Victims of the State
AMA - ANT

Name Index

Christian Amado was convicted of the shooting murder of 28-year-old George Sneed. The conviction was due to testimony that an eyewitness, Frederick Johnson, had selected a photo of Amado, had identified the assailant as “Bugsy,” and had associated the name “Bugsy” with Amado. When called to testify, Johnson readily answered a series of question on the sequence of events leading up to the murder. However, his testimony became evasive and confusing when asked about his previous identification of Amado. The prosecutor had to repeatedly refresh Johnson's “recollection of events,” by showing him what purported to be a transcript of statements he had given to police. Johnson appeared to deny identifying Amado and claimed that he had selected Amado's picture because it “looked familiar.” The prosecutor never asked Johnson if Amado was the killer. On cross-examination by defense counsel, Johnson denied that Amado was the killer or was present at the scene of the killing. Three detectives were called as witnesses and testified to Johnson's previous identification of Amado.

According to Amado's attorney, “The eyewitness in the case identified a photo that looked like Amado, but when he came into court and saw my client he said he knew Amado wasn't the killer.” In 1982, an appeals court ruled that the trial court erred in presenting contrary testimony to prove identification. It reversed Amado's conviction and directed a verdict of acquittal.  (CIPM) (Com v. Amado)  [4/08]

While serving as a substitute teacher at the Kelley Middle School in Norwich, Julie Amero accessed the classroom computer. The computer was infested with adware, spyware, and other malware. It also had a browser that did not protect against pop-ups. While accessing an innocent web site, the computer launched into an endless cycle of pop-up window ads for porn sites, that was impossible to get out of. The pop-ups displayed images of naked men and women, couples performing sexual acts, and “bodily fluids.” Up to 10 students saw the pop-ups, even though Amero tried to shield them by pushing them away or blocking their view. Amero reported the incident to others, including an assistant principal, who told her not to worry.

Amero was later prosecuted for the incident and convicted in 2007 of multiple felonies involving the endangerment of children. Norwich Detective Mark Lounsbury, a computer crimes officer, testified as an expert witness for the prosecution. He maintained that Amero was intentionally surfing for pornography and must have “physically clicked” on pornographic links to unleash the pornographic pictures. Lounsbury's testimony that pop-ups require clicks contradicts the experience of millions of computer users. Lounsbury admitted under cross-examination that the prosecution never even checked the computer for malware.

Following her conviction, but prior to sentencing, the computer was checked by the Connecticut State Patrol. It determined that the pop-ups were caused by malicious adware that infected the computer before Amero had access to it. In June 2007, the trial judge overturned Amero's conviction on the grounds that the jury relied on false testimony. Amero had faced up to 40 years of imprisonment.  (Norwich Bulletin 1-6-07) (FJDB)  [2/07]

Gilbert Amezquita was convicted of aggravated assault after Kathy Bingham was severely beaten at the Houston plumbing company where he worked and which her family owned. Shortly after coming out of a 10-day coma, the still-hospitalized Bingham whispered to police that it was “Gilbert” who had assaulted her. Amezquita was a U.S. Army reservist with no prior criminal record. His appellate attorney, Roland Moore, found that prosecutors had failed to consider that a second Gilbert - Alonzo Gilbert Guerrero - also worked at the plumbing company. Moore discovered that Bingham and Guerrero had argued a few days before the attack and that Guerrero had Bingham's cell phone after the beating. Guerrero, who is now serving a seven-year prison sentence for burglary, did not have a good explanation for how he came to possess Bingham's phone.

