C.J. Rice exonerated after serving 12 years behind bars for 2011 attempted murder he did not commit
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- C.J. Rice, a man who served more than 12 years behind bars for an attempted murder he was falsely convicted of, was officially exonerated at the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice in Philadelphia Monday morning.
C.J. Rice, formally known as Charles J. Rice, was convicted in a September 2011 shooting for attempted murder and sentenced to 30-60 years behind bars in 2013. According to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, the South Philadelphia shooting left a woman identified as Latrice Johnson, a 6-year-old girl and two others injured.
Johnson called 911 after the shooting and described the suspects as two men running away in hoodies and black sweatpants but couldn't fully identify them.
Through an initial investigation with victims in the hospital, Rice's co-defendant, Tyler Linder, was identified as one of the shooters. Detectives interviewed Johnson while she was in the hospital and she identified 17-year-old Rice as one of the shooters running away even though she hadn't seen the teen in a few years. Rice had been friends with Johnson's son when he was younger, according to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.
In her description, Johnson said Rice was wearing a hoodie and that she was able to see his full face and long braids poking out the side of the hood. However, officials with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project said Rice's arrest photo depicted him with cornrows flush against his head. The case against Rice and Linder was built from here.
"This is not something that would have happened under a prior administration," Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner announced in a news conference following the exoneration.
Krasner said his office is dropping all charges against Rice, claiming the evidence used against Rice at trial was weak.
One of Rice's defense attorneys, Karl Schwartz, said the conviction ultimately came down to Rice's ineffective counsel, which was a court-appointed attorney.
Schwartz said among the evidence was a theory that the shooting was retaliatory, which wasn't proven. That's because Rice was shot and injured a few days prior. It's alleged the suspects ran from the scene, and Rice's counsel never used his medical records as evidence, Schwartz said.
"The jury would've correctly found that the physical activity of the perpetrator could not have been activity that Mr. Rice could have engaged in," Schwartz said.
Rice's case received national attention after CNN anchor Jake Tapper began reporting on it. His father, Dr. Theodore Tapper, is Rice's former doctor and treated his injuries.
Although it was alleged that the shooters ran from the 2011 crime scene, this is something that Dr. Tapper believed Rice physically couldn't do at the time.
In November 2023, the U.S. District Court vacated Rice's conviction and sentence after conceding that he was entitled to relief after experiencing ineffective counsel assistance. According to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, Rice had been out on bail since December.
Officials believed the 2011 shooting involved gang affiliations, leading the DA's Gun Violence Task Force to begin their investigation to see whether or not Rice could be re-tried for the shooting or to dismiss the charges in full.
The Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas granted the Commonwealth's motion to dismiss all charges against Rice Monday morning, officially making Rice a free man.
Members of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, the Exoneration Project, Wiseman & Schwartz and Munger, Tolles & Olson all represented Rice.
"We are all thrilled for C.J. that his 12-year journey through wrongful conviction has ended. While an exoneration cannot make up for the time he lost, it creates an opportunity for him to move forward with the next phase of his journey," Nilam Sanghvi with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project told CBS News Philadelphia after the hearing.
Krasner said the Philadelphia DA's Office chose not to pursue this case because they couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Rice was their guy. He said if the DA's Office did choose to pursue this, they likely would have lost.
