乔·阿里迪（右）在被处决前一小时将他的玩具火车送给狱友

The only evidence against him was his confession. Even the murderer said he never saw him.

>On August 26, 1936, Arridy was arrested for vagrancy in Cheyenne, Wyoming, after being caught wandering around the railyards. The county sheriff, George Carroll, was aware of the widespread search for suspects in the Drain murder case. When Arridy revealed under questioning that he had traveled through Pueblo by way of a train after leaving Grand Junction, Colorado, Carroll began to question him about the Drain case. Carroll said that Arridy confessed to him.[6] >When Carroll contacted the Pueblo police chief Arthur Grady about Arridy, he learned that they had already arrested a man considered to be the prime suspect: Frank Aguilar, a laborer from Mexico. Aguilar had worked for the father of the Drain girls and been fired shortly before the attack. An ax head was recovered from Aguilar's home.[6] But Sheriff Carroll claimed that Arridy told him several times he had "been with a man named Frank" at the crime scene.[6] >Aguilar later confessed to the crime and told police he had never seen or met Arridy. Aguilar was also convicted of the rape and murder of Dorothy Drain and sentenced to death. He was executed in 1937.[3][7] >After being transported to Pueblo, Arridy reportedly confessed again.[8] >When the case was finally taken to trial, Arridy's lawyer pled insanity to spare his client's life. Arridy was ruled to be sane, while acknowledged by three state psychiatrists to be so mentally limited as to be classified as an "imbecile", a medical term at the time. They said he had an IQ of 46, and the mind of a six-year-old.[6] They noted he was "incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong, and therefore, would be unable to perform any action with a criminal intent".[1][2] >Arridy was convicted, largely because of his false confession.[6] Studies since that time have shown that persons of limited mental capacity are more vulnerable to coercion during interrogation and have a higher frequency of making false confessions. **There was no physical evidence against him. Barbara Drain had testified that Aguilar had been present at the attack, but not Arridy. She could identify Aguilar because he had worked for her father**. [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arridy) They railroaded him, executed him *and* executed the real murderer, too.

His confession was coerced and his conviction wasn't overturned despite several appeals; his mental deficiency; the confession of the actual perpetrator; one of the victims (Dorothy's sister) saying Arridy wasn't even there; and no physical evidence connecting Arridy to the crime scene. All due to a morally corrupt sherrif who likely wanted his 5 minutes of fame.

A pardon in 2011 may be a little late.

Maybe but there were several executions of mentally disabled people that got a lot of attention. Especially in Texas.

>He was finally pardoned in 2011. So much good it did.

There's been a few. Clinton oversaw the execution of a man who had the mental capacity of a small child. This was in the 90s when he was governor of Arkansas. The man was shot by police in the head. They saved his life in the hospital only for him to be executed later. He would always save his dessert for later while imprisoned. Before his execution he gave his dessert to his lawyers to hold on to for him so he could consume it later, completely unaware of what was about to happen to him.

> I wonder whether it wasn't reference to Joe Arridy. It's probably a reference to the MANY times our justice system has actively executed the severely mentally handicapped for crimes they didn't commit. By this point, it's honestly a trope. Hell, you know it can't be all that rare if Stephen King wrote a goddamn book about it.

This kinda shit just breaks a part of the soul. Such a shame that things like this were allowed to happen.

Welp I'm done with this thread.

George Stinney was innocent...

From the wikipedia page on George Stinney: "A re-examination of Stinney's case began in 2004, and several individuals and the Northeastern University School of Law sought a judicial review. Stinney's conviction was vacated in 2014, seventy years after he was executed, when a court ruled that he had not received a fair trial, effectively clearing his name." Welp at least his name was cleared 70 years after his execution. That's all that really matters. /s

When I learned about this case I suspected Stephen King might have been inspired by it. An inmate on death row who kind of has the innocence and intelligence as that of a kid (and didn't do it).

Same thing I was thinking. King must've been inspired by this.

"Of Mice and Men" is a good fit for inspiration too.

Just think he had no idea what was happening he probably had no fear.

Somebody had told me this story before. As expected throughout his young life he was mistreated by his peers due to his mental condition. However while in prison he was treated good by the inmates, guards, and the warden who actually joined the fight to clear his name. The Warden was also the person who gave him the toy train as a gift.

I imagine this is part of why he got promoted after he died.

Totally off topic in this thread but.. This is one of the reasons why I like lord of the rings. The many smart/wise text like these which are being said. But when I rewatched the trilogy lately I watched it with the knowledge that Tolkien was a WW 1 veteran. Back before al those saying became used that much in movies. Gave me a interesting and good view of things. Not sure what’s the use of sharing this is, but your post reminded me of this. Wisdom is in the small things they say!

which podcast specifically? there’s multiple with this title

Iirc he told Arridy he would be trading the train for a golden harp. Arridy accepted the trade.

And he didn’t even do it.

He was innocent and shouldn't be anywhere near any of these instituting

Things were (sadly) different in 1939.

The title is completely accurate, not misleading at all. He *reportedly* made a confession after hours of interrogation by police. The timeline is a bit scrambled but I believe they already had the real killer in hand. Even if he confessed, the confession of an obviously mentally disabled person shouldn't count for anything. With his very limited mental capacity, it would be extremely easy to get him to confess to pretty much anything as long as he's verbal which it sounds like he was. The fact that pretty much anything he said should be seen as mostly just random rambling of a very disabled man should be evident quickly to anyone after an hour of discussion.

I was thinking the exact same thing. That movie changed my perspective of death row.

I think it was a guard who felt bad for him and was nice to him.