Louisville pays for wrongful conviction after nearly 20 years
Johnetta Carr, a Black woman from Louisville, has finally received justice. The city has agreed to pay her $2.9 million after she was wrongly convicted of murder at age 16. She spent years behind bars and on parole for a crime she says she didn’t commit.
Her case drew attention because the evidence against her was shaky, and she maintained her innocence for two decades. Though the city is paying the settlement, officials still deny they were at fault.
Convicted as a teen in boyfriend’s death
In 2005, Carr’s boyfriend, Planes Adolphe, a Haitian-born cab driver, was found strangled outside his apartment. Carr, only a teenager at the time, was arrested in January 2006.
Despite DNA evidence that didn’t match her, police built a case using witness statements and jailhouse informants. In 2008, Carr took an Alford plea—a legal deal that lets someone maintain innocence while admitting prosecutors may have enough evidence to convict.
She was sentenced to 20 years in prison but was released on parole in 2009. Her fight for full freedom, though, was far from over.
A pardon and a civil rights lawsuit follow
Ten years after her release, in 2019, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin gave Carr a pardon. That cleared the way for her to seek justice through a civil lawsuit.
In 2020, she sued the city and seven Louisville Metro Police officers, claiming they violated her rights. The lawsuit said lead detective Tony Finch ignored another suspect and forced false stories from people around Carr. One co-defendant, Carla Sowers, even took back her statement soon after giving it.
Carr’s lawyer, Elliot Slosar, said Carr had an alibi backed by friends who saw her at their house the night of the murder.
Not the first wrongful case under same detective
This isn’t the first time Detective Finch has faced trouble. Back in 2012, another man, Kerry Porter, sued Finch for misconduct in a separate murder case. That lawsuit ended in a $7.5 million settlement.
Carr’s $2.9 million settlement marks another dark chapter in Louisville’s legal history. While the city says it didn’t do anything wrong, Carr’s story shows the lasting pain of wrongful convictions.
