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Wrongly
Convicted Database
Record
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Years
Imprisoned:
|
7 |
Charge: |
Crimes Against Humanity |
Sentence: |
Death |
Year Convicted: |
1988 |
Year
Cleared:
|
1993 |
Location
of Trial:
|
Israel |
Result:
|
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary
of Case:
|
Wrongly convicted in 1988 of being Ivan the Terrible, a sadistic guard at the Treblinka death camp during WWII. John Demjanjuk's conviction was based on the testimony of multiple Treblinka survivors. He was sentenced to death. While Demjanjuk was appealing, his lawyers were provided evidence in Soviet archives that Demjanjuk he was never at Treblinka, and that Ivan the Terrible was a man named Ivan Marchenko, older and darker-haired than Demjanjuk, and scarred on one cheek. Based on the new evidence that Demjanjuk was wrongly identified, in 1993 the Israeli Supreme Court reversed Demjanjuk's conviction, vacated his death sentence, and ordered his release. Demjanjuk had been extradited from the U.S. in 1986 and was released after being wrongly imprisoned for 7 years. |
Conviction
Caused By:
|
"False identification by "eyewitnesses"" |
Innocence
Proved By:
|
Discovery of evidence proving Demjanjuk was never at Treblinka where the crimes occurred.
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Defendant
Aided By:
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Found? |
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Age
When Imprisoned:
|
66 |
Age
When Released:
|
73 |
Information Source 1: |
"How To Solve A Murder: The Forensic Handbook," Michael Kurland, MacMillian, 1995, p. 115." |
Information
Location 1:
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Information
Source 2:
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"1988 - "'Ivan the Terrible" guilty of war crimes, BBC News, April 18, 1988" |
Information
Location 2:
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/18/newsid_2525000/2525057.stm |
Information
Source 3:
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A Terrible Ivan, Editorial, The Jerusalem Post, November 30, 3009 |
Information
Location 3:
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http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1259243045194&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull |
Information
Source 4:
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Information
Location 4:
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Information
Source 5:
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Information
Location 5:
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Ethnicity/Skin:
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White |
Book
About
Case:
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Book
Information:
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Book Information (2): |
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Movie About Case: |
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Comments About Case: |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org