Clyde Kennard

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Charge:	Burglary (including aggravated)
Sentence:	7 years
Years Imprisoned:	2.33
Year Crime:	1960
Year Convicted:	1960
Year Cleared:	2006
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Mississippi
County or Region of Crime:	Forrest
City of Crime:
Result:	Judicially Exonerated
Summary of Case:	"Clyde Kennard was wrongly convicted of burglary on November 21, 1960 in Forrest County, Mississippi. Kennard allegedly asked another man to steal $25 in chicken feed for him. Sentenced to seven years hard labor. Prosecuted in retaliation for his repeated efforts to enroll at the segregated Mississippi Southern College (now the University of Southern Mississippi). Because of his enrollment efforts, he had previously been wrongly convicted in 1959 of trumped up charges of reckless driving and having alcohol in his vehicle. He was fined $600 with no jail time. But Kennard ignored the warning, so he was prosecuted on charges that resulted in a stiff prison sentence. Kennard's sentence was suspended by the governor of Mississippi in January 1963 because he had terminal cancer. He died in Chicago on July 4, 1963. Kennard was an early advocate for equal rights for Blacks in Mississippi, and he worked with the NAACP alongside Medgar Evers, who was murdered weeks before Kennard died. In May 2005 three Chicago area high school girls began working on a documentary about Clyde Kennard. As they developed evidence of his innocence, a groundswell of support by college students, newspapers, politicians and former and current judges favoring Kennard's pardon developed. On January 27, 2006 the Mississippi State Senate passed a resolution commending Kennard's Korean War service. A pardon petition was filed in April 2006 with Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour. He refused to pardon Kennard, even though he publicly said he was innocent of the theft charge. A petition to vacate his sentence was then filed, and on May 17, 2006, Kennard's conviction was vacated in the same Forest County, Mississippi courthouse where he had been wrongly convicted 46 years earlier. Clyde Kennard was wrongly imprisoned for 2 years and 4 months. Kennard's 1959 reckless driving and alcohol related conviction had been vacated by the Mississippi Supreme Court in March 1961."
Conviction Caused By:	Perjury by the state's lone eyewitness was suborned by the prosecutor and the police.
Innocence Proved By:	"Conviction vacated on May 17, 2006, by a Forrest County circuit court judge."
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	33
Age When Released:	36
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	Black
Information Source 1:	"Forrest county judge exonerates late korean war veteran clyde kennard, By Jerry Mitchell, The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), May 17, 2006"
Information Location 1:	http://clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060517/NEWS/60517021
Information Source 2:	"For Us, The Living, Mrs Medgar Evers with William Peters, Doubleday and Company, Garden City, NY, 1967, 219-223"
Information Location 2:
Information Source 3:	"Story of False Arrest Called Civil Rights Movement's Saddest, Jerry Mitchell, The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Mississippi, December 31, 2006"
Information Location 3:	http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051231/NEWS/512310394
Information Source 4:	"Kennard v. State, 242 Miss. 691 (Miss.04/03/1961)"
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Clyde Kennard

Charge:

Burglary (including aggravated)

Sentence:

7 years

Years Imprisoned:

2.33

Year Crime:

1960

Year Convicted:

1960

Year Cleared:

2006

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Mississippi

County or Region of Crime:

Forrest

City of Crime:

Result:

Judicially Exonerated

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Perjury by the state's lone eyewitness was suborned by the prosecutor and the police.

Innocence Proved By:

"Conviction vacated on May 17, 2006, by a Forrest County circuit court judge."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

33

Age When Released:

36

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Black

Information Source 1:

"Forrest county judge exonerates late korean war veteran clyde kennard, By Jerry Mitchell, The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS), May 17, 2006"

Information Location 1:

http://clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060517/NEWS/60517021

Information Source 2:

"For Us, The Living, Mrs Medgar Evers with William Peters, Doubleday and Company, Garden City, NY, 1967, 219-223"

Information Location 2:

Information Source 3:

"Story of False Arrest Called Civil Rights Movement's Saddest, Jerry Mitchell, The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Mississippi, December 31, 2006"

Information Location 3:

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051231/NEWS/512310394

Information Source 4:

"Kennard v. State, 242 Miss. 691 (Miss.04/03/1961)"

Information Location 4:

Information Source 5:

Information Location 5:

Book About Case:

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: