Douglas Prade
Douglas Prade, a former Akron police captain, walked free in 2013 following 15 years of serving a life sentence for the murder of his ex-wife, Dr. Margo Prade.
Ohio Innocence Project students worked to overturn his wrongful conviction for 10 years, starting with the launch of OIP in 2003. Through their work, subsequent DNA testing on evidence presented at trial excluded Douglas. A common pleas court judge ruled that no reasonable juror would convict Douglas and ordered him released.
On the prosecutor’s appeal, however, an appellate court reversed that ruling, finding that the trial court judge abused her legal authority and that the “meaningfulness of the DNA exclusion results is far from clear.” That decision was appealed to the Supreme Court of Ohio and the United States Supreme Court, but those efforts were not successful.
Douglas was returned to prison and continues to fight for his freedom.
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