MISCARRIAGES OF JUSTICE
IN POTENTIALLY CAPITAL CASES (1987)
by Hugo Adam Bedau and Michael L. Radelet

Excerpt from Appendix A: Catalogue of Defendants

JORDAN, WILLIAM (white). 1934. Alabama. William Jordan was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. After the conviction, the police continued their investigation, and another suspect confessed to the killing. Shortly thereafter, the state supreme court reversed Jordan’s conviction because his guilt was only “a remote possibility,” there was no motive, and all the evidence against him was circumstantial.1 A month later all charges against Jordan were dropped.2


Footnotes

1. Jordan v. State, 229 Ala. 415, 416, 157 So. 485, 485 (1934).
 
2. 8 Geneva County Minute Book 593 (1934). See generally Geneva County Reaper, Nov. 23, 1934, at 1, col. 5; id., Sept. 14, 1934, at 1, col. 3; id., Sept. 7, 1934, at 5, col. 4.