Freed After 39 Years
And you thought you had something to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. Consider Ricky Jackson.
Click here for reuse options!An Ohio man has been freed from prison after spending 39 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit. Ricky Jackson, a 59-year old African-American man, had been jailed since 1975 on a murder conviction. The prosecution’s case was based on the testimony of a 13-year-old witness. After a 2011 investigation, the witness recanted his testimony, saying he had implicated Jackson and two others under police coercion. The witness, Eddy Vernon, said police had fed him the story and threatened to arrest his parents if he didn’t cooperate. On Friday, Ricky Jackson was freed after prosecutors dropped the case. With nearly four decades wrongfully behind bars, Jackson is the longest-held U.S. prisoner to be exonerated
Copyright 2014 Liberaland
By: Stuart Shapiro
Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.
32 responses to Freed After 39 Years
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Carla Akins November 29th, 2014 at 19:14
I’m thrilled for Mr Jackson, but any chance he’ll see justice for the false imprisonment?
KABoink_after_wingnut_hacker November 29th, 2014 at 21:27
One would hope there would be some sort of restitution through legal means.
Carla Akins November 29th, 2014 at 21:35
If the statement of “coercion to give false testimony” is accurate the detective stole 39 years of the man’s life. They need to see the inside of a prison.
Dwendt44 November 30th, 2014 at 00:43
Some states, guess which color, don’t allow for compensation for false imprisonment.
neworleans878 November 29th, 2014 at 21:28
Better odds that I’ll hit the Power Ball tonight…and I didn’t buy a ticket.
Carla Akins November 29th, 2014 at 21:32
I did, but you just jinxed it now. ;-)
neworleans878 November 29th, 2014 at 21:51
Sorry. I’ll keep my mouth shut next week. :(
Carla Akins November 29th, 2014 at 22:03
Yeah, because I was a sure winner until then.
FrankenPC . November 29th, 2014 at 23:55
You can completely reverse the jinx by watching The Secret over and over. In theory. if you believe hard enough, you won’t even need to win the Power Ball, you can make money just appear in your bank account.
Carla Akins November 29th, 2014 at 20:14
I’m thrilled for Mr Jackson, but any chance he’ll see justice for the false imprisonment?
KABoink_after_wingnut_hacker November 29th, 2014 at 22:27
One would hope there would be some sort of restitution through legal means.
Carla Akins November 29th, 2014 at 22:35
If the statement of “coercion to give false testimony” is accurate the detective stole 39 years of the man’s life. They need to see the inside of a prison.
Dwendt44 November 30th, 2014 at 01:43
Some states, guess which color, don’t allow for compensation for false imprisonment.
nola878 November 29th, 2014 at 22:28
Better odds that I’ll hit the Power Ball tonight…and I didn’t buy a ticket.
Carla Akins November 29th, 2014 at 22:32
I did, but you just jinxed it now. ;-)
nola878 November 29th, 2014 at 22:51
Sorry. I’ll keep my mouth shut next week. :(
Carla Akins November 29th, 2014 at 23:03
Yeah, because I was a sure winner until then.
FrankenPC . November 30th, 2014 at 00:55
You can completely reverse the jinx by watching The Secret over and over. In theory. if you believe hard enough, you won’t even need to win the Power Ball, you can make money just appear in your bank account.
KABoink_after_wingnut_hacker November 29th, 2014 at 21:28
This makes me wonder how many others we have falsely imprisoned.
bpollen November 30th, 2014 at 04:18
Which, all by its lonesome, is one hell of a reason to abolish the death penalty.
KABoink_after_wingnut_hacker November 29th, 2014 at 22:28
This makes me wonder how many others we have falsely imprisoned.
bpollen November 30th, 2014 at 05:18
Which, all by its lonesome, is one hell of a reason to abolish the death penalty.
Hass November 30th, 2014 at 00:52
Wow, he only waited 39 years to tell the truth? I can understand 5 or 10 years, but 39?
How do you compensate a man who lost a life time? I’m guessing you can’t.
Hass November 30th, 2014 at 01:52
Wow, he only waited 39 years to tell the truth? I can understand 5 or 10 years, but 39?
