Curtis W. McGhee Jr

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Charge:	First Degree Murder
Sentence:	Life Imprisonment
Years Imprisoned:	26
Year Crime:	1977
Year Convicted:	1978
Year Cleared:	2003
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Iowa
County or Region of Crime:	Pottawattamie
City of Crime:	Council Bluffs
Result:	Judicially Exonerated
Summary of Case:	"Curtis McGhee Jr. was co-defendant of Terry Harrington. Both men were wrongly convicted in 1978 in separate trials of first-degree murder in the death of a car dealership security guard John Schweer in Council Bluffs, Iowa on July 22, 1977. Harrington and McGhee were both sentenced to life in prison. The jury rejected Harrington's alibi defense of being in Omaha, Nebraska at an outdoor concert at the time of the murder. In overturning Harrington’s conviction in February 2003, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that several police reports pointing to another suspect were not turned over and noted that a witness testified at a post-conviction hearing that he lied at Harrington’s trial because police and prosecutors pressured him. The court also relied on Brain Fingerprinting technology that tended to corroborate Harrington's innocence. In an earlier appeal, the court dismissed Harrington’s claims that prosecutor Joseph Hrvol intimidated a defense witness, suborned the perjury of a state witness and committed improprieties in his dealings with other witnesses. Harrington was released from prison on April 18, 2003 when Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack signed a reprieve. The prosecutor refused to dismiss the charges against McGhee, although he was convicted on the same discredited evidence as Harrington. McGhee had a pending motion for a new trial, but in exchange for his immediate release in September 2003 he agreed to plead no contest to second-degree murder. McGhee's Alford ("no contest") plea allowed him to continue to assert his innocence of the crime. Harrington and McGhee filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Pottawattamie County and their prosecutors for their actions as investigators in the case. The prosecutor's defense against the lawsuit was they had prosecutorial immunity, and after the US Court of Appeals ruled the prosecutors were not immune from the allegations in the complaint, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted the case and heard arguments on November 4, 2009. On December 31, 2009, it was announced that the two men and Pottawattamie County had reached a settlement. Terry Harrington was to receive $7.03 million, and McGhee Jr. was to receive $4.97 million. The case was dismissed and the U.S. Supreme Court removed the case from its docket. A motion to vacate McGhee’s Alford plea on the ground of prosecutorial misconduct was granted on January 7, 2011 and the charges against him were dismissed. Harrington and McGhee's federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Council Bluffs and its police officers was settled in October 2013 for $6.2 million to be evenly split between the two of them. Harrington settled the lawsuits for a total of $10.13 million and McGhee for a total of $8.07 million."
Conviction Caused By:	Perjured prosecution testimony suborned by the prosecutor.
Innocence Proved By:	"McGhee was released five months after Terry Harrington was released, when he agreed to plead no-contest to second-degree murder."
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:	"$8.07 million ($4.97 million (Pottawattamie County, January 2010) and $3.1 million (City of Council Bluffs , October 2013)"
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	17
Age When Released:	43
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	Black
Information Source 1:	Actual Innocence - Exonerated Individuals whose cases involved prosecutorial misconduct
Information Location 1:	http://www.publicintegrity.org/pm/default.aspx?sid=sidebarsb&aid=38
Information Source 2:	284 N.W.2d 244 and 659 N.W.2d 509
Information Location 2:
Information Source 3:	"12 million wrongful conviction settlement is hailed, By Lee Rood, Des Moines Register, January 5, 2010"
Information Location 3:	http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201001050405/NEWS/1050357
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Curtis W. McGhee Jr

Charge:

First Degree Murder

Sentence:

Life Imprisonment

Years Imprisoned:

26

Year Crime:

1977

Year Convicted:

1978

Year Cleared:

2003

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Iowa

County or Region of Crime:

Pottawattamie

City of Crime:

Council Bluffs

Result:

Judicially Exonerated

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Perjured prosecution testimony suborned by the prosecutor.

Innocence Proved By:

"McGhee was released five months after Terry Harrington was released, when he agreed to plead no-contest to second-degree murder."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

"$8.07 million ($4.97 million (Pottawattamie County, January 2010) and $3.1 million (City of Council Bluffs , October 2013)"

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

17

Age When Released:

43

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Black

Information Source 1:

Actual Innocence - Exonerated Individuals whose cases involved prosecutorial misconduct

Information Location 1:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/pm/default.aspx?sid=sidebarsb&aid=38

Information Source 2:

284 N.W.2d 244 and 659 N.W.2d 509

Information Location 2:

Information Source 3:

"12 million wrongful conviction settlement is hailed, By Lee Rood, Des Moines Register, January 5, 2010"

Information Location 3:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201001050405/NEWS/1050357

Information Source 4:

Information Location 4:

Information Source 5:

Information Location 5:

Book About Case:

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

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