Help Free James Richardson – Wrongly Convicted and Sent to Prison for a Crime He Did Not Commit.
Almost fourteen years ago, James E. Richardson, a devoted and loving father, a law-abiding citizen, and a college graduate who went on to become an international basketball player, was wrongly accused and subsequently convicted of two murders he did not commit . A drive-by shooting outside of a nightclub that took the lives of two men on June 30, 2009, in Greenville, N.C., was pinned on James with absolutely no eyewitness or forensic evidence linking him to the crimes. James has maintained his innocence since the moment he was wrongly accused. James is currently sentenced to die in prison for crimes he did not and could never commit. For more case information, please visit our change.org petition linked below.
For the past 14 years, James has been fighting zealously to prove his innocence, and thanks to the diligent work of his legal team, new evidence has emerged. The new evidence proves his innocence and exposes the Prosecutorial and Police misconduct that plagued his case. Evidence pointing to alternate suspects was ignored, video evidence was destroyed, and the star witness that falsely testified during James’ trial has now backpedaled. Additionally, since James’ 2011 conviction, two jurors have stated they were bullied and pressured into voting guilty. One of those jurors, the only black male and former law enforcement officer, requested that he be removed from the jury because he was experiencing racial hostility and pressure from non-minority jurors. Although he felt James was 100% innocent, he was pressured into voting guilty.
In addition to the new evidence above, preliminary re-investigations conducted over the last several years have uncovered evidence that was withheld and obscured from James' trial attorneys, which prevented him from presenting evidence that would have resulted in an acquittal. At this time, we would like to have this evidence tested and analyzed and are asking for donations to support our fight against James Richardson's wrongful conviction and to help free him.
All donations raised will enable our legal team to retain expensive experts listed below that are necessary to prove James Richardson is innocent of these murders. As much as the victims, in this case, deserve the truth and justice, James does too. Thank you in advance for your support in helping us bring James home to his family and loved ones!
- Video Expert: A video expert is required to reexamine a surveillance video used by the prosecution during the trial and provide their expert opinion on how the tainted evidence was used to make misidentifications. Also, the expert would review video evidence and reports that were withheld from James’ trial attorneys, depriving James an opportunity to present video evidence that would have prevented false and misleading testimony from law enforcement and, we believe, would have ultimately led to his acquittal.
- Ballistics Expert: A ballistics expert is required to review the ballistic evidence collected during the initial investigation (bullets and bullet fragments, shell casings, and gunshot residue powder) and during an unrelated crime that occurred sixty days after these senseless murders occurred. Trial attorneys received an exculpatory ballistics IBIS report that was obscured in over 2400+ pages of evidence that was provided to the defense the day before the trial started. Despite the trial attorneys’ motion for a continuance so they could examine the last-minute document dump, their motion was denied. A ballistics expert will conduct an independent and complete analysis, which a preliminary expert consultation suggests will reveal new findings that would have ultimately led to James Richardson’s acquittal.
- Latent (Fingerprint) Expert: A Latent fingerprint expert is required to determine whether evidence technicians followed scientific protocol when lifting latent prints from the vehicle, to review newly discovered documents that show latent prints matched suspects other than Richardson, and to provide an expert opinion on whether the latent examiner’s testimony was false or misleading.
Other Ways You Can help:
- Make a financial donation to James’ freedom fund. Any amount will make a difference. If you’re unable to donate, it would mean so much if you could spread the word and share our fundraising efforts.
- Sign the petition calling for James’ freedom: Change.Org - Free James Richardson ;
- Follow our social media pages to support James' journey to freedom and share his story;
- Sign up for our Newsletter to stay updated on James’ case and the findings of our continued investigation
In addition to our findings and the injustice that James faced during his trial and continues to face in his post-conviction efforts, the Prosecutor in his trial, who is now retired, has had two of his former cases overturned, and both individuals were found innocent of the crimes they were convicted of. One case was overturned due to false eyewitness testimony and new medical examiner testimony that proved the States' theory of the crime was false and could not have happened the way the State argued during the trial. The second individual was exonerated after fingerprints that excluded him from the crime were located and discovered to have been withheld during the trial. There is a history of prosecutorial malpractice in Greenville, NC, and the truth needs to be brought to light to help James get the freedom he deserves.
**Due to the notoriety of this case and our continued investigation, it is imperative that our experts have no conflicts of interest. This also limits the amount of information we can disclose related to the re-investigation. However, if you have additional questions about our efforts or campaign, please email the Justice for James Richardson Innocence Coalition at: FreeJamesRichardsonNC@gmail.com.
