Jackson Free Press

Cedric Willis, who served 12 years in prison until he was exonerated last year, has announced that he is suing the city of Jackson for $36 million for wrongful arrest. As Brian Johnson reported in his award-winning feature about Willis in in the JFP in 2006, when Willis left prison he had received no education, no job training and had not a penny to his name. The state of Mississippi does not currently offer restitution for wrongful conviction. Willis was exonerated because The Innocence Project showed that the district attorney's office did not present evidence in the original trial that indicated his innocence, as Brian wrote in his feature last year:

Cedric had already volunteered to give a blood sample, so his DNA could be tested against the rapist's, but the results were not ready by the time he was indicted. DNA analysis took much longer in 1994 than it does today.

When the DNA test results came in, they showed unequivocally that Cedric Willis could not have been the rapist. The police tested Cedric's DNA again in disbelief, but the results were the same. Cedric could not have committed the rape, and prosecutors had to drop all related charges.

Nevertheless, the prosecution, led by then-District Attorney Ed Peters and Assistant D.A. Bobby DeLaughter, proceeded with the murder indictment. They also moved to have the rape evidence excluded from the trial, despite the fact that it cast significant doubt on whether Cedric was the murderer; witnesses had given consistent descriptions of the assailant. Ballistics testing showed that the same weapon had been used in all the crimes. Hinds County Circuit Judge William Coleman ruled against the prosecution, allowing the defense to argue that Cedric's exoneration of the rape cast significant doubt on whether he had committed any of the crimes. The prosecution argued that the weapon might have been passed from the rapist to Cedric over the intervening four days.

Then, before the trial was set to begin, Coleman retired from the bench, and Cedric's case was reassigned to freshly appointed Judge Breland Hilburn. Without any new evidence, prosecutors again moved to exclude any mention of the rape from the trial. This time, Hilburn agreed.

"Technically, you're not supposed to do that," current D.A. Faye Peterson says, "unless you've got some new information that wasn't presented before. … It's called forum shopping."

"It's certainly odd that he would do this," Emily Maw, an attorney with the Innocence Project, says. "There wasn't a reason to think that Judge Coleman's previous ruling was wrong. If there is evidence that someone else was committing a similar crime in the vicinity at the time, and it could not have been you, the courts are clear that you can always present evidence that someone else committed the crimes."

The prosecution filed further motions to exclude evidence. Cedric had an alibi for the other three robberies committed June 16, and in any case, none of those victims had chosen Cedric from the lineup. Although each robbery followed the same M.O.—approaching victims in their driveways and shooting the men in the leg, with the same weapon—the prosecution moved that no mention of the other robberies be allowed in Cedric's trial.

Read Brian's full story (and weep).

Previous Comments

ID

96505

Comment

I hope he gets the justice he deserves. It's also a shame that this state does not offer restitution for the wrongly conviction. What's the moral standing in telling the Cedric Willises of the world that they were wrongly convicted--thus taking away the earning potential they had with their jobs or future employment if in school at the time of their arrests--but won't be offered restitution for their troubles? What about their families? The kid that had to grow up without his father because of a wrongful arrest and conviction? There are so many reciprocating effects wrongful convictions have and I think it's high time for the state to step up and do the right thing.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2007-10-29T10:06:25-06:00

ID

96506

Comment

I hope he gets everything he ask for. Anyone who has to spend even a year, who is wrongly convicted, in prison deserves compensation. Life is changing, at such a rapid pace. He has missed alot regarding society, education and technology. No one really learns that in prison. Prison is no longer rehabilitation it is simply "warehousing"

Author

JMK

Date

2007-10-29T12:35:05-06:00

ID

96507

Comment

I know Judges have immunity for their actions on the bench. This state need some citizens to run on a platform of reform. Politicians often talk about bringing accountability to what ever position they are running for. This is usually a lot of hot air. I have pressed a few of candidates on how they are going to accomplish this. Most of them started talking about a hot button issue to get away from having to answer. One had some very large men ask me to leave. If a politician is running on hot button issues like immigration, drugs or putting more religion in the schools, you can bet they have no new ideas what so ever. We need some people to bring in a more accountable government system. The workings of government should be transparent and easily viewed by the people. This would go a long ways toward making sure things like this wrongful conviction are less frequent than they are now.

Author

Slider

Date

2007-10-30T08:48:19-06:00

ID

96508

Comment

I know Judges have immunity for their actions on the bench. Right, but prosecutors don't, right?

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-10-30T09:12:52-06:00