Since 2001, the Innocence Institute has completed 17 investigations into possible wrongful convictions. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has published articles on the results of those investigations, but space limitations required heavy editing of the stories. The following presents links to the full, unedited investigations, as well as the published versions and subsequent updates on the cases.
Charles Adams of Fayette County was sentenced to life in prison after his conviction in the 1982 beating death of a North Union store clerk is seeking a new trial based on DNA testing.
Don Ray Adams got a life sentence in a 1990 double homicide despite a list of six eyewitnesses who didn’t initially place him at the scene. He was freed after almost 20 years of prison.
Robert William Blake jumped into a car with a murderer in 1989 but was convicted for the murder.
George Booker was convicted of a robbery and killing in 1981 as the third killer. People have emerged to say Booker is innocent, yet he sits in prison with only a distant hope of a successful appeal.
William Brothers was suspected by a local police officer for a robbery who hit a New Castle jewelry store in 1988.
Greg Brown Jr. was sentenced to life for a Pittsburgh fire in 1995.
Jordan Brown, at age 11, is found to be the murderer of his father’s girlfriend, Kenzie Houk who was shot in the head while she slept.
Jeffrey Cristina went to trial for the murder of Frank Slazinski because his father would not let him plead guilty. Despite another series of confusing recantations, he was convicted as an adult and sentenced to life behind bars.
Da’Ron Cox confessed during a six-and-a-half-hour interrogation that he killed a Homewood teenager.
Hosea Davis was convicted for the stabbing murder of a childhood friend, and a key witness recanted her testimony at least three times.
Krishaun Davis’ jilted ex-girlfriend refused to testify that he was by her side when authorities said he was involved in a West End armed robbery, leaving him without an alibi in the case that ended when he was sent to prison for a maximum of 40 years.
Michael Day is serving a life sentence for the killing of his 3-year-old daughter. DeAnndra Day has admitted on numerous occasions that it was she, not her ex-husband, who murdered her 3-year-old daughter. Federal appeals court has denied appeals from Michael Day because a lower court ruled new forensic evidence was not enough and an appeals court said he filed a petition too late.
Robertino Deangelis and Sarah Deluliis agreed to meet on a Mount Lebanon trail in 2007 and attacked her. He was sent to prison and will be released at age 21.
Thomas Doswell missed out on many things during the 19 years he served in prison for a rape he didn’t commit.
Nancy Erwin was released from a Pennsylvania prison on December 22, 2006 after serving all of her 27-54 month sentence. She said she was forced to admit conspiring with her alcoholic, suicidal husband in the shooting of an Indiana County school secretary in 2002.
James Faller claimed innocence in a complicated loan fraud from the time he reported it to Florida regulators more than 10 years ago.
Paul Ford Jr. was accused by Joey Jones for killing a man outside a Monview Heights tenement. Jones matched the description two others gave of the killer, but, on the witness stand, Mr. Jones pointed the finger at Paul Ford Jr.
Luther Glenn was arrested for a Homewood shooting thanks to a drug addict who later admitted she never saw the killing and only identified him because her crack dealer said he committed the crime.
Joe Hall was convicted for a 2006 drive-by shooting because Allen Strothers falsely said Joe Hall and Lamont Hall were in the car as well.
Lamont Hall was convicted for a 2006 drive-by shooting because Allen Strothers falsely said Lamont Hall and Joe Hall were in the car as well.
Troy Joseph received a life sentence in a 1997 East Liberty murder case argued that a newly discovered third eyewitness came forward to prove his innocence in his latest appeal, but an Allegheny County judge says the claim is meritless.
Terrell Johnson was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to life in prison for the killing of Verna Robinson, the first person ever put in the Pittsburgh Police Witness Protection Program. In his appeal, Johnson has argued he is innocent and that his lawyer was ineffective.
Justin Kirkwood was released from prison after he spent years there for a robbery he did not commit.
Dorian Lamore and Phillip Foxx were both 16 years old when they murdered a pizza delivery man on Pittsburgh’s North Side.
John Miller confessed to the 1996 murder of a Philadelphia parking lot attendant. At trial, a guilt-ridden David Williams recanted his entire story, testifying his friend Mr. Miller knew nothing about the killing, but prosecutors successfully persuaded the jury to stick with his original statement, convicted Mr. Miller and sentenced him to life behind bars.
John Moss was convicted on April 30, 1984 of murders and sentenced to three life sentences. He won a second trial in 1990 because of prejudicial out of court comments by a prosecutor, only to be convicted again.
David Munchinski was released on September 30, 2011 after spending 25 years in prison. He was wrongly convicted of the 1978 double murder known as the “Bear Rocks Killings.”
David Pennewell was sentenced to die in prison as a murder accomplice at 16 — until a Venango County prosecutor and judge reconsidered.
Billy Pirozzi became so fearful without his parents present during police interrogations over the murder of an elderly Lawrenceville man, he confessed, though he changed his story four times.
Thomas Porter’s original lawyer long ago stated another man confessed his role in the 1999 beating and robbery of an elderly McKeesport man that sent him to prison for a maximum of 24 years, an appeals court has denied his appeal.
Tiffany Pritchett of Donora, was released after spending 12 years in prison for the December 1993 shooting death of Troy Groomes, 25, of Donora.
Victor Scott was involved in a drive-by shooting in Philadelphia meant to avenge the death of his brother.
Kevin Siehl hopes new evidence will help him prove that he did not kill his estranged wife.
Ernest Simmons, who was freed in May 2010 after spending 18 years on death row for the 1992 slaying of an elderly Johnstown, Pa. woman, is imprisoned again for threatening to dismember a man who slept with his girlfriend in the halfway house where he resided.
Steven Slutzker was convicted of killing a Wilkinsburg man after the dead man’s child claimed he had a repressed memory episode in which he saw Slutzker slay his dad almost 30 years ago.
Stacey Torrance was 14 years old when he and his 23-year-old cousin plotted to rob Alexander Porter in North Central Philadelphia. Torrance claimed he had no idea their crime would lead to kidnapping and murder.
Drew Whitley spent 18 years in jail, when not once, but twice evidence from DNA testing has shown Mr. Whitley didn’t kill Noreen Malloy, the night manager at a fast-food restaurant near Kennywood Park in 1988.
Crystal Dawn Weimer was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in state prison on April 20, 2006 for the death of Curtis Haith, 21. Weimer, of Connellsville, proclaimed her innocence since her arrest.
Corinne Wilcott admitted she was drunk, high and in a jealous rage the June 2002 night she was accused of kicking her husband’s pregnant lover in the stomach during a fight in Erie.