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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Murder |
Sentence: |
Life Imprisonment |
Years Imprisoned: |
23 |
Year Crime: |
1981 |
Year Convicted: |
2000 |
Year Cleared: |
2012 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Sweden |
County or Region of Crime: |
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City of Crime: |
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Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Sture Ragnar Bergwall AKA Thomas Quick, was wrongly convicted during six trials between 1994 and 2001 of eight murders in Sweden that allegedly occurred between 1976 and 1988, based on his false confessions to the crimes. Bergwall was sentenced to life in prison. There was no physical, forensic or eyewitness evidence tying Bergwall to the crimes -- only his confessions. In December 2008 Bergwall retracted all his confessions, saying he had craved attention at the time and he had been heavily medicated by doctors at the psychiatric facility where he was at the time he made the first confession. A reinvestigation of his confessed crimes was undertaken, and it was discovered that details in his confessions didn't match the crimes and that some of the deaths he confessed to may not have been murders. Based on the new evidence Bergwall falsely confessed, the first of Bergwall's convictions was overturned in 2009 and the charges were dropped in 2010. The eighth and last of Bergwall's convictions was overturned in March 2013, and the charges were dropped in July 2013. After 23 years in custody at the high-security Säter mental hospital, Bergwall was released on March 19, 2014. Bergwall's case has been called Sweden's greatest modern miscarriage of justice." |
Conviction Caused By: |
Bergwall falsely confessed to eight murders. |
Innocence Proved By: |
"Sture Ragnar Bergwall was exonerated in July 2013 of the last of the eight murders he was convicted of, all of which were based on his false confessions." |
Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
41 |
Age When Released: |
64 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"The Serial Killer Has Second Thoughts: The Confessions of Thomas Quick, By Chris Heath, GQ magazine, August 2013" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201308/thomas-quick-serial-killer-august-2013 |
Information Source 2: |
"Sweden's serial-killing cannibal 'Hannibal Lecter' set to be freed after being cleared of eight murder convictions ... because he made it all up!, By Matt Blake (staff), Daily Mail (London), August 1, 2013" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2382485/Sture-Bergwall-Swedens-Hannibal-Lecter-claimed-serial-killing-cannibal-FREED.html |
Information Source 3: |
"Swedish 'serial killer' released after convictions overturned, By AFP, March 20, 2014" |
Information Location 3: |
http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/22065920/swedish-serial-killer-released-after-convictions-overturned/ |
Information Source 4: |
"Swedish man once considered serial killer is FREED after it's revealed his eight murder convictions are based on false confessions, By Mark Duell and Matt Blake (staff writers), Daily Mail (London, UK), March 20, 2014" |
Information Location 4: |
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2585010/Swedish-man-considered-serial-killer-FREED-revealed-convictions-based-false-confessions.html |
Information Source 5: |
"Sweden’s ‘Hannibal Lecter’ is Set Free, By Per Liljas (Swedish correspondent), Time.com, March 20, 2014" |
Information Location 5: |
http://time.com/31497/sture-bergwall-thomas-quick-freed-from-swedish-psychiatric-ward/ |
Book About Case: |
""Thomas Quick is Dead," by Sture Bergwall and Sten-Ove (2011)" |
Book Information: |
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Book About Case (2): |
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Book Information (2): |
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Movie About Case: |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org