Ricky Jackson

I.The conviction

Charge

Aggravated murder, aggravated attempted murder, and aggravated robbery

Year convicted

1975

Sentence

Death. Per the Registry, all three men were sentenced to death "just months after their arrest." Jackson ultimately served a lengthy prison term rather than being executed; the Registry text reviewed does not detail the later resentencing.

Time served

39 years (1975-2014)

What contributed to the conviction

A single child eyewitness who did not actually see the crime; police feeding him details and intimidating him when he tried to recant; suppression of that attempted recantation and of an undisclosed cash payment to the witness; and abandonment of an investigation into two other suspects.

II.Exoneration

Year exonerated

2014

What led to exoneration

A magazine article by reporter Kyle Swenson re-examined the case and revealed that Vernon had been paid $50 by Ann Robinson's husband to testify - a fact Vernon never disclosed on the stand. Swenson could not get Vernon to talk, so he approached Vernon's pastor, Arthur Singleton; when Singleton visited Vernon in a hospital in 2013, where Vernon was being treated for high blood pressure, and raised the article again, Vernon admitted he had lied. The Ohio Innocence Project re-investigated and obtained police reports and evidence of witness intimidation and nondisclosure, and in November 2014 Judge Richard McMonagle held a hearing on Jackson's motion for a new trial at which Vernon testified that police fed him the details of the crime and that he had never seen the attack; the convictions were overturned and the charges dismissed in November 2014.

III.Evidence of innocence

1. 1. No physical or forensic evidence

   The Registry states that no physical or forensic evidence linked Jackson or either Bridgeman brother to the crime.

2. 2. Alibi witnesses for all three men

   All three men denied involvement and all three presented witnesses who said they were elsewhere when the crime occurred. They lived close enough to the store that they walked there afterward and were among a crowd of roughly 100 people that gathered.

3. 3. Classmates placed Vernon on the school bus

   Several of Vernon's classmates testified that Vernon was on the school bus with them when they heard the gunshots and that none of them could see the robbers.

4. 4. Vernon saw nothing and relied on a rumor

   Vernon testified in 2014 that the bus was close to the store but not near enough for him to see anything that took place, and that he named Jackson and the Bridgemans based only on a rumor he had heard on the street.

5. 5. No criminal records

   None of the three defendants had a criminal record.

IV.Newly discovered evidence

1. 1. Undisclosed $50 payment to the witness

   Kyle Swenson's magazine article revealed that Vernon had been paid $50 by Ann Robinson's husband to testify at trial, a fact Vernon failed to mention in his testimony.

2. 2. Pastor's sworn affidavit

   Pastor Arthur Singleton provided a sworn affidavit recounting Vernon's 2013 hospital admission that he lied and had put three innocent men in prison.

3. 3. Vernon's 2014 recantation testimony

   Vernon gave live recantation testimony at the November 2014 hearing before Judge Richard McMonagle, including that police fed him the details of the crime.

4. 4. Police reports on two other suspects

   Police reports obtained by the Ohio Innocence Project showed that police had considered two other men, Paul Gardenshire and Ishmael Hixon, as suspects, and that the license plate on the green car seen speeding away from the crime was matched to a car belonging to Hixon. Hixon's record included a robbery and shooting a year earlier, and in 1976 he pleaded guilty to more than a dozen counts of aggravated robbery.

V.Due-process violations

1. 1. Suppressed attempted recantation

   Police never disclosed to the defense attorneys for the three defendants that Vernon had attempted to recant his accusation before the trials.

2. 2. Police intimidation of the child witness

   The Ohio Innocence Project's re-investigation uncovered evidence that when Vernon tried to recant, police intimidated him into testifying falsely. Vernon testified that detectives took him into a room and told him he was too young to go to jail but that they would arrest his parents for perjury because he was backing out.

3. 3. Payment concealed from the jury

   The $50 payment to the prosecution's only eyewitness was never disclosed to the jury.

4. 4. Alternative suspect lead abandoned

   Police terminated their investigation of the two alternative suspects once Vernon named Jackson and the Bridgemans, and that lead was not pursued or disclosed at the time.

VI.Unreliable evidence

1. 1. Case rested on a child witness

   The prosecution's case rested almost solely on the testimony of a child witness, 12 at the time of his statement and 13 at trial.

2. 2. Internally inconsistent account

   Vernon first told police he was on the bus coming home from school when he saw two men attack Franks as Franks got out of his car and walked toward the store, but he testified at the trials that he had already gotten off the bus and that the attack happened as Franks emerged from the store.

3. 3. Identification based on street rumor

   The identification itself was, by Vernon's later testimony, based on a street rumor rather than observation, with crime details supplied by police.

4. 4. Surviving victim identified no one

   Ann Robinson, the surviving victim, testified that she was shot in the neck by a bullet that pierced the store's front door - she did not identify any of the defendants.

VII.Documents

No documents listed yet.

VIII.Take action

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