This is screwed up.
A federal judge ruled three years ago Crosley Green's murder conviction couldn't stand. Green still isn't free
By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN
Updated 6:01 AM ET, Sun June 6, 2021
(CNN)Crosley Green believes he's free. He's not.
There are serious doubts about his 1990 murder conviction, which a federal court vacated in 2018. Citing the overturned conviction and concerns about Covid-19, a judge has released Green from prison while Florida's attorney general challenges the federal court's decision.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals could rule against Green any day, sending him back to Calhoun Correctional Institution.
Green doesn't dwell on it. He's more concerned with the squirrels in his brother-in-law's yard, which Green is forbidden to leave. If he goes to the mailbox outside a 30-minute window in the morning, his ankle monitor goes off, alerting authorities.
To Green, this is freedom. He revels in having breakfast, watching the news, taking his coffee outside, lighting a cigarette and feeding the squirrels some almonds, bread or whatever he can find around the Titusville home. He feels a kinship with his furball friends.
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Florida media, along with CBS News and its newsmagazine, "48 Hours," have covered the unraveling case against Green for more than two decades. Chicago private investigator Paul Ciolino told reporters in 1999 he had unearthed evidence that points to Green's innocence.
"They've got the wrong guy in jail," he said at the time.
Attorneys Keith Harrison and Jeane Thomas of Crowell & Moring, an international law firm that's fought pro bono for Green since 2008, concur. They cite a litany of problems with the evidence.
Four witnesses have recanted their testimony, they told CNN. In addition to the alibi witness who testified at trial, they've found nine more who say Green was doing drugs at a party in Mims, 2 miles from the grove, when the killing occurred, Harrison said.
Among other issues the defense has raised: Green's fingerprints weren't found at the scene; Green doesn't know how to drive a stick shift like the one in Flynn's truck; a canine officer used a questionable method to track shoe prints at the scene; the shoe prints found did not match Green's lone pair of Reeboks; and the photo lineup presented to Hallock positioned Green's picture, darker and smaller than five others, at the top center "bull's-eye" spot, said Harrison, a former prosecutor.
"Nothing adds up. Nothing fits together," he said. "There's a lot of facts in this case, and most of the facts point to Crosley's innocence."
more:
http://www.cnn.com/2021/06/06/us/crosley-green-appeal-murder/index.html
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