December 21st, 2011

Kerry Porter was granted an official exoneration and was released from prison on Monday after spending 14 years in prison for a murder that he always maintained was committed by another person. The Kentucky Innocence Project in conjunction with Louisville Metro Police re-investigated the case and uncovered new evidence which helped free Porter. Metro Police recently took a statement which, “clearly implicates a different person” and DNA tests conducted on a piece of duct tape that was used to make a homemade silencer returned a profile of a different, unidentified man.

Police initially suspected Porter killed the victim, Tyrone Camp, out of jealousy. Camp was married to Porter’s former girlfriend. Tyrone Camp’s twin brother, Jerome Camp, says he believes another suspect, Juan Leotis Sanders, who is currently in prison on unrelated manslaughter charges, committed the crime. He said, “I feel real good for Kerry,” adding, “I think he is getting the justice he deserves.” Porter’s mother has also urged the public not to forget Camp’s family and the struggles they have faced. Contributing factors to the wrongful conviction included a bad eyewitness identification and jailhouse snitch testimony.