How do you compensate a man who lost a life time? I’m guessing you can’t.
R J November 30th, 2014 at 01:17
This should be viewed as the taking of another innocent black life at the hands of the American juridical system, only this life was taken slowly over the course four decades. What about the fact that the victim and their family never received the justice they deserved. How innocent black males who are now, and have done time behind bars. How many innocent black males have died behind bars, the true answer is unknown. So while everyone is outraged over Darren Wilson and other stories of police murdering innocent black males, would love to see the same outrage for those that are right now dying behind prison bars, for no other reason other than they’re black.
R J November 30th, 2014 at 02:17
This should be viewed as the taking of another innocent black life at the hands of the American juridical system, only this life was taken slowly over the course four decades. What about the fact that the victim and their family never received the justice they deserved. How many innocent black males who are now, and have done time behind bars. How many innocent black males have died behind bars, the true answer is unknown. So while everyone is outraged over Darren Wilson and other stories of police murdering innocent black males ,I would love to see the same outrage for those that are right now dying behind prison bars, for no other reason other than they’re black. These are type of topics that are only discussed after the fact, by those on both sides. It easy to be outraged in the heat of the moment as everyone is now, but as time fades and the next hot topic that comes along to outrage the public, there will still be innocent black males out there whose lives will be rained by this justice system, let’s see where all of the outrage is a year,5years,10 years from now, because that rage is one that every black male must learn how to deal with and control for all of our lives.
crc3 November 30th, 2014 at 10:59
Ridiculous and totally unacceptable. This kind of case has happened numerous other times and will continue to happen. I’m betting that there are hundreds of innocent others in prison for no reason. Some will be released at some point but most won’t imo….
crc3 November 30th, 2014 at 11:59
Ridiculous and totally unacceptable. This kind of case has happened numerous other times and will continue to happen. I’m betting that there are hundreds of innocent others in prison for no reason. Some will be released at some point but most won’t imo….
tracey marie November 30th, 2014 at 20:05
I hoipe the cops who forced him to lie with threats are now going to be arrested.
tracey marie November 30th, 2014 at 21:05
I hoipe the cops who forced him to lie with threats are now going to be arrested.
burqa December 1st, 2014 at 22:07
YAAAAAAAAY for the Innocence Project!
The Innocence Project has gotten hundreds of people who were falsely convicted exonerated.
Many, I think a hundred or so, were on death row and many others were convicted of capital crimes. I think in a few cases, the person was within a day or two of execution.
Go to the site, read a bunch of the cases.
http://www.innocenceproject.org/
A big lesson here is that there are times when evidence and eyewitness testimony can make a fairly strong case for a false conviction. This is why we should be careful about convicting people before all the facts are in and before the system has fully run its course.
There have been many, many cases where people thought incorrectly about the facts of a case.
The McMartin Pre-school case comes to mind,…….Tawana Brawley…..Duke lacrosse team and Michael Brown are all cases where we should have learned to hold off on premature conclusions, and when the facts are known, we have to be prepared to change opinions and initial impressions.
burqa December 1st, 2014 at 23:07
YAAAAAAAAY for the Innocence Project!
The Innocence Project has gotten hundreds of people who were falsely convicted exonerated.
Many, I think a hundred or so, were on death row and many others were convicted of capital crimes. I think in a few cases, the person was within a day or two of execution.
Go to the site, read a bunch of the cases.
http://www.innocenceproject.org/
A big lesson here is that there are times when evidence and eyewitness testimony can make a fairly strong case for a false conviction. This is why we should be careful about convicting people before all the facts are in and before the system has fully run its course.
There have been many, many cases where people thought incorrectly about the facts of a case.
The McMartin Pre-school case comes to mind,…….Tawana Brawley…..Duke lacrosse team and Michael Brown are all cases where we should have learned to hold off on premature conclusions, and when the facts are known, we have to be prepared to change opinions and initial impressions.
Right now things look pretty bad for Bill Cosby, but we must not draw hard and fast conclusions until the system has completely run its course.