Jerry Brown Pardons Man Imprisoned for Decades for Murders He Didn’t Commit

Isabella Dibbini

Mr. Ippolito

Forensics

18 January 2018

Hauser, Christine. “Jerry Brown Pardons Man Imprisoned for Decades for Murders He Didn’t Commit.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/11/23/us/jerry-brown-pardon-murder.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%2BScience&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=collection.

In Christine Hauser’s article, “Jerry Brown Pardons Man Imprisoned for Decades for Murders He Didn’t Commit,” she discusses how an innocent man spent almost half his life in jail. Craig R. Coley, a California man, was wrongly accused of murdering a woman and her four year old son. He spent 40 years in jail before the court realized they made a mistake. Recently, Governor Jerry Brown pardoned Coley, after a new investigation was conducted which ultimately proved Coley to be wrongly convicted. Coley, now 70, was arrested on November 11, 1978, for murdering Rhonda Wicht and her son. Wicht was found strangled and beaten in her apartment, in Simi Valley, California. Coley’s first trial, in 1979, ended with a hung jury. Unfortunately, in a retrial he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Recently, Ventura County District Attorney, Gregory D. Totten and the Simi Valley police chief David M. Livingstone, said that recent DNA tests were conducted and support a “finding of factual innocence.” Governor Brown then signed the pardon, allowing Mr. Coley to exit the state prison the same day. Mr. Totten and Chief Livingston explained, “This case is tragic… An innocent woman and small child were murdered. Craig Coley has spent 39 years in custody for a crime he likely did not commit.” When describing Coley, Governor Brown mentioned that he “had no criminal record at the time of his arrest, was a model inmate for the nearly four decades he spent in prison, pursuing religion and staying away from gangs and violence.” In 2015, Mr. Coley petitioned for clemency, which was when the Board of Parole Hearing began to conduct an investigation. Several police discussed how they thought Coley had been framed or that evidence had been mishandled, but it was not until recently, that DNA tests were conducted that show Coley could not have been the perpetrator. As a result of spending decades in jail for a murder he did not commit, he may apply to receive compensation of $140 for every day he spent in jail. This adds up to about $1.9 million. When reflecting back on this case the district attorney stated, “I am also hopeful that one day soon we will bring to justice the violent man responsible for this most horrific crime.”

This is extremely important to our society today. An innocent man was locked away in prison, for decades, with no parole, and was not found innocent until 40 years following his arrest. It is important to recognize that cases similar to these happen all the time. However, this also means that the actual perpetrator is left as a free man. This can be an issue as it allows people to continue to commit crimes, without being punished for their actions. With new technology, it will become easier to perform more accurate DNA tests. It is important that readers acknowledge this issue, because it continues to happen each day.

“Jerry Brown Pardons Man Imprisoned for Decades for Murders He Didn’t Commit,” is a well written article by Christine Hauser, about an innocent man who spent a large portion of his life in jail for a murder he did not commit. Throughout this article, the author makes statements and supports them with concrete evidence. In addition, the structure of this article is well planned out. The author begins by introducing his main argument and then goes into depth about the tests that the detectives completed to reach their conclusion. While this article was well written, there are a few things that the author could have done to make their story more compelling. One suggestion that can be made to improve this article would be to talk about what can be done to ensure that a mistake like this will never happen again. Overall, this article is interesting and very well written.