The ruling by the Criminal Court of Appeals cited a significant amount of exculpatory evidence that was kept from Munson at the original trial. The Florida Supreme Court threw out Hayess conviction and the DNA evidence in 1995 (Hayes v. Florida, 660 So. No They all look the same, and thats just what I think when I see a black person, that they all look the same. At trial, though, she unhesitatingly testified that Browning was the man she had seen. Judge Hoyts ruling was unanimously upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals. He became the 151st death row exoneree since 1973. Griffin had been sentenced to death for the murder of a fellow inmate in 1983. Bridgeman once came within three weeks of execution, but his and Ajamus death sentences were struck down when Ohios death penalty was found unconstitutional in 1978. Upon his exoneration, Ajamu said, The important part is that we have been united while we are standing forward and upward and that we are not looking at each other in the graveyard, adding, I feel vindicated. (State v. Linder, 278 S.E.2d 335 (S.C. 1981)). Michael Blair was sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of 7-year old Ashley Estell. In two additional trials, one in September 1997 and another in February 1998, each ended with a jury deadlock. A team of lawyers and investigators from Alabama and the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta spent hundreds of hours preparing for the case and were able to prove that Drinkard was at home at the time the crime was committed. At Terrells trial, the prosecutor emphasized the importance of Johnsons testimony, saying during his closing statement, If you never heard anything about Jermaine Johnson in this case, if he had never testified, would you have enough information to make a decision in this case? Kyless third trial ended in October 1996 when the jury deadlocked. Defense counsel also ignored forty alibi witnesses whom Williams and Myers had indicated would be able to testify that they had been next door at a birthday party at the time the shooting occurred. Sources: State v. Carey, 206 S.E.2d 213 (N.C. 1974); Ed Martin, Death Row: Legal rulings sent some from brink of death to freedom, The Charlotte News, March 15, 1984. Leaving the courthouse, Rivera hugged his three-year-old son, stating that he was elated and felt vindicated. (Winston-Salem Journal, November 23, 1999). The two brothers who were convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1984, were freed because of evidence uncovered by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission. Although the state argued that Grannis and Webster killed Sutcliffe in the course of robbing him or burglarizing his home, Grannis testified that he did not know Sutcliffe was dead until he was arrested. The verdict marked the end of the third trial for Quick who was charged with shooting of John Hughes and Nathan King, on October 26, 1995. At trial, Mathers moved for a judgment of acquittal at the close of the prosecutions case, maintaining that the state had not presented evidence sufficient to support a conviction. Read Court Frees Jay Smith, by Pete Shellem and Laird Leask in The Patriot News, Read Author Paid Trooper Probing Reinert Case, by Pete Shellem and Laird Leask in The Patriot News, Read Evidence Surfaces in Reinert Case, by Pete Shellem and Laird Leask in The Patriot News, Maryland Conviction: 1984, Charges Dismissed: 1993. *UPDATE: *Ford died of cancer at age 65 on June 29, 2015. Prosecutors accused Wright of murdering Paula OConnera white woman with whom he had an affairand their 15-month-old son Alijah supposedly to avoid a child support obligation and maintain a bachelor lifestyle. The court noted that none of the evidence presented at trial directly tied Wright to the murders and that the victims young-adult daughter, who had a volatile relationship with the victim, also had a financial motive, having received more than $500,000 in life insurance benefits as a result of her mothers and half-brothers deaths.