Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Murder and Rape |
Sentence: |
Life Imprisonment |
Years Imprisoned: |
3 |
Year Crime: |
1981 |
Year Convicted: |
1982 |
Year Cleared: |
1984 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Ohio |
County or Region of Crime: |
Wayne |
City of Crime: |
Creston |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Ernest R. Holbrook Jr. and Herman Ray Rucker were co-defendants. Both men were wrongly convicted of raping and murdering a 12-year-old Tina Marie Harmon in Wayne County. Both men were sentenced to life in prison. Herman Rucker was awarded a new trial and he was acquitted in June 1983. The Beacon Journal, in a 1984 investigative series that was 14 pages long, profiled the convictions of Rucker and Ernest Holbrook. The series was titled, ''Evidence never added up.'' It raised questions about the testimony and circumstantial evidence used to convict Holbrook and Rucker, and detailed the evidence pointing to Robert Buell as the killer. Buell was convicted in April 1984 (and later executed) for a similar murder of an 11-year-old girl. Three months after the series was published authorities announced that evidence linked Buell to the killing and Holbrook was released on May 5, 1984. A key witness against Holbrook and Rucker recanted and was sent to prison for perjury. Holbrook was awarded compensation of $83,940 by the Ohio Court of Claims on January 5, 1986. Rucker never filed a claim. In March 2010 DNA testing matched Buell to Harmon's murder." |
Conviction Caused By: |
A key informant witness was convicted of perjury and sentenced to prison. |
Innocence Proved By: |
New evidence linked another man to the murder. |
Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
"$83,940 (State of Ohio, January 5, 1986)" |
Was Perpetrator Identified? |
Yes |
Age When Imprisoned: |
19 |
Age When Released: |
22 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"DNA cracks 1981 murder of girl, Staff report, Beacon Journal, March 12, 2010" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.ohio.com/news/dna-cracks-1981-murder-of-girl-1.167214 |
Information Source 2: |
"“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 126+." |
Information Location 2: |
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Information Source 3: |
"“In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases,” Michael L Radelet, HugoAdam Bedau, and Constance E. Putnam, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1996 pb ed. with new forward, 315 ( © 1992)." |
Information Location 3: |
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Information Source 4: |
"Ernest R. Holbrook, Jr. v. State of Ohio, No. 1985-03522 WI (Ohio Court of Claims, 1-5-1986) (Granting judgment of $83,940)" |
Information Location 4: |
http://www.cco.state.oh.us/wrongful-imprisonment-claims.php |
Information Source 5: |
"They owe me," freed man Ernest Holbrook Jr says; Robert Buell linked to murder Holbrook convicted of, Columbus Dispatch, May 5, 1984, pg. 1 A" |
Information Location 5: |
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Book About Case: |
"The loss of innocents- child killers and their victims, By Cara Elizabeth Richards, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (2000), pp. 69-70" |
Book Information: |
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Book About Case (2): |
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Book Information (2): |
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Movie About Case: |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org