I Didn't Do It! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rubin Carter

"Here comes the story of the Hurricane" are haunting lyrics from Bob Dylan's enduring 1975 protest song about the career and imprisonment of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. Carter was an African-American boxer from Clinton, New Jersey, who rose as high as the number three contender for the Middleweight boxing crown in 1964. Carter had a shot at the title and lost a decision to Joey Giardello. By 1966, Carter had slipped from the top rankings and his career was on the decline.

Carter was arrested and convicted of the deaths of three people from a shooting spree inside a bar in Patterson, New Jersey. Carter's conviction was based largely on testimony from 2 petty criminals who were near the bar committing other crimes. In 1974, after Rubin had been in prison for seven years the witnesses recanted their testimony. Carter wrote a book protesting his innocence and Dylan was inspired by the story. In part because of the impact of Dylan's song, Carter was granted a new trial. However, he was convicted a second time in 1982. This conviction was overturned by a US Federal Court based on further prosecutorial malfeasance and racial discrimination by the trial court. Carter was freed in November 1985 after serving over 18 years in jail. Carter moved to Canada and became a motivational speaker. A movie, starring Denzel Washington, loosely relating the story of Carter's life and fight for freedom was released in 1999. The other famous boxers listed in the question all served time in prison at one time or another.

Answer: Alfred Dreyfus

In 1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus was one of only two Jewish army officers on the French General Staff. France at the time was both rife with antisemitism, but also had one of Europe's more progressive public attitude towards Jews. Dreyfus was convicted of passing French military secrets to Germany. Despite almost no evidence to support the allegation, Dreyfus was court-martialed in camera in 1894 and sentenced to life in prison on Devil's Island. After the conviction, his family began a campaign for his exoneration. In 1898 famed author Emile Zola wrote government officials blistering letters exhorting the French government to acknowledge its mistake. Slowly, as new evidence was gathered, the pressure on the French government increased.

There were many "twists and turns" in the Dreyfus Affair: he was retried in 1899 by a military court, convicted again - and pardoned by the president of France. He was not acquitted till yet another trial, in 1906.

The Dreyfus Affair became both an embarrassment for the French and a moving force in the history of European Jews. Theodor Herzl was an Austrian journalist who covered Dreyfus's story. The treatment suffered by Dreyfus and the real fear of retaliation against Jews generally, caused Herzl to start the Zionist movement to establish a Jewish Homeland. Ultimately, this led to the Balfour Declaration and later the founding of the State of Israel.

Dreyfus was reinstated in the French Army and achieved the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, earning a knighthood in the Legion of Honor. Dreyfus died in 1935. Well known American actor Richard Dreyfuss and actress/heiress Julia Louis Dreyfus are allegedly distant cousins of Alfred.

Answer: Atlanta Summer Olympics

Atlanta Georgia hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics. Richard Jewell was a thirty four year old security officer employed by a local college. During the Olympics, Jewell was assigned to watch Centennial Park, a key Olympic location. On June 27, 1996 while patrolling the Park, Jewell discovered a green backpack under a bench. The backpack contained a pipe bomb filled with metal shrapnel. Jewell contacted the Georgia State Police and helped evacuate spectators from the park. The bomb, however, detonated and killed one person.

Initially, Jewell was called a hero for acting calmly and quickly to save numerous lives that otherwise would have been in danger from the blast. However, based on poor information and calculated leaks by the FBI, Jewell was soon identified as the prime suspect in the bombing. Four months later, after an intense and fruitless investigation, Jewell was removed as a suspect in the case. By then the rush to judgment by the media had destroyed Jewell's life and career. Eventually the FBI apologized for its rash and incorrect assumption of Jewell's involvement and many media sources settled libel suits brought by Jewell. Jewell spent most of the rest of is life trying to live down the stigma of being called a terrorist He died at the age of 44. In 2005, rabid anti-abortion terrorist Eric Robert Rudolph confessed to planting the device and was convicted of the bombing.

Answer: The Great Mint Swindle

In June 1982, 49 gold bars were stolen from the Perth Mint in Western Australia. The case became an immediate media favorite in Western Australia and was popularly dubbed "The Great Mint Swindle" (alternatively the "Perth Mint Swindle"). Police suspected three brothers, Ray, Peter, and Brian Mickelberg, of the crime. The brothers were arrested and on the basis of dubious confessions quickly convicted and sent to prison. Soon after their convictions the case against the Mickelberg brothers began to unravel. Brian Mickelberg successfully appealed his conviction and was released less than a year later. Ray and Peter maintained their innocence, but served eight and six years respectively, before being granted parole.

