STORY: "After 31 Years in Prison, a Man Is Freed Over 'Mistaken Identification,' by Reporter Michael Levenson, published by The New York Times, on April 27, 2022.
SUB-HEADING: "Prosecutors said Thomas Raynard James had the same name as a suspect, leading to his wrongful conviction for murder in 1991. His conviction was overturned.
PHOTO CAPTION: Thomas Raynard James, seen at Florida’s Okeechobee Correctional Institution, was “always hopeful that one day someone would see the truth and the facts and would come to his defense,” his lawyer said.
GIST: "Prosecutors said it appeared to be a “chance coincidence.”
After two men entered an apartment in the Coconut Grove section of Miami on Jan. 17, 1990, and one of them fatally shot a man during a robbery, witnesses and tipsters said the gunman was named Thomas James or Tommy James.
That led the police to put a photo of Thomas Raynard James in a lineup, setting in motion a case of mistaken identification that led Mr. James, then 23, to be convicted of first-degree murder and armed robbery on Jan. 11, 1991.
He was sentenced to life in prison.
But Mr. James never gave up trying to prove his innocence. He investigated his case while in prison, and his mother, Doris Strong, knocked on doors, looking for answers, according to Mr. James’s lawyer, Natlie G. Figgers.
On Wednesday, their efforts were finally validated when a judge approved a motion by prosecutors to vacate Mr. James’s conviction and sentence, setting him free after he had spent more than half of his life — over 31 years — in prison.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said an investigation that it conducted in cooperation with Ms. Figgers determined that not only did reasonable doubt exist in the conviction, but also that “Thomas Raynard James is actually innocent of the charges.”
“In brief, what appears to be a chance coincidence that the defendant, Thomas Raynard James, had the same name as a suspect named by witnesses and anonymous tipsters as ‘Thomas James,’ or ‘Tommy James’” led to his “mistaken identification” as the gunman who fatally shot Francis McKinnon, prosecutors wrote in court papers asking for the conviction to be thrown out.
Just before he was released on Wednesday, Mr. James, 55, still handcuffed and dressed in a red prison uniform, appeared at a news conference with his mother and prosecutors. He did not speak, but Ms. Figgers said he was “eager to start his life” and hoped to start a nonprofit to help others who have been wrongfully convicted.
Ms. Figgers credited Tristram Korten, whose investigation of Mr. James’s conviction was published in GQ in July 2021, with helping to bring the case to the attention of the prosecutors after years of unsuccessful efforts by Mr. James and his family.
“He was always hopeful that one day someone would see the truth and the facts and would come to his defense,” Ms. Figgers said. “As of today, he’s grateful that people listened to his cries, and he’s just grateful to have the opportunity to live his life.”
Katherine Fernandez Rundle, the Miami-Dade state attorney, said the case pointed to the vulnerability of eyewitness identification.
Mr. James’s conviction rested primarily on the testimony of Dorothy Walton, Mr. McKinnon’s stepdaughter, who had been in the apartment and had identified Mr. James as the gunman after the police put his photo in a lineup.
“I'm positive of it,” she testified during the trial, according to court papers. “I will never forget his face. I will never forget his eyes.”
No physical evidence tied Mr. James or anyone else to the crime, prosecutors said.
Over the years, Ms. Walton began to waver in her certainty about Mr. James, prosecutors said. Although reluctant to rehash the case and fearful that Mr. James could take revenge on her if he were released, she eventually “voiced concerns that maybe she had made a mistake,” and said she “wouldn’t want to go to her grave with the possibility that she may have made a mistake,” court papers said.
She told investigators that, as a “good Christian woman,” she would pray on it.
On April 12, after prosecutors subpoenaed her to testify under oath, Ms. Walton told investigators that she “now believes she made a mistake” in her identification of Mr. James, and that she did not attribute her change to any “outside influence,” prosecutors said.
Ms. Fernandez Rundle called it “an unfortunate mistaken-identity case.”
“Around the country, eyewitness testimony, absent any forensic evidence, is always vulnerable,” she said.
Ms. Fernandez Rundle added that a different man named Tommy James told investigators that he had been eyeing Mr. McKinnon’s apartment with his cousin, Vincent Williams, for a possible robbery in the days before the murder.
That Tommy James, however, was behind bars when Mr. McKinnon was killed, she said. Mr. Williams later told Tommy James that he and another man had committed the robbery and murder. Mr. Williams has since died. The other man has denied any involvement.
While Ms. Fernandez Rundle called Mr. James’s release from prison a “joyous” occasion for his family, she said it was frustrating for Mr. McKinnon’s relatives “because what they believed was a just result for the loss of their loved one has been stolen from them.”
