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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Murder |
Sentence: |
Life Imprisonment |
Years Imprisoned: |
25 |
Year Crime: |
1977 |
Year Convicted: |
1977 |
Year Cleared: |
2002 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
United Kingdom |
County or Region of Crime: |
England |
City of Crime: |
Manchester |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Robert Brown was wrongly convicted of murdering Annie Walsh, a 51 year old woman he had never met based on a false confession physically beaten out of him by the Greater Manchester police, and two statements that those police manufactured out of thin air. Although one of the policemen in his case was convicted of perverting the course of justice and sentenced to four years in prison, Robert Brown twice had appeals turned down in the early 1990s. On November 13, 2002 the Court of Appeals reversed Brown's conviction and ordered his immediate release based on "compelling" evidence the prosecution had concealed exonerating evidence, the false confession, and pervasive police corruption that infected all aspects of the investigation and prosecution of Robert Brown." |
Conviction Caused By: |
"Prosecutorial misconduct of concealing potentially exculpatory evidence, and a known corrupt police unit coerced Mr. Brown into signing a false confession by physically beating him, and then manufactured two statements out of thin air that they attributed to Mr. Brown. An eyewitness immediately after the murder identified a 37 year old man in a line-up as the murderer, however he was never charged. Four months after the murder, that same witness changed her story and said that Brown - then 19 - was the murderer. " |
Innocence Proved By: |
"Court of Appeal quashed his conviction on Nov 13, 2002, based on "compelling" evidence of police corruption, bullying and the failure of the proseuction to disclose potentially exonerating evidence." |
Defendant Aided By: |
Criminal Case Review Commission |
Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
19 |
Age When Released: |
44 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
""I Have No Voice from Within these Prison Walls"" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.mojuk.org.uk/eddie/rob.html |
Information Source 2: |
"Man Wrongly Convicted of Murder Freed After 25 Years, Nick Hopkins (crime correspondent), The Guardian, London, UK, Nov. 14, 2002" |
Information Location 2: |
"http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,2763,839606,00.html" |
Information Source 3: |
"Recent Case Statatistics, Criminal Cases Review Commission" |
Information Location 3: |
http://www.ccrc.gov.uk/latestnews/latestnews_case.html |
Information Source 4: |
"Corrupt Police Behind False Conviction', BBC News, 11-13-2002" |
Information Location 4: |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2463523.stm |
Information Source 5: |
"Home At Last After Wrongful Conviction, James Doherty, The Scotsman, Nov. 15, 2002" |
Information Location 5: |
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=647&id=1269992002 |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org