Please join us on Thursday August, 27 at 3pm EDT for a Conviction Integrity Case Study. This webinar will be focused on the investigation into the 1983 murder of 14 year old Dewitt Duckett and subsequent trial, conviction and ultimate exoneration of Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew Stewart. The re-investigation into the case, led by Lauren Lipscomb, Chief of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit, revealed that the convictions of Chestnut, Watkins and Stewart were accomplished using types of investigatory and trial preparation methods whose reliability remain debated present day in jurisdictions across the nation. The pre-trial and trial process involved interrogation of juvenile witnesses without guardians or counsel, suggestive pre-trial identification procedures. The CIU’s review of the discovery and trial process revealed extensive Brady violations, and little prosecutorial vetting of the police investigation. Three decades later, Chestnut, Watkins and Stewart’s road to exoneration began with a pro se letter from Chestnut to the CIU. This webinar will summarize and review not only the investigation and trial but will examine how the cases were processed initially without defense counsel, timing of victim’s family notification, working with the Innocence Project, and the legal mechanism utilized by CIU to ultimately exonerate the three men.

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