You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
-Land of the Free
Judge tosses lawsuit against Cleveland filed by man who spent 47 years in prison for murder he didn't commit
2023-04-21
[Cleveland dot com] A federal judge on Thursday tossed out a lawsuit filed by Isaiah Andrews, who spent 45 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.

U.S. District Judge James Gwin sided with the City of Cleveland and former police officers, who Andrews’ attorneys accused of withholding evidence that pointed to another suspect in the 1974 slaying of Andrews’ wife.

Gwin found that the officers gave the evidence to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office. The judge placed the blame solely on the prosecutor’s office for failing to turn over evidence to Andrews’ attorneys.

"[A] reasonable juror could infer only that police gave the exculpatory evidence over to prosecutors before the trial and that any failure to provide [exculpatory] materials was a prosecutor failure," Gwin wrote in a 35-page opinion.

The evidence, discovered in 2018, led to Andrews’ exoneration.

Sarah Gelsomino, one of the attorneys representing Andrews’ estate, said the case highlighted a problem with prosecutors being shielded from lawsuits...

Andrews served the third longest known sentence in U.S. history for a crime he didn’t commit, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

He spent 45 years in prison until 2020, when Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Robert McClelland ordered he be released from prison.
Related:
Cuyahoga County: 2022-01-05 18-year-old woman admits to killing off-duty Cleveland cop during carjacking: prosecutor
Cuyahoga County: 2021-08-07 Various US court systems have mixed responses to the re-imposition of eviction moratorium
Cuyahoga County: 2019-08-31 When gymnast Simone Biles brother sez get out! You'd better saddle up
Related:
Innocence Project: 2015-04-20 Bad Cop. No Donut.
Innocence Project: 2013-09-22 The Havoc of Prosecutorial Misconduct
Posted by:DooDahMan

#10  No fair! TW peeked!

I’ve learnt the hard way that reading first is wise... and sometimes I even remember to do so. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2023-04-21 22:58  

#9  #6 - Wait! Is that a suggestion or requirement/ Why wasn't I told?
Posted by: Frank G   2023-04-21 20:08  

#8  If you can't sue a prosecutor perhaps you can prosecute a prosecutor. Innocent man in prison and guilty man running around free... Someone should pay.

Also we need to build grave/urinals for people like the prosecutors office involved as prison probably isn't karmic justice enough.
Posted by: ruprecht   2023-04-21 19:04  

#7  No fair! TW peeked!
Posted by: ed in texas   2023-04-21 18:46  

#6  Damn!
I love those that can read before remarking.
Posted by: Skidmark   2023-04-21 15:44  

#5  More from the article:

Andrews won the new trial after attorneys with the Ohio Innocence Project in 2018 found that prosecutors withheld a report that showed Cleveland police detectives initially investigated and arrested another man, Willie Watts, for the slaying of Andrews’ wife, Regina, who he had been married to for two months.


Watts died in 2011. Other evidence discovered in 2018 pointed to Watts as the killer, Andrews’ attorneys argued.

Judges who oversaw the case ordered Andrews be placed on house arrest until the new trial was held nearly two years later.

Andrews needed the use of a wheelchair during the trial and was getting treatment for esophageal cancer. He was so weak at the time, he was unable to celebrate when the jury found him not guilty, his caretaker and fellow exoneree Charles Jackson previously told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

In March 2022, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Ashley Kilbane found him wrongfully imprisoned, a ruling that paved the way for Andrews to collect money from the state for each year he spent in prison. Andrews, 83, died the next month.

His case in the Ohio Court of Claims is pending. Any money he’d get would go to his estate.
Posted by: trailing wife   2023-04-21 15:33  

#4  He doesn't have "standing" while lying in a grave. But he can still vote, as long as it's democrat.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2023-04-21 13:21  

#3  Isn’t called laches if you don’t sue soon enough? I guess the state ran out the clock on justice this time.
Posted by: Super Hose   2023-04-21 12:58  

#2  
after 45+ years, who does the estate consist of?

Whatever said estate can win in a court of law. Is there a statute of limitations on that kind of lawsuit?
Posted by: Gromble Dribble4342   2023-04-21 11:49  

#1  Freed & Cleared March 2022 , died April 10, 2022,
from complications with cancer, and it was his estate suing for the $$$$.

So after 45+ years, who does the estate consist of?
Posted by: NN2N1   2023-04-21 09:17  

00:00