Bertram M. Campbell

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Charge:	"Theft (including swindling/fraud, deception and grand larceny)"
Sentence:	5 to 10 years
Years Imprisoned:	3
Year Crime:	1937
Year Convicted:	1938
Year Cleared:	1945
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	New York
County or Region of Crime:	New York
City of Crime:	New York City
Result:	Pardoned
Summary of Case:	"Bertram M. Campbell was wrongly convicted of grand larceny on June 3, 1938 by a jury based on erroneous eyewitness testimony by five witnesses that he was the man who had cashed forged checks. Private detectives for insurance companies doctored photographs of Campbell before showing it to bank tellers, so it would be a closer match to descriptions of the check forger. Eventually all five witnesses used by the prosecution had Campbell's picture implanted in their mind in place of the man who they had actually encountered and who was as the forger. A teller from one of the banks said about how he and the other witnesses were manipulated: "'I and the other witnesses were given lots of time and opportunity to get the picture of Campbell with the painted-in mustache confused in our recollections with whatever image we retained of the actual criminal. As weeks went by, the more my mind pictured Campbell standing at the cashier's cage, the less I remembered the fleeting glimpses of the forger.'" Campbell's lawyer filed a notice of appeal, but Campbell's appeal wasn't perfected because he couldn't afford to pay the stenographer's transcription fee or the printer to print the trial transcript. Campbell was released on parole in July 1941. In 1945 Alexander Thiel was identified as the actual forger and he confessed to committing Campbell's convicted crimes. The eyewitnesses recanted their identification of Campbell. On August 28, 1945 New York Gov. Thomas Dewey granted Campbell a full pardon based on the new evidence of his innocence. On January 30, 1946 Gov. Dewey signed a legislative bill that allowed Campbell to sue the State of New York for damages for his three years and one month of wrongful imprisonment. On June 17, 1946 the New York Court of Claims awarded Campbell $115,000 -- $75,000 for his "humiliation" and $40,000 for "lost wages." Presiding Judge Barrett stated in the ruling: "[C]laimant suffered grieviously during his long term in prison ... for the commission of crimes of which he was innocent. He was branded as a convict, given a prison number and assigned to a felon's cell. He was deprived of his liberty and civil rights. He was degraded in the eyes of his fellow men. His mental anguish was great by reason of his separation from society and his wife and family ... He suffered the miseries of prison life and his confinement was doubly hard because he was innocent." Campbell's claim was only one of five authorized by the enactment of private bills in the State Legislature in the 37 years between 1947 and 1984 when New York State's wrongful conviction compensation statute was enacted. Less than three months after being awarded the money Campbell died from a stroke on September 7, 1946. The key person who obtained the new evidence of Campbell's innocence was Edward J. Mowery, a reporter for New York's World-Telegram and Sun newspaper."
Conviction Caused By:	Eyewitness error and prosecutorial misconduct of relying on doctored photographs of Campbell to make him look more like the forger described by bank teller.
Innocence Proved By:	"After the actual forger was identified and confessed, Campbell was prdoned by NY Gov. Dewey."
Defendant Aided By:	"Edward J. Mowery, a reporter for New York's World-Telegram and Sun newspaper."
Compensation Awarded:	"$115,000 (New York State (Ct. of Claims), June 1946)"
Was Perpetrator Identified?	Yes
Age When Imprisoned:	52
Age When Released:	55
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"''Not Guilty," Judge Jerome Frank and Barbara Frank, Doubleday, NY, 1957, Chapter 5, pgs. 136-151"
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Information Source 2:	"The Innocents, Edward Radin,William Morrow & Co., 1964, p. 249."
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Information Source 3:	"The Press -- The Single-Minded Newsman, Time magazine, November 24, 1952"
Information Location 3:	"http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,817380,00.html"
Information Source 4:	"Campbell v. State, 186 Misc. 586, 62 N.Y.S.2d 638 (NY Ct. Cl. 1946) (Awarding damages)"
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Bertram M. Campbell

Charge:

"Theft (including swindling/fraud, deception and grand larceny)"

Sentence:

5 to 10 years

Years Imprisoned:

3

Year Crime:

1937

Year Convicted:

1938

Year Cleared:

1945

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

New York

County or Region of Crime:

New York

City of Crime:

New York City

Result:

Pardoned

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Eyewitness error and prosecutorial misconduct of relying on doctored photographs of Campbell to make him look more like the forger described by bank teller.

Innocence Proved By:

"After the actual forger was identified and confessed, Campbell was prdoned by NY Gov. Dewey."

Defendant Aided By:

"Edward J. Mowery, a reporter for New York's World-Telegram and Sun newspaper."

Compensation Awarded:

"$115,000 (New York State (Ct. of Claims), June 1946)"

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Yes

Age When Imprisoned:

52

Age When Released:

55

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"''Not Guilty," Judge Jerome Frank and Barbara Frank, Doubleday, NY, 1957, Chapter 5, pgs. 136-151"

Information Location 1:

Information Source 2:

"The Innocents, Edward Radin,William Morrow & Co., 1964, p. 249."

Information Location 2:

Information Source 3:

"The Press -- The Single-Minded Newsman, Time magazine, November 24, 1952"

Information Location 3:

"http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,817380,00.html"

Information Source 4:

"Campbell v. State, 186 Misc. 586, 62 N.Y.S.2d 638 (NY Ct. Cl. 1946) (Awarding damages)"

Information Location 4:

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