Posted on 04/28/2022 4:38:12 AM PDT by Cronos
Prosecutors said Thomas Raynard James had the same name as a suspect, leading to his wrongful conviction for murder in 1991. His conviction was overturned.
...After two men entered an apartment in the Coconut Grove section of Miami on Jan. 17, 1990, and one of them fatally shot a man during a robbery, witnesses and tipsters said the gunman was named Thomas James or Tommy James.
That led the police to put a photo of Thomas Raynard James in a lineup, setting in motion a case of mistaken identification that led Mr. James, then 23, to be convicted of first-degree murder and armed robbery on Jan. 11, 1991. He was sentenced to life in prison.
But Mr. James never gave up trying to prove his innocence. He investigated his case while in prison, and his mother, Doris Strong, knocked on doors, looking for answers, according to Mr. James’s lawyer, Natlie G. Figgers.
On Wednesday, their efforts were finally validated when a judge approved a motion by prosecutors to vacate Mr. James’s conviction and sentence, setting him free after he had spent more than half of his life — over 31 years — in prison.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said an investigation that it conducted in cooperation with Ms. Figgers determined that not only did reasonable doubt exist in the conviction, but also that “Thomas Raynard James is actually innocent of the charges.”
“In brief, what appears to be a chance coincidence that the defendant, Thomas Raynard James, had the same name as a suspect named by witnesses and anonymous tipsters as ‘Thomas James,’ or ‘Tommy James’” led to his “mistaken identification” as the gunman who fatally shot Francis McKinnon, prosecutors wrote in court papers asking for the conviction to be thrown out
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“I'm positive of it,” she testified during the trial, according to court papers. “I will never forget his face. I will never forget his eyes.”
No physical evidence tied Mr. James or anyone else to the crime, prosecutors said.
Over the years, Ms. Walton began to waver in her certainty about Mr. James, prosecutors said. Although reluctant to rehash the case and fearful that Mr. James could take revenge on her if he were released, she eventually “voiced concerns that maybe she had made a mistake,” and said she “wouldn’t want to go to her grave with the possibility that she may have made a mistake,” court papers said. She told investigators that, as a “good Christian woman,” she would pray on it.
On April 12, after prosecutors subpoenaed her to testify under oath, Ms. Walton told investigators that she “now believes she made a mistake” in her identification of Mr. James, and that she did not attribute her change to any “outside influence,” prosecutors said
This is pretty horrifying. The eye witness made a mistaken identification and an innocent man spent half his life in prison
Here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin’ that he never done
Oh well, Dorothy Walton made a mistake (or lied). But now she has ‘seen the truth’ and recanted her story and Thomas James is free. Whoop De Do!
Horse Hockey! I hope Mr James sues her and the Miami DA at the time, into the poor house.
It is horrifying. The woman who made the ID was probably still in shock at the time she said she would never forget his eyes and face.
We know how flawed eyewitness accounts are when coupled with traumatic events.
It amazes me that Mr. James did not have an alibi for the time of the crime.
Eyewitness testimony is considered the least reliable of evidence.
Knowledgeable observers are well aware of how unreliable “eyewitness” evidence can be. It is a low grade quality of evidence and must be substantiated by other evidence to be believed. It should never stand alone.
This case is but one of a myriad of examples of people not knowing what they see, or being unable to accurately recount what they see.
Black male, let me guess…he had dark eyes.
Got him!
It could be he was home or out for a walk, come on, we don’t always have someone with us as alibi
NY Times eh. Link doesn’t work for non subscribers. I would never subscribe to that commie rag.
Appalling. There’s no amount of money that cam possibly compensate this innocent man for the loss of the prime of his life, but if there’s any justice Miami/Dade should be prepared to make him rich quickly.
Unbelievable. Especially after the other man was located. The don’t even look that much alike to me.
Totally agree. I would rather have a guilty person walk free than someone innocent wrongfully convicted.
Johnny Cash’s ballad ‘Long Black Veil’ has one possible explanation
I posted most of the salient bits. Plus the ny times gives your 5 articles free per month per device
The same Name issue happened to me in 1990 too. But in virginia. Fortunately the charges were nothing too serious. But she had a warrant in Virginia and the woman had the same full name and basic description.
I went to pay a parking ticket at the courthouse. The woman at the counter lead me to a different area. Then a cop walked me down a hall, with security doors shutting behind me. I thought - this is a strange way to pay a parking ticket! They took me to a room to get fingerprinted. It seriously felt like forever trying to convince them they had the wrong person. Needless to say I was a couple hours late returning from my lunch break. They didn’t even let me call my job to explain why I’d be late.
This poor guy. What a horrific nightmare.
I am always dubious of not articles
One cannot reasonably comprehend the hell this man went through in those 31 years.
And the possibility of a sole witness being wrong, after how much prodding and pushing she likely received by prosecutors and law enforcement who were focused not on justice and doing what was right, but on putting a notch I’m their belts for a conviction.
As a hardcore supporter of law enforcement, there’s a duty to get it right, and that wasn’t done here.
31 years.
Family of the victim argued in court, that there is not enough evidence to exonerate the defendant.
'Family Of Victim Speaks Out After Accused Killer Exonerated'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mplT8kD5hf0
Insane. Just on the same name
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