Current Events > Mentally handicapped man found innocent of murder after over 30 years in jail

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https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/crime/article234255342.html

James Blackmon, who spent more than three decades in prison for the 1979 murder of a Raleigh college student, went free Thursday with all charges dismissed.

A three-judge panel declared Blackmon, who is 66 and uses a wheelchair, innocent after a three-day hearing in Wake County Superior Court.

His lawyers attacked the only piece of evidence in his case: a confession he gave while he was a mentally ill patient at Dorothea Dix Hospital.

As the decision was read, he nodded and smiled.

Justice delayed is better than no justice at all, said Jonathan Broun, Blackmons lawyer with N.C. Prisoner Legal Service. Theres a problem with how the criminal justice system deals with mentally ill people. It was a problem in the 1980s ... I am concerned that some problems would be repeated.

The 1988 conviction stemmed from a slaying at what was then St. Augustines College, where student Helena Payton was stabbed to death in the bathroom of her dormitory, Latham Hall.

It went unsolved for several years until Raleigh police received a confidential tip that a patient at Dix had been talking about killing women, particularly the St. Augustines student.

Police narrowed down the description of the patient and determined that Blackmon was the only person to fit the profile. They interviewed him multiple times, but as his lawyers pointed out at this weeks hearing, he was wearing a Superman cape at the time. He also spoke of being able to cause earthquakes and compared himself to Dracula. Witnesses testified this week that false confessions are especially likely when patients are mentally ill and have lower intelligence. Blackmons IQ has been measured at 69.

Raleigh police arrested Blackmon based on statements he made while a patient at Dix, court records said. He led detectives to a wooded area where a bloody garment had been recovered. Later, he showed detectives a crime-scene toilet stall and said, This is where it happened, washing his hands in a sink.

But the only evidence linking Blackmon to this crime were his own statements, Broun said.

And what do his statements show? he asked. They show hes delusional. Hes eager to please, and hes easily led.

Evidence also showed that Blackmon was almost certainly in New York at the time of the slaying. A fellow 1979 student and witness saw his picture in a lineup and could not identify him as the man she saw in Latham Hall.

At the same time, Broun said, another mans fingerprints were found in the bathroom, and a records check found he had no business being on campus as a student or a worker.
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jfc

there is no justice in america
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Exeggcute posted...

who is 66 and uses a wheelchair, innocent after a three-day hearing in Wake County Superior Court.

Thank god they threw in that tidbit or I may not have recognized him

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