Three black men, convicted as teens, exonerated in Ohio after serving 20 years in prison

Derrick Wheatt, Laurese Glover, and Eugene Johnson
moments before being freed by the judge

In 1995, three young men, just high school students at the time—Laurese Glover, then 17, Eugene Johnson, then 18, and Derrick Wheatt, then 17—were railroaded by the Cleveland police and prosecutors office for a murder they didn't commit. Maintaining their innocence, they served the next 20 long years in prison, but were just released after years of legal support from the Ohio Innocence Project.

On multiple occasions both Glover and Wheatt were offered a deal to serve no jail time whatsoever if they testified against Eugene Johnson, but for 20 years they refused to do so, maintaining that all three of them were completely innocent.

On Feb. 10, 1995, in East Cleveland, Ohio, 19-year-old Clifton Hudson Jr. was found murdered, shot multiple times. At the time, witnesses reported seeing a person wearing dark clothing and a dark hat at the scene. Three juveniles — Wheatt, Glover and Johnson — happened to be near the scene. But, they emphasized, when the shooting started, they sped off. All three later provided the police with descriptions of the shooter that matched the basic descriptions given by other witnesses. But in a twist of events, they were charged with the crime.

The other witnesses who reported seeing a shooter come from a different parking lot and dressed differently than any of the men convicted, were never called to testify. READ MORE 

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