Cleveland Murder Case Exonerates Another Innocent Black Man

Having just exonerated Kwame Ajamu, Judge Pamela Barker stepped down from the bench on Tuesday, leaned across the defense table and gave him a hug.


It had taken nearly 40 years, but Ajamu was no longer a convicted murderer.

Moments earlier, Barker had dismissed his charges and county Prosecutor Tim McGinty had conveyed a message through an assistant that Ajamu; his brother, Wiley Bridgeman; and their friend Ricky Jackson “have been the victims of a terrible injustice.”

The three had been convicted and sentenced to death in the slaying of a businessman outside on a corner store on a warm spring day in 1975. The case against them unraveled last year when the prosecution’s star witness recanted his testimony.

The witness, Eddie Vernon, was 12 when Harry Franks was killed and 13 when he testified against the three men at their trials in 1975. Vernon said in court last month and in an affidavit that he had been coerced by Cleveland police.

Ajamu, then known as Ronnie Bridgeman, was 17 when he was sent to death row. Jackson was 19, and Wiley Bridgeman was 20. Their death sentences were later commuted to life terms.

Ajamu was released from prison in 2003. Jackson and Wiley Bridgeman had been imprisoned until recently and were freed Nov. 21.

McGinty’s office had said little about the dismissals. But on Tuesday, he absolved all three of their crimes and said he would not oppose any claims of innocence, which will speed the civil process by which the men are compensated for having been wrongfully incarcerated.

The prosecutor’s concession seemed to astonish longtime Cleveland civil rights and defense attorney Terry Gilbert, who represents Ajamu and Wiley Bridgeman.

“To recognize an injustice … it gives me faith and hope in this criminal justice system that good things can come out of it from time to time,” Gilbert told Barker.

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