Atlanta Wrongfully Incarcerates Woman Who Shares the Same Name as the Suspect

Teresa Culpepper was arrested and spent nearly two months in jail for a crime allegedly committed by a woman with the same name. Although she didn’t fit the description besides her name, Culpepper would not be released until the victim came forward to testify that she was not the assailant. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

Aimee Maxwell, executive director of the Georgia Innocence Project, said arrests based on mistaken identities are common. “I think it’s a rare occurrence when people find out about it,” she said.

As in Culpepper’s case, mistaken arrests usually can be traced to similar names.

Innocence Project client

James Curtis Giles

was wrongfully imprisoned in Texas for 10 years and spent 14 years as a registered sex offender on parole because he shared the same name as the real perpetrator—James Earl Giles. Giles the assailant was considerably younger and lived on the other side of town. James Curtis Giles was exonerated by DNA testing in 2007.

 

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