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Transcript

The Evidence

What happened?

A couple, Lawrence Lionberg and Carol Schmal, were kidnapped and taken to an abandoned town house.

Schmal was raped seven times then shot to death, along with Lionberg.

Charles McCraney

  • What he saw, in the early morning, was a group of men go to and from a red Toyota and an orange Chevy.
  • He said, specifically, that he did not see he could not discern the race or gender of them, only that Rainge, Adams, and Williams were people he knew to be around the neighborhood often.
  • His only contribution was him “overhearing Williams “jokingly” ask another man, “Did you shoot those people?” — before the second body had been found.
  • Then, in court, McCraney identified each of the defendants, placing them at the scene, which was in complete contrast to his earlier statement of not even being able to tell race.

One of the conspirers, Paula Gray, who was there to witness the crime, confessed to what happened. Four men were implicated to be a part of the horrific crime: William Rainge, Verneal Jimerson, Kenneth Adams, and Dennis Williams

Ford Heights Four

  • Eye witness account
  • Microscopic hair evidence

Madi Rae Harry

Paula Gray

Verneal Jimerson

Kenneth Adams

Given seventy five years in jail

Paula Gray

Given fifty years, plus an added ten for lying under oath.

The Confession

Gray said each of the four men gang-raped the woman, Williams shot her, and Williams and Rainge shot and killed the fiancé.

The Confession

  • Gray, after two nights of interrogation in motels, gave her confession.
  • Gray was 17 at the time, and declared to be autistic.
  • Her confession only contained two crucial details that were not released to the general public.
  • She claimed to have held a “Bic type cigarette lighter, providing the only illumination inside the pitch-black townhouse."

The Confession

Later, about a month after the men were charged, Gray recanted. She said, “I didn’t hear nothing. I don’t know nothing. I ain’t saying nothing,” and claimed the police officers that questioned her and the prosecutors told her to lie.

Verneal Jimerson

Sent to Death Row

Michael Podlecki’s Tests

  • Podlecki, testified that he had recovered and analyzed Caucasian hairs from the back of William’s car.
  • From a warrantless search.
  • He looked at them on a microscopic level and concluded, from an invalidated tactic, that they were a match to the two victims.
  • He claimed, “Just like if you drop two dollar bills and you see dollar bills on the floor. You see two one dollar bills. It's obvious."

Dennis Williams

William Rainge

Received a life sentence

Dennis Williams

Sent to Death Row

Exoneration

Sources

It was not until 1996 that they were exonerated through DNA evidence and given a settlement of $36 million altogether.

  • Cutler, B. L. & Pezdek, Kathy. (2012). Conviction of the innocent: lessons from psychological research. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
  • Meet the Exonerated, Center on Wrongful Convictions. (n.d.).Northwestern Law: Northwestern University Law School. Retrieved March 14, 2012, from http://www.law.northwestern.edu/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/
  • Protess, D., & Warden, R. (1998). A promise of justice. New York: Hyperion.
  • The Innocence Project - Home. (n.d.).The Innocence Project - Home. Retrieved March 14, 2012, from http://www.innocenceproject.org/
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