Inmate freed after 14 years on death row

[Jahness]

Inmate freed after 14 years on death row

By MIKE BAKER,
Associated Press


After 14 years on death row, an inmate whose murder convictions were thrown out because investigators withheld evidence walked out of prison Wednesday a free man.

Glen Edward Chapman, 41, was released from Central Prison shortly after 3 p.m. and ate a bologna and cheese sandwich — a meal his mother used to make. He used a cell phone for the first time to talk to his father, sister and nieces he's never met.

"I'm still shocked, but I feel good," Chapman said. "I've still got a lot of adapting to do. A lot of things have changed, and I don't want to try and rush nothing."

Chapman was granted a new trial last year after a judge determined investigators mishandled his case. Messages left at the Catawba County district attorney's office seeking comment on the decision to drop the murder charges and grant Chapman's release were not immediately returned.

"I'm feeling elation," his attorney, Frank Goldsmith, said earlier while driving to meet Chapman. "But in addition to the joy and the elation I feel, I also feel anger — anger for how long this wrong took to be righted."

Superior Court Judge Robert C. Ervin ruled in November that Chapman was offered ineffective assistance from his original attorneys and that evidence was lost, destroyed or withheld. Ervin also found that the lead detective — who is still working in law enforcement in Burke County — withheld evidence.

"I have no bitterness," Chapman said when asked about the investigators who worked his case. "I feel a lot better without it. I think I'll prosper better without it."

Goldsmith said they are considering filing a lawsuit. He praised Catawba County prosecutor Jay Gaither deciding not to retry the case, but questioned why it took so long for prosecutors to act after details about the detective's actions emerged in 2004.

"I'm just baffled why they didn't do anything sooner than this," Goldsmith said.

Chapman was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder in the 1992 deaths of Betty Jean Ramseur and Tenene Yvette Conley in Hickory. Ramseur's body was discovered in the crawl space of a house that had been burned twice, and Conley was found in the closet of an abandoned house. Chapman was sentenced to death in 1994.

Ervin determined investigators didn't tell prosecutors that a witness identified a man who wasn't Chapman as the person he saw shortly before a June 1992 fire at the house where Ramseur's body was discovered.

Ervin's ruling also said that detectives failed to report witness statements that said Conley was seen alive — with a person who had a history of violence against her — in the days after prosecutors said she died.

Defense attorneys said the only physical evidence linking Chapman to the deaths was the result of consensual sexual relations with Conley.

(This version CORRECTS Chapman's age to 41.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080402/...YFiFdXBXdbIwgF

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press.

[Jahness]

Glen Chapman Freed From Death Row

April 4, 2008
News Update 04.04.08
North Carolina



Chapman - Free ManMedia coverage of Glen Chapman’s release from death row via the News & Observer, the New York Times, the Charlotte Observer, WRAL, the Hickory Daily Record, NBC-17, and WSOC-TV. Chapman was released two days ago after serving nearly 14 years for two murders he did not commit - one of which may not have been a murder at all.

In the picture above, (source) Chapman savors his first meal as a free man. He requested a bologna and cheese sandwich, like his mother used to make. You can hear Chapman speak at the press conference that followed his release by clicking on the Video tab here. I highly recommend it.

Dennis Rhoney, the detective whose testimony put Chapman on death row for the murders of Betty Jean Ramseur and Tenene Yvette Conley, has been suspended from his job as a Sheriff’s deputy, pending a perjury investigation.

Learn more about Mr. Chapman’s case here and here.

http://deathwatch.wordpress.com/

[Jahness]

Savoring the start of life after death row


MARCIE YOUNG AND DAVID INGRAM
Friday, Apr 4, 2008
Posted on Thu, Apr. 03, 2008


4/2/08 - "It's been too long," said Glenn Edward Chapman as he savored the first bite of his first meal
as a free man, a bologna sandwich that he requested.
Jason Arthurs / News & Observer

Glen Edward Chapman walked free Wednesday after nearly 14 years on death row in a case that a judge said was marred by a flawed police investigation and a faulty defense.

Murder charges against Chapman, 40, were dismissed Wednesday morning by District Attorney Jay Gaither, who in November was told by a Catawba County judge that the case needed to be retried.

Hours later, Chapman, sentenced to death in 1994 in the deaths of 31-year-old Betty Jean Ramseur and 28-year-old Tenene Yvette Conley, left Central Prison with one of his attorneys in a green Volkswagen.

He waved to reporters and photographers and later said in a news conference that he didn't know for sure he was leaving prison until 10 minutes before he was released.

"Everybody's like, `You're going home,' " he said. "I still didn't believe it until I was actually out."

Ramseur's brother said he was disappointed that the justice system couldn't resolve his sister's death.

"If it wasn't him, then I really do wonder who the killer was," Charles Ramseur, 55, said.

