St. Louis Man Freed From Wrongful Conviction After 24 Years
Out of the blue, ... [Darryl] Burton (age 22) was fingered by two individuals claiming to be witnesses. There was no physical evidence linking him to the murder; a slug was found at the murder scene, but no weapon was ever recovered. A jealousy motive for Burton regarding a girlfriend was investigated by police, but not presented at trial. Prosecutor Anthony Gonzales presented no motive at all.
A witness who testified in exchange for a reduced sentence lied about his criminal record. That witness' testimony varied drastically from the story he told the police. New evidence shows that the other witness "was a chronic liar who was not at the crime scene at the time of the shooting and had vision so poor that he could not have seen the shooting from where he claimed to be sitting had he in fact been sitting there."
Other witnesses identified Jesse Watson as the shooter, a likely suspect given that Watson took a shot at the same victim at the same location a year earlier. The police didn't bother to investigate Watson. [more ...]
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