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Wrongly
Convicted Database
Record
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Years
Imprisoned:
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21 |
Charge: |
Murder |
Sentence: |
Death |
Year Convicted: |
1976 |
Year
Cleared:
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1997 |
Location
of Trial:
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Alabama |
Result:
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Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary
of Case:
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James Cochran was wrongly convicted in 1976 of killing a white grocery store assistant manager in Jefferson County, Alabama. He maintained his innocence throughout four trials and 21 years on death row. The first trial ended in a mistrial. The second resulted in a conviction and death sentence that were reversed when the United States Supreme Court struck down Alabama’s death penalty statute. The third trial resulted in a conviction and death sentence that were reversed because prosecutors had illegally removed black people from the jury. At Mr. Cochran’s fourth trial – which was his first fair one – the jury acquitted him. There were no eyewitnesses to the murder and it would have been impossible for Mr. Cochran to move the victim’s body under a trailer in a nearby mobile home park at the same time that he was being chased by police. Mr. Cochran’s case is featured in the documentary film 'Death in Dixie.' (Equal Justice Initiative) |
Conviction
Caused By:
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Innocence
Proved By:
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Acquitted in 1997 after his fourth retrial.
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Defendant
Aided By:
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Found? |
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Age
When Imprisoned:
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Age
When Released:
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Information Source 1: |
Innocence: List of Those Freed From Death Row, Death Penalty Information Center |
Information
Location 1:
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http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-list-those-freed-death-row |
Information
Source 2:
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Alabama's Exonerated, Equal Justice Initiative |
Information
Location 2:
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http://www.eji.org/eji/files/alabamasexonerated.pdf |
Information
Source 3:
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Information
Location 3:
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Information
Source 4:
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Information
Location 4:
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Information
Source 5:
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Information
Location 5:
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Ethnicity/Skin:
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Black |
Book
About
Case:
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Book
Information:
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Book About Case (2): |
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Book Information (2): |
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Movie About Case: |
Death in Dixie' documentary made in 1997 about the death penalty in Alabama |
Comments About Case: |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org