Chapman's release comes five months after Judge Robert Ervin issued a 186-page ruling that said the lead investigator in Chapman's double-murder case withheld critical evidence and lied on the stand. He also said Chapman's defense attorneys, who were court-appointed, did a poor job investigating the 1992 killings.

The case, according to court documents, was also marred by an incompetent defense by two lawyers with a history of alcohol abuse.

The ruling forced the District Attorney's Office to decide whether to retry the case. Gaither dismissed the charges, he said in a news release, because the prosecution's case was "factually incomplete" and there was not enough evidence to try Chapman again.

Ervin found that Chapman's trial attorneys had missed critical evidence, including that Conley was alive after Chapman last saw her and may have died of a drug overdose. Ervin also said in his ruling that the lead Hickory police investigator on the case withheld information that a key witness in the Ramseur case identified someone other than Chapman in a photo lineup.

Chapman's appeals attorney also argued that his trial attorneys, Thomas Portwood and Robert Adams, had failed to interview several critical witnesses and were "excessive users of alcohol."

Portwood, who admitted he drank more than a pint of 80-proof rum every evening during several death penalty trials, has been challenged in court for his representation of at least two other men, one of whom was executed in 2001.

According to Observer archives, Adams told the N.C. State Bar that he drank three scotches a night but that it did not affect his trial performance. A 1998 psychiatrist's evaluation of Adams, ordered by the bar, concluded that Adams "had a drinking problem" and referred him to Alcoholics Anonymous, according to a bar discipline order.

Portwood died in 2003, and Adams could not be reached for comment.

Ramseur and Conley's bodies were discovered within a week of each other in abandoned Hickory homes. Ramseur, according to court documents, was found in a burned-out building and likely had been dead for several weeks. Conley was found in a closet in another empty home.

Prosecutors argued that Chapman had beaten the women to death in separate drug-fueled fights. While Chapman has admitted that he knew both women and had smoked crack with each of them, he has long denied any involvement with their deaths.

Chapman's release, said Ramseur's brother, Charles, raises concerns about the legal system and whether it's working the way it should.

"I would think you would make sure you got the right one before you put him on trial or give him a death sentence," he said by phone Wednesday. "(Murder is) too serious a crime to convict someone if (there's a possibility) they didn't do it."

No relatives of Conley could be found Wednesday.

Chapman is among other inmates set free from North Carolina's death row in recent years. Another former inmate, Jonathan Hoffman, was freed in a Union County case challenged by post-conviction attorneys. Prosecutors declined to attempt a second trial.

The cases have renewed the debate about the state's death penalty -- currently on hold because of a dispute over lethal injection -- and led to changes in how capital cases are handled. But some older cases, including Chapman's, went to trial before the reforms.

On Wednesday afternoon, Chapman made phone calls -- using a cellular phone for the first time -- to his family and other members of his legal team. He ate a bologna and cheese sandwich made, he said, like his mother used to make.

"That was my comfort food," he said.

He was planning to have steak for dinner Wednesday night.

Beyond that, Chapman said he's not certain of his plans but is looking forward to seeing his sons, ages 17 and 22. He said he doesn't think he'll move back to Hickory, where he was born.

Chapman declined to criticize either the criminal justice system or the investigators -- in particular lead investigator Dennis Rhoney, formerly of the Hickory Police Department -- whose work has drawn scrutiny.

"His fate is not in my hands," Chapman said. "I have no bitterness. Why should I give somebody the benefit of knowing that they can just make me bitter?"

Rhoney, who works for the Burke County Sheriff's Office, couldn't be reached Wednesday.

Chapman's attorneys said they would explore a request for a pardon from Gov. Mike Easley, which if granted would allow Chapman to apply for compensation from the state for the time he was in prison.

Chapman said he has no idea who or what might have caused the two women's deaths. He and his attorneys called for abolishing the death penalty.

"The way it's going now, it's not working," Chapman said.

Timeline

Aug. 15, 1992 Prospective renters looking at a home in Southeast Hickory discover 28-year-old Tenene Yvette Conley's body in a downstairs closet. Investigators originally though she had been killed, but testimony indicates she may have died of a drug overdose.

Aug. 22, 1992 The body of Betty Jean Ramseur, 31, is found in a burned-out and abandoned house in Southeast Hickory. She had died several weeks before.

Jan. 11, 1993 Glen Edward Chapman, then 25, is indicted on first-degree murder charges in the death of Ramseur.

Aug. 16, 1003 Chapman is indicted on first-degree murder charges infor the death of Conley.

Oct. 31, 1994 Chapman's trial, which combined Ramseur's and Conley's cases, begins in Catawba County Superior Court.

Nov. 10, 1994 Chapman is convicted of two counts of first-degree murder.

