$2 million settlement for Broward man cleared by DNA

[madmusic]

Source: Orlando Sentinel

Townsend was sentenced to several life terms and served 22 years in prison for convictions in six murders and one rape he didn't commit in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. He was arrested in 1979 in Miami on a rape charge, then turned over to authorities in Broward who charged him with six murders.

The case became a notorious example of how mentally challenged people are particularly vulnerable to making false confessions under pressure from law enforcement.

The Broward Sheriff's Office and its deputies "fabricated evidence, concealed exculpatory evidence, tampered with witnesses, and coerced a false confession by intimidation and deception from , who they knew was a mentally challenged person," the civil suit claimed.

snip

Townsend was 27 when he was arrested for rape by Miami police. According to the lawsuits, Miami and Broward sheriff's detectives coerced confessions from Townsend, who has an IQ in the 50s, and turned on and off tape recorders to feed him details of the crimes. The confessions were rife with inconsistencies.

Read more: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/sfl-townsend-dna-settlement-b092109,0,5160318.story

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All these cases are bad, but to call this one egregious is putting it mildly. They flat out railroaded him to clear the books and left a killer free to kill.

[Aragorn]

1. Mentally ill

in the "justice" system are screwed every way. And this guy needs an honest guardian now more than ever.

[madmusic]

2. The Innocence Project summary

Jerry Frank Townsend is mentally retarded, with the mental capacity of an eight year old. Nevertheless, he was convicted of six murders and one rape and sentenced to seven concurrent life sentences. In 1979, Townsend was arrested for raping a pregnant woman in Miami, Florida. During the investigation, he confessed to other murders. The confessions were largely the consequence of Townsend wanting to please authority figures, a common adaptive practice by someone with his mental capacities. Police took Townsend to murder scenes and recorded his confessions. In 1980, Townsend was convicted of first-degree murder for the 1973 killings of Naomi Gamble and Barbara Brown in Broward County. Not only did Townsend confess to these two murders, but he also confessed to the murder of 13 year old Sonja Marion in 1979. In 1982, he pled guilty to two slayings in Miami in the late 1970s and no contest to two 1979 murders in Broward County.

Eventually, Townsend was cleared by DNA evidence following actions in 1998, when Sonja Marion's mother had a Fort Lauderdale police detective review the Townsend cases.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/274.php

He's lucky Sonja Marion's mother was looking for justice.

[Scurrilous]

3. Meanwhile the cops who pulled this crap are probably retired ...

...to the hills of No. Carolina (fave retirement spot of So. Florida law enforcement) and drawing fat pensions.

Ah, justice.

[wroberts189]

4. Some of the the money should come from them for sure. nt