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Shareef Cousin (born 1979) is an American man who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Michael Gerardi in 1996.〔( Amnesty International, Canada )〕 At 16, he became one of the youngest condemned convicts to be put on death row in the United States.〔( Christopher John Farley and James Willwerth, "Dead Teen Walking," TIME Magazine, Monday, Jan. 19, 1998. )〕 Cousin was convicted almost solely on the basis of one eyewitness identification provided by the date of the victim. No physical evidence linked him to the crime scene. A number of other witnesses insisted he had been playing in a youth league basketball game at the time of the murder. A video of the game was also presented. A number of instances of prosecutorial misconduct were discovered in the case. The primary eyewitness initially told police she couldn't identify the shooter as she wasn't wearing her glasses, but this statement was not disclosed to the defense. Another prosecution witness testified that he was coerced to falsely implicate Cousin in exchange for a reduced sentence on other charges. Cousin's conviction and death sentence was eventually overturned after it was found that evidence was mishandled and the DA decided not to pursue the case any further.〔 The case of Shareef Cousin is frequently cited as an example of the unreliable nature of eyewitness testimony as well as the troubling frequency of misconduct within the criminal justice system.〔〔 ==Crime== On March 2, 1995, Michael Gerardi took a woman named Connie Babin on their first date to the Port of Call restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans. After dinner, the couple left the restaurant to return to Gerardi's vehicle parked around the corner. Three black teenage males approached the vehicle. Gerardi yelled at his date to run away, which she did. As she was running, she turned around to see one of the teens shoot Gerardi in the face. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Shareef Cousin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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