Ray Krone: His conviction and subsequent exoneration, and what they both mean.

I just looked at the National Registry of Exonerations (see my first post for information about this), and as of today, there have been 1,579 exonerations since 1989. If you don't think wrongful conviction is a chronic problem, I would ask that you go to the registry and scroll through the names of the exonerees, taking the time to read their stories. One of such exonerees is Ray Krone. I think it is important that we learn from the stories of exonerees, that we attempt to conceptualize what they've endured, and that we make a concentrated effort to prevent such suffering in the future, and so I've decided to share Ray's story (to the very best of my ability) in this blogpost.

"A Maricopa County judge sentenced me to death in 1992. At the time of the murder for which I was convicted, the actual perpetrator, Ken Phillips, was on probation for a violent sexual offense. Three weeks after the crime for which I was sentenced to die, he sexually assaulted and choked a 7-year-old girl. He matched the description of a man seen near the location of the murder; it was later determined that shoe prints, palm prints and blood found at the scene matched him as well. After more than 10 years in prison, I was finally exonerated. I walked out of prison with a gate check for $50. I lost my home, U.S. Postal Service job, my personal possessions and 10 years of my life. Arizona has no compensation for wrongful convictions." -Ray Krone 

Who is Ray Krone?

Ray Krone is an Air Force veteran. He had no criminal record prior to his conviction, and he was working as a postal worker at the time of the crime for which he was convicted.

What are the details of the crime?

On December 29, 1991, the victim was found naked and dead in the men's restroom of the bar where she worked. She had been fatally stabbed. There was little evidence found at the crime scene: the blood matched the type of the victim, there was no semen, and the saliva on the victims body came from someone with the most common blood type. No DNA tests were performed. There were bite marks on the victim's breast and neck.

What was the evidence against Ray Krone?

Ray Krone was a frequent customer at the bar where the victim worked. Investigators compared the bite marks from the victim's body to a styrofoam impression of Ray Krone's teeth, and determined that the two matched. This technique, called comparative bite mark analysis, has been widely invalidated by the scientific community. Ray Krone was arrested on December 31, 1991, and charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder. He was convicted of kidnapping and murder, and sentenced to death and a concurrent 21 year sentence.

What did Ray Krone do after his conviction?

Ray Krone was granted a new trial on appeal in 1996, but he was again found guilty. In this trial, the judge sentenced him to life in prison, citing doubts about whether Krone was the real killer. In 2002, DNA testing of the saliva found on the victim proved Krone's innocence, and implicated another man, Kenneth Phillips. Phillips was incarcerated for an unrelated sex crime, and in 2006, Phillips plead guilty to murder and was sentenced to 53 years in prison. Ray Krone was released from prison on April 8, 2002, and on April 24, the District Attorney dismissed all charges against him.

What did Ray Krone do after his exoneration?

Ray Krone filled a federal civil rights lawsuit and received $3 million in damages from the City of Phoenix, and $1.4 million from Maricopa County.

Ray Krone has spoken up about his wrongful conviction and subsequent exoneration. As the 100th inmate to be released from death row because of innocence since 1976, Ray Krone is now an advocate for ending the death penalty. He serves as the director of membership and training for Witness to Innocence and also serves on the board of the Arizona Justice Project.

"The idea that the death of one person negates the loss of another is what keeps many people supporting capital punishment. That's just not true.

The death penalty has no place in our society. It is a tool used by prosecutors to justify bigger budgets, win votes and ensure their continued employment. Family members opposed to capital punishment are not allowed to say so during victim impact statements. Only jurors who support the death penalty sit on capital murder trials.

Prosecutors have immunity when they withhold evidence and knowingly present perjured testimony. Innocent people have to fight for compensation.

Prosecutors like to say that an exoneration is proof the system works. I disagree, and I believe that the more than 150 innocent people who have been sentenced to death would disagree as well." -Ray Krone 

I gathered information for this post using the National Registry of Exonerations, the Innocence Project website, and the Arizona Republic website.

Implications of Identification

Many studies conclude that American Indians are arrested and incarcerated at a higher-than-average rate, and that they are sentenced to longer and harsher punishment. For example, one estimate places the "Native American incarceration [rate]...about 38% higher than the national rate" (Jamaal Bell, “Mass Incarceration: A Destroyer of People of Color and Their Communities”, Huffington Post 2010.) The US Commission on Civil Rights attributes this high rate to "differential treatment by the criminal justice system, lack of access to adequate counsel and racial profiling." These findings are in line with the widely accepted recognition that racial and ethnic minorities face unique disadvantages--disadvantages that their white counterparts do not face--in the criminal justice system. 

However, in truth, it is extremely difficult to estimate the magnitude of discrimination against American Indians within the US criminal justice system because of issues of identification and classification. According to the 2013 census, 5.3% of the Arizona population identifies as American Indian or Alaska Native alone. So, this number is not going to encompass the 2.6% of people in Arizona who identify as two or more races nor is it going to encompass the people who don't answer the race question. From what I can find, those who answer "some other race" is around 11-13%, which is significant. It is not known how many of these 11-13% are of American Indian ancestry. Also, 30.3% of Arizonans identify as Hispanic or Latino, but the census notes that "Hispanics may be of any race, so also are included in applicable race categories." This could alter numbers since some people with some American Indian heritage may identify as Hispanic, depending on their dominant identity or primary language. The race that someone chooses to identify as may not match the race with which others--jurors, prosecutors, police officers--identify them. There is also potential that within the self-identification process, inmates may choose to mark a race that they would not normally identify with because they believe they will get a certain benefit or avoid a certain disadvantage by being categorized according to a certain race, or because they do not understand or otherwise reject the classification system. 

The Arizona Department of Corrections claims that 5.1% of the Arizona prison population self-identifies as "Native Indian." However, if you look at the incarceration rate that encompasses all correctional facilities in Arizona (federal prisons, jails, halfway houses,etc.)—not all of which use the same “Native Indian” language in race classification, and use other descriptors in its place—this percentage jumps to 10% (Prison Policy Initiative 2014). 

The truth is that we can make estimates about the number of incarcerated American Indians in comparison to the overall population of American Indians and Arizonans, but these estimates are widely complicated by a number of external factors, and may be largely inaccurate.