Two
Ohio men wrongly accused of murder experienced freedom for the first
time in nearly four decades on Friday morning, but said they don’t
harbor bitterness over their unjust imprisonment.
A Cleveland judge on
Wednesday had dropped all charges against Ricky Jackson, 57, and Wiley
Bridgeman, 60, allowing for the pair’s release.
Jackson was 19 when he
was convicted along with Bridgeman and Bridgeman’s brother, Ronnie, in
the 1975 shooting death and robbery of Harold Franks, a Cleveland-area
money order salesman.
Testimony from a
12-year-old witness helped point to Jackson as the triggerman and led a
jury to convict all three. Ronnie Bridgeman, now known as Kwame Ajamu,
was paroled from prison in 2003.
The witness, Edward
Vernon, now 53, recanted his testimony last year, saying he was coerced
by detectives, according to Cuyahoga County court documents. Vernon
wrote in a 2013 affidavit that he never saw the murder take place, but
he was told by detectives that if he didn’t testify against Jackson, his
parents would be arrested.
Vernon said he confided
in a pastor several years after meeting with Bridgeman, and the pastor
encouraged him to reach out to the Innocence Project. Vernon wrote that
he had “been waiting to tell the truth about this for a long time.”
“A lot of people think I
should be mad,” said Jackson, but “in ’75, he was a 12-year-old-kid.”
Jackson said “it took a lot of courage” for the witness to recant his
statement.
The Ohio Innocence Project, which took up the case, said Jackson had been the longest-held U.S. prisoner to be exonerated.
Jackson was originally
sentenced to death, but that sentence was vacated because of a paperwork
error. The Bridgeman brothers remained on death row until Ohio declared
the death penalty unconstitutional in 1978.
“One of them came within
20 days of execution before Ohio ruled the death penalty
unconstitutional” said Mark Godsey, director of the Ohio Innocence
Project.
“The bitterness is over with,” said Wylie Bridgeman during his first moments of freedom on Friday.
Jackson agreed. “I had
plans for my life,” but “time is just something that you can't get back
so I'm not going to really cry about it,” he said.
While Ohio provides compensation for those who are wrongfully imprisoned, everyone is not guaranteed money. The Ohio Innocence Project has set up a fund for Jackson.
A story published in Scene Magazine
in 2011 first raised new questions about the murder and whether Jackson
and the Bridgeman brothers actually committed the crime.
Cuyahoga County
Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said in court Tuesday that without an
eyewitness there was not much of a case. “The state is conceding the
obvious," he said, according to Reuters.
NBC News' Emmanuelle Saliba contributed to this report. Reuters also contributed.
Cynthia McFadden
Cynthia McFadden is the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News. Before joining NBC...
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