Richard W. Greer

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Charge:	Murder
Sentence:	Death
Years Imprisoned:	1.83
Year Crime:	1974
Year Convicted:	1974
Year Cleared:	1975
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	New Mexico
County or Region of Crime:	Bernalillo
City of Crime:	Albuquerque
Result:	Judicially Exonerated Released
Summary of Case:	"Richard W. Greer was a death row inmate and codefendant of Thomas Gladish, Ronald Keine and Clarence Smith. The four men were in El Monte, California (Los Angeles metro area) at the time a murder near Albuquerque, New Mexico was committed on February 8, 1974. The victim's penis was amputated after he was dead and he was sodomized. The four men were arrested on February 10 as they were traveling through the Southwest United States on their motorcycles. Their alibi defense rejected by the jury was they were in El Monte on the day of the murder, 775 miles and two states away from Albuquerque. The four co-defendants were convicted of first-degree murder on June 5, 1974 and sentenced to death. During their trial the prosecution's medical expert testified that the murderer was a homosexual. ("Execution's Doorstep" by Leslie Lytle, p. 35) The Detroit News assigned two reporters and spent $75,000 to prove their innocence and to find the real killer. Based on the new evidence that was discovered, including a confession by the actual killer in September 1975, the four men filed a motion for a new trial. After a hearing their convictions were overturned on December 4, 1975 and the judge ordered their immediate release on their own recognizance pending the prosecutors decision on whether to retry them. The prosecution decided not to retry them, and on December 15 the judge quashed their indictments, saying that the ballistics tests conclusively linked the murder weapon to the confessed killer, Kerry Rodney Lee. The four men spent 18 months on New Mexico's death row. They sued for compensation. Each of the four settled for $5,000 plus reimbursement of their attorney's fees. The actual killer who confessed, was tried and convicted in May 1978."
Conviction Caused By:	"False informant, eyewitness error and police and prosecutorial misconduct"
Innocence Proved By:	"The four men were in LA at time of murder in NM. The Detroit News assigned two reporters and spent $75,000 to prove their innocence and to find the real killer."
Defendant Aided By:	"The four men were in LA at time of murder in NM. The Detroit News assigned two reporters and spent $75,000 to prove their innocence and to find the real killer."
Compensation Awarded:	"$5,000 (City of Albuquerque)"
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:
Age When Released:
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"Execution's Doorstep: True Stories of the Innocent and the Near Damned, by Leslie Lytle (Northeastern Univ Press, 2008), Chapter - Ron Keine, 1-46."
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. 118."
Information Location 2:
Information Source 3:	Death Penalty Information Center
Information Location 3:	http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/Innocentlist.html
Information Source 4:	"“In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases,” Michael L Radelet, Hugo Adam Bedau, and Constance E. Putnam, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1996 pb ed.( © 1992), pp. 55-57."
Information Location 4:
Information Source 5:
Information Location 5:
Book About Case:	"Execution's Doorstep: True Stories of the Innocent and the Near Damned, by Leslie Lytle (Northeastern Univ Press, 2008)"
Book Information:
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Richard W. Greer

Charge:

Murder

Sentence:

Death

Years Imprisoned:

1.83

Year Crime:

1974

Year Convicted:

1974

Year Cleared:

1975

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

New Mexico

County or Region of Crime:

Bernalillo

City of Crime:

Albuquerque

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

"False informant, eyewitness error and police and prosecutorial misconduct"

Innocence Proved By:

"The four men were in LA at time of murder in NM. The Detroit News assigned two reporters and spent $75,000 to prove their innocence and to find the real killer."

Defendant Aided By:

"The four men were in LA at time of murder in NM. The Detroit News assigned two reporters and spent $75,000 to prove their innocence and to find the real killer."

Compensation Awarded:

"$5,000 (City of Albuquerque)"

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"Execution's Doorstep: True Stories of the Innocent and the Near Damned, by Leslie Lytle (Northeastern Univ Press, 2008), Chapter - Ron Keine, 1-46."

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. 118."

Information Location 2:

Information Source 3:

Death Penalty Information Center

Information Location 3:

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

Information Source 4:

"“In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases,” Michael L Radelet, Hugo Adam Bedau, and Constance E. Putnam, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1996 pb ed.( © 1992), pp. 55-57."

Information Location 4:

Information Source 5:

Information Location 5:

Book About Case:

"Execution's Doorstep: True Stories of the Innocent and the Near Damned, by Leslie Lytle (Northeastern Univ Press, 2008)"

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: