Jerry Frank Townsend

June 15, 2001

A retarded man who confessed to six murders and spent 22 years in jail in Florida was freed after DNA evidence indicated he didn't commit the killings. "It is abundantly clear that he is the victim of an enormous tragedy," said Judge Scott Silverman.

In 1979, Townsend, 49, was convicted of two murders and pleaded guilty to four others after confessing to the six killings. But his confession was thrown in doubt when DNA evidence in two of the murders cleared him and pointed at Eddie Lee Mosley, a suspected serial killer in jail, as the killer.

Jerry Frank Townsend

Jerry Frank Townsend is mentally retarded, with the mental capacity of an eight year old. Nevertheless, he was convicted of six murders and one rape and sentenced to seven concurrent life sentences.

In 1979, Townsend was arrested for raping a pregnant woman in Miami, Florida. During the investigation, he confessed to other murders. The confessions were largely the consequence of Townsend wanting to please authority figures, a common adaptive practice by someone with his mental capacities. Police took Townsend to murder scenes and recorded his confessions.

In 1980, Townsend was convicted of first-degree murder for the 1973 killings of Naomi Gamble and Barbara Brown in Broward County. Not only did Townsend confess to these two murders, but he also confessed to the murder of 13 year old Sonja Marion in 1979. In 1982, he pled guilty to two slayings in Miami in the late 1970s and no contest to two 1979 murders in Broward County.

Eventually, Townsend was cleared by DNA evidence following actions in 1998, when Sonja Marion's mother had a Fort Lauderdale police detective review the Townsend cases. In 2000, DNA testing of a semen sample on the child's shorts implicated another man. DNA evidence cleared Townsend for two of the six murders.

The evidence pointed to Eddie Lee Mosley, and cast substantial doubt on the accuracy of all of Townsend's confessions. Without the confession evidence, the prosecutors asked that Townsend's convictions be thrown out, especially since DNA testing had actually located the perpetrator in some of the crimes.

In April 2001, Townsend was cleared of two Broward killings through further DNA testing, eliminating two of his seven life sentences. Ultimately, he was cleared of all the Broward charges and released on June 15, 2001, at the age of forty-nine. Townsend had remained in prison for twenty-two years.

The testing in Townsend's case also affected the case of Frank Lee Smith, who died while on Florida's death row before being exonerated by postconviction DNA testing. The testing in Smith's case also implicated Eddie Lee Mosley.

InnocenceProject.org

Confessed Murderer Cleared By DNA Tests

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express

May 10, 2001

FT. LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA--At first, he didn't admit to doing anything.

But as time went on, and as detectives pressed with their questions, Jerry Frank Townsend started talking.

By the time the interrogations were over, Townsend had confessed to a string of previously unsolved rapes and murders of women and teenage girls in the Ft. Lauderdale and Miami area throughout the 1970s.

In spite of there being several inconsistencies between his statements and the physical evidence, a jury in 1980 convicted Townsend of two of the killings and sentenced him to life in prison. Two years later, he pleaded no-contest to two other murders.

Last month, analysis of DNA evidence taken from crime scenes cleared Townsend, now 49, of three of the murders to which he had confessed. DNA samples taken from the clothing and bodies of the victims positively identified another man who had been a suspect early in the investigations but who had been ruled out as a suspect after Townsend's confessions.

Earlier this week, Broward County prosecutors said they would ask a judge to vacate, or remove, the remaining murder convictions against Townsend. While there is no DNA evidence available in those cases to test, prosecutors said there has never been any physical evidence that backs up the confessions.

The new developments bring into question the tactics used by detectives to gain the confessions from Townsend, who is considered to have mental retardation and an IQ of 60. His defenders say he was a "human parrot" who would say or do anything to please authority figures. They pointed out that several times during his taped confession, detectives told Townsend he was "confused" and turned off the recorder when he started giving details that were not consistent with the facts in the case. After the recorder was turned back on, the details he gave were correct.

