Robert K. McLaughlin

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Charge:	Second Degree Murder
Sentence:	15 years to life imprisonment
Years Imprisoned:	6.5
Year Crime:	1979
Year Convicted:	1979
Year Cleared:	1986
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	New York
County or Region of Crime:	Kings
City of Crime:	New York City
Result:	Judicially Exonerated Released
Summary of Case:	"Robert K. McLaughlin aka Bobby McLaoughlin, was wrongly convicted in 1979 of second-degree murder for a death that occurred during an armed robbery in Brooklyn, New York. McLaughlin's prosecution was based on his identification in a line-up by a 15-year-old witness who had been told by police that McLaughlin was a friend of the other suspect. McLaughlin's alibi defense was that at the time of the shooting he was drinking with friends at a bar in his neighborhood. After his conviction following a jury trial, McLaughlin was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. McLaughlin's foster father, Jarold Hohne, believed in his innocence, and persuaded civil rights lawyer Richard Emery and NYPD Sergeant Thomas Duffy to reinvestigate McLaughlin's case. Their investigation discovered that McLaughlin was mistakenly arrested after the shooting and put in the lineup because the primary suspect was reputed to associate with a Robert W. McLaughlin, and the detectives mistook that man for McLaughlin, whose middle initial is "K," They also interviewed the witness, who admitted he had been mistaken when he identified McLaughlin, and he had only done so because the police told him McLaughlin and the primary suspect were friends. Based on the new evidence, McLaughlin's conviction was overturned 1986 and he was released after 6-1/2 years in prison. McLaughlin filed a claim for compensation, and in November 1989 New York Court of Claims Judge Adolph Orlando ordered that McLaughlin be paid a total of $1.93 million. The award was primarily comprised of $1.5 million for "loss of liberty, mental stress, anguish and loss of reputation." McLaughlin was also ordered compensated $205,000 for lost wages for his years from 20 to 26-1/2, and $225,000 in medical expenses for treatment of his addiction to cocaine and other drugs that stemmed from his prison experience. After he was notified about the award, he told reporters about his experience, "I kept telling myself it would end but it never did. I hated the system for not believing me. It just seemed like they were God--like they could do whatever they liked with my life." Sargeant Duffy, who had retired to Arizona, told reporters about the trauma of McLaughlin's prison experience and his difficulty coping after his release: "That kid's finished. No amount of counseling will make him normal again.""
Conviction Caused By:
Innocence Proved By:	McLaughlin's conviction was overturned in 1986 based on the discovery the police had mistakenly arrested him and improperly influence the eyewitness to identify him.
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:	"$1.93 million (NY State, Nov. 1989)"
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	20
Age When Released:	26
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 146."
Information Location 1:
Information Source 2:	"Inevitable Error: Wrongful New York State Homicide Convictions, 1965-1988, by Marty I. Rosenbaum, 18 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 807, 822-823"
Information Location 2:	http://deskovic.org/research/article/id/Inevitable-Error-Wrongful-New-York-State-Homicide-Convictions
Information Source 3:	"Wrongly Convicted Man Wins $1.9-Million Judgment, but Normal Life May Elude Him, By Tony Kennedy (AP reporter), Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1989"
Information Location 3:	http://articles.latimes.com/1989-11-05/news/mn-1352_1_fast-life
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Robert K. McLaughlin

Charge:

Second Degree Murder

Sentence:

15 years to life imprisonment

Years Imprisoned:

6.5

Year Crime:

1979

Year Convicted:

1979

Year Cleared:

1986

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

New York

County or Region of Crime:

Kings

City of Crime:

New York City

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Innocence Proved By:

McLaughlin's conviction was overturned in 1986 based on the discovery the police had mistakenly arrested him and improperly influence the eyewitness to identify him.

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

"$1.93 million (NY State, Nov. 1989)"

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

20

Age When Released:

26

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 146."

Information Location 1:

Information Source 2:

"Inevitable Error: Wrongful New York State Homicide Convictions, 1965-1988, by Marty I. Rosenbaum, 18 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 807, 822-823"

Information Location 2:

http://deskovic.org/research/article/id/Inevitable-Error-Wrongful-New-York-State-Homicide-Convictions

Information Source 3:

"Wrongly Convicted Man Wins $1.9-Million Judgment, but Normal Life May Elude Him, By Tony Kennedy (AP reporter), Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1989"

Information Location 3:

http://articles.latimes.com/1989-11-05/news/mn-1352_1_fast-life

Information Source 4:

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: