A woman was raped and murdered in her Forrest County, Mississippi, home on May 4, 1979. Her son, four years old, witnessed the crime and told police that there was only one perpetrator. Almost a month after the crime, Larry Ruffin was questioned by police and wound up giving four inculpatory statements in which he stated that he, alone, committed the crime. Mr. Ruffin recanted his statements.
Seventeen months after the crime, Bobby Ray Dixon was questioned by police and wound up making two inculpatory statements. Mr. Dixon, particularly vulnerable to falsely confessing due to a head injury from childhood, was functionally illiterate at the time. He would later testify, at Mr. Ruffin’s trial, that he was not at the scene and knew nothing of the crimes.
Eighteen months after the crime, Phillip Bivens was questioned by police and made an inculpatory statement in which he claimed that he was present while Mr. Ruffin committed the crimes against Ms. Patterson. The statements of all three men were inconsistent, sometimes contradictory with each other. Mr. Dixon and Mr. Bivens pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty, while Mr. Ruffin was convicted after a trial in which the state asserted that he alone raped Ms. Patterson before killing her. All three men were sentenced to life.
Mr. Ruffin died in prison in July 2002.
Mr. Bivens and Mr. Dixon were exonerated and released in September 2010, after almost 30 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. Mr. Ruffin was exonerated posthumously in February 2011. Mr. Dixon was only free for fewer than eight weeks before he passed away in August 2010. Mr. Bivens enjoyed fewer than four years of freedom before passing away in August 2014.
