Episode 29: The Exoneration of James Tillman
On January 22nd, 1988, in Hartford, Connecticut, a young woman was getting into her car after a night at the bar with some of her colleagues. As she was backing her car up, an unknown perpetrator forced his way into her car. Shocked and scared, the woman was quickly punched in the face and shoved to the passenger side, while the unknown man got behind the wheel and eventually took her to an undisclosed location. He beat her some more, sexually assaulted her, and robbed her of her jewelry and her money. The man then drove her car to another random spot, took her purse, and ran off.
When the young woman went to the police, she described her attacker as best as she could. When given a lineup in photos, she chose the man she believed to have attacked her. 25-year-old James Tillman was the man she identified, and this began a series of trials and appeals from someone who was adamantly denying involvement.
When the case went to court, the victim again identified James and this held the basis of the conviction. Despite having a lack of DNA testing technology at the time, some semen stains were stored in evidence and came back with an inconclusive result. Still, the jury of all white men and women and residents of Hartford came back with a guilty verdict for James Tillman and 45 years in jail.
In 1991, James appealed the trial, still holding steady to his claims of being innocent. He stated that there was racial bias in jury selection and the course outcome because they were all white, and he was black. This appeal was denied, and the verdict remained. He tried again to appeal his conviction in 1999 but was denied once more.
In 2005, the Connecticut Innocence Project picked up his case. DNA testing was far more advanced at this point, so the team of public defenders was able to isolate the semen stains and prove that there was no biological way they belonged to James Tillman. In July of 2006, he was officially exonerated of all charges and eventually rewarded $5 million due to his wrongful imprisonment.
Image sources:
innocenceproject.org - “James Tillman”
www.courant.com - “Tillman Case A Highlight For Connecticut Innocence Project”