Appeals court: Exonerated men’s claims should be heard

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

A federal judge wrongly dismissed lawsuits filed by three men who spent decades in prison for a murder in Cleveland they did not commit, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.

The judges in Cincinnati concluded that 62-year-old Rickey Jackson, 61-year-old Kwame Ajamu and 64-year-old Wiley Bridgeman can pursue civil-rights claims that Cleveland police detectives fabricated evidence, engaged in malicious prosecution and withheld exculpatory evidence at their trials in 1975.

“We couldn’t have had a better outcome,” said attorney Terry Gilbert, who represents Ajamu and Bridgeman, who are brothers. “It is a tremendous victory for justice for three men whose lives were destroyed by the Cleveland Police Department. They now have a chance of holding them accountable.”

Jackson’s attorney, Elizabeth Wang, said: “Rickey Jackson just wants his day in court. He’s going to get it now.”