overturned verdict

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He Wanted to Be a Cop, Ended Up Wrongfully Imprisoned

Brian Beals, 57, spent 35 years behind bars in 'egregious' case

(Newser) - A Chicago man who spent 35 years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit was freed Tuesday after a judge vacated his conviction and dismissed all charges. Brian Beals, 57, struggled to find the right words to describe his feelings as he stood outside Robinson Correctional Center in...

Army Aims to Rectify 'Largest Mass Execution' in Its History

More than a century later, soldier convictions related to the 1917 Houston riots are overturned

(Newser) - It was, as the Washington Post reports, "the largest mass execution carried out in the history of the US Army." On Dec. 11, 1917, 13 Buffalo Soldiers were hanged in a military camp near Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. The African American cavalry soldiers of the...

Convicted Pedophile Clears His Name—3 Years After Death

New Zealand Supreme Court overturns 1993 child sex abuse conviction of Peter Ellis

(Newser) - Peter Ellis, a former day-care teacher convicted of 16 counts of child sexual abuse in New Zealand in 1993, maintained his innocence until his 2019 death from bladder cancer. Usually one's death marks the end of their criminal appeal. But not in this case. New Zealand's Supreme Court...

Murder Verdict Reversed in Justine Damond Case

Minnesota Supreme Court rules the charge against ex-cop didn't fit the circumstances

(Newser) - The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed the third-degree murder conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an Australian woman in 2017, saying the charge doesn't fit the circumstances in this case. Mohamed Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of...

Court: 4 Men Jailed in Murder of WSJ Reporter Are Innocent

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, 3 others could go free in Pakistan

(Newser) - The four men jailed in Pakistan for the 2002 kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl are set to walk free. British national Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh has been awaiting the outcome of an appeal since he was sentenced to death for murder, terrorism, and kidnapping for...

Court's Outrageous Ruling: Woman Too Ugly to Be Raped

Outrage in Italy after 2017 appeals court verdict revealed

(Newser) - Italy's Justice Ministry has ordered a preliminary inquiry into an appeals court ruling that overturned a rape verdict in part by arguing that the woman who was attacked was too ugly to be a credible rape victim. The ruling has sparked outrage in Italy, prompting a flash mob Monday...

Defendant Wouldn't Shut Up. Judge's Orders: 'Hit Him'

Terry Lee Morris' conviction has been overturned after judge ordered him electrified during trial

(Newser) - What went down in a Texas courtroom in 2014 was literally shocking enough to result in a man's conviction being overturned late last month. As originally reported by the Texas Lawyer website Tuesday, Terry Lee Morris, who'd been found guilty of sex crimes against a child and given...

Men Accused of Satanic Murder Cleared After 26 Years

Kentucky men spent more than 20 years in prison

(Newser) - An Innocence Project lawyer says it's the worst miscarriage of justice she has ever seen—and it's one that kept two men behind bars for more than half their lives. Garr Keith Hardin and Jeffrey Dewayne Clark, who spent 24 years in prison in Kentucky after being accused...

A Sister Cracks a Murder Case, a Shocking Discovery Follows
A Sister Cracks a Murder Case,
a Shocking Discovery Follows
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Apr 23, 2017 7:11 AM CDT

A Sister Cracks a Murder Case, a Shocking Discovery Follows

Kalimah Truesdale's memory of the police report seemed off for a reason

(Newser) - Kalimah Truesdale isn't a lawyer or a member of the NYPD. In fact, when she got the call informing her that her brother was being charged with murder, she was at her job at Home Depot. And yet she was "the one who cracked" the 2009 case, Robert...

For Wrongfully Convicted Women, Justice Is More Elusive: Lawyers

Lawyers start Northwestern Women's Project to overturn cases

(Newser) - Exonerating women who are wrongfully convicted of violent crimes is no easy task—just ask Kristine Bunch. She got 60 years for supposedly setting the fire that killed her 3-year-old son in 1995, and struggled to find anyone who could help, Mother Jones reports. Finally, lawyers at the Center on...

Doggedly Playing Lawyer, Inmate Overturns Conviction

New Yorker imprisoned for murder spends 15 years fighting case

(Newser) - A New York man was jailed for a decade and a half for a murder he maintained he didn’t commit—and finally, after years of legal work behind bars, he was vindicated. The Wall Street Journal tells the story of a feat “so unbelievably hard…that it's almost...

Court Voids 2 Terrorism Convictions

Blow to administration as Yemeni defendants get a new trial

(Newser) - An appeals court yesterday overturned the verdicts of two men convicted of terrorist offenses in a case once hailed by the Bush administrations as a major triumph, the New York Times reports. The court ruled that inflammatory and irrelevant testimony prejudiced the trial of a Yemeni cleric and his assistant....

Ex-Qwest CEO's Conviction Overturned

Exclusion of expert testimony nets Nacchio new trial

(Newser) - A federal appeals court overturned Joe Nacchio’s guilty verdict today and ordered a new trial for the ex-Qwest CEO before a different judge, the Denver Post reports. The court ruled that the district judge who presided over Nacchio's trial on insider trading charges erred in excluding testimony from an...

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