David Roby Keaton

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Charge:	First Degree Murder
Sentence:	Death
Years Imprisoned:	2
Year Crime:	1971
Year Convicted:	1971
Year Cleared:	1973
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Florida
County or Region of Crime:	Leon
City of Crime:
Result:	Judicially Exonerated Released
Summary of Case:	"David Roby Keaton was codefendant of Johnny Frederick. Both men were convicted on May 6, 1971 of first-degree murder in the shooting death of an off-duty deputy sheriff during a robbery in Leon County, Florida on September 18, 1970. The men were convicted based on confessions extracted by the police after three days of interrogations, and which they later retracted as coerced, and their identification by five eyewitness. On May 11, 1971 Keaton was sentenced to death in the electric chair, while Frederick was sentenced to life in prison. On February 21, 1973 Keaton's conviction was reversed by the Florida Supreme Court based on newly discovered evidence that three men known as `the Jacksonville Three' actually committed the crime. The charges were dismissed against David Keaton and Frederick and they were released at the same time in 1973 based on the new evidence identifying the actual perpetrators."
Conviction Caused By:	Erroneous eyewitness testimony of 5 people and coerced confessions by the two defendants.
Innocence Proved By:	Actual perpetrators were identified and arrested.
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Identified?	Yes
Age When Imprisoned:	19
Age When Released:	21
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	Black
Information Source 1:	"“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 115+."
Information Location 1:
Information Source 2:	Death Penalty Information Center
Information Location 2:	http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/Innocentlist.html
Information Source 3:	"'The Stigma is Always There', by Sydney Freedberg, The St. Petersburg Times, July 4, 1999"
Information Location 3:	http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=2020
Information Source 4:	"Dave Roby Keaton v. State of Florida, 273 So.2d 385 (1973)"
Information Location 4:	"http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2934107921379613316&q=Keaton+v.+State,+273+So.2d+385+%281973%29&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10"
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David Roby Keaton

Charge:

First Degree Murder

Sentence:

Death

Years Imprisoned:

2

Year Crime:

1971

Year Convicted:

1971

Year Cleared:

1973

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Florida

County or Region of Crime:

Leon

City of Crime:

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Erroneous eyewitness testimony of 5 people and coerced confessions by the two defendants.

Innocence Proved By:

Actual perpetrators were identified and arrested.

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Yes

Age When Imprisoned:

19

Age When Released:

21

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Black

Information Source 1:

"“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 115+."

Information Location 1:

Information Source 2:

Death Penalty Information Center

Information Location 2:

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

Information Source 3:

"'The Stigma is Always There', by Sydney Freedberg, The St. Petersburg Times, July 4, 1999"

Information Location 3:

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=2020

Information Source 4:

"Dave Roby Keaton v. State of Florida, 273 So.2d 385 (1973)"

Information Location 4:

"http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2934107921379613316&q=Keaton+v.+State,+273+So.2d+385+%281973%29&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10"

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