That's the title of Titan Barksdale's report in the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer on the exoneration of Glen Chapman. LINK
The bologna and cheese sandwich that Glen Chapman savored Wednesday could have been his last meal.
Instead, it was his first as a free man after almost 14 years on death row.
Chapman, 40, was released from Central Prison on Wednesday after Catawba County District Attorney James Gaither Jr. dismissed murder charges against him.
Last November, Superior Court Judge Robert C. Ervin found that an investigator withheld evidence and lied in court, and that Chapman was inadequately defended by his court-appointed attorneys.
Ervin sent the case back for another trial, but Gaither, in dismissing the charges, said there was not enough evidence for a retrial.
Chapman is the seventh innocent death row prisoner in North Carolina to be released, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.
He was sentenced to death in 1994 in the slayings of Betty Jean Ramseur and Tenene Yvette Conley in Hickory. Their bodies were found in abandoned houses in August 1992. Chapman has always denied killing them.
Ervin's 186-page order said a lead investigator, Dennis Rhoney, withheld information that a key witness in the Ramseur case identified someone other than Chapman in a photo lineup. Rhoney, who worked for the Hickory Police Department, also lied during his trial testimony against Chapman, Ervin wrote.
Ervin added that a report by a forensic scientist showed that one of the victims likely died of a drug overdose, rather than by foul play.
"Everything that you can possibly imagine going wrong in a capital case went wrong," said Jessica Leaven, a lawyer who handled Chapman's case. "It's a prime example why the death penalty should be abolished."
Efforts to reach Rhoney, now a deputy in the Burke County Sheriff's Office, were unsuccessful.
The truth of testimony by Rhoney in previous trials also must be questioned, said Frank Goldsmith, another lawyer who worked on the case. Both lawyers called for an investigation into his conduct.
"I don't think it gets much worse than perjury by an officer of the law," Goldsmith said.
"Savoring the start of life after death row," is the Charlotte Observer's headline. The article is reported by Marcie Young and David Ingram.
Glen Edward Chapman walked free Wednesday after nearly 14 years on death row in a case that a judge said was marred by a flawed police investigation and a faulty defense.
Murder charges against Chapman, 40, were dismissed Wednesday morning by District Attorney Jay Gaither, who in November was told by a Catawba County judge that the case needed to be retried.
Hours later, Chapman, sentenced to death in 1994 in the deaths of 31-year-old Betty Jean Ramseur and 28-year-old Tenene Yvette Conley, left Central Prison with one of his attorneys in a green Volkswagen.
He waved to reporters and photographers and later said in a news conference that he didn't know for sure he was leaving prison until 10 minutes before he was released.
"Everybody's like, `You're going home,' " he said. "I still didn't believe it until I was actually out."
Ramseur's brother said he was disappointed that the justice system couldn't resolve his sister's death.
"If it wasn't him, then I really do wonder who the killer was," Charles Ramseur, 55, said.
Chapman's release comes five months after Judge Robert Ervin issued a 186-page ruling that said the lead investigator in Chapman's double-murder case withheld critical evidence and lied on the stand. He also said Chapman's defense attorneys, who were court-appointed, did a poor job investigating the 1992 killings.
The Death Penalty Information Center maintains a list of those http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping from death row.
Comments