Nov. 16, 1994 Chapman is sentenced to death.

July 5, 1996 Appellate defense attorneys begin post-conviction proceedings.

July 23, 2002 Frank Goldsmith becomes Chapman's appellate defense attorney. Jessica Leaven joins Goldsmith in December 2002.

Aug. 1, 2003 Judge Robert Ervin makes the complete investigation and case files available to Chapman's attorneys.

Aug. 2, 2006 After all post-conviction hearings, defense attorneys file a motion asking Ervin to order a new trial in both cases based on new evidence.

Nov. 6, 2007 Ervin orders a new trial.

April 2, 2008 Charges against Chapman are dismissed by District Attorney Jay Gaither. He said the prosecution's argument was "factually incomplete" and there was not enough evidence to retry the case.


http://www.charlotte.com/local/story/564339.html

[Moorbey]

Not to be so critical but had he been a yt he would have never spent a day in jail.It would have been a hung jury verdict. Things like this gets my blood to boiling when i hear that one of our own has spent numerous years incarcerated for a crime that they did not commit. How do you give him back the last 14 years of his life, and no amount of money can replace the lost time he spent behind bars.

[Jahness]

Originally Posted by bigdaddiej

Not to be so critical but had he been a yt he would have never spent a day in jail.It would have been a hung jury verdict. Things like this gets my blood to boiling when i hear that one of our own has spent numerous years incarcerated for a crime that they did not commit. How do you give him back the last 14 years of his life, and no amount of money can replace the lost time he spent behind bars.

Greetings bigdaddiej!

Your comment is right on point, it's not so much about being critical, but it is the reality of our people that they have to do this amount of prison time innocently. No one cares about them or their families. No one cares about how these families are broken up or destroyed in one way or the next when fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and other family members get sent away for such length of time with no legal recourse.

Families usualy go bankrupt trying to pay for legal services which keep raising faster than our people can earn the money to pay. So they beg, borrow and do what it takes to get money to pay lawyers whose only concern is to make a fast buck without proper legal representation. If they can't afford to pay then they are given inexperienced court appointed attorneys who sometimes have no real legal experience dealing with such critical cases.

After the innocent person is released if they are lucky, some states does not even allow them to sue for compensation for their pain and suffering and forced abandonment of their families because too many of them are not there to provide the necessary support for their children and families.

White people seldom get this type of time to do for unjust sentences. Nothing and no one can give these people their lives back. But at least try to give them some sort of fair monetary compensation and help for themselves and their families. Pay to send their children to college. Buy them a home and pay off the mortgage or something. Just don't further abandon them.

Much appreciation bigdaddiej for taking the time to share.

Peace & Blessings!

[ru-bare]

He requested a bologna and cheese sandwich, like his mother used to make.

Talking to brothers and now sisters coming out from long term prison terms, alot of things change in their lives and also their family lives.

Many of those brothers are so damaged by this society in prison that family really dont feel the same way after their release and usually part ways after the first few days weeks months from release because their is nothing they can do for them like they had in prison

I befriend many homeless brothers who tell me similar stories.

I hope the man the best that he can muster at this point.

[Jahness]

Originally Posted by ru-bare

Talking to brothers and now sisters coming out from long term prison terms, alot of things change in their lives and also their family lives.

Many of those brothers are so damaged by this society in prison that family really dont feel the same way after their release and usually part ways after the first few days weeks months from release because their is nothing they can do for them like they had in prison

I befriend many homeless brothers who tell me similar stories.

I hope the man the best that he can muster at this point.

Greetings ru-bare!

Your comments are right on point. The negative stigma associated with incarceration is still very much a reality even for those that has been released after serving time unjustly.

Remember after all the well wishers leave that man or woman needs to fid a job and take care of themselves or to at least be able to help out in the household they are living in.

Prison society is simply a very sick one and unless the mental capacity of the person is solid they too can have breakdowns and fall victim to so many ills that they had to face with on a daily basis. Families even though some may try to help cannot afford the additional burden of providing for another mouth to feed or just another dependant that needs help in all areas. For Mentally stability serious counseling has to be given because it's like bringing someone home from a war zone and that person now has to wake up one day and they are back in society without no way to figure out how to survive.

Families, friends and loves may try to do their best to help the person but in reality it takes a long time of love, support and counseling just to help the person stay balanced. Where we all fail especially in trying to help these people is the fact that no one sees the deep wounds that has been cause by incarceration and the person will seldom even try to show others from fear of being pushed away even further. Their scars are worn on the inside more often than not.

Peace & Blessings!

[Nefertiti]

I wish this brother much luck And have hope for those who are incarcerated due to being in a place at a wrong time and being black,... this united states justice system is more crooked than the letter S

[nattyreb]

ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY!!

Asante sana, Queen Jahness