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Wrongly
Convicted Database
Record
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Years
Imprisoned:
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0.167 |
Charge: |
Murder |
Sentence: |
Life Imprisonment |
Year Convicted: |
1928 |
Year
Cleared:
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1928 |
Location
of Trial:
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Alabama |
Result:
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Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary
of Case:
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Codefendant of Louise Butler. Butler and George Yelder were lovers, and they were convicted by all white jurys after separate trials on April 24 and 25, 1928 respectively, for the murder of Butler's 14-year-old niece Topsy Warren earlier that month. Both trials lasted less than a day, and their convictions were based on the eyewitness testimony of three girls -- Topsy's 9-year-old sister and two cousins. Butler and Yelder were both sentenced on April 25, 1928 to life in prison Less than a week later the supposed victim was discovered alive living in another county 20 miles away. After Topsy was discovered alive, the three witnesses admitted they made up the story that Butler and Yelder murdered her. In June 1928 Butler and Yelder's convictions were vacated and they were released after two months in custody. Butler had initially confessed under police pressure, but later repudiated it. Because of her repudiation the judge did not admit Butler's confession during her trial and Yelder's trial. |
Conviction
Caused By:
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Deliberately fFalse witness testimony by three children. |
Innocence
Proved By:
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Alleged victim was found alive in another county.
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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: |
“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 102. |
Information
Location 1:
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Information
Source 2:
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Convicting the Innocent - Sixty-Five Actual Errors of Criminal Justice, by Edwin Borchard, Yale Univ Press, 1932 |
Information
Location 2:
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Information
Source 3:
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Louise Butler, Center on Wrongful Convictions, Northwestern School of Law |
Information
Location 3:
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http://www.law.northwestern.edu/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/alButlerSummary.html |
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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Movie About Case: |
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Comments About Case: |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org