Wrongly Convicted Database Record

 

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John Duval

 

Charge:

Murder and Robbery

Sentence:

25 years to life imprisonment

Years Imprisoned:

26

Year Crime:

1973

Year Convicted:

1973

Year Cleared:

1999

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

New York

County or Region of Crime:

City of Crime:

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

"John Duval was codefendant of Betty Tyson and both falsely convicted under the same circumstances. John Duval was a transvestite prostitute who falsely confessed to killing 52-yo white man. No physical evidence linked him or Tyson to the crime. Duval's conviction was reversed in April 1999, and he was acquitted after a retrial in April 2000."

Conviction Caused By:

"False confession, fabricated eyewitness testimony, police perjury, prosecutorial concealment of exonerating witness statement."

Innocence Proved By:

Brady violation. Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (NY) reporter Gary Craig became interested in Tyson's case and he found a jail counselor who reported her 1973 beating to his superiors the day after it occurred. A law firm took her case pro bono and they found a hidden police witness statement from the 2nd witness that he never saw Tyson with the victim - the opposite of what the police forced him to testify to at her trial. Both teenage witnesses were held as 'material witnesses' in jail for 7 months until her trial and threatened with being charged with murder if they didn't perjure themselves.

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Yes

Age When Imprisoned:

20

Age When Released:

46

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Black

Information Source 1:

"1973 Murder Conviction Overturned Suppressed Evidence Leads to Second Reversal in Case  April 6, 1999  By Richard Zitrin  ROCHESTER, NY (APBNews.com)"

Information Location 1:

http://www.truthinjustice.org/duval.htm

Information Source 2:

""Duval Was Freed, Retried, Then Finally Acquitted," David Christopher Naylor Swanson, Justice Denied Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 11, March 2000"

Information Location 2:

Information Source 3:

""Duval Acquitted After 25 Years in Jail," Ben Dobbin, AP, Rochester, NY, Feb. 3, 2000."

Information Location 3:

http://www.truthinjustice.org/duvalupdate.htm

Information Source 4:

Information Location 4:

Information Source 5:

Information Location 5:

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Book Information:

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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org

Hosted on forejustice.org and mirrored on justicedenied.org .