Archive Archives

Judges order Oklahoma inmate, once sentenced to die, released from prison after 34 years

Two appellate judges ordered Monday that Oklahoma inmate Karl Allen Fontenot, originally sentenced to die after he was convicted of a 1984 murder, be released on bond next month as significant evidence has emerged that cast doubt on his and a codefendant’s guilt.

by John Seasly November 4, 2019December 5, 2023

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Suburban judicial candidate accused of leaving headless duck on woman’s porch

Fake blood, a headless duck and false accusations are at the heart of a no-contact order given to a circuit court candidate in a northwest Chicago suburb last week.

by John Seasly November 1, 2019December 5, 2023

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St. Louis top prosecutor ‘not authorized’ to appeal case of man she says was framed, state attorney says

The filing marks the latest clash in an increasingly fraught battle between St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner and the Missouri Attorney General’s office over Gardner’s effort to correct what her office has concluded is the wrongful conviction and ongoing incarceration of Lamar Johnson.

by Emily Hoerner November 1, 2019January 8, 2024

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Rodney Reed witness: Fiancé killed victim because she was sleeping with black man

In a flurry of new papers seeking to avert Rodney Reed’s execution next month, his attorneys have submitted a new affidavit from a prisoner who says Stacey Stites’s fiance admitted in prison that he had killed Stites because she was having an affair with Reed.

by John Seasly October 31, 2019December 5, 2023

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Texas lawmen join chorus citing doubts of Rodney Reed’s guilt

Thirteen Texas law enforcement officers joined a growing call to halt the scheduled execution November 20 of Rodney Reed, noting “serious doubts” about his guilt in a 1996 murder.

by John Seasly October 29, 2019December 5, 2023

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Anibal Rousseau: died in prison awaiting retrial after evidence of innocence emerged

Two U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigators were on their way to dinner in October, 1988, when a man armed with a handgun suddenly emerged from between cars parked in a Houston lot and robbed them.

by Rob Warden and John Seasly October 29, 2019December 5, 2023

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Edward Elmore: Court found “grave questions” about guilt, but defendant never exonerated

In January, 1982, a Greenwood, South Carolina resident was found dead in her bedroom closet by her neighbor, Jimmy Holloway.

by Rob Warden and John Seasly October 29, 2019January 8, 2024

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Darlie Lynn Routier: Remains in prison, awaiting long-overdue DNA testing

Responding to Darlie Lynn Routier’s frantic 911 call from her Dallas County home in 1996, police found her two sons, Devon Routier, 6, and Damon Routier, 5, dying of stab wounds.

by Rob Warden and John Seasly October 29, 2019June 27, 2024

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Texas state senator joins calls to stay execution for death row inmate

A Texas state senator has asked the governor to stay a Nov. 20 execution, after attorneys for a condemned man on Monday filed a motion raising new potential witnesses whose accounts cast doubt on their client’s guilt.

by John Seasly October 25, 2019December 5, 2023

Archive

Nationwide prosecutors: St. Louis judge’s ruling in murder case is ‘a symbol of unfairness’

Armed with a chorus of support from outside legal groups, the St. Louis city prosecutor this week appealed a judge’s refusal to consider the prosecution’s conclusion that a local man had been framed for a 1994 murder and that his conviction should be overturned.

by Emily Hoerner October 25, 2019December 5, 2023

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