Skip to content
Overturned

James Joseph Richardson

Year
1968
Where
Florida
Source
Wikipedia
Evidence
1
Image published by Wikipedia for James Joseph Richardson
Image via Wikipedia
What the record says

James Joseph Richardson (December 26, 1935 – September 16, 2023) was an African-American man who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in 1968 for the October 1967 mass murder of his seven children. They died after eating a poisoned breakfast containing the organic phosphate pesticide parathion. At the time of the murders, Richardson was a migrant farm worker in Arcadia, Florida living with his wife Annie…

Summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Records change. The source is the authority.

Where to start

Got ten minutes? Do one of these.

What evidence was the conviction built on, and what has changed since trial?

  • Write down what the conviction rested on: eyewitness, confession, forensics, informant.
  • Find the court opinion and read what changed after trial.
  • Look for other cases with the same detective, lab or prosecutor.

New to this? Read the field guide. Five short lessons.