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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Murder |
Sentence: |
Death |
Years Imprisoned: |
12 |
Year Crime: |
1955 |
Year Convicted: |
1956 |
Year Cleared: |
1971 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Illinois |
County or Region of Crime: |
Fulton |
City of Crime: |
Canton |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Lloyd Eldon Miller Jr. was wrongly convicted on September 28, 1956 of the murder of eight-year-old Janice Elizabeth May on November 26, 1955 in Canton, Illinois. Miller's prosecution was based on his confession that he recanted as coerced, and which the prosecution argued was corroborated by Betty Baldwin who testified Miller confessed to her the day of the crime, a pair of undershorts found near the crime scene that it claimed Miller admitted were his, and which the prosecution claimed were stained with blood. The trial judge denied a motion for an order permitting scientific inspection of the physical evidence the prosecution intended to introduce at trial. Miller's first trial was in Fulton County commenced on June 11, 1956, but it was declared a mistrial when only four jurors could be found who had not already decided Miller was guilty. The trial was transfered to Hancock County, and his trial began on September 10, 1956. After his conviction by a jury Lloyd Miller was sentenced to death. After his state appeal was denied in 1958, Miller filed a federal habeas petition based on the sole issue his confession was involuntary. His petition was denied by the U. S. district court, and that ruling was affirmed by the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on February 15, 1962. Miller's lawyer submitted a state clemency petition that argued Miller's confession was inconsistent with crime, the shorts were too small for him to wear, and that the prosecution had failed to disclose the state crime laboratory had tested the red substance on the shorts and reported that it was paint, and that Miller's trial lawyer had failed to call as a witness his landlady who had knowledge he was home at the time of the crime. The clemency petition was denied. Miller then filed a second federal habeas petition. During an evidentiary hearing Baldwin, who had become Betty Curry, testified as a surprise witness that Miller had never confessed to her and she had committed perjury during his trial. On December 31, 1963 the federal judge granted Miller's petition and ordered that he be retried or released, on the basis that Baldwin's habeas testimony was new evidence that could have affected the jury's verdict. The judge ruled that all of Miller's other claims did not constitute violations of his constitutional rights. (U.S. v. Pate, 226 F. Supp. 541 (DCND Ill. 1963)) The State appealed, and in 1965 the federal Seventh Circuit reversed the judge's ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court accepted Miller's case for review. On February 13, 1967 the Supreme Court overturned Miller's conviction on the basis his right to due process was violated because the prosecution relied of the false evidence of shorts that it knew had red paint, and not blood on them. Miller was released on bond on March 20, 1967. The charges were dismissed against Miller on September 20, 1971. The Illinois State Bar Association investigated the conduct of Miller's prosecutor, but absolved him of any ethical misconduct. Miller died on January 31, 2014." |
Conviction Caused By: |
"False confession coerced by police after long hours of interrogation, perjurious testimony by the prosecution's key witness, and the prosecution's reliance on false physical evidence." |
Innocence Proved By: |
"On February 13, 1967 the Supreme Court overturned Miller's conviction on the basis his right to due process was violated because the prosecution relied of the false evidence of shorts that it knew had red paint, and not blood on them. Miller was released on bond on March 20, 1967. The charges were dismissed against Miller on September 20, 1971." |
Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
28 |
Age When Released: |
40 |
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. 147+." |
Information Location 1: |
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Information Source 2: |
"Walters remembers Canton's past, By Staff, Canton Daily Ledger, February 6, 2016" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.cantondailyledger.com/article/20160206/NEWS/160209554 |
Information Source 3: |
"Miller v. Pate, 386 US 1 (1967) (Granting federal habeas petition based on the State's reliance on the false evidence that the red spots on the shorts were blood, when the State knew it was paint.)" |
Information Location 3: |
"https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=6845255661605567653&q=Lloyd+Miller&hl=en&as_sdt=6,48#[3]" |
Information Source 4: |
"Miller v. Pate, 300 F. 2d 414 (7th Cir. 1962) (Affirming district court's denial of habeas petition.)" |
Information Location 4: |
"https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12628665845646339581&q=Lloyd+Miller&hl=en&as_sdt=6,48" |
Information Source 5: |
"U.S. v. Pate, 226 F. Supp. 541 (DCND Ill. 1963) (Granting habeas petition based on Betty Curry's (Baldwin) recantation of her trial testimony as perjury.)" |
Information Location 5: |
"https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13472679232430268632&q=226+F.+Supp.+541&hl=en&as_sdt=6,48" |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org