Wrongly Convicted Database

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Robert Ballard Bailey

Years Imprisoned:	10
Charge:	First Degree Murder
Sentence:	Death
Year Convicted:	1950
Year Cleared:	1960
Location of Trial:	West Virginia
Result:	Pardoned
Summary of Case:	"Wrongly convicted in 1950 of an October 1949 murder and sentenced to death. Robert Bailey was erroneously identified by two people as the murderer. When Bailey was 48 hours from execution in 1951, the prison Warden who was convinced Bailey was innocent, called Erle Stanley Gardner to see if he and his Court of Last Resort could help. The execution was stayed, and based on the information known at the time, Gardner was able to convince the Governor to commute Bailey's sentence to life in prison. Nine years later it was proven that at the time the murder occurred the Charleston, WV police were chasing a recklessly driving drunken Bailey through the city's streets. Witnesses who knew Bailey attested he was drunk at the time and that he was the driver of the car, while none of the witnesses who had initially identified him as the murderer knew him. The governor pardoned Bailey on the basis of the new evidence, and he was released after 10 years of wrongful imprisonment."
Conviction Caused By:	Eyewitness error
Innocence Proved By:	Pardoned by West Virginia's governor in 1960.
Defendant Aided By:	Erle Stanley Gardner and The Court of Last Resourt
Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Found?
Age When Imprisoned:	34
Age When Released:	44
Information Source 1:	"“In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases,” Michael L Radelet, Hugo Adam Bedau, and Constance E. Putnam, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1992 p. 247-249, 284."
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Information Source 2:	"“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 93."
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Information Source 3:	"The Court of Last Resort, By Erle Stanley Gardner"
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Ethnicity/Skin:	White
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Robert Ballard Bailey

Years Imprisoned:

10

Charge:

First Degree Murder

Sentence:

Death

Year Convicted:

1950

Year Cleared:

1960

Location of Trial:

West Virginia

Result:

Pardoned

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Eyewitness error

Innocence Proved By:

Pardoned by West Virginia's governor in 1960.

Defendant Aided By:

Erle Stanley Gardner and The Court of Last Resourt

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Found?

Age When Imprisoned:

34

Age When Released:

44

Information Source 1:

"“In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases,” Michael L Radelet, Hugo Adam Bedau, and Constance E. Putnam, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1992 p. 247-249, 284."

Information Location 1:

Information Source 2:

"“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 93."

Information Location 2:

Information Source 3:

"The Court of Last Resort, By Erle Stanley Gardner"

Information Location 3:

Information Source 4:

Information Location 4:

Information Source 5:

Information Location 5:

Ethnicity/Skin:

White

Book About Case:

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case:

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