One case of which Townsend had been convicted was the murder of 20-year-old Terry Cummings, a McDonald's employee. Cummings' body was found dressed in her McDonald's uniform in a burned-out building in 1979. When Townsend initially confessed to her murder, he said she was a white woman wearing shorts and that he had killed her in an apartment.

Miami police are currently reviewing two cases to which Townsend had pleaded guilty in 1982. If he is cleared of those he could be freed in a matter of weeks.

Townsend Should Be Released, Prosecutors Say

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express

June 15, 2001

MIAMI, FLORIDA--Last month, DNA evidence cleared Jerry Frank Townsend of several rapes and murders that had taken place more than 20 years ago in Broward County, north of Miami. Townsend, who is considered to have mental retardation, had given police full confessions. He had been convicted of the crimes, even though his defenders pointed out that police had "helped" Townsend remember details and even corrected him when his story was consistent with theirs.

Even though he has been cleared of those crimes, Townsend is still behind bars. That is because in 1979, after his bogus convictions for the Broward County crimes, Townsend agreed to plead guilty to one rape and two murders that happened in Miami-Dade.

Now prosecutors are recommending that Townsend be released and the Miami-Dade convictions be thrown out, in part because there was no physical evidence or witnesses tying Townsend to those cases, and partly because his guilty pleas while he was serving time for crimes he did not commit.

"By law, once the Broward sentences were set aside Mr. Townsend's pleas to concurrent life sentences in the Miami-Dade cases must also be set aside," Katherine Fernandez Rundle, state attorney for Miami-Dade, said in a statement Thursday.

Townsend Freed After 22 Years

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express

June 18, 2001

MIAMI, FLORIDA--Jerry Frank Townsend is free.

At about 10:00 Friday night, 49-year-old Townsend was released from Polk Correctional Institution, having been cleared of the six murder convictions that had kept him behind bars since 1979.

A prison official said Townsend's mother and sister arrived shortly after his release to greet him with hugs and tears. Townsend left the facility shortly after midnight Saturday morning with an uncle who lives near Orlando.

Attorneys say Townsend, who had been led by police to confess to as many as 23 murders and several rapes during the 1970s, probably will not be granting interviews.

On Friday, Circuit Judge Scott Silverman cleared Townsend of the one rape and two murder convictions that had remained in Miami-Dade, then ordered the Department of Corrections to release him.

"Given the . . . deficiency in the state's evidence, a lack of trust in its evidence including the obtained confession, and in some cases what may very well be Mr. Townsend's outright innocence, it is abundantly clear that he is the victim of an enormous tragedy," Silverman said.

Experts have said Townsend has an IQ of between 50 and 60. His defenders say he is a "human parrot" who would say or do anything to please authority figures, especially police. They claim that detectives had asked Townsend questions that led him to give answers investigators wanted.

Townsend was convicted of murdering four women in Broward County, north of Miami back in 1980. He had confessed to those crimes, and even led police to crime scenes. Miami-Dade prosecutors had also suspected him of committing several murders in their area. While Townsend was serving back-to-back life sentences for the Broward convictions, Miami-Dade officials charged him with two murders and a rape. Townsend was told that if he went to trial on the Miami-Dade charges, prosecutors planned to use the Broward convictions against him.

Townsend, who faced the electric chair if convicted, pleaded guilty to the Miami-Dade charges.

In April of this year, analyses of DNA evidence that was found at two of the Broward crime scenes proved that another inmate committed those crimes. Broward officials then dropped the other convictions because they had been based on Townsend's confessions, which could no longer be trusted, rather than on evidence.

That left the Miami-Dade convictions, until they were dropped on Friday.

A detective who reopened Townsend's Miami-Dade case in April of this year said he knew something was wrong almost immediately.

"The confessions do not fit the physical evidence," said Detective Confesor Gonzalez. "This case was bad."

