The sentence was life, but the verdict is not final
It happens every day. A verdict of guilty is immediately followed by outcries from upset relatives and friends charging that there has been a terrible miscarriage of justice. Prosecutors scarcely even pay attention. So it is almost unheard of for them to back off and admit that justice may not have been served. But last week in Texas, the Dallas County district attorney joined the defense to support setting aside the armed-robbery conviction and life sentence of Lenell Geter, 26. Said D.A. Henry Wade: "I believe some doubt has been raised in the minds of many people concerning the fairness of Geter's trial, as well as his guilt."
Some doubt indeed. The story of how Geter's claim of injustice came to be heard is no dry matter of lawyers marshaling cool arguments for an appeals court. It has been a slam-bang battle waged by friends and lawyers to build public pressure. Says one of his attorneys, George Hairston: "According to an ancient proverb, 'You can get more with a gun and a smile than you can with just a smile.' We've smiled, played by the rules and got nowhere. The media is our gun."
The case began in August 1982, when Geter was arrested by police investigating a rash of armed robberies in the Dallas suburbs and nearby Greenville, a community of 22,000, whose main street until 16 years ago boasted a sign reading THE BLACKEST LAND—THE WHITEST PEOPLE. Geter was an unlikely suspect. An engineering graduate of South Carolina State College, he had arrived in Greenville earlier in the year, one of six young blacks recruited by E-Systems, a large military and electronics contractor. A softspoken, nonsmoking teetotaler, he earned an annual salary of $24,000 and had a reputation among colleagues for intelligence and industry.
Nevertheless, after getting an anonymous tip, police circulated his photo among witnesses to robberies in the area. When one singled out his picture, saying, "I think it might have been him," police picked Geter up and grilled him about more than a dozen unsolved holdups. The next day police arrested Geter's roommate and fellow black engineer Anthony Williams in connection with a $31 robbery of a 7-Eleven store in Garland.
Geter went on trial for the $615 stickup of a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. Five prosecution witnesses identified him, but gave contradictory answers to questions about the robber's height and weight. For the defense, nine of Geter's colleagues testified that he had been at work at the time of the holdup. No physical evidence, like fingerprints or a gun, was presented. Still, in October 1982 the all-white jury found him guilty. At the sentencing hearing, Investigating Detective James Fortenberry testified that he had spoken with the sheriff of Bamberg County, where Geter grew up. The South Carolina sheriff, said Fortenberry, had told him Geter was "a bad character." The prosecution also suggested he was a suspect in other robberies. The jury's sentence: life imprisonment.