In 2002, during an unrelated investigation into Western Australian police corruption, one of the original Great Mint Swindle investigating officers confessed that he and his partner had fabricated evidence to secure the brother's convictions. In 2004, the Western Australian courts exonerated the Mickelberg Brothers and the government paid the surviving brothers over one million dollars (AU) in compensation for the wrongful imprisonment. The Great Mint Swindle has never been solved and the gold remains missing.

Answer: Joan of Arc

To be fair, only the English and Catholic Church ever considered Joan a criminal and a heretic. When forces allied with the English captured the 19 year old "Maid of Orleans" in May 1430, the English quickly purchased her ransom and coerced a supportive cleric to charge the girl with heresy. Her "crimes" were essentially being inspired by the voice of God to free France from English rule and wearing men's clothing. Once convicted of these crimes, Joan almost escaped a death penalty when she performed a ritual abjuration in woman's clothing. However, in order to forestall attempts at rape, Joan reverted back to men's clothes. The English controlled ecclesiastical court then ordered Joan burned at the stake. Joan was killed on May 30, 1431.

Even at the time of her death most scholars assumed Joan's death was a political act by the vengeful English with complicity from the newly crowned French King. Even the Pope was alleged to be in fear of the power Joan had amassed in such a short time, and thus did not intervene to stop the charade. A posthumous nullification trial in 1456 concluded that Joan was innocent of all heresy charges and had died a martyr to her faith. The rehabilitation of Joan's reputation and legacy was completed in 1920 when Pope Benedict XV canonized her as Saint Joan of Arc.

Answer: West Memphis Three

West Memphis, Arkansas is a small suburb of Memphis Tennessee, where in 1993, the bodies of three missing eight year old boys were found mutilated and beaten. Three older teenage boys with checkered pasts were arrested and charged with the crimes. One of the three defendants, both mentally challenged and a minor, was "induced" to give a confession. Despite a lack of evidence, the three boys were convicted of the "satanic " murders of the children and either sentenced to death or life in prison. A combination of painstaking detective work by journalists, film makers and activists worked tirelessly to have the convictions of the West Memphis Three reversed. In the ensuing years, several witnesses recanted their testimony, admitting their statements were fabrication or suggested by police investigators, and DNA evidence from the murder scene all but exonerated the defendants. After sixteen six years in jail, the West Memphis Three accepted a deal to plead "guilty but innocent" under a US process known as an "Alford's Plea". The West Memphis Three are now free from prison and trying to rebuild their shattered lives.

Documentary film makers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky released their first movie on the case in 1996. That movie released on the cable television network, HBO, entitled "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" was key in rallying support for the West Memphis Three. The two sequels "Paradise Lost2: Revelations" form 2000 and 2012's "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" follow the case until the release of the West Memphis Three. Another film about the case "West of Memphis" by Amy Berg and Peter Jackson was released in 2013 and was nominated for a BAFTA in the best documentary category.

Answer: DNA profiling

The case of Daryl Hunt highlights the value of scientific evidence in modern justice. In 1984, Hunt was a 19 year old African-American man living in North Carolina when he was arrested and convicted of the rape and murder of a white female news reporter. The case against Hunt contained no physical evidence and little witness corroboration. A jury without any minority members still sentenced Hunt to life imprisonment. In 1994, using the new technique of DNA analysis, lawyers for Hunt were able to prove conclusively that Hunt had not raped the victim. Nevertheless, it took another 13 years before the North Carolina courts would overturn his conviction and release the wrongly imprisoned Hunt. All in all, Daryl Hunt spent over 19 years in jail for crimes he did not commit.

DNA evidence was instrumental in both exonerating Hunt and catching the real rapist and murder. In 2003, another man confessed to the 1984 crimes after DNA evidence linked him to the rape. Unfortunately, Hunt's case is not unique. There have been hundreds of people across the globe set free from crimes they did not commit based on post-conviction DNA testing. The Innocence Project, a US based advocacy group, has been responsible for freeing several hundred of such prisoners. In 1994, Kirk Bloodsworth became the first person sentenced to die for capital crimes to be exonerated based on DNA evidence.