Townsend's Case Not Isolated

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express

June 18, 2001

UNITED STATES--While headlines of Jerry Frank Townsend's release cause readers around the world to shake their heads wondering how this could happen, it may be important to note that his case is not all that unusual.

In just the past 15 months, Inclusion Daily Express has reported on cases from Oklahoma to Virginia and from Illinois to Louisiana where people considered to have mental retardation have been cleared of murders that they had confessed to doing, but that they had not done.

The most famous recent case was that of Earl Washington Jr, who in February became the first former death row inmate to leave a Virginia prison alive. DNA evidence last fall cleared Washington of the rape and murder to which he had confessed. Washington, who reportedly has an IQ of 69, spent 18 years behind bars for the crime and at one point came within a few days of execution.

Townsend Sues Detectives For False Convictions

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express

September 27, 2002

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA--Jerry Frank Townsend, the man who spent 22 years in prison for a series of rapes and murders that he did not commit, is suing the Broward County Sheriff's Office and two former deputies claiming they forced him to confess to the crimes.

From those confessions Townsend was convicted of several murders in the Fort Lauderdale area, even though his defenders pointed out that police had "helped" Townsend remember details and even corrected him when his story was consistent with theirs. Later, Townsend agreed to confess to other murders in the Miami area.

Townsend, now 50, was released from prison in June 2001 after DNA evidence cleared him of the crimes and pointed to another convict, Eddie Lee Mosley, who also has mental retardation.

Named in the suit filed Wednesday are Sheriff Ken Jenne, along with Major Anthony Fantigrassi, who is now Jenne's head of criminal investigations, and Mark Schlein, who now works for the state attorney general's office.

The lawsuit claims that the detectives took advantage of Townsend, who reportedly has mental retardation and an IQ of 56, by forcing him to confess to the crimes in 1979.

"He's going to be adjusting for years, and finding his place," said attorney Barbara Heyer, who filed the lawsuit on Townsend's behalf.

In a 61-page complaint, the suit alleges that the detectives also tampered with witnesses and fabricated and concealed evidence. It accuses them of civil rights violations and racketeering.

Townsend Sues Miami, Police Over Forced Confessions

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express

May 1, 2003

MIAMI, FLORIDA--Jerry Frank Townsend, 51, who spent 22 years in prison for six rapes and murders he did not commit, is suing the city of Miami and two police officers whose testimony helped put him behind bars.

Townsend was convicted in 1980 of murdering four women in Broward County, north of Miami, after confessing to the crimes.

Miami-Dade prosecutors had also suspected him of committing several murders in their area. While Townsend, who has mental retardation, was serving back-to-back life sentences for the Broward convictions, Miami-Dade officials charged him with two murders and a rape.

Townsend was told that if he went to trial on the Miami-Dade charges, prosecutors planned to use the Broward convictions against him. To avoid the death penalty, Townsend pleaded guilty to the Miami-Dade charges.

Later, Townsend said Broward County Sheriff's investigators took advantage of him by forcing him to confess to the crimes, "helping" him remember several details -- even turning off the tape recorder to "correct" him when his story was not consistent with theirs.

In April 2001, analyses of DNA evidence found at two of the Broward crime scenes pointed to another inmate, Eddie Lee Mosley, who also has mental retardation. Broward officials then dropped the other convictions because they had been based on Townsend's confessions, which could no longer be trusted.

The suit filed Tuesday in federal court names the city of Miami, along with two former police officers, three former city managers, and the current city manager, according to the Associated Press. It accuses the city of Miami of failing to institute supervisory and training reforms in the 1970s that might have changed the situation for Townsend.

"There were studies telling them what needed to be corrected," said Townsend's attorney, Barbara Heyer. "To date, they have not been corrected."

Last September, Heyer filed suit against the Broward County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Ken Jenne, Major Anthony Fantigrassi, who is now Jenne's head of criminal investigations, and Mark Schlein, who works for the state attorney general's office. Townsend claimed Jenne and Schlein were the deputies that forced him to confess.

Neither suit specified a dollar amount.