Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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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: |
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City of Crime: |
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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: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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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: |
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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 |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org