Ruffin v. State

I worked on my thesis specifically coerced plea cases. The one I analyzed today was Ruffin v. State. Ruffin, Dixon, and Bivens were all found guilty for capital murder and rape. Dixon and Ruffin died before the exoneration day. In the original case (1984), Dwayne Patterson was raped and murdered in her own home. Ruffin had witnesses that proved he wasn't there that day. He confessed twice, both not remaining consistent. They lacked evidence and DNA evidence wasn't looked at carefully. In 2014, they revisited the case and found them not guilty because DNA evidence proved they were innocent and that another man committed this awful crime.

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