Answer: capital punishment

The sad case of the life and death of Timothy John Evans remains poignant today. In 1949, Evans lived in London's Notting Hill neighborhood with his wife and young daughter. When Evan's wife became pregnant a second time, the couple determined to abort the pregnancy. Shortly thereafter, both Mrs. Evans and the young daughter were found strangled in the garden of the apartment home rented by the Evans'. Using a falsified confession and little or no physical evidence, a British jury convicted Evans and he was sentenced to death. Evans was hanged on March 9, 1950 proclaiming that his landlord, Mr. Christie, had committed the foul deed.

In 1953, a new tenant in the flat rented by Evans' discovered the bodies of three women buried near where Mrs. Evans had been found and three other bodies on the property. The house owner, the very same Mr. Christie decried by Tim Evans, eventually confessed to the murders. Christie was subsequently executed, and is considered to be one of Britain's most notorious serial killers. Some 15 years after he was executed, based on the confession of Christie and the horrifically poor investigation of the original case, Evans' received a royal pardon from his conviction. The sordid story and public bitterness left by Evans' wrongful execution had a considerable effect on Parliament passing the Abolition of the Death Penalty Act in 1965.

Answer: Dingo

Seemingly, the anguish and pain that a parent suffers upon the death of a child could not worsen, but in the case of Alice Lynne ("Lindy") Chamberlain it did. Mrs. Chamberlain and her then husband Michael were camping with their two older sons and infant daughter. Azaria, the infant, was taken from the camp and killed. Azaria's body was never recovered. Mrs. Chamberlain maintained that she had seen a wild dingo enter the family's tent and run off with the infant. Prosecutors refused to believe "the dog did it" defense and instead claimed that Mrs. Chamberlain had planned an elaborate ruse to murder her child. Despite inconclusive evidence at best, Lindy was convicted of the crime in 1982. Four years later the conviction was overturned when new evidence in the form of pieces of the infant's clothing were discovered in a dingo den near Uluru.

Unfortunately, the story does not end there. Even after her release from prison the Australian prosecutors, as well as many in the press and the Australian public, refused to acknowledge her innocence. A 1988 proceeding into the death of Azaria concluded that there was insufficient evidence to convict Lindy, but stopped short of proclaiming her innocence. It was not until 2012 that an Australian coroner finally concluded that a dingo had killed Chamberlain's child. The treatment of Lindy Chamberlain and the media coverage of the tragedy was the subject of several books, film and television programs. In 1989, Meryl Streep received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Lindy in "A Cry in the Dark".

Answer: Sam Sheppard

San Sheppard was a physician in Cleveland Ohio. On July 4, 1954 Sheppard's wife, Marilyn, was bludgeoned to death in their bed. Police and prosecutors were convinced Dr. Sheppard was the killer. Sheppard claimed he was asleep on a couch and only woke up to see a "bushy-haired" man leaving the house, whereupon he gave chase only to be struck unconscious. Evidence at the scene was inconclusive, but almost immediately local and national media labeled Sheppard a murderer.

When Sheppard was tried on second degree murder charges, the judge failed to sequester the jury. He also failed to dismiss several jurors who admitted to exposure and influence from media coverage of the case. Sheppard was convicted of the crime and spent the next 10 years in jail. Sheppard's appeals were handled by famed criminal attorney F. Lee Bailey. Bailey argued that the media circus surrounding the case, improperly admitted evidence, and the lack of control by the court denied Sheppard his right to a fair trial. A Federal court agreed and ordered a new trial. Sheppard was retried in 1965, and without the lurid journalism influencing the second jury, Sheppard was acquitted.

From 1963-1967, the US television series "The Fugitive", starring David Janssen, aired with a back story about a physician running from the law after being wrongly convicted of his wife's murder. Similar to the Sheppard case, Richard Kimble, the doctor in "The Fugitive", claimed the real killer was a mysterious one-armed man. The creator of the show denied basing the series on the Sheppard case, but the similarities to the case seem obvious. In 1993, "The Fugitive" was made into a highly successful movie starring Harrison Ford. Actor George Peppard played Sam Sheppard in the 1975 television movie "Guilty or Innocent: The Sam Sheppard Murder Case".