05/06/2026
Rickey Jackson was just 18 years old when he was sentenced to death row for a crime he did not commit. In 1975, on a street corner in Cleveland, Ohio, a money-order salesman was robbed and shot. And the man lost his life. Five days later, Rickey was in police custody. The only witness against him was a 12-year-old boy who testified that he saw Rickey pull the trigger, even though the boy was on a school bus several blocks away when the shots happened. No physical evidence linked Rickey to the crime. And he was sentenced to death.
In his darkest moments behind bars, Rickey held onto something small. "I had this ember inside me, some little smoldering piece of hope," he said. "If I give up, what am I really surrendering to? And so you go on." He read books in the prison library. He wrote letters to journalists and filmmakers, begging someone to look at his case. He described it as falling asleep at 18 and waking up at 60. His mother died while he was inside. He missed everything.
After 39 years, the 12-year-old boy was now a 53-year-old man, and his name is Edward Vernon. He was coerced to testify against Rickey, and detectives threatened to arrest his parents if he refused. But Edward finally told the truth. He wrote in an affidavit that he never witnessed it. Rickey served 39 years, three months, and nine days, and it was the longest wrongful imprisonment ever to end in exoneration in U.S. history. The Ohio Innocence Project took on Rickey's case and fought to set him free. When the two men finally met face to face, Rickey hugged Edward and told him, "It's all right brother. We were both victims."
(Photo: Courtesy of the Ohio Innocence Project | Phil Long / AP)
