Exonerated in 2010: How DNA and New Evidence Freed Five Wrongly Accused

Anthony Johnson

Conviction: Second degree murder

Year of Conviction: 1986

Exoneration Date: 9/15/10

Sentence Served: 22 Years

Contributing Causes: False Confessions / Admissions, Bad Lawyering

Anthony Johnson was convicted in 1986 of sexually assaulting his girlfriend and stabbing her to death at her Louisiana home. He served 22 years in prison before DNA testing obtained by the Innocence Project New Orleans cleared him. He was freed in 2007, but his exoneration didn’t become official until further DNA tests implicated the real perpetrator in 2010.

Shortly after the body of his girlfriend, who was also the mother of his child, was found, police quickly arrested Johnson. The jury considered weak evidence like the fact that Johnson was near the scene of the crime (his girlfriend’s residence) near the time of the crime and that his hairs were found at her residence. All circumstantial evidence considering he was in a relationship with the victim.

In addition, a police officer claimed that Mr. Johnson gave a statement in which he gave information about the murder that could only have been known by the killer. However, there was no recording of the interview and the investigator who allegedly took the statement gave inconsistent information under oath as to why the statement was not recorded.

DNA testing excluded him in 2006. His conviction was reversed and he was released in 2007 based upon the results of the DNA testing and based on a finding by the court that the State had withheld “crucial exculpatory evidence” from the defense, including information that a serial killer had been boasting about committing the murder of Ms. Bonds. When the State investigated and compared the DNA found under Bond’s fingernails to the serial killer, it matched. Anthony Johnson was officially exonerated on September 15, 2010.