Ernest (Shujaa) Graham

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Charge:	Murder
Sentence:	Death
Years Imprisoned:	5
Year Crime:	1973
Year Convicted:	1976
Year Cleared:	1981
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	California
County or Region of Crime:	San Joaquin
City of Crime:	Tracy
Result:	Judicially Exonerated
Summary of Case:	"In November 1973, while incarcerated in Deuel Vocational Institute,a Calfornia State prison facility, Ernest Graham and co-defendant Eugene Allen were charged with killing a state correctional officer. Graham's first trial resulted in a mistrial when the jury could not agree on a verdict. Graham was sentenced to death in 1976 after his second trial. The Supreme Court of California reversed the conviction because prosecutors improperly used their peremptory challenges to exclude prospective jurors who were black. Graham and Allen, who are both black, "belonged to the group whose members the district attorney had excluded whereas the alleged victim was a member of the group to which [all] of the remaining jurors belong." (People v. Allen, 590 P.2d 30, 34 (Cal.1979). Graham's third trial ended in another hung jury, and he was acquitted by the jury in his fourth trial. (Source: Death Penalty Information Center) It is not known if Eugene Allen was eventually acquitted of the crime."
Conviction Caused By:
Innocence Proved By:	Acquitted after fourth trial in 1981.
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Identified?
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Age When Released:
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	Black
Information Source 1:	"Innocence: List of Those Freed From Death Row, Death Penalty Information Center"
Information Location 1:	http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-list-those-freed-death-row
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Ernest (Shujaa) Graham

Charge:

Murder

Sentence:

Death

Years Imprisoned:

5

Year Crime:

1973

Year Convicted:

1976

Year Cleared:

1981

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

California

County or Region of Crime:

San Joaquin

City of Crime:

Tracy

Result:

Judicially Exonerated

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Innocence Proved By:

Acquitted after fourth trial in 1981.

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Black

Information Source 1:

"Innocence: List of Those Freed From Death Row, Death Penalty Information Center"

Information Location 1:

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-list-those-freed-death-row

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