Framed after dubious accusation
Francis M. Carroll, a deputy sheriff in Oxford County, Maine, was convicted in 1938 of the murder of Dr. James G. Littlefield. In 1960, Carroll was exonerated after evidence of his innocence — and of a conspiracy to frame him — was brought to light during a hearing on his petition for a state writ of habeas corpus.
Dr. Littlefield’s body, along with that of his wife Lydia, was found in the trunk of his parked car in North Arlington, New Jersey, on October 16, 1937. The attention of two North Arlington police officers had been drawn to the car because a pair of feet were protruding from one of its windows. The feet belonged to Paul Nathaniel (Buddy) Dwyer, eighteen, who lived with his mother in South Paris, Maine, where the Littlefields also resided.
Dwyer confessed that he had slain the couple, but after being convicted based on the confession changed his story, now claiming that Carroll had committed the murders. Dwyer said that Dr. Littlefield had learned that Carroll had engaged in incest with his daughter Barbara, Dwyer’s sweetheart, and had committed the murders to prevent disclosure of the incest.
Based on Dwyer’s bizarre new story, a special prosecutor was appointed. Carroll was indicted and convicted on August 12, 1938, based primarily on Dwyer’s testimony. Although Carroll and Dwyer could not both be guilty under the conflicting prosecution theories on which their convictions rested, both were imprisoned until September 20, 1950, when Carroll’s conviction was vacated and his release ordered on a state writ of habeas corpus.
In issuing the writ, Superior Court Judge Albert Beliveau declared that the prosecutor in the case “deliberately, purposely, and intentionally . . . practiced fraud and deception on the court and jury.” To deny the writ, said Judge Beliveau, “would be a dereliction in the performance of my duty, false in my oath, and would thereby perpetuate a gross miscarriage of justice.”
— Rob Warden
