He asserted his innocence — but pled guilty
Jerome Gene Miller, a twenty-two-year-old auto worker, told his lawyer he was innocent but nonetheless pled guilty in 1967 to robbing and murdering a Mississippi River toll booth attendant in Randolph County, Illinois, and was sentenced to 199 years in prison. Three years later, the Fifth District Illinois Appellate Court reversed the conviction and remanded the case for a new trial, holding that the trial court had failed to make an adequate inquiry to determine whether Miller understood the consequences of his guilty plea. Six months later Miller was retried on a change of venue in nearby Washington County and acquitted by a jury. — Rob Warden
Copyright © 2006, Center on Wrongful Convictions
Bluhm Legal Clinic, Northwestern University School of Law
