Lorain County, OH, Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson Moves to Vacate Convictions of Four Men Falsely Accused of 1991 Murder
Defendants Collectively Served More than 100 Years in Prison; Joint Motion for Exoneration by all Parties Follows Rally Last Week for the “Ohio 4” Lorain, OH (December 2, 2024)
Lorain County, OH, Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson filed a motion today to vacate the convictions of four men who collectively served more than 100 years in prison based on the testimony of a single alleged witness, who subsequently recanted. Al Cleveland and Lenworth Edwards were paroled in 2020, even in the face of maintaining their innocence. Lenworth Edwards served twenty-nine and a half years, and Al Cleveland served twenty-six years. Two others, John Edwards and Benson Davis, remain in prison. The four have collectively served more than a century in prison for the 1991 murder of Lorain resident Marsha Blakely – although two of the men were nearly 500 miles away in New York and another passed the evening in a bar, both alibis having been authenticated by numerous witnesses and documentary evidence. Prosecutors accepted the flawed testimony of William Avery, Jr., a troubled police informant who has long since recanted his false claim that the four men were involved in the crime.
“We are thrilled that these men will regain the precious freedom that never should have been taken from them,” said Joshua Dubin of The Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law School. “Mr. Tomlinson has been thorough and diligent in his re-review of this case. He recognized their claims of innocence and justly moved to vacate their convictions. We are so thankful to everyone that has worked on this case over the years. We are all so grateful they can resume their lives as free men, with their names cleared. It is now time for them to begin to heal.”
Mr. Dubin added, “I want to especially recognize Jennifer Bergeron, formerly of the Ohio Innocence Project, who has worked tirelessly on behalf of Al Cleveland for 15 years.” Although an appeals court found Cleveland’s claims of innocence credible in 2012, it wasn’t until 2020 that he was released.
In addition to Mr. Dubin and The Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law, the Ohio 4 are represented by Ohio Innocence Project attorneys Lauren Staley and Shantya Goddard, Wrongful Conviction Project of the Office of the Ohio Public Defender attorneys Joanna Sanchez and Nicholas Allen, and wrongful conviction attorney Kimberly Kendall Corral.
Statement from OH Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson