Earl Patrick Charles

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Charge:	Murder
Sentence:	Death
Years Imprisoned:	3.6
Year Crime:	1974
Year Convicted:	1975
Year Cleared:	1978
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Georgia
County or Region of Crime:
City of Crime:
Result:	Judicially Exonerated Released
Summary of Case:	"Earl Patrick Charles was wrongly convicted of a double murder that occurred on October 3, 1974 in Savannah, Georgia. Earl Charles' conviction was based on erroneous eyewitness identification by two witnesses to the murder, and the false testimony of a police informant. Earl Charles' alibi defense was that at the time of the murder in Savannah, Georgia he was more than 337 miles away in Tampa, Florida where he was living and worked at a gas station. Charles' boss testified that Charles was at work on the day the murder occurred, and both Charles' time cards and paycheck records were introduced as evidence to support the testimony. The jury believed the eyewitness testimony over the alibi evidence. Charles was sentenced to death. After more than two years on death row a Tampa deputy sheriff's notes were discovered verifying that at the time of the murder Charles was pumping gas at the station where he worked in Tampa. Other exculpatory evidence was also discovered. A judge granted Charles’s extraordinary motion for new trial, and the charges against him were dropped for lack of any evidence of his guilt. He was wrongly held in custody for 3 years and 7 months. Charles' parents had spent their life savings and mortgaged their home to pay their son's legal bills. Earl Charles filed a federal civil rights lawsuit for malicious prosecution against the City of Savannah and several police officers. In October 1983 a jury awarded Charles $417,000 in damages from Savannah Detective F.W. Wade. However, Wade had no assets for Charles to collect, so in 1984 he accepted a settlement from the City of Savannah for $75,000."
Conviction Caused By:	"Eyewitness error, false informant and police misconduct of coaching the testimony of the prosecution's key witness."
Innocence Proved By:	Alibi established that he couldn't have committed the murder.
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:	"$75,000 City of Savanah, GA, 2004)."
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:
Age When Released:
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	Black
Information Source 1:	"“In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases,” Michael L Radelet, HugoAdam Bedau, and Constance E. Putnam, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1992, p. 235-247, 282."
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. 105."
Information Location 2:
Information Source 3:	Death Penalty Information Center
Information Location 3:	http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/Innocentlist.html
Information Source 4:	"State v. Earl Charles (Chatham Cnty. Super. Ct. No. 23392-95, July 5, 1978)"
Information Location 4:
Information Source 5:
Information Location 5:
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Earl Patrick Charles

Charge:

Murder

Sentence:

Death

Years Imprisoned:

3.6

Year Crime:

1974

Year Convicted:

1975

Year Cleared:

1978

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Georgia

County or Region of Crime:

City of Crime:

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

"Eyewitness error, false informant and police misconduct of coaching the testimony of the prosecution's key witness."

Innocence Proved By:

Alibi established that he couldn't have committed the murder.

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

"$75,000 City of Savanah, GA, 2004)."

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Black

Information Source 1:

"“In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases,” Michael L Radelet, HugoAdam Bedau, and Constance E. Putnam, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1992, p. 235-247, 282."

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. 105."

Information Location 2:

Information Source 3:

Death Penalty Information Center

Information Location 3:

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/Innocentlist.html

Information Source 4:

"State v. Earl Charles (Chatham Cnty. Super. Ct. No. 23392-95, July 5, 1978)"

Information Location 4:

Information Source 5:

Information Location 5:

Book About Case:

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: