Wrongly Jailed, Drank Herself To Death

The solicitor Sally Clark accidentally died from drinking too much alcohol as she struggled to deal with the traumatic experience of being wrongly convicted of killing her two baby sons, a coroner ruled yesterday.

Her case - and her sudden death at her Essex home in March - shone a stark spotlight on the reliability of expert medical witnesses and the lack of care offered to victims of miscarriages of justice.

The coroner, Caroline Beasley-Murray, said there was no evidence that Mrs Clark, 42, intended to commit suicide.

Wrongly Convicted, Now Dead

No Justice, Found Dead

The Case of Sally Clark, Drank Herself to Death

Mrs Clark was found guilty in 1999 of murdering eight-week-old Harry and 11-week-old Christopher within a period of 14 months. She served more than three years in prison before being cleared by the court of appeal in 2003 after evidence about the incidence of cot deaths was challenged.

Coroner's officer John Pheby told the inquest that postmortem tests showed she had a concentration of alcohol in her blood which would have made her more than five times the drink-drive limit - 428mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

A Home Office pathologist concluded that Mrs Clark had died as a result of acute alcohol intoxication. Mr Pheby told the hearing that Mrs Clark had tried to rebuild her life after being released from prison in January 2003 but had been diagnosed with a number of serious psychiatric problems. "These problems included enduring personality change after catastrophic experience, protracted grief reaction and alcohol dependency syndrome," he said.

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Father Falsely Accused of Raping Daughter

Each morning, just after he awoke, Thomas Kennedy sat on the floor of his prison cell and stretched, meditated and read his Bible. Then he rose and looked at himself in the mirror.

"Thomas," he told himself. "You're a good man. You're not a bad man. You did not do this. You're going to survive."

Kennedy, 43, of Longview was convicted in 2002 of raping his then 11-year-old daughter. He spent the next decade dodging the attacks of his fellow inmates, serving food and scrubbing floors for $55 a month and trying to figure out why his little girl had accused him of hurting her.

Imprisoned by a Lie

She Lied, But It Was Too Late

Daughter Recants, Finally

Then, in February, one of the prison's friendlier guards told him, "Kennedy, you're going back to court. It's been nice knowing you. I got a feeling you're going home."

Kennedy soon learned that his daughter Cassandra Kennedy, now 22, had told Longview police she'd made it all up. Thomas Kennedy never raped her when she was 11, she said. She said she had been angry with her father over his drinking and drug use and falsely accused him because she wanted "vengeance," according to police reports.

In late March, Cowlitz Superior Court Judge Stephen Warning threw out Kennedy's 2002 conviction on three counts of first-degree child rape. The prosecutor's office declined to pursue a new trial and Kennedy was freed. The story made international news

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Basketball Coach Falsely Accused of Molestation

The San Marino High School girls basketball coach has been arrested on suspicion of sexually molesting a 17-year-old player last season, and detectives said Tuesday that they are investigating whether any other students were targeted.

Patrick Gillan, 36, who has coached the varsity squad for the last three years, was booked Monday afternoon for assault with intent to commit a felony. "It is alleged that Mr. Gillan sexually molested a member of the girls basketball team between June 2000 and April 2001," said San Marino Police Lt. Chris Petersen.

Petersen said the department, in addition to interviewing players, former players and coaches at San Marino High, will also talk to individuals at La Canada High School, where Gillan worked for a decade before coming to his present position in 1999.

Was He Arrested or Detained?

City To Pay For False Accusation

Awarded Millions in Defamation Case

Gillan's attorney, Michael Mayock, refuted the allegations, saying his client "has been a coach for 16 years. Never has any allegation surfaced of any inappropriate behavior."


Mayock said his client was never alone with the girl, now a college freshman, because he has two assistants and because other teams practice at the same facility.

Gillan is "being tarred and feathered" in the media by police based on the word of one individual, Mayock said. The police, he said, publicized the case before doing a complete investigation.

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Falsely Accused of Obtaining Painkillers

When Bonnie Wilson was in college, she was accused by a police officer of obtaining painkillers using forged prescriptions. The evidence against her consisted of a perpetrator who used a fake name that was similar to Wilson's middle name and a prescription for painkillers obtained in her brother's name.

In reality, Wilson had committed no crime, as she was 30 miles away at college when it took place. Her brother had a legitimate prescription, and she bore no resemblance to the actual perpetrator, who had blonde hair and a piercing while Wilson was a brunette with no piercings.

Regardless of this easily checkable information, Wilson was arrested and spent nine months and thousands of dollars going through the justice system to clear her name. Had her family not been able to afford lawyers, she may have had to take a plea deal for a crime she didn't commit, a not uncommon occurrence in the criminal justice system.

Plight of the Accused

In Her Own Words

Wilson wrote of her experience because the judge in her case, whom Wilson said had admonished her because her attorney asked for a continuance, has recently come out to discuss the hardships faced by falsely accused people.

"I am glad to see that Judge [Marcia] Morey finally understands that damages to a person happen with an arrest," Wilson wrote. "Although the system eventually 'worked,' nine months of my life were consumed with stress and anxiety from fighting false charges instead of enjoying my senior year in college."

