MAIP is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court!

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear one of our biggest cases, involving the conviction of eight innocent men (including MAIP client Christopher Turner) in the brutal 1984 murder of Catherine Fuller in Northeast D.C. Chris was released on parole in 2010, and one of the men died in prison; the other six remain incarcerated for a crime committed by another man.

MAIP has been involved in this case since 2002, when we only had the capacity to screen cases and helped secure lawyers for some of the men. We have been representing Chris since 2010, when we filed petitions in D.C. Superior Court arguing that the men were innocent and that their convictions were obtained in violation of the Constitution. In 2012, after a three-week hearing in D.C. Superior Court, our petitions were denied. We appealed.

In 2015, a panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals denied our appeals, and in 2016, that same court denied our request for the full court to review the case. In Virginia, Maryland, or another state, our next step would have been filing a habeas corpus petition in a federal district court. But D.C. prisoners are not allowed to do that.

Supreme Court review was our last chance in the courts — one where the odds were stacked against us because the Supreme Court grants review in so few cases.

But we beat the odds, and now we have one more chance to free these innocent men.

Read more about the case:

Washington Post – Dec 14, 2016 – Court agrees to hear arguments in horrific 1984 D.C. murder case

Washington Post – Apr 22, 2012 – In 1984 D.C. murder case, court to examine allegations of prosecutor misconduct

NPR – July 5, 2011 – A Murder, 7 Convictions And Many Question Marks

Washington Post – May 6, 2001 – A Case of Conviction

The Story of Christopher Turner