Man Released After Spending 27 Years In Prison For A Murder He Didn’t Commit
Who do you think is or was the unluckiest person on earth? Kwame Ajamu was just 17 when he was convicted of murder in the killing of a Cleveland money-order salesman. On Tuesday, Ajamu, now 57 and out on parole since 2003, wept after a judge cleared all charges against him. “I’m so happy today that this battle had come to an end,” Ajamu said , according to Reuters. Cuyahoga County Judge Pamela Barker stepped down from her bench to give Ajamu a hug, the Associated Press reported . The case against Ajamu , formerly known as Ronnie Bridgeman, began to fall apart after a key witness recanted his testimony decades after the conviction. In 1975, two people had attacked Harold Franks with acid, and one of the people shot him. A third person drove a getaway car. A 12-year-old boy, Eddie Vernon, served as the state’s main witness in the case, and a jury convicted Bridgeman (as he was known at the time), along with his brother Wiley Bridgeman, then 20, and Ricky Jackson, 1