Wilson wrote that despite her official record being expunged, no newspaper and no public official reported her innocence. Websites selling "background information" can still report her arrest. She wrote that she will forever be viewed suspiciously because, since she was arrested, she "must have done something."

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False Allegation Ended College Coach's Career

The Athletic Director walked onto the field unannounced, wearing jeans and sandals, and Todd Hoffner knew in that moment that something was terribly wrong. Nobody interrupted his football practices at Minnesota State Mankato without advance notice and permission. His success as head coach was based on maintaining total control; each practice was scripted to the minute. He believed small disruptions in preparation became big problems during games, so he sometimes asked his players to recite a motto: No mistakes. No distractions. No surprises.

Now, on Aug. 17, 2012, his life was about to become the story of all three.

The athletic director approached Hoffner at midfield and told the coach he wanted to speak with him privately. "What's this about?" Hoffner asked, but the athletic director simply motioned for him to follow. Only a month earlier, Hoffner had earned a new four-year contract with a raise of more than 15 percent, and he had already stated his plans to stay at Mankato for the rest of his career. Hoffner and the AD walked into an adjacent building, where a woman from the university's human resources department was waiting. She handed Hoffner a typed note on university letterhead, and he hurriedly began to read, each phrase blurring into the next. Investigative leave. Effective immediately. No longer permitted on university grounds.

Long Road Back

Returning to Job

Help Healing the Injury

"Is this a joke?" Hoffner asked. "What did I do?" The woman from HR refused to answer. She told him to leave campus immediately. She said he would learn more about the university's reasoning in the next few days.

Hoffner drove back to his house in the nearby town of Eagle Lake, his hands shaking at the steering wheel, and told his wife, Melodee, who was equally at a loss. For the next three days, he barely slept. Mel vomited from stress. Todd watched game film at midnight in the living room, seeking comfort in routine. Together they made a list of potential reasons for Hoffner's banishment. He had worked his assistant coaches 70 or 80 hours a week despite their occasional complaints about long hours. He had cussed, punished players for breaking his rules and, every once in a while, lightly grabbed a player. Did they suddenly decide you drive people too hard? his wife asked.

Some other colleagues saw Division II football as an obscure stopover on the way to bigger jobs, but not Hoffner, a farm boy from Esmond, N.D., who had started his coaching career in nine-man high school football. Now he was entering his fifth season as Mankato's head coach, earning six figures and winning division titles -- by some measures the most successful coach in the school's history. Now strangers at the grocery store stopped to congratulate him and take his picture. Now he had a house in the suburbs where a motivational poster hung in the kitchen: if you believe it, you can achieve it.

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Wrongly Convicted For 1957 Killing

A 76-year-old man who a prosecutor says was wrongly convicted in the 1957 killing of an Illinois schoolgirl was released from prison Friday shortly after a judge vacated his conviction, meaning one of the oldest cold cases tried in the nation’s history has officially gone cold again.

Jack McCullough, was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 in the death of Maria Ridulph, 7, in Sycamore, about 70 miles west of Chicago. In a review of documents last year, a prosecutor found evidence that supported Mr. McCullough’s alibi that he had been 40 miles away at the time of the girl’s disappearance.

Judge William P. Brady said Friday that the abduction and slaying had haunted the small town of Sycamore for decades.

1957 Murder Conviction Overturned

Oldest Cold Case To Go To Trial

Accused Murder Set Free

“I’m not blind to the importance of this proceeding to many people,” he said, minutes before ordering Mr. McCullough’s release.

Mr. McCullough, in handcuffs, appeared shaken by the decision. Family members behind him hugged and cried. Moments later, Mr. McCullough looked back, winked and smiled broadly.

On the other side of the room, the brother and sister of the victim displayed little emotion.

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It Can Happen to Women Too

Woman Exonerated After Serving 10 Years for Manslaughter Conviction

In a gray suit, her short hair neatly curled, Vanessa Gathers sat in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn on Tuesday, beaming as the judge spoke words she had waited nearly two decades to hear: The manslaughter conviction for which she had spent 10 years in prison was vacated, the judge said, after an investigation revealed that her confession to the crime was false.

In an instant, Ms. Gathers was no longer a convicted criminal. The judge, Justice Matthew J. D’Emic, smiled back. “Good luck!” he said.

Ms. Gathers, 58, is the first woman to have been exonerated by the Conviction Review Unit, a special unit created by the Brooklyn district attorney to look into scores of cases linked to Louis Scarcella, a retired detective whose tactics led to the wrongful convictions of more than a dozen people, according to the district attorney’s office. The unit is examining 100 cases, many of them involving Mr. Scarcella.

Can She Get Back Her Good Name?

False Confession

Finally, exonerated!

Mark Hale, an assistant district attorney, told the judge that an investigation into Ms. Gathers’s case had determined that she had been wrongfully convicted and that her confession had been coaxed, fed to her by Mr. Scarcella.

“We have grave doubts and, in fact, do not believe that it was true,” Mr. Hale said.

After the hearing, the Brooklyn district attorney, Ken Thompson, spoke outside the courtroom. “These wrongful convictions represent a systemic failure, a failure by prosecutors, defense attorneys, by judges, by the system,” he said. “These wrongful convictions destroy lives, and no matter what happens, Ms. Gathers will not get back those 10 years.”

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