Baltimore Man Cleared Of Murder Decades Later: ‘You Can’t Give Up’

3 years ago 388

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — This Saturday is “International Wrongful Conviction Day.” It’s an accidental to shed airy connected the information that flaws successful the ineligible strategy whitethorn unit immoderate radical to walk decades successful situation for crimes they did not commit.

Alfred Chestnut spent 36 years down bars for murder. Chestnut was exonerated successful November 2019, but helium remembers the nonstop infinitesimal helium was arrested arsenic a teen.

“I was fundamentally successful bed, similar 1 o’clock successful the morning, and I thought I was dreaming. Lights agleam arsenic this was successful my look and each I saw was guns,” Chestnut recalls.

Another man, Eric Simmons, had a akin acquisition successful a wholly abstracted case. Simmons and his brother, Kenneth McPherson, were convicted of execution backmost successful May 1995. Simmons says helium excessively remembers the infinitesimal erstwhile helium and his member were arrested.

“When I woke up, determination was a clump of guns successful my face, the aforesaid way, snatched retired of the bed,” says Simmons, adding that his parent saw some of her sons taken distant the aforesaid day. “She mislaid her lone 2 sons for crimes they didn’t commit.”

Simmons said his parent died earlier helium and his member were yet released.

Chestnut and Simmons are among 10 men from Baltimore who’ve been released from situation aft the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office helped to beryllium that they were guiltless and that the grounds utilized to fastener them up was tainted. Anyone tin interaction the bureau if they judge they were wrongfully convicted.

“You cognize that idiosyncratic yet heard your cries, idiosyncratic yet listening that didn’t perceive for the past 25 years,” Simmons says.

Chestnut says the satellite felt antithetic erstwhile helium was released from situation successful his 50s, compared to erstwhile helium was incarcerated arsenic a teenager.

“When we walked retired the door, I instantly looked up astatine the entity and I looked astatine the gangly buildings and it seemed similar the streets were overmuch much smaller compared to erstwhile I was a kid,” Chestnut says.

Chestnut, Andrew Stewart, and Ransom Watkins are known arsenic the Harlem Park Three. The young men were wrongfully convicted of execution successful 1983, erstwhile they were 16 years old. They were convicted of murdering their puerility person Dewitt Duckett successful the hallway of Harlem Park Middle School.

While down bars, Chestnut and Simmons studied the law, fought for and won their freedom. It’s a conflict that lasted decades.

“For those who whitethorn beryllium successful prison, that’s wrongly convicted, you can’t fto spell excessively soon. You can’t springiness up, you got to support up a changeless fight,” Simmons says.

On Saturday, Oct. 2, determination volition beryllium a municipality hallway from 1-3 p.m. astatine the School of Social Work auditorium astatine the University of Maryland, Baltimore. The lawsuit is expected to diagnostic immoderate of the exonerees.

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