Larry Griffin
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Larry Griffin (September 23, 1954 – June 21, 1995) was convicted of the murder of Quintin Moss and executed by lethal injection on June 21, 1995. Quintin Moss was a drug dealer, 19 years of age when he was killed on the afternoon of June 26, 1980. The trial, however has been criticized since there was no physical evidence against Larry Griffin, except for the testimony of Robert Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was himself a professional criminal with a number of felony charges pending. There has been other pressing evidence that Griffin was in fact innocent. Griffin maintained his innocence right up to his execution.
After Larry Griffin's death, the case was unusually reopened by Samuel R. Gross, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. The post-execution investigation was sponsored by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. As per the investigation, this case is supposed to be the strongest demonstration of an execution of an innocent man and a likely example used by capital punishment opponents.
