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STORY: "Ohio set to pay $1.8 million to Cleveland man for 1995 wrongful murder conviction," by Reporter Andrew J. Tobias, published by Cleveland.com on November 19, 2021.
GIST: "The State of Ohio is set to pay a $1.8 million wrongful conviction settlement to a Cleveland man who was acquitted of murder charges in 2014 after spending 18 years in prison.
The payment to Anthony Lemons, scheduled to be approved by a state spending panel on Monday, is possible in part due to a 2018 law change that expanded who is eligible to receive money from the state’s wrongful conviction fund.
The payment was approved on Oct. 20 by the Court of Claims, which found Lemons met the legal definition of “wrongfully convicted” under Ohio law. That definition broadened via a 2018 law change, signed by then-Gov. John Kasich, that made eligible for compensation wrongfully imprisoned people whose convictions were overturned due to police or prosecutors improperly withholding evidence for their trial.
The payment to Lemons appears on the Monday agenda for the Ohio Controlling Board, a state panel of state lawmakers and officials in Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration that approves spending requests. Lemons previously received $491,000 from the state in June for damages.
“Exonerating and securing compensation for Anthony Lemons is one of the most satisfying achievements in our careers,” Lemons’ legal team, David Malik, Sara Gedeon, Kevin Spellacy and Al Gerhardstein, said in a statement. “We are honored to represent him and finally reverse this miscarriage of justice. Anthony lost his entire young adult life to prison. We will stand by him and urge the whole community to provide him positive opportunities going forward.”
Lemons has faced a years-long, winding path through the legal system as he’s sought to sue the state since his December 2014 acquittal.
State law says wrongfully convicted people can receive $56,752.36, plus lost wages and attorney’s fees, for each year they were in prison.
The conviction was overturned in 2012, and prosecutors eventually sought to drop the charges against Lemons instead of seeking a new trial, in part because the state’s key witness died. A judge in 2014 ordered the case to be re-heard and acquitted Lemons when prosecutors didn’t present any evidence.
After Lemons sued the state, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Dan Gaul initially ruled against Lemons’ request to be declared wrongfully imprisoned and actually innocent. However, the 8th District Court of Appeals overturned Gaul’s decision in 2017, finding Lemons had been wrongfully imprisoned. But the appellate court upheld Gaul’s denial of his claim for actual innocence, which likely would have made him eligible for a larger payout.
But in 2018, state lawmakers changed the law to broaden the definition of wrongful conviction to apply to anyone convicted amid improperly withheld evidence, making whether Lemons met the definition of “actual innocence” irrelevant.
Gaul begrudgingly ruled in Lemons’ favor in an August 2019 opinion in which he cited both the new law and the 8th District’s opinion. Gaul wrote that he “[did] not fully agree with the outcome,” but he would not “disturb the criminal court order” and overturn another judge’s determination that Lemons was wrongfully convicted.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley appealed Gaul’s decision. In a split decision, the 8th District Court of Appeals in December 2020 upheld Gaul’s ruling.
O’Malley appealed that decision to the Ohio Supreme Court, the high court denied the appeal in April."
The entire story can be read atL:
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: National Registry of Exonerations;
"Police questioned Adamcik and she was unable to identify the gunman. Police then showed her a photographic lineup with pictures of men who had been convicted of drug and gun crimes. Adamcik did not identify anyone in the lineup. Among the photographs in the lineup was a picture of 20-year-old Anthony Lemons. Despite Adamcik’s failure to identify him as the gunman, police focused their investigation on Lemons. Lemons voluntarily came to the police station and stood in an in-person lineup. This time Adamcik did identify him as the gunman. Lemons was charged with first-degree murder for killing Sims and attempted murder for shooting at Adamcik. Lemons went to trial in Cuyahoga County Court of Common pleas in October 1995. Adamcik identified Lemons at trial and said she recalled that he was wearing a particular brand of shoe at the time of the crime. On October 11, 1995, a jury convicted Lemons of murder and attempted murder. He was sentenced to 21 years to life in prison. Lemons appealed his convictions, but lost. He was denied parole repeatedly because he refused to admit he was guilty. In 2009, attorneys David Malik and Kevin Spellacy filed a motion for a new trial, claiming that the prosecution had failed to disclose critical evidence of Lemons’ innocence. The evidence included police reports showing that the shoes that Adamcik said Lemons was wearing at the time of the crime were not manufactured or sold until months after the murder. Moreover, the police had failed to disclose that Adamcik had not identified Lemons when she looked at the photographic lineup that contained Lemons’ photograph. The motion also revealed the prosecution had failed to disclose to Lemons’ defense attorney that a 12-year-old girl who lived in the building where Sims was shot had told police that she heard gunshots and then saw two men leaving Sims’s apartment. The girl described both men, and neither description matched the description of Lemons.a'
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Read the National Registry of Exonerations entry by Maurice Possley at the link below: (Contributing factors: Perjury or false accusation; Official misconduct.)
