Exonerated! Wrongly Convicted Black Folks Whose Names Have Been Cleared

Source: The Washington Post / Getty

UPDATED: 8:00 a.m. ET, Mar 7, 2024

It’s a tragic story told time and time again: Black people convicted of crimes they never actually committed.

After spending 34 years behind bars, 61-year-old Ronald Johnson was released from prison after a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge vacated his conviction.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Johnson was released Monday night after Judge Scott DiClaudio after the District Attorney’s Office moved to dismiss all charges.

Meet my Uncle Greg.

For the last 34 years, he was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.

Yesterday, he was exonerated.

pic.twitter.com/MbdCs5TVpT

— James R. Jones, PhD (@blackcapitol) March 5, 2024

Johnson’s lawyers at the nonprofit public interest law firm Phillips Black insisted that prosecutors withheld evidence discrediting the only two witnesses in the case, therefore his case was tainted.

“For over three decades, Mr. Johnson and three generations of his family have fought tirelessly to prove his innocence,” the firm said on their website. 

In 1990, Johnson was convicted of murdering Joseph Goldsby. 

There were no fingerprints, ballistics, DNA or any forensic evidence pointing to Mr. Johnson. According to the law firm’s website, Johnson was convicted solely on the false testimony of two witnesses. 

During the investigation, the witnesses told police that Mr. Johnson was not present at the crime and identified a different perpetrator. At trial, however, police suppressed this critical evidence, and then lied about it on the stand.

“Watching Mr. Johnson and his family weep as the Judge banged his gavel and ordered his release, was a beautiful and profound moment,” said Stephen Lazar, a member of Mr. Johnson’s legal team.

71-yo Harold Staten was just exonerated from a life sentence for a deadly Philadelphia house fire in 1984! The Innocence Project worked on his case for ten years, finally proving flaws with the original evidence! pic.twitter.com/SSlHXCsWQV

— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) February 9, 2024

After spending nearly 40 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit, Harold Staten, 71, was released was prison Monday after a judge overturned his wrongful conviction. 

According to ABC News, Staten was found guilty of murder after a fire he allegedly set led to the death of Charles Harris, Harris and three others jumped from the home’s second floor once the home burst into flames, but he would later die from severe burns three days later.

After Charles Harris’ arrest, he was convicted and charged with arson, second-degree murder and other related charges and was serving a life sentence without parole.

The Pennsylvania Innocence Project filed a Post Conviction Relief Act petition and fought to help exonerate Charles Harris for over ten years.

“We have been working on Harold Staten’s case in various ways for over a decade and are elated that he is now home with his family to start the next chapter of his life after nearly 4 decades of wrongful incarceration,” the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, told ABC News.

In 2022, The DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit reviewed the Innocence Project’s petition on behalf of Harris, which revealed that due to lack of evidence, the cause of the fire should have been undetermined, rather than arson.

“Fire investigation experts for both the defense and the Commonwealth independently concluded that the tragic fire that led to Mr. Staten’s conviction should never have been classified as an arson,” The Pennsylvania Innocence Project said in a statement.

Charles Harris will now live out the rest of his life as a free man. 

“Ultimately it was Mr. Staten’s own relentless efforts to prove his innocence that led to this result,” the Pennsylvania Innocence Project told ABC News.

MORE: Correcting An ‘Abomination Of Justice,’ The Groveland Four Were Finally Exonerated 72 Years After Being Wrongfully Accused Of Raping A White Woman

A bombshell study in 2017 confirmed what Black people had long known to be true: that Black people are more likely to be wrongly convicted of murder than people from any other group. To add insult to the injury of wrongful convictions, innocent Black people waited years longer than the average time it took a white prisoner accused of the same crime to be exonerated.

“It’s no surprise that in this area, as in almost any other that has to do with criminal justice in the United States, race is the big factor,” Samuel R. Gross, a University of Michigan law professor, told the New York Times.

Of course, the so-called Central Park 5-turned Exonerated 5 are perhaps the most widely recognized instances of Black people being cleared following wrongful convictions. They were the group of Black and brown teens who were falsely accused and imprisoned between five and 12 years stemming from false allegations of raping a white woman in the 1980s.

The list of Black men, women, and teens who have faced wrongful convictions from prosecutors after being unjustly arrested and accused by corrupt police officers is far too long.

Keep reading to find a growing list of additional examples.

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