Unfortunately, the police and later the prosecutors latched onto a theory of what happened — a group attack — and never considered that the person seen running away from the murder scene hiding something under his jacket was the real murderer. This is a common phenomenon known as tunnel vision or confirmation bias. It afflicts people acting in good faith, especially when investigating crimes that shock the conscience such as the horrific murder of Mrs. Fuller. The police and the prosecutors did not know in 1984 and 1985 what we all know now — that the person running away from the murder scene with something under his jacket would commit an identical murder in 1992 three blocks away less than two months after being released from prison.

No. The police did not collect a sufficient amount of biological material to allow for DNA analysis.

No. There is no physical evidence tying the guys to the scene of the crime — no fingerprints, hair, clothing, or anything else. The prosecution relied entirely on witness testimony.

Yes.

Unbiased eyewitnesses confirmed that the garage doors were closed at 5:30 pm and that they heard groans coming from inside. We know that this is when the attack was underway. It is impossible that the unbiased witnesses passing by the garage or on the nearby street would not have seen or heard a group of 20 people engaged in a vicious group assault. And 20 people could not have moved in and out of the garage with the doors closed. Nor could they have fit inside of it — the space was far too small and full of debris to fit an unruly 20-person mob attack.

Finally, the prosecutors claimed that the defendants initially attacked Mrs. Fuller close to the 8th Street entrance to the alley. But Mrs. Fuller’s belongings were scattered near the 9th Street entrance, showing that is where she was attacked. The attack could not have started near the 8th Street entrance, as prosecutors claimed.

See the diagram here.

Police brought Cliff Yarborough in for questioning. He was one of the preteens and teenagers who hung out around 8th & H Street. Cliff was only sixteen years old and had an IQ below 70. The police separated Cliff from his older brother. Cliff denied any involvement in Mrs. Fuller’s murder, but police refused to accept his answers. After police interrogated Cliff for several hours, Cliff falsely confessed to being at the scene of the crime — but not to taking part in the murder — in a videotaped statement so that he could go home and see his mother. Cliff did not know that fabricating a story with himself as an observer to the crime would put him at legal risk.

Once Cliff agreed to ‘confess’, the police engaged in tactics now widely recognized as key drivers of false confessions. The police repeatedly suggested to Cliff people they claimed were involved in the group attack and asked him what their roles were. Cliff made things up, listing various supposed attacks that made no sense and did not match Mrs. Fuller’s injuries. And, Cliff promptly recanted, it was too late — police had fallen down the group attack rabbit hole.

For more on what happened to Cliff, you can watch The Confession Tapes on Netflix

Yes, but none of the prosecution’s witnesses stand by their testimony implicating the guys.

Several young kids gave statements to police or lied on the stand in exchange for money or significantly less jail time. Decades after the guys were convicted, the prosecution’s two key witnesses recanted under oath, admitting that they lied at the 1985 trial and that they did not see the guys kill Mrs. Fuller. None of the prosecution’s witnesses who testified that the guys did this stand by their trial testimony. And unlike the prosecution’s witnesses, William Freeman did not get money or favors in return for his statements implicating James McMillan, and he never backed down from them.