USA - Alabama. Montez Spradley walked out of prison today

Montez Spradley walked out of prison today, after spending more than 9 years behind bars - including 3 1/2 years on Alabama's death row. Spradley, now 32, Black, was arrested in 2004 for the Jan. 9, 2004, robbery and killing of Marlene Jason, 58, White, despite the absence of physical evidence and eyewitnesses. At trial, the prosecution called as witnesses Spradley’s ex-girlfriend and a prisoner who had been in jail with him. The jury found Spradley guilty and voted 10-2 for a sentence of life without parole. The judge (Gloria Bahakel ) exercised “judicial override” — a power that allows Alabama judges to ignore a jury’s decision — and sentenced Spradley to death (see April 21, 2008). On Nov. 4, 2011 (see) the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals recognized that Montez's 1st trial had been a "miscarriage of justice." Still, it took years to untangle the web of police misconduct and judicial misconduct by Judge Bahakel that led to Montez's conviction and death sentence. Anna Arceneaux, of ACLU, who is representing Montez, said: “Montez had heard rumors that his ex-girlfriend had been paid reward money, but it was not until we won his appeal, that we started to find evidence of the payments. And we learned that she had been paid an incredible sum for her testimony: $10,000. We learned that she had tried to back out before Montez's trial and told the police that Montez had never confessed to her. Rather than honoring the truth, they dangled the $10,000 over her head and threatened to take her children away and to prosecute her for perjury if she did not "stick with her original story." “Neither the police nor the prosecutors ever disclosed the payments to the defense. Judge Bahakel, before sentencing Montez to death, had signed off on a payment herself. Yet she never told Montez's trial lawyers about it, and her order authorizing the payment never made it into the court file. We also knew that the lead detective on the case - the same one who authorized the payments - had lied on the stand about the ex-girlfriend's statement to him. Unfortunately, such things are far too common in our system where the state often focuses on winning rather than justice”. Police and prosecutors are rarely held accountable for their misconduct. In fact, the lead detective on the case, Don Edge, - the same one who lied on the stand at trial - was honored with an award from a victims' rights group for solving this cold case that led to Montez's arrest”. On July 19, 2013, Spradley entered a plea in his retrial hearing. At risk of another wrongful conviction during this new trial, Spradley chose to enter an Alford plea, which will allow him to leave prison without admitting guilt.