Prosecutors drop charges for 3 men 40 years later

[Live and Learn]

Source: Associated Press

CLEVELAND (AP) — There is a possibility that three men, two brothers and their best friend, could be reunited nearly 40 years after they were sentenced to death for a 1975 slaying they say they did not commit.

Cuyahoga County prosecutors on Thursday filed a motion to dismiss all charges against Ricky Jackson, 57, Wiley Bridgeman, 60, and Bridgeman's brother, Ronnie, 57, who is now known as Kwame Ajamu.

The dismissals came after the key witness against the men at trial, a 13-year-old boy, recanted last year and said Cleveland police detectives coerced him into testifying that the three killed businessman Harry Franks the afternoon of May 19, 1975.

Jackson is expected to be freed on Friday. If transportation can be arranged from a prison in northwest Ohio, Wiley Bridgeman could be freed as well. Ajamu was released from prison in January 2003.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/prosecutors-drop-charges-3-men-40-years-later-063819983.html

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Two of them were 18 and the other was 21 when they were sentenced to DEATH for crimes they didn't even commit. How can anyone not be horrified by that thought?

40 years in prison for crimes they weren't guilty of? How can society repay that debt? It sickens me.

[ColesCountyDem]

1. Those poor men!

Cases like this sicken me, as well.

[heaven05]

2. it figures

typical amerikkkan justice for black males. How many more before then till now, especially with the for profit prison system taking over the regular prison system. And many of the ones privileged to have all the benefits of our fair and balanced justice system still say the law is everything that makes a civil society run. Yeah, keep running. Why do I feel, after this last election, I understand how decent Germans must have felt watching the National Socialist German Worker's Party slowly take power in their country in the 1930's?

[JustAnotherGen]

3. My first thought was

"If ONLY" they had waited for ALL the evidence to come to light.

My next thought was - It certainly looks like there was a rush to judgment on this - eh?

[BronxBoy]

9. LOL.....

That process is only for White officers who gun down unarmed Black men.

[JustAnotherGen]

11. Yeah - there's that

Shit!

[BronxBoy]

10. And yet people...

have no problem lecturing us on the Darren Wilson threads about due process and the sanctity of the American justice system. Funny how you never see them in threads like these explaining how a corrupted system buried these men in prison bowels for DECADES. Oy Vey

But these are also the same people who think the Duke Lacrosse case is the poster child for prosecutorial misconduct.

[JustAnotherGen]

12. Yeah

Where ARE those people? That's a good point!

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. I grew up in a "No Snitching" culture

(white, working class New York). I mean, it was a moral wrong nearly as grave as anything you could think of to cooperate with authority figures, and that started very young. We also know that African American communities have a strong "no snitching" element.

There's no doubt that such an element hurts people. There's no doubt that it is used by bad people in these communities to enrich themselves.

But there's also a logic to them that this story illustrates. When you have to choose between your own people who are bad and the cops who are bad, you choose your own people. Snitches get stitches. Next time somebody here complains about the "No Snitching" movements in various working class and minority communities, they should be pointed to stories like this one. These things don't emerge in a vacuum. The police forces are just as responsible for "No Snitching" as anybody.

[ieoeja]

7. Spontaneous no snitching culture has been around forever. I thought the movement was something else.

A few years back a no snitching "movement" got started that, if I remember correctly, even had a number of celebrities supporting it. Again, if I recall correctly, it was a movement to stop false snitching by criminals.

The only way a criminal can be a career criminal in the 3-Strikes era is by snitching to get the charges dropped. Since snitching on violent criminals is a good way to get yourself killed, the safest thing to do is snitch on a non-violent, innocent person.

Our jails are probably crammed with innocent people today. Some day I suspect history will equate 3-Strikes with the Black Hole of Calcutta as examples of draconian law enforcement.

It is no coincidence that the Black Hole of Calcutta and the American Revolution are near contemporaries. Over zealous law enforcement in the colonies was probably the biggest cause of the American Revolution.

[drynberg]

5. The 40 years will not be brought back, however, a government check with a lot of zeros is a start...

[Orrex]

6. Cases like this are sufficient reason to ban capital punishment

There are other reasons as well, but this is perhaps the most powerful.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Life went on for the police and prosecutors as if this had never happened. Life is sweet.....

Since some will ignore their consciences, there's nothing to prevent this from happening perpetually.

Pretty grim prospect.

If people in power choose to mistreat and betray humanity, what can be done to encourage them to respect others?

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. Kick