A Father's Exoneration

Annie and James Richardson

On this day in 1989, James Joseph Richardson was released from a Florida prison after serving 21 years for the murders of his seven children, for which he was wrongfully convicted. His ordeal started on the afternoon of October 25, 1967. While Richardson and his wife Annie were working as fruit pickers in Arcadia, Florida, their neighbor, Betsy Reese, came over to heat up a pot of rice and beans that Annie had prepared the night before for the children's lunch. After the four oldest Richardson students returned to school they began to fall ill, foaming at the mouth and exhibiting other disturbing symptoms. When a teacher arrived at the Richardson house to check on the younger children, she found that they had fallen ill as well. All seven children were rushed to the hospital. By the time James and Annie Richardson were made aware of the situation, six of their children had already passed away.

After Joseph H. Minoughan of the Arcadia Police Department arrived at the hospital and was informed that all of the ill children were siblings, he decided to search the Richardson apartment for any poisons that could have been used to make them sick. He found a can of insecticide but didn't think that was the cause. Arcadia Police Chief Richard Barnard and DeSoto County Sheriff Frank Cline did a second search of the apartment, and while they noticed a strong odor, they did not find any poisonous materials. Cline searched the shed behind the apartment building and found nothing there either.

The following day, October 26, the last surviving Richardson child succumbed to her illness and a two-pound bag of a pesticide called parathion was found in the shed behind the Richardsons' apartment building. Chief Barnard and Sheriff Cline both concurred that the bag had not been there when they had looked the day before. When Officer Minoughan arrived to investigate the bag, he was told by Betsy Reese, the neighbor who had fed the children before they fell ill, that the bag had been found by a man named Charlie Smith. Barnes said that when the bag's discovery had been called into the police by an anonymous male. All of the investigators agreed that whoever put the bag in the shed was likely responsible for the deaths of the Richardson children.

The children's funeral held on October 29, was covered by national magazines and news organizations, putting a spotlight on DeSoto County Sheriff Frank Cline. Arcadia Police Chief Richard Barnard would later tell an attorney that ""Cline saw the chance to make a big name for himself. He needed to make an arrest real bad." Assistant prosecutor John Treadwell, III, told the press that the very night before his children were poisoned, Richardson had discussed taking out life insurance policies on them with an agent by the name of George Purvis. Two days after the funeral, James Richardson was charged, by Sheriff Cline, with seven counts of murder in the first degree. Chief Barnard, however, believed that there was no case against him, and Treadwell, charged with prosecuting the case, agreed. The murder charges were dropped but both James and Annie Richardson were charged with child neglect. However, Judge Gordon Hays agreed with Cline and ordered a coroner's inquest "to substantiate evidence already on hand".

After the judge's order, Sheriff Cline held a press conference where he announced that before James Richardson had moved to Arcadia, he'd had five other children who all died under mysterious circumstances and that he expected to collect $14,000 in life insurance for the deaths in Arcadia. Judge Hays announced that, during a lie detector test, Richardson had indicated that he had knowledge of the poisoning. Hays, who at this point had served as a judge in Arcadia for 31 years, told a coroner's jury "We will meet today to instruct Frank Cline to file murder charges against Richardson."

John S. Robinson, a white attorney who had been following the case, grew concerned about whether James Richardson, an African-American, would receive a fair trial, especially given the media coverage. He contacted people who knew Richardson and they informed him that he was a devoted family man who would never harm his children. Robinson also contacted the Florida chapter of the NAACP and it was agreed that he would work with the organization to represent Richardson in court. When Robinson was finally able to meet with his client, Richardson informed him that Sheriff Cline pushed him and called him racist slurs. He also insisted that he was innocent. Cline had told him he'd be let off easy if he just confessed but he was adamant about not confessing to a crime he did not commit. Robinson found out from an inmate at the Arcadia jail that Cline had bugged Richardson's cell. Robinson found the microphone and confronted Cline.

As part of Richardson's defense, Robinson filed a writ of habeas corpus declaring that there was no substantial evidence against his client. He also asked that Richardson's bail, set at $100,000.00, be reduced. The bail was reduced to $7,500 and Robinson was able to bail his client out of jail. However, his bail was revoked when three convicts who had served time in the same jail told the judge that Richardson had confessed to the murders.

The trial of James Joseph Richardson for the murder of his seven children began on May 27, 1968, at the Lee County courthouse. Despite John Robinson's objections, an all-white jury was chosen for the trial. Three During his testimony, Sheriff Cline declared that there was evidence that Richardson had murdered at least three of his children in another county before the Arcadia murders. Betsy Reese testified to the fact that she had fed the children the poisoned rice and beans and that Charlie Smith had found the bag of parathion. Treadwell, the prosecutor, established that Reese was on parole at the time but did not specify why.

When Gerald Purvis, the insurance agent who had spoken to Richardson the night before his children died, testified, it was not established whether he had been soliciting or if James Richardson had arranged the meeting. Despite Purvis testifying to the fact that Richardson said he couldn't afford life insurance premiums, Treadwell insisted that the life insurance policies were in place before the children were poisoned. A pathologist and chemist were called to testify that the children were poisoned with parathion. Several law enforcement officers testified that the bag of parathion had not been in the shed the first time it was searched. Charlie Smith testified about finding the bag.

On May 31, 1968, after half an hour of deliberating, the jury returned with a unanimous verdict: "Death with premeditation at the hands of James Richardson and party or parties unknown". Richardson was given the death penalty and sat on death row until 1972, the year that the Supreme Court declared the death penalty to be unconstitutional. His sentence was commuted to life in prison, with eligibility for parole in 1993. By this time, the renowned author and attorney Mark Lane had published a book on the case, Arcadia. The book revealed that Betsy Reese, the neighbor who had fed the Richardson children their lunch, had been on parole because she had been convicted of poisoning her ex-husband. Even though she was the one who fed the children the poisoned food, she was never investigated and the prosecution hid her past crimes from the jury. Lane also uncovered that the three convicts who attested to Richardson's confession had fabricated their testimony.

As of 1988, Betsy Reese was in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer's. Although she had confessed to the murder at least a hundred times to the nursing home staff, she was not taken seriously due to her condition. She passed away in 1992.

In 1989, Mark Lane met with the Governor of Florida, Robert Martinez, and handed over all of his findings. Martinez appointed Janet Reno, who was then the State's Attorney from Miami-Dade County, to be a special prosecutor on the investigation into the conviction of James Richardson. On October 25, 1989, a hearing was held in the same courthouse where Richardson had been convicted. It was determined that there was evidence of a cover-up by Sheriff Frank Cline, State Attorney Frank Schaub and his deputy, Treadwell, as well as the local judge. Richardson had not received a fair trial and was released into the custody of his attorneys.

Since his release, James Richardson has sued for and won compensation for his wrongful conviction from the state of Florida. He and Annie eventually divorced. He has suffered from severe heart problems that he attributes to prison food, poor medical care, and constant stress. After suffering from a heart attack in August 1995, he was flown to Wichita, Kansas, for emergency treatment by cardiologist Dr. Joseph Galichia. He eventually went to work for Dr. Galichia as a caretaker on his ranch. He has since remarried and is now retired in Wichita.

Related Reading:

Poisoned Justice


Righting Wrongful Convictions: Should I be Happy or Angry?