In 1975, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed Stack’s conviction and death sentence on the grounds that the trial court had improperly allowed the operator of a lie detector test to testify in court. Stack’s codefendant pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and received a sentence of 15 years in exchange for testifying against Stack. Howard Jackson Stack was sentenced to death in 1973 in Fulton County, Georgia. (Wilmington Morning Star, February 21, 1975). At Spicer’s retrial, the jury took only 15 minutes to unanimously acquit him. The court also found that the trial court committed reversible error when it “succeeded in pressuring the defendant and his counsel into withdrawing the request for an appropriate instruction” with regard to how the jury should scrutinize the testimony of another witness for the State, Bertie Brailford. Defense counsel was unable to question Pennington as to who was paying the living expenses of Pennington and his wife, neither of whom was working at the time. In overturning Spicer’s conviction, the North Carolina Supreme Court held that the trial judge committed reversible error by not allowing defense counsel to cross examine Pennington “to discover whom the witness was indebted for such favors and to ascertain to what extent the favors colored his testimony against Spicer.” Id. After sharing this “confession” with police, Pennington’s bond was reduced from $5,000 to $400 and he was released from jail. Although the defense introduced two witnesses who testified that Pennington and Spicer were never cell mates, Pennington testified that Spicer admitted to the crime while he and Spicer shared a cell. At Spicer’s trial, the State offered the testimony of Charles Pennington, a jailhouse snitch. Spicer was convicted of the crime in September 1973, but the conviction was overturned the following year by the North Carolina Supreme Court. In 1975, a North Carolina jury acquitted Christopher Spicer of the murder of Donnie P. North Carolina - Conviction: 1973, Acquitted: 1975 Creamer was resentenced to life in prison in September 1973. The Clerk of the Cobb Superior Court has certified that Creamer alone was originally sentenced to death. An appellate judge in a related case stated that all seven individuals in this case were sentenced to life. The convictions against all seven men were overturned, and charges were later dropped. (Cobb Superior Court, Cobb County, Georgia, Certified record) After an investigation by the Atlanta Constitution, a federal judge declared that the prosecution had withheld and destroyed evidence, a witness admitted she had lied in court, and another man confessed to the crimes (Emmett v. Georgia - Conviction: 1973, Charges Dismissed: 1975Ĭreamer was sentenced to death for a murder allegedly committed with six other individuals who were sentenced to life. 1974) Ed Martin, Death Row: Legal rulings sent some from brink of death to freedom, The Charlotte News, March 15, 1984. See a list of all of the additional exonerations here. Albert Carey was retried and sentenced to death again, but the prosecutor dropped charges against Anthony Carey because there was insufficient evidence to retry him without Mitchell’s testimony.Ĭarey is one of 12 additional exonerations discovered by DPIC in 20 during its research of all modern-era death sentences. Both brothers’ death sentences were reversed in 1974 by the North Carolina Supreme Court. Mitchell recanted his testimony after the Careys were convicted but before the trial of two other codefendants. Anthony Carey’s conviction relied primarily on the testimony of the shooter, James Mitchell, who had entered into a plea deal with prosecutors. Anthony Carey was allegedly a passenger in a car parked multiple blocks away from where the crime was committed and did not handle the gun involved in the murder. Neither of the brothers were accused of committing the murder in question however both were sentenced to death as accomplices. Anthony CareyĪnthony Carey was tried and sentenced to death along with his brother, Albert Carey, in 1973 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Supreme Court because the case lacked substantial evidence that Poole was the person who broke into the home. North Carolina - Conviction: 1973, Charges Dismissed: 1974Īfter being convicted of first degree burglary and given a mandatory death sentence, Poole had his conviction overturned by the N.C.
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