Exoneration Record

United States ยท Ohio, Cuyahoga County

Ricky Jackson: wrongly convicted, exonerated

Convicted of Murder of a money order collector at a Cleveland grocery store.

Convicted13 August 1975
SentenceDeath, later commuted to life imprisonment
Years in prison39
Exonerated21 November 2014
How the conviction was overturnedWitness recantation, after which the court granted a new trial and vacated the conviction and prosecutors dropped the charges, Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas (Judge Richard McMonagle)1,4

What went wrong

From conviction to exoneration

  1. Arrested.4
  2. Convicted by a jury and sentenced to death. Two co defendants, Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman, were also convicted and sentenced to death. His death sentence was later commuted to life.1,2,4
  3. The key witness, who was 12 at the time of the trial, told the court he had not seen the crime, and prosecutors said they would drop all charges.1
  4. The court vacated the conviction, the charges were dismissed and he was released after more than 39 years in prison.1,3,4
  5. A state court set a preliminary compensation award of just over 1 million US dollars.2,4
  6. His state compensation claim was settled for 2.65 million US dollars.4
  7. He settled his federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Cleveland for 7.2 million US dollars.4

Compensation

A preliminary award of just over 1 million US dollars from the state, based on 14,178 days in custody (NBC News). The National Registry of Exonerations reports that his state compensation claim was settled for 2.65 million dollars in April 2016 and that he settled a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Cleveland for 7.2 million dollars in May 2020.

Today

Exonerated and free since November 2014.

Sources

  1. University of Cincinnati (Ohio Innocence Project), OIP Exonerates Three in Death Penalty Case, Including Longest Serving Person to Be Exonerated in U.S. History (November 2014)
  2. NBC News, Ricky Jackson, Ohio Man Exonerated After 40 Years, Awarded $1 Million
  3. Equal Justice Initiative, Ohio Man Freed from Prison After 39 Years for Wrongful Conviction
  4. National Registry of Exonerations, Ricky Jackson