Biography
George Merritt Jr. was convicted of the first-degree murder of Plainfield, New Jersey police officer John V. Gleason Jr., who was beaten to death by a crowd during the July 1967 Plainfield rebellion. His prosecution became a long-running cause célèbre: first convicted in December 1968 and sentenced to life, he was tried repeatedly as convictions were reversed and reinstated. In 1980 a federal court granted habeas relief (United States ex rel. Merritt v. Hicks) after his lawyers obtained suppressed evidence that the key identifying witness had drastically changed his account, and the indictment was dismissed. He is recognized as an exoneree by the National Registry of Exonerations after roughly twelve years imprisoned, much of it at Rahway State Prison.
Black activist convicted in 1967 in connection with the death of a white truck driver killed during the Plainfield, New Jersey rebellion. Spent more than a decade in prison through repeated trials and reversals; his case was a long-running PFOC and Black liberation defense campaign. Documented in PFOC Breakthrough magazine.
