Last Exoneration Project Gains Statewide Attention

 

 

Professors Michael and Lesley Risinger '03 and Seton Hall Law's Last Exoneration Project recently gained statewide attention in the Star-Ledger, Bergen Record, WHYY, NBC New York, and more for their appeal on behalf of two wrongfully convicted men for a double murder that occurred in 1995. Their work with The Last Exoneration Project provided free investigative and legal services to the innocent men.

From The Star-Ledger:

Prosecutors in Camden County are dropping charges against two New Jersey men serving life sentences for murder after an appeals court found new evidence “powerfully undermines" the testimony of the lone witness in the case.

Kevin Baker and Sean Washington have spent a quarter-century locked up for a 1995 double murder at a Camden housing complex. Both say they didn’t do it.

They were convicted after a two-day trial, during which a local woman, Denise Rand, told jurors she was high on crack cocaine when she saw Baker and Washington run up to the victims, Rodney Turner and Margaret Wilson, and shoot them in the head.

But a three-judge appellate panel tossed their convictions in December, finding the state’s witness “vacillated on many aspects of her narrative."

The Star-Ledger also reports:

“After all this time, we are in a state of shock," said Michael Risinger, who runs the legal project with his wife and co-counsel, Lesley Risinger, and represented Baker. "The just decision was made and we look forward to making preparations as expeditiously as possible.”

Read the rest of "After 25 years, prosecutors drop case against 2 N.J. men serving life for murder" 

Additional reports from:
WHYY - "After 25 years in prison, N.J. men to walk free as prosecutors drop murder charges"
NBC New York - "Two Men Who Had Convictions in 1990s Murder Thrown Out Won’t Face New Trial"

 

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