Meet the Exonerated: North Carolina's Death Row Part Two

Edward Chapman, nicknamed “The Philosopher King” while on death row, was convicted in 1994 of the murders of  Betty Jean Ramseur and Tenene Yvette Conley and sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. He spent nearly 15 years on death row before he was released in 2008.

Death Row Inmate Freed After 15 Years

"I don't think it gets much worse than perjury by a sworn officer of the law to put a man on death row when you know he doesn't belong there.” Frank Goldsmith, Chapman’s attorney,

Since his release from prison, Chapman has traveled the state talking about his experience and advocating for reforms to the criminal justice system. In August, he lobbied for passage of the N.C. Racial Justice Act, which seeks to remedy racial bias in North Carolina’s capital punishment system. The bill was passed and signed into law.

While anxiously awaiting a $98 state income tax refund after his release, Chapman learned that  officials planned to apply it toward court costs from the wrongful conviction.

Edward Chapman: Free, Upfront and In Charge By Connie L. Nash

When Edward Chapman described death row last Thursday at Transylvania County Library, he said he liked to be “upfront from the git-go”. Attention around the table grew and folk leaned further in while Chapman told of his troubled past and struggles to survive a corrupt environment where some guards had more to do with a prostitution ring and bringing in drugs than the prisoners did.

Chapman was also candid about his inner struggle and success to inwardly become and stay free along with his regrets as a son, a husband, a father and more. His mother and common-law wife died during his imprisonment. He watched his beloved son’s anger toward him grow over the years – especially after his wife’s death. Chapman’s eyes filled with tears a few times in the telling. Still, he said, through all those years he prayed and “never gave up - if you throw in the towel," he said, "no one wants to hear you cry."

Daily conditions? Food was terrible. “Floodlights twenty-four seven - THAT was torture and we had to take our shower five minutes max or pick up cigarette butts. Sometimes punishment was to move us old guys where the younger play rap music all the time." Classes and the arts? These were discontinued. “We were told,” Chapman said, “You're not here to learn - you're here to die.”

Behind bars for fifteen years, Chapman said he liked to think for himself and to learn from others who did the same - like the inmate who "visited" a different country every day via maps and knew facts and figures as if he’d been there. Chapman didn't mind being alone. He liked reading deep poetry - looking for the "story within the story". He got interested in writing his own poems and asking others to decipher his own hidden meaning. People began calling him “The Philosopher King” – they still do.

Chapman wrote letters daily and kept records of "every act of kindness" – he wrote with the faith that someone – somewhere would help him get free. Eventually he got to know the Chair of the Psychology Dept. at UNC-Asheville, Dr. Pam Laughon, who looked under every legal rock - for years – even after a string of state-appointed lawyers had failed.

Finally, Attorney Frank Goldsmith and Professor Laughon (become Mitigation Specialist) put together a winning case.

On April 2, 2008 Glen Edward Chapman became the seventh inmate freed in NC due to wrongful conviction . In summary, he was erroneously charged with the murders of two women by sloppy lawyers, ineffective counsel, and numerous other roadblocks. In the case 'State v. Glen Edward Chapman' NC Superior Court Judge Robert Ervin found that each of the lead detectives assigned to the case had covered up exculpatory evidence inconsistent with the State’s theory of his guilt.

Chapman said, "I hit the road running." Alexandra Cury, head of the North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium , added “He works harder than anyone else at the Asheville hotel where he's been recently promoted from dishwasher to the most popular staff member of Housekeeping and has lots of friends. He works extra every chance he gets. He never drinks. Chapman said that he wanted to do everything possible to stay clear-headed.

According to Chapman and the legal team, racial discrimination may have played a strong role in the false charges. His testimony was added to many other such statements spoken on behalf of “The North Carolina Racial Justice Act” which Governor Beverly Perdue signed the Act into law August 11, 2009. Over 60% of those on NC Death Row are black.

Since 1973, nationwide 135 people have been exonerated and freed from death row –. including five people in 2009.

Percentage-wise, for every six people executed in North Carolina – there’s been one person freed from death row. There are nine stories of the wrongful conviction of people with strong innocent cases posted at the “ North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium” website under “Wrongful Convictions”. There may well be more such cases.

What’s next for Chapman? Asked - “Why don’t you sound bitter?" Chapman said, "I'm in control of my life now. I’m free. It's like winning the lottery… When you're bitter, other people have power over you." “Edward’s dad’s a chef” Cury added “and one day Edward would love to be one.” There is one more goal, Cury told the group: like most released prisoners, Chapman was sent from prison minus resources to help start a new life. He and his supporters are seeking a “Pardon of Innocence” from Governor Bev Perdue so that he may receive the compensation he is due, "from the State of North Carolina for his unjust and unlawful incarceration."

Along with many cheering supporters, I pray Glen Edward Chapman will succeed. GO Edward and god-speed - stay free, upfront and in charge each day for the rest of your life!

Alan Gell (left) was wrongfully convicted of the 1995 murder of Alan Ray Jenkins and imprisoned for nine years, five of which were on death row.

The body of Jenkins, a 56-year-old retired truck driver, was found on April 14, 1995, inside his home in Aulander. He had been shot twice with a shotgun.

Prosecutors built a case against Gell based on the testimony of two teenagers, Crystal Morris and Shanna Hall, Gell's former girlfriend, who testified that they saw Gell pull the trigger and kill Jenkins during a robbery on April 3, 1995

But prosecutors in Gell's original trial withheld from defense lawyers a secretly taped phone call in which Morris, who was then 15 years old, did not answer when her boyfriend asked her twice whether Gell killed Jenkins.

Gell was either out of state or in jail on a car-theft charge from April 4 until after Jenkins' body was found April 14, and 17 witnesses told investigators that they saw Jenkins alive between April 7 and 10.

Gell won a new trial in December 2002 because of the withheld evidence -- statements of people who saw Jenkins alive after Gell had been jailed for vehicle theft, and a taped conversation of the star witness saying she had to "make up a story" for police. Gell's retrial in February resulted in a quick acquittal.


Alfred Rivera, 28, was sentenced to death in the shooting deaths of Michael A. Nicholson and James E. Smith. Nicholson and Smith were shot in the head at close range inside Nicholson’s apartment in 1996. On October 7, 1996, Rivera was indicted for two counts of first-degree murder and was tried capitally at the Criminal Session of Superior Court.

The jury found Rivera guilty of both counts of first-degree murder on the basis of premeditation and deliberation and under the felony murder rule. Following a capital sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended a sentence of death for each first-degree murder conviction. The trial court sentenced defendant accordingly.

After two years on death row, the North Carolina Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Rivera ruling that the trial judge should have allowed jurors to hear testimony by a prison inmate that Rivera may have been framed.

The prison inmate said he had a conversation with a codefendant in jail in which the codefendant claimed to have "two dudes" who were going to say it was Rivera who committed the murders. The testimony tended to show the codefendant's intent to direct or assist the two men in executing the plan to identify Rivera as the shooter and was thus admissible as evidence of the codefendant's then-existing intent to engage in a future act.

Rivera was acquitted in the retrial.