While the biographies of living persons policy does not apply directly to the subject of this article, it may contain material that relates to living persons, such as friends and family of persons no longer living, or living persons involved in the subject matter. Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material about living persons must be removed immediately. If such material is re-inserted repeatedly, or if there are other concerns related to this policy, please see this noticeboard.
This article was reviewed by member(s) of WikiProject Articles for creation. The project works to allow users to contribute quality articles and media files to the encyclopedia and track their progress as they are developed. To participate, please visit the project page for more information.Articles for creationWikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creationTemplate:WikiProject Articles for creationAfC articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Law, an attempt at providing a comprehensive, standardised, pan-jurisdictional and up-to-date resource for the legal field and the subjects encompassed by it.LawWikipedia:WikiProject LawTemplate:WikiProject Lawlaw articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Death, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Death on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.DeathWikipedia:WikiProject DeathTemplate:WikiProject DeathDeath articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Human rights, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Human rights on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Human rightsWikipedia:WikiProject Human rightsTemplate:WikiProject Human rightsHuman rights articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject African diaspora, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of African diaspora on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.African diasporaWikipedia:WikiProject African diasporaTemplate:WikiProject African diasporaAfrican diaspora articles
Hi everyone, still a work in progress, but incredibly topical. Please contribute! Also, need help disambiguating from the movie star! Needs sections describing his lung cancer diagnosis and settlement dispute with the state~~Birkwad~~ — Preceding undated comment added 20:49, 15 April 2015
In the same manner that "Murder of Foo" contains the necessary biographical details of Foo's life to set the events of the murder into context, this article contains necessary biographical details, too. The gentleman is alive, and the policy on BLP applies, but the article is not a biography. It is about the events more than the gentleman. FiddleFaddle16:44, 24 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I hope also that in the future the article may expand on the social determinants that led to his conviction and long stay in prison. It would be a disservice to simply say "this man was convicted and exonerated." Once more in-depth news and publications are released (and they are forthcoming, we will have more holes to fill in the greater understanding, and into the greater context that wikipedia can provide Birkwad (talk) 23:28, 24 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
As long as WP:SYNTH does not rear its head, I agree with you. This type of article presents an ever present temptation to synthesise conclusions from established facts, and that would prejudice its ability to remain without challenge. FiddleFaddle23:32, 24 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
There is an obvious temptation to place this article in biographical categories, such as for date of birth. Common practice in other articles of this nature has been to avoid such categories on the basis that those are the preserve of a biography. We have avoided them scrupulously in "Suicide of Foo" articles, for example. When they creep in they are removed. Regrettably, there is often an argument about that when we should be concerning ourselves with the article rather than the categories.
Yes, the gentleman has a birth date in the article. To be fair, it is probably not relevant, except that it does illustrate his age today and thus the effect that the events have (probably) had upon him. It illustrates the proportion of his life spent on death row rather than being a particularly relevant fact for the article. Indeed, the year of his birth alone would be quite sufficient for that purpose. FiddleFaddle06:36, 25 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'd like to suggest the following categories, let me know if they encroach too much on the realm of biography. I understand they may not all fit now but possibly with crowdsourced info they may fit later:
People acquitted of murder
Criminal justice ethics
Overturned convictions in the United States (116 P)
United States death penalty case law (1 C, 17 P)
Wrongful conviction advocacy (39 P)
Race and crime in the United States (3 C, 28 P)
Anti-black racism in the United States (5 C, 3 P)