According to an article written by Managing Editor Gabriel Tynes of the Mobile Lagniappe, Mobile County sentenced eight defendants to death between 2010 to 2015. Although, thankfully, my husband did not receive the death penalty, he was wrongfully convicted by Mobile County in 2012. The article goes on to state that the DA, Ashley Rich, who prosecuted my husband’s case, presided over at least seven of the above-mentioned death penalty outlier cases personally. Harvard’s report, discussed in this article, suggests that, “the convictions and sentences of the cases it examined were often the result of split juries, inadequate defense, racial bias or exclusion, and overzealous prosecutors.”

Added to the fact that Internet research shows Leonard Coleman is 1 out of 6 men claiming to be wrongfully convicted by the Mobile County Circuit Court, it’s clear that something has gone terribly awry with police and prosecutorial conduct in this County. Let’s come together to make some peaceful, but impactful noise in support of Leonard’s release and in opposition of wrongful convictions. To date, Judge Jay A. York has still not set an evidentiary hearing date to address the new discovery evidence of Leonard’s innocence.

Until freedom, Mrs. Coleman