Injustice in Ohio: The Wrongful Conviction of Allen and Smith

1994, Lorain, Ohio. Nancy Smith, a bus driver, is charged with taking children to a man who sexually abuses them. But in a police lineup, the children, who knew the bus driver, were unable to identify the man who had supposedly abused them. Attendance records show that the children were in school on the days of the claimed abuse. The bus driver’s log showed no diversion from her route. After reporting his findings to the Lorain Count Prosecutor and recommending that the investigation end, since there was no credible case, the officer was promoted to a desk job. In a courtroom filled with false claims, Nancy Smith and a man named Joseph Allen, who had never seen the children, nor the bus driver, are found guilty of jointly abusing the children. Nancy is given a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of life while Allen is given multiple life sentences. She is white, he is black. Both are innocent. This book addresses the way in which false claims prevailed because, in this judicial system, process and procedure trumped truth and political ambition trumped even that. Today, a new trial has been granted. Allen and Smith are both out of prison. What happens next remains to be seen.