Lawsuit Filed Over Wrongful Conviction
by TChris
John Schweer, a security guard and former police officer in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was killed with a shotgun in 1977. Two black teenagers were charged with his murder. Prosecutors failed to provide the defense with reports concerning a 47-year-old white man who carried a shotgun while walking his dogs in the area. The man seems like a good suspect:
The man had been a suspect in a 1963 slaying and had faced gun charges. The man failed a lie detector test when asked if he had shot John Schweer, a police report concluded.
Despite having alibis, the teens, Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee, were convicted on the testimony of individuals who have since recanted. Harrington and McGhee have sued Pottawattamie County Attorney Dave Richter, his assistant Joseph Hrvol, and Council Bluffs police detectives Daniel C. Larsen and Lyle W. Brown, alleging that the police and prosecutors framed them in a racially motivated conspiracy.
The lawsuits portray police and prosecutors as obsessed with finding Schweer’s killer. Police targeted Harrington and McGhee after a group of teenagers said they had seen the pair in the area.
Kevin Hughes, then 16, had been arrested in neighboring Omaha, Neb., on a car theft charge. He said he was told he would be charged with Schweer’s slaying if he didn’t come up with the real killer, according to court records.
The lawsuits allege that authorities crafted a case "by editing Hughes’s story to eliminate the lies that were demonstrably false and by providing him with details of the crime to make him seem more credible."
The other teens agreed to back up Hughes’ story.
The Iowa Supreme Court reversed Harrington’s conviction in 2003 after concluding that the withheld evidence could have caused a different outcome in his trial. The prosecution nonetheless tried to keep Harrington in prison, prompting Gov. Tom Vilsack to give Harrington a reprieve. Now Harrington works as a truck driver as he tries to rebuild his life.
J. Douglas McCalla, an attorney in the Wyoming law firm of Gerry Spence, said he is helping Harrington to right a wrong [by representing him in the lawsuit].
A quarter century in prison is a huge wrong to right. The cases are scheduled for trial in 2007.
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