“I never would have thought that I would spend more than half my life in prison, especially for something I didn’t do.”
That’s what Darrell Lee Clark said after he was exonerated along with Cain Joshua Storey for the 1996 murder of their friend, 15-year-old Brian Bowling. The couple’s innocence came to light after the “Proof Podcast” true crime show uncovered evidence that police had coerced a main witness into giving false statements, and prosecutors misrepresented another witness who has issues with hearing and speech.
Clark and Storey are just two of 261 people who were exonerated in 2022 for crimes they did not commit, according to a database maintained by the Michigan State University and University of Michigan law schools, along with the Newkirk Center for the University of California-Irvine for Science and Society.
Here’s a look at the Clark and Storey case, and other notable exonerations that cleared the names of the wrongfully convicted in 2022.
Darrell Clark and Cain Storey
Darrell Lee Clark, left, and Cain Joshua Storey were released from prison in December 2022 after serving 25 years for a murder they didn’t commit.
(Fox 5 Atlanta)
Bowling died of a gunshot wound to the head inside his own bedroom in 1996. Shortly before his death, he told his girlfriend over the phone that he was playing Russian roulette with a gun Storey brought into his home, according to Georgia. Innocence. Project.
Clark and Storey initially faced manslaughter charges, but detectives turned it into a murder investigation months later. Police interviewed a neighbor who said Clark and Storey attended a party at her house months after Bowling’s death and she admitted she murdered him because she knew too much about a robbery they allegedly committed.
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Podcast hosts Susan Simpson and Jacinda Davis took a closer look at the case in 2021 and discovered that the neighbor, a key witness, was coerced into giving false statements. Police allegedly threatened to take the neighbor’s children from her, according to the Georgia Innocence Project.
The deputy sheriff removes the handcuffs of Darrell Lee Clark after he was exonerated of a first degree murder conviction.
(Georgia Innocence Project via Fox 5 Atlanta)
At a retrial hearing on December 8, the Rome Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office agreed that the convictions should be overturned, leaving Clark and Storey free for the first time in a quarter century.
“You never think something like this would happen to you,” Clark said in a statement after the hearing, thanking the hosts of the Georgia Innocence Project and the Proof Podcast for their work on his case. “I’m glad the truth has finally come out after 25 years.”
adnan syed
Adnan Syed was released from a Maryland prison on September 19, 2022, after spending 23 years behind bars.
(Lloyd Fox/The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service)
Adnan Syed, who was convicted of the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, was released from prison in September 2022 after Baltimore prosecutors uncovered new evidence in the case.
Like the Clark and Storey case, his murder conviction received renewed interest after he was featured on a podcast.
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The “Serial” podcast raised questions about Syed’s guilt in 2014 and ultimately became the most downloaded podcast of all time.
Adnan Syed in court, shortly before being acquitted of murder.
(Carlos Barria)
In September 2022, prosecutors filed a motion highlighting new evidence, including the possibility of other suspects; one that allegedly threatened to kill Lee and another that is linked to an address where Lee’s car was eventually discovered.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby also said after the conviction was overturned that her office used “advanced DNA to determine that it was not Adnan Syed,” noting that DNA technology has come a long way in the past two decades. .
“The state no longer has confidence in the integrity of the sentence,” prosecutors told the court.
Joaquin Ciria
Attorney Paige Kaneb of the Northern California Innocence Project, left, Joaquin Ciria, center, and attorney Ellen Eggers react as Ciria is acquitted in San Francisco Superior Court on April 18, 2022.
(Northern California Innocence Project via AP)
Joaquín Ciria, 61, was released from prison in April 2022 after more than three decades behind bars for a murder prosecutors no longer believe he committed.
“32 years ago, you were separated from your wife and baby, and that’s because the system catastrophically failed you,” Lara Bazelon, chairwoman of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Commission on Innocence, said at a news conference. after his death. release. “Now, finally, you have a chance to get your life back.”
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Ciria was sentenced to life in prison in 1990 for the shooting death of Félix Bastarrica. Prosecutors re-examined the case beginning in 2020 and found “a cascade of errors,” including evidence that police coerced a teenage witness.
Bazelon also said that two witnesses who could have confirmed that Ciria was home at the time of the shooting were never called to testify.
Ciria’s case was the first exoneration obtained by the San Francisco Innocence Commission.
Elizabeth Johnson Jr.
The entrance to the Salem Witch Trials exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts on September 24, 2020.
(Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys are primarily concerned with exonerating the innocent while those individuals are still alive, but occasionally go back further to correct historical wrongs.
In the case of Elizabeth Johnson, Jr., the wheels of justice turned back more than three centuries.
Johnson was just 22 years old when she was wrongly convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death in 1693, one of dozens of people affected by the Salem witch trials. When the hysteria ended, 20 people were executed, but Johnson’s life was spared.
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A high school civics class in Andover investigated Johnson, Salem’s last known witch, inspiring state Senator Diana DiZoglio to draft a bill that would clear Johnson’s name.
The bill was approved by the state legislature and signed by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker in July, officially clearing Johnson’s name 329 years later.
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz, Ronn Blitzer, Chris Pandolfo and Stephanie Pagones contributed to this report.
