Outlook

Ron Bishop was 14 when he says police forced him to make false statements on the witness stand during a 1984 murder trial. His testimony helped sentence three innocent teenagers to life in prison.In 1983 Ron's world was turned upside down when his best friend, 14-year-old DeWitt Duckett, was shot and killed in a corridor of their school, Harlem Park Junior High in West Baltimore. Ron gave the police a full description of the lone shooter who had confronted them, but says that the police soon started to put pressure on him to identify three other Black teenagers from their neighbourhood as the assailants - Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew Stewart. Ron insisted that it wasn't them, but says the detective became so threatening that he feared for his safety, and that of his family. Alone in the interrogation room, Ron ended up signing a witness statement identifying the three 16-year-olds.On the day of the trial Ron says he felt "trapped" into giving the same false testimony, along with some other child