Innocent People Convicted of Crimes

By Francis P., who is working towards becoming a radiology technician by taking courses online.

In the American justice system, everyone is considered innocent until proven guilty. But what happens when someone who is “proven guilty” is actually innocent? We have an appeal process, but it can take years for a new trial, all while the innocent person remains incarcerated. An estimated 2.3 to 5 percent of all prisoners are thought to actually be innocent.

Below is a list of some of those very people who were convicted, only to be proven innocent later.

1. Kirk Noble Bloodsworth

(Photo courtesy of statepress.com)

Kirk Bloodsworth was the very first American death row inmate to be exonerated due to DNA evidence. Bloodsworth was convicted of rape and premeditated murder in 1984. For nine years he maintained his innocence. He spent two years on death row until 1992, when DNA testing was first introduced. Bloodsworth’s DNA was compared with DNA found at the crime scene, and they were not a match. What’s strangely coincidental was that the person who actually committed the crime, Kim Ruffner, was locked up for a different crime a month after the murder in 1984, and was in the cell directly below Bloodworth’s cell.

2. Kenny Waters

(Photo courtesy of The Columbus Dispatch)

*SPOILER ALERT* If you haven’t seen the movie “Conviction” and are planning on seeing it, you should probably skip this part and move on to our third wrongful conviction. I’m about to give away the ending of the real-life story upon which the movie was based. After a slew of other people’s false testimonies, Kenny Waters was convicted of murder in 1983. He spent the next 18 years in prison until he was finally exonerated on June 19, 2001, based on the fact that his DNA did not match the DNA of the perpetrator. His sister, Betty Anne Waters, put herself through college and law school in order to defend her brother in court. The most heartbreaking part of this case, however, was that less than six months after he was finally released from prison, he died in an accident where he fell and suffered a skull fracture. Kenny Water’s estate sued for his wrongfully incarceration and was awarded $3.5 million in 2009.

3. Barney Brown

(Photo courtesy of newsone.com)

He was just 15 years when he was sentenced to life in prison. In 1970, Barney Brown was convicted of raping a woman and robbing her husband. Barney Brown was first tried as a juvenile, and when the victim could not identify Brown, the judge acquitted him anyway. But that did not stop the prosecution from violating double jeopardy and trying Brown as an adult. They sought the death penalty, but instead they got a conviction and a life sentence. Brown spent 38 years in prison before he was finally released from prison. Brown had been to trial twice for the same crime, which is unconstitutional; he was at first acquitted, then convicted. In prison, though, Brown earned a high school and college degree. Brown now speaks about never giving up hope.

4. Luis Diaz

(Photo courtesy of dailylife.com)

Luis Diaz was sentenced to multiple life sentences in 1980 after being found guilty of seven separate sexual assault cases. He was charged with eight counts of sexual assault, battery, and kidnapping. A search of Diaz’ home found no items missing from the victims, and no weapon or DNA was ever found on Diaz, in his home, or in his car. And even though all of the victims previously described their attacker as someone who was between 6′ and 6’2″ tall and weighed over 200 pounds, at just 5’3″ and 134 pounds, Diaz was picked out of lineup and pointed out in the courtroom. After spending 25 years in prison, in 2005, Diaz was finally freed when his DNA was not a match to any of the evidence for any of the cases, and his innocence was finally proven.

5. Ralph Armstrong

(Photo courtesy of innocenceproject.org)

Ralph Armstrong was convicted of murdering and sexually assaulting a 19-year-old college student in her apartment. In 1981, Armstrong was given a life sentence plus 16 years for first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault. Ralph knew the victim, had been using drugs with her the night of her murder, and he even owed the victim’s boyfriend $400. The victim’s neighbor described someone of similar build to Armstrong leaving the victim’s apartment, and the detectives actually had the witness hypnotized. With that testimony and hair found at the crime that was described to be similar to Armstrong’s hair, he was convicted. In 2005, Armstrong’s conviction was overturned after a DNA test was conducted, and Armstrong was granted a new trial. Later it was learned that the prosecution had ordered secret DNA tests and destroyed evidence to ensure an Armstrong conviction. Finally in 2009, after almost 30 years in prison, Armstrong was exonerated.