Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
First Degree Murder and Rape |
Sentence: |
Death |
Years Imprisoned: |
8 |
Year Crime: |
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Year Convicted: |
1980 |
Year Cleared: |
1988 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Florida |
County or Region of Crime: |
Pasco |
City of Crime: |
Dade City |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
William Riley Jent was co-defendant of his stepbrother Ernest Lee Miller. The brothers were wrongly convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. William Jent and his brother Ernest Miller came within 16 hours of being executed before being granted a stay. Both men were exonerated in 1988 after 8 years on death row. |
Conviction Caused By: |
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Innocence Proved By: |
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Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
24 |
Age When Released: |
32 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"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, 318 ( © 1992)." |
Information Location 1: |
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Information Source 2: |
Death Penalty Information Center |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/Innocentlist.html |
Information Source 3: |
Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern School of Law |
Information Location 3: |
http://www.law.northwestern.edu/depts/clinic/wrongful/exonerations/FLAJent.htm |
Information Source 4: |
"We'd rather have died than to stay in that place for something we didn't do', By Sydney P. Freedberg, St. Petersburg Times, July 4, 1999" |
Information Location 4: |
http://www.sptimes.com/News/70499/news_pf/State/_We_d_rather_have_die.shtml |
Information Source 5: |
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Information Location 5: |
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Book About Case: |
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Book Information: |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org