Innocents. Alfred Chestnut, Andrew Stewart and Ransom Watkins spent 36 years in prison for a murder they did not commit. The Baltimore court lifted all charges against them on Monday, November 26. "We are humble, we are not angry," reacted Ransom Watkins at a press conference at the exit of the court. "But that should never have happened and someone will have to pay," he added.
The three African Americans were only 16- and 17-year-olds when they were charged on November 18, 1983 with the murder of DeWitt Duckett. The 14-year-old boy was shot in the back of his neck in the halls of his school, Harlem Park Junior High School. At the time of the investigation, the police quickly identified three witnesses to the murder who reported seeing a boy shot at Duckett as he tried to steal his jacket. The culprit escaped. The media of the day reported the presence of a single suspect.
"The witnesses to the crime had assured not to recognize" the accused
The Baltimore attorney pledged to be compensated. "This day is not a victory, it's a tragedy that has been stolen 36 years," said Marilyn Mosby, apologizing for the mistakes made by his services.
The murder of DeWitt Duckett caused a lot of emotion. It was the first time a student was killed at a school in Baltimore. Under pressure, the investigators had quickly turned to three former students: MM. Chestnut, Stewart and Watkins. They had been seen around the school by the college principal and one of them had a jacket identical to that stolen from the victim. The witnesses to the crime had, however, assured that they did not recognize them.
Witnesses say they have been pressured by the police
At trial, four people had assured that they were the perpetrators of the murder. Despite the denials of the trio, the jurors had sentenced them to life imprisonment in less than three hours of deliberation. The prosecutor had reproached them for not showing "the slightest sign of remorse or assuming their act".
The four witnesses have since gone back and explained that they have been pressured by the police, according to the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project (MAIP), an association that fights against miscarriages of justice and participated in the reopening of the case. Other witnesses identified another man who is now the suspect of the crime.
"All those involved in this case - school officials, police, prosecutors, jurors, the media and the public - rushed to the conclusions and allowed their prejudices to stifle the evidence," he said. MAIP Director Shawn Armbrust said in a statement.
A unit specializing in the correction of miscarriages in the Baltimore Attorney's Office agreed in May to take the case and quickly concluded that they were innocent. She had already cleared six other innocent people in the last three years.
With AFP