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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Murder |
Sentence: |
Life Imprisonment |
Years Imprisoned: |
13 |
Year Crime: |
1995 |
Year Convicted: |
1996 |
Year Cleared: |
2009 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Wisconsin |
County or Region of Crime: |
Milwaukee |
City of Crime: |
Milwaukee |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Chaunte Ott was wrongly convicted in 1996 of murdering a 16-year-old girl in 1995 by slashing her throat in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ott's conviction was based testimony by a co-defendant, Sammy Hadaway. Ott was sentenced to life in prison. Based on state of the art DNA testing that didn't just exclude Ott as the girl's assailant, but implicated her murderer as the unknown serial killer of at least two other women, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals overturned Ott's conviction on December 23, 2008. He was released on bail on January 8, 2009 after more than 13 years of wrongful imprisonment. The charges were dismissed on June 5, 2009. In September 2009 police arrested suspected serial killer Walter E. Ellis, whose DNA linked him to the slayings of nine women, including the teenager Ott was convicted of murdering. Walter Ellis pled no contest in 2011 to strangling seven women around Milwaukee from 1986 to 2007. Ellis was sentenced to life in prison and he died in 2013. On September 10, 2009 Ott filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Milwaukee Police Department and several of the officers involved in his case, contending they conspired to frame him. Ott filed a separate claim under Wisconsin's wrongful conviction compensation statute. On May 18, 2010 the Wisconsin State Claims Board announced it had awarded Ott $25,000 compensation, the maximum allowed under state law. After the hearing held on April 28, 2010, the Board found that Chaunte Ott "has provided clear and convincing evidence" of his innocence." The Claims Board determined no physical evidence links Ott to Payne’s death and two of the witnesses in his case recanted their testimony. On March 31, 2015 the City of Milwaukee announced to had settled Ott's federal civil rights lawsuit against the city for $6.5 million. Two days after Ott's conviction his co-defendant, Sammy Hadaway, who had testified against Ott at his trial, pled guilty to attempted robbery. Hadaway was sentenced to five years in prison. Hadaway later recanted that he had lied to avoid the possibility of being convicted of a murder he had nothing to do with, under the threat by detectives he would be sentenced to 80 years in prison if he went to trial and lost. Based on the new evidence discovered in the investigation of Ott's case, Hadaway's petition to withdraw his guilty plea was granted on August 14, 2018 by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. The Milwaukee County DA declined to retry Hadaway and his charges were dismissed on October 8, 2018." |
Conviction Caused By: |
Perjury by Ott's co-defendant. |
Innocence Proved By: |
"Conviction overturned in December 2008 based on DNA tests that excluded him as the girl's assailant. The charges were dismissed on June 5, 2009." |
Defendant Aided By: |
Wisconsin Innocence Project. Represented in civil lawsuit by Chicago based law firm of Loevy & Loevy. |
Compensation Awarded: |
"$6,525,000 total. $25,000 (State of Wisconsin, 2010) and $6.5 mil. (City of Milwaukee, 3-31-2015)" |
Was Perpetrator Identified? |
Yes |
Age When Imprisoned: |
21 |
Age When Released: |
34 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
Black |
Information Source 1: |
"DNA evidence in murder case frees Milwaukee man, Chicago Tribune, January 9, 2009" |
Information Location 1: |
"http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-freedprisoner,0,1029246.story" |
Information Source 2: |
"Court says DNA tests cast doubt in 1995 slaying, by Meg Jones (staff), Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 24, 2008" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/36673184.html |
Information Source 3: |
"Man freed from life sentence sues police, By Bruce Vielmetti (staff writer), Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, September 10, 2009" |
Information Location 3: |
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/58493417.html |
Information Source 4: |
"State will pay $25,000 to man wrongfully imprisoned for 13 years, By Dee J. Hall, Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), May 18, 2010" |
Information Location 4: |
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/article_e0c91fea-62a8-11df-a1b6-001cc4c03286.html |
Information Source 5: |
"Milwaukee to pay $6.5 million to man cleared after 13 years in prison, by Bruce Vielmetti (staff), Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 31, 2015" |
Information Location 5: |
http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/milwaukee-to-pay-65-million-to-man-cleared-after-13-years-in-prison-b99472841z1-298216201.html |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org