“We believe one of the two men who did this will never be held accountable for the loss of their loved one,” Ms. Fernandez Rundle said, referring to Mr. Williams. “The second, we’re just not sure. We will continue to look at it as a cold case.”
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/27/us/florida-wrongful-conviction-thomas-raynard-james.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
MIAMI HERALD STORY ON IMPORTANT ROLE PLAYED BY TRISTRAM KORTEN: THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG:
"State reviewing case of man in prison for decades," by Reporter Charles Rabin, published by The Miami Herald on July 30, 2021. Miami Herald: "Chuck Rabin, writing news stories for the Miami Herald for the past three decades, covers cops and crime. Before that he covered the halls of government for Miami-Dade and the city of Miami. He’s covered hurricanes, the 2000 presidential election and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting. On a random note: Long before those assignments, Chuck was pepper-sprayed covering the disturbances in Miami the morning Elián Gonzalez was whisked away by federal authorities."
SUB-HEADING: "Was Miami man’s 3 decades in prison a case of mistaken identity? Prosecutors agree to review."
PHOTO CAPTION: "The case of Thomas Raynard James, who has spent the past three decades in prison for a murder he says he did not commit, is now under review by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. His case was recently written about in GQ Magazine."
GIST: "Miami-Dade prosecutors have reopened an investigation into a man who has spent 30 years in prison for a Coconut Grove murder that a new national magazine article argues was built on a case of mistaken identity.
The piece in GQ contends that Miami police confused Thomas Raynard James for another man with the same name and similar features and that he was convicted in 1991 despite sketchy witness testimony and no physical evidence linking him to the crime.
Even before its publication on Wednesday, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office Justice Project, which examines cases involving potential wrongful convictions, had been reviewing the case. Journalist Tristram Korten shared information from his year-long investigation with prosecutors in March.
State attorney spokesman Ed Griffith confirmed that and said investigators also have received information they requested from an attorney recently hired by James, who is now 54.
“We have corresponded with him,” Griffith said. “The review is proceeding.”
Korten, a veteran South Florida journalist and author, said his review of thousands of pages of documents — from depositions to trial transcripts to appeals court cases — left little doubt James was wrongfully imprisoned in the robbery and shooting death of Francis McKinnon in a Coconut Grove apartment.
His piece traces the identity mistake to a Miami-Dade detective who was told by witnesses about a “Thomas James” being involved. Korten’s research found the detective focused on Thomas Raynard James, who six months later police found being held in jail on an unrelated gun charge. That, the article argues, was the wrong guy.
“It was all there in black and white,” Korten said. “For Thomas Raynard James to have done this, it would require a coincidence of monumental proportions, more than even a lightning strike.”
Korten began looking into Thomas Raynard James‘ case in March 2020 after having lunch with a longtime source who told him about the inmate’s plight.
According to Korten, Thomas Raynard James was taken into custody after witnesses claimed a man named Thomas James and his friend Vincent Cephus, who went by the nickname “Dog,” committed the crime. Thomas Raynard James told Korten he was stunned when he first learned he was charged with murder but not scared, because he hadn’t committed the crime.
Still, despite only two of eight witnesses blaming him for the murder — one a brain damaged man who collected cans, the other an older woman who said she never actually saw him — Thomas Raynard James was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
A year into his sentence, he met someone in prison who told him he knew someone with the same name who committed the crime.
As part of his reporting, Korten tracked down the Thomas James he believes police should have talked to, interviewing him in a federal prison near Daytona Beach.
Almost immediately, Thomas James told Korten he knew Thomas Raynard James was innocent and that police were actually looking for him. But, as it proved out, Thomas James also had an alibi himself. He was in prison on Jan. 17, 1990, when the murder took place.
But Thomas James told Korten he was friends with others plotting the robbery and that there was no chance the other James had been involved because “we would never involve a person who was not on the team. Never would have happened.” He also admitted that before going to prison he had scoped out the very same apartment where the murder went down. He added that he was willing to say as much to detectives and state prosecutors.
“Let the other Thomas James know I feel for him. I’m sorry this happened,” he is quoted as saying in the GQ piece.
Korten said the story took one more unexpected turn. He learned that Thomas Raynard James had actually tried to contact him more than 20 years ago, when Korten was a feature writer for Miami New Times.
In the GQ piece, James said he had tried reaching out to almost every South Florida media outlet over the past 30 years, from the Miami Herald to the South Florida Sun Sentinel to all the major local South Florida television stations. Then, the inmate stunned Korten: “You know I wrote you, back when you were at New Times,” he said.
Korten checked. The claim was true, though the letter he wrote arrived shortly after Korten had left the publication.
“But the fact brings me no relief. Instead, the ‘what ifs’ haunt me,” Korten wrote in the article."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article253113283.html
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/2011863605086259787
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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;
