Gregory Bright, along with his co-defendant Earl Truvia, was convicted in 1975 of the second-degree murder of Elliot Porter and sentenced to life in prison.  Until he and Mr. Truvia were arrested together, they hardly knew each other.

The convictions were based solely on the testimony of a single eyewitness who said she watched Mr. Bright and Mr. Truvia from her window go around the corner with a young boy and emerge without him. The jury was not told that the coroner had placed the time of the death significantly later than the time the eyewitness said she saw them. Also, the jury did not know that the eyewitness was a paranoid schizophrenic suffering from auditory and visual hallucinations, medicating her mental illness with heroin and giving the police information in exchange for cash. She was also testifying under a false name to conceal her own criminal history. Because Mr. Bright’s and Mr. Truvia’s lawyers did no investigation, the jury further did not know that there was no line of sight from the witness’ window to the place she said she saw Mr. Truvia and Mr. Bright.

The State also concealed from the jury - and for decades after Mr. Bright’s and Mr. Truvia’s convictions - that there were two other likely suspects whose identities were contained in a police report from the time.

IJLA presented all of this evidence, plus several alibi witnesses for each of them that neither of their lawyers ever bothered to contact. Their convictions were vacated and on June 24, 2003. Mr. Bright and Mr. Truvia were both released and exonerated.