Execution Essay: The Case Of Jimmy Bain (1974)

On March 4, 1974 in Lake Walsh, Florida a nine-year-old boy was taken from his home, and dragged to a baseball field and raped. When he was questioned by the police he said his attacker was between the age of seventeen or eighteen, with bushy sideburns and a mustache. The boy’s uncle said that description sounds like a man named Jimmy Bain. When the police showed the victim the lineup photos, the victim pointed out Bain, but out of the six suspects only Jimmy Bain and one other man had sideburns. On March the 5, 1974 at midnight Jimmy Bain was questioned by the police. At the time of the attack Bain claimed to be at home watching tv, and his sister backed up his alibi. But, the police arrested him anyway. At the trial the FBI analysis

He was given a life sentence, even though he had an alibi for he was on the night of the attack and the conflicting serological evidence. The persecution case rested largely on the victim’s identification of Bain in the photo lineup. In 2001 Florida Statue made it possible for certain cases to be reopened for DNA testing. After Bain heard this he presented four handwritten motions for DNA evidence to be tested. The case came before the court five times and was denied all five times. When the tenth Juridical Circuit Public defender and the innocence project of Florida landed Bain, there aid he was finally granted access to post-conviction DNA testing. When the state sent the DNA that was found on the victim to the DNA Diagnostic Center Jimmy Bain was exclude as the source of DNA. On December 17, 2009 a judge singed an order to release Bain from prison. At this time Bain had been imprison for 35 years. As soon as he was released he used a cell phone for the first time and called his mother. The state of Florida gave Jimmy Bain $1.7 Million for his wrongful conviction, he received $50,000 for every year he spent in prison. His mother put her car and her house in his name she stated “I want him to have something by himself. He has suffered

When the victim said he thinks the man said his name was Jim or Jimmy he was not certain. But the police went along with that anyway. Then the victim’s uncle said that’s sounds like a man named Jimmy Bain. The victim didn’t get a clear picture of his attacker during his attack and nor did his uncle see when his nephew was kidnapped. The victim and his uncle were just going off assumptions. The victim was the only witness to the crime, and the police went solely off of his identification through the police lineup. During the lineup there were only six pictures and only two of them had sideburns and Bain was one of the men. If the victim had seen Jimmy Bain outside on the street or in his neighborhood of course he’s going to look familiar. Because of the eye witness’s misidentification and DNA testing not being available then Jimmy 35 years of the life sentence he was given for a sex crime he did not commit. He spent more time in jail for a crime he did not commit than any other American exonerated through DNA evidence. If the victim could have correctly remembered his attacker, the right person would have been convicted instead of the wrong