TOO MANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTED - The Innocence Project

JOHN DIXON • 2001 MARCELLIUS BRADFORD200110 YEARS 6.5 YEARSILLINOISAnthony Michael For fear of a harsher Marcellius BradfordGreen was found guilty sentence, John Dixon was coerced intoof raping a cancer pled guilty in 1991 to confessing topatient in the care of a rape, robbery and involvement in a 1986the Cleveland Clinic kidnapping that he did Chicago rape andTOOHospital whereMANYhe notWRONGFULLYcommit. DNA testing murder. He receivedCONVICTEDused to work. Green At 14 years old,ANTHONYMICHAELGREEN200113 YEARSOHIOwas convicted based,in part, on the faultyforensic work of labtechnician JosephSerowik. After DNAexonerated Green, thecity conducted the“Michael Anthony GreenForensic LaboratoryNEW JERSEYCALVIN OLLINS • 200113.5 YEARSILLINOISLARRY OLLINS • 200113.5 YEARSILLINOISMANY WRONGFULLY CONVICTEDAudit” of the city’scrime lab, which hasuncovered similarproblems in other casesSerowik handled.used in New Jersey atthat time, and Dixon’srequest for testing wasdenied. An InnocenceProject student locatedthe evidence in 1996,but it wasn’t tested until2001, when it provedDixon’s innocence.implicating LarryOllins. After years inprison, DNA testingof spermatozoa andhairs found on thevictim’s body excludedall four men who wereconvicted of thecrime. Bradford wasexonerated and initiallyreleased but remainsincarcerated onunrelated charges.Calvin Ollins wassentenced to life inprison without thepossibility of parole forthe rape and murderof a medical student.Calvin Ollins implicatedhimself, MarcelliusBradford and LarryOllins in the crime.He spent roughly halfhis life in prisonbefore DNA testingexonerated him.Together with hiscousin Calvin, LarryOllins was implicatedin a Chicago crime.Marcellius Bradfordtestified that the two hadraped and murdered awoman while he andco-defendant, OmarSaunders, stood watch.The four teenagerswere not old enoughto be eligible for thedeath penalty, andall but Bradford weresentenced to life inprison. DNA testingeventually provedtheir innocence.and 48% of those misidentificationswere cross-racial (most commonly a20 | Innocence Project