Innocent Father Behind Bars

Who is Valance Cole?

Valance Cole, a 63-year-old Guyanese Innocent Man, Father, and Grandfather, serving a 12 to 25 year-sentence at the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility in Staten Island, New York.

History
In the summer of August 1985, Michael Jennings was fatally shot in front of several witnesses when he intervened during an altercation between two men inside a bar. Months later, Valance Cole, who didn't match the descriptions of the shooter, was arrested after being identified by two men, including Jeffrey Campbell, who was then in jail on a robbery charge.

Cole's family says that at the time of the shooting, he was at home sleeping, physically exhausted after attending his nephew's funeral the day before.

The word on the street was that the wrong man was in jail. Nearly a decade after Cole's conviction, the case took a surprising turn when His Cousin Anne Wagner learned from his friends that Campbell, who was then homeless and dying of AIDS, was ready to recant. Anne Wagner went to see him and brought along an audio recorder.
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"He (Jeffrey Campbell) was crying and said that he was promised that if he testified, the charges in his other felony case would be dropped," says Wagner. Before he died in 1994, Campbell also made a statement on videotape. The victim's mother also emerged to say she was convinced of Valance Cole's innocence. But despite the new evidence, a motion to vacate Cole's conviction was struck down.

In 2002, Cole was granted a new motion to overturn his conviction. But in September 2003, in an unusual decision that shocked the city's legal community, Brooklyn Supreme Court justice John Levanthal ruled that there was a 55 percent chance that Cole was "probably innocent," but that under New York law, the motion could not be granted unless there was clear and convincing evidence.

- Anne Wagner -

"That's like saying you're a little bit pregnant. Either you're guilty or you're innocent"