The Innocence Institute of Point Park University
An investigative reporting organization that probes allegations of wrongful convictions.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
By Bill Moushey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
SOMERSET, Pa. -- Justin Kirkwood was so depressed about the two years he had spent in prison for a robbery he says he didn't commit that he called his parents collect on Wednesday just to hear their voices.
That's when his father told him to "pack your bags because you're coming home" -- the first time Kirkwood learned …
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Thursday, August 11, 2005
By Bill Moushey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
NEW CASTLE -- Ruling that a prosecutor created "a ruse designed to confuse" a key alibi witness and that a defense lawyer didn't do enough to uncover it during a 2003 trial, a Lawrence County judge yesterday vacated the armed robbery conviction of Justin Kirkwood and ordered a retrial.
In a sharply worded 24-page opinion, …
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By Bill Moushey and Nathan Crabbe
On August 14, 2002, New Castle car dealer Bill Fitts’ remembers the exact time he spoke with Justin Kirkwood on the phone at his family’s Lawrence County home because he watched the 7 p.m. lottery picks on television right after the brief conversation.
Around the same time across the worn-out former mill town, a young man burst into the Family Craft Center …
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