Walter Fowler & Heywood Pugh Case Data
Compiled by Rob Warden
Copyright © 2006, Center on Wrongful Convictions
Bluhm Legal Clinic, Northwestern University School of Law
Crime date: September 5, 1936
Jurisdiction: Cook County, Illinois
Crime: Murder
Related crime(s): Robbery
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Race or ethnicity: African American
Arrest date: September 17, 1936
Victim: Walter J. Haag
Victim’s occupation: Railway Express Agency driver
Victim’s gender: Male
Victim’s race: White
Victim’s age: 42
How defendant became a suspect: Happened to be in vicinity where crime occurred twelve days after the fact.
Principal evidence of defendant’s guilt: Signed confession
Principal defense: Claim confession was beaten out of him
Type of trial: Jury (all-white)
Conviction date: January 17, 1937
Convicted of: Murder
Sentence: Ninety-nine years
Appellate record: None (there was no direct appeal, and Fowler died in 1949)
Basis for exoneration: Co-defendant Earl Howard Pugh exonerated in 1953 based on disclosure of exculpatory information police had withheld for seventeen years
Legal form of exoneration: Charges dismissed
Release date: (Died in 1949)
Days of incarceration: 4,674
Prior record: Robbery convictions in Michigan and Ohio
Compensation: None
