Margaret Lucas

Perjury for the prosecution sent resulted in Margaret Lucas's wrongful conviction for murder

Margaret Lucas was convicted, along with her son Jesse Lucas, by a jury in 1909 of the murder four years earlier of Clyde Showalter near Mt. Carmel, Illinois. Her conviction rested on the perjured testimony of a purported eyewitness, Oma Johnson, and two other witnesses, Myrtle Mercer and Ruth Henson, who claimed to have heard the defendants talking about how they had committed the crime.

After conviction but before sentencing, the trial judge granted her a new trial, and the charges against her were dropped. Her son, however, was sentenced to life in prison and incarcerated for 23 years before Showalter's actual killer, George Pond, confessed on his deathbed.

For details, see Jesse Lucas.