GIST: On April 14, 1994, the body of 39-year-old Eric Sims, a reputed drug dealer, was found in his apartment in Cleveland, Ohio. He had been shot multiple times and police believed he had been dead for several days.
Police questioned Adamcik and she was unable to identify the gunman. Police then showed her a photographic lineup with pictures of men who had been convicted of drug and gun crimes. Adamcik did not identify anyone in the lineup. Among the photographs in the lineup was a picture of 20-year-old Anthony Lemons. Despite Adamcik’s failure to identify him as the gunman, police focused their investigation on Lemons.
Lemons voluntarily came to the police station and stood in an in-person lineup. This time Adamcik did identify him as the gunman.
Lemons was charged with first-degree murder for killing Sims and attempted murder for shooting at Adamcik.
Lemons went to trial in Cuyahoga County Court of Common pleas in October 1995. Adamcik identified Lemons at trial and said she recalled that he was wearing a particular brand of shoe at the time of the crime.
On October 11, 1995, a jury convicted Lemons of murder and attempted murder. He was sentenced to 21 years to life in prison.
Lemons appealed his convictions, but lost. He was denied parole repeatedly because he refused to admit he was guilty. In 2009, attorneys David Malik and Kevin Spellacy filed a motion for a new trial, claiming that the prosecution had failed to disclose critical evidence of Lemons’ innocence.
The evidence included police reports showing that the shoes that Adamcik said Lemons was wearing at the time of the crime were not manufactured or sold until months after the murder. Moreover, the police had failed to disclose that Adamcik had not identified Lemons when she looked at the photographic lineup that contained Lemons’ photograph.
The motion also revealed the prosecution had failed to disclose to Lemons’ defense attorney that a 12-year-old girl who lived in the building where Sims was shot had told police that she heard gunshots and then saw two men leaving Sims’s apartment. The girl described both men, and neither description matched the description of Lemons.
In December 2012, Lemons was released on parole. A year later, in December 2013, Court of Common Pleas Judge Janet Burnside granted Lemons’ motion for a new trial because of the prosecution’s failure to disclose exculpatory evidence 19 years earlier.
Burnside ordered the case be retried in October 2014. Prior to trial, the prosecution filed a motion for permission to present Adamcik’s testimony from Lemons’ 1995 trial in evidence at the retrial because in the intervening years Adamcik had died. Judge Burnside denied that motion, and the trial was postponed because the prosecution said it would appeal Burnside’s ruling.
In December 2014, the prosecution dismissed its appeal and informed Judge Burnside that it would dismiss the charges against Lemon, but wished to reserve the right to refile the charges if new evidence was discovered.
Judge Burnside refused to grant the prosecution motion and scheduled the case for trial for December 23, 2014. A few days later, Lemons filed a lawsuit against the city of Cleveland and the Cleveland police department seeking damages for his wrongful conviction.
On December 23, 2014, Judge Burnside called the case for trial and when the prosecution presented no evidence, the judge acquitted Lemons.
A trial court judge ruled against Lemons in his compensation lawsuit, but in July 2017, an appeals court ruled Lemons was wrongfully convicted. In October 2019, Court of Common Pleas Judge Daniel Gaul declared Lemons wrongly convicted. In 2021, Lemons was awarded $491,000 in compensation for his wrongful imprisonment.
