Willie Grimes

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Charge:	Rape and Kidnapping (abduction)
Sentence:	Life Imprisonment
Years Imprisoned:	24
Year Crime:	1987
Year Convicted:	1988
Year Cleared:	2012
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	North Carolina
County or Region of Crime:	Catawba
City of Crime:	Hickory
Result:	Judicially Exonerated Released
Summary of Case:	"Willie Grimes was wrongly convicted in 1988 of the rape and kidnapping of a 69-year-old woman in Hickory, North Carolina in 1987. Grimes conviction was based on his identification by the victim, and the testimony of an analyst with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation that a hair found at the crime scene was "microscopically consistent" with Grimes' hair. After his conviction by a jury Grimes was sentenced in July 1989 to life in prison. Microscopic hair comparison was discredited as unreliable by the National Academy of Sciences in 2009. In April 2012 during a post-conviction hearing a fingerprint analyst testified that his fingerprints were excluded as the source of crime scene fingerprints by the perpetrator, and that they matched a man with a lengthy criminal record, including assault of a female. Grimes was paroled in May 2012. Grimes conviction was overturned in 2012. In 2014 Grimes filed a federal civil rights lawsuit that named the City of Hickory, and several people involved in prosecution. On August 24, 2016 Grimes settled his lawsuit for $3,250,000."
Conviction Caused By:	"Grimes was convicted based on erroneous eyewitness identification, and false or misleading Forensic evidence."
Innocence Proved By:	Grimes' conviction was overturned in 2012 based on new fingerprint evidence that excluded him as the victim's perpetrator.
Defendant Aided By:	"North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, and North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission"
Compensation Awarded:	"$3,250,000 (City of Hickory, 8-24, 2016)"
Was Perpetrator Identified?	Yes
Age When Imprisoned:	41
Age When Released:	65
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	Black
Information Source 1:	"Man awarded $3.25M after rape conviction overturned, By Robe Sonian, The Robesonian, August 26, 2016"
Information Location 1:	http://robesonian.com/news/91231/man-awarded-3-25m-after-rape-conviction-overturned
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Willie Grimes

Charge:

Rape and Kidnapping (abduction)

Sentence:

Life Imprisonment

Years Imprisoned:

24

Year Crime:

1987

Year Convicted:

1988

Year Cleared:

2012

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

North Carolina

County or Region of Crime:

Catawba

City of Crime:

Hickory

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

"Grimes was convicted based on erroneous eyewitness identification, and false or misleading Forensic evidence."

Innocence Proved By:

Grimes' conviction was overturned in 2012 based on new fingerprint evidence that excluded him as the victim's perpetrator.

Defendant Aided By:

"North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, and North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission"

Compensation Awarded:

"$3,250,000 (City of Hickory, 8-24, 2016)"

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Yes

Age When Imprisoned:

41

Age When Released:

65

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Black

Information Source 1:

"Man awarded $3.25M after rape conviction overturned, By Robe Sonian, The Robesonian, August 26, 2016"

Information Location 1:

http://robesonian.com/news/91231/man-awarded-3-25m-after-rape-conviction-overturned

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