted to recant his identification of the three defendants, police intimidated him to testify falsely. The police had never disclosed to the defense attorneys for the three defendants that Vernon attempted to recant his accusation prior to the trials. Police reports obtained by the Ohio Innocence Project also showed that police considered two other men, Paul Gardenshire and Ishmael Hixon, as suspects in the crime, but their investigation of those two men was terminated when Vernon identified Jackson and the Bridgeman brothers. The license plate on the green car seen speeding away from the crime was matched to a car belonging to Hixon, whose police record included a robbery and shooting a year earlier. In 1976, a year after the Franks murder, Hixon pled guilty to more than a dozen counts of aggravated robbery. In November 2014, Judge Richard McMonagle held a hearing on Jackson’s motion for a new trial. Vernon testified that police fed him the details of the crime. “I don’t have any knowledge about what happened at the scene of the crime,” he testified. “Everything was a lie. They were all lies.”' Vernon told the judge that he was on the bus when he heard two pops that sounded like firecrackers. The bus was close to the store where the crime occurred, but not near enough that he could see anything that took place, Vernon testified. But based on a rumor he heard on the street, Vernon said he went to the scene and told police that Jackson and the Bridgeman brothers committed the crime. “I’m thinking, ‘I'm doing the right thing,’”' Vernon testified. “I told the officer, ‘I know who did it.’” He testified that he tried to recant, but the detectives took him into a room and told him he was too young to go to jail, but they would arrest his parents for perjury because he was backing out. So, Vernon said, he agreed to testify at the trials. On November 18, 2014, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty said the state would no longer contest the motion for a new trial. “The state concedes the obvious,” McGinty said.
McMonagle adjourned the hearing until November 21, 2014. At that time, he granted motions for a new trial filed by Jackson and Wiley Bridgeman and vacated both men’s convictions. The prosecution then dismissed the charges. Wiley Bridgeman and Jackson were released.
Jackson had served 39 years, three months and nine days—at that time the longest time in prison of any exonerated defendant in U.S. history.
On December 9, 2014, Ajamu's conviction was vacated and the prosecution dismissed the charges against him.
In December 2014, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office said it would not oppose compensation awards to Jackson, Bridgeman and Ajamu because they believe the men are innocent. In February, 2015, they were declared innocent by a judge. Jackson was preliminarily awarded $1 million in compensation pending a final computation by the Ohio Court of Claims.
In 2016, the Court of Claims awarded Bridgeman $2.4 million and awarded Ajamu $1.98 million. In April 2016, Jackson settled his lawsuit against the State of Ohio for $2.65 million. Their lawsuit against the Cleveland Police department was dismissed in 2017, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit reinstated it in March 2019."
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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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