Free after 23 years
Wrongful Convictions Clinic secures exoneration for Quincy Amerson
Quincy Marquies Amerson, a client of the Duke Law School Wrongful Convictions Clinic, walked free for the first time in more than two decades after the clinic presented exculpatory evidence in his 2001 murder conviction and the state dismissed its case.
Amerson, 49 at the time of release, spent nearly 23 years in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder in the 1999 death of a child in Harnett County and sentenced to life without parole. He was effectively exonerated of the crime on Feb. 16, after a Superior Court judge found that prejudicial evidence and testimony had denied him a fair trial and vacated his conviction and sentence.
But he had to wait in jail until District Attorney Suzanne Matthews signed and filed a dismissal ending the case on March 13, upon which Amerson was released and went home to his parents.
“We are very happy for Quincy and his family. However, there was never any doubt that he was innocent,” said James E. Coleman Jr., the John S. Bradway Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Law and director of the Wrongful Convictions Clinic, who had been working to exonerate Amerson since 2006.
“To steal so much of someone’s life purposelessly and without evidence is just heartbreaking.”
— Luke Mears ’24
“When the prosecutor finally had to address the irrefutable facts demonstrating his innocence, she was forced to concede that the evidence on which the State relied to convict Quincy of murder in 2001 was, in the words of her own expert, ‘invalid’ and did not support the conclusion Quincy had killed the young victim.”
Amerson spent his first full day of freedom enjoying time with his family and savoring simple pleasures like getting into a car with his father and driving around together.
“It was overwhelming. To be in the house with my family was a wonderful feeling,” Amerson said of the reunion. “I have never felt anything as good.”
While he missed meeting his nieces and seeing his children grow up, Amerson said he remained optimistic throughout his long ordeal, passing time by reading, writing, and reaching out to anyone who might be able to help.
“I never gave up hope,” he said. “I had loved ones who were along for the whole ride.”
Now, he said, he hopes to use his case to shine a light on injustice in the criminal legal system.
Clinic member Luke Mears ’24 called the outcome “25 years too long” to achieve.
“To steal so much of someone’s life purposelessly and without evidence is just heartbreaking, but we are, of course, happy and relieved with the result,” Mears said. “We are incredibly grateful to Quincy, his family, and his friends for their patience and support as we navigated the frustrations of this case.”
Samuel de Sousa Dias Martins Bettini ’24, who also worked on Amerson’s claim, noted that his release came after years of effort by Duke Law faculty, students, and alumni.
“While it was extremely frustrating the way the State handled this case from beginning to end, from the initial investigation to the DA’s overdue dismissal, we are immensely happy for Quincy and his family,” Bettini said.
“Working on this case has been the most rewarding experience I have had in law school — and perhaps in my life so far.”
The Wrongful Convictions Clinic investigates plausible claims of innocence made by people incarcerated for felonies in North Carolina. Amerson is the 11th man to be exonerated since its founding in 2008 by Coleman and Charles S. Rhyne Clinical Professor Emerita of Law Theresa Newman ’88.
Convicted by “speculation, aided by junk science”
Amerson was wrongfully convicted in April 2001 for the death of Sharita Rivera, a 7-year-old girl whose body was found on a country road in Johnsonville, North Carolina, in the early morning hours of Aug. 7, 1999. By the time police arrived, her body had been struck by several vehicles, according to witness reports and court testimony. Her mother, Patrice Rivera, was found dead at their home several miles away.
Police quickly formed a belief that the girl had been hit and killed intentionally, based on their assessment of elements of the scene including blood spray around the child’s body, tire imprints near the road, and the remains of a wheel well liner found a quarter of a mile away.
They arrested Amerson, then 24, who lived two houses from the Riveras, after he told police he had driven the same route that evening in his girlfriend’s car. That vehicle was found to have blood and tissue on the underside and was missing a wheel well liner like the one found. No other physical evidence connecting Amerson to the crime was found, and debris from other cars was at the site.
But Amerson was convicted of first-degree murder for the child’s death, based in part on the testimony of a state trooper who conducted an initial accident reconstruction that appeared to be focused solely on Amerson.
During his investigation, Coleman learned that the jury was never provided with significant evidence showing that the child was struck after fleeing her home during or after her mother’s murder. Evidence suggested that at least five different vehicles, two of them the same model as the car Amerson was driving, hit her body over the course of the night.
Coleman sent multiple letters over the years to the district attorney’s office and Attorney General Josh Stein asking the state to hire its own expert to review the original report. He never received a reply.
In January 2020 Coleman hired accident reconstruction expert Shawn Harrington to examine the collision site and the evidence presented at trial. Harrington concluded that the state trooper whose initial reconstruction helped convict Amerson had reached erroneous and far-fetched conclusions unsupported by any legitimate methodology.
“His opinions and conclusions are nothing more than speculation aided by junk science,” Harrington said in his report. It is far more likely that the child died after multiple drivers inadvertently struck her on the unlit back road and left the scene, Harrington told Popular Mechanics in a story about the case, calling the trooper’s 1999 reconstruction work “embarrassing.”
The state eventually did hire an expert who essentially reiterated Harrington’s findings during testimony in Superior Court in January, calling the 1999 report unsupported and invalid. With that, the state lost evidence “absolutely necessary” to establish probable cause in Amerson’s conviction and offered no additional evidence to support it.
On Feb. 16, a Superior Court judge vacated Amerson’s conviction and sentence in Sharita Rivera’s death. Neither Amerson nor anyone else has ever been arrested in Patrice Rivera’s death.
“This case illustrates the troubling indifference of prosecutors, including the North Carolina Attorney General, who refuse to address the facts of these cases while blindly defending indefensible conduct by state actors, sometimes for decades, as in Quincy’s case,” Coleman said.
“Until the public demands more from these elected officials, innocent people will continue to languish in North Carolina prisons solely because the men and women who have the power to free them are indifferent to miscarriages of justice. That is what urgently needs to change.”
Daniel Becker ’09, who was one of the first students to work on Amerson’s innocence claim and remained involved throughout, said he was honored to be part of a successful outcome.
“This case is a reminder that sometimes the system gets it wrong, creating a serious injustice that takes years to untangle,” Becker said. “I’ve been amazed by the dedication of the Wrongful Convictions Clinic and its students over the years, and this favorable result is just the latest example of the incredible work it does.” — Jeannie A. Naujeck
» Audio Content: Hear from Amerson on the Duke Law Podcast.