In 2007, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended a pardon based on innocence for Amezquita. News of the Board's action did not please Bingham, who maintains that Amezquita attacked her. Governor Perry subsequently pardoned him.  (HC)  [6/07]

Gerald, Violet, & Cheryl Amirault - See Fells Acres Day School

Joseph Amrine was convicted of murdering another prisoner, Gary Barber, at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. Amrine was sentenced to death. He was convicted on the testimony of three jailhouse snitches, in spite of a prison guard testifying that one of the snitches was the actual killer. Six other inmates stated that Amrine was elsewhere in the prison, playing cards at the time. The three snitches later admitted they lied to escape relentless rape or prosecution for the prison murder. The case is the subject of a documentary, Unreasonable Doubt: The Joe Amrine Case. During Amrine's appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court, the prosecution argued that Amrine should be executed even if the court found him innocent, but the court established “actual innocence” as a Missouri standard that allowed it the right to overturn convictions that contained no technical errors. The court overturned Amrine's conviction in 2003 and prosecutors released him three months later after they decided not to retry him for the crime.  (KC Star) (JP)  [12/06]

At 12:40 a.m. on February 13, 1978, a bomb exploded outside the Hilton Hotel on George St. in Sydney, Australia. The explosion occurred during a prime ministers' conference attended by 12 prime ministers of Asian and Pacific British Commonwealth countries. All were staying at the hotel. The bomb had been placed in a trash bin in front of the hotel and exploded after it was emptied into a trash truck. It killed two trash collectors and a policeman who was standing in front of the hotel. It also injured eleven others.
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After a rape victim reported to a police officer that her rapist said he “had a white girl,” Marvin Lamont Anderson became a suspect because he was the only black man with a white girlfriend that the officer knew. The rapist had used a bicycle in the attack whose owner had identified as having been stolen a half-hour before attack by John Otis Lincoln. Anderson was identified by the rape victim using a photo line-up containing six black and white mug shots, which included Lincoln's along with Anderson's color employment photo. Anderson requested his attorney call the bicycle owner and Lincoln as witnesses at trial, but his attorney declined. Anderson was convicted by an all white jury and sentenced to 210 years of imprisonment. In a 1988 court hearing, Lincoln confessed to the crime and offered details, but a judge rejected the confession and the governor turned down Anderson's petition for clemency. Anderson was paroled in 1997. DNA tests cleared him in 2001, and he was pardoned in 2002. In 2003, Anderson was awarded $1.4 million for his 15 years of wrongful imprisonment.  (IP) (Times-Dispatch) (CWC)  [6/05]

Roland Anderson was convicted of burglary in the attempted kidnapping and shooting of Dorothy Brister. Brister was a bail bondsman and a confidential informant for the Jackson Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency. The day before she was to testify against a suspected drug dealer, an individual posing as a police officer arrived at her home. The imposter informed her he was taking her into protective custody. Although Brister was suspicious, the imposter eventually coerced her into her rental car outside; when Brister attempted to flee, the imposter shot her once in the neck. Brister's live-in boyfriend witnessed the attack and attempted, unsuccessfully, to apprehend the assailant. Brister remains partially paralyzed in her left hand as a result of the attack.

Although police showed Brister several photographs, she was unable to identify her attacker. Three years later while posting a bond, Brister overheard the voices of three men and suspected that one was the perpetrator. When she looked up, she recognized Anderson as her assailant. Brister and her daughter, Fredrika, identified Anderson in a photo line-up prior to trial; investigators did not ask her boyfriend to identify Anderson. Anderson's first trial resulted in a hung jury, but on retrial he was convicted of aggravated assault, impersonating a police officer, and burglary with intent to kidnap. The first two convictions were dismissed post-trial because they were barred by the statute of limitations.

