Michael Pardue (Mobile County)

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Charge:	Murder
Sentence:	Life Imprisonment
Years Imprisoned:	28
Year Crime:	1973
Year Convicted:	1973
Year Cleared:	1997
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Alabama
County or Region of Crime:	Mobile
City of Crime:	Saraland
Result:	Judicially Exonerated Released
Summary of Case:	"Michael Pardue was wrongly convicted in 1973 after a two hour trial of murdering two gas station attendants in Saraland, Alabama. Michael Pardue had falsely confessed to the murders under the duress of a non-stop four-day interrogation. A third murder conviction, in Mobile County, Alabama, was also reversed as erroneous in 1997. He was released in February 2001 after 28 years of wrongful conviction. Michael Pardue and his wife Becky co-authored a self-help book for the innocent, Freeing The Innocent: How We Did It (2002). In 1999 Pardue filed a federal civil rights lawsuit naming the City of Saraland and Mobile County and the Mobile County District Attorney and several assistant district attorneys in office in 1973. After his lawsuit was dismissed by a US District Court judge in Mobile as being filed too late, in May 2008 the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled he couldn't have filed it until his convictions were reversed in 1997, so his lawsuit was timely. After the appeals court's ruling Saraland agreed on April 5, 2010 to settle the lawsuit for about $200,000. On January 11, 2011 the U.S. District Court dismissed Pardue's federal lawsuit against the former Mobile County officials in the district attorney's office."
Conviction Caused By:	"Police perjury, concealed and manufactured evidence, false confession and unreliable "jailhouse" snitches."
Innocence Proved By:
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:	"$200,000 (approx) (City of Saraland, April 2010)"
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	17
Age When Released:	45
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"Michael Pardue, Saraland settle imprisonment lawsuit, By David Ferrera (Staff), Mobile Press-Register, April 8, 2010"
Information Location 1:	http://blog.al.com/live/2010/04/michael_pardue_saraland_settle.html
Information Source 2:	"Michael Pardue's Lawsuit Reinstated, By Jamie Burch (staff), WKRG-TV (Mobile, AL), May 27, 2008"
Information Location 2:	http://www2.wkrg.com/news/2008/may/27/michael_pardues_lawsuit_reinstated-ar-2137321/
Information Source 3:	""Freeing the Innocent: How We Did It - A Handbook for the Wrongfully Convicted," Michael and Becky Pardue, self-published, 2002."
Information Location 3:
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Information Source 5:
Information Location 5:
Book About Case:	"Freeing The Innocent: How We Did It, By Michael Pardue and Becky Pardue (2002)."
Book Information:
Book About Case (2):
Book Information (2):
Movie About Case:
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Michael Pardue (Mobile County)

Charge:

Murder

Sentence:

Life Imprisonment

Years Imprisoned:

28

Year Crime:

1973

Year Convicted:

1973

Year Cleared:

1997

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Alabama

County or Region of Crime:

Mobile

City of Crime:

Saraland

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

"Police perjury, concealed and manufactured evidence, false confession and unreliable "jailhouse" snitches."

Innocence Proved By:

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

"$200,000 (approx) (City of Saraland, April 2010)"

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

17

Age When Released:

45

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"Michael Pardue, Saraland settle imprisonment lawsuit, By David Ferrera (Staff), Mobile Press-Register, April 8, 2010"

Information Location 1:

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/04/michael_pardue_saraland_settle.html

Information Source 2:

"Michael Pardue's Lawsuit Reinstated, By Jamie Burch (staff), WKRG-TV (Mobile, AL), May 27, 2008"

Information Location 2:

http://www2.wkrg.com/news/2008/may/27/michael_pardues_lawsuit_reinstated-ar-2137321/

Information Source 3:

""Freeing the Innocent: How We Did It - A Handbook for the Wrongfully Convicted," Michael and Becky Pardue, self-published, 2002."

Information Location 3:

Information Source 4:

Information Location 4:

Information Source 5:

Information Location 5:

Book About Case:

"Freeing The Innocent: How We Did It, By Michael Pardue and Becky Pardue (2002)."

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: