Jamie Snow’s innocence claim on murder charges was in the spotlight Tuesday in a documentary by Georgetown University students viewed by an international audience.
“Unforgettable Lies: Framing Jamie Snow” is a 10-minute documentary produced by three students in Georgetown’s “Making an Exoneree” class, in partnership with film students at the University of California-Santa Cruz.
Snow’s 2001 conviction in the 1991 Bloomington armed robbery that killed gas station attendant Bill Little was the first of five cases showcased in student documentaries, each involving pending wrongful conviction claims.
Georgetown senior Madison Langan introduced the documentary, which was unveiled to an in-person audience at the Washington, D.C. university and hundreds who attended online.
“For as long as we’ve been alive, Jamie Snow has been incarcerated for a crime he did not commit,” said Langan.
Snow was described as a kind, loving family man who was the victim of faulty witness identification and misconduct by police and prosecutors who handled the case. Snow appeared in an interview recorded at Stateville Correctional Center where he is serving a life sentence. He recalled being home with his family in Bloomington when news of the robbery was broadcast on television.
Snow’s alibi that he was home at the time of robbery was rejected by police.
“The worst place to be is with family, the worst place in the world,” if accused of a crime by police skeptical of suspects who depend on relatives for an alibi, said Snow.
The documentary on Snow’s case did not reveal new evidence beyond what Snow’s legal team with The Exoneration Project and the Illinois Innocence Project have used to support his petition for a new trial. The eyewitness testimony provided by a man eight years after the murder was unreliable, according to students. The audience was shown how small an image the witness would have seen from a distance of 212 feet from the gas station.
Students also noted that nine jailhouse informants, including at least two have recanted their statements and others who received deals from the state, were part of the state’s case against Snow.
The despair of the conviction caused Snow to attempt suicide two months after his conviction, according to his recorded interview. He tossed a rope he made over a pipe in his cell and climbed on a box of his possessions.
“All I had to do was step off,” Snow recalled.
Footsteps of a correctional officer delivering mail interrupted the suicide. The officer handed Snow an envelope with a card signed by the inmate’s children.
“In that moment, I knew I couldn’t do it. I had to live for them. The love from my family has kept me alive,” said Snow.
In 2018, instructors Marc Howard and Marty Tankleff launched the course to review wrongful cases. Howard said Tuesday that similar courses are being taught at other campuses, including Princeton University.
Defendants benefit from the exposure their cases receive during the course, said Howard, but the process also holds value for students.
“This goes in both directions. The students have grown from the experience of working with people behind bars,” he said.
Of the 25 cases reviewed by students since 2018, five individuals have been exonerated or released.
Snow’s petition for a new trial is making its way through McLean County court. His legal team is reviewing 8,000 pages of police records and dozens of recordings provided by the state last year to the defense.
