Walter A. Pecho

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Charge:	Second Degree Murder
Sentence:	15 - 20 yrs
Years Imprisoned:	6
Year Crime:
Year Convicted:	1954
Year Cleared:	1960
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Michigan
County or Region of Crime:
City of Crime:
Result:	Pardoned
Summary of Case:	Walter A. Pecho was wrongly accused and convicted of murdering his wife after he called police to report that she had committed suicide by shooting herself with a shotgun. He was convicted on the testimony of the prosecution's pathologist erroneous conclusion that Pecho's wife didn't commit suicide. In 1950 he was pardoned by Michigan Mennen Williams and freed after 6 years imprisonment when his wife's ring fingerprint was found on the trigger guard of the shotgun.
Conviction Caused By:	Prosecutorial misconduct of withholding exculpatory evidence from the defense and erroneous analysis by the prosecutions pathologist.
Innocence Proved By:	Pardoned in 1950 by Michigan Governor Mennen Williams when the fingerprint of his wife's ring finger was found on the trigger guard of the shotgun that was used to kill her.
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:	No
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:
Age When Released:
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. 151."
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Information Source 2:	"The Innocents, Edward Radin,William Morrow & Co., 1964, p. 243"
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Walter A. Pecho

Charge:

Second Degree Murder

Sentence:

15 - 20 yrs

Years Imprisoned:

6

Year Crime:

Year Convicted:

1954

Year Cleared:

1960

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Michigan

County or Region of Crime:

City of Crime:

Result:

Pardoned

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Prosecutorial misconduct of withholding exculpatory evidence from the defense and erroneous analysis by the prosecutions pathologist.

Innocence Proved By:

Pardoned in 1950 by Michigan Governor Mennen Williams when the fingerprint of his wife's ring finger was found on the trigger guard of the shotgun that was used to kill her.

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

No

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

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. 151."

Information Location 1:

Information Source 2:

"The Innocents, Edward Radin,William Morrow & Co., 1964, p. 243"

Information Location 2:

Information Source 3:

Information Location 3:

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Information Source 5:

Information Location 5:

Book About Case:

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: