Active Cases
Jerome Mason
Jerome Mason has been in prison since 1995, convicted of the first-degree murder of Leo Marshall and related charges, crimes he did not commit.
Jerome was in his mid-twenties when he was arrested, caught up in an investigation that had no physical evidence, relied entirely on eyewitness identifications made under poor conditions, and was built around a problematic photo spread rather than anything that pointed specifically to him. He spent more than three decades behind bars, before his conviction was overturned, and he was released. The fight for exoneration, however, continues.
The case: what happened
On the night of September 13, 1993, Leo Marshall was shot and killed in his home on Kney Street in North Memphis.
The investigation had no clear leads. Police had no physical evidence and no immediate suspects. A witness who had been standing on the porch of an abandoned house nearby, had watched the events unfold but could offer only limited descriptions. Conditions that night were poor: visibility was affected by darkness and weather, the incident happened quickly, and the witnesses were in varying states of stress and distance from the men they were trying to describe.
Jerome was arrested on September 30, 1993, after he was selected from a lineup. He told investigators he had been in Chicago for most of September, returning to Memphis briefly for a court date on September 10 before going back to Chicago on September 24. The night of the murder, September 13, he said he was not in Memphis. His aunt, Sandra Mason, testified at trial that Jerome had been at a birthday party in Chicago that night. She produced a Polaroid photograph that she said showed Jerome at the party.
Jerome went to trial in January 1995. He was identified by witnesses at the scene. There was no forensic evidence, no weapon, no fingerprints, nothing at the scene that placed Jerome Mason there.
He was convicted on all counts and sentenced to life in prison plus fifteen years.
There was no physical evidence linking Jerome to this crime — not a single piece. The case was built entirely on eyewitness identifications obtained under conditions that raise serious questions about their reliability. Jerome Mason deserves to have those questions answered in a court of law.
Jessica Van Dyke Legal Director & Co-Founder
Problems with the conviction
The entire case against Jerome Mason rested on eyewitness identifications, and those identifications came with significant problems that were never fully resolved at trial.
The photo spreads that produced the identifications were not assembled around Jerome specifically. That distinction matters: witnesses weren’t identifying someone the investigation had reason to suspect, they were picking a face from a lineup of people whose only connection to the crime was an assumed gang affiliation.
The conditions under which the witnesses observed the men were poor. The incident took place at night, moved quickly, and involved witnesses who were themselves under extreme stress, one of whom was in the neighborhood to buy drugs and was hiding during part of the events. Initial descriptions given to police were general and, as the court record acknowledges, did not match Jerome consistently.
The identifications themselves shifted. No physical evidence has ever linked Jerome Mason to the crime scene.
TIP’s involvement
Tennessee Innocence Project began investigating Jerome Mason’s case in 2022. Following a lengthy investigation and the presentation of significant evidence of innocence, the conviction was overturned. Jerome was released after serving more than three decades in prison. The decision was appealed by the Attorney General’s Office. The case is pending and TIP will continue to fight on Jerome’s behalf until he is fully exonerated.
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