The Innocence Institute of Point Park University
An investigative reporting organization that probes allegations of wrongful convictions.
Crowds of family, friends, and reporters greeted Terrell Johnson when he was released from prison having served 18 years for a murder he did not commit. Updated articles follow this original journalism from September 21, 2003. "Terrell Johnson admits to being a street dope peddler but says he's no killer,"
by Bill Moushey.
Over the past two years, students at Point Park College examined …
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Now Says She Saw Killer Just After Daughter’s Killing
The controversial testimony of the mother of a murder victim who now wants to identify Terrell Johnson as one of her daughter’s killers is admissible at a pending re-trial, even though it is diametrically opposed to all of her earlier statements.
Allegheny Common Pleas Judge Donald E. Machen ruled Barbara Robinson, whose daughter Verna …
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Lawyers argue over admissibility of evidence in the re-trial of Terrell Johnson, who claims that he was wrongfully convicted in the 1994 murder of a Hazelwood police informant
By Marie DoRego
inn_inst@pointpark.edu
April 26, 2011
As much as she tried in 1994, Barbara Robinson told police and others she could not identify any of the men who left her daughter Verna, a would be witness in an …
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September 21, 2003
By Bill Moushey
Over the past two years, students at Point Park College examined court records, interviewed witnesses and examined the crime scene to piece together the Johnson story before their graduations. They are Point Park graduate students Fran Aiello, Bernie Bowes and Melanie Canavan, and Point Park undergraduate students Kristin Cox, Katie Lockward, April Lawson, …
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Terrell Johnsons wife and other supporters gather before city council to demand his immediate release pending a new trial in August.
By Marie DoRego
Innocence Institute of Point Park University
For the past 15 years, Terrell Johnson has professed innocence while doing life in prison for the murder of a police informant named Verna Robinson until an appeals court granted him a new trial in …
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'I’m not going to be involved,' said Dolly McBryde, the only supposed eyewitness who testified to Terrell Johnson’s guilt in a 1994 Hazelwood murder. McBryde has more than 47 criminal convictions on her record.
By Justin Platek
inn_inst [at] pointpark [dot] edu
Just five months after her release on parole from a federal bank fraud sentence, a snitch witness in a highly publicized murder …
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January 15, 2009
By Ben Adducchio
The Innocence Institute of Point Park University
A Hazelwood man who has served 14 years in prison in the murder of a police informer is a step closer to receiving a new trial.
In November 2008, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the lower court ruling that said Terrell Johnson should be granted a new trial based on new evidence testimony from a …
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New evidence discredits key eyewitness testimony
February 5, 2008
By Jodi Weigand, Jesse Miller and Ben Adducchio
The Innocence Institute of Point Park University
Terrell Johnson, imprisoned since 1996 in a gangland-style execution of a government snitch, has been granted a new trial based on new evidence that at the precise time of the killing the woman who said she watched the slaying …
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Lying Witness May Open Door To New Trial
Terrell Johnson Gets Some Relief After 12 Years In Prison
By Bill Moushey, Innocence Institute of Point Park University
Once the early appeals were exhausted and court-appointed lawyers were gone, Terrell Johnson was consigned to life in prison in the 1995 gangland-style slaying of a police informer in Hazelwood unless he could prove the eyewitness …
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Pa. Supreme Court Orders New Trial That Could End Fifteen Year Imprisonment
By Marie Do Rego
Innocence Institute of Point Park University
A ruling from the state's highest court has set the stage for a new trial or possible plea bargain for freedom in the case of a Hazelwood man who, though he was convicted in the 1994 killing of a government witness, has long claimed his innocence.
In a …
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