James Blackmon

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Charge:	Second Degree Murder
Sentence:	Life imprisonment
Years Imprisoned:	35.8
Year Crime:	1979
Year Convicted:	1988
Year Cleared:	2019
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	North Carolina
County or Region of Crime:	Wake
City of Crime:	Raleigh
Result:	Judicially Exonerated
Summary of Case:	"James Blackmon was wrongly convicted on January 14, 1988 of second-degree murder in the stabbinh death of 23-year-old Helena Payton on September 28, 1979 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Blackmon's prosecution was based on his confession to police detectives. In February 1983 the police were contacted that a patient at the Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh had talked about murdering women. DDH was North Carolina's primary psychiatric hospital. Blackmon was identified as the patient, and he was interviewed eight times by detectives. In October 1983 he made incriminating statements regarding Payton's death. He was arrested on December 7, 1983 and charged with first-degree murder. After his conviction Blackmon was sentenced to life imprisonment. After being held in pre-trial custody for more than four years, Blackmon pled guilty to second-degree murder. A post-conviction investigation of Blackmon's case determined that a fingerprint found at the crime scene matched James Leach, a man with a lengthy criminal record who died in 2008; expert evidence by psychologist Alison Redlich identified that Blackmon's confession was unreliable and he had two risk factors for a false confession: he was mentally ill and he had intellectual disabilities; and there was no evidence Blackmon was in North Carolina before 1980, and in fact he had been arraigned in court on a disorderly conduct charge in Binghamton, New York in December 1987, and in February 1988 he was arraigned on a drug charge in the same court. Based on its review of the evidence, on August 22, 2019 a three-judge panel declared after a three-day hearing there is clear and convincing evidence Blackmon is innocent. He was released after almost 36 years in custody."
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Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	30
Age When Released:	66
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	Black
Information Source 1:	"James Blackmon, National Registry of Exonerations"
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James Blackmon

Charge:

Second Degree Murder

Sentence:

Life imprisonment

Years Imprisoned:

35.8

Year Crime:

1979

Year Convicted:

1988

Year Cleared:

2019

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

North Carolina

County or Region of Crime:

Wake

City of Crime:

Raleigh

Result:

Judicially Exonerated

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Innocence Proved By:

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

30

Age When Released:

66

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Black

Information Source 1:

"James Blackmon, National Registry of Exonerations"

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Book About Case:

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: