James Newsome

In 1979, James Newsome was stopped by Chicago police and questioned about a robbery. Although police quickly realized he had nothing to do with the robbery, he was taken in because one of the officers thought he "resembled" a composite sketch of a suspect in a murder case. James Newsome did not match the description of the murder suspect who was described as shorter and several years older than James. James was placed in a line-up where he was identified by two witnesses, both of whom had earlier picked someone else's picture out of a mug book. James Newsome was tried and convicted of murder.

In 1989, Professor Norval Morris obtained a court order to have the Chicago Police Department run fingerprints that had been found at the murder scene. The officer charged to run the prints reported - falsely - that the testing did not result in a match. Five years later, police admitted they matched Dennis Emerson, a man on death row for another murder. James Newsome served 15 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit.