jun 2005
In the early hours of January 2, 1983, in Dellwood, Missouri, 19-year-old gas station attendant, James Buckley was shot seven times during an attempted robbery.
Ellen Reasonover called the police on January 3, 1983 to report information she thought might help catch the murderers. Detectives became suspicious that Ellen was implicated in the crime after her boyfriend, Stanley White, was picked out in a police line-up by a witness who saw a man resembling White in the gas station just prior to the murder.
A St. Louis County jury found her guilty of the fatal shooting 11 months later, and a judge sentenced her to life in prison without a chance for parole for 50 years.
After she was convicted and imprisoned, Ellen wrote letters to everyone she thought might be able to help her, including the Pope and presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. None of her letters produced any reason for hope until she contacted Centurion Ministries in 1993. Lawyers for Centurion Ministries reviewed her case, and they became convinced of her innocence.
What was fundamentally unfair about Ellen Reasonover's prosecution?
No witness placed her at the scene of the murder.
There was no physical evidence found at the gas station linking her to James Buckley's murder.
She was not found with, or linked to the murder weapon.
The prosecution said her motive to murder Mr. Buckley was to rob the gas station. Yet no money was taken from the cash register and nearly $3,000 was found in the gas station's unlocked safe.
The only evidence presented at trial against Ellen Reasonover was the testimony of two women with long criminal histories. The two women, Rose Joliff and Mary Ellen Lyner, had been in a cell with Reasonover after her arrest. They both testified they heard her admit she had murdered James Buckley. However, five other women jailed with Reasonover, including three in the jail cell with her at the same time as Joliff and Lyner, testified they didn't hear Reasonover say anything incriminating.
At Ms. Reasonover's trial, the prosecution denied that it had agreed to exchange anything of value with Joliff and Lyner for their testimony. Years after Reasonover's conviction, however, it was uncovered that the prosecution paid Joliff in cash for her testimony, and Lyner was rewarded by having charges of participating in a major credit card scam dropped. The credibility of these two witnesses would have damaged the prosecution's case had this information been presented to the jury.
The prosecution withheld two exculpatory audio tapes from the defense in violation of pre-trial discovery requirements. These tapes were secretly recorded by police before her trial. Ellen's unwavering statements of innocence on the tapes corroborated her later testimony in court and undermined the testimony of the prosecution's two "star" witnesses. One tape was of a conversation between Ms. Reasonover and Joliff four days after the prosecution alleged that she confessed to Joliff. Ms. Reasonover repeatedly expressed her innocence on the tape and Joliff didn't challenge her by making any mention of a previous confession. The other tape was secretly made in jail when Reasonover and her boyfriend, Stanley White, were placed in cells next to each other after they were initially arrested for questioning about the murder. In that conversation, which they did not know was being taped, they repeatedly expressed bewilderment at their arrest and stated more than twenty times that they were innocent of having anything to do with anyone's murder. Mr. White was questioned but not charged. The existence of the first tape was discovered in 1996, and the existence of the second was uncovered in June of 1999 when it was found in a box marked prosecutor's files.
After being imprisoned for 16 years, a federal judge threw out her conviction on August 3, 1999 as being fundamentally unfair and ordered her released.
Ellen Reasonover called the police on January 3, 1983 to report information she thought might help catch the murderers. Detectives became suspicious that Ellen was implicated in the crime after her boyfriend, Stanley White, was picked out in a police line-up by a witness who saw a man resembling White in the gas station just prior to the murder.
A St. Louis County jury found her guilty of the fatal shooting 11 months later, and a judge sentenced her to life in prison without a chance for parole for 50 years.
After she was convicted and imprisoned, Ellen wrote letters to everyone she thought might be able to help her, including the Pope and presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. None of her letters produced any reason for hope until she contacted Centurion Ministries in 1993. Lawyers for Centurion Ministries reviewed her case, and they became convinced of her innocence.
What was fundamentally unfair about Ellen Reasonover's prosecution?
No witness placed her at the scene of the murder.
There was no physical evidence found at the gas station linking her to James Buckley's murder.
She was not found with, or linked to the murder weapon.
The prosecution said her motive to murder Mr. Buckley was to rob the gas station. Yet no money was taken from the cash register and nearly $3,000 was found in the gas station's unlocked safe.
The only evidence presented at trial against Ellen Reasonover was the testimony of two women with long criminal histories. The two women, Rose Joliff and Mary Ellen Lyner, had been in a cell with Reasonover after her arrest. They both testified they heard her admit she had murdered James Buckley. However, five other women jailed with Reasonover, including three in the jail cell with her at the same time as Joliff and Lyner, testified they didn't hear Reasonover say anything incriminating.
At Ms. Reasonover's trial, the prosecution denied that it had agreed to exchange anything of value with Joliff and Lyner for their testimony. Years after Reasonover's conviction, however, it was uncovered that the prosecution paid Joliff in cash for her testimony, and Lyner was rewarded by having charges of participating in a major credit card scam dropped. The credibility of these two witnesses would have damaged the prosecution's case had this information been presented to the jury.
The prosecution withheld two exculpatory audio tapes from the defense in violation of pre-trial discovery requirements. These tapes were secretly recorded by police before her trial. Ellen's unwavering statements of innocence on the tapes corroborated her later testimony in court and undermined the testimony of the prosecution's two "star" witnesses. One tape was of a conversation between Ms. Reasonover and Joliff four days after the prosecution alleged that she confessed to Joliff. Ms. Reasonover repeatedly expressed her innocence on the tape and Joliff didn't challenge her by making any mention of a previous confession. The other tape was secretly made in jail when Reasonover and her boyfriend, Stanley White, were placed in cells next to each other after they were initially arrested for questioning about the murder. In that conversation, which they did not know was being taped, they repeatedly expressed bewilderment at their arrest and stated more than twenty times that they were innocent of having anything to do with anyone's murder. Mr. White was questioned but not charged. The existence of the first tape was discovered in 1996, and the existence of the second was uncovered in June of 1999 when it was found in a box marked prosecutor's files.
After being imprisoned for 16 years, a federal judge threw out her conviction on August 3, 1999 as being fundamentally unfair and ordered her released.
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By what name was Guilty or Innocent? (2005) officially released in Canada in English?
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