Not Guilty: Thirty Six Actual Cases in Which
An Innocent Man Was Convicted
(1957)
by Judge Jerome Frank and Barbara Frank

Excerpt from Chapter 7 on

Louis Benevente

In 1919, John Dougherty, a collector for a New Jersey baking company, charged a man named Louis Benevente with robbing him of $192 of the company's cash. Brought to trial, Benevente was convicted on Dougherty's sole testimony. The judge sentenced the prisoner to a term of from five to fifteen years. After a five-year imprisonment Benevente was paroled. Changing his name to Bennett, he moved out of the state with his wife and two children. Twelve years later Dougherty confessed to the police that he had perjured himself at Benevente's trial: No money had been stolen, but Dougherty, having lost ninety dollars in a dice game, had accused Benevente of robbery in order to explain the loss. The statute of limitations saved Dougherty from prosecution for perjury. On October 3, 1939, the New Jersey legislature awarded Benevente $5000.


SOURCES

1. New York Times, December 5, 1936.

2. New Jersey Laws of 1939, Ch. 356, act for relief of Louis Benevente.