James Joseph Richardson

James Joseph Richardson
Mugshot of Richardson after being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for mass murder in 1968
Born(1935-12-26)December 26, 1935
DiedSeptember 16, 2023(2023-09-16) (aged 87)
Known forBeing wrongfully convicted of mass murder
Criminal statusExonerated (1989)
Compensation settled for $1.2 million (2016)
Conviction(s)First-degree murder (overturned)
Criminal penalty
Spouses
  • Teresa Rivers
Annie Richardson
(divorced)
Children7 (d. October 1967)

James Joseph Richardson (December 26, 1935 – September 16, 2023)[1][2] was an African-American man who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in 1968 for the October 1967 mass murder of his seven children. They died after eating a poisoned breakfast containing the organic phosphate pesticide parathion.[3] At the time of the murders, Richardson was a migrant farm worker in Arcadia, Florida living with his wife Annie Mae Richardson and their children. At a trial in Fort Myers, Florida, the jury found him guilty of murdering the children and sentenced him to death. As a result of the United States Supreme Court's 1972 Furman v. Georgia decision finding the death penalty unconstitutional, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was then exonerated in 1989 after 21 years, when his case was revisited by appointed Miami-Dade County prosecutor Janet Reno.[4] Following Richardson's exoneration, the babysitter of the Richardson children, Bessie Reece, has been named as the key suspect. Reece died in 1993.[5][6] In 2016 he began receiving compensation under a state law narrowly tailored to his case.

  1. ^ "James Joseph Richardson Bio". in.com. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
  2. ^ "James Joseph Richardson". September 16, 2023.
  3. ^ Lane, Mark (1970). Arcadia. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 978-0030818547.
  4. ^ "James Richardson". Victims of the State. Archived from the original on June 1, 2013.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sentinel was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Herald was invoked but never defined (see the help page).