Three men named Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew Stewart spent 36 years in an American prison for killing a teenager.
The men, who are now in their 50s, have now been released as they were wrongly convicted of murder.
The three men were only 16-years-old in 1984 when they were wrongly sentenced to life in prison for killing 14-year-old DeWitt Duckett.
14-year-old DeWitt Duckett was shot dead while he was on his way to his school in Baltimore.
Several witnesses told police at the time that they saw 18-year-old Michael Willis killing the teenager and then dumping the gun before the police arrived at Harlem Park Junior High School.
However, police arrested the three for killing Duckett despite the evidence against Willis.
The case was reopened earlier this year by the office of Baltimore City state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby.
Baltimore state attorney Marilyn Mosby said: “These three men were convicted, as children, because of police and prosecutorial misconduct.”
“Detectives targeted the three men, all 16-year-old black boys, using coaching and coercion of other teenage witnesses to make their case”.
The three men have now been released as they were wrongly convicted of murdering the teenager.
Judge Charles Peters told the men: “On behalf of the criminal justice system, and I’m sure this means very little to you gentlemen, I’m going to apologise”.
While Shawn Armbrust, representing Mr.point 275 |
Watkins, said: “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 obvious problems with the evidence.point 197 | This case should be a lesson to everyone that the search for quick answers can lead to tragic results.point 281 |
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Ms. Mosby said that this is not a victory, it’s a tragedy as the three men had to spend 36 years in prison without any fault.
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