Voices of Injustice

Clay Chabot was found “guilty” for robbery, rape, and murder, primarily based on the testimony of his brother-in-law, Gerald Pabst. Besides Gerald’s testimony, no credible evidence was found. Still, Clay was sentenced to life in prison. After over two decades of his time in prison, new DNA test results revealed that Gerald committed pejury and Clay was innocent. Therefore, Clay’s conviction was vacated in 2008, but the state still indicated it may retry him. Instead of risking a new trial, Clay accepted a guilty plea and was sentenced to “time served” of murder.

Raymond Tempest was convicted of second-degree murder in 1992. Tempest's conviction was overturned by the Rhode Island Supreme Court in 2015 due to the concealment of evidence supporting Tempest's innocence by the police and prosecution. Prosecutors intended to retry Tempest for the crime despite the lack of solid evidence against him from the state. Tempest was freed in exchange for taking an Alford plea, avoiding a retrial.

Rodney Roberts was arrested in 1996 for assault after getting into a fight with a friend. He got charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl and was detained for a few days before being released from detention. According to law enforcement, the victim said she identified him in a picture array. Rodney's attorney advised him to plead guilty to avoid the possibility of a harsher sentence. 

In 1989, Leroy Harris was convicted of robbery and sexual assault despite prosecutorial misconduct and unreliable eyewitness identification. In 2017, new DNA evidence proved Leroy’s innocence, but prosecutors refused to vacate his conviction and instead offered him a plea deal. Although Harris's sexual assault charge was dropped, he consented to enter an Alford plea to the remaining accusations to be released from imprisonment.

Angela Garcia was found guilty in 2001 of starting a house fire that killed her two kids in 1999. Garcia was found guilty based only on circumstantial evidence and a flawed arson investigation—a forensic discipline that has recently received criticism for lacking scientific validity. In 2016, on the eve of Garcia's hearing for a new trial, prosecutors proposed a plea deal with a significantly reduced sentence. Angela took the plea where she admitted to setting the fire, upholding the aggravated arson conviction while reducing the aggravated murder charges to involuntary manslaughter.

Christopher Ochoa pled guilty to the 1988 murder of Nancy DePriest, implicating his roommate, Richard Danziger, in the process. When Christopher was first investigated, he claimed that he was involved in the crime, but Richard was guilty of the murder. However, at trial, Christopher altered his story, stating that he shot the victim. It was later discovered that Chris' confession was coerced and that neither man had anything to do with the crime.