Two men were wrongly convicted in a 1977 murder and have been released after they have been found innocent of the crimes for which they were sentenced.
In 1977, two black men were convicted in the murder of a white police officer named John Schweer. Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee were found guilty of a murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison. There was very little evidence to support the claims, but the two men were still found guilty of the crimes.
A Supreme Court ruling freed them in 2003 after investigations discovered that the prosecutors had concealed evidence of another possible suspect in order to solve the crime much more quickly.
When they were freed, both men filed lawsuits against the officers and prosecutors involved in the case, as they had spent much of their adult lives in prison because of the misconduct.
The cases led to a settlement, but the men did not stop there in the quest for justice, according to a report issued on bradenton.com.
The men are now trying to prove that they were framed by the police in order to close the book on a crime that drew a lot of attention from the public. They are targeting two former detectives: Dan Larsen and Lyle Brown.
It is to be a civil trial where the two men will seek to prove that police officers fabricated information and coerced witnesses. According to the men, they used threats to gain information and witnesses that would help them solve the problem and convict the two men, who were just teenagers then.
One of the key witnesses was Kevin Hughes a then 16-year-old who confessed to being a liar with multiple aliases as well. According to Harrington and McGhee, the two detectives took him to the crime scene, gave him details, and helped him to fabricate a plausible story.
The key witnesses to the crimes have agreed that they were pressured and recanted their statements against Harrington and McGhee. Hughes said he lied to get the reward money and to stay out of any trouble himself.
The goal of the trial will be to decide if the two men's civil rights were violated and what they should receive in damages for the amount of time that they were forced to spend in prison.
In 1977, two black men were convicted in the murder of a white police officer named John Schweer. Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee were found guilty of a murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison. There was very little evidence to support the claims, but the two men were still found guilty of the crimes.
A Supreme Court ruling freed them in 2003 after investigations discovered that the prosecutors had concealed evidence of another possible suspect in order to solve the crime much more quickly.
When they were freed, both men filed lawsuits against the officers and prosecutors involved in the case, as they had spent much of their adult lives in prison because of the misconduct.
The cases led to a settlement, but the men did not stop there in the quest for justice, according to a report issued on bradenton.com.
The men are now trying to prove that they were framed by the police in order to close the book on a crime that drew a lot of attention from the public. They are targeting two former detectives: Dan Larsen and Lyle Brown.
It is to be a civil trial where the two men will seek to prove that police officers fabricated information and coerced witnesses. According to the men, they used threats to gain information and witnesses that would help them solve the problem and convict the two men, who were just teenagers then.
One of the key witnesses was Kevin Hughes a then 16-year-old who confessed to being a liar with multiple aliases as well. According to Harrington and McGhee, the two detectives took him to the crime scene, gave him details, and helped him to fabricate a plausible story.
The key witnesses to the crimes have agreed that they were pressured and recanted their statements against Harrington and McGhee. Hughes said he lied to get the reward money and to stay out of any trouble himself.
The goal of the trial will be to decide if the two men's civil rights were violated and what they should receive in damages for the amount of time that they were forced to spend in prison.
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