Original case
Kenneth Adams was convicted and sentenced for rape and double homicide for seventy-five years. In 1978, a recently engaged couple was abducted from a filling station close to where Adam was working. The bodies of the couple were found the following day in an abandoned townhouse in East Chicago. The two victims had been shot dead, and unfortunately, the lady was gang-raped according to the autopsy reports by the doctors.
The Arrest and Conviction
Kenneth was arrested together with three other men who were collectively known as the ford four heights. They were arrested in the Illinois state in the United States, with the charge of murder and rape. This was after a false tip to the police by a man who lived near the actual crime area. The man was falsely stating that he saw the four men raping a woman and later killing the couple.
The said eye witness giving the information was not entirely sure the men who were committing the crime, and their true identities. But unfortunately, the tip was upheld by the police officers who were conducting the investigations concerning that case. Moreover, Kenneth’s girlfriend was also arrested and put to questioning by the officers investigating that case.
Paula Gray, the girlfriend to Kenneth Adams, at first pleaded that the detained men were innocent. Unfortunately, the officers questioning her took advantage of her. They held her for questioning for many days without legal counsel, which is against her rights. Moreover, they took advantage of her disability challenges and drugged her forcefully without her knowledge.
The officers involved with the case then plotted what Miss Gray would tell the jury during Adam’s trial. This, unfortunately, was after the said officers had drugged her. Miss Gray, unfortunately, due to her condition, had no other choice but to lie to the grand jury, stating that she saw the four men raping the victim lady, and lastly, one of the suspects named Dennis Williams shot the two victims. This confession saw that Kenneth Adams and his allies sentenced for seventy-five years in prison.
Journey to Kenneth’s Exoneration in Prison
Kenneth, together with his friends, took a long journey to exoneration. In the year (1994), a jailhouse informant recanted his testimony, stating that he had lied about overhearing Williams and Rainge discussing how they committed the murder. This was because the prosecutors in-charge of that case had offered him an amicable deal, to lie about that the suspected individuals arraigned in court.
The ford height four, including Kenneth, came up with a strategy. They approached a team of journalists and two students from Northwestern University, namely David Protess and Rob Warden. The team helped them get the only evidence that could exonerate them; that was the DNA tests that proved him, and the group had not committed the offense.
The team, fortunately, managed to get the evidence and forwarded the information to the convicts. The findings came out to be negative and that they were not the actual individuals who had committed the offense they were convicted for. This finding, unfortunately, came up eighteen years after Kenneth and the team had been serving their sentence in prison.
The Exoneration Process
The exoneration process happened quite interestingly. In the year (1996), a new test was done to the four men who were convicted of a murder and rape charge they did not commit. Fortunately, they turned negative, and this was just but another milestone in that case. The (1994) jailhouse informant recanting his initial testimony was also a good indicator that Kenneth and the group were innocent of the crime they were convicted with.
Kenneth’s girlfriend changing her statement was also an alarming gesture. This was a month after the suspects had been sentenced that Miss Gray recanted her initial story about the incident that happened. This was during a preliminary hearing about the said case. She openly stated that she was drugged by the officer in charge of the investigation, who paired her judgment and forced her to lie before the jury. This, unfortunately, saw her see getting inside of a prison for murder and perjury charges just because of cheating in court.
The other incident that salvaged Kenneth and his teams were the confessions by the other two men in their case. They openly pleaded guilty to crimes in the year(1997), stating that they had raped and murdered the victims from the (1978) in east Chicago heights presently known as( ford heights).
Kenneth and the team were also exonerated due to the finding of the initial DNA tests done during their trial. The tests, fortunately, found that they were innocent. Still, the authority in the police department cooked up results that proved they had committed the said crimes that they were accused of in by the investigating bodies. Thus upon showing that the DNA samples were tampered with, the jury in reviewing their case had no other choice but to exonerate them.
The Key Evidence That Exonerated the Suspects
Kenneth and the group were mainly exonerated by the DNA samples, confession of the two men, and lastly, the recanted statements to court by Miss Gray and the jailhouse informant. But out the new pieces of evidence, that savaged the individual was the evidence from the DNA samples.
The jury found out that sufficient pieces of evidence from the DNA results were due to invalidated and improper forensic science results. The results were to shed some light on the case, but unfortunately, it brought about the conviction of the wrong people after tampering of the results by the authority’s in-charge.
The review of the samples collected later on shaded some light into the case and found that the convicted individuals were innocent of their crimes they were charged with initially. This came as a big blow to the judicial arena as the forensic science department was put into the question of its integrity upon the determination of results in some crucial cases that may even determine people’s lives.
The retrieval of the initial DNA data analysis was a kind gesture in the case. This is vividly seen in the case of eighteen years down the line. We understand the university students and the journalism team got the original data analysis of the DNA samples collected by the various forensic authorities. Fortunately, the results vividly show that the convicted felons were innocent. Hence only positive incite that can be gotten from the judicial department was the retrieval of forensic data that they had stored from their numerous cases they had conducted eighteen years ago.
Mistakes Done By the Justice System
The justice system that conducted Kenneth’s’ case and the group was entirely erroneous and mischievous. This is witnessed when the officers in the said justice system forced a deaf and dumped individual to make a false plea against her will even without proper legal counsel. This is vividly seen when the people in authority go to the extent of drugging Miss Gray, who end up making false admission in court against her wish.
The justice system also fails when we see the investigating authorities ignoring a genuine lead on Kenneth’s case. This is seen when the police had received a sharp point on the evidence concerning the murder of the couple in (1978). They unfortunately, ignored the lead as they had already had a plan to convict Kenneth and his team. This is a total failure in the justice system, which is supposed to bring equality and justice to all, but sadly it is against its proclaimed principles.
The other major let down of the justice system was the cover-up of the forensic DNA samples. The justice system is expected to provide accurate and amicable results when tasked upon. Sadly they did contrary to what is expected of them, and that was quite heartbreaking. This is quite evident when innocent citizens are convicted for offenses they did not commit simply because some forensic results have tampered in favor of the authorities in power.
Reference
Kenneth Adams Case: https://www.innocenceproject.org/all-cases/
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