On the night of July 17, 1988, three Black males entered a convenience store on Highway 61 in Cleveland, Mississippi. One stayed by the door while another ordered a hotdog. While the victim was preparing the food, the man who’d ordered went behind the counter and produced a gun. He told the victim to empty the register. He wound up grabbing some of the cash himself before shooting the victim. She survived her wounds and later identified Markius Thomas as one of the three robbers. A 14-year-old witness named Keith came forward and claimed to see Jimmie Bass, Markius Thomas, and another man running from the scene at the time of the crime. Mr. Bass allegedly had a pistol in his hand, which he was trying to pocket as he ran. Keith addressed Markius Thomas, but Markius kept running, stating that he’d catch up with Keith later. Keith had initially told police, twice, that he’d not seen anything and did not know anything about the robbery.
By the time of trial, Keith claimed that he implicated Mr. Bass after being approached by Cleveland Police investigators. On cross examination, Keith contradicted his own timeline and claimed that he’d not been promised anything for his testimony. Keith’s 17-year-old sister, Anita, was called to testify that Mr. Bass showed up at her home on the night of the crime because he was running from police. She wound up testifying that the district attorney and police were trying to force her to say things that weren’t true. She recanted the statement she’d given to police, adding that police had scared her with the threat of jail time. Despite several alibi witnesses testifying that Mr. Bass was at home and on the phone at the time of the crime, a jury convicted him of aggravated assault and armed robbery in December 1988. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Innocence & Justice Louisiana’s investigation revealed that Keith and Anita were paid for their statements against Mr. Bass. The lead detective paid Keith a total of 500 dollars for signing two statements, in 1989 and 1995, that implicated Mr. Bass and claimed that Keith had testified truthfully at Mr. Bass’s trial. Keith would later sign an affidavit indicating that Anita had been paid $50 to make a statement. Both Keith and Anita were at home on the night of the crime. Keith confessed to several friends that he’d lied at Mr. Bass’s trial and had been paid for his testimony. Anita also told others that she’d been paid to make a false statement.
Though the jury heard the victim testify that she’d not positively identified Mr. Bass, it never heard that she’d viewed Mr. Bass’s photo, a video depicting him, and seen him in a live lineup; she did not recognize him as one of the perpetrators. The jury also never heard that co-defendant Markius Thomas participated in a robbery with two other boys just 28 hours after this crime. The Bolivar County Circuit Court reversed Mr. Bass’s conviction in June 2006 and authorized his release on bond two months later. Innocence & Justice Louisiana litigated for over three more years until Mr. Bass was exonerated in March 2010.
Mr. Bass spent over 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
