Wrongly Convicted Database Record

 

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George Yelder

 

Charge:

Murder

Sentence:

Life Imprisonment

Years Imprisoned:

0.167

Year Crime:

Year Convicted:

1928

Year Cleared:

1928

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Alabama

County or Region of Crime:

Lowndes

City of Crime:

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

"George Yelder was codefendant of Louise Butler. Butler and Yelder were lovers, and they were convicted by all white jurys after separate trials on April 24 and 25, 1928 respectively, for the murder of Butler's 14-year-old niece Topsy Warren earlier that month. Both trials lasted less than a day, and their convictions were based on the eyewitness testimony of three girls -- Topsy's 9-year-old sister and two cousins. Butler and Yelder were both sentenced on April 25, 1928 to life in prison Less than a week later the supposed victim was discovered alive living in another county 20 miles away. After Topsy was discovered alive, the three witnesses admitted they made up the story that Butler and Yelder murdered her. In June 1928 Butler and Yelder's convictions were vacated and they were released after two months in custody. Butler had initially confessed under police pressure, but later repudiated it. Because of her repudiation the judge did not admit Butler's confession during her trial and Yelder's trial."

Conviction Caused By:

Deliberately fFalse witness testimony by three children.

Innocence Proved By:

Alleged victim was found alive in another county.

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Black

Information Source 1:

"“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 102."

Information Location 1:

Information Source 2:

"Convicting the Innocent - Sixty-Five Actual Errors of Criminal Justice, by Edwin Borchard, Yale Univ Press, 1932"

Information Location 2:

Information Source 3:

"Louise Butler, Center on Wrongful Convictions, Northwestern School of Law"

Information Location 3:

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/alButlerSummary.html

Information Source 4:

Information Location 4:

Information Source 5:

Information Location 5:

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Book Information:

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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org

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