Reason to smile

On May 4, 1989, Roseman testified against Campbell. The next day Roseman pleaded guilty to a reduced charge. Apparently Roseman was quite pleased with the deal he had struck with prosecutors. Judge William Morrissey asked if he understood the plea he had just signed.

"Yes, sir," Roseman said with such a big smile on his face that the judge found it distracting.

"You know, if you keep smiling at me, I'm going to lose my place on here and I'll have to start all over," Morrissey said.

The judge sentenced the snitch to 180 days in jail -- time he'd already served. That same day, a jury found Campbell guilty of aggravated murder.

During Campbell's murder trial, Clardy and Roseman denied they'd made any deals or received any special treatment for testifying against him. Clardy claimed he'd contacted police because Campbell was "evil."

The snitches must have impressed the jury. In a 1995 affidavit, one juror stated their testimony was credible because they "had no reason to lie." But Clardy and Roseman did lie and prosecutors knew it, according to Campbell's attorney, Joe Wilhelm.

"Even if Clardy's and Roseman's deal was secured by only a wink and a nod, it is no less a deal," he stated in a memorandum with the federal appeals court. "Jailhouse testimony is inherently unreliable. When the jailhouse inmate has only a vague or implicit deal with the state, then the inmate has greater incentive to lie at trial to curry the state's favor."

A police report from March 20, 1989 shows that Clardy met with several police officers, Assistant Prosecutor Terry Gaines and his attorney, Elizabeth Agar. He testified against Campbell six weeks later.

The culture of jailhouse snitchery is humorously spelled out in Barry Scheck's book, Actual Innocence. Leslie Vernon White explained the entire process in great detail. White was a full-time criminal who didn't do much time.  

"No sooner would White arrive in jail than he would size up the inmate population, like a housewife squeezing tomatoes at the grocery store for the juiciest one, deciding who the prosecutors would like to hear about," Scheck wrote.

Inmates have jokes about the process, according to White: "Don't go to the pen -- send a friend ... If you can't do the time, just drop a dime ... Trouble? You better call 1-800-HETOLDME."

Informants swarm to a hot case, White told Scheck.

John Henry Turner bled to death at 1008 York St. (middle building). At the right is the building where a witness saw a man leaning against a wall.

"The first snitch will recruit a second snitch to back up his story of hearing a confession," he said. "This corroborates the primary snitch, and allows the second snitch to 'get in the car' -- the metaphor for cutting short a jail stay by snitching."

Clardy and Roseman must have taken a correspondence course from White.

In 1992, attorneys Scheck and Peter Neufeld created the Innocence Project in New York City. The project handles death penalty cases in which post-conviction DNA testing can yield conclusive proof of innocence.

The University of Cincinnati Law School has set up shop for an Innocence Project here (see Trial and Error, issue of Nov. 21-27, 2002).

Cincinnati City Councilman John Cranley, who led the effort, is the executive director. He also administers the school's Urban Justice Institute, where a group of his students recently authored a report, Death Row in Ohio, 2003: The Case for a Study Commission.

Illinois Gov. George Ryan created such a commission after 13 Death Row inmates in his state were exonerated. The commission identified common practices and factors that led to the highest reversal rates in capital cases. The UC students found that more than half of the people facing execution in this state wouldn't be on Death Row if the Illinois reforms were implemented here.

The students examined 173 Ohio inmates' cases and found that 88 inmates -- including Campbell -- wouldn't be eligible for the death penalty. Campbell's conviction featured the very factors the Illinois commission highlighted as prone to error: a single eyewitness and jailhouse snitches.