While serving his 15 year sentence, Anderson met Brister's boyfriend, Arthur Gray, in prison. Gray saw the shooter and told Anderson it was not him. He later signed an affidavit reiterating his observation. In 2001, a federal court overturned Anderson's conviction. He was released on bond in 2004 and charges against him were dropped in 2007.  (Anderson v. Johnson) (FJDB)  [9/08]

Tim Anderson - See Ananda Marga Trio

William Henry Anderson was convicted of raping a white woman. The victim did not resist, scream, or use an available pistol in resisting Anderson's advances. According to a letter sent from Anderson's attorney to the governor, “There exists well founded belief ... that William Henry Anderson and the prosecutrix were intimate since August 1944. This belief is widespread among Negroes, but white people have been heard to express opinions likewise.” Anderson was sentenced to death and executed five months after his arrest on July 25, 1945.  (ISI) (MOJ)  [7/05]

Herbert T. Andrews was charged with forging over 40 checks and convicted of forging 17 of them. Seventeen witnesses came forward and identified Andrews as the man who passed bad checks to them. While Andrews was imprisoned awaiting trial, similar bad checks continued to be passed in the Boston area. After police caught the perpetrator, Earle Barnes, he confessed to passing many of the checks for which Andrews was convicted. Andrews' trial prosecutor agreed to a new trial motion and nol prossed the indictment. Writing afterwards about the case, the trial prosecutor noted that Andrews and the actual perpetrator “were as dissimilar in appearance as could be. There was several inches difference in height and there wasn't a similarity about them. To this day I can't understand the positiveness of those witnesses.”  (CIPM) (CTI)  [10/05]

Jim Andros, an Atlantic City police officer, was charged with suffocating his wife. Twenty months later charges were dropped after prosecutors concluded she died of a rare heart condition.  (NY Times)  [9/05]

“Jeanie Angel was wrongly convicted in 1991 by an all-white jury of murdering her step-mother in 1989, based on her confession. Angel, an Aborigine, claimed she was forced to confess by police interrogators who bullied her by hitting her on the head with a bottle and screamed at her to confess. Her claim was supported by the fact that the police [asserted] she ‘signed’ a confession, even though she could neither read nor write. [Angel] was sentenced to life in prison. After she was imprisoned a witness who came forward with evidence that two other people committed the crime, and they even showed her where they had hidden the victim's body. Based on the new evidence Angel's conviction was quashed by the Western Australia Court of Appeals in 1991.” – FJDB

Robert Angleton, also known as Bob, was a bookie who took bets on sporting events. He was charged with murdering his 46-year-old wife, Doris. Following the murder, Bob told police that he suspected his brother Roger was the killer. Despite Roger's checkered past, Bob had employed him in 1989. He fired him less than a year later. After being fired, Roger felt Bob owed him $200,000 and even tried to rob him of it at gunpoint. Roger then threatened to put Bob out of business, by reporting him to the IRS. Bob ignored him, but Roger started making phone calls to customers, posing as an IRS agent.
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Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, both blacks, were convicted of murdering white prison guard Brent Miller in Louisiana's State Penitentiary at Angola, the largest U.S. Prison. Evidence against them seems to depend solely on coerced or bribed testimony. Woodfox and Wallace were known prison activists, and the conviction allowed the prison to keep them permanently in solitary confinement.

Robert King Wilkerson, also a prison activist, was also held initially in solitary confinement because officially he was “under investigation” for the death of Miller, although he was not at Angola at the time of Miller's death. Later he was charged and convicted of killing inmate August Kelly, but there was compelling evidence of his innocence. His conviction was later overturned. Afterwards, apparently to avoid being sued, the state insisted he plead guilty to conspiracy and receive time served. Wilkerson agonized over the decision, but agreed to it and was released. Woodfox got a retrial in 1998, but despite the lack of evidence was re-convicted.  (Justice: Denied)  [6/05]

Joseph Antoniewicz, William A. Hallowell, and Edward H. Parks, all juveniles, were convicted of felony murder after the victim they allegedly assaulted and robbed of $15, died nine days after the robbery. The victim, Harry Thompson, was 54-years-old. The juveniles all were sentenced to life imprisonment. The convictions of the three were vacated in 1968 after the Philadelphia medical examiner testified that Thompson “died as a result of coronary heart disease which was not caused, contributed to, or aggravated by the assault.”  (News Article) (ISI)  [9/07]