Cases: Ryan Matthews (USA)
Ryan Matthews was just 17 years old when he was charged with capital murder in New Orleans. He spent five years on Louisiana's notorious death row at Angola prison. Since the day he was arrested Ryan protested his innocence of the murder of shopkeeper Tommy Vanhoose.
In April 2004, Ryan was granted a retrial and in August that year all charges against him were dropped and he was released ‘in the interests of justice’.
Ryan's exoneration was due, in large part, to investigations conducted by Reprieve, including the discovery of DNA evidence that linked the ski mask used in the murder to another man, Rondell Love, who was incarcerated on a separate homicide. Rondell Love has confessed to numerous people about to committing the Vanhoose murder.
Pauline Matthews, Ryan's mother, was unable to touch her son for five years because of prison rules. On his release, she described the ride home from jail: ‘I had to hold his hand in the car to make sure it was real... I have no room for bitterness... All I want is Ryan to be free. What's been done, you can't undo.’
|
| |
|
|
Click here
Click here.
Click here.
